Rebane's Ruminations

Trumporama – 30jul18 (updated 1aug18)

George Rebane

These thoughts are motivated by a letter2editor in today’s Union by Richard Van Steen.  There this gentleman, who has graduated from TDS to TAD, tells us that all Americans who don’t want President Trump immediately impeached are traitors, pure and simple – kinda like the stuff he has between his ears.

Lately I’ve been a bit hard on our president’s foot-in-mouth twitter feeds and his tariffs derby (now beginning show some promise), so as one consigned to the nation’s population of irredeemably deplorable traitors, I should at least weigh in my ‘stubborn ounces’ to list some of the benefits we are enjoying in the new era of Trump.

Scattershots – 29jul18 (updated 31jul18)

George Rebane

Speaking of wholesale lying to the public, the Left’s lamestream is now telling America that the current economic surge under President Trump 1) is really just the planned outcome of all the things that Obama got started, or 2) a spontaneous act of nature like particularly wet season after a drought – actually they can’t make up their mind on that.  Today NPR’s Mara Liasson did her best on Morning Edition to downplay the latest quarter’s 4.1% growth as just the roll of the dice – sometimes good stuff happens, but don’t count on it to last.  At no time did she mention Trump’s tax cuts or regulatory roll backs, or the subsequent jump in biz confidence metrics which then were confirmed by huge increases in capital equipment investments.  The latter alone promise to give the Trump economy legs as it railroads through the midterms into the 2020 election.  Talk about the spread of Trump Anxiety Disorder (TAD).  If the economy were going south, whose name do you think the lamestream would be blaming in neon lights?

[31jul18 update]  Last night we attended a fundraising dinner for Congressman LaMalfa in Chico.  The featured guest was Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, who joined LaMalfa on the stage for an after-dinner conversation about the Russia collusion investigations.  Compared to Rep Nunes measured words on national TV, I was surprised at how much his extemporaneous and lively remarks about the investigations sounded like RR commentaries and the comments of our right-leaning readers.  He confirmed that the FBI placed and paid for at least one informer to work the Trump campaign.  And he also reported that he and the committee have seen no evidence of Dem alleged collusion, and opined that Mueller also has no evidence of same, else that would have already been leaked to the committee co-chair Dem “Shiftless” Schiff who would instantly have told every lamestream outlet about it.  Finally, Nunes went on at length wondering why Hillary and the DNC are not being investigated for Russian collusion for which evidence abounds with the Steele dossier and other communications and meetings between Dems and Russians.  In short, what we have been concerned about in these pages correctly represents the views and concerns of congressional Republicans.  Some real smelly stuff is going on in Washington.

Sandbox - 29jul18

[Well, psychiatrists are beginning to report running into more and more patients with Trump Anxiety Disorder (TAD).  TAD seems to be particularly prevalent among those lefties who have suffered from TDS.  The Hill reports on it here.  I guess the human noggin' can stand only so much hate and discontent before it succumbs to a clinical condition.  Should TAD sufferers still be allowed to vote?  gjr]

Ruminations – 27jul18 (updated 28jul18)

George Rebane

The Opioid insanity.  We now are in courts suing the big pharma makers of opioid pain killers, accusing them of being the cause of the tragic opioid deaths epidemic across the land.  Big pharma neither delivers nor gratuitously promotes the delivery of opioids to those who die from their reckless use.  In the dissemination chain, the distributors and prescribing physicians are getting a pass from the righteous Left; why?  Because the Left is only interested in deep pockets which big pharma enjoys, and the leftwing sleazebag lawyers will enjoy a big hunk of those monies if they get the desired verdicts from stupid juries.

Big high-tech corporations lean markedly to the Left.  Most people with 3-digit IQs know that. So now we have these leftwing corporations bolstering their leftwing agendas by “shadow banning” conservative tweeters.  A list of Republican congress critters who promote Trump have already presented evidence of exactly this when they discovered that suddenly their accounts could not be found on Twitter.  Meanwhile the land’s lamebrains still believe the Zuckerbergs and Dorseys claiming that these social media sites are “platforms for free speech”.

The current Song of Socialists performed by talking heads is that ‘We’re not there yet’, when asked to talk about Trump’s progress toward everything from rapprochement with Russia, to denuclearization of the Fat Kid, to the promise of a new world trade order that benefits the US.  These deep thinkers are trying to convince their audiences that the administration and all Republicans are out there busy stocking up on firecrackers for the big celebration tomorrow night on the Capitol Mall, when that is not even close.  Bad mouthing what Trump gets done every day is the only thing left that they have to offer, because the Left has nothing short of Plan Venezuela to offer Americans.  And about that they know to keep their mouths shut.

[update] Speaking of the Great Divide, H.W. Crocker III writes ‘America’s Next Civil War Will Be Worse Than Our Last’.  He brings out some good comparisons between the America of 1860 and what we are today, but he does not call out the real important differences that have brought us beyond the tipping point.  And most significantly, if people break out their shootin’ irons this time, then the war will truly be a civil war and not the War for Southern Independence misnamed.  (H/T to reader on the article)

[27jul18 update]  Prescribed burns make all the sense in the world, and are worth the risk of unexpected losses.  But our federal and statewide governments are literally too stupid, and their politicians too cowardly to plan and execute prescribed burns.  It is a simple trade-off that politicians and lawyers have purposely made complex, and for them, profitable.  Through over-zealous fire abatement policies, we have let our public lands become over grown to an extent that nature has never permitted.  So when the expected wildfires come, they cause extraordinary damage to life and property at costs orders of magnitude above what controlled prescribed burns would cost.  And yet we continue year after year to spout fire prevention pabulum to homeowners in fire areas and suffer the ensuing wildfire, without doing anything to attack the fundamental cause of the fires – too much fuel too densely distributed in easy reach of the foolish and felonious.  (All this in the last great century of Man.)

Anti-Kavanaugh hyper-hysteria grows.  Sen Corey Booker (D-NJ) announced today (FN) that he opposes Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination on the basis that both the judge and his nomination to SCOTUS are “evil”.  He stongly exhorts his fellow Dems that there is “no middle ground” on opposing this nomination, you’re either for or against “evil”.  This is truly a twofer for Republicans – another Dem shows himself to be deranged in his service in Washington (why elect more of them?), and the confirmation that the Team Schumer/Pelosi has run out of substantive ammo, which they never had, to stop Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation by the Senate before the midterm elections.

Credo on Closure

George Rebane

Here I record a brief note made over a year ago that I discovered while clearing my desk for the next project.  It is probably of not much interest to RR’s current readers, but may be for some future internet archeologists, especially students of causality.

Closure, n. – the act of bringing to an end or conclusion in at least a satisficing manner that fulfills the objective that initially launched the search or the enterprise undertaken.

The main points are –

1. Man instinctively wants to explore to the ends of causal chains and the edges of causal basins. [see also Pearl (1988), (2009), (2018)]
2. Man desires closure that may or not end in an acceptable mystery; preferably one that lies beyond the acknowledged boundary of his ken. (e.g. the ‘mind of God’, the upward hierarchy of super-intelligences)
3. Other sapient species probably have the same or similar built-in ‘drive’, because that is how they got to be sapient.
4. No matter where a civilization resides, there they fashion or receive wisdom which provides closure or at least the prospect of it.
5. On Earth the secularists’ Holy Grail is to discover the Theory of Everything (TOE), which implies that they don't believe in 'turtles all the way down'. The TOE of religionists, meta-physicists, and many scientists is attaining knowledge of a super-intelligence that is at least universal and perhaps even divine.
6. The real question or the sink of all inquiry is John Wheeler’s “Why Existence?” We can ask this when we are alive; but can we also ask it in any other state (of existence)?  Or is that forbidden? – i.e. our cosmos does not support questions like that.

Trump’s Trade Wars Triumphant?

George Rebane

In my 10jul18 ‘Trump’s Trade War’ I opened with the puzzlement that most of his supporters have had lately about the tariffs that he has initiated – “Unless President Trump has something up his sleeve on the outcome of the current tariff tussle and ensuing trade war, I think our fearless leader is making a big mistake in imposing tariffs – and doubly so for “national security” purposes.”  Well, things have taken a turn for the better, and it looks like there really was method to the President’s apparent madness.

Today’s meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the White House resulted in a surprising and fortuitous announcement in the Rose Garden.  It appears that the president has opened the door to an expanded free trade with the EU, and taken some serious steps toward his hopeful ‘zero tariffs’ goal among trading nations.  People not suffering from TDS immediately realize that no matter if we ever achieve the zero level – I’m betting we won’t – it doesn’t matter.  We will wind up in a much better place than we were before Trump started throwing around his tariffs.  (BTW, here is a piece that gives a little history on zero tariffs recommended way back in 1988.)

The extra benefits from these announcements of new trade agreements will now impact our NAFTA partners, renegotiating with the TPP members, and, of course, a new and better trade agreement with China in which they don’t steal us blind in the intellectual property department.  You can bet the ranch that everyone is watching how today’s agreements will set the stage for follow-on success.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross explained the genesis of today’s unfair and asymmetrical tariff situation that has led us to this important juncture.  He pointed out that these asymmetries were put in place right after WW2 when America was working as the world’s good guy in rebuilding destroyed and then emerging economies to create the post-war prosperity that we have all witnessed (well, most of us at least.  Team Obama/Schumer/Pelosi/Sanders/Warren/Waters/Castro/… and our local leftwing lackies will admit to none of it).  We were willing to help other countries by allowing them to charge much higher tariffs on our products than we charged for importing their products, which benefited their agriculture and industries.

But those days are over, and those rules are no longer needed because the Europeans and Asians and Latin Americans are no longer destitute.  The only ones that still screw over their populations are the socialists and communists who have spread wholesale misery within their borders of the kind that the sought-after policies of Team Schumer/Pelosi/Sanders/Warren/Waters/Castro/… will provide Americans if ever we become stupid enough to let this crowd get their hands on our economy and common weal.

And now we understand why President Trump had to use that ridiculous ‘national defense’ ploy to announce his tariffs – that was the only legal lever that he had to get things moving quickly without getting into a congressional quagmire of hearings, etc before the midterm election.  He played poker with a poker face, and our allies correctly painted him serious and came to the table.  They too realized that continuing this ridiculous trade game three generations after the end of the war was a hell of way to run a railroad.  Much more to be done.  More accomplishments to take to the bank.  But from my perch, things are looking up.

Fairness and Leftwing Talk Radio (updated 26jul18)

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 25 July 2018.]

In our hyper-polarized country it’s time to revisit the notion of censoring free speech.  And specifically as this relates to talk radio.  Our Left has had a perennial problem with how talk radio works in America, or how it works for the Right, and disastrously fails for the Left.  This leads to cries of censorship, claiming that the resulting programming is not ‘fair and balanced’ in the minds of progressives.  All such talk began back in 1949 with the Fairness Doctrine introduced by the Federal Communications Commission.

Back in those days public communication channels were limited to print media, movies, and radio.  Television was then in its infancy.  Since frequency bandwidth was a limited resource, the FCC parceled it out to radio stations as a limited public good.  And among the many rules imposed on broadcasters, the one on the discussion of controversial issues of public importance required programming from every station to be “honest, equitable, and balanced”.  Well, you can imagine the kind of problems that requirement launched – honest, equitable, and balanced in whose opinion?  Soon all kinds of obvious violations came to pass, and in 1987 the FCC rescinded the rule in favor of letting the markets decide who gets to listen to what.

By the early 1990s radio channels had expanded considerably, television was mature, cable was burgeoning, and the internet was already on the horizon.  In the intervening decades broadcast TV had become the home of leftwing political commentary, most visibly when packaged as entertainment, as in late night comedy shows that became thinly veiled propaganda outlets for leftwing ideology and Democrat causes.  And most of the other media, including government subsidized public radio, had taken a distinct and comfortable leftward tilt that actually started under FDR during the depression of the thirties.

The last bastion of rightwing thought became talk radio on private sector commercial stations where commentators were able to interpret the country’s goings on from the conservative and libertarian viewpoints to audiences that seemed to grow without bound.  The reach and effectiveness of conservative talk radio was not lost on the Left, which immediately launched its own talk shows to dispense socialist and progressive views of the world.  But for some puzzling reason, none of these shows got enough traction or caught on with the public.

The liberal diagnosis was that somehow the capitalist free markets were censoring leftwing talk radio, with stations shutting down one show after another as sponsors abandoned them because the audiences simply weren’t there.  As always, the Left’s proposal has been to bring in government, this time to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine that would put talk shows under newly minted quota regulations.  The thought is that no matter if people listened or not, forcing radio stations to devote equal time to Left and Right talk shows would reduce time available for disseminating conservative viewpoints.  This also satisfies a basic tenet of liberal belief, that whatever the government does not subsidize, prescribe, or enforce with its gun, is automatically prohibited, proscribed, or censored in our society.

So today’s accepted progressive wisdom is that censorship by capitalist free markets has been the reason for the ongoing failure of leftwing talk radio.  And this censorship needs to be removed by reinstating government regulation of thought on the airwaves.  But instead of reinstating the failures of the Fairness Doctrine, I would like to offer some other considerations why leftwing talk radio cannot attract audiences, reasons that others may consider too politically incorrect to explain the absence of listeners.

The simplest and most plausible reasons that audiences reject progressive commentaries are due to a combination of factors.  First and foremost, the credibility of a message that violates critical thinking, common sense, and universally understood norms of human behavior.  Second, the ability of government succored audiences to comprehend the more complex parts of public debate and policy proposals.  Third, the poor command of English by many of today’s Democrat constituencies.  And finally, education limited backgrounds that put out of reach the more detailed arguments based on history, economics, and science.

So, why do you think that liberal radio has had such a disastrous history?

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the addended transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

[Addendum]  The main point I want the reader to take away from this is to answer why it is the Left that is trying to limit the speech of the Right, and the Right has no interest in reciprocating.  Specifically, no one on the Right seeks to apply the Fairness Doctrine to the highly one-sided programs on the mainstream media and the government subsidized outlets such as under the aegis of CPB and PBS.  (A more local example is the record of local lefties who have called for the silencing of my former Union column, and the ongoing calls to get me off the air at KVMR.  Has anyone ever run across someone on the Right trying to silence the rampant local propagandizing by the Left?)

If there were a real demand for leftwing or progressive radio commentary, then there is no one out there to stop them from grabbing time slots, even on established rightwing outlets, since such programming would significantly increase the stations’ outreach to audiences that advertisers would find attractive, and therefore increase such stations’ revenues.  Instead, the ideological fare that sells on TV is leftwing oriented comedy one-liners that appeal primarily to people for whom thinking is optional.  But, of course, for such audiences this lightweight and almost always fallacious fare is extremely effective, especially since it’s the only political commentary they consume.

Here is the currently operative view from the Left as to why they don’t fare well in the talk radio market, and why the government must step in – landmark 2007 study by the Center of American Progress (here), and some analyses of it (here and here).

[26jul18 update]  ‘The Trashing of George Mason U.’ provides a relevant tangent to this post.  Turns out that there’s a sleazebag outfit called UnKoch My Campus that is attacking George Mason for accepting donations from Koch brothers and others of a conservative libertarian bent for seeking “to advance the understanding, acceptance and practice of those free market processes and principles which promote individual freedom, opportunity and prosperity, including the rule of law, constitutional government, private property and the laws, regulations, organizations, institutions, and social norms upon which they rely.”  This attack on supposedly “dark money” funding colleges is against one of the last islands of free speech and conservative thought of America's academia, and is  carried out by an outfit that itself refuses to reveal who is funding its activities.

Sandbox - 23jul18

[Ideology - n. A structured and communicable belief system that in its best expression is composed of tenets defendable by and malleable to reason. Ideologue – a person who is willing to communicate his ideology.  A more dubious definition of an ideologue is “a person who zealously advocates an ideology”.  The adverb 'zealously' denotes doing something in an "ardent, devoted, or diligent manner".  Hence, I confess again that I am an ideologue.  But then what does one call a person who advocates an ideology in a non-zealous manner?  gjr]

Scattershots – 23jul18 (updated 26jul18)

George Rebane

In ‘Our country’s future relies on embracing those escaping brutality’ by Ms Judith McCarrick of the Immigration Action Alliance we find some pearls, among them –

• “That migrant parents have broken immigration laws to (surreptitiously) cross our borders is untrue.” Why? Because the legal immigration process is difficult and takes time, and because AG Sessions denies asylum “claims from seekers of protection of gang violence and abusive spouses.”
• “No law mandates that children and parents be separated at the border.” Our immigration and domestic laws specify exactly that when criminal parents are arrested and taken into custody.

These and more like them in her 23jul18 Union piece put Ms McCarrick in the running for the highly competitive designation as Blithering Idiot, 1^st Class.  Unfortunately, given the extensive competition in our county, her latest contribution does not make her a shoo-in.

Kudos to Union columnist and RR reader George Boardman for his timely, comprehensive, and correct vent on the lack of leadership at all levels in our county to expand broadband in our foothills.  Mr Boardman details the sordid history in ‘Bright Fiber, Verizon show what happens when leadership is lacking’.  In that piece he reinforces the recent cri de coeur of the Union's editorial board, and again corroborates the seminal RR dictum, ‘To find the cause of any problem in society, presume that government is guilty until proven innocent.’  Hard to lose with that approach.

[24jul18 update]  Nevada City has now approved 12 pot stores for health reasons.  That’s the same argument the city’s mamas and papas used to deny bringing the town into the 21^st century with appropriate cell phone coverage (let alone broadband).  Consulting their sidewater science, they continue to conclude that cell towers on selected town building will fry the brains of local citizens.  With ample evidence at hand about whom they seat on their city council, many claim that said brains have already been fried for years. (more here)

Two diametrically opposite interpretations of the just released (and deceitfully redacted) FISA application for a warrant to wiretap Carter Page.  All on the Left see no fraud involved and ample evidence for the warrant in the application.  These people don’t think it was material to reveal that the Steele dossier - the prime argument in the application - was scripted, bought, and paid for by Democrats for Hillary.  All on the Right point to the extensive evidence that confirms the fraudulent nature of the application and subsequent FBI testimonies about it.  Within a larger framework, this again proves that no rapprochement is possible, since the opposing parties cannot even agree on the basic facts germane to any subsequent productive conversation.  (more here)

[26jul18 update]  SF Board of Supervisors again certified itself as first class idiots by passing a resolution to screen out insurance companies that invest in fossil fuel businesses.  This because such investments promote climate change, the fight against which the city considers itself among the world’s foremost champions.  So here is a burg, with a history of demonstrably bad decisions and public policies that is drowning in druggies, bums, and their accumulating offal while driving out tourists by the thousands and causing untold losses to their hospitality industry, now preening its deranged ‘values’ for all to see al they attempt to dictate how their insurers should manage their portfolios in order to keep premiums competitive. (more here)  San Francisco values on parade.

Democratic Socialists = proto-communists

Some mistakes are just too much fun to make only once.

George Rebane

The left-leaning Associated Press reports ‘Democratic socialism surging in the age of Trump’.  The article is a well-written, comprehensive review of what the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are and their recent growth spurt as the Democratic Party lurches hard Left.  (We note that know-nothing local lefties are still in denial about that.)  What they are - according to the AP, other observers, and now even some dues-paying members - is socialists, plain and simple.  But even that doesn’t go far enough.

DSA’s paid up membership has surged from about 6K to 45K in the last year or so, and now includes in its ranks more than a handful of Democrat politicians running for office.  DSA used to be “on the fringes of the liberal movement’s farthest left flank.”  Today they are a “significant force in Democratic politics” that overwhelmingly dominates the public direction the party has taken and openly advertises as its future.   On the DSA’s website we find, and AP corroborates, that there is “little distinction” between ‘democratic socialism’ and just plain good old-fashioned ‘socialism’.  But wait, there’s more to this telling.

When you read the DSA constitution, you learn that “its members as socialists reject an economic order based on private profit and share a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships.”  In short, they are really a new and improved modern day movement of communists who are temporarily hiding under the more acceptable socialist label.  When the time is ripe, they will dispense with this half-way house and co-opt the political pimple that today still calls itself the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

The real question is how far will the Democratic Party play along with this headlong rebirth of communism via the waystation of socialism.  Many Democrats, and we all know who they are, have already thrown in their lot with the DSA, and many more Dems are standing by, nervously fingering their hats as they prepare to toss them into the DSA ring.  The times, they surely are a-changin.

The only speed-bump on the road to complete government control of everything seems to be the label ‘socialist’ that some Dems running for office fear that “people do associate (socialism) with bad things in history”.  Now if we can only hurry up and convince these inconvenient history troglodytes that socialism was really not all that bad, and that we’ll do it right this time around, then we’ll have it made in the shade.  Why?  Because our government educational system has already taught the younger generation that capitalism is bad and socialism is good, and the lamestream media is reinforcing that daily.  It's those damn older folks who can still remember yesterday who are the problem.

You can bet the farm that the Deep State “patriots” are already all socialists since their livelihood depends on it.  The only kerfuffle slowing things down is the current lack of a definitive Democrat leadership behind which the young and stupid can join ranks.  Current Dems jockeying for position, like Schumer, Pelosi, Sanders, Warren, Biden, and Waters come across as marginal work products from some second-rate embalming school.  It’s the new cohort of the likes of Ocasio-Cortez, Kaniela Ing, Kamala Harris, etc who are the emerged and unabashed socialist face of the Democratic Party.  And the platform to which they all have signed up sees the abrogation of the Constitution and its defined voter franchise as Job One.

Trump’s Treason?

Accept the fact that some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.

George Rebane

As these pages attest, I am not a blinded supporter of all things Trump.  I especially take exceptions to his tweet-in-the-mouth MO with which he often snatches another debilitating defeat from the jaws of victory.  But I did vote for him for two reasons – 1) he promised to try things different from the SOS that has become the Washington quagmire (cf Einstein’s dictum), and 2) given the horrible alternative, he was the clear better choice.

Since his ‘ascension’ into office, President Trump has accomplished many salutary objectives to America’s benefit, and most certainly to the benefit of our citizens.  Now all of his actions have not been uniformly successful.  The biggest question mark I have relates to his particular initiatives on trade and tariffs.  As we have gone back and forth on this, I don’t understand how the endgame will be to our benefit from such a broad brush application of tariff increases in order to make the trade-game ‘level and fair’  (itself a dubious objective).

But my training in science teaches me to look through the surrounding chaff and judge the policy on its delivered effects, and in my ignorance not to join some hysterical consensual cohort.  I have no problem in pre-judging policies the effects of which (i.e. transfer function) I do understand and therefore can reasonably predict.  The years of RR attest to my doing so, and readers are always invited to judge and comment on my performance.

So now we come to the cacophony of the collectivists that echoes daily across the land – President Trump stole his election through a treasonous conspiracy with the Russians.  And to pile on, he confirms this through his daily genuflections in front of what the Left points out is nothing less than the Russian masterpiece titled The Adoration of The Putin.  The Democratic base, especially the lamestream media and their alt-Left or now established socialist wing, laps up this narrative lock, stock, and barrel.

Michael Anton, Hillsdale College lecturer and former Trump national security adviser, takes a different view on Trump’s reaction to the treason charges and the overall campaign to unseat him that is much in line with Rebane Doctrine.  In the 20jul18 WSJ piece ‘Why Trump’s Detractor’s Cry Treason’, Mr Anton argues that our own federal government materially meddled much more against Trump in the 2016 election than ever could or did the Russian government, even with Putin’s goading.

There is more public evidence of American meddling—politicized leaks, gaming a criminal investigation, surveillance of campaign associates, and strings of biased messages by officials—than of Russian. There may be piles of secret evidence of the latter. If so, why not make more of it public? Especially since, as we have been told, acknowledging Russian interference is the patriotic imperative of our time. …

Few of the president’s opponents actually say that Russia swung him the election. But that’s clearly what they insinuate and want people to believe. Mr. Trump understands this and is frustrated by it. Can you blame him?

How many people do we really need?

George Rebane

[Apologies for the ragged composition of this commentary.  I thought it important enough to get it into the RR record, and invite comments/debate by those who care to consider something beyond current events.]

How many people are necessary for humans as a species to improve its aggregate quality of life and continue reaching for the stars as AI provides more and more of our fulfillment and wealth creating needs?

We know that the answer lies somewhere between ‘way too many’ to make us all poor and miserable living in a degraded environment, and ‘way too few’ to give the remainder a sense of being members of a vibrant, enriching, and achieving global community of multiple cultures.  What the actual bookend numbers are, no one knows beyond the ‘way too many’ and the ‘way too few’, quantities that are of little use in a reasoned discussion.

Some very smart people are again beginning to ask, ‘Why does America need more people?’  Before you blow that question off with hip-level answers like ‘we need more people to work and grow the economy’ or ‘we need more people to do the work that Americans are unwilling to do’, consider some cold hard facts.

Sandbox - 18jul18

[Agreed, that last sandbox was getting a little ripe.  Question - will Dems be able to keep the 'would/wouldn't' dust devil alive until November?  gjr]

The Mysteriously Magically Morphed Russian Indictments

George Rebane

Remember last winter when Mueller announced the indictment of 13 (that’s thirteen, like in one, three) Russians in his collusion investigation (more here). Remember that we discussed these indictments in the 14feb18 Sandbox (here), and concluded that there would be a snowball’s chance in hell of getting Russia to hand them over for trial.  And then remember that one of the indicted Russians decided to plead not guilty and go to trial in the US, a trial that was supposed have started a week ago (9 July 2018).  And then remember that this was a big surprise to Mueller who would have had to turn over all his evidence to the Russian defense team that he used to obtain the indictment – which evidence he either didn’t have or would have been sticky to share with the Russians.

Well, now we have forgotten all that with Mueller’s new and improved indictment of 12 Russians (that’s twelve, like in one, two) in his new and improved collusion investigation.  No one seems to remember that these new indictments mysteriously fall one short, and their issuance completely ignores the forgotten 13 indictments and the recalcitrant defendant who pled not guilty and wanted to be tried.  That the lamestream has picked up none of this is not a surprise to most of us here on RR, but the American Thinker did indeed notice and has published ‘The Forgotten II: The Strange Case of the Missing Russians’. (H/T also to RR reader)

There must be some reasonable explanation for all this, which from my perch appears as utter bullshit - including the timing of the announcement of the latest indictments.  Perhaps our vociferous and all-knowing progressive readers can set the matter straight for us so that we can all go forward giving Mueller full faith and credit for doing something beside what President Trump has labeled a ‘witch hunt’.

Women Taught to Shun STEM

George Rebane

While great effort is being made by universities and the state to attract more women into STEM careers, their massively progressive humanities departments at literally all of the nation’s colleges are doing their best to convince women to reject STEM.  The message of these liberal academics is, “STEM is only for those who enjoy “rote” work. Engineering is not creative. There’s only one right answer. You’ll live your life in a cubicle. It’s dehumanizing. You’ll never talk to anyone. And, of course, it’s sexist.”

Engineering professor Dr Barbara Oakley gives us the lowdown on these not-so-subtle forces in academia that are working to minimize STEM knowledge in favor of topics, majors, and careers in feel-good fields that require ‘skills’ for which no one or very few are willing to pay with money out of their own pockets. (more here)  The anti-STEM professors have not the slightest clue about the level of creativity required for STEM work, nor the nature of the fulfilling careers that STEM fields provide, and, most importantly, that STEM careers are the prime engines of wealth building vs wealth redistribution in society.

Professor Oakley’s only weak argument is the belief that her light-weight “humanities colleagues unthinkingly malign math and science as the province of uncreative drones.”  I don’t think there is anything “unthinking” going on here.  No matter how ignorant they are of STEM and its careers, the light-weights know they are on thin ice.  Were their female students to be exposed to the truth of the real exhilaration that STEM professions can provide, and the creativity required to succeed in such careers, and the real contribution they would make to society, and the life-changing possibilities that would then be open to them, those smart enough would switch out of their humanities majors in a heartbeat.

But the real truth here is that the Left has never promoted STEM for the masses because it creates too many problems in their implementation of a compliant governance for the new world order.  With a smattering of STEM, their pedagogically cultivated drones may start having independent thoughts in areas best left untrammeled by inquiring young minds.  What is doubly wasteful in today’s progressive bureaucracies and institutions is that on the one hand we establish and promote  programs – from kindergarten through grad-school – to attract females into STEM subjects and careers, and on the other hand operate a quiet yet pervasive propaganda campaign in academia to denigrate STEM-based thinking and opportunities as somehow being socially deficient and limiting.

Ruminations – 12jul18

Intellectual ostracism – the refusal to engage with a person or people who cannot rise to minimum standards of rationality. (Stefan Molyneux in The Art of the Argument – Western Civilization’s Last Stand, 2017)

George Rebane

Dems’ final solution for ‘immigration’.  Given our inundation of illegal aliens from the south, the Dems may yet have the best final solution for stopping it.  Just proceed with the unbridled adoption of their welfare, regulatory, and tax policies into the US economy.  The resulting impact on America’s common weal – Venezuela del Norte - oughta make them Latinos think twice before coming north.

Our lamestream-reported US income inequality at 11-15% is entirely bull pucky.  When over $1T in annual transfer payments and tax policy numbers are figured in, “only 2% of today’s population lives in poverty”.  This is lower than many western developed countries.  But the reported high numbers are a necessary part of the Left’s victimhood narrative to maintain the plantation.  (more here)

The EU’s socialist market mangling bureaucrats are at it again.  “It has only been about a month since European regulators dropped a bomb on the internet with the rollout of its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which imposed major costs on web platforms of all sizes and strengthened the market position of tech titans. … Now, the EU is turning its eye to copyright infringements online, and its proposed rules would be similarly damaging to the internet. The motivations for these new rules are hard to discern, and the extent of the collateral damage is hard to predict.”  This is part of America’s guaranteed future under Democrats. (more here)

Kavanaugh’s Threat to Civilization

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 11 July 2018.]

President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the prestigious DC Circuit Court of Appeals to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.  Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most distinguished jurists in America with an impeccable resume and over 300 scholarly legal opinions, 11 of which have been adopted by SCOTUS into their rulings.  He is also clearly acceptable to the man he will replace, since he served as a law clerk for Justice Kennedy.

Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination is, of course, hailed by the Republicans and all Americans who value his strict constitutionalist credentials.  The man agrees with the Founders that laws should be made by Congress and not in the judicial branch, whose job it is to adjudicate the application of existing law.  Kavanaugh’s confirmation will deny, for at least a generation, the recent use of our courts to make laws that Congress would not pass or be signed by the President.  And overnight that has made him the most despicable enemy of the Left, perhaps, second only to Donald Trump who surprised everyone by being elected President of the United States. 

To many of us this nomination and the upcoming confirmation battle represents a milestone in the ongoing destruction of national comity.  The Left has now redirected its perennial attack on this administration by focusing its energies to deny Judge Kavanaugh, with the battle cry issued by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who yesterday promised, “I’m going to fight the Kavanaugh nomination with everything I’ve got.”  And his ‘everything’ has become the immediate call to all Democrats ranging from moderate, through the alt-Left, to communist bands marching in the streets with hammer & sickle flags.  These are the dedicated worthies whose shout is ‘No Trump, No Wall, No USA at all!’,

This is reinforced by Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, who points to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the “future of the Democratic Party”.  Self-avowed socialist Ocasio-Cortez, who recently won the Democrat primary in Queens calls herself a democratic socialist, and purports to be the new face of the Democratic Party.  In that pivot she is joined by other Democrats such as Cynthia Nixon running for New York governor, and, of course, the established socialist stalwarts, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.  Other Democrats stand ready to board that train or, unannounced, are already on it.

Meanwhile Democratic Party leaders like Nancy Pelosi warn the country that “Civilization as we know it today is at risk in this election.”  And former DNC chair and governor Terry McAuliffe tells us, “The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh will threaten the lives of millions of Americans for decades to come …”  Meanwhile, leftwing organizations such as the National Women’s Law Center have rushed into print obvious lies like Justice Kavanaugh “believes the President is above the law”.

All of this is the latest and perhaps penultimate chapter of the Left’s anti-Trump national narrative.  Most likely half the country does not believe this extremely divisive screed now erupting against Judge Kavanaugh.    But if you’re a Democrat listening to this, why do you think that your party’s national leadership is telling you these things that they know not to be true?  Do they really think that you are ignorant enough to believe America is at a tipping point to tyranny with the Kavanaugh nomination?  However, if enough of you do believe this, then we really are facing a crisis of governance, because then we are definitely no longer one people under the same Constitution “with liberty and justice for all.”

More soberly, we recall that civilization, as we know it, truly was at risk during WW2 and the ensuing Cold War, with powerful totalitarian regimes seeking to fundamentally transform the world.  And now the Democratic leadership and its core are telling us that we are there again.  Their emerging solution is to abolish capitalism so as to make the world safe for socialism – a form of governance that, without the support of other people’s free market capitalism, has never ended well.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Sandbox - 11jul18

[President Trump's trip - is he doing it well, or is his direct and undiplomatic manner going to make things worse for the US when he returns.  And it looks like the Ugly Fat Kid needs another nudge.  gjr]

Trump’s Trade War

George Rebane

Unless President Trump has something up his sleeve on the outcome of the current tariff tussle and ensuing trade war, I think our fearless leader is making a big mistake in imposing tariffs – and doubly so for “national security” purposes.  Perhaps this ol’ noggin’ can’t figure out this global art of the deal, perhaps his real gambit is to go all in for abolishing tariffs all around (as he has already suggested), but I can’t see how he can get there from here, and even whether getting there makes any sense at all.

Now I don’t often agree with noted Princeton economist and syndicated liberal columnist Alan Blinder, but he did a good job explaining the matter of multi-lateral tariffs and the doings with our country’s current account in his ‘A Brief Introduction to Trade Economics’.  Bottom line, among nations unbalanced trade is normal and good for everyone because of something called ‘comparative advantage’ – that’s doing and selling what you do best, and buying from others what they do best.

Another bad thing about tariffs and resulting trade wars currently overlooked is that consumers will not only pay a lot more for imported stuff, but also for the same stuff we make in America.  Consider the new tariff on motor vehicles imported from the EU and Japan.  If suddenly our consumers had to pay, say, 25% more for a Toyota truck, they would naturally turn to one of our truck makers to get a better deal.  To be specific, consider both GM and Toyota selling comparable pick-ups at your local auto mall for $40K.  If suddenly you have to pay $50K for the Toyota, you’d reasonably turn to see a similar product from GM and the other two American truck makers.  And if that happened, what do you think would be the response of GM, Ford, and Chrysler?  They’re not going to leave close to $10K on the table knowing that their American customers have no better alternatives.

So without any necessity for collusion, all three will quickly come to the same conclusion and bump their prices to, say, $45K or more.  And as a Lucky Strike Extra, the ‘big three’ no longer will be bothered much by those pesky Japanese always pushing everybody to make higher quality vehicles like they did in the 1970s.  Anyway, you get the idea of why I think tariffs and trade wars suck, especially for us Americans who don’t save much and therefore make it necessary for us to borrow from foreigners to fund our deficits and run the current account balance that we do.

Our Little Corner of the Confused

George Rebane

Today’s (9jul18) Union highlights the impact of our county’s left turn with some choice letters to the newspaper and a confusing column on the First Amendment.  Usually the Union has better material to publish on their op-ed pages, but occasionally they must run into a dry spell and use it in fairness to make available some column inches to the incoherent and confused.  After all, such editorial policy does give a more accurate picture of our community.

The two letters are examples of outpourings from the heartfelt but lightly read.  For openers, a Ms Carol Menaker of Nevada City begins her anti-LaMalfa counsel with “If you believe that forcibly separating children from their parents is justifiable, read no further.”  There, that’s it, and no further qualifications or complexities relating to the issue need concern the reader, for most certainly such things never concerned or entered the mind of the writer.  Whether these factors are beyond her, we cannot say, but what follows does not evince a discriminating mind.  (more here)

Then we have the contribution (here) from Mr Ron Lowe, similarly located (our little town is a hotbed of such astute intellects).  His short letter offers condemning and conclusive proof that the Russians indeed “played to the Republicans and swayed the election for Donald Trump.”  Together “Trump, Russians, Republicans, were complicit in wrongdoing in the 2016 presidential election” due to a “full color ad (that) shows Christ and Satan in a struggle to win religious Republican votes”.  The ad appeared on Facebook, and that’s that.  What more proof of perfidy bought and paid for would anyone require?  Roll out the tumbrels!

Finally, we have the ‘other voice’ of a Mr Chuck Frank who has determined that “freedom of the press lies in the balance” (here).  And what powers will tilt that balance to our detriment?  Well, Mr Frank has put his finger on the Dept of Homeland Security and other feds as those who are “planning” to put journalists’ heads on “the chopping block”.  How will they do that?  They will “make lists and spy(sic) on websites, news outlets, articles, blogs, and whistle-blower sites.”  DHS may even hire a contractor to do all the dirty work who will track “hundreds of thousands of persons associated with journalism (by) compiling a database likened to North Korea”.  We kid you not, this individual apparently believes that North Korea has individuals and journalists who criticize the Ugly Fat Kid on the open internet.  In any event, we must all beware that this is “just one example of censorship though(sic) a massive campaign to control mass communications and also hide wrongdoing in government.”

Now RR is on record as being no fan of a large, intrusive, and corrupt counter-constitutional government.  But the confused and breathlessly confusing screed laid down by Mr Frank does not serve his efforts to avert “the New World Order” to be achieved through the destruction of “investigative journalism, alternative news, and accurate reporting.”  The reader comes away from his jumbled revelations shaking his head, and attributing the whole thing again to some anti-government crank.  That he is able to warn all of us of the impending First Amendment’s demise should give us some comfort that such alarums are a bit premature.  Nevertheless, our gimlet eye is ever peeled for such exigencies.  

Scattershots – 6jul18 (updated 8jul18)

A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. - Bertrand De Jouvenel

George Rebane

Liberal logic juries.  Reviewing some of the ‘Russian interference’ comment streams to confirm the kind of logic our leftwing readers accept and present as evidence that Russia did indeed throw the 2016 election to assure Trump’s victory, it occurs to me that many, probably most, of our empaneled juries across the country enjoy a majority of liberals.  Their thought processes and ability to think critically are not lost on lawyers.  We already have long years of evidence that our judicial system suffers from significant corruption by legal professionals implementing jurisprudence to solicit erroneous verdicts by playing games with both process and evidence.  Now I wonder how much of the justice system mess is contributed by juries whose ability to reason and understand evidence is similar to what we often witness in these pages.

Left/Right civility side-by-side in the 5jul18 Union op-ed page.  Take a look at the Other Voices ‘Vote Blue in November’ by a Ms Betsy Wobus who simply exudes raw hatred of President Trump as a reason to vote Democrat, and then compare that to the neighboring column ‘A Threat to One Person’s Free Speech is a Threat to All’ by Ms Terry McLaughlin.  One contains only baseless vituperation, and the other a reasoned presentation of government’s ideology-based impact on First Amendment rights.  A more vivid example of the people on either side of our widening political gulf would be hard to find.

For all the fans of Single Payer (Socialized) Medicine, we have the latest report – ‘Reform the NHS before it kills again’ - about the UK’s much-vaunted National Health Service.  Researcher and author Rupert Darwall runs through a toe-curling litany of recent evidence and ongoing investigations of how the NHS has for years conducted a quiet policy of euthanasia on its patients.  As we have pointed out here, and Mr Darwall reinforces – for government-run health services, especially the de facto monopolistic kind like the NHS, patients are a cost to be minimized.  The obverse is true for private (for-profit) health care services for whom patients are the revenue source to be kept alive, cared for, and cured so that more patients will select the services of such enterprises.  (To confirm such a difference here in the US, revisit the evidence about the healthcare that our VA provides veterans.)

Our country’s multiple identity-based cultures are diverging (becoming more “heterogeneous”). Researchers Klaus Desmet and Romain Wacziarg at the non-profit National Bureau of Economic Research have completed “a systematic quantitative study of cultural convergence and divergence in the United States over time” to “assess whether cultural values have grown more or less heterogeneous”.  Among a lot of other things, in their jun2018 paper ‘Cultural Divide’ they conclude that the cultures of 11 distinct groups, into which they divided the American population, became more homogeneous from 1972 to the late 1990s, and then reversed and started becoming more heterogeneous thereafter.  In short, our various identity group cultures have now been diverging for the last 20 years or so.  This, of course, does help explain why we are having more difficulty in communicating and accepting each other’s public policy solutions.  Whoulda thought?

Earth during last half of June 2018.  This YouTube video was sent to me by Russ Steele, RR reader and fellow blogger (here) who closely follows and compares the global warming hysteria to what is actually happening but missing in the lamestream media reports.

[7jul18 update]  ‘If America Is Divided, So Is Europe’, so argues Tunku Varadarajan in a revealing WSJ essay.  Their divisions are similar to ours, with their Left also working feverishly to bury western civilization by any and all means in order to create the chaotic change, as necessary, from which a new global collective may arise to the carefully managed, compliant, and approving cries of their great unwashed, amply augmented by hordes of Islamic and sub-Saharan migrants.

[8jul18 update]  Agenda21 alive and well and advancing.  A reader sent me this update on the implementation and progress of A21 that was posted on Anthony Watts’ ubiquitous blog – ‘Whatever happened to Agenda 21 and Climate Change Policy?’  There Dr Tim Ball writes -

It’s alive and well in your backyard. The entire policy of using anthropogenic global warming as a false front to implement global governance and impose how we will all live is working with remarkable success. The plan was set out by Maurice Strong as Agenda 21 in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It is succeeding beyond his wildest dreams because the people he arranged to implement it are unaccountable to anyone.

In ‘History’s Bad Ideas are an Inspiration for Progressives’ Victor Davis Hanson describes “the new illiberal ethos” that we witness in our daily round and on these pages.  In there he details the Left’s hubristic asymmetry in public life and our nation’s affairs.  VDH even explains why “supposed liberals keep revisiting discredited illiberal practices from the nation’s past.”

Sandbox - 5jul18

["Immigrants separated from their children after being arrested for illegally entering the U.S. at the Mexican border are being asked to choose between being deported alone or with their children."  Why in the world would we not deport the children with the adults who brought them in?  Is it because the kiddie importers may not be the kids' parents after all?  Then where is today's insane hew and cry about separating kids from arrested parents - a long practiced process for both American and illegals taken into custody?  Or are we now done with this topic?  gjr]

Happy Fourth - An American Celebration!

Scattershots – 3jul18 (updated 4jul18)

George Rebane

It’s Fourth of July time again.  Tonight the gates open at 630pm for the Music in the Mountains Patriotic Pops Concert on the great lawn of our fairgrounds.  Lots of great music and ceremony and flyover and food and drink and … .  Come with your family to celebrate our declaration of independence.  The photo shows the stage last year with the vets saluting the Pledge of Allegiance.  (more here)

Trump removes another Obama-era disaster. "The Trump administration will begin directing schools and colleges to adopt race-neutral admissions standards, the Education Department said Tuesday, reversing Obama-era guidelines that encouraged the use of race to promote diversity."  Perhaps merit will again have top billing in qualifying a student for admission.  Ever thought of having two classes of colleges, one for serious study of productive majors, and another for feel good majors filled with mandated ratios of race, gender, sexual orientation, sensitivity to pressure, safe places, and trigger warnings at every turn.

[4jul18 update]  This version of Putin's Plan was sent by a reader - worth considering.  And as another commenter has astutely asked in these pages, who in America are the people sowing discontent, incivility, and rending the social order?

Socialist Ocasio-Cortez Is “Future Of Our Party” announces DNC chairman Tom Perez.  This vision has been firmly in the mind of our academic types for a generation, and has now been also implanted in the carefully fashioned non-critical minds of their students.  These are the younger people today who neither understand nor see any other future save one with a large government assuring that all will give according to their ability, so that each will receive according to their need. (more here)

Media Bias

George Rebane

First, H/T to Bob Crabb where I first saw this graphic of 'media bias' before going to another site to filch a good copy of it.  Now I have several problems with where some outlets are placed on this chart, but I'll keep them to myself until readers have had a chance to make their own voices heard.  (As always, click on the image to make it larger.)