Rebane's Ruminations

Ruminations – 30apr19 (updated 3may19)

George Rebane

Pluralism is always favored by immigrant minorities who in their native countries will countenance none of it.

“All power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” – Mao Zedong.  Our Left creates, supports, and inflames divisive (identity) cultures that produce high gun murder rates in order to promote ever stricter gun controls that will ultimately lead to confiscation, and remove, once and for all, a free people’s ability to rebel against the comprehensive command and control autocracy they promise to install.  All power to the state!

Left-leaning author (Balkanized America) and journalist Colin Woodward in his ‘Welcome (Back) to the Divided States of America’ – “One would think our continent’s famed mobility — and the transportation and communications technology that facilitates it — would dissolve differences between these regional cultures. Paradoxically, it appears to be reinforcing it. As journalist Bill Bishop and sociologist Robert Cushing revealed in The Big Sort, for decades now, Americans who are relocating choose to move to communities where people share their values and worldview. As a result, the proportion of voters living in counties that consistently give landslide wins report — more than a 20 percent margin of victory — to one party increased from 26.8 percent in 1976 to 48.3 percent in 2004. The volume of people is significant and has benefited the GOP, with a net 13 million people moving from Democratic to Republican landslide counties between 1990 and 2006 alone. In doing so, they’re often moving between regional cultures as well and increasing the differences between them.” (emphasis mine) 

The widespread recognition of this important dynamic in American demographics illustrates, by contrast, the profound ignorance of local grassroots leftwingers here and across the nation.  An expanded analysis in ‘The Real Issue that Divides Us’ also illustrated how profoundly ignorant the grassroots Left is of anything beyond the simplistic slogans they receive from their national thought leaders.

Vaclav Smil’s Energy and Civilization: A History (2017) is one of the books I’m now in the middle of that is turning out to be quite an education.  Those interested in energy issues should get this material under their belt.  “Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including Energy and Civilization, published by the MIT Press. In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013 Bill Gates wrote on his website that “there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.”  More on him to come.

People who move for ideological comfort have more radical views than those at their destination.  This works for both ends of the ideological spectrum.  Locally here in Nevada County we have seen the influx in recent years of liberals with markedly more radical beliefs – i.e. ‘San Francisco values’ - than the liberals who lived here compatibly with the more conservative indigenous folks. (more here)

The 30apr19 Union (here) celebrates the formation of yet another organization to shield, succor, and provide a “safe space” for illegal aliens from US law enforcement authorities.  The Sierra College’s new Undocumented Student Center is intended to fill this “need” as identified by local progressives in this sanctuary state.  One wonders if there are other areas where violating US laws can be equally supported so visibly while thwarting law enforcement authorities in carrying out their duties.  Perhaps setting up organizations that enable individuals with a wider range of capabilities and means to avoid the legal formalities and performance requirements in place, so that more people can enjoy well-paying sub-rosa careers as lawyers, physicians, various contractors, … ?

Fascism, in popular use by progressives today, is becoming more and more convoluted in how their meaning of it departs from the ideology’s origin and correct usage in former times.  For a brief history of fascism, please review ‘Fascism – what it is and isn’t’.  For the Left fascism is today’s catch-all label for any and all on the Right who oppose their form of socialism cum communism.  However, for them to apply that label requires the promulgation of a polyglot of historical and factual lies.  One of the latest leftwing pundits to arise in the last year is Umair Haque who writes on Medium, the new online outlet for millennial minds.  Mr Haque’s prominent misunderstanding of fascism is fully displayed in his ‘Are Americans (Really) So Dumb They Don’t Know Fascism When They See It?’  Judge for yourself.

[1may19 update]  “TRUMP WILL MEET WITH TOP ADVISERS TO DISCUSS PLANS TO CHALLENGE CLIMATE CHANGE REPORTS” Democrats, of course, are screaming bloody murder opposing an open debate about climate change that features scores of prominent scientists who are skeptics.  Such a public conversation would give visible lie to the hysteria mongers who have long claimed that only ignorant knuckledragger “deniers” have problems with the cited science behind proclamations of imminent global catastrophe. (more here)

Speaking of leftwing liars and fake news.  The NYT and WaPo have been pushing the story that Mueller wrote Barr criticizing him about the latter’s 24mar19 4-pager to Congress; that the Barr’s letter misrepresented the findings of Mueller’s report.  Well, those sacks of s#!t are at it again with their blatant brown journalism (that’s a notch below yellow).  You can read Mueller’s 27mar19 letter here.  What I found a bit disturbing was that when Barr offered Mueller the chance to review his 4-pager, Mueller demurred.  Nevertheless, after getting Mueller’s letter, Barr called Mueller during which telecon Mueller said that Barr’s 4-pager contained nothing that was inaccurate or misleading.  Apparently, Mueller’s bitch was with the media’s characterization (i.e. spin) of the 18apr19 release of his redacted report along with Barr’s 4-pager.

[2may19 update]  Rebane Doctrine immigration policy for the record.  Genevieve Wood of the Heritage Foundation presents a summary of a correct US immigration policy in this short video.  I have been promoting these principles/requirements for years.

Elizabeth Warren's 'Marshall Plan for America'.  Here on Medium we have a communist hyper-ventilating on the "brilliant" proposals of proto-communist Warren.  It's worth a read as a reality calibration on what many of today's Millennials have been taught to believe as we head into 2020.  Seatbelts please.

‘Medicare for All’ is NOT Medicare at all as the Dems, led by Bernie Sanders, would like you to not notice.  When it comes to major league lying, Trump is a piker and the Left have always been the champions.  Today the Dems’ 20+ presidential candidates are each vying for the top spot as they deliver their stump speeches.  Dr Robert Pozen of MIT’s Sloan School of Management lays out the proposition that “Democrats mislead voters by appropriating the name of a popular program they actually seek to abolish.” (more here)

[3may19 update]  Help!  A very interesting problem I'm working on runs into a fairly straightforward looking definite integral (shown below, a and b are constants) for which I need the closed-form analytical solution.  Everywhere I've looked - Wofram Alpha, Matlab Symbolic Toolbox, CRC Math Formulas (33rd ed) - I draw a blank.  Now I'm rummaging around with pencil and paper trying to noodle the anti-derivative(s) by hand; so far no joy.  So I'm appealing to any of RR's technical readers who may be able to shed some light on this particular worm standing at attention. 

Scattershots – 26apr19 (updated 27apr19)

George Rebane

The 17apr19 Scattershots got a bit too long with items that are hard to see below the page break, so let’s start another one.  BTW, I want to thank the thousands of RR readers and its group of stalwart commenters of all ideological hues.  We are now in our thirteenth year, and to date have amassed an archive of 3,006 posts underpinned by 140,681 comments in their comment streams.  Actually, the number of posts would be thousands more, save for my use of aggregating many of them under the dated ‘Ruminations’ and ‘Scattershots’ collections.  RR continues to be a uniquely open forum for the civil (albeit sometimes uncivil) discussion of all ideas that “alter and illuminate our times.”

Rebane’s rumblings are not the only attempts at deep thoughts about the goings on in our country and on our planet.  Significant contributions from our commenters on other issues and ideas decorate and lend weight to these comment streams, especially under the dated Sandboxes.  I call your attention to a recent exchange in the 23apr19 Sandbox between commenters Messrs Tozer (starting 848am) and ‘scenes’ (formerly ‘Scenes from the Coming Apocalypse’) that illustrates how illiberal has become free speech and discussion of new ideas in our progressive-run universities and colleges.

Democratic mayor Pete Buttigieg has entered the party’s race for its 2020 presidential candidate.  And, out of the gate, he’s basing the launch of his campaign on an audacious pack of lies about VP and former Indiana governor Mike Pence, with whom he had a most cordial and cooperative working relationship.  Governor Pence went out of his way to support and work with the unabashedly gay South Bend mayor.  But now “Mayor Pete picks a fight with a caricature of the vice president that he knows from experience is false.” (more here)  I bring this up re the continuing charges from our leftwing about Republicans being the only lying politicians in the land; none of them recognize the whopper-based careers of their own political leaders.  Why is it that the Right has no problem calling out the lies of Republican politicians (witness the numberless articles and features from the WSJ, National Review, Fox News, Heritage Foundation, …), but you never hear about the lying sumbiches and biches on the Left from their lamestream outlets?

How many mosques and Muslims have been attacked by self-declared Christians, or in the name of Christ?  Ask that reciprocal question about Muslims murdering Christians all around the world.  And dig deeper to ask how many of these Islamic terrorists have been recruited, trained, dedicated, and directed by Islamic institutions, organizations, and their clergy.  It is hard to make the case that there is any semblance of reciprocation in this ideo/theological conflict as our progressive brethren like to point out.  The two stacks of evidence simply do not compare.  So why does the Left continue to maintain this façade of lies?  (Full disclosure: this a is an unvarnished rhetorical question to which most Americans already know the answer.)

Western media glibly continue to report that North Korea is a “nuclear armed regime”, when it clearly is not.  I think for diplomatic and propaganda purposes we need to paint NK and its dear leader, the Ugly Fat Kid, as having the capability to wreak worldwide havoc.  This so that we can continue our attempts to keep him from acquiring/developing nuclear arms, and in the process support our agenda with China and now Russia.  It may be a bit technical to follow, but the UFK is nowhere near having nuclear ‘arms’ – i.e. operational weapons capable of delivering and exploding nuclear devices over distant enemy targets.  The simple fact is that the UFK has yet to test and demonstrate a launchable warhead that can be controlled with sufficient accuracy, and that also carries precisely-deployable, onboard penaids (penetration aids consisting of staged decoys used to spoof interceptor radars and IR sensors) that enable it to survive re-entry and reach the desired detonation point before being intercepted.   Before such a weapon enters their arsenal as an operational weapon system, NK will have to conduct multiple re-entry tests using otherwise fully functional, dummy warheads aimed at open-ocean ‘targets’.  Such tests will take time and be visible to all, and will be most carefully monitored by us and other nations concerned about the UFK’s sabre rattling.  (The Soviets and now Russians have monitored the re-entry of our ICBMs at mid-Pacific target atolls for decades.)  However, no such tests have been observed; ergo, NK is not yet a nuclear armed regime.

Avengers: The Endgame was touted by WSJ’s film critic Joe Morgenstern, who gave the movie a glowing review last Wednesday (24apr19), the day before its nationwide opening (here).  And apparently he was not the only one trumpeting hosannas for the flick.  Well, Jo Ann and I don’t go to the movies much, so we thought ‘what the hell, even though comic book heroes are not our favorite past time, the cultural experience sitting with a live audience should be worth it – so we went last night to the GV del Oro theater and wedged ourselves between an interesting menagerie of humanity that included a pair of motor-mouths behind us rattling their popcorn bags and bumping the backs of our seats, and next to a couple of twenty-something females who hauled in a four-year-old young man who had been taught no social skills about how to behave in polite company (perhaps because it didn’t turn out to be all that polite).  Anyway, the theater’s noise level during the movie was something to behold – when will they provide the audio over our own wireless, noise-cancelling headsets?

So now the 3+ hour movie.  It was the most banal attempt to combine some awkwardly composed serious dialogue with action scenes designed for the comprehension of six-year-olds that unsuccessfully attempted to explain the role of quantum-based time travel by the characters before they found themselves battling the vast array of minions in the service of a really bad guy who wanted to destroy the universe – we noticed that we’re now beyond simply destroying the earth, or our solar system, or even the galaxy – and then build a new one more to his liking.  Apparently he had the godlike powers to do it, although the movie was distinctly free of any accompanying spiritual content – you know, separation of church and Hollywood – that might at least have made a cameo appearance.  And so this utter waste of time dragged on for hours that seemed like much more than its claimed three, during which time all (who knows?) the Marvel heroes made their own appearances in addition to more cameos by some notable film worthies like Robert Redford and Benedict Cumberbatch.  And here we thought such people had enough money to avoid another turn at the world’s oldest profession.  Apparently not, since all across the country multiplexes bumped other films to use all their auditoriums for extra showings of Avengers, some going so far as to advertise 24/7 offerings so everyone could come and enjoy this heartwarming epic and culmination of the cinemagraphic arts.  Truth be told, if you paid attention, you could even catch odd snatches of acting, each lasting maybe ten, fifteen seconds.  And this morning we were told that this flick is breaking all box office records.  But overall, as a public service our advice is to save your money, unless you are determined to dip your own dipstick to check the level and character of today’s hoi polloi.

[27apr19 update]  Our indominable cartoonist Bob Crabb has hit another home run.  His latest offering below was filched from the pages of the 27apr19 Union.  Thanks Bob for making the already painful also memorable 😉

Post-citizenship America (updated 28apr19)

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 24 April 2019.  A slightly edited version also appears in the 27apr19 issue of The Union.]

Perhaps no recent issue of national contention illustrates the differences of how our two polarized sides see the future direction of America than does the debate about whether the 2020 census should include the citizenship question.  The original intent of the census had to do with redistricting and reapportionment.  That intent was carried out with our census from 1820 to 1950 by counting American citizens, which then determined membership in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College for the several states.  In the 20^th century an accurate citizen count provided by the census was also used to determine the allocation of federal dollars back to the states under various programs that Congress legislated.

Scattershots – 24apr19 (updated 25apr19)

George Rebane

We’ve all seen countless thrillers from Hollywood in which the plot line has a department or agency of Big Government that has gone rogue, and threatens to bring down the country or even the world.  And against great odds our hero/heroine manages to overcome them and triumph.  These movies are made by leftwingers who obviously cannot connect the dots, why?  Because they are inadvertently creating propaganda denying the very things they believe in and promote – namely, very large, powerful, and ethical governments.  The conflict between a moral and principled small guy against the uncaring and corrupt leviathan is a rightwing narrative.  How come these mavens of public communications seem to miss the obvious, and show up at events raising funds for ever bigger government programs and government roles in our lives?  Any answers out there?  (Maybe they know their grass roots constituents who buy the tickets aren't smart enough to catch on.)

Democrat presidential hopefuls are lining up to participate in Fox News townhalls.  They do this while they denigrate that network for being the embodiment of journalistic corruption and fakery.  Of course, we know why they are waiting their turn to be in front of FN audiences – because that’s where the viewers are that they must reach if they are to have a chance.  By all published numbers, FN and FB essentially rule the roost of broadcast TV, garnering not only the conservatives, but more importantly, attracting the middle-road viewers who know the kind of pabulum that is served up by Teams Maddow, Matthews, and Cooper.  But the DNC still will not trust Fox to host a debate between their presidential hopefuls.  Those events cannot afford to have questions asked by anyone outside of the reliably tethered lamestream.

[25apr19 update]  Union columnist Terry McLaughlin lists the litany of new taxes that the state’s Democrats are proposing in her 25apr19 ‘Who will fill California’s coffers without the 1 percent?’.  One of the more egregious taxes that is guaranteed to shift the ongoing exodus into high gear is the 40% death tax on the so-called minds of our progressive legislators.  Apparently they, along with the voters who sent them to Sacramento, don’t know that almost half of CA’s income taxes are paid by the 1%, and that 40% of the state’s residents don’t pay any income tax at all.  We are here talking about absolute stupidity, not to be confused with ignorance.  The latter can be corrected by education, the former cannot since it is cooked into your DNA.

Apropos the above, journalism, like the teaching profession, no longer (if ever) attracts the brightest bulbs on the tree.  All the media are still aspirating about the Mueller report contents viz Russia “attacking” our voting process.  Depending on their political leanings, each outlet emphasizes by implication (i.e. choice wordsmithing) whether these attacks had any influence on capturing the votes, securing the vote data, counting the votes, and/or tallying and reporting the results.  Of course, there is no evidence that Russia’s attacks had any influence whatsoever on the election, and Mueller said so.  But in their palaver, the dimwit talking heads (including on FN) don’t discriminate between ‘attack’ and ‘influence’ – one being the attempt, the other the achievement.  Dumbth now prevails.

Saint Thomas of Friedman, working the Lord’s vineyards at the NYT, has had another epiphany – border walls work.  Given the rabid objections to improving border security that he and his flock have made over the years, this revelation gives evidence that divine intervention is real and continues to work even in post-biblical times.  Now the task remains in how to turn their massive titanic of a narrative on this issue so that 1) it doesn’t acknowledge the prescient wisdom of our president, and 2) delivers this new missive to the alt-Left core and its national tendrils in a manner that communicates the saint’s primacy and the president’s silence on the matter.  It’s a challenging task, but not one beyond the kind they have handily managed before.

Welcome Lonesome Joe Biden into the Democrat presidential cauldron.  Absent any policy ideas that distance him from the looney left-fringe of the party, he will be fighting for the “soul” of America and, with that political cudgel, promises to beat Trump.  He is counting on the part of the electorate not concerned with public policies, but only focusing on the good feelies Joe will emit.  And make no mistake, Joe can do that better than any in the rest of the herd.  If they try to hold age against him (76), they will also have to take on Bernie (77) and Lizzy(69), two powerful mouths that have staked out strong positions in the pack.

The Dems will spend from here to eternity (or Trump’s loss in 2020) doing their best to hassle President Trump.  They know their platform has no chance at all in any government in which they don’t hold all of Congress and the Executive.  My free advice to Trump is to immediately set up a Counter-Strike Agency staffed by about 30 lawyers and analysts experienced in the ways of Washington politics.  CSA’s job is to relieve Trump’s regular WH administrative staff and cabinet departments from dealing with the crap coming from the House Dems.  These people have no other charter than doing deep research on the Dem leadership, generating counters to ongoing attacks, and presenting the president with alternative attacks that he can launch.

The Ugly Fat Kid is meeting with Vladimir in Vladivostok. Interesting that it took so long for this meeting to take place.  But the reason for it is the same as for all the other meetings – the UFK doesn’t want to have his brains blown out by someone from his circle of generals.  So here’s how it should go.  Vladimir: So what can I do for you?  UFK: I’m between a rock and a hard place, I need for you to tell everyone that Russia will guarantee the survival of my regime.  Vladimir: OK, so what do I get?  UFK: Anything you want that doesn’t piss off Xi too much.  Vladimir: Let me think about it and lay it out for Donald.  UFK: Do it.  Vladimir:  OK Don, now that you know what came down with the UFK, what do you think that I should do?  Don: That’s a no-brainer Vlad - guarantee his f*c%ing regime.  Tell him you’ll rain nukes down on my head if I do anything to kick his ass out of there.  We both want the bastard gone and the Korean peninsula under a strong government that is independent of Xi, who we know has eyes on your east Siberian resources.  We’ll do the rest from here with the guys in Seoul.  And we both know that you’re a lying sumbich and I’m a lying sumbich, so the UFK has no recourse when he starts screaming at you to fire the nukes, as you give him a shit-eating grin.  Capice?

Sandbox - 23apr19

[To impeach or not to impeach - that is the question.  BTW, it appears that the number of leftwing readers regularly contributing to comment streams now outnumbers those leaning to starboard.  We've always known that the Left are assiduous RR readers, but usually they don't want to debate their politics.  How did such an outrageous fortune afflict us?  gjr]

He is Risen!

George Rebane

Hearing that strong assertion, the Christian answers joyfully, ‘He is risen indeed!’

For us, Christmas is the promise, and Easter its fulfillment.  The summation of all Christianity is Christ’s covenant in the promised transcendence of Man, all concentrated into one simple declaration – ‘He is risen!’  Without this, our faith is a fraud; with it, Christianity promises Man to become an unending part of God’s love of all Creation.

(And for the humanist skeptics among us with a cosmological perspective, consider that many/most(?) world class scientists believe in some form of a higher intelligence which subsumes the universe we see.  Christians see this as their 'aseity of God', and for others - Steven Hawking, to Elon Musk - this is the belief that our universe is not the ‘base level’ of a computed and/or computable universe.  Consider what such an ontology portends. More here, here, and here.)

Civilian Militia Detains Illegals at Border

George Rebane

News reports tell of a civilian militia in New Mexico’s border region apprehending aliens who had just illegally crossed over from Mexico (here).  The authorities were called and the 300+ illegals were detained until the Border Patrol arrived to arrest and take custody of the aliens.  Such militias have operated in previous years – most recently during the Bush2 administration - to augment our under-staffed border security agencies in regions that are not secured by appropriate physical barriers.  Such interdictions by concerned civilians have always been a problem to law enforcement authorities and political leaders, especially politicians who embrace porous borders and encourage illegal entrants.  The reported incident drew the ire of New Mexico’s AG Balderas and the ACLU which immediately labeled the action “illegal”, and called for an investigation.

Throughout history it has been not only the prerogative, but the duty, of the citizens of a civil society to prevent criminal activity in their midst.  Whether as a member of a law enforcement unit or a civilian, when a citizen is witness to a crime being committed, it is his duty to do everything possible to either stop the crime in process and/or aid the authorities in the apprehension of the criminal(s).  When civilians have put themselves in harm’s way to either thwart crime or sacrifice themselves in the attempt, we have honored their courage and commitment to civil responsibility.  However, today when the culture of a community promotes/condones ignoring such responsibilities, then our society inevitably slides toward a Mad Max world, as daily witnessed in our inner cities, and now throughout major metropolises governed under policies that hew overwhelmingly to social orders promoted in leftwing ideologies.

Crossing our borders illegally violates several US Codes, and those illegal aliens doing so are deemed criminals under US law.  So the question arises, in this time of national emergency and humanitarian crisis when illegals are pouring into the US at rates exceeding one million per year, when our border authorities are overwhelmed in both staffing and detention facilities, when our legal system is totally dysfunctional and allows aliens to permanently escape and evade due process, is it not prudent for cohorts of concerned and willing Americans to augment the apprehension capabilities of our border security officers?  Would news of such civilian reinforcements operating in remote and porous border regions not dissuade most would be illegals from risking their and their families’ lives and wellbeing to attempt such dangerous crossings?

Or do we now catalog crimes into categories which are politically correct for civilians to thwart, and those crimes which are politically incorrect and cannot be thwarted even by duly sworn law enforcement agencies, and therefore most certainly not by citizens concerned about the future of their country?

The Mueller Report – some early takes (updated 20apr19)

George Rebane

The long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller has turned out to be a disappointment on all counts to all sides.  The following summarize my initial take on it.

1. From a legal perspective, the report is an iconic nothing-burger. A 400-page embarrassment that documents the failure to conclude anything definite about the commissioned purpose for the drawn-out investigation.  It is a collection of legal pabulum as a CYA disguise for spending tens of millions over two years to no avail.
2. From the gitgo the Mueller investigation was an obviously composed effort to nail the president and derail his administration. The composition of the investigative team and its flailing, off-the-mark, subsequent indictments gave evidence that it really was a desperate witch hunt which had to fire off a few legal pyrotechnics now and then to keep the effort looking credible to the light thinkers.
3. From a political perspective, the report is a success. Since there was no credible prosecutorial evidence for either ‘collusion’ or ‘obstruction’, the investigation’s redoubt terminus was always to deliver a product that would dissemble its conclusions so as to invite and enable follow-on probes which the Democrats took every opportunity to specify during the 22-month fiasco.  Team Muller got its marching orders early and often from the Left and its lamestream.
4. President Trump and his administration have been isolated, perhaps, like no other administration in our history. The Dems could never accept the election results, and the Repubs have carried on a feckless relationship with a president who obviously was not their first choice from their retinue of available candidates.  And Trump’s incurable foot-in-mouth disease did not endear him to anyone in the Washington political establishment.  Mueller’s investigation was drawn out for the obvious collateral damage it was inflicting by hobbling and diverting Team Trump from governing.
5. Mueller’s work has also served 1) to firmly entrench the public’s longstanding opinion of the dodgy legal profession and our convoluted and corrupt justice system in which it operates, and 2) to highlight and further widen our country’s ideological divide. The report’s dearth of evidence and painfully wordsmithed syntax made sure that it would change no minds already secure in their beliefs about Trump’s guilt or innocence.  All sides can now put their own particular spin on it, and never look back.

WSJ Washington columnist Kim Strassel adds more meat to these points in her ‘Mueller’s Report Speaks Volumes’.

[20apr19 update]  Upon reflection on Volume 2 of the report dealing with obstruction, it strikes me as more than utter bullshit that would be below the standards of any other profession other than those populated mostly by sleazebag lawyers.  I add point #6.

6. “… while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” A little thought immediately causes one to ask, ‘is there ANY investigation that cannot have such a codicil appended to its conclusion, should the investigator desire to leave a cloud over the individual investigated without the finding of any illegality or indictable criminality??’ To conclude with such an unnecessary assertion is an act of desperation which confirms that the investigation was carried out with an agenda unfulfilled.  Such a dangling innuendo strongly implies that guilt could yet be uncovered with more effort, and forces the so accused into having to prove his own innocence – not exactly the way our system of jurisprudence was intended to operate.  (That is one of the many reasons I assess our judicial system to be invitingly corrupt.)

In Mueller’s case he was not able to indict someone for not obstructing an unobstructed investigation that terminated without finding any evidence of an indictable crime.  About that the Dems are pissed to the gills, and will now do everything to correct the situation.  Go figger.

Sandbox - 18apr19

[Well boys and girls, let's all talk about the released Mueller report (here).  After explaining a year or two that collusion by itself is neither nefarious nor illegal, and conspiracy is surreptitious collusion with intent to harm, I smiled this morning as the NPR mavens awakened to that important distinction in their aspirations about AG Barr's talk and press conference this morning.  Your task, should you be so inclined, is to find in this entertaining aftermath even a smidgen of common ground for healing the land.  gjr]

Scattershots – 17apr2019 (updated 19apr19)

George Rebane

RR readers may recall that the two necessary pillars on which science rests are Occam’s razor and falsifiability.  The former selects the simplest theory that explains observations, and the latter requires every theory to contain propositions that, the subsequent falsification of which, will either negate or restrict the applicability of the theory.  Religions are belief systems that require compliance to neither.  Today progressivism is a secular humanist religion that has many belief tenets (propositions) which cannot be falsified.  Currently two of the more often cited are 1) Justice Kavanaugh is a sexual predator, and 2) candidate Trump conspired with the Kremlin in order to win the presidency.  Daily statements from the lamestream, progressive activists, and the Democratic leadership confirm that there neither is nor can be nothing that will change the verity of these tenets.

Apropos to the above, the asymmetry of the Left and Right in about every dimension of behavior in the public forum is familiar to most Americans.  It is denied by the Left that always seeks to attribute equally reprehensible actions from the Right anytime something obviously atrocious is carried out by the Left.  However, their ability to cite evidence – in either frequency, intensity, or participants – to back their claims is woefully lacking.  Today the rise of alt-Left socialism, as espoused by Democrats like Sanders, AOC, Warren, Harris, …, concerns the more established party leaders.  These leaders seek to discount their more radical brethren by identifying them as just the Left’s version of the Tea Party, the group they and their lamestream identify as being equally rightwing radical.  But again, there is no evidence presented; it is just a religious belief.  My recent invitation for local leftwingers to remedy this deficit (here) continues to be met with silence.

Free speech is dying at hands of corporatist giants on the internet.  Conservative leaning outlets like Daily Caller, Daily Signal, and Breitbart are being censored by social media giants and even banned as references on information sites like Wikipedia, as they, including Fox News, are accused of being hateful and sources of ‘fake news’.  There is no evidence for that; in fact, the evidence is exactly the opposite especially as concerns major stories that have dominated our attention for these last years – e.g. Trump’s Russia collusion, DoJ corruption, the glories of nationalized healthcare, and global warming.  Instead, outlets like CNN, MSNBC, NYT, and WaPo are being glorified (e.g. awarded Pulitzer prizes) for being demonstrable sources of fake news.  For example, it was they who kept spreading the collusion lie for over two years, and even today are doing their best to keep it alive.  They have done untold harm to the administration of Trump the candidate and then as the sitting president.  And by extension they have harmed America in our efforts to effect policies foreign, domestic, national security, and in world trade.  Being a progressive leftwing news outlet means never having to say you are sorry.

[18apr19 update]  ‘Afghanistan is our longest lasting war’ seems to be repeated more and more these days for purposes unknown or hazy at best.  In reality, it turns out to be a propagandized meme without moment.  The ‘war’ started in 2001 with our defeating the Taliban who had then been ravaging the country for some years while supporting Islamic terrorist organizations in the land they governed.  Over these last 18 years America has sacrificed fewer than 2,500 lives in conducting what at best can be called a simmering counter-terrorist operation.  To put this number in perspective, during this period over 9,300 Americans have been violently killed in Chicago alone.  And that number is multiplied several times when we include other bastions of our progressives’ prize-winning policies in cities like Baltimore and Los Angeles.  (It is there where we should concentrate our efforts to save American lives.)  During real wars in the 20^th century, America lost more than all of Afghanistan in one day as we assaulted the beaches of Europe and the Pacific.  The reality is that there will be an ongoing price that our military and their families must needs pay if we are to remain the world’s peace keeper and white hat hegemon.  Our overarching and abiding concern should be that such ongoing sacrifices will be made wisely, and only as the last resort to serve our country’s legitimate national interests.

[19apr19 update]  The climate change hysteria has developed all the trappings of a cult. I gave my Occam razor and falsifiability arguments above, and did not here make their connection to global warming strongly enough (although in previous posts this point has been much emphasized).  The cult connection has been detailed in a piece, ‘Climate Change and the Ten Warning Signs for Cults’, posted on Russ Steele’s blog (here).

Iconic Incoherence on ‘Immigration’

George Rebane

That is the best that can be said about ‘Trump’s approach on illegal immigration won’t solve the problem’ by columnist and one of our readers, George Boardman, in the 15apr19 Union.  He blithely blames the whole border security problem on President Trump “who created the current crisis” for political reasons.  Mr Boardman is known for his solidly established views from the left shoulder from which he occasionally forays to visit the center stripe.  But in this latest offering he ventures further into the weeds with claims such as –

• Trump has labeled “all illegal immigrants as criminals that threaten the security of the most powerful nation on earth.” (emphasis mine) Everyone knows that the most powerful nations cannot be so threatened.
• Trump is “siding with racist-driven hardliners who want to shut off all immigration, especially from Third World countries.” (emphasis mine, but who are these racist-driven hardliners?)
• After WW2 “the end of colonial rule didn’t deliver the promised benefits to Third World nations when the US became the economic powerhouse of the world.” (Where has this man studied?  All data show exactly the opposite – life in 3^rd world countries that embraced models of western governance made and continue to make enormous strides in all dimensions in quality of life for their citizens.  The culturally deficient suffered.)

Mr Boardman seems to be innocent of the more salient causes of illegal entry across our southern border.  Ted Kennedy’s role in launching chain migration and Third World preference quotas through his Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 is a major omission.  And nowhere does he even hint that the Democrats are the major beneficiaries of the increase of America’s Hispanic population – both illegal, and most certainly the ongoing illegal migrations.

In the middle of his piece Mr Boardman shows a welcome awareness that illegal migrant hordes do cost taxpayers somewhere in the $100-300B range annually.  And he correctly offers “that’s a high price to pay to fill agricultural and other low-paying jobs”, especially if we want to “retain the core values of America, and control our own destiny.”

However, knowledge of America’s governance should inform Mr Boardman that there is nothing Mr Trump or any president can do to solve our border crisis, save fulfill his constitutional duties to secure the nation and execute current immigration laws.  Congress, dominated by globalist anti-American Democrats, will not do anything to slow the migration of illegal aliens.  Today the Left is active in Mexico and central America through their NGOs, mega-sponsors, and activists forming up cohorts, numbering in the thousands of women and children, for the perilous journey north.  These migrants are motivated, not by Trump’s efforts to secure the border, but only by Democrat promises that our president will be thwarted from doing exactly that; and, that once across, only American taxpayer-sponsored succor and sanctuary awaits them.

Progressive propagandists like Mr Boardman (presumably) see none of this, else they are part of our Left’s openly pursued policies to create a post-American continent in whose history the United States will be seen as a sordid chapter of humanitarian insult, that will then have been corrected by the socially just march to inevitable socialism.

Sandbox - 14apr19

[Well, it looks like we may be able to settle the embarrassment of riches that the county should suffer from if we really do have 700K annual visitors to the South Yuba.  gjr]

Ruminations – 13apr2019 (updated 16apr19)

George Rebane

AG Barr will finally seek to hold the FBI accountable for their Obama era corruptions.  This has the Democrats screeching bloody murder for what they know will be revealed on the road to the 2020 elections.  WSJ’s Kim Strassel lays it all out – ‘Barr Brings Accountability’.

California’s critical 4^th grade academic rankings are in the toilet – 47^th in math, 46^th in reading, 46^th in science.  Assemblyman Kevin Kiley was punished in the California Assembly for making public the latest progressive follies in screwing the state’s school kids.  The bottom line is that progressives are lunatics when it comes to governance as they demonstrate total ignorance of how humans work – their needs and behaviors.  The only policies they propose, promote, and pass are those designed to enlarge government and give the Left ever more power over our lives.  (more here)

Our K-12 education is a national travesty

George Rebane

[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 10 April 2019.]

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology tells us that in the next ten years the country will need, at a minimum, about 1M more STEM professionals than we will produce at our current rate.  Today there are already more than 2.4M unfilled STEM jobs.  It has been the innovators and workers in science, technology, engineering, and math who have made possible today’s quality of life, and it is they who will provide us the intellectual assets and infrastructure means to continue generating the wealth that, more than anything, will insure our future.

However, our public education industry is not doing much to support young people going into such careers.  In fact, there is ample evidence that most of our education professionals are fostering a future that will soon relegate the US into second world status on the global stage.  Today only one out of six high school graduates are proficient in STEM subjects and interested in a STEM career.  However, out of this small cohort who then enroll in STEM programs, only 2 out of 5 actually graduate with STEM degrees.  Most of our STEM students drop out because high school did not prepare them properly in science and math.

The cause of such deficits is now visible to all but the politically invested in Common Core, the latest whizbang curriculum to have come out of the mavens of progressive education.  Federally mandated Common Core has turned much of K-12 education on its head, abandoning the teaching methods and means that accelerated post-war America into the world’s technology powerhouse.  Today teachers are taught that they cannot teach science along with reading and arithmetic in the lower grades.  New Common Core compliant approaches like ‘Everyday Math’ forbid memorizing multiplication tables and reject the use of common algorithms for solving problems in favor of new and counter-intuitive ones that are hard to understand.

In short, effective science and math education has become extinct in our union-dominated public schools in which unqualified teachers literally foil millions of kids in their efforts to understand and enjoy science and math.  It is in such schools that kids are made to wade through dysfunctional instruction schemes in the early grades, after which they are not likely to stay interested in the more difficult subjects.  Even as this predictable and visible tragedy unfolds, all the experts continue to noisily pretend they are solving the problem.

Common Core also induces schools to defocus what is left of their STEM curricula by piggybacking various arts subjects, thereby adding the ‘A’ and making STEM into STEAM.  STEAM opens doors to further pedagogical perfidy and silliness by inviting courses like the recently announced “writing program for STEM students” developed by the University of Michigan.  It is clear that, with these professional pinheads from the education schools, anything goes except straight-ahead, proven STEM teaching methods.

Things have gotten so bad that Bill and Melinda Gates have already pulled their support of Common Core, offering a veiled apology for being the early and major supporter of this disastrous approach to K-12 education.  The Federalist reported that “Since 2009, the Gates Foundation’s primary U.S. activity has focused on establishing and implementing Common Core, a set of centrally mandated curriculum rules and tests for what children are to learn in each K-12 grade, with the results linked to school and teacher ratings and punitive measures for low performers. The Gates Foundation has spent more than $400 million itself and influenced $4T in US taxpayer funds (under the Obama administration) towards this goal. Eight years later, however, Bill Gates is admitting failure on that project, and a ‘pivot’ to another that is not likely to go any better.”

When we step back an take a broader look at what has happened to our ideologically-dominated public education from kindergarten through academe, it appears that things could not have gone more counter to America’s interests to continue as the global leader in technology, commerce, and maintaining the world order.  In sum, to millions of Americans, our education system appears and performs as if it were designed for us either in Beijing or in the Kremlin.

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]  It’s also interesting and relevant to know some stats on how well our government schools are received by Americans.

1. 62% of Americans think education has gotten off on the “wrong track”.
2. 68% of middle-income earners vs 59% of low-income earners hold the ‘wrong track’ sentiment.
3. A plurality (42%) of Americans would choose private schools over public schools in selecting among types of schools. 28% would select a public school, while 11% would select a public charter school, and 10% would rather homeschool their children.
4. A solid majority (59%) favor charter school, and 23% oppose charter schools.
5. A majority of Americans (56%) support school vouchers vs 28% who oppose such vouchers.

Scatteshots – 8apr19 (updated 10apr19)

George Rebane

Union columnist and RR reader George Boardman writes ‘High school cutbacks another consequence of our stagnant economy’ in today’s paper.  There he gets kudos for echoing the commentaries and comments on Nevada County schools and economic development that have long populated these pages over the years.  My preference is that he should have stated his case more strongly – Nevada County’s leftward tack has now baked in its previous on/off promotion of the county’s development in literally all dimensions, save being a welcoming home for progressive causes, non-profits, and ‘San Francisco values’.  The county has been and continues to be enthusiastically anti-development; and it subscribes in spades to Einstein’s dictum of insanity.  Our political leaderships’ latest foray in this direction is opposing the development of housing for our successfully retireds – major cash importers to our community - who want to move from their acreage homes to appropriately high-end, higher density local options that offer more readily accessible conveniences.  It seems that Mr Boardman’s own list to port prevents such a frontal assault on his brethren.  Then again, perhaps next time.

‘The Cultural Revolution comes to North America’ writes Anastasia Lin in the 8apr19 WSJ.  The Left in both the US and Canada has now been launching ‘call-out mobs’ whose “aim (is) not to persuade or debate, but to humiliate the target and intimidate other.”  Their main weapon is to paint their opponents with the broad brush of ad hoc labels whose meanings they either do not know or take to mean whatever they want it to mean as convenient.  Popular terms du jour are ‘racist’ and ‘white supremacist’.  One of the established intellectual leaders of the local blue mob is Steven Frisch, who has frequented these pages for years, distributing his opprobrium in RR comment streams when he finds anything that is too persuasive of a counter to his progressive mores, values, or narrative in general.  I am his favorite target and recipient of his latest offering a few days ago.  I use it as a concrete example of the cultural revolution Ms Lin describes – as they say, you can’t make this stuff up.

I know you think we are in a new crusade and Islam is going to take over the world; that brown people are a scourge on our country; that anything that addresses environmental or climate benefit is a UN and IPCC conspiracy to control the world; that there is growing threat of communism in the US; that young people are stupid and lazy; that we should be able to have communities where people of like culture live together without having to bothered by outsiders; that you were once wrote a column for a newsletter that featured a cover of the Völkischer Beobachter on their front cover, and I could go on...

 

Sandbox - 7apr19

[Back from travel.  I hope that some of our readers have been following the trail and travail of foreign correspondent and journalist Lara Logan, recently of '60 Minutes' fame.  She is causing quite a consternation in the lamestream media who have targeted her for destruction since she has blown the whistle on the whole progressives' propaganda machine.  Her interview on tonight's Mark Levin show was superb.  gjr]

Reconquista Revisited

George Rebane

Last night on FN, Tucker Carlson interviewed Juan Hernandez, a Mexican government official currently serving as the Guanajuato Secretary of Migration, on Mexico’s policy of permitting central American trans-migration through their country to the US border.  The official pointedly avoided addressing the harm that Mexico’s official behavior does to the United States.  (more here) The part of the interview that was most revealing concerned Reconquista – the return of lands that Mexico lost to the United States in 1848.  In the 20^th century Mexico and pro-Mexican politicians in this country have openly declared that the lands will be returned bloodlessly by immigration and out-breeding our European descended whites.  In recent decades they have added cross-border migration of illegal aliens to their plan to enlarge and spread insular and non-assimilating latino communities in the US.  (Google also Mexifornia and other writings by Victor Davis Hanson.)

Tucker Carlson reminded Mr Hernandez of some of his past statements on the matter.

“We are betting Mexican-Americans will think ‘Mexico first,’ even unto the seventh generation.”

“Mexican immigrants to the United States are going to keep one foot in Mexico. They are not going to assimilate in the sense of not being Mexican.”

“We recognize the Mexican population is 100 million in Mexico and 23 million who live in the United States. We are a united nation.”

RR has covered Reconquista in these pages for over a decade, presenting concordant views by other commentators, academics, and politicians expressed through print and the media.  The Left, especially its local light-readers, have vehemently denied that any of this is happening.  Their main argument has been that there is nothing to worry about because all Mexicans – no matter how arrived – will quickly assimilate into ordinary Americans holding the same loyal sentiments with the rest of us.  The visible evidence does not support that argument.  The overwhelming share of American latinos vote with and for the anti-American leftwing, promoting policies and initiatives to diminish the sovereignty of the US.  Today’s initiatives focus on keeping borders porous, amnesty to all illegals, and voting rights for all US residents.

Given the ongoing flow of supporting evidence and the vigorous denials by our Left, it is not unreasonable to conclude that for all intents and purposes, Reconquista has been the national policy of Mexican governments since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed on 2 February 1848.  However, never until the globalist tilt of the anti-American Left in recent decades have the Mexicans had a strong ally working in their behalf in the United States.

Sandbox - 3apr19

[Anybody know what the Dems are celebrating in Chicago?  In that latrine excavated city, the liberals have been in charge forever, and all their numbers are already in the mud.  As arguably the nation's most corrupt and criminalized city, they have a history of electing bad guys and double dummies into public office; what do they expect this new batch to accomplish besides more of the same?  gjr]

Democrats’ 2020 Platform Previewed

George Rebane

Ever since Trump was elected president and the national Left mobilized their efforts to destroy his administration and unseat him, I’ve been bitching and moaning that the Democrats offered no alternative programs to implement that would “fundamentally transform” America as promised.  Well, the time has come to stop complaining because in recent months after the 2018 election the Democrats have more than filled a cornucopia of initiatives, proposals, programs, and promises to construct several election platforms for any political party dedicated to steering America into a socialist state.

This was made clear to me when I received the notes that a friend used in his talk to an organization the other day.  Its perusal reveals an extensive list of things we may expect were the country to hand over control of the executive and legislative branches to our anti-American Left (anti-American in the sense that they don’t like the America of the past nor the direction it was going before they came along, hence their need for a fundamental transformation).

Without further ado, here is the laundry list of items the Democrats want to afflict on the country starting in 2021.  It is presented as received with minimal editing.

Two Americas - A National Emergency on Steroids (Addended)

George Rebane

A couple of mornings ago NPR’s Morning Edition reported that the illegal entrant rate across our southern border has exceeded over a million per year, and that the border security and illegal alien handling facilities are overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed, the Border Patrol has now abrogated the role of the US Customs and Border Protection agency in turning the illegals loose into our society with minimal or no ability to track their identity, origin, or intentions.  All we know is that they will quickly disperse and emerge in ‘sanctuary’ communities where all manner of public doles to succor them await.

The national border crisis is daily attested by the reports from the border and testimony from homeland security and border control officials past and present.  Recently they were joined by several Obama era higher-ups including former Homeland Security head Jeh Johnson who testified that there is indeed a border crisis in progress.

In the face of this, the country’s anti-American political faction continues to celebrate, promote, and sustain this deluge of indigents, the human trafficked, criminals, diseased, and economic opportunists that are now pouring across our southern border.  They also communicate their welcoming message in the “shithole countries” of Central America, well-funded messages that induce desperate people and dubious opportunists to undertake the long and dangerous journey north through Mexico.  Our progressives don’t care for the migrants’ welfare or risk involved during the journey.  Their only objective is to maximize the number of illegals who successfully penetrate our border, who then become political fodder within a byzantine and broken immigration system.  Ultimately their presence and large numbers will serve anti-American ends one way or another.

Astoundingly, there are even many pro-American light thinkers who cannot understand the necessity for and cost-effectiveness of an improved and extended physical barrier to span critical sections of the border.  They swallow the argument of the anti-Americans that what we really need is to greatly expand and improve the welcoming facilities to house, feed, care for, and relocate the arriving hordes.  All such responses will do everything to increase the flow and nothing to stem it.  It is the analog of calling for more bailing buckets instead of patching the hole in a sinking boat.  There is no public awareness or discussion of the longer-term impact that these indigents and their now accelerating arrival rates will have on our institutions, economy, and citizens.  The existential goal of the anti-Americans is to simply keep the ingress rate high and increasing.  No one has asked, ‘How and when will this massive migration of illegal aliens stop?’