Scattershots – 4oct19 (updated 9oct19)

George Rebane

'My allegation stands true until you prove it false.'  The progressive's approach to debate and judicial process (see also Alinsky and Stalin's show trials).

An anti-American attribute of our Left is their imposition of process over performance in their planning and public policies.  The leftist always seeks to increase government’s scope of control and revenues through legislation/regulation that increases arbitrary requirements and (tax/fee) costs for civil activities, public and private.  This aspect of collectivist ideology is a reliable indicator of the, often hidden, political forces which promote a new law or regulation, i.e. process.  How it affects the performance of individuals or organizations is of secondary importance, or not at all a consideration when corporatists lobby and leftwing politicians legislate.

Gov Newsom’s signing of a new law giving California school districts more power to block charter schools and gratuitously requiring their teachers to become more credentialed (here) is a textbook illustration that supports the above generalized proposition about the Left.  Charter schools across the country have become one of the few remaining bright spots of our public education, and also the bane of leftwing teachers’ unions.  Why?  Because study after study shows that, more often than not, “test scores improve for all students when charters increase their market share.” (more here)  And that’s a no-no for Democrats, especially in dense urban areas like NYC and Boston with large minority populations.  The smarter that minority kids become, the less they tend to accept the ‘benefits’ of staying on the plantation and voting for ever more generous government handouts.

Facebook should not encrypt messages so that governments can not discover their content.  So says AG Barr along with his British and Australian counterparts. (more here)  In general, whether Right or Left leaning, governments really want us to have no means of communicating in ways that they cannot monitor.  Both argue promoting “public safety” for expanding their ability to easily listen in on what we are saying.  And, of course, in this age of facile global communication, terrorism is made easier when the scumbags can plan and coordinate in a secure manner.  So the question comes to which is going to be more costly to depriving life/limb and our freedoms.  Given that authoritarian governments have ALWAYS become the greatest killers of their own citizens, I lean toward more privacy and freedoms before I get too concerned about the number killed and maimed in our midst by acts of terror.  Maintaining our liberties is a risky business; it was ever thus.  [updated] 'Privacy v. Security is a False Dilemma' argues security officer Dave Weinstein in the 7oct19 WSJ.   He correctly advises that terrorists and criminals would immediately migrate overseas to devices and applications not subject to US govt access were Facebook et al to cave and create an accessible chink in their encryption system.

[7oct19 update]  Kudos to Union columnists George Boardman and Rob Chrisman.  Boardman alerts us (here) to the latest atrocity committed by progressives in California’s high school curricula which now openly offer anti-American propaganda classes as electives, soon to be made a graduation requirement.  To date such putrid pedagogy was mainly limited to colleges.  Chrisman offers a succinct defense of capitalism and recount of the Great Recession’s causes much covered in these pages (here).  Both necessary reminders during America’s progress from lurching to now leaping leftward with the lights of communism already twinkling in the distance as we hear the latest from the Dems’ leading candidate for 2020 (see below).

Socialist Sen Elizabeth (‘Fauxahontas’) Warren has now upped the ante with her long-festering Accountable Capitalism Act that will dramatically change the face of America’s economy into a state-controlled form of commerce and enterprise exactly as practiced in totalitarian countries like Red China.  Her letter to the CEOs attending the recent Business Roundtable, during which many of country’s businesses were bludgeoned into putting ‘stakeholders’ ahead of shareholders as their primary business purpose, now demands that they also “endorse and wholeheartedly support the reforms laid out in (her ACA).”  About all this, economist Milton Friedman advised that such actions “may gain them kudos in the short run, but it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the pursuit of profits is wicked and immoral and must be controlled by external forces. Once this view is widely believed, the result won’t be control by social consciences or pontificating executives, but by the iron fist of Government bureaucrats.” (more here and here)  The advent of communism-lite out in the open.

Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) offers a rule of thumb (here) for evaluating political news and applies it to the ongoing Ukraine reports.  His rule – “If a fact is reported the same by both the left-leaning and the right-leaning press, it’s probably a fact. If not, wait and see.  It’s also smart to wait a week or two before you make up your mind, as the fog of war often makes early reporting unreliable. But after the fog clears, if all sides agree on a fact, it’s probably a fact. Or at least it’s credible, even if future reporting debunks it.”  But then, all RR readers already do that, don’t we?

[9oct19 update]  Sad to say that President Trump’s trade war has put US on the losing side.  As a free trader of the Austrian School, I’ve been dismayed about his tariffs tiff with China et al based on the argument that eliminating trade deficits is good on its face.  That has never been the case as von Mises, Hayek, and Friedman taught us long ago.  A good summary of the failed aspects of this geo-economic strategy is found in the 7oct19 NYT op-ed by Mercatus Center fellow Veronique de Rugy (with whom I have met and had discussions on systemic unemployment) who writes ‘What Trump’s Aggressive Trade Tactic Have Achieved’.  My only criticism of such critical articles is that none of them describe a better alternative solution.  In this case she would recognize the blatant commercial rape that China, and to a lesser extent the EU, have committed against America, and suggest an alternative policy that would serve.  Rebane Doctrine duns all ‘naked criticisms of policy’ in the sense that they just bitch about the bad stuff while offering nothing better.

Comments

[Walt]

She is done with her shiny new toy.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/04/ocasio-cortez-says-trump-impeachment-effort-boring-over/
"Ocasio-Cortez held a town hall at the Queens Public Library on Thursday and told her constituents that she finds the impeachment inquiry process “boring.”
“I think the whole thing is boring,” she said, according to the Washington Examiner. “He should have been impeached a long time ago. I’m over it. And so that’s how I feel about it because we’ve got work to do.”

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Gavin giving school districts more power...to oppose charter schools

“More and more, it seems, establishment educators are going in the opposite direction. The Seattle public schools published a “K-12 Math Ethnic Studies Framework,” yet another step in a nationwide, decades-long, Progressive effort to dumb down the teaching of math. The program aims to “identify how math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color,” “create counter narratives about the origins of mathematical knowledge,” “demonstrate mathematical literacy by applying concepts to real world problems through dialogue and story telling,” “redefine mathematical learning through cooperative learning, engagement, advocacy, and action,” “redefine mathematical learning through cooperative learning, engagement, advocacy, and action,” and “explain how math dictates economic oppression.” While students are learning such things, they cannot be learning how to do basic algebra, never mind to derive solutions to problems of integral calculus.”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/10/04/dysfunctional-education/

[Bill Tozer]

Re: An anti-American attribute of our Left is their imposition of process over performance in their planning and public policies:

Democrat Campaign Slogan: “We Are Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!”

“It is a bizarre situation. These Democrats don’t take the old Civil Rights line that the core of America is just and fair, but has been distorted by past and present bigotries. No, they say that American from the beginning and in essence is racist, from 1619 to the Founders to the KKK to the current president. Has any politician in history, any prime minister or king or emperor, built his power base by trashing his country or nation, empire or tribe?

“It has to be the strangest platform ever conceived. Human beings want to believe that their country is good; they want to feel proud of their homeland, not ashamed; guilt is not a happy condition, especially a guilt whose source is so far from their experience. But these aspiring leaders won’t let them enjoy their citizenship. They are scolds and chastizers, but still expect the recipients of their rebuke to love them”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/10/05/democrat-campaign-slogan-we-are-guilty-guilty-guilty/

[Bill Tozer]

Re: the anti-American view of the Left using by critics hate “The Joker”.

“A pop culture professor told the Washington Post that all the talk about potential real-world violence around the film is distracting from a great opportunity “to use the movie for a dialogue about questions like alienation, toxic masculinity and the fragility of whiteness.”

But “Joker” is really an opportunity for an altogether different dialogue about the role of families, about what people need most in life, about what makes for civic comity and solidarity. What it suggests, however unintentionally, is that maybe the best way to fend off the kind alienation and frustration that beset Arthur Fleck is with an intact family, a loving mother and a father.

Maybe the thing people need most in life is friendship and love and community. Maybe we need to rethink the way we’ve torn down the institutions and traditions that used to support these things. Maybe the radical atomization and isolation and autonomy of modern life doesn’t foster prosperity and happiness. Maybe we need to start taking these things seriously.

If we do, that will mean rethinking a half-century of progressive thought, and questioning whether it has all been a pack of lies. And maybe that’s the real reason woke media hate “Joker.”

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/05/why-liberal-media-hates-the-joker/

[Bonnie McGuire]

Thank you Bill.

[Bill Tozer]

Re: “....when Leftwing politicians legislate”.

“A Just Society“

“Our nation must recognize that our history — immigrants, enslaved peoples, and refugees built this country. We all do better when we create a just society that embraces our most vulnerable populations and paves a path to prosperity for all. This bill would ensure that all persons in need are eligible for the largest programs of the social safety net, regardless of their immigration status,” her website says.

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law … an individual who is an alien (without
regard to the immigration status of that alien) may not be denied any Federal public benefit solely on the basis of the individual’s immigration status,” the Embrace Act reads.

Ocasio-Cortez defines a federal public benefit as “any grant, contract, loan, professional license, or commercial license provided by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States; and … any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-unveils-bill-that-would-give-federal-benefits-to-illegal-aliens

[Bill Tozer]

Re: update, Scott Adam’s Dilbert.

For those of us who cannot get behind the WSJ’s paywall, here is the Reader’s Digest version.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/10/dilberts-rules-of-reading.php

“Adams’s rules for reading will continue to be of service for the foreseeable future.”

[Bill Tozer]

Re: George Boardman's columun and new curricla coming to a state near you. Why are these colorful programs always written by rich elites? Bow and kiss the ring of our betters. Kids like glitter and bright colors, I reckon.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/09/how-illinois-schools-teach-preschoolers-to-celebrate-transgenderism/

Common ground. The author identifies as Native American and gender natural. So do I! The two transgendera that have contributed to our society off the top of my head are Dr. Renee Richards and Camille Pagila, both of which are now shunned and demonized by the transgender community, lol

[scenes]

Public Emergency Update:

Wind speed: 0 mph
Backup power at NC City Hall: none
KVMR: Ms. Reinette prattling on about 5G radiation danger and Monsanto.
Gas: Robinson.
PG&E outage website: Dead
Situation Normal: AFU

The hills are alive, with the sound of generators.

[Paul Emery]

For your reading pleasure

Trump job approval numbers are the lowest since Jan. Very grim -12.8 in RCP consensus job approval. that's before Trump made such an idiot of himself in this mornings press conference.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html