Scattershots - 10dec19 (updated 16dec19)

George Rebane

Factory workers now starting to require college degrees – ‘American Factories Demand White-Collar Education for Blue-Collar Work’.  We saw this coming some years back in these pages and described the process in some graphic detail (here).   Given the acceleration of technology in general and AI in particular, that was not a hard prognostication for those of us in the field.  The million plus manufacturing jobs added since the recession are tilted definitely to those with “the most complex problem-solving skills”.  Numeracy as a requirement is understood, and that’s just the start of advanced skill sets required on today’s factory floors.  Correspondingly, the jobs requiring the least skills have declined during this same interval. (more here) 

University of California is sued by leftwing activists to drop SAT and ACT admissions tests. (here)  From the battery of available standardized tests for high schoolers, SAT and ACT both remain as the most reliable predictors of college and post-college success.  But this is discriminatory according to the plaintiffs because “According to College Board data from this year, 45% of white students who took the SAT in California scored at least a 1200 out of a possible 1600, and 55% of Asian students did, compared with only 9% of African-American students and 12% of Hispanic students.”  So going along with the remainder of the Democrats’ program to destroy America’s public education institutions (more here), we now have a full court press on our colleges and universities to drop academic merit as an admission requirement.  Instead, institute the double-dummy quota system so everyone can get a college degree.  (Why not make it a civil right and have government mail everyone a bachelor’s degree on their 18^th birthday?) Digest this news in light of the previous item above.

[11dec19 update]  California is now as it ever was, that is the case former NC superintendent of schools Terry McAteer makes in the 11dec19 edition of The Union with his ‘Yes, Californians are different; history proves it’.  For our lightly read, this is an unabashed whitewash of California’s headlong plunge to the bottom.  Mr McAteer’s “critical look” at the “reasons why we are different from the rest of Americans” limits its purview to the bygone golden days when the state indeed was the siren song and mecca for those seeking opportunity and willing to work hard and take risks to achieve their goals (Rebanes included).  Our former educator fails to inform his innocent readers about what today makes us so “different from the rest of Americans”.  Nowhere does he even hint of our sky-high taxes and fees, reasons for our catastrophic housing shortage, of our educational system in the toilet, of our eco-insane laws and regulations that stifle business and increase all costs of living, of departing corporations, of the exodus of middle-class workers, of shithole cities with sidewalks and underpasses filled with the tents and offal of the homeless, addicts, and insane, of a government that is broke and lies about it, of criminally neglected public infrastructure, of succoring handouts and a welcome mat out for the illegals and indigents, and of a metastasizing state government on steroids that evermore micro-manages the lives of its productive citizens.  He ends his delusional paean with “Finally, we continue to attract some of the most eclectic citizenry (I’ll say!) who each come to pursue their individual dream.  As the Mamas and Papas would sing, ‘California Dreamin’’ is alive and well.”  Mr McAteer is not known as an ignorant or deceitful man, then why seek membership in the legion of loyal leftwing lackeys who perniciously promote what ain’t so?

[13dec19 update]  Elizabeth Warren is a certifiable idiot in many fields, economics being the most prominent of her intellectual deficits.  There she is so far off the rails that the question which now begs, re her becoming president, is when does her profound ignorance become a social evil for the country in which she seeks the penultimate position of power.  The danger for America today is that most light thinkers and people who don’t pay attention gloss over her insane proposals to increase taxes, specifically her proposed taxes on assets.  In the 13dec19 WSJ Messrs Hank Adler and Madison Spach present a detailed analysis of the impact of her new ‘tax plan’ (here).  At a minimum, putting it into effect would tank the economy, and smart money would bet on blood in the streets.  The authors conclude – “Ms. Warren proposes a trifecta of tax increases: a confiscatory and unsustainable wealth tax that does not consider income taxes in the calculation of revenue, an annual capital-gains tax on asset appreciation at tax rates two times current capital-gains tax rates, and a massive increase in the corporate tax rate. In short, an economic cataclysm.”

[14dec19 update]  The above 'McAteer Scattershot' is published in today’s print edition of The Union (here).  I am regularly criticized by the Left for criticizing California smothered under decades of Democrat mismanagement.  These progressives can only point out that the state’s economy ranks 7^th or something like that in the world.  And that’s about all that they can claim, while totally glossing over what I have listed above, and that the enterprises (e.g. high tech, agriculture, entertainment) that give rise to their celebrated industrial largess are the same ones that out of the other side of their mouths the same worthies dun for contributing to our large income and wealth inequalities.  These are the industries that their socialist candidates promise to terminally cripple with their planned soaring income and new asset taxes once they’re in office.  Our lamestream never mentions that California is the welcoming home to a third of the nation’s welfare recipients, has an unemployment rate about 15% higher than the national average, and a Gini (income distribution) Index in the top three states – income inequality is higher only in New York and Connecticut.  Note that it is overwhelmingly the liberal states which most significantly separate their rich and poor.

[15dec19 update]  Former FBI director Comey revealed another of the Dems’ big lies on FN’s Chris Wallace interview program.  He forcefully claimed almost total ignorance of what was going on with the Russia collusion investigation and the Carter Page FISA application to spy on an American citizen and a political candidate’s campaign.  He told Wallace that as director, he had lots of other things on the fire at the time and over 35,000 FBI people to oversee, so he wasn’t able to be even sufficiently briefed on what his senior underlings were doing.  Now we all recall that every Dem of note was screaming that Trump disrupted the FBI’s investigation and obstructed justice when he fired Comey.  Schiff even claimed to have evidence of both Trump’s Russia collusion and the structure and content of the FBI’s FISA surveillance application, when in fact he had neither.  (And no one to date has thought to ask him what evidence did he claim to have had at that time.)  The main point here is that Dems are trying to walk both sides of the street now with Schiff’s ‘evidence’ of obstruction and Comey’s claim of vindication since he apparently did nothing at the FBI that could possibly be obstructed.

[16dec19 update]  'We don't need to see the tax returns of the wealthy before they became public servants; but we do want to see the tax returns of public servants who became wealthy while 'serving the public'.  This thoughtful bagatelle came from a correspondent, and deserves a lengthier treatment starting with the list of politicians who enjoyed impressive internal rates of return (IRR) on their assets during their tenure in office.  I know that my political bias is in play here, but I'd like to see the in-office IRRs of worthies like Pelosi, Feinstein, Waters, Clintons, ..., and, of course, Obama.  Our progressive compadres are invited to lengthen this list with Republicans. 

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

Education and Society....may be on topic maybe not......

The Cost of America’s Cultural Revolution

“Social-justice pedagogy is driven by one overwhelming reality: the seemingly intractable achievement gap between whites and Asians on the one hand, and blacks and Hispanics on the other. Radical feminism, as well as gay and now trans advocacy, are also deeply intertwined with social-justice thinking on campus and off, as we have just seen. But race is the main impetus. Liberal whites are terrified that the achievement and behavior gaps will never close. So they have crafted a totalizing narrative about the racism that allegedly holds back black achievement...

The test for whether a norm is white and thus illegitimate is whether it has a disparate impact on blacks and Hispanics. Given the behavioral and academic skills gaps, every colorblind standard of achievement will have a disparate impact. The average black 12th-grader currently reads at the level of the average white eighth-grader. Math levels are similarly skewed. Truancy rates for black students are often four times as high as for white students. Inner-city teachers, if they are being honest, will describe the barely controlled anarchy in their classrooms—anarchy exacerbated by the phony conceit that school discipline is racist. In light of such disparities, it is absurd to attribute the absence of proportional representation in the STEM fields, say, to bias. And yet, STEM deans, faculty, and Silicon Valley tech firms claim that only implicit bias explains why 13 percent of engineering professors are not black. The solution to this lack of proportional representation is not greater effort on the part of students, according to social-justice and diversity proponents. Instead, it is watering down meritocratic standards. Professors are now taught about “inclusive grading” and how to assess writing without judging its quality, since such quality judgments maintain white language supremacy.”

[Bill Tozer]

@6:46 pm. Opps, link.

https://www.city-journal.org/social-justice-ideology

[2ndchancebill@comcast.nel]

Holy Cow. I am at a loss for words.

“THE RACIALIZATION OF EPISTEMOLOGY IN PHYSICS”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/the-racialization-of-epistemology-in-physics.php

[George Rebane]

BillT 845pm - definitive proof: the Left is insane.

[scenes]

"the Left is insane."

Well, certainly the payers of the grants are. I don't mind the concept of an eccentric theoretical physicist, but there's no point in paying for their craziness.

If you follow the model of the modern 'Left' as simply a secular religion, it's pretty easy to map in this kind of funding as buying indulgences.

[George Rebane]

scenes 816am - progressivism as a 'modern secular religion'? I'll buy that - as you point out, it has all the prerequisites of a belief system that is immune to reason and brooks no apostetical thought.

However, my assertion of their insanity stands in the light of its formal definition. The other bookend to explain their policies and behaviors is 'evil'. While not ruling out that component, 'insane' is the kinder and less confrontational characterization.

[scenes]

re: GeorgeR@9:03AM

Obviously, leftism as secular religion is not an idea that's new with me, a quick google will show quite a few essays on the notion.

It's almost too attractive a model, but would certainly explain the common substrate held by the KVMR news desk with John Brennan, as different as they may appear. It's not only a religion, but is modeled on JudeoChristianity. Pagan religions don't have that strong need for sinners, saints, punishment, casting out of non-believers, etc.

I'll have to find a book (ie. not some small web essay) on the matter and see how convincing it is.

'An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America' looks promising.

[George Rebane]

scenes 1125am - "Obviously, leftism as secular religion is not an idea that's new with me, a quick google will show quite a few essays on the notion."

Yes, I am quite familiar with that notion and have also asserted that in these pages. In my own clumsy way I was trying to be graciously ingratiating. Apologies.

[Scott O]

re Terry's white wash screed on how wonderful California must be due to all the great things from her past - we note nothing was said about the present other than the previously mentioned bit about a certain sort of characters coming into the land of milk and honey.
You might keep in mind the left has their complete control now and they must ignore all things not rosy. Any problems the left might admit to are quickly brushed aside as the same problems that exist everywhere else. It must be nice to be oblivious to reality. At least for awhile.

[scenes]

GeorgeR: "Yes, I am quite familiar with that notion..."

Of course. I wouldn't think otherwise.

It almost sounds like too pat an answer to me. There's too much comfort in these kinds of models where similarities can be so easily extracted, the story is overeasily come by.

The parts of modern common Leftist dogma that interest me the most are the ones where belief systems come into opposition with both individual and group self-interest. I think that's where my fascination with mass Third World immigration comes from. It's where the comparisons to religions break down that the interest parts hang out.

[scenes]

'interesting parts'.

[Gregory]

"Mr McAteer is not known as an ignorant or deceitful man"

Really?

Well, I suppose AND would be more to the point than OR. I recall him being both when he was promoting his "Academy of Learning" charter school in the latter '90's.

[Gregory]

And does anyone believe his cover story to his resignation from his office here and fleeing to Bishop ... only to return after retirement?

I still remember McAteer looking me in the eye promoting his idea to require high school kids to do a work-study in local high tech and that he had a company lined up... they'd teach the kids an important high tech skill... "assemblage". Yes, dear friends, McAteer thought low level assembly work was what was needed for kids destined for real college level academic challenges.

[Russ]

PEW Nevada County:
Income per capita 2018: $61,799

Change since 2016: 1.6%
Change since 2010: 17.5%

[Russ]

California's Unintended Consequences - Mismanagement of The Golden State

https://youtu.be/vQUZU-zVkEU

[The Estonian Fox]

From the BBC, (Danny Savage, North of England reporter) on the Brit voting results, in which the conservatives had their largest win in 30 years:

"Our election tour of Britain underlined one key observation: the noise on social media has little resemblance to the real world. So many people are not on twitter or Facebook. They don’t care what people on there think. Twitter is an irrelevance."

Will that apply to us next year as well?

[scenes]

re: That McAteer cat's article.

While it's fun to think about what Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington and Stanford would make of McAteer, I doubt it would be complimentary, I'm not sure what to make of the article.

I'd say that California has the following advantages over the other western states. It's physically larger, parts have the best weather in the world, a couple of really good natural ports, Indians that were easier than normal to kill off, the beach.

The Euro-American invasion went swimmingly well and it's not a bad piece of property. Now, how this leads you to an incubator for Blue Mob thinking rather escapes me. The people who formed the state and the later ones who built it up are certainly not like it's current rulers.

In a related note, it's funny how part of the Blue Mob catechism is similar to the thinking held by dour old Protestant merchants in that holding wealth equates to morality and closesness to God. It must be baked into the human cake.

[Bill Tozer]

Education: The one who they hate the most. Sure, she has a zillion dollars and her hubbie is a big Trump donor, but has devoted her life trying to get kids out of failing schools. But, it’s ALL about the teachers and teacher’s unions, not about the kids. It is never about the kids, despite pouring massive infusions of cash into the system. The sheer quantity of non-teachers on the public school (taxpayers) payroll has increased 6-8 fold over the last two decades and yet we have reached the point of flatline....if not diminishing returns. We pay assistant principles $150k a year in some schools and add more staff and keep the gravy train rolling on down the line.

It’s not about the children. It’s all about being a job faire for teachers who in turn pay money to the unions who in turn keep the status quo the status quo. And, they make things worse, not better.

How dare she wants to reward good teachers and knock bad teachers down a peg. How dare shr support school choice. How dare she!!! Haters going to hate.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/12/13/democrats-viciously-attack-betsy-devos-are-you-too-corrupt-or-too-incompetent/

[Russ]

Posted these two videos in comments on George's letter to the editor:

California - The Exodus From The Golden State

https://youtu.be/eJcT3JbrDRw

California's Unintended Consequences - Mismanagement of The Golden State

https://youtu.be/vQUZU-zVkEU

Jump past the ads and observed the details.

[George Rebane]

Russ 1223pm - Thanks for those corroborating links. On the Union website (where my Other Voices column is posted as a 'letter' for some mysterious reason) the comment stream contains the usual and expected denial from Steven Frisch who is one of the perennial promoters of the emperor's clothes. This progressive's papering over of California's plight is priceless - give it a read.
https://www.theunion.com/opinion/letters/george-rebane-why-promote-what-aint-so/

As you can see, Frisch is one of the many liberals who expose themselves to such a narrow view of the world, that when they read RR, they demonstrate that it is the first time that they have heard coverage of so many of topics and issues we discuss that is well-known to millions of Americans across the land. They confirm their closeted comprehension of all this with their outrage, accusing me of being the lonely voice who dares to describe a world outside their ken.

[Gregory]

Regarding the Academy of Learning debacle... McAteer was promoting his new charter high school idea. The Academy had a wide ranging and to my eyes, strange set of organizing principles.

I asked my wife, Teri, who had been studying for her teaching credentials what she made of them and she took a few moments and said... it's Outcome Based Education, one of the buzzwords of the day and hotly contested. NOWHERE in the document was Outcome Based Education mentioned.

I called the County Education Orifice with a question formulated and got the Assistant Superintendent at the time, Karen Chizek, and I asked her... 'what in the Academy's forming is inconsistent with Outcome Based Education?'

The answer was great!... 'Ummm, (hemming and hawing) nothing, but we don't like to use that term'.

I related that story to a friendly NC health care professional and he burst out with an expletive, saying McAteer assured him that the Academy was free of such crap.

It's my understanding that Kenneth Jones is friendly with the Chizeks, perhaps he can check with her for her side of the story.

[rl crabb]

Why don't you ask her yourself, Bozo? You see her every year at the Marching Presidents dinner.

[Gregory]

Who you calling a bozo, Bozo?

I might... next September. In the meantime, Kenney can chat with her on the Anti-Social media of his choice.

[Gregory]

Here's another tidbit I didn't let out with the last ... at the next meeting at the county ed orifice, I was talking to Ms.Chizek outside and Terry McA came out... she exchanged some non verbal cues that looked like 'yes, this is the guy who asked the question I couldn't answer' and then McAteer did his thing, shmoozing it.

I'm not sure what my talking to Chizek would accomplish...either she would agree that McAteer's office was saying one thing and doing another, or she'd still toe the line. Or turn away and not talk about it at all.

[Steven Frisch]

Naturally George doesn't cover the take away from my comments on the Union article--that senseless partisanship and vitriol is an impediment to actually achieving progress.

"I could list about 10 things that we all could agree on that would lift up rural economies that the people on the opposite side of that divide could embrace and work on:

1. Expand broadband access
2. Create and support rural entrepreneurship programs
3. Provide direct technical assistance to rural businesses to expand markets
4. Create community investment capital and expand access to outside capital
5. Increase opportunities for workforce education and training at every level
6. Increase availability of affordable housing (yes in my back yard)
7. Modernize rural infrastructure (roads, water, waste, electrical, rail)
8. Expand access to the arts and recreation
9. Consciously link rural products to global markets
10. Stop acting like a bunch of babies and work together."

You guys are so busy calling your home a shit hole that you are blind to your contribution to the big steaming pile you leave in your wake,

[Walt]

All well and good Stevey,, but there is always a Proggy bunch looking to stop it.
Roads you say? How bout that HY174 project? "Don't make our HY safe!! TOO many trees are going to be slaughtered!"

Access to outside capital? Go to the bank and take out a loan.

Recreation? GV and NEV. City are surrounded by public lands.🤦‍♂️

Now the mine is looking to restart.(again) How many of your ECO fools will be looking to stop it with the same lies as the last time? From the cry the creek will go up four inches, and the water will be colder. "200 wells will be harmed".(up from the actual 12) Super sensitive equipment will be damaged from blasting 2000 feet away.(yet not harmed by the big rig driving by outside on the street.)

Now don't forget the real good bitch.. "Outsiders coming in to take OUR gold".

[Walt]

OH.. Yes.. how's that Nevada City 5G? Just who is out to stop that?

[Todd Juvinall]

The Frisch's of the world are all the same. They trash those who work hard and make it and all 26 of his idiot candidates say it every chance they get. Every project to create "new" gets the lefty anal exams and big expense checks. The left does this at every single opportunity. All of the right creating something are not babies, they are what makes it possible for a Frisch to get free money from the redistribution of those that do. So perhaps if the left STFU and eft us alone we xould get along. Notwithstanding the namecalling they scream at anyone with a good isa.

[Russ]

Steven Frisch@05:32 AM

I can agree with 1-9 as worthwhile goals. I have been working on the number “1. Expand broadband access” for 20 plus years and continue today with my Rural Economy Technology blog. The SBC recently received a Nevada County contract to manage a broadband development fund. Could you give us an update? Is $250,000 making a difference? How?

[Steven Frisch]

Russ, I can't give you too much of an update relative to 'projects' because the application process is in mid stream. Here is the announcement and the timeline for decisions on the grants:

http://sierrabusiness.org/images/docs/NCLMB_Guidelines_and_Application_Final_2019_11.pdf

Once the grants are awarded there will be an update to the BOS. I think the $250k will make a difference, but it is too early to directly answer your question since we can't really evaluate the impact of the projects until they are implemented.

[Steven Frisch]

Walt, you missed the point. The issue I highlighted was the propensity to generalize and place people into labeled groups and assume that there is no common ground.

Plus, you must have me confused with some other people who oppose infrastructure investment, 5G, and new housing. (BTW in my experience fighting NIMBY'ism I have to say there are just as many conservative leaning NIMBY's as liberal leaning ones.)

[George Rebane]

StevenF 532am - You missed my 204pm where I invited readers to read your entire screed and provided the link. Thanks for commenting.

[Gregory]

Stevie

"5. Increase opportunities for workforce education and training at every level"

Meaning more money down the same old rathole. K-14 education already takes enormous sums of cash leaving us with an illiterate underclass that has 13+ years of seat time in some of the worst schools money can buy.

Otherwise, training for a new job could take place in a trip to the library.

[Gregory]

Otherwise, training for a new job could take place in a trip to the library... meaning reading a book.

[Walt]

So Stevie,, just which demographic has a propensity of being the job and infrastructure killers?

So you don't deny your "ECO gang" will be out to kill the proposed reopening of the mine. Got it... Thanks.

[Bill Tozer]

Well, my two cents worth concerning the tarnished Golden State.

1) Dr. Rebane was addressing CA’s growing problems, not Nevada County’s Problems or rural America’s problems.

2) Up here in Nevada County that many have referred to as ‘God’s County’ for beauty and QoL, (not religion), it’s easy to say, “I have not stepped in human poop or discarded hypos. True. We live in a bubble. We live here PRECISELY to get away from the stink, the poverty, the crime, the rat race, etc. Most internalize any criticism of the flies in the ointment as a criticism of their choice to live in CA, with our area in particular. To repeat, we live in a bubble and far away from the shitholes. Indeed, today at Victorian Christmas most, if not all, will say they are lucky to live here in Postcard Town or how the wish they could live here. No argument here. But the stink of LA and Frisco is moving closer and closer...now in Sacramento and moving on up.

3). Just because we do not rank #50 in some stats, does not mean we are not in the bottom quintile or the bargain basement. We do have a vomit inducing CA public education system, judged against other states and the Developed World. We have the highest petrol prices in the nation...precisely to fix our roads which is siphoned off to pay pension and healthcare obligations. That would be #7 on Steve’s list. Guess we need yet another gas tax to modernize our roads.

4) You have to have your head in the sand to overlook the challenges facing CA. I did not say (nor did Dr. Rebane) Nevada County or the Sierra foothills. I said CA. Half the births in the state are paid for by medicaid. Healthy CA or whatever it is called. What does that tell ya? Property crime in Frisco is #1 in the nation for large cities. 3rd World diseases and plagues that have been eradicated are coming back.

5). While other states may have higher property taxes or sales taxes or perhaps State income taxes, our taxes combined are outrageously high. While affordable housing is a problem in many urban centers across the land, it is particularly egregious in CA, DC suburbs, NY, and NE...and the Left Coast.

6) Looking at Steve’s list of solutions (local solutions) I see more taxes needed. Taxes upon taxes and more taxes needed. I also see existing Fed and State programs already on the books. SBA loans, USDA business loans for rural communities. Improve rail in rural areas? Heck, we are spending close to 100 billion to improve rail to Buttonwillow, a rural community. And it does not even start near the Bay Area,

7). Bottomline for me is because of excess and burdensome regs, taxes, cost of housing, etc, the middle class is being carved out and ironically, the middle class always eventually gets left holding the bag.

PS: Berne said the broadband is a right. Other Dems have said housing is a right. Healthcare is a right. Affordable RX is a right. Higher Ed is a right. Everything is a right, right? Nice smooth roads are a right, I reckon. Lower gas prices are nota right.

Even if everybody bought an electric go cart vehicle and ditched the internal combustion engine in CA, we don’t even have the electricity capacity to charge up all those cars.

Why debate this in the Union. It just degrades to Trump, Trump, Trump, Stormy, Trump, Republicans bad awful racist people, Trump. Meanwhile, more taxes needed.

[Russ]

35 Percent of San Franciscans Consider Leaving for Good, According to City Survey

Younger residents and people who have lived here a short time are more likely to ponder
moving out

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Controller’s Office released additional data from the city’s annual resident survey, this time detailing how many people think about leaving SF in the near future.

The city, which released most of its survey data in May, conducted the poll using 2,218 San Franciscans between November 2018 through February 2019.

The question of whether or not people will leave San Francisco has proved something of a preoccupation for pollsters in recent years; according to the city’s own assessment, most residents are neither more nor less likely to ponder relocation today than in the recent years:

Among those polled, 20 percent say they’re “somewhat likely” to leave, and another 15 percent say they’re “very likely.” Note that this leaves one percent undecided.

On the other hand, 42 percent say they’re “not likely at all” to leave the city within the next three years. Another 22 percent characterize themselves as “not too likely.”

The combined 35 percent of those “somewhat” or “very likely” to depart is about the same as it was in 2005, and “relatively consistent” with the trend during the interring years.'

Younger people and people who have lived here the shortest times are more likely to consider leaving—48 percent of those under 35 considered themselves at least “somewhat likely” to relocate, versus just 22 percent of those 55 or older—and renters are almost twice as likely to leave as residents who own homes.

https://sf.curbed.com/2019/11/7/20951995/residents-sf-want-leave-san-francisco-consider-survey

[Bill Tozer]

File this under ‘University of California is sued by leftwing activists to drop SAT and ACT admissions tests’

BillT 845pm - definitive proof: the Left is insane.
Posted by: George Rebane | 10 December 2019 at 09:36 PM

NATURE MAGAZINE JUMPS THE SHARK

“The community claims that quantum supremacy is a technical term with a specified meaning. However, any technical justification for this descriptor could get swamped as it enters the public arena after the intense media coverage of the past few months.

In our view, ‘supremacy’ has overtones of violence, neocolonialism and racism through its association with ‘white supremacy’. Inherently violent language has crept into other branches of science as well — in human and robotic spaceflight, for example, terms such as ‘conquest’, ‘colonization’ and ‘settlement’ evoke the terra nullius arguments of settler colonialism and must be contextualized against ongoing issues of neocolonialism.

Instead, quantum computing should be an open arena and an inspiration for a new generation of scientists.”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/nature-magazine-jumps-the-shark.php

[Bill Tozer]

Re: ‘University of California is sued by leftwing activists to drop SAT and ACT admissions tests’

“At what point does the effort to eliminate meritocracy in favor of diversity produce disastrous results? In a better nation, one would like to think heart surgeons, airline pilots, and those who aspire to work in other professions that demand clear standards will remain exempt from the religious-like zealotry of quota-mongering. In this one, the zealots are demanding that anyone deemed insufficiently “privileged” will be exempted from objective assessment.

The inherent contradiction? How does one objectively assess insufficient privilege? Those familiar with progressive ideology know the answer: privilege, or lack thereof, will be defined by leftists — solely on their own terms.

What could be more privileged than that?“

https://patriotpost.us/articles/67544-ca-lawsuits-assert-standardized-tests-discriminate-2019-12-23?fbclid=IwAR38A7nA1TLyYyBfT49G_jm5PHaq3NVFKLCFUKDzFCGD-vhiXbDt7EwNSOQ