Scattershots – 27dec20 (updated 30dec20)

Suspension of judgment is always the part of wisdom in a listener, and the remission of faith to authority the part of wisdom in a speaker.  Gracian #154

George Rebane

Identity politics is a totalitarian enterprise, as called out by Paul Gigot, op-ed editor-in-chief of the WSJ.  About Gigot's defense of Joseph Epstein’s commentary on Jill Biden’s doctorate – ‘The Biden Team Strikes Back’ – Roger Kimball of The New Criterion writes,

The governing strategy of identity politics is not to encourage free expression but to shutter it. In essence, it is a totalitarian enterprise, deploying the shibboleths of race, gender, and radical egalitarianism to enforce a stultifying conformity. It is heartening to see Gigot affirming that, at one of our nation’s most important newspapers, “these pages aren’t going to stop publishing provocative essays merely because they offend the new administration or the political censors in the media and academe.” If, as we suspect, the preview we just witnessed was a sort of sighting shot, it suggests that Gigot is going to have his hands full dealing with ever more intolerant efforts to “turn the page” and enforce ghastly new modes of “healing” and “unity.”  (and more here)

[29dec20 update] Speaking of ‘doctors in the house’ (here), we are now not surprised to hear that the pandemic is causing most leading universities to ‘pause’ their 2021 admissions to PhD programs.  “More than 140 humanities and social sciences programs at top schools have suspended admitting students for fall 2021.”  And also we’re not surprised to hear that STEM PhD programs are not affected by these cutbacks.  During disasters, society in the large acts pretty much as humans do in the small when it comes to deciding who gets to stay in the lifeboat – utility rules. (more here)

Trust government ‘science’ when spouted by agenda-driven politicians?  The short answer is ‘No’, the long answer is NFW!  One of our astute readers draws our attention to “Joe Biden's decision to hold over Dr. Anthony Fauci in his administration as his chief medical advisor as a symbol of his commitment to ‘trust science’ is coming under new scrutiny following Fauci's recent admission that he altered public scientific estimates based on opinion polls.” (more here)  The most vulnerable double dummies are those who believe science speaks with one infallible voice.  We witness their blather nightly on the lamestream.  And the Democrats (including their local lackies) still claim that theirs is the ‘party of science’.  Please note the above entry on PhDs when recalling their braggadocio about all the Left’s college graduates.

Biden’s education programs promise to be on steroids in their announced path to destroy the last vestiges of the nation’s public education.  From here on all curricula in union-dominated government schools will be focused through the lens of critical race theory.  It is now in the open that progressives have no desire to produce students with market-valued skill sets and the ability to think critically,  The overt K-12 objective from here on is to produce a generation of dumb and woke kids, indoctrinated to believe that meritocracy, personal responsibility, diligence, achievement, industry, intelligence, … are all characteristic traits of white supremacists and racists, and therefore to be eschewed in the coming socially just world of newly-minted, anti-capitalist socialism.

Anyone notice how silent the EU has been about China’s global policy of stealing commercially and militarily critical IP from any and all?  The most plausible answer to that silence has been that EU countries neither develop nor protect much homegrown IP, but license it from IP producers like the US.  Countries like Germany and the Netherlands incorporate licensed IP into their higher-quality manufactured products, and have been more than willing to meet aggressive thieves like China in the marketplace.  In the past they haven’t cared much about China and others stealing IP as long as they can market their stuff to the pilferers.  Now things are changing as China’s ability to manufacture quality products grows along with its domestic consumption for same.  The EU is coming around to America’s assessment of China (thank you President Trump), and they are becoming wary of China’s global commercial and political ambitions being carried out on a very tilted playing field.  (more here)

[30dec20 update]  ‘California may be losing its business mojo’ was the 29dec20 Union’s lead editorial.  In there Dan Walters of CalMatters presents a thoughtful summary of what has happened to our formerly golden state.  The exodus is now at such a fever pitch that only the most dedicated progressives in epiphany-free Sacramento are still blind to it (of course all their local lackeys have no hope of comprehending this ongoing disaster).  Nevertheless, they outnumber all the more saner ones.  In recent weeks tech giants like Tesla, HP, and Oracle have headed for greener pastures (Texas of course).  Why stay in a state encrusting with regulation- and tax-numbing socialism when your post-Covid workers can work from anywhere?  There’s less benefit in Silicon Valley than meets the eye.

71% of America’s military age youth cannot qualify to serve.  That’s the latest from the DoD.  The reasons for this horrible statistic is that since the military became an all-volunteer enterprise, their standards were raised.  The major disqualifiers for our young people are intellect, drugs, and bad health.  Modern warfare uses a lot of high-tech combat systems that require more than a two-digit IQ to operate, with druggies and overweight people not measuring up. 

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

The Biden two step; And do-si-do with all your might. Now swing your parter round and round, throw her in the toilet and flush ‘er down.

‘Biden’s Critical Race Theory Two-Step’
It's not just about sensitivity, it's a momentous event in American public life

“In seeking documentation on the training offered to white city employees, Rufo learned that the trainers described their mission as “interrupting internalized Racial Superiority and Whiteness,” and showing whites how to address their “complicity in…white supremacy” and “interrupt racism in ways that are accountable to black, indigenous and people of color.” It taught them that they had lost their own “humanity” because of their internalized sense of racial superiority, which caused “harm and violence” to minorities.

What to do? First, get rid of such notions as “individualism,” “perfectionism,” “intellectualization,” and “objectivity”—concepts once considered worthy if not salutary, and quite human, but now just this side of evil, because (according to the new orthodoxy) they perpetuate racism and white supremacy.”
—-
“Now consider Biden’s response: “Nobody’s doing that.” This is false. Not only are people doing it but the practice is growing rapidly across America. The critical race outlook, coupled with the bludgeon of political correctness, first took hold on America’s college campuses, but it now has metastasized to government agencies and corporations. And Biden’s effort to give a benign description of how these training sessions unfold is also false. In many instances they are not benign at all—and becoming increasingly coercive in tactic and approach.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/bidens-critical-race-theory-two-step/

[D]

I guess an article by a guy whining about who gets to be called 'Doctor' is provocative to some. But it's nothing new for Epstein. Maybe the guy is just jealous since he could only master a B.A., but was handed an Honorary Doctorate, just for the heck of it.

"During the 1980s and 1990s, Epstein received increasing criticism for commentary widely regarded as anti-feminist, as well as for his "one-sided" management of the editorial page. He compared feminist scholars at various times to “pit bulls” and “dykes on bikes”.[8] In 1991, he was the subject of an op-ed by Joyce Carol Oates calling for his resignation: “It is an embarrassment that Joseph Epstein should have been its editor for so many years. His resignation is long overdue.”[8] He met with further criticism for giving cultural conservatives as Gertrude Himmelfarb and Dinesh D’Souza a platform in the journal, and his failure to offer space for their adversaries.[9]

In 1996, the Phi Beta Kappa senate voted to remove Epstein as editor of The American Scholar at the end of 1997.[10] The decision was controversial, and Epstein later claimed that he was fired "for being insufficiently correct politically".[10][11] Some within Phi Beta Kappa attributed the senate's decision to a desire to attract a younger readership for the journal.[10] Upon Epstein’s eventual firing, a former president of Phi Beta Kappa said: “He has been driving people crazy for years. What has changed is that more and more senators were elected who are uncomfortable with the totally one-sided views in the journal.”[9]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Epstein_(writer)

[Bill Tozer]

REJECT WOKE CIVICS

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/reject-woke-civics.php
—————————-
HOMER CANCELED
In the Wall Street Journal, Meghan Gurdon documents the latest stage of our culture’s devolution toward utter stupidity: the cancellation of Homer.

“A sustained effort is under way to deny children access to literature. Under the slogan #DisruptTexts, critical-theory ideologues, schoolteachers and Twitter agitators are purging and propagandizing against classic texts—everything from Homer to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Dr. Seuss.

Their ethos holds that children shouldn’t have to read stories written in anything other than the present-day vernacular—especially those “in which racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate are the norm,” as young-adult novelist Padma Venkatraman writes in School Library Journal. No author is valuable enough to spare, Ms. Venkatraman instructs: “Absolving Shakespeare of responsibility by mentioning that he lived at a time when hate-ridden sentiments prevailed, risks sending a subliminal message that academic excellence outweighs hateful rhetoric“.....

It seems pretty clear that Ms. Venkagraman is far more filled with hate than the Bard ever was.

Much more at the link, if you can access it, including the cancellation of a brave woman who defended The Scarlet Letter.

“Outsiders got a glimpse of the intensity of the #DisruptTexts campaign recently when self-described “antiracist teacher” Lorena Germán complained that many classics were written more than 70 years ago: “Think of US society before then & the values that shaped this nation afterwards. THAT is what is in those books.”

The horror! Seventy years ago! Life just began, apparently, circa 2018.

Jessica Cluess, an author of young-adult fiction, shot back: “If you think Hawthorne was on the side of the judgmental Puritans . . . then you are an absolute idiot and should not have the title of educator in your twitter bio.”

That was the end of Ms. Cluess’s career, apparently. Despite her recantation.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/homer-canceled.php

[Walt]

This is socialist state crap.... But it's right here in America.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/salon-owner-oregon-governors-retaliation-lockdown
"Glamour Salon owner Lindsey Graham reopened her salon in May and received a fine of $14,000 from the state. Graham claimed that Brown began to personally "terrorize" her family, and threatened to place her children under the care of Child Protective Services to "intimidate" her into closing her salon doors."

[Bonnie]

Interesting to see how totalitarian dictatorships take over. It’s sad, but there must be too many ungrateful oblivious individuals who need educating. Because I’ve studied lots of ancient history it looks like our civilization is being tested by our Creator just as it was in Noah’s and Lot’s time. Good people were hated. Abundant crime and corrupt judicial systems. Our last election conclusion was ridiculous. All I can say is ...good luck to good people.

[Bill Tozer]

VDH’s last (final) column for the National Review:

‘A Guide to Wokespeak’

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/a-guide-to-wokespeak/

[Don Bessee]

Did ya hear?!

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/trump-most-admired-man-2020-221128576.html

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Then They Came for Beethoven

https://quillette.com/2020/09/19/then-they-came-for-beethoven/

[Bill Tozer]

Sort of on topic about the EU’s silence on China. More to the point, what about our silence towards China?

2020: America’s Wake-Up Call

“By year’s end, it was not America warning China but Beijing warning America that manifestations of political or military solidarity with Taiwan, and arms sales to the island, would constitute interference in the internal affairs of China — as Taiwan belongs to China.

Suddenly, a great awakening about the character of the regime we have pampered with investment and trade for three decades appeared stark.

Unable to stand up to a China in which they invested so many hopes, the American establishment turns to Russia — a nation with one-tenth China’s population and one-tenth of its economy, and no army or navy to match Beijing’s — as its adversary of choice.

But while President Vladimir Putin may fulfill well the role of villain, his principal foreign intervention in 2020 was to play the role of peacemaker in the South Caucasus’ war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

https://buchanan.org/blog/2020-americas-wake-up-call-142496

[Walt]

So Harris/Biden will pick up where "O"&Co. left off,,, sticking to law enforcement.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-doj-police-departments-systemic-misconduct

misconduct will be what the "say" it is.

[Walt]

More socialist ways exposed. And there is one in particular here who like the idea of socialism. He also thought this guy was all knowing.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dr-anthony-fauci-coronavirus-marco-rubio

"Thanks to our news media’s monomaniacal obsession with President Trump, few have paid attention to an important interview that Dr. Anthony Fauci gave last week, in which he acknowledged that he selectively lied to the American public about the coronavirus and what was needed for our national recovery.
The story is straightforward. For most of this year, Dr. Fauci and other scientists in our public health establishment have been telling Americans that about 60 to 70 percent of the nation would need a vaccine in order for us to reach herd immunity and make the coronavirus a non-issue.

But, speaking with The New York Times, Dr. Fauci admitted that he believes the real number is in fact significantly higher — perhaps 75 to 90 percent — and he declined to be forthright because he felt the country wasn’t ready to hear it"

[Bill Tozer]

Identity politics: Cultural Appropriation questions.

So, a black man at an awards ceremony in a tuxedo with bow tie is not appropriating white people? Ok, fine. An Asian symphony cellist is not appropriating Western Culture? Thinking that Segregated Dorms on college campuses is racist and discriminatory.....and then expressing that opinion is proof positive of one’s racism? Ok, fine. And pulling a Rachel Dolezal and being a white girl from Montana playing the role of a black woman running the local chapter of the NCAAP. is not big time cultural appropriation, even when she changed her name to Nkechi Diallo? Ok fine. Hmmm. Wonder if being an Hawaiian is close enough to make culture unappropriated sushi at a Japanese restaurant? That’s a coin flip. Ah, looks close enough.

And now, dear readers, I present to you HIliria. Hey, I’m that little girl, too!

THE NEWS, HILARIA STYLE
The ladies and gentlemen of Saturday Night Live gave us a preview of the hilarity of Hilaria Baldwin in a November 1990 sketch (video below, courtesy of reader David Lunde). In the sketch NBC News staff accent-uate the positive pronunciation of Spanish names and words while new economics correspondent Jimmy Smits struggles to bear with them.

Over in today’s New York Post Andrea Peyser traces the “outing” of Hilaria as just another Anglo American oppressor in “Oh, Alec Baldwin, you must know more than you’re letting on.” Surely there is a lesson or three here somewhere. Until we home in on it with certainty — preferably at some distance from Alec Baldwin — it would be a mistake to miss out on the opportunity to laugh at these people.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/the-news-hilaria-style.php
————
‘Alec Baldwin Snaps On Critics After Wife Hilaria Admits Name Is Hillary, From Boston’
“Go f*** yourself"

https://www.dailywire.com/news/alec-baldwin-snaps-on-critics-after-wife-hilaria-admits-name-is-hillary-from-boston

Ok fine.

[Bill Tozer]

Media, Hilaria Style

The Hilaria Baldwin Scandal Is An Indictment Of Our Media

https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/30/the-hilaria-baldwin-scandal-is-an-indictment-of-our-media/

[Bill Tozer]

R/E: Trust government ‘science’ when spouted by agenda-driven politicians? The short answer is ‘No’, the long answer is NFW!

‘Gov. Cuomo Changes NFL Restrictions After Showing Interest in Attending Playoff Game’

“Cuomo was the subject of controversy on Wednesday, following the announcement that football fans will be permitted to attend a Buffalo Bills Wild Card playoff game, the team’s first time hosting in a quarter of a century, after he expressed a desire to attend. The controversy comes as it was Cuomo who banned large events, yet the restrictions were immediately lifted following the Governor’s own personal interest in attending the game.”

https://bongino.com/gov-cuomo-changes-nfl-restrictions-after-showing-interest-in-attending-playoff-game

[Don Bessee]

Fredos brother is really a jets kind of guy @921. LOL

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Identity Politics Means Rule by Useful Idiots

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/identity-politics-means-rule-by-useful-idiots/

[Bill Tozer]

You go girl. Time somebody took a stand for women.

‘Democrat Tulsi Gabbard Blasts Her Party For Removing Gendered Language: ‘The Height Of Hypocrisy’

“When Carlson asked her how removing gendered language empowers women, Gabbard responded, “It absolutely does the very opposite of that and it’s the height of hypocrisy for people who claim to be the champions of rights for women to deny the very biological existence of women and and this recent rule change that the House just actually voted and passed on today that you were talking about removing references to you know mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, from congressional rules and administration, it’s mind-blowing because it shows just how out of touch with reality and the struggles of everyday Americans people in Congress are.”

“But also, it shows that you know their first act as as this new congress could have been to make sure that elderly Americans are able to get the COVID vaccine now alongside frontline healthcare workers, elderly Americans who have the highest mortality rates from this virus, but instead of doing something that could actually help save people’s lives, they’re choosing instead to say well you can’t say mother or father in any of this congressional language,” she continued. “It’s astounding.”

Gabbard noted that what the political Left is attempting to do “defies common sense” and “defies basic established science.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-tulsi-gabbard-blasts-her-party-for-removing-gendered-language-the-height-of-hypocrisy

[Bill Tozer]

Ain't just CA businesses losing their mojo.

'Study Finds 10 Cities Losing The Most Residents: They’re All Run By Democrats'

"Notice anything about that list? Given the headline, you probably already know where this is going. Nine of these ten cities are in “red” states.

On the other end of the spectrum, let’s take a look at the cities losing residents at the highest rate:"...

"That’s right, every single city on that list is in a solidly “blue” state. This isn’t just an anomaly limited to the top ten, either. 23 of the top 25 cities on the “moving from” list were in states dominated by Democrats."
--
"Now it’s time for refugees fleeing blue states to realize one thing: if they vote for Democrat politicians in their new state, there won’t be anywhere left to flee to.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/study-finds-10-cities-losing-the-most-residents-theyre-all-run-by-democrats

In related news with the states having received the vaccine and some fear a large percentage of doses will spoil due to state governments bobbling the ball deciding who goes first....as of today, South Dakota has the highest percentage of vaccines distrubted at over 60%. Think CA has only distrubted 30% of their doses, same as NY, ground zeros for hotspots and death. Go figure.

[D]

Yes Bill, the Reds are running from the Blue. Keep Cali Blue!

[George Rebane]

And the Blues are running after the Reds as they defile EVERY nest they control and dominate. They truly are a plague upon mankind.

[Bill Tozer]

Keep New York Blue. Keep the violence, constant threat of lockdowns, municipal taxes, state income taxes, and keep waiting for a vaccine. Keep it all.

'The Sunshine Exodus'

"But whaddabout da cultcha?” Here, too, Florida has answers. Almost all its museums reopened in the early summer. Dining is a surging industry, pandemic notwithstanding, with New York favorites opening new establishments here. Alongside La Goulue, one finds Swifty’s, Sant Ambroeus, and Almond. For the Manhattanite despairing of shuttered Broadway theatres and reduced to getting his Metropolitan Opera fix from streamed telecasts of yesteryear, live performance resumed in South Florida last month. Capacity is reduced and masks are required, but the celebrity Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, whose Carnegie Hall and New York Philharmonic performances invariably sell out, gave a stunning all-Bach recital at Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts on December 13. More recitals and ensemble performances are planned, and by February live opera will be back in place, at least in outdoor settings.

Is the Florida exodus temporary? No one knows. The vaccines are rolling out, with Palm Beach offering them to official town residents starting on January 5, but, for what it’s worth, I have yet to hear anyone say, “Oh, good, now we can go back to New York."

https://www.city-journal.org/exodus-from-new-york-to-florida

[Bill Tozer]

re Biden's (and the wicked) education program

'No, Erasing ‘White’ Authors From Schools Won’t Help Kids Read Better'
People mentally born yesterday pretend this is a new and exciting educational idea. What it really is is ignorant, narrow-minded, and racist.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/05/no-erasing-white-authors-from-schools-wont-help-kids-read-better/

[Bill Tozer]

re: Identity politics is a totalitarian enterprise

Great essay, IMHO

'Scotland’s Emerging Totalitarian Democracy'

"The loss of freedom of expression as a political value is clearly exhibited in the official documents about the Scottish government’s proposed Hate Crime and Public Disorder Bill. ‘Hate has no place in Scotland’, claims one of these documents, as if not merely the control of illegal emotional behaviour but the control of emotion itself were the business of a government.....*

https://lawliberty.org/scotlands-emerging-totalitarian-democracy/

[George Rebane]

Good @853am catch Mr Tozer.

[Bill Tozer]

Home to navy base, school district tells white teachers that they are guilty of 'spirit murdering' black children and should undergo 'antiracist therapy'

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0121/rufo010721.php3