Rebane's Ruminations

Sandbox - 22jun21

[ (Critical Race Theory) isn’t really education at all, not in the sense in which the term has been understood in the post-Enlightenment era. It is closer to pre-Enlightenment religious instruction: the imparting of doctrinal truth with the practical aim of saving souls and reordering the world. Hence its migration from college campuses to K-12 schools, where its practitioners expect to find supple and more-suggestible minds. They have taken to heart the old Jesuit maxim about the first seven years of life. – Gerard Baker in the 22jun21 WSJ (here)]

Sandbox – 11jun21

[There are a couple of House bills that will break up Amazon and other big tech companies.  “One of the proposed measures, titled the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, seeks to require structural separation of Amazon and other big technology companies to break up their businesses. It would make it unlawful for a covered online platform to own a business that “utilizes the covered platform for the sale or provision of products or services” or that sells services as a condition for access to the platform. The platform company also couldn’t own businesses that create conflicts of interest, such as by creating the ‘incentive and ability’ for the platform to advantage its own products over competitors.”  This would change the face of online businesses; thoughts?  gjr]

Sandbox - 2jun21

[Over the last week or so, the evil party has done everything it could to divide us further and pander to their ultra-left faction and black constituents by hammering the centenary of the Tulsa massacre over every possible channel and at every possible event.  After dredging up the terrible details of that riot of the whites, these were repeated ad nauseum over the days as it awakened and drew predictable expressions of rage from the Left and black leaders.  Does anyone think that this kind "racial catharsis" has left us more united?  (more here) gjr]

Sandbox – 22may21

[My ongoing reunification commentaries saga with The Union augments what we’ve discovered in these pages - that grassroots leftwingers have no clue about the kind of America that their elite leadership has chosen for us, and are now implementing through a bevy of misguided policies not experienced in decades.  They’re ignorant of it because their more recent schooling did not reveal collectivist objectives, or because they only consume lamestream outlets which dutifully deny that the Democrats seek to instill the trappings of collectivism in the America they intend to uniformly pauper (equity) with their socialist nostrums.  These assume the classic historical format of the Left, applied devastatingly over the last century, that includes summarily politicizing science, education, and economics to fit their overarching narrative.  gjr]

Sandbox - 11may21

[Many apologies for letting the last sandbox getting a bit overfilled.  We are now in the Houston terminal waiting to board our flight to Sacramento - it’s been a long three weeks and we’ve seen a lot of our US of A that has changed so much from the pre-Covid days.  Everywhere you turn, insanity rules.  Much more to be said about the fundamental transformation now in full swing.  Gjr]

Sandbox - 26apr21

[Sparse postings are due to our being on travel now.  We'll report on that later.  Am still planning to compile a growing list of liberal/progressive public policies, initiatives, laws, regulations, taxes, tributes, fees, ... that should demonstrate to all but the most mentally deficient that Democrats and their various auxiliaries (e.g. BLM, Antifa) are hell-bent on making America into a neo-Marxist state.  It was quite a revelation that their grassroots constituents have no idea of this, and, instead, take umbrage at anyone suggesting such as being a rightwing conspiracy theorist.  To them, no one is a Marxist, save they wear their hammer & sickle sweater in public.  gjr]

Sandbox - 24mar21

[Seeing what Bumblebrain has been able to accomplish in his first 100 days, can you imagine the damage that he can do if he becomes a two-term president, as he is "signaling" to his team and certain Dem leaders (more here)?  My money is still on his not completing his first term.  There's only so much patience Kamala is willing to put up with, unless she giggles herself into political oblivion.  gjr]

Sandbox - 13mar21

[Jo Ann and I got our second doses of the Moderna C19 vaccine yesterday in Yuba City.  Our overlords are contemplating having all kinds of new travel regulations that require proof of vaccination, or immunity, or studying critical race theory, or something similar.  I wonder if we all will have to start carrying government issued copies of our shot and indoctrination records with us at all times as the next level of controlling our behavior and whereabouts.  gjr]

Sandbox – 2mar21

[The rabid Left is now advising all who would listen across the land not to hire or have anything to do with people who were part of the Trump administration.  And sure enough, that aspect of our now-arrived cancel culture is taking hold.  Today many of the Left’s lackies are publicly putting such people on their permanently banned list (part of their national unity campaign).  But how would it be if those of the counter-cancel culture grew some balls and started advertising for employees whose desiderata showed they had been a part of Trump’s administration - if not on the WH staff, then in one of the cabinet level departments or other agencies that were led by political appointees who brought along their high level colleagues and former staffers to help administer the federal bureaucracies calcified with thousands of career leftwingers?  If they can do it, why can’t we?  gjr]

Sandbox – 23feb21

[Did everyone see yet another shot in the shorts for what was known as American culture?  To propagandize the administration’s C19 response and highlight Trump’s alleged failure, the Bidens and Harrises observed what can only be described as a kabuki ‘moment of silence’ for the C19 500K death-count.  Now what could possibly be confusing about conducting a moment of silence?  All you have to do is STFU and look somber for a bit.  But not in Bumblebrain’s brave new America; there stood the two first couples (with Dr Jill still talking or giving directions to Joe) in front of the WH’s twin staircases festooned with 500 garishly-lit candles, while an off-camera band played an unusually loud and raucous rendition of Amazing Grace – moment of silence??!  Whatever norms we previously observed, henceforth these are to be eliminated wherever they are encountered.  gjr]

Sandbox -15feb21

[There was a graveside service for Brother ToddJ this afternoon at Greenwook Memorial Gardens in Grass Valley.  About 50 of us attended the 2pm gathering conducted under a light rainfall.  A pastor officiated and several of Todd's relatives and friends gave their remembrances.  A couple of current public personages were also in attendance.  It was a warm and homey gathering, and a very befitting recognition for one of our formerly prominent local citizens. RIP.  gjr]

Sandbox – 9feb21

[OK, what is the Dems’ ‘logic’ in pursuing Trump’s second impeachment trial in the Senate? gjr]

Sandbox – 2feb21

[Bumblebrain Biden has proven himself to be everything predicted.  Everything he has touched so far has been or quickly turned to bullpucky for Americans and our nation’s future.  I now challenge readers; who will be the first one to discover something beneficial that he will do in the time to come.  Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we will only accept beholders of the conservetarian et al leanings.  gjr]

Sandbox - 20jan21

[From this day on, Pravda reigns.  gjr]

Sandbox - 12jan21

[There is a lot happening in the world while our federal govt is focused on the attempts to remove President Trump from office before his term is up next Wednesday.  Haven't heard much discussion of how our 'friends' and declared enemies are preparing for the new Harris/Biden administration.  There's some serious stuff going down as they anticipate a new TBD foreign policy from Washington.  Usually the bad guys pull off some kind of test to gauge the measure of America's new Big Kahuna.  gjr]

Sandbox - 4jan21

[Time for a fresh Sandbox ready to take on the new year and the exciting events forthcoming this week from the nation's capital.  gjr]

Sandbox - 26dec20

[Hopefully, after our Christmas gut busting binges, everyone today is eating more lightly, no matter that such professed dedications never last long.  In the meantime we must gird our loins for the Georgia vote, and then the darkness that the new regime promises to spread across the land in 2021.  gjr]

Sandbox - 18dec20

[So now the C19 vaccines are arriving in backwoods counties like ours.  Does anyone know of a list or policy that prioritizes who should get the vaccine and when (and where)?  The news about its distribution stops with vague references to healthcare workers and old folks in care facilities being somewhere near the top of the list.  gjr]

Sandbox - 11dec20

[My internet has been mostly off all week long, and ATT doesn't know where the fault is.  But they've finally isolated it to somewhere up here on Hind Tit Rd.  Patience please.  gjr]

Sandbox - 10dec20

[Victor Davis Hanson (here) agrees with Rebane Doctrine that Biden will take credit for any and all Trump accomplishments re the nation’s economy, foreign relations (e.g. China and the Mideast), Covid response, … that he does not wind up destroying, specifically to “allow unchecked immigration. Freeze construction of, or even tear down, the border wall. Lift tariffs on China. Let NATO members pay as little as they like. Ban or cut back on fracking. Rejoin the Iran nuclear deal. Rejoin the Paris climate agreement. Polarize Israel and its new Arab allies. Fast-track the Green New Deal. Raise taxes sky-high. Let the Rust Belt rust. Allow Big Tech to do as it pleases.”  gjr]

Sandbox - 3dec20

[Well, we can have a lot of fun now dissecting the incompetence and corruption of the Team Biden cabinet nominees.  And I don't think Hunter Biden's escapades are going to go away.  They will be joined by ignoramuses like John Kerry who will be taken to the cleaners by the Chinese as he tries to negotiate environmental issues with them with an empty quiver.  gjr]

Sandbox -24nov20

[I'm thinking of inviting readers to compete picking the date on which the post-Biden president will be sworn in.  Readers can express it as a date certain or a distribution (say, a Gaussian or a MAB) on the calendar.  Selecting a date certain (i.e. 20 January 2025) makes sense only if you believe that Biden will serve out a full term, otherwise ... .  Maybe I'll even make a donation to the winner's favorite tax-deductible organization.  Thoughts?  gjr]

Sandbox - 16nov20

[A lot more news about the candidates (and other issues) is coming out every day besides that which can be connected to voter fraud.  Please extend your discussions of these to the fresh Sandbox.  gjr]

Sandbox - 6nov20

[Just on the off chance that some readers may want some fresh sand to discuss something other than election related topics (for which we have live postings), I thought that a new Sandbox should be made available.  We shall see.  gjr]

Sandbox – 31oct20

[Halloween will be extended by several weeks this year as the scary election returns and adjudicated ruling start coming in.  In the meantime, I invite those prognosticators of the presidential race to use the spreadsheet with assignable probabilities to express their views.  Using that model, instead of the limited information point estimate maps provided online, allows us to also calculate the chances that either candidate can win, and let’s us see how the probabilities shift as the state’s shift their electors.  The innumerates keep fooling themselves that our universe is constructed with predestined point quantities, instead of an unending sea of probability distributions that define all apprehended knowledge, and from which reality is sampled with the passage of time. Gjr

https://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2020/07/election2020-electoral-college-predictor.html ]