Headlines

Trump’s national security adviser chief slams WHO as ‘corrupt’

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon space capsule with NASA astronauts docks with space station

82nd Airborne on standby to deploy to Minnesota ...

Pollak: The riots began with Obama’s embrace of Occupy Wall Street

Minnesota AG’ Don’t ‘rush’ investigation into George Floyd

Coronavirus live updates: As coronavirus infections top 6 million, LA suspends testing as riots rock city

[Minneapolis mayor] Blames ‘white supremacists,’ ‘out-of-state instigators,’ but arrests demonstrate otherwise ...

Minnesota AG Kieth Ellison tweeted support for Antifa in 2018

De Blasio defends NYPD, blames ‘out of town’ demonstrators for continued violence Saturday

Trump postpones the G-7 summit and attempts to add countries to the inviting list

Powell says Fed policies ‘absolutely’ don’t add to inequality ...

U.N. Admits: We’re useless

Resistance

A man is known by the company he keeps -- Aesop


Some of you dear readers fashion yourselves as members of the "Resistance" ... or those who dislike, even despise President Trump. This is not an insignificant cadre. It involves most of Hollywood, many athletes, much of the Main Stream Media, many foreign leaders, Pelosi Democrats, and even many establishment Republicans. Quite a formidable group!

However, the Resistance also includes:

- Peter Fonda who wants Baron Trump to be placed in a cage with a pedophile. And Trump's DHS Secretary, Kristjen Nielsen should be placed naked in another cage and poked with sticks by passer-bys. (A little too Freudian, no?)

- Kathy Griffen who pretends to cut off Trump's head and proudly holds up this bloody trophy.

- Stephan Colbert who says on TV that Trump sucks Putin's cock ("cock holster")

- ANTIFA has published on the Internet the names and home addresses of ICE agents

- Sarah Silverman who openly called for a "military coup" against Trump

- Democratic Socialists of America protesters  drove Ms. Nielsen from a DC restaurant and, the next day, surrounded her home shouting threatening messages.

- Occupy Wall Street is advocating the killing of ICE agents

- Madonna, at the Women's March, said  she wanted to blow up Trump's White House

- Joy Behar of "The View," when she heard about someone dying in a Trump Tower fire, hoped it was President Trump

- A number of FBI agents and DOJ officials who actively worked to "stop" Trump being elected ... and likely used the power of their agency to do so .. and some may still be trying to oust him.

- Countless CNN, MSNBC and over-the-air TV channel anchors who have likened Trump to Hitler, Musolimi, a Nazi, KKKer, "f-you's", etc.


The list goes on and on and on ... ate you Resisters happy to be associated with this pond scum?

The Antifas

Antifas at Berkeley

David Duke, the KKK, neo-Nazis, and generic white nationalist organizations have been denounced and disavowed over and over again by Trump. In fact the liberal media can't seem to hear such repudiations enough times. Even the briefest hiatus in these incessant denunciations means to the fake news media that Trump has suddenly become of those who he had previously castigated.

In the recent Charlottesville confrontation there was serious evidence of mayhem on both sides (later, including an act of domestic terrorism.) One side, the alt-right ... supposedly the real white-nationalist daemons, were some KKKers, some neo-Nazis and a smattering of other conservative groups. Opposed to them were the alt-left, made up of Antifas (short for anti-fascists), Black Lives Matter, other (Soros-funded?) groups and some local protesters.

In a strange twist, Jason Kessler, the organizer of the alt-right side of these demonstration had also been involved in the Occupy Wall Street uprisings ... see: Breitbart Story.

Pictured above are the Antifas in their black outfits, some body armor and black face masks. In this case, they supposedly were also wearing some helmets and carrying bats and 2x4s. One account of this confrontation had the alt-righties protesting ... with a permit ... the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in his memorial park. Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe chose then to revoke their permit and commanded them to disperse. Three sides of this park had been enclosed by the police and the only exit was through the fourth side where the alt-left thugs were waiting. The alt-right were forced to run this gauntlet where many of the injuries occurred. Even a NY Times reporter verified this mayhem in a tweet ... before retracting it ... see: Daily Wire Story

 Tuesday night Charles Krauthammer said that Trump's press conference remarks earlier that day were "morally repugnant" ... despite the fact that they were pretty much accurate. I guess I must also be a pariah because all I heard Trump saying was the truth as I understood it ... and I have always thought the the truth was the moral high ground. Is the president always to bend the the established media narrative? Even when that narrative is slanted and designed to smear the president and his party? Trump will not buy this judgment ... even when a sometimes ally as Krauthammer thinks otherwise.

Bottom line: We should condemn and decry the Left's Gestapo tactics with the same vigor that we do so for the Right. President Trump's mistake is that he appears to be backing off his condemnation of the alt-right because of the media's gentle treatment of the alt-left. I don't think he is, but this is the media's narrative.

Provocateur

As someone who is worth about $23 billion and is hell bent on disrupting Western institutions and corrupting the country that has adopted him, he seems a strangely caustic citizen. He has supported with enormous funding mass migration of mostly Muslims into the Western world ... see: CNBC Article. He wants the U.S. federal government to control local police departments ... see: Breitbart Story. He has generously funded Occupy Wall Street (see: Human Events Article) and Black Lives Matter (see: Breitbart Article). He is often in the middle of urban unrest situations ... see: Breitbart Article. He is buying politicians ...  see: Yahoo News Story and expects them to do his bidding ... see: The American Mirror Story. And he has many other against-the-grain causes over which he sprinkles his peresuasive pelf.

This naturalized citizen being referred to is none other than George Soros (née, Gyorgy Schwartz in Hungary in 1930). He has made his money in currency trading and with a hedge fund ... and so he knows what levers to pull to get things done ... however insidious the consequences. For more on his special causes and checkered life, see: Wikipedia Entry

Why is he such a dangerous provocateur? Does he hold some kind of secret grievance or grudge against civilized society? Perhaps he is just feeling his Wheaties and wants to show the world how powerful he has become with all his pieces of silver? Maybe he is playing out some villainous role in his imagined James Bond movie? Is he merely a misanthrope (he has been married three times)? Or perhaps he is just an evil asshole? But whatever his real motivations, he is almost as powerful as El Chapo was before his recapture. (I am not suggesting offings, but who knows?) The problem is ... not only are governments not trying to rein him in ... they are often abetting his monstrous mischief.

Dr. Evil

George Soros is the equivalent of a sinister antagonist in a James Bond movie. He is an octogenarian multi-billionaire who likes to use his money to buy politicians and to create mischief in the Western world. He has Hellary Clinton and most of the Democrat party in his back pocket. He snaps open his billfold and they respond with Pavlovian servitude. In leaked e-mails and memos, it has recently been revealed that he basically was issuing marching orders to the United States' State Department through his then Toady-in-Chief, Hellary Clinton ... see: Breitbart Article, Another Breitbart Revelation and Daily Caller Report.

This Hungarian-born naturalized American citizen has a number of favorite causes -- open borders (in the U.S. and Europe), legalization of recreational drugs, anti-Israel organizations, community organizing, assisted suicide, Occupy Wall Street, felons' voting, the Arab Spring, Kosovo independence, Black Lives Matter, etc. ... see: Discover the Networks ... and probably many other causes on which his fingerprints have been wiped clean. (Do we see a correlation to the Clintons' decades-long priorities here?) The only other common denominator that I can discern to all these causes is that Soros champions a sinister push back towards American values and democracy ... strange ... for a person who has benefited so much from the country he apparently hates.

And "We The People" are traveling under the naive assumption that our politicians are beholding to us. No, no, no, for at least the last twenty five years, our politicians have mostly become acolytes of the dead presidents printed on our currency. Truman wasn't in it for the money. Eisenhower wasn't in it for the money. JFK wasn't in it for the money. Ford wasn't in it for the money. Reagan wasn't in it for the money. Even Jimmy Carter wasn't in it for the money. And someone who has truckloads of this green paper ... and knows how to spread it around ... like Soros ... obviously has huge political purchase. A discouragingly large proportion of our today politicians are more interested in personal gain than they are in the betterment of the country over which they govern. This is a recipe for national ptomaine poisoning.

Afterward: See also: WND Article and Daily Caller Article and Daily Caller Revelation.

The Voice of the People

Here are just a few recent news items that struck me ... as showing a pattern of the 1% solidly backing Hellary Clinton for president.

- Hedge fund managers give $48.5 million to Clinton's campaign, $19 thousand to Trump's ... see: Wall Street Journal Article.

- Michael Bloomberg speaks at Clinton convention, calls Trump a "dangerous demagogue" ... see: CNN Video.

- Billionaire Mark Cuban endorses Clinton, calls Trump a "jagoff" at Pittsburgh rally ... see: Washington Post Article.

- Warren Buffett at a recent Clinton fundraiser, "A monkey would have generated better returns than you [Trump]" ... see: CNBC Article.

Are we beginning to see a pattern here? The super-wealthy elites in America are clearly hoping that Hellary Clinton wins in November and continues the policies of Obummer ... and they are backing these desires with lots of money and rhetoric that is often as purple as Trump's. Why we wonder?

Perhaps because they have done quite well, thank you, during the crony capitalism, fire-hose government spending, open-borders to cheap labor, and [un]free-trade policies of the current administration and they are worried that Trump will throw sand on the tracks of their gravy train?

These 1%ers have suffered through the Occupy Wall Street protests ... they dodged a bullet when Bernie Sanders came up short in his bid for the Democrat nomination ... they have invested heavily in the Clinton brand of back scratching through generous speaking fees and "charitable donations" to the Clinton Foundation ... and they want and expect a generous return on this investment.

Has Hellary pledged to eliminate the carried interest generous tax treatment for hedge fund managers? No ... but Trump has. Even though Hellary has vowed to increase taxes for the wealthy, we all know that, without a fundamental overhaul of the tax law, the super wealthy using existing loopholes will still, like Warren Buffett, pay a smaller percentage of their income than their secretaries. Has Hellary pledged to reform the tax system? I haven't heard her say so. have you?

Perhaps, with all of this grease, Hellary will prevail and defeat the populist Trump in November ... but she will at her and the Washington elite's peril (and I include many Republicans, like Paul Ryan, in this mix). For the American people are beginning to understand the game that is being played in DC ... and there is a revolt brewing. Those in the 1% would be smarter in the long run if they listened to the voice of the people.

Afterward: Even the Koch brothers are implicated ... see: Breitbart Story.

You Might be a Liberal ...

If you have attended Burning Man more than twice

If you think Al Sharpton is a real Reverend

If you believe that "women's reproductive health" means women's reproductive health

If you majored in Gender Studies at MIT

If you donated your SSI check to Black Lives Matter

If you can use "diversity" and "inclusion" in the same sentence

If you still display your college Che poster in your retirement home

If you have a Bernie bumper sticker on your Prius

If you have more than five EBT cards

If you passed out doobies during Occupy Wall Street

If you wore Birkenstocks to your 25th high school reunion

If you never mouth the words to our National Anthem

If you call 22-caliber rifles "weapons of war"

If you make fun of rednecks

Firing Squad

I have previously written about the threat to the American fraternity system based upon the gang rape accusation at a University of Virginia fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, as published in Rolling Stone magazine. This resulted in the president of this university closing down all fraternities there until next Spring ... see: The Alpha of the Omega. Now we learn that this magazine's article, which never had checked with the fraternity in question, is beginning to unravel as many of its revelations are unable to be verified ... see: Enews Article.

This non-scandal is quite reminiscent of the Duke University lacrosse team scandal of a few years back which blew up in the faces of many of the professors and administration at this other "prestigious" southern university when lie after lie was exposed. We "broad-minded" liberal-educated erudites too often critique the Ferguson riots or the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations as resulting from a mob mentality ... but somehow ignore this same mindless behavior in ourselves or in those in whom we have vested authority. Sometimes we form the firing squad well before even the trial is held.

It does seem that liberal pedagogues have a penchant to follow that age-old adage, "fire, ready, aim."

Afterward: See also John Hinderaker's article in The Powerline Blog.

Nexus Perplexus

A nexus is a single connection between things, facts or ideas.  A plexus is multiple ordered connections (often biological.)  We are living in a plexus world ... information-exchange connections are multiplying at a dizzying pace spawned mostly by the Internet and social-networking plexuses (plexi).  Two people can connect in only one way.  Three people can connect in three ways, but four people can connect in six ways ... and five people, in ten ways.  So how many ways can six billion people connect?  The answer is a number larger than all the grains of sand in all the beaches in the world.  This would be best called a "perplexus" as it is what the world seems to be rapidly approaching.  Facebook  and other social-networking sites could not build computer farms large enough to accommodate such an ultimate level of connectivity.

Previous information-exchange models went through hubs (newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations) which dramatically reduced the number of connections to manageable levels ... but gave these hubs an enormous say in setting the information-exchange agenda.  Now, with the diminishing power of these former hubs, we are faced with the ironic consequences of what would be a totally "democratic" information-exchange world ... and that would be absolute chaos.  We have already witnessed precursors of such a new society in the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and the political fibrillation over how Western societies are to confront their current debt crises.  The world is trapped in an information maze with little understanding as to how to extract ourselves.  But extract ourselves we will ... as we always have.  But I, personally, am somewhat worried about what socities and information-exchange constructs will arise to deal with this new world order. 

Will they be benign or malignant?  (Or, more likely, just another way of promoting Lady Gaga?)

A Pedagogical Prediction

Every so often imbalances occur in a society that get so far out of whack that a simple idea can cause a dramatic snap-back ... that usually takes most inside-the-box thinkers by surprise.  I think we are coming up on such a boomerang in our educational system ... much like what we recently had in our housing market.  Current tuitions at higher-educational institutions are unsustainable ... as are the levels of student-loan debt that our younger generation is burdened with ... about one trillion dollars ... more than the nation's total of credit-card debt.  (I think that the Occupy Wall Street movement has had this spectre as one of the only visible pillars of protests.)

The educational process in our country (and around the world) is shockingly unproductive.  One professor ... or assistant professor ... or teaching assistant teaches a class of 10 to 100 students the fundamentals of a science ... or a language ... or a humanity ... or finance ... or a hyphenated feel-good course for an outlandish fee.  This atmospheric price is mandated by a bloated administration and the heavy hand of government  which pours money at this process with few performance or productivity requirements.  The rationale for this horse-and-buggy approach is that the interchange of ideas requires such intimacy.  The problem with this is that  higher-educational pedagogy is less and less a give-and-take and now much more a "give" only.

A few generations ago the entertainment industry went through such a cataclysmic transformation.  One did not need to attend a Frank Sinatra concert to hear him sing or attend a play to appreciate actors emoting ... records and movies created an enormous transference of services into products ... i.e., "productivity." So far the educational process has resisted such a revolution ... possibly because it sees the dire implications ... loss of sinecures and ivy covered walls. 

But enabling technologies are continuing apace and communications advances such as Skype that allow the two-way networking among many participants ... and software/hardware advances such as Google that permit a world of knowledge at one's fingertips ... will eventually allow universities to take two or three of their best professors from each discipline and offer them to their multitudes with little or no loss of the educational experience.  (I still recall, years ago, a physics professor from Cal Tech who did a bang-up job along these same lines on Public Television.) This would also open up opportunities for decentralized learning and dramatic tuition cost reductions.  Won't that be a kick?

In my current tutoring gig, I have had some dealings with "teaching" programs.  And, unfortunately they are generally of quite poor quality ... taking little advantage of the technological opportunities.  This may be because few administrators have a computer background to understand how good things could be ... and techies know little about teaching.  (Many years ago, I also saw a physics-teaching program on a Macintosh computer that is my idea of how real progress along these lines could be made.)  Anyhow, the confluence of broad-band communications improvements, computer hardware advances, and truly-innovative software will most certainly unlock educational innovation to the point where productivity gains of gigantic proportions will transform this archaic industry.

Any educational institute (or K-12 school) that doesn't see this coming train wreck  in the not-too-distant future ... and factor it into its planning will likely be rudely surprised ... and pity our poor younger generation who must still pay off the loans on their horse-and -buggy educations.

Addendum:  My more-learned wife pointed me this morning to a David Brooks' op-ed in last week NY Times on this same subject, The Campus Tsunami, and a series of related letters to the editor in this morning's newspaper.  The only thing that Mr. Brooks does not focus on is the potential for a Skype-like back and forth during this on-line educational experience.

The Flea Party

Rhymes with "Tea Party."  I think that this appellation is attributed to Ann Coulter.  She is referring to the "Occupiers" of course.

"Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble"

There are a variety of gripes being voiced by the "Occupiers" of Wall Street and other cities ... from "millionaires are evil" to "legalize pot now."  However, there is one complaint that has merit and deserves some focus: "I owe $50,000 [or much more] on my college loans and I can't find a job to begin paying it back."  It is estimated that there are now close to one trillion dollars of college loans outstanding.  This is a particularly onerous burden for such graduates who majored in gender of other hyphenated studies and are all vying for the only jobs they are realistically qualified for -- that of teaching gender and other hyphenated studies courses.  And the entity that they owe this money to is (drum roll please) the federal government ... since The Barry has nationalized almost the entire student-loan industry.  Therefore, a good many of these demonstrators unknowingly hate the very one they love.

The real reason that there is this financial dislocation is that colleges and universities have, for years, been increasing tuitions and fees far beyond the rate of inflation.  And the reason that they have been able to do this is that the federal government has insinuated itself into the economics of this industry with numerous grants, student loan guarantees, and a drumbeat about the importance of a college education.  (Ignoring the fact that neither Bill Gates nor Steve Jobs completed college.)  Somehow, like in the health care industry, whenever the federal government meddles in things, inflation rates there go haywire.

And what have these higher-education institutions been doing with all this largess?  The have bloated up their administrations with Deans of Diversity (kind of like the job Michelle Obama had in Chicago), Directors of Sustainability, etc. ... and their pampered staffs ... as well as numerous professors of gender and other hyphenated studies.  In my opinion, this is the next bubble that is about to be pricked by the exigencies of today's economic situation.  It is difficult to imagine that all the brilliant minds in almost all of these pedagogical institutions don't realize the precariousness of their situation  ... and start shedding administrative and hyphenated professorial staffs so that they might freeze or even reduce tuitions (Princeton possibly being the small exception.)

And, when this bubble does burst, may I make a prediction?  Instead of stepping out of the way and allowing an educational-industry normalcy to get re-established, the federal government will insert itself even further to prop up this silly situation ... with something like TARP II.  Will we never learn that capitalism has its own self-healing mechanisms?