Chaos Manor View, Friday, July 15, 2016

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

The news has been depressing. The failed coup – the media is now calling it the Keystone Coup – in Turkey spells the end of the separation of mosque and state that Ataturk founded. The Army was specifically commanded to insure that separation, and several times came out of barracks to dismiss a government that abridged it. This was unique in that once the government adjudged to be trying to install an Islamic Republic was gone, hew and very free – at least by Middle East standards – elections were held. Over the past few years, Erdogan has been able to purge the Turkish Army of officers loyal to the oath of brotherhood that Ataturk left as his legacy; and now with this coup attempt he has all the excuses he needs to eliminate the rest and appoint others to command. Turkey will now become an Islamic Republic, relying on plebiscite and “democracy” to establish Sharia law.

Given the secularization of much of the Turkish upper middle class, this will take time, and the economic effect on Turkey’s thriving tourist industry will be large, but it is inevitable. The Turkish relations with Israel, at one time friendly and already greatly deteriorated under Erdogan, will continue to go downhill.

The US will soon be required to choose between our Turkish “allies” – the treaties are still in force although one suspects that Erdogan will repudiate them soon enough – and the Kurds, who are our only real friends in Iraq, but who have close attachments with the Kurds in Iran and in Turkey. Turkey is already in a state of counterinsurgency with some Kurdish elements in Turkey. That will not likely diminish.

The Framers of the US Constitution universally had rejected “democracy” at the Federal level, and discouraged it in the States. In the principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, the US Constitution left most government activities to the States; when I was growing up the most visible sign (other than the war) that there was a national government was the presence of the County Agent of the Department of Agriculture, who encouraged (but had no power to enforce) contour plowing and various other gulley elimination processes, and distributed many government printed handbooks on better farming methods. Newspapers had stories about Federal Agents and bank robbers and other public enemies, but I knew no one who had ever had much contact with the feds: “Don’t make a federal case out if it” was a common expression, as federal cases were Big Deals – and quite rare. That was during the Depression, and during the War there were more signs of Federal activity, but it wasn’t until the Great Society with explicit redistribution of wealth (“take it away from the haves who don’t need it much and give it to the have-nots who need it so much” , Lyndon Johnson once said).

Sand with the establishment of Federal Aid to Education (you van build 5 schoolhouses for what a B-52 costs) and then the Department of Education, a bureaucracy was created which can exist only so long as the schools are bad. It of course keeps growing, but somehow the schools are worse than they were before it was founded. And getting worse.

Enough. I have work to do, and so do you. Wallowing in depressive news doesn’t help. We’ll get back to something constructive.

We’ve had some problems. The back street wall has bee falling for forty years, and finally made it.

It has to be dealt with. I’ll have more later.

Tojours gay…

I get one of the first Ipads about the time I got brain cancer. Apple advertised that “You already know how to use it”. And they were right. I got a lot of good out of that iPad. I got out of the habit of carrying and using it, and haven’t even turned it on since the stroke; but I keep remembering that I liked it, and I miss having something easy to use at the breakfast table when I want to make notes or often look something up. The iPhone does a passable job as a portable computer, but not so much for a stroke victim; I’m just too sloppy a typist to be very comfortable with it.

I’ve been using the Surface Pro for that job, but it gets increasingly complex to use – they offer enhancements and improvements that I don’t need and which confuse me in the morning – and I kept longing for the easy to use companion I had in the iPad. So, Saturday, I went out and got the latest iPad, and this morning I tried it.

I will probably go back to the Surface. I don’t already know how to use the new iPad. I don’t even know how to close a window I don’t want, other than pushing the one button it has to get back to starting over. The pencil, which works very well, has no place to store it although I’ll look for an accessory I can glue on, and the pencil comes with a small cap which I will almost certainly lose; I’ve already misplace it twice, and I don’t need one more damn thing to worry about.

I’ll still keep trying because I remember how much I liked the old iPad; but the new iPad cannot truthfully say “you already know how to use it”, and so far I have found no great benefits over the Surface Pro. I’ll carry either the iPad or the Surface or both to WorldCom this year, and so far the Surface alone is the decided favorite. I’m open to suggestions.

It took me an hour to install the Wall Street Journal app this morning. The App Store kept popping up suggestions for software I don’t need, and I don’t know how to close those popup window except to push the button and start over. So it goes.

There Will Be War Volume VI

Volume VI is now out! Seven down, two to go.
THERE WILL BE WAR is a landmark science fiction anthology series that combines top-notch military science fiction with factual essays by various generals and military experts on everything from High Frontier and the Strategic Defense Initiative to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. It featured some of the greatest military science fiction ever published, such Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” in Volume I, Joel Rosenberg’s “Cincinnatus” in Volume II, and Arthur C. Clarke’s “Hide and Seek” in Volume III . Many science fiction greats were featured in the original nine-volume series, which ran from 1982 to 1990, including Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dickson, Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Gregory Benford, Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, and Ben Bova.
THERE WILL BE WAR Volume VI is edited by Jerry Pournelle and features 25 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular note are “Battleground” by Gregory and James Benford, “The Eyes of Argos” by Harry Turtledove, “The Highest Treason” by Randall Garrett, “Crown of Thorns” by Edward P. Hughes, and “See Now, a Pilgrim” by Gordon Dickson.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

Chaos Manor View, Friday, July 15, 2016

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

Long ago, before 1965 say, college was understood to be for the intelligent and academically prepared among the young, who would one day both provide leadership for the country and set the tone of society. Perhaps ten percent, but no more than twenty percent, of high-school graduates were thought to have any business on a campus.

It was elitist and deliberately so. Individuals and groups obviously differed in character and aptitude. The universities selected those students who could profit by the things done at universities.

Incoming freshmen were assumed to read with fluency and to know algebra cold. They did, because applicants were screened for these abilities by the SATs. These tests, not yet dumbed down, then measured a student’s ability to handle complex ideas expressed in complex literate English, this being what college students then did.

There were no remedial courses. If you needed them, you belonged somewhere else. The goal of college was learning, not social uplift.

http://www.unz.com/freed/college-then-and-now-letter-to-a-bright-young-woman/

Some time ago I read a column on the schooling of blacks written by Walter Williams, the black economist at George Mason University, who grew up in the black housing projects of Philadelphia in the Thirties. I have read Williams for years. He is an absolutely reliable witness. He reports that all the kids could read, and that classrooms were orderly and teachers respected. Today, by all reports, in the urban black schools the kids can’t read and chaos reigns. Black kids have not gotten stupider since the Thirties. Something is wrong somewhere.

I read similar stories about chaotic, violent, illiterate Latino kids in American schools, these things being attributed to low intelligence. I live in Mexico, and see nothing even faintly resembling these stories. The statistics agree. (Mexican literacy, CIA FactBook: 95%. American literacy, US Department of Education: 86%) Something is wrong somewhere.

In 1981, I wrote a piece for Harper’s on the overwhelmingly black Catholic schools of Washington, DC, and found them to be exactly as Williams described the schools in his projects: well-behaved, and all the kids could read. The article follows. shortly.

http://www.unz.com/freed/walter-williams-catholics-the-projects-and-schooling-for-blacks-something-is-wrong-somewhere/

An obvious observation, which hardly anyone seems to make, is that blacks suffer less from racism than from poor education. Harvard does not reject black applicants because it dislikes blacks but because they are badly prepared. Blacks do not fail the federal entrance examination because it is rigged to exclude them but because they don’t know the answers. Equality of opportunity without equality of education is a cruel joke: giving an illiterate the right to apply to Yale isn’t giving him much.

The intelligent policy is to educate black children, something that the public schools of Washington manage, at great expense, not to do. In fact the prevailing (if unspoken) view seems to be that black children cannot be educated, an idea whose only defect is that it is wrong: the Catholic schools of Washington have been educating black children for years. The Catholic system has 12,170 students in the District, of whom 7,884, or 65 percent, are black.

Fred Reed

The Color of Education
Harper’s, February 1981

1800  PDT

“Coup” in Turkey

I intend to continue the discussion of education, bur there is news from Turkey that the Army, invoking their duty imposed on the Military brotherhood that was the Young Turkish Army, imposed by Mustapha Kemal, called Kemal Ataturk, to keep Turkey secular and prevent it from becoming an Islamic Republic.

There are conflicting reports from Turkey, and it is pointless to speculate in the absence of facts. Under Kemal’s Constitution, still so far as I know the Constitution of Turkey, the Army is the guardian of Turkey as a secular republic, and has the right and duty to enforce that secularism by any means necessary. In the past the Army has exercised that duty, going so far as to hang the existing governing powers; it has then retired to barracks and held new elections, choosing not to govern, but to remain the guardian of the Turkish Constitution.

The current Turkish Government has dismissed or compulsorily retired much of the senior officer corps of the Turkish Army, and has asserted it’s domination over the Army, in effect ending the Construction imposed by Kemal Ataturk. The new coup – if you care to call it a coup, since the Army can and does proclaim both the right and duty to take control to insure Constitutional government – appears to be led by lower grade officers. We have not heard of fighting among uniformed units. The various Islamic Republic factions are calling for jihad against the Army. It will be days before we know the outcome.

President Obama is reported to have appealed for the return of democracy.

2230 PDT

Erdogan claims victory over a minor coup, with 700 Army casualties reported.  Nothing else.  If so, this will truly be the end of the astounding Ataturk constitutional legacy.  It is a victory for democracy, but in Turkey democracy doesn’t mean rule of law.  An Islamic Republic will implement Sharia Law if possible; that will be difficult in Turkey.  Further discussion is not much better than speculation without more information.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

Chaos Manor View, Wednesday, July 13, 2016

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

I’m way behind, but I’ll catch up. The good news is that there’s a lot more Mamelukes; I’ve been working on that. The ADSUS Zen portable keyboard is a godsend to two finger typists who had been touch typists before a stroke: the keys are big, and well separated, and it’s much easier to produce creative work on it. I have it and a 25” monitor up in the Monk’s Cell, and when I can get up there – when the distractions down here slow up a bit – I go up and work, and I can write a lot faster. I don’t have Outlook on it yet, which means I can’t do these essays up there yet since I need access to mail with cut and paste when I do them.

Access I have: I can control this downstairs computer with the Zen. But I have forgotten how to cut and paste between the machine I am controlling and the machine I’m controlling it with. I also need to install LiveWriter on the Zen, and Microsoft has put LiveWriter on the DNR list and left it abandoned. I’ll get up there. It will just be a while before I get there, because events tend to eat my time.

All of which is an explanation for why I have neglected this place. Apologies.

I note that Trump is catching up to Hillary in the polls, although Trump has done almost nothing while Hillary and the general media have been frantically spending money denouncing Trump I’m not sure that needs comment. After all, neither is yet the actual nominee of any party. We haven’t had the Conventions yet. The Party structure – unknown to the Framers or the Constitution – has been put into Federal Law, and the formalities have to be followed.

Meanwhile, the rage for diversity as opposed to assimilation – what I was taught in school as the “Melting Pot” that was the foundation of Americanism – has taken off. The original goal of Abolition was the assimilation of the Freedmen into American society. Where it worked – and there were only a few places where it worked – it worked well. And for groups – races, nationalities, cultures – other than African Americans it worked well. Sure, there was some conflict over Wops, Hunkies, Paddies, Italian-Americans, Greek-Americans, Irish-Americans, but the Melting Pot was triumphant. The denigration of national origins was fading out. The last major group to benefit from that was Orientals – Asians, since I am told that Oriental is now considered a denigration – have become a major factor in university admissions (as Jews once were), and places like Chinatown are pretty well transformed from ghettos to tourist attractions. The Asian American family down the street from us organizes annual Fourth of July children’s parades attended by everyone with children and many including local Movie/TV stars.

It was beginning to work on African Americans, despite the Great Society’s effects on the Black Family, but then came diversity. Now assimilation into the American cultural equality is denounced.

When I was in 10^th grade in the then legally segregated South (Tennessee), I became convinced that the law and the government ought to be colorblind. I was considered weird, a left winger, even a communist, for that belief. I haven’t changed that view, but now I am considered a right winger, a Fascist – odd, because the Fascists proclaimed themselves socialists, and socialists are supposed to be left wingers. I haven’t changed much. I had no black friends when I was 10 – legally I couldn’t really have any – and I’ve acquired a few since. Legal segregation is no more; but now equality is not the goal. Diversity is, but no one seems to know its limits.

And now we are compelled by government to respect diversity. Again no one defines its limits. Are we to accept as cultural diversity the mutilation of female children by their parents (or doctors on instruction from their parents)? Honor killing? Sharia Law? Stoning of adulteresses? But I digress.

I have for years written about possible social effects of robots. I will say again: by 2020 over half the people employed in these United States could be replaced by robots costing about the same for the robot as the worker currently makes in wages. The operating costs of the robot will be about 10% of the cost of the robot. As a rule, a human will be required to supervise about ten of these robots, although the supervision will not require any great skill.

This trend will continue.

I understand that Japan has a population decline problem. Their alternatives are few. One, import workers who will undermine their culture, is not attractive to their leadership. Another is to bring in more robots to keep up the living standards of the aging population. There are a lot of implications to this. Few are thinking about it.

Fred has some thoughts on the subject of robots: http://www.unz.com/freed/ready-new-rossiters-universal-robots-toward-a-most-minimal-wage/

You can also find it in his regular Fred on Everything column, but you might find other interesting matter at the above site. I urge you to go read it and think about what you have read.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

I started this on Saturday the 9^th, after which my time was devoured by locusts.

It needs work, but it isn’t going to get it. What you get now is an essay in embryo; I’ll try to finish it another time.

The one thing we don’t want. If you think about it, is the nationalization of the police. We may have hired to New York Chief of Police – Commissioner there – to come head our Los Angeles constabulary, and he did a good job; but we did not hire him to make LAPD into an image of NYPD. When I was in city politics, a very long time ago, an odd thing happened: New York, then as now larger in population (but not area) than the City of Los Angeles, but not multiple sizes larger, laid off more police officers than LAPD had cops – and still had a larger police establishment than we do.

I don’t pretend to be an “expert” in city government (and I don’t have a lot of faith in those who do), but I think I’m on steady ground in saying we do not want over twice as many police as we have. We have problems meeting our standards now; to double the size of LAPD we would have to admit a lot we turn down now. There are a lot of political jurisdictions in southern California, many have their own local police forces, and rather than operate their own police academy it’s much cheaper to tempt seasoned LAPD cops by paying higher salaries and benefits. We couldn’t possibly afford to double the size of LAPD.

There are many other peculiarities about policing Southern California, as I am sure there are in thousands of other communities in the United States; and the notion of a national police code, nationalizing police methods, is absurd on the face of it. It is also dangerous.

I won’t pretend to know all the details of the various cases that arouse the ire of Black Lives Matter (BLM), but I would think that protest marches designed to infuriate the police in Los Angeles is probably not the way to gather sympathy for black people in Baton Rouge, Baltimore, or Ferguson; particularly so if those protests attract participants who work themselves into throwing rocks at police, jumping up and down on police cars, breaking windows, looting athletic wear shops, lighting bonfires, and in general defining “peaceful” as doing anything one likes except deliberately beating people up. (Of course those who try to prevent looting liquor stores or sneaker shops deserve what happens to them.) Of course such thuggery was not planned by those organizing the protest event, nor were thugs invited to participate, and security people are expensive and it’s hard to get effective ones to work for protesters, and things just got out of hand. We tried. We really tried. I’ve heard all those stories, and I believe those who told them to me in the hopes that I would use some political magic to make the out of hand incidents just go away truly believed what they were saying. I was told to believe them, for that matter. The Mayor wasn’t looking for a fight. But the LAPD wanted their patrol cars replaced and some kind of compensation for losing their time off duty. The shop owners wanted compensation. And so forth.

Now make it all national. LAPD – the piggies, they were called in my day – were supposed to respect and apologize to the protesters they had inconvenienced, let alone those who had suffered accidents, and as to those actually injured by a police baton! Well the least we should do is fire those cops!  No pension, just turn them out the door.

At least that is what it was like out here in those days. And we are now told to nationalize this; make LAPD pay for what the driver of a Baltimore paddy wagon did.

I don’t think the United States would survive a nationalized police force, with all its members held responsible for what any of its members did. There may or may not be problems in some local police forces. Perhaps in many of them. But they will not all have the same problems, and they will definitely not have the same solutions. If you want to protest police actions in Los Angeles, do so in Los Angeles, with Los Angeles people; don’t try to hold Los Angeles responsible for Baton Rouge or Baltimore (and note I am not commenting on the merits or demerits of those incidents; I wasn’t there and I haven’t studied them). If you believe in self government, then be a part of self government. Last I heard, Baltimore wasn’t even in California, much less Los Angeles County. It’s not in Dallas, either.

Forcing the police into the defensive is not a good idea. If the police are any use at all, they will stand together; the surest way to have them oppose you is to demand they stand with you against other police. You may get some takers, but the results are not likely to be what you expected or want.

Yes: I would prefer police be as they were when I was growing up: your friends, someone to turn to if you got in trouble. Community policing, they call it now, but I don’t think that phrase was in use in my day.

I write about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Both were African-American males; both were armed, both are dead by police. I submit that they prove that there is no Second Amendment for African-American males.

Sterling and Castile were street-executed by killer cops for the crime of PWB: packing while black. Otherwise they were entirely innocent; their killers are murderers under color of law. This is though open-carry is legal in Louisiana, and concealed carry is legal in Minnesota. What’s more, Castile had a concealed-carry permit, and had told his killer this just before he was shot. The NRA, so jealous of open and concealed carry rights, have been conspicuously silent on this point.
So, hypocritical legal promises aside, do black men actually have the right to open carry in Louisiana or or concealed carry in Minnesota? And will the self-proclaimed defenders of second amendment rights defend those rights in their case? Evidently not. Who speaks for the Second Amendment when the NRA is silent? Is the NRA really about gun rights, or about gun sales?
So it appears that, for at least two black men, the Second Amendment does not exist.
Ah, but what of the supposed political purpose of the second amendment; as a armed-populace bulwark against tyranny? Well first of all, that’s absurd, for the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Certainly George Washington did not favor the Whiskey Rebellion, nor did Abraham Lincoln favor Southern Secession. And the case of Micah Johnson gives the lie to that as well. Micah Johnson was far from innocent; he killed five cops; but he did so explicitly as armed resistance against police tyranny. He said as much during the standoff. The police did not accept this argument; nor has BLM; nor has the NRA.
So does the Second Amendment exist? Not for black men, not for resisting tyranny. And if the Second Amendment is fictitious for some, then isn’t it fictitious for all?
And speaking of fictitious legal protection: a _bomb_robot_? For police work? So long 5th Amendment! Sure, Micah Johnson was a cop-killer, and the Blue Gang is tribal about that sort of thing, but couldn’t they have waited him out? I see a barrier being crossed here; yet another step in the militarization of police.

Paradoctor

I draw a different lesson from the Dallas attack on police. I do not spurn yours .

Have you a comment on Fred and the Baltimore Riots? http://www.fredoneverything.net/Ballmer.shtml 

sc:bubbles]

Military Purge

I wrote to you on the military purge. Many top officers and generals were fired; here is an example of one at DIA with decades of service who sees our enemy as radical Islam. He was relieved of duty; he’s not alone:

https://nypost.com/2016/07/09/the-military-fired-me-for-calling-our-enemies-radical-jihadis/

I’m on my way to a negotiation course, but I have some links I can try to find on my phone and elsewhere with a small list of influential officers purged under Obama with many generals. And then I told you about the hearings to allow illegal aliens to serve and become citizens even as we downsize our military. So we take out our good officers and then we want to direct commission off the streets, which they say they need to do for the officer shortage they created.

They fire enlisted folks and want to bring on illegal aliens while purging generals who understand who the enemy is? This is a coup and our military has been purged or is in the process of being purged. We have a chilling effect on media, we have a government that has members who engage in criminal activity (AG Holder the latest demonstrable example), and a purge of the military. If people can’t see what this is then maybe they will never see until a military boot crushes their testicles and it won’t matter?

Take me to my dictator.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Sandboxboy II: Son of Bin Laden

Like a bad Hollywood film, we have the Son of Bin Laden; I’m just laughing at how much like a script this crap is reading. Bin Laden just kept getting younger and younger in all his videos until they killed him and dumped his body in the sea just before a dozen of the folks that killed him all died in a helicopter crash. But, now, from the depths of the Sea…..

<.>

The son of Osama bin Laden has threatened revenge against the US for assassinating his father, according to an audio message posted online by Al-Qaeda.

</>

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/osama-bin-laden-son-hamza-vows-revenge-us-for-killing-his-father-in-video-posted-online-a7129281.html

“You never kill them all, son”. LT Dax

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

‘The sad reality of autonomous car technology is that the easy parts of have yet to be proven safe, and the hard parts have yet to be proven possible.’

<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/sunday/silicon-valley-driven-hype-for-self-driving-cars.html>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

I make no doubt that robot drivers  can be made to statistically be safer than above average humans; but can we restrict drivers licenses to above average drivers?

A new way to look at faraway places. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jul/12/sheep-view-360-faroe-islands-google-mapping-project

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

Chaos Manor View, Tuesday, July 5, 2016

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

No one expected Barrack Hussein Obama to allow his Attorney General to indict Mrs., Hillary Clinton for anything, and apparently Bill Clinton knew how to get the message across to her that the FBI Director had to be the one to announce the all clear. It was duly done today. Since the Democrats will not allow any impeachment convictions, and the House Republicans are not willing to impose the power of the purse to defund any Executive or Regulatory Commission actions, it is clear that so long as the Democrats hold the White House, things will go pretty much the way they want. One more Supreme Court appointment and that will be certain for decades,

Well, that didn’t take long. I had been wondering how my read that Hillary was for the chop jibed with Obama’s commitment to campaign with her today. Short answer, I was wrong, likely involving wishful thinking.

20-20 hindsight, the correct analysis of Bill Clinton’s meeting with AG Lynch was the one with Lynch telling him to tell Hillary that whatever she did in her upcoming FBI interview, don’t lie (and thus insult the FBI beyond endurance while Martha-Stewarting her way back into jeopardy.)

Comey’s announcement was interesting. He made clear that felony exposure of classified material can be intentional or negligent. He made clear Hillary systematically exposed significant classified material for years on end. He stated the FBI couldn’t prove intent. He emphasized that what the FBI has here are facts. He dropped a strong hint that nobody else should try this. Then he announced no recommendation for prosecution.

Not exactly a resounding exoneration. (Nor a ringing affirmation of the rule of law.)

The immediate consequence I see is that the Reps week after next can decide whether or not to nominate Trump in the reasonably sure knowledge that either way, the week after that the Dems will nominate Hillary.

That’s reasonably sure, mind. Not sure. Based on these FBI facts, DOJ could still prosecute. It would of course be a purely political calculation, made if at some point Hillary becomes such a likely loser that parachuting in a substitute seems a lower risk to the legacy.

Cynical? Moi? It’s 2016 – the correct question is, am I cynical *enough*?

Porkypine

Hello Jerry,

Got this today from a local friend.  Just to be clear, it was written BEFORE the FBI announced the obvious:  Although Hillary had committed a series of RECENT prima facie felonies (not counting her serial lies and felonies since she burst on the scene in 1992), she would not be prosecuted:

http://m.townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/07/04/you-owe-them-nothing–not-respect-not-loyalty-not-obedience-n2186865

Given what we KNOW about the behavior of Obama, Hillary, Bill, and the rest of the progressive elite, can you imagine them being prosecuted for ANYTHING?

Bob Ludwick

Dr. Pournelle,
Despite several areas in which I disagree with him, I still favor “all four stanzas” as described by Isaac Asimov: http://www.purewatergazette.net/asimov.htm
In a recent PBS News Hour panel discussion about the electorate’s apparent mistrust of Mrs. Clinton, I was absolutely amazed that no one at all referred to William Jefferson Clinton. For most of her husband’s political career they campaigned as a couple, even stating at various times that she was a co-governor, a co-president, or the equivalent of a cabinet member. I cannot believe that this learned group had forgotten Mr. Clinton, especially as several of the same panel were just days later quite conversant with him a few days later after he’d met the Attorney General in the Phoenix Airport. While I’m absolutely sure there is nothing to the latter story, are Mrs. Clinton’s supporters trying to forget him or just deliberately not talking about the elephant in the room?
As to the Benghazi investigation, I can’t understand how the determination that no laws were broken amounts to the same as a declaration of competence on the part of the President,his foreign policy, or the Secretary of State. I never thought there was any traction in the e-mail or classified information side shows, but the lack of criminality does not correlate to there being no negligence.
-d

Fall of the Republic

If I had any confidence in DOJ after Holder got his criminal contempt charge, Lynch nixed that. I thought maybe, just maybe, FBI had some of that Fidelity, Integrity, Bravery like it says on their little statue outside their little building in DC. I could have gone to the FBI building or the National Archives because I didn’t have much time, and I chose the FBI building. Now, I wish I had chosen to see the National Archives:

<.>

There is no way of getting around this: According to Director James Comey (disclosure: a former colleague and longtime friend of mine), Hillary Clinton checked every box required for a felony violation of Section 793(f) of the federal penal code (Title 18): With lawful access to highly classified information she acted with gross negligence in removing and causing it to be removed it from its proper place of custody, and she transmitted it and caused it to be transmitted to others not authorized to have it, in patent violation of her trust. Director Comey even conceded that former Secretary Clinton was “extremely careless” and strongly suggested that her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services.

Yet, Director Comey recommended against prosecution of the law violations he clearly found on the ground that there was no intent to harm the United States. In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no

sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing. The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence.

</>

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437479/fbi-rewrites-federal-law-let-hillary-hook

I wonder what Sideshow Don will have to say about Comey the Clown’s latest skit — excuse me — press conference?

Did you ever see In Living Color? I hated that show, but I liked the Homey the Clown skits because I was a young boy and he hit people on

the head and yelled his catch phrase. Comey don’t play that!

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

The FBI Director described in detail how she broke the laws, several of them, and made it clear that anyone else would have been prosecuted. He described her lies to Federal Officers, far more than Martha Stewart’s denials of actions that were not criminal (but the denial was) which got her actual jail time. Then he said, But she meant well, meant no harm, and we will let her off.

Dear Jerry,

Some random thoughts on recent posts by your correspondents-

BREXIT

Those voters in Northern England sending a message to the London elite that they want the Foreigner Off Their Backs? Hmm, what was that about the Dane and his Dane geld? “What a shock, that the very same Northerners that booted the Dane out are now telling their elite Once Again that Britain is an island off the coast of Europe.

Whatever happened to that hoary old SFnal concept of an “Anglic Union”?

Seems the English speaking nations have at least as much in common as cheese eating wine swilller s, sausage gnashing beer guzzlers and potato chewing vodka imbibers.

Germany and the EU-

In 1989, when Germany reunified, I reminded everyone I could talk to about such matters what one prescient French politician said about Germany in the fifties, when asked if it was possible, considering history, for a Frenchman to “love” Germany: “Oh, I do love Germany! Why, each and every day I thank the Good Lord that there are TWO of them!”

Once the Germans reunified, I was certain that the German dream of a commercial empire the length and breadth of the Danube valley under the domination of Good German Burgers was next on the agenda.

Well, how long did it take for the “nation” of Yugoslavia, after 1989, to fall apart like a cheap pair of Russian shoes in the first spring rain? About two years, if you were not paying attention.

Given that, and the collapse of the Warsaw pact along with the USSR, all barriers to the EU becoming a German tool for the economic combination of Europe under Good German Management, with France as a junior partner a la Scotland’s relationship to England in the British Empire, with Belgium fulfilling the role as a good Non-Nation in search of a job of being a Safe house and supplier of faceless bureaucrats for this racket, were gone. Fait accompli. Done Deal. Forget About It!

If you take a look at the ca. 1961 classic work by Fritz Fischer on German war aims in the First World War, you will notice that the BRD has achieved them, and all without a single German soldier buying the farm.

As for “democracy”: Ortega y Gasset said it all in that quote you posted a few days ago. The New Class of the EU are believers in aristocratic ideals, not any form of so called democracy. Unfortunately, they are the aristocratic ideals of the continent, not the considerably less self-interested set of such ideals evolved by the British upper-classes, largely in response to the challenge of the French Revolution. The ideals of Brussels are Ancien Regime, with a Crony capitalist High Tech gloss.

I don’t find any of this particularly surprising. Anyone with a basic understanding of European and German history can see the culmination of centuries long trends in all of this. The long decline of France, which two hundred and fifty years ago was home to forty per cent of the European population, the long rise of Germany, and the stagnation of Russia and Eastern Europe, leading that region to be little more than a rather recalcitrant commercial colony of Germany has all been predictable.

Solution? I don’t see any. Only suggestion I have is a la Mr. Heinlein.

Get as many people off this world and living on others as widely dispersed and far away as possible, because this one is just too crowded, too full of old wounds and unhealed hurts, and “Blowups Happen”!

Anglic Union, and Per Aspera Ad Astra, anyone?

Petronius

I got distracted and sent too soon as my wife was reading and we got talking. I have a few things I noticed about this article that I think deserve mention:

Donald Trump tweeted: “The only people who are not interested in being the V.P. pick are the people who have not been asked!”

So, first reaction, wanting the job would seem to be requite to having it and I would not expect him to offer the job to an unqualified person, until now. And, he suggests that he’s asking anyone who might be interested in the job, which suggests desperation.

That he posted this random outburst on Twitter at all shows you that it’s on his mind and he wants to create some buzz about it. And that brings me to my second point.

The New York Times seems to have writers have gone, well, look:

<.>

It is unusual in recent history for a presumptive nominee of a major party to tease out the process for choosing a running mate in such a public way, but it is in reflective of Mr. Trump’s approach on his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”

</>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/us/politics/joni-ernst-trump-vp.html

Yeah, that must be it. Sideshow Don is just putting on a show and enhancing his brand, which of course he is but that’s not all he’s doing. While the NYT sees Sideshow Don, I see a man gathering intelligence and building rapport and moving the sale down the line to the close while overcoming objections and building need and urgency.

This public display affects poll numbers, creates feedback, and may engender useful comments from allies and equally useful emotional outbursts from enemies — all of which further those goals. The comments build rapport even if they mean nothing. The outbursts offer intelligence and opponents would probably shut their mouths if they knew that. But they don’t and they won’t and “the beat goes on” as you say. It’s growing on me…. 😉

The most important things I’ve noticed:

LTC Ernst is a combat veteran and she will lend gravitas to Trump on foreign and defense policy simply with her background alone.

LTC Ernst is speaking in a presidential way and she’s on a tour like Palin’s.

LTC Ernst’s presence is consistent with the tradition in this country that our presidents are, mostly, career politicians or generals. I know, she’s a light colonel but most of the political prostitutes are not really politicians so I think we can make allowances, don’t’ you?

The only person on the left that I can see that could hold a candle to LTC Ernst would be MAJ Tulsi Gabbard, currently serving the Military Police Corps through the Army National Guard.

But, Clinton’s people likely won’t think she needs Gabbard and she probably wouldn’t help much from their point of view but, should we get stuck with a Clinton presidency, Gabbard might make it livable.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

http://www.drroyspencer.com/

Multiple posts on front page of his blog

Record Warm 2016? What a Difference One Month Makes

July 1st, 2016

With the rapid cooling now occurring in the global average tropospheric temperature, my previous prediction of a record warm year in the satellite data for 2016 looks…well…premature.

UAH Global Temperature Update for June 2016: +0.34 deg. C

July 1st, 2016

Second largest 2-month drop in global average satellite temperatures.
Largest 2-month drop in tropical average satellite temperatures.

(The global anomaly for May was +0.55 deg. C)

J

Interesting that June took a cooling turn. Especially given that 12 out of the 30 days in the month, the Sun was spotless on the near side, and for about half of that time, apparently spotless on the far side as well.

There are now teeny-tiny little spots starting to show back up. But the one that’s currently numbered on the near side is so small I can’t even see it. And they seem to spring up and then decay a day later.

Stephanie Osborn

“The Interstellar Woman of Mystery”
http://www.Stephanie-Osborn.com

The uncertainties continue. The consensus has come apart on CO2 Global Warming although there is nor a lot of agreement on what is happening. It is important to note that the Earth has almost certainly been both warmer and colder than now in historical times: the Viking period warm, which is corroborated by Asian records, and the Roman Warm period were warmer, and it was certainly colder in Revolutionary War times.

Jerry:

I note that all 5 volumes of The History of England, from the Accession of James II are available on Amazon as Kindle editions – free of charge.

So many books – so little time.

Best Regards,

  — Lindy Sisk

Incompetent Governence

The madness continues; the first paragraph — while not very informative — sets the tone and pace for the final paragraphs. It’s a nice piece:

<.>

Yet the president has relied on the outdated authorization passed after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to validate his multiple air and drone campaigns, as well as deployment of trainers, advisers and special operations forces. Obama almost certainly does not believe that the old AUMF (Authorization of Use of Military Force), directed against those who plotted the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, has any relevance in today’s world. But he may fear that Congress would make a bad situation worse.

If H.J. Res. 84, “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Islamist Extremism”, is any indication, Obama would be right in that assumption. Sponsored by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and cosponsored by Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), the bill creates a long list of target “organizations that support Islamist extremism”, many of which have done nothing against America. It is a strikingly foolish piece of legislation.

First of all, a country normally declares war against entities, not philosophies. Usually the enemy is another nation. In today’s world, that might be applied to a group. But war involves destroying states, dismantling organizations and killing people. It does not entail criticizing ideologies or theologies. What matters is not whether a group is Islamist, but whether it endangers America.

Secondly, the threat to America and other nations is violent extremism, not extremism itself. It doesn’t particularly matter if people have kooky ideas if they do not kill, maim, kidnap, torture and otherwise harm others. One best avoids rather than executes them. Had Adolf Hitler remained a deranged street artist in Vienna, the United States would have had no cause to target him despite his hideous views. War became necessary when Hitler became Germany’s chancellor and put armored divisions, and more, in support of his opinions.

Lastly, war should be reserved for responding to threats to America, not cleaning up messes in other nations’ neighborhoods. During World War II, Washington declared war on Japan and Germany, then later on Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. All were fighting against America or its allies; Congress did not pass a resolution against fascism. Spain chose not to enter the conflict, despite dictator Francisco Franco having received support from Germany and Italy during its civil war. The Franco regime might have been evil, but it posed no security threat to America. Other governments might have been considered fascist, but Washington had no cause to attack them.

</>

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/declaring-war-islamist-extremism-nonsense-16652

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Elite School Teaches White Kids They’re Born Racist.

Now hear this! The doctrine of original sin has been updated to suit the social justice paradigm. Now, only white people shall be born in original sin and they will atone to the colored people who may grant indulgences!

<.>

An elite Manhattan school is teaching white students as young as 6 that they’re born racist and should feel guilty benefiting from “white privilege,” while heaping praise and cupcakes on their black peers.

Administrators at the Bank Street School for Children on the Upper West Side claim it’s a novel approach to fighting discrimination, and that several other private New York schools are doing it, but even liberal parents aren’t buying it.

</>

http://nypost.com/2016/07/01/elite-k-8-school-teaches-white-students-theyre-born-racist/

“Even liberal parents aren’t buying it”. It’s too nutty, even for them. Maybe in a couple more election cycles? Maybe then we’ll be voting between the Grand Dragon of the KKK and Reverend Farakhan (however you spell his name)?

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.