Chaos Manor View, Sunday, February 14, 2016
“This is the most transparent administration in history.”
Barrack Obama
Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.
The pledge drive week is ended, and thanks.
I was going to suggest that the best thing Trump could do to show he is a serious candidate would be to discuss his possible appointments to the Supreme Court, but he obviously understands such things: he has gone on record as saying we need someone just like Scalia. He named one possibility but made it clear he was looking for Scalia replacements: scholarly, conservative, and persuasive. He scores high with me in his answers on Meet The Press today, and was neither frivolous nor overly aggressive. He is no philosopher, nor claims to be; he remains a pragmatic populist.
And he certainly would not nominate Bill Clinton or Barrack Hussein Obama…
This will be a critical appointment to USSC; with Scalia gone, the balance is close. We have two Obama and two Clinton appointments; one remaining by Reagan; and three by Bushes. The next one will, like Scalia before him, be pretty well the tie breaker on Constitutional matters. God helps look out for fools, drinks, and the United States of America, and we really need Him on this one.
The Hon. Antonin G. Scalia, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, RIP.
<http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-antonin-scalia-20160213-story.html>
He will be missed.
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Roland Dobbins
I have some new stories about Computing at Chaos Manor, but it is for another time. Meanwhile:
Charles Murray on Trump’s America
http://www.aei.org/publication/trumps-america/
Phil Tharp
Is an extremely important essay by one of the few sociologists for whom I have any respect or regard, and I recommend it to all of you. It’s worth your time.
Jerry,
Via Instapundit, http://www.aei.org/publication/trumps-america/
Charles Murray, author of “Coming Apart”, methodically lays out where Mr. Trump’s current wave of support comes from. Long, and impossible to do justice to by a few short quotes, but here are a few anyway.
“If you are dismayed by Trumpism, don’t kid yourself that it will fade away if Donald Trump fails to win the Republican nomination. Trumpism is an expression of the legitimate anger that many Americans feel about the course that the country has taken, and its appearance was predictable.
It is the endgame of a process that has been going on for a
half-century: America’s divestment of its historic national identity.”
“The new upper class consists of the people who shape the country’s economy, politics and culture. The new lower class consists of people who have dropped out of some of the most basic institutions of American civic culture, especially work and marriage. Both of these new classes have repudiated the American creed in practice, whatever lip service they may still pay to it. Trumpism is the voice of a beleaguered working class telling us that it too is falling away.”
“Another characteristic of the new upper class—and something new under the American sun—is their easy acceptance of being members of an upper class and their condescension toward ordinary Americans.”
“For its part, mainstream America is fully aware of this condescension and contempt and is understandably irritated by it. American egalitarianism is on its last legs.”
“..the central truth of Trumpism as a phenomenon is that the entire American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class.”
Any Republican – any conservative, any American – who hopes to end this year with a chance to begin fixing the damage and pulling the country back together should read this piece and think hard.
I wrote recently about part of what Murray addresses, the erosion of our middle classes at the lower margin. My takeaway from this piece:
<bold>Our upper classes and their destructive cult of progressive virtue-signaling must also be addressed.</bold>
Not taxed out of existence to pay for far vaster entitlements as Bernie Sanders proposes – that simply won’t work. Nor are Mr. Trump’s current blunt repudiations of parts of their foolishness sufficient. Enjoyable and long overdue, yes, but not sufficient.
Our ruling classes, our self-anointed betters, require persuasive explanation of how far they’ve strayed from the essence of being American, along with a combination of shaming and cajolement to induce at least some of them to start rejoining the old ideal of the country.
The candidate that can do this, with that deft amiable Reagan touch (which as you point out, he made look easy, but it’s anything but) will burn Bernie, bury Hillary, out-trump Trump, and likely take 40+ states.
Not because he’ll immediately convince the ruling class – they took decades to drift into that state, they’ll take time to climb back out – but because a large majority of the country knows we’re crumbing but hasn’t yet heard a persuasively reasoned fix.
I wouldn’t rule out Trump being the one to do this. It’s a logical extension of what he’s been doing, and he is certainly a capable man.
It does require far more hard work (and risk) than he’s committed to so far.
Is there anyone else among the current candidates who also might gain then wield the bully pulpit thus? Cruz has the combination of deep intelligence and utter lack of need for establishment-approval it’d take. One or two others seem to have the intelligence…
Interesting times.
Porkypine
As you say. Interesting times. What is certain is that this broken system of education cannot go on; and that, with a false philosophy required to be learned and believed in order to graduate, reminds us of other places in the past. But not even the USSR required you to incur a lifetime of debt in order to take your four years of Marxism.
It’s Official, New Cold War with Russia
Well, it’s now official, once more we face the Red Menace:
<.>
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said his country is in a new Cold War with the U.S. and its allies, underscoring the tenuous level of trust that’s putting a day-old plan for a truce in Syria at risk.
</>
Thankfully, some of us experienced this; we’re ready for this. Or so we think….
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Most Respectfully,
Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
It has been building since Clinton and Albright chose the anti-Slavic side in a Balkan conflicts they did not understand, and in which the United States had no discernible interest. They bombed Serbia, dropped the bridges on the lower Danube thus wrecking economies all along the river, and achieved little beyond angering the Russians and earning the hatred of Serbians. The cost of resurrecting SAC will be enormous, yet there must be a MAD component because we have not moved far enough toward strategic defense; meanwhile we have wasted much of the economy on nonsense like alcohol fuels – which are not all that useful for cars, but keep the price of corn and sugar high – and other expensive “renewable” energy. If renewable energy is the goal – and it is a worthy one – nuclear power is the best we know of now; but more is spent on regulations and lawyers than on research and development of nuclear energy.
ISIS is a common enemy of all Europe and America, but few seem to recognize it.
And now we have a new Cold War with Russia. A grand reset.
Well, this is interesting and I have comments:
<.>
Europe is facing a convergence of the worst crises since World War II, and the overwhelming consensus among officials and experts here is that the U.S. no longer has the will or the ability to play an influential role in solving them.
At the Munich Security Conference, the prime topics are the refugee crisis, the Syrian conflict, Russian aggression and the potential dissolution of the European Union’s very structure. Top European leaders repeatedly lamented that 2015 saw all of Europe’s problems deepen, and unanimously predicted that in 2016 they would get even worse.
“The question of war and peace has returned to the continent,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the audience, indirectly referring to Russian military interventions. “We had thought that peace had returned to Europe for good.”
</>
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-02-13/europe-s-convinced-u-s-won-t-solve-its-problems
First, we both know that Europe is a joke militarily. I sent you articles about how the British and French considered merging their navies since neither country really has one anymore. I also wrote about how the UK MOD said they cannot initiate or sustain wars as of more than 10 years ago. I also wrote about how the German NATO rapid strike force used mop handles in a comparatively recent exercise because they had no small arms.
Second, when I traveled, I got nothing but bullshit from young Australians, Canadians, Kiwis, Englishmen, and people I affectionately came to refer to as “Eurotrash” simply for being American. Oh, we’re so evil. We’re the source of all the pain and suffering in the world.
My feelings of “friendship” with Europe disappeared during my travels.
And after listening to English chavs denounce my country, the country that saved them from two world wars, I’m not interested in helping them out of the kindness of my heart either.
I am not surprised Europe is in the dying cockroach position and I find it amusing that it’s “America’s fault” for “not helping”. My interests in Europe are purely geopolitical. Their politics, their societies, and their attitudes are about as acceptable to me as those of the American left. Though I wouldn’t mind having a cottage in Switzerland and the Swiss were never rude to me about my nationality.
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Most Respectfully,
Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
“It is as though they all have some signs of being on an Asperger’s spectrum.”
<www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/02/25/we-are-hopelessly-hooked/>
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Roland Dobbins
Having spent two generations sowing the wind, whirlwind reapings may be expected.
The earth’s core vs. climate
A geologist acquaintance of mine made the statement that earth’s core being a giant nuclear reactor is a major determinant of climate. That the internal heat thus generated is what makes our planet habitable and is the reason that Mars, lacking such, can never be made habitable.
I am at a loss as to where to turn to research this, I am not seeking to refute his position, simply to learn. Any suggestions would be appreciated.John Pennell
I do not advise you to ask at your university; such questions are no longer appropriate. While climatologists have no explanation of El Nino, they use the El Nino warnings as explanations for why their climate models don’t work; but still they don’t. There now so many whose careers depend on manmade global warning that it is not even possible to discuss the subject in most universities; it is fatal to any academic success.
The sun’s quiet activity could trigger a mini ice age, researchers warn | Daily Mail Online
Charles Brumbelow
At least we know how to throw another log on the fire…
The Last Bastion of the Liberal Left
“To legitimize itself, the Left needs to hide the truth that the central planning it loves only begets misery. So all it has remaining is trying to shut the rest of us up.”
“Government By ‘Experts’ Is Failing Everywhere”
“Social Science Has Moved On”
“Research Shows Strong, Traditional Institutions Matter Most”
“The Last Leftist Bastion: Environmentalism”
A good essay with these paragraph topics telling you where it’s going.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/02/12/political-correctness-is-a-mask-for-leftists-intellectual-insecurity/
Pete
Gravitational Waves and a Fish in Water
Jerry,
The euphoria about the gravitational wave detection reminds me of the fish that first heard the sound of the finger tap on the aquarium, but still has no understanding of, nor ability to comprehend water.
Cheers,
Jeff D
Nor have we; aether is still not falsified.
Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.
