Fennario
What will your mother think, pretty Peggy-O,
What will your mother think, pretty Peggo-O,
What will your mother think, for to hear the guineas clink,
And the soldiers marching before you, O?
New USAF Chief of Staff
Senate confirmation was 98-0. He had three thousand hours in fast movers, and several significant command tours.
Freedom and Protest
Asheville is reporting ongoing fatalities from the virus, but "chiefly concentrated in nursing homes" according to a print article I read earlier today. Meanwhile, the nation has emerged from lockdown to intensely populated, dense protests over issues that have been known issues for decades, and which by most available measures have been improving anyway.
I wonder how much of this nationwide protest movement is an expression of the desire to be free of lockdown? For months people languished at home, watching their lives fall away, longing for friends and companionship. Suddenly it's OK to get out and be with everyone you wanted to be with, provided only that you join one of these marches. All restrictions are lifted! Just join the throng.
People who had come to believe that enjoying any little liberty was tantamount to manslaughter are suddenly able to feel virtuous about going out and being with their friends. All it takes is a little submission: take a knee and pledge your loyalty to Wokeanda, Forever.
It's no wonder they're having such success. They opened a door to repressed desires, and made it a virtue to express them -- so long as you express them just this way.
I wonder how much of this nationwide protest movement is an expression of the desire to be free of lockdown? For months people languished at home, watching their lives fall away, longing for friends and companionship. Suddenly it's OK to get out and be with everyone you wanted to be with, provided only that you join one of these marches. All restrictions are lifted! Just join the throng.
People who had come to believe that enjoying any little liberty was tantamount to manslaughter are suddenly able to feel virtuous about going out and being with their friends. All it takes is a little submission: take a knee and pledge your loyalty to Wokeanda, Forever.
It's no wonder they're having such success. They opened a door to repressed desires, and made it a virtue to express them -- so long as you express them just this way.
By their Fruits
By coincidence, I was rereading the end of The Ballad of the White Horse the other day. After a book-length epic poem, Chesterton allows his King Alfred the Great to sum up the lessons he wants his contemporary readers to take.
In some far century, sad and slow,I suppose he thought that's where he was in 1903, or he wouldn't have written a book about it. It certainly sounds familiar today.
I have a vision, and I know
The heathen shall return.
"They shall not come with warships,
They shall not waste with brands,
But books be all their eating,
And ink be on their hands....
"They shall come mild as monkish clerks,
With many a scroll and pen;
And backward shall ye turn and gaze,
Desiring one of Alfred's days,
When pagans still were men....
"By this sign you shall know them,
The breaking of the sword,
And man no more a free knight,
That loves or hates his lord.
"Yea, this shall be the sign of them,
The sign of the dying fire;
And Man made like a half-wit,
That knows not of his sire.
"What though they come with scroll and pen,
And grave as a shaven clerk,
By this sign you shall know them,
That they ruin and make dark;
"By all men bond to Nothing,
Being slaves without a lord,
By one blind idiot world obeyed,
Too blind to be abhorred;
"By terror and the cruel tales
Of curse in bone and kin,
By weird and weakness winning,
Accursed from the beginning,
By detail of the sinning,
And denial of the sin....
You Guys Like Music?
Check yourself vs. our current position. It's just a Terminator remake, from 1990, but it has a lot to say about where we are, and where they thought we'd be. The radio announcer says it'll be 110 downtown; and you know, it sometimes almost is, in July, in some towns even on the east coast. In 2016 when the DNC was in Philadelphia it was 108. I know because I was there. But we're not in anything like the constant dust-storms.
I guess there was an almost-hit song from the soundtrack.
Who Do You Think You’re Fooling?
D-Day was the biggest ANTIFA rally in history! Also, Winston Churchill was an intolerable racist who should receive no public honors.
UPDATE: Even Gandhi?
UPDATE: Even Gandhi?
Buildings and Things that Matter
The Philadelphia Inquirer has removed its top editor over a column he approved entitled "Buildings Matter, Too." You can still read the column, but it now has an eleven word headline.
She had a good point, the column's author, and the editor did his job by selecting the piece for publication and drawing attention to it with a punchy headline. In today's atmosphere, however, that's enough to have ended his career.
UPDATE: The Cultural Revolution continues, this time at NYT.
Does the destruction of buildings matter when black Americans are being brazenly murdered in cold blood by police and vigilantes?...Indeed the damage in multiple cities is evident already.
“People over property” is great as a rhetorical slogan. But as a practical matter, the destruction of downtown buildings in Philadelphia — and in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and a dozen other American cities — is devastating for the future of cities. We know from the civil rights uprisings of the 1960s that the damage will ultimately end up hurting the very people the protests are meant to uplift. Just look at the black neighborhoods surrounding Ridge Avenue in Sharswood or along the western end of Cecil B. Moore Avenue. An incredible 56 years have passed since the Columbia Avenue riots swept through North Philadelphia, and yet those former shopping streets are graveyards of abandoned buildings. Residents still can’t get a supermarket to take a chance on their neighborhood.
She had a good point, the column's author, and the editor did his job by selecting the piece for publication and drawing attention to it with a punchy headline. In today's atmosphere, however, that's enough to have ended his career.
UPDATE: The Cultural Revolution continues, this time at NYT.
Book Update
I received a proof today of the second attempt at getting a paperback version of Arms and White Samite. Thanks to Douglas' help, and the patience of the cover artist, most of the problems are fixed. There remain a few persistent issues that will require more work and another proof, but in a few weeks we might have a final version.
It is already much better, though. It's just not right.
It is already much better, though. It's just not right.
Right to Peaceful Protest
It’s too important to be limited by virus mitigation, but only if the cause is good enough. Don’t take my word for that; here are nearly thirteen hundred public health experts asserting it.
“Money quote: ‘This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders. Those actions not only oppose public health interventions, but are also rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for Black lives.’”
“Money quote: ‘This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders. Those actions not only oppose public health interventions, but are also rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for Black lives.’”
"Define Racism"
It's a Socratic point, and one that brings us back around to the kinds of problems that Socrates tried to illustrate during his life. (That video in which the discussion was taking place, by the way, is a vivid warning of what kinds of genuinely terroristic tactics are available.)
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is after a definition of piety. Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for murder; he claims that it is pious to do this because his relationship with his father should not blind him to the justice of the prosecution. Socrates suggests this is merely an example of something pious, not a definition of piety itself. Euthyphro decides that piety is doing what the gods love, and impiety doing what they dislike; Socrates presses him to explain whether the pious thing is pious because the gods love it, or whether -- and this is crucial -- they love it because it is pious.
There's a similar problem with racism. A lot of people accused of racism don't actually even believe in race. How can you be a racist if you reject that race represents something biologically real? The answer is that you take (or endorse) actions that disproportionately harm people of some races and not others. Yet this assumes the validity of race as a form of analysis; if race isn't real, why would you try to cash out its effects in terms of the harm 'to races' whose reality you have already rejected?
The best answer seems to be the one floated by Charles Mills and others, which is that race can be rejected biologically but not socially. Socially, race is real even if in fact there are not "races" in any meaningful biological sense. Then, rejecting race as a social phenomenon because you rejected it as a biological phenomenon is a category error, a serious philosophical mistake.
That still leaves us with problems. Given that the social phenomenon is based on an incorrect view of human nature and biology, we might wish to move to a more correct view. Yet because we have to continue to evaluate things in terms of the social account of race, we end up baking that view into our future. We can't leave it behind if we have to carry it with us, and constantly check ourselves against it. How do you build a society without race if you're judging progress by constantly referring to race? It's dead weight, but treated like a lodestone.
The second problem is that the social view is often incoherent, which makes it a poor lodestone anyway. In the discussion linked, the woman is charging racism based on the fact that a man suggested that this kind of violence was unsurprising in Mexico. There are two sets of problems with that.
The first is that Mexico includes people of many different genetic heritages, who are even less plausibly 'one race' than, say, denizens of Scotland (many of whom, these days, are from the Indian subcontinent). The fact is that the Mexican government has been involved in a decades-long fiction about 'La Raza' designed to paper that over. Yet if we can eliminate racism by constructing new races, well, why not start doing that here? Rather than continuing to recognize existing social definitions of race in America, might we not instead follow Mexico and institute a new 'American race' that ignores genetic heritage?
The second problem is that violence in Mexico is unsurprising for reasons that are severable from race, 'race,' or La Raza. If you're unsurprised by a violent assault in a country largely run by extraordinarily violent criminal cartels, well, why wouldn't you be? There's no reason to rope biological commentary into it. Mexico is violent because it is badly governed, especially in terms of the absence of a Second Amendment. The people endure the cartels and their violence not because they are genetically primed to do so, but because they are disarmed. The police are assassinated not because they are inferior or corrupt, but because the populace cannot provide them with effective support. They're too terrified to work with the police because they are kept defenseless.
The second problem, in other words, turns out to be that the incoherence of the definition ends up allowing it to be used in places where the concept is actively damaging to attempts to fix the problem. "It's all racism" suggests the problem is in people having a negative view of the chaos in Mexico, rather than the problem lying in the absence of positive steps to empower the citizens to defend themselves.
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is after a definition of piety. Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for murder; he claims that it is pious to do this because his relationship with his father should not blind him to the justice of the prosecution. Socrates suggests this is merely an example of something pious, not a definition of piety itself. Euthyphro decides that piety is doing what the gods love, and impiety doing what they dislike; Socrates presses him to explain whether the pious thing is pious because the gods love it, or whether -- and this is crucial -- they love it because it is pious.
There's a similar problem with racism. A lot of people accused of racism don't actually even believe in race. How can you be a racist if you reject that race represents something biologically real? The answer is that you take (or endorse) actions that disproportionately harm people of some races and not others. Yet this assumes the validity of race as a form of analysis; if race isn't real, why would you try to cash out its effects in terms of the harm 'to races' whose reality you have already rejected?
The best answer seems to be the one floated by Charles Mills and others, which is that race can be rejected biologically but not socially. Socially, race is real even if in fact there are not "races" in any meaningful biological sense. Then, rejecting race as a social phenomenon because you rejected it as a biological phenomenon is a category error, a serious philosophical mistake.
That still leaves us with problems. Given that the social phenomenon is based on an incorrect view of human nature and biology, we might wish to move to a more correct view. Yet because we have to continue to evaluate things in terms of the social account of race, we end up baking that view into our future. We can't leave it behind if we have to carry it with us, and constantly check ourselves against it. How do you build a society without race if you're judging progress by constantly referring to race? It's dead weight, but treated like a lodestone.
The second problem is that the social view is often incoherent, which makes it a poor lodestone anyway. In the discussion linked, the woman is charging racism based on the fact that a man suggested that this kind of violence was unsurprising in Mexico. There are two sets of problems with that.
The first is that Mexico includes people of many different genetic heritages, who are even less plausibly 'one race' than, say, denizens of Scotland (many of whom, these days, are from the Indian subcontinent). The fact is that the Mexican government has been involved in a decades-long fiction about 'La Raza' designed to paper that over. Yet if we can eliminate racism by constructing new races, well, why not start doing that here? Rather than continuing to recognize existing social definitions of race in America, might we not instead follow Mexico and institute a new 'American race' that ignores genetic heritage?
The second problem is that violence in Mexico is unsurprising for reasons that are severable from race, 'race,' or La Raza. If you're unsurprised by a violent assault in a country largely run by extraordinarily violent criminal cartels, well, why wouldn't you be? There's no reason to rope biological commentary into it. Mexico is violent because it is badly governed, especially in terms of the absence of a Second Amendment. The people endure the cartels and their violence not because they are genetically primed to do so, but because they are disarmed. The police are assassinated not because they are inferior or corrupt, but because the populace cannot provide them with effective support. They're too terrified to work with the police because they are kept defenseless.
The second problem, in other words, turns out to be that the incoherence of the definition ends up allowing it to be used in places where the concept is actively damaging to attempts to fix the problem. "It's all racism" suggests the problem is in people having a negative view of the chaos in Mexico, rather than the problem lying in the absence of positive steps to empower the citizens to defend themselves.
Headlines from 2020
Slate: “Non-violence is an important tool for protests, but so is violence.”
That’s true, actually, but it does elide the moral question.
That’s true, actually, but it does elide the moral question.
"Rule of Law"
It's pretty much dead now, isn't it? First we had governors assuming emergency powers often in direct violation of the Constitution and their own state constitutions; now we've got widespread support for rioting. Bernie Sanders has an 8 point plan (some of which are very good and reasonable, like ending qualified immunity) that would replace many cops with social workers, and District Attorneys in blue cities won't prosecute rioters.
The other day Minneapolis police managed to ignore rioters but arrest a guy for defending his business from looting and arson. Why should a jury go along with that?
The other day Minneapolis police managed to ignore rioters but arrest a guy for defending his business from looting and arson. Why should a jury go along with that?
An Attempted Coup at NYT
Andrew Sullivan is right about this one.
It's worth noting that all of this chaos is happening in the blue cities and blue states. The target of Antifa and their ilk isn't you and me, it's blue institutions. The NYT is in danger for the same reason that the Minneapolis Police Department -- controlled by Democrats since 1978 -- is in danger. The Hard Left is trying to win control of the left-leaning powers, which in fact control most of America's cities and therefore much of America's wealth.
They might come for us later, or they might decide it's too much trouble especially since they'll have taught police, who might possibly have tried to carry out gun confiscations in red America, that their only friends are in red areas and red states. The hinterlands may be too hard a nut to crack if police won't enforce their laws here, and juries won't either.
It's worth noting that all of this chaos is happening in the blue cities and blue states. The target of Antifa and their ilk isn't you and me, it's blue institutions. The NYT is in danger for the same reason that the Minneapolis Police Department -- controlled by Democrats since 1978 -- is in danger. The Hard Left is trying to win control of the left-leaning powers, which in fact control most of America's cities and therefore much of America's wealth.
They might come for us later, or they might decide it's too much trouble especially since they'll have taught police, who might possibly have tried to carry out gun confiscations in red America, that their only friends are in red areas and red states. The hinterlands may be too hard a nut to crack if police won't enforce their laws here, and juries won't either.
Night-Fire Practice
I can hear my neighbors shooting tonight, a fairly impressive array of hardware. It's all too methodical and regular to be any sort of gunfight; they're just practicing and making sure everything is in good order.
They're going to be so disappointed when there's no reason to use all that stuff. These hub city ninjas aren't about to drive out shadowed dirt roads in the high mountains, where one human habitation can't be seen from the next. They'd be terrified by the sight of such an empty road, long before they ever got out to someone's trailer or cabin. Everyone knows what happens to people who go out beyond the Fields We Know into the Wilds Beyond.
It's even in the folk songs: "Once a stranger climbed old Rocky Top, looking for a moonshine still. Stranger ain't come down from Rocky Top, reckon he never will." "Well, I wonder where that Louisiana sheriff went to? You can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou."
It is an irony that Mad Max (1979) treated the cities as a kind of safe place, with the wilderness controlled by violent motorcycle gangs. It turns out it's the other way around. Police protection doesn't protect. Every night our cities burn with fire, and every night our mountains linger through the long gloam to twilight, fearsome, lonesome, and at peace.
They're going to be so disappointed when there's no reason to use all that stuff. These hub city ninjas aren't about to drive out shadowed dirt roads in the high mountains, where one human habitation can't be seen from the next. They'd be terrified by the sight of such an empty road, long before they ever got out to someone's trailer or cabin. Everyone knows what happens to people who go out beyond the Fields We Know into the Wilds Beyond.
It's even in the folk songs: "Once a stranger climbed old Rocky Top, looking for a moonshine still. Stranger ain't come down from Rocky Top, reckon he never will." "Well, I wonder where that Louisiana sheriff went to? You can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou."
It is an irony that Mad Max (1979) treated the cities as a kind of safe place, with the wilderness controlled by violent motorcycle gangs. It turns out it's the other way around. Police protection doesn't protect. Every night our cities burn with fire, and every night our mountains linger through the long gloam to twilight, fearsome, lonesome, and at peace.
The Real History of Antifa
Kyle's a good guy, and a careful worker in his field, which is the study of radical organizations. You can trust his findings.
Concerns about Government Power
Some of us have been here for a while, as Ellen Reynolds at the Federalist notes.
Distrust of government is a tradition going back to our founding. “I am not a friend to a very energetic government,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison. “It is always oppressive.”It would be nice if these newly-shared concerns opened a path forward to solutions such as shrinking the size and power of the government -- to include the police agencies. We could even have fewer laws!
As a result, the founders carefully limited the scope and power of the federal government. Since then, conservatives have continued to be skeptical of strong government and big government programs.... But in the last century, liberal progressives have celebrated the expansion of the federal government and its growing power. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a champion of the Left, who transformed the size and function of the federal government, specifically the executive branch, when the Brownlow Committee recommended the creation of the Executive Office of the President in 1937. (Roosevelt’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover, was criticized when he replaced the president’s singular secretary with four aides.) Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, lauded by the Left, dramatically increased the role that the federal government played in Americans’ daily lives.
Under the administration of democrat Lyndon Johnson, federal programs (and their influence and power) expanded again, with “Great Society” initiatives such as Medicare, Medicaid, federal involvement in education, and public housing programs. Certain bureaucratic failures of these programs aside, the Great Society posed another reach by the federal government into Americans’ lives.
Today, a man who was almost the Democratic presidential nominee (twice) advocates for dramatically expanding the power of the federal government. Sen. Bernie Sanders has plans for the nanny state to become the provider of higher education, housing, healthcare, child care, and even high-speed internet. He also wants to erase the constitutional right to bear arms, and plans to pay for his excessive programs by taxing Americans.
For the last hundred years, the Left has been the standard-bearer for the growth of government. And suddenly, they’re reaping the results. They’re horrified at a strong federal government and its power to police its constituents. On behalf of limited-government conservatives: welcome to the club.
The Perils of Gentrification
There is more than one peril. One is that it will bring the Left's rich, white faction into conflict with minority group factions -- such as in this post, "Cats v. Communists."
But perhaps sometimes the friction produces not just conflict but hybrids.
But perhaps sometimes the friction produces not just conflict but hybrids.
Beginning in the 1960s and the ’70s, with the Weather Underground terrorists, and continuing in the 1990s, with “black bloc” vandals traveling around the world to smash office and hotel windows at global financial meetings, there has been a violent subculture on the radical left in the United States and Europe. For the most part, the members of groups like Antifa, the latest incarnation of the violent left, have always been the pampered children of the white overclass. Twenty-somethings who are poor and working class lack the money to buy fancy black ninja outfits and the leisure to spend time plotting in advance of demonstrations....The article is generally down on these spoiled children playing ninja, but sympathetic to the working class that's being supplanted. For those who remain on the fringes of the gentrifying areas, police are used intensively to protect the Cat Cafes owned by children of the overclass. This produces occasional brutality, which produces protests, which the children of the overclass feel very proud about joining and supporting. But they're the ones who are stealing, in the analysis of the poorer members being run out of those neighborhoods. The overclass children are stealing not just the neighborhood itself, but also the right to speak about these issues -- framing them instead in ways that are about the overclass' children's own issues.
What is new about the nationwide riots of the last week that have followed the death of George Floyd is the convergence of these two previously separate streams—traditional urban riots in poor neighborhoods triggered by police-related incidents, and the ideologically motivated vandalism by young white members of the overclass in downtown districts. This convergence is the result of hub city gentrification....
Gentrification explains why there are so many white young adults, both ordinary protesters and anarchist vandals, compared to African Americans in the videos we see of protests and riots in big cities across the United States, compared to images of urban riots in generations past. Thanks to rising rents, young white leftists and liberals have been displacing the nonwhite working class and poor, many of them social conservatives, in places like Brooklyn and Oakland and Austin.
The black poor and working class first had their urban industrial jobs taken away from them by corporate executives in the white overclass who offshored them to Mexico or China. Then they were replaced in their former urban neighborhoods by the hipster children of the white overclass. Now even their grievances like protests against horrific police brutality are stolen from them by their supposed allies in the white overclass and turned into an occasion for virtue-signaling or vandalism by the elite.They're sure too that they're the ones on the right side, the very side of justice.
Oops!
As the Russia hoax unravels, Rod Rosenstein admits to Congress that he wouldn't sign the Carter Page FISA warrant with the facts now in evidence.
A Headline You Don't See Everyday
"Bolivian orchestra stranded at ‘haunted’ German castle surrounded by wolves."
I suppose it's no surprise given the year we've been having.
Test Post #2
This post is also being written in 'the New Blogger,' which I'm told is going to become the default soon. This time I'm writing the HTML code by hand like I usually do.
BB: "Episcopalians Confused By Strange Book Trump Brought To Church."
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, though, was nonplussed, saying she was confused by the strange book Trump had brought to church.... "No real Christian reveres a book like that. Well, maybe the Communist Manifesto or something. But not an old-looking leather book. It looks like one of those religious books, and Jesus wasn't about religion. He was about causing societal upheaval and burning things down."
Some Episcopalians suggested it was a cookbook and that Trump was only offering to bring something to the next church potluck. Others said it was a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a revered religious text among the Left.There might be some good casserole recipes in there.
A Test Post
This post is being written with "the New Blogger," which I'm told will become the default soon. I've still been using the old one; we'll have to see if this changes things dramatically.
Here's a piece on the interview Rush Limbaugh gave with a radio host called "Charlemagne tha God" (apparently the same one Biden was talking with whom he, Biden, told that 'he ain't black' if he doesn't know how to vote). I think the author raises some good points:
RUSH: How do you stop it? (crosstalk)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: I have a question for you. I want to know. How are you gonna use your privilege as a white male to combat this prejudice. You got a direct line to Donald Trump. (crosstalk)
RUSH: No, wait a minute, I don’t buy into the notion of white privilege. See, I think that’s a liberal —
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: You’re being —
RUSH: That’s a liberal — (crosstalk)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: You’re being delusional.
RUSH: — political construct right along the lines of political correctness. It’s designed to intimidate and get people to shut up and admit they’re guilty of doing things they haven’t done. I don’t have any white privilege — (crosstalk)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Do you know what white privilege is? White privilege is that what happened to George Floyd would not have happened to a white man.
RUSH: If what happened to George Floyd had happened to a white man we probably wouldn’t have even heard about it.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Huh?
The pause lasted more than four seconds, as Charlamagne and his colleagues were caught by surprise.
Of course there have been white victims: Tony Timpa, for example, died in the custody of Dallas police in 2016. But his death did not provoke riots or become a national cause — nor did anyone take it as evidence of the conduct of police in general.
Charlamagne had not considered the problem from that angle. But what was even more revealing was that he was unwilling to discuss solutions to racism unless they involved Rush Limbaugh committing to ending “white privilege.”
In other words, Charlamagne gave power over his life, over black America itself, to a white man.
“An Unarmed Person Comin’ at ‘Em with a Knife”
More lessons on violence from Joe Biden. It’s the latest in a series.
You know, Joe, severing the femoral artery reliably leads to death too.
You know, Joe, severing the femoral artery reliably leads to death too.
Ymar’s Post
We are going to try something new, whereby Ymar gets a post of his own to comment upon. He’s agreed to put all the metaphysical commentary here, rather than in other posts. Those interested in that approach to understanding current events can thus get all of it in one place.
Today’s is the first such post.
Today’s is the first such post.
Insurrection Act
The President didn’t say it in so many words, but whoever wrote the speech knows what he just said satisfies the terms for invoking the 2002 version of the 1807 Insurrection Act. Of course, there is in fact an insurrection ongoing, but it’s still worth marking. Battle-hardened paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne will soon be deploying to American cities.
Have faith in them. They took the same oath we did.
Have faith in them. They took the same oath we did.
Second look at home schooling
Did too many parents get a look at the public schools' typical offerings via ZOOM?
We asked 626 registered voters, “Are you more or less likely to enroll your son or daughter in a home school, neighborhood home school co-op, or virtual school once the lockdowns are over?” In response, 40.8% said they were more likely to choose one of the alternative schooling methods, while 31.1% said they were less likely to do so.
While home schooling is often associated with conservative or religious families, surprisingly, there seems to be no significant difference here with respect to party affiliation. In fact, Democrats were slightly more likely (45.7%) to express increased interest in home schooling, compared to Republicans (42.3%).
The data gets even more interesting when you look at the breakdown by ethnicity. Only 36.3% of whites said they were more likely to choose home schooling, and just 38.2% of Hispanics. That number was much higher for blacks (50.4%) and Asian Americans (53.8%).
The Ships at Sea
The nearly-forgotten virus exposes a threat to naval forces: what if a single case aboard could disable a major warship, even a fleet? Fortunately, that is not the case this time out.
The Theodore Roosevelt has now returned to sea, and the final data offered by the Navy remains at 1,102 cases, with only one reported death. Presumably, additional deaths aboard the ship would qualify as a “significant change,” and thus we can assume that, while still tragic, only one person, 41-year-old Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., died of the virus. The Navy has not disclosed whether Thacker suffered from any underlying health conditions.Unfortunately, staying young is not an option. Staying healthy may not be either, although staying in shape is something most of us can do.
Doing some simple math, COVID-19 aboard the Theodore Roosevelt had a death rate of 0.09 percent, while the estimated death rate for the seasonal flu is 0.1 percent.
This data point offers incredibly useful insight into how COVID-19 affects a young and healthy population. Most enlisted sailors are under 30 years old.
A similarly low death rate has been seen on France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, where more than 1,000 sailors contracted the virus but zero died. These death rates are even lower than estimates in a new CDC report, which estimates the death rate for people under 50 years old at only 0.05 percent.
No Help from Police in Raleigh
At the capital of my new home state, the police chief says that she will not put an officer in harm's way to protect your property from destruction. We have to understand, she says, that it's not just law enforcement that is racist: it's the whole society. The police chief is in favor of group punishment of Americans for our collective sins.
North Carolina law currently does not allow for the use of lethal force to protect property, either, so citizens protecting their own businesses are putting themselves in grave legal peril. For the moment, at least: I expect that after the election we may well have some new laws on that subject. Also, you might have trouble finding a jury to convict someone for protecting their businesses after the police chief formally disavowed any duty to (or interest in) such protection.
North Carolina law currently does not allow for the use of lethal force to protect property, either, so citizens protecting their own businesses are putting themselves in grave legal peril. For the moment, at least: I expect that after the election we may well have some new laws on that subject. Also, you might have trouble finding a jury to convict someone for protecting their businesses after the police chief formally disavowed any duty to (or interest in) such protection.
Armed Voluntold
You should probably be prepared to hear this.
If the police dispatcher tells you "Do what you have to do," what are you prepared to do? You're a citizen. You have the right to keep and bear arms, and a duty to protect the common peace and to uphold the republic.
Some of you took oaths to the Constitution, but probably all of you said the Pledge of Allegiance at some time in your life. Did you mean it?
If the police dispatcher tells you "Do what you have to do," what are you prepared to do? You're a citizen. You have the right to keep and bear arms, and a duty to protect the common peace and to uphold the republic.
Some of you took oaths to the Constitution, but probably all of you said the Pledge of Allegiance at some time in your life. Did you mean it?
The Issue of the Day: Anarchists and Police Reform
Ah, the Russians again. It's almost nostalgic, especially since once again there are no actual Russians.
They're not less dangerous for being loose; the IRA was organized loosely in cells, just because it made them nearly impossible to finally break. You could shut down a cell, maybe get at two others connected to the one you broke, but there were always more.
I do take the point that there are serious issues in need of real reform, especially in terms of the relationship of the police to the community. I've written about that often, but here is a post that gets (in a calm and non-aggressive way) at what I think is the heart of the problem. Here is another post aimed at anarchists who want to protect marginalized communities. Here is a proposal for replacing professional police with volunteer citizen units. Here is a piece on why professional police tend to be non-accountable to the public more than armed volunteers.
“I’m not reading the intelligence today, or these days — but based on my experience, this is right out of the Russian playbook,” Rice, who served as national-security adviser to president Obama, said in a CNN interview on Sunday. “But we cannot allow the extremists, the foreign actors, to distract from the real problems we have in this country that are longstanding, centuries old, and need to be addressed responsibly.”These aren't 'little green men.' They're organizations that have been gathering loose armies of indoctrinated college kids for decades, and training them to think and act like Communists. Most of these people are not foreigners, although some of the funding for this (again, loose) network may be from abroad.
They're not less dangerous for being loose; the IRA was organized loosely in cells, just because it made them nearly impossible to finally break. You could shut down a cell, maybe get at two others connected to the one you broke, but there were always more.
I do take the point that there are serious issues in need of real reform, especially in terms of the relationship of the police to the community. I've written about that often, but here is a post that gets (in a calm and non-aggressive way) at what I think is the heart of the problem. Here is another post aimed at anarchists who want to protect marginalized communities. Here is a proposal for replacing professional police with volunteer citizen units. Here is a piece on why professional police tend to be non-accountable to the public more than armed volunteers.
The High Feast of Pentecost
WHEN Arthur held his Round Table most plenour, it fortuned that he commanded that the high feast of Pentecost should be holden at a city and a castle, the which in those days was called Kynke Kenadonne, upon the sands that marched nigh Wales. So ever the king had a custom that at the feast of Pentecost in especial, afore other feasts in the year, he would not go that day to meat until he had heard or seen of a great marvel. And for that custom all manner of strange adventures came before Arthur as at that feast before all other feasts. And so Sir Gawaine, a little tofore noon of the day of Pentecost, espied at a window three men upon horseback, and a dwarf on foot, and so the three men alighted, and the dwarf kept their horses, and one of the three men was higher than the other twain by a foot and an half. Then Sir Gawaine went unto the king and said, Sir, go to your meat, for here at the hand come strange adventures.The Quest for the Holy Grail began on Pentecost, and it was also the day when every year that King Arthur would have all his knights re-swear their oaths.
The king established all his knights, and gave them that were of lands not rich, he gave them lands, and charged them never to do outrageousity nor murder, and always to flee treason; also, by no mean to be cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asketh mercy, upon pain of forfeiture of their worship and lordship of King Arthur for evermore; and always to do ladies, damosels, and gentlewomen succor upon pain of death. Also, that no man take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for no law, ne for no world’s goods. Unto this were all the knights sworn of the Table Round, both old and young. And every year were they sworn at the high feast of Pentecost.In Malory's day, such oaths marked out the duty of a knight; in our day, the duty of a citizen. We now are the ones with the right and the duty to keep and bear arms, and the duty to decide what is treason and by whom.
It may well be that this year more than any year we have to consider carefully what that duty entails.
“Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide”
What’d you think you were paying them to do, Slate?
Longtime readers know that I have long held a dire view of American policing; I’d like to see all SWAT-type units disbanded, all military weaponry reassigned, and the police move back to a more traditional “peace officer” rather than “law enforcement” model. Certainly the police in Minneapolis behaved disgracefully, and many others have over the years. There’s a lot to criticize.
But come on. They could have been clearing streets with fire all weekend. Overall the response has been remarkably restrained.
The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane.“At least one instance.” But probably more, right? Cops were likely hunting for opportunities to shove old people down stairs, too.
Longtime readers know that I have long held a dire view of American policing; I’d like to see all SWAT-type units disbanded, all military weaponry reassigned, and the police move back to a more traditional “peace officer” rather than “law enforcement” model. Certainly the police in Minneapolis behaved disgracefully, and many others have over the years. There’s a lot to criticize.
But come on. They could have been clearing streets with fire all weekend. Overall the response has been remarkably restrained.
Home delivery favorites, lockdown-style
We haven't ordered any home-delivery meals during the lockdown, mostly because practically no one around here will deliver to our location in the boonies. It's interesting to see what's trending in different states. I confess I had never heard of "Bubble Tea," a favorite in three states. Apparently it's an iced tea-based drink with milk and tapioca pearls, sort of milk-shakey. Spam musubi also was a new one on me, as were boo buns (sweetened bread rolls). Poke bowls (sushi salad) look good, but I've never encountered one.
Everything else on this map is something I'd seriously consider ordering if I were in a city where it was available and I was stuck in a hotel room or something, without room service, which is more and more often the case these days. Hamburgers, chicken wings, Asian food of various sorts, sure.
Crawdads were a Texas favorite, though not with us. I mean, I like crawdads, but it wouldn't occur to me to order them for home delivery.
Everything else on this map is something I'd seriously consider ordering if I were in a city where it was available and I was stuck in a hotel room or something, without room service, which is more and more often the case these days. Hamburgers, chicken wings, Asian food of various sorts, sure.
Crawdads were a Texas favorite, though not with us. I mean, I like crawdads, but it wouldn't occur to me to order them for home delivery.
All depends what you're angry about
Protest the lockdown? Expect to be arrested, because no matter how angry you are, safety first.
Protest the murder of George Floyd? Expect to be coddled, because we understand how angry you are. Also because we don't want you to burn the city down, which we can be pretty sure those anti-lockdown types won't do.
If DeBlasio wants to make it 100% clear it's about the control, not about public health, he's doing it right.
Protest the murder of George Floyd? Expect to be coddled, because we understand how angry you are. Also because we don't want you to burn the city down, which we can be pretty sure those anti-lockdown types won't do.
If DeBlasio wants to make it 100% clear it's about the control, not about public health, he's doing it right.
Riding Free
We may have fewer things under our control than we’d prefer, but not none. Here are some of the things I managed make happen today.
This breakfast of beef ribs I started to make happen the afternoon before so they could slow roast all night. Finished under the broiler with butter to give a nice crust. Fresh guacamole, aged chili.
Lady Luck saddled up.
Mushroom found along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Lone Bald Overlook.
UPDATE:
Stone sculpture of a mushroom. The base stone was quite challenging, but I finally managed to lift and carry it.
Minneapolis goes down the tubes
And Los Angeles, Columbus, Louisville, New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte are trying to follow.
Free Americans
So the other night we saw the video with the guys who came down to protect protests and ended up preventing looting. At one point one says “If it was more than just four of us, we could go stop” looting.
However, the video only shows two.
Up the militia. Supporting each other’s natural rights, life, liberty, and property, without regard to the narrative that we ought to be defined by our differences. When the police fled and the state failed, free Americans together did right.
However, the video only shows two.
Up the militia. Supporting each other’s natural rights, life, liberty, and property, without regard to the narrative that we ought to be defined by our differences. When the police fled and the state failed, free Americans together did right.
Twitter is . . . oh, you know already
"Looters will be shot" is glorifying violence and must be screened from a delicate public.
Minneapolis is . . . oh, you know already.
Minneapolis is . . . oh, you know already.
Word Has Gotten Around
So that tobacco store that didn’t get burned down last night like everything else, because the two “rednecks” guarded it with rifles? The community appears to have learned the lesson.
Is Such A Thing Even Possible?
A new study suggests that the authoritarian personality type can sometimes be found on the left.
On the upside, replicating this finding shouldn’t be a problem.
H/t: Titiana McGrath.
On the upside, replicating this finding shouldn’t be a problem.
H/t: Titiana McGrath.
Bill of Rights Suspended by 9th Circuit
This is unacceptable.
Meanwhile in Maryland, a local government has banned the Eucharist.
The "constitutional standards that would normally govern our review of a Free Exercise claim should not be applied," wrote the two judges in the majority opinion.It’s hardly a suicide pact to allow low risk people to choose to attend services given that the fatality rate is apparently under one percent. Most won’t choose to go anyway. Less burdensome options like education have already persuaded most people of the wisdom of that.
"We're dealing here with a highly contagious and often fatal disease for which there presently is no known cure. In the words of Justice Robert Jackson, if a '(c)ourt does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact,'" according to the opinion.
Meanwhile in Maryland, a local government has banned the Eucharist.
Another Gunfighter Ballad
This ballad is highly implausible on many points historically, but it's very much fitting the cowboy culture of the 1950s Westerns -- especially on television. It's a nice piece anyway.
Rapier vs. Katana
This is a South Korean school playing with a Japanese vs. HEMA martial art match, first at 4/5ths speed and later at full speed.
I'll give you an interpretive hint: this match is going to be rapier all day. The rapier is better steel, it is longer, and it is deadly at the point. The katana has to work mostly on slashing motions that require the shorter blade to use a longer part of the overall blade length to generate killing force. The rapier guy taps his wrist a few times to indicate contact, but he's got a basket hilt that will have limited the force the katana can deliver to his wrists: he's indicating cuts. His blows are deadly penetrating stabs.
Watch how he holds the center through the whole match, his opponent always driven to the periphery. It's objectively a better weapon, a better style.
The rapier is not a joke, even though in our movie culture it's generally treated as a toy, and the katana (following Japanese cinema) as if it were a magic weapon.
It is possible to beat a longer stabbing weapon with a shorter slashing one, but it requires going outside the rules of formal fencing.
I'll give you an interpretive hint: this match is going to be rapier all day. The rapier is better steel, it is longer, and it is deadly at the point. The katana has to work mostly on slashing motions that require the shorter blade to use a longer part of the overall blade length to generate killing force. The rapier guy taps his wrist a few times to indicate contact, but he's got a basket hilt that will have limited the force the katana can deliver to his wrists: he's indicating cuts. His blows are deadly penetrating stabs.
Watch how he holds the center through the whole match, his opponent always driven to the periphery. It's objectively a better weapon, a better style.
The rapier is not a joke, even though in our movie culture it's generally treated as a toy, and the katana (following Japanese cinema) as if it were a magic weapon.
It is possible to beat a longer stabbing weapon with a shorter slashing one, but it requires going outside the rules of formal fencing.
Rednecks with AR-15s, Or, "Free Americans"
What are they doing at the riots? Supporting the protests but also protecting stores from being looted, if you take them at their word. Worth watching.
Fake News Today
BB: Time Magazine names Karen ‘Person of the Year.’
Karen will be joining Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bill Anders, and Hitler as one of the most important and newsworthy people of the last 100 years.
So Not Super Professional?
An analysis of the Crossfire Hurricane basis.
In a normal, legitimate FBI Electronic Communication, or EC, there would be a "To" and a "From" line. The Crossfire Hurricane EC has only a "From" line; it is from a part of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division whose contact is listed as Peter Strzok. The EC was drafted also by Peter Strzok. And, finally, it was approved by Peter Strzok. Essentially, it is a document created by Peter Strzok, approved by Peter Strzok, and sent from Peter Strzok to Peter Strzok.Keep in mind as you read the rest that the Flynn investigation, Crossfire Razor, was a spin-off of this one. Also, that it cleared him.
On that basis alone, the document is an absurdity, violative of all FBI protocols and, therefore, invalid on its face. An agent cannot approve his or her own case; that would make a mockery of the oversight designed to protect Americans. Yet, for this document, Peter Strzok was pitcher, catcher, batter and umpire.
Crisis in NYC
If the Big Apple doesn't get buckets of federal tax dollars, they'll have to make painful changes in how they do things.
Why don't they just raise taxes on the rich?
It's best for them if they don't get the money. It's awful to think of the anguish they'd have to endure, considering how they despise the source of the largesse.
Why don't they just raise taxes on the rich?
It's best for them if they don't get the money. It's awful to think of the anguish they'd have to endure, considering how they despise the source of the largesse.
Men in space
If the weather holds, we may have a private manned space launch today:
Wednesday’s launch ... will be the first time a commercially built vehicle carries NASA astronauts into orbit and the first time that SpaceX attempts to ferry human passengers to the space station.
Witnesses
They just straight up killed this guy. If there had been no store video, we'd have been left with the official account:
There were lots of witnesses, but it's the video that will be believed.
"After he got out, he physically resisted officers,” police spokesman John Elder told reporters early Tuesday. “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and officers noticed that the man was going into medical distress."Yeah, no. You can't see anything in the video that looks like resisting arrest, and the guy died on the pavement with a knee on his neck for about 8 minutes. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, but he was dead on the pavement. That's what they meant by noticing that he was going into medical distress, as if it were a coincidence: oh, look, he's not breathing for some reason! Pro tip: a red flag was his repeated cries of "I can't breathe," before he got really still and quiet.
There were lots of witnesses, but it's the video that will be believed.
Crossing the Rubicon- It's a bad idea
They know what they should not do, and do it anyway. Power corrupts, and also blinds- both those with it, and too often, those subject to it.
"It’s telling that the same people who won’t allow a single Trump executive order to go into effect without running it past judge after judge after judge to test for “constitutionality” have suspended basic rights for a majority of Americans based on dubious proclamations from mayors and governors."
Civility Again
Col. Kurt:
That said, this Memorial Day weekend they decided to run a column accusing the US military of "celebrating white supremacism." I'm not the least bit interested in their opinions on civility right now.
“Civility is important,” we barbarians are duly informed, because of course it is. But we have noticed, over time, that in reality it only seems to be important when we are the ones breaching it. For us, it is open season.I'm a very civil person, and people are nice to me too. I assume they're responding to my good manners and friendly nature, and not to the big beard or the knife on my belt. Still, one way or the other, I generally have only civil conversations. It's a nice way to live.
That said, this Memorial Day weekend they decided to run a column accusing the US military of "celebrating white supremacism." I'm not the least bit interested in their opinions on civility right now.
Georgia Shooting Update
When last we spoke about the Georgia shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, I said I didn't think the two men involved would end up being convicted of anything at trial, given that the local DA put out a statement explaining their theory that no crime was committed. Now I think there won't be a trial -- because the state and Federal government are moving to put extraordinary pressures that look likely to draw a plea bargain.
Not just the father and son but the third man, who was filming the incident, have been arrested and charged with felony murder. Felony murder in Georgia means that you were committing a felony -- any felony will do -- and someone got killed as a result of it. This means you don't really have to prove intent to murder someone, which is important in this case because the facts appear to show that the gun went off during a struggle. You might get an involuntary manslaughter charge out of that. Mr. Hines seemed to think so, and 'type b' does allow an otherwise lawful act to be a crime, so even if the DA was right that no crime was committed, you could perhaps persuade a jury. It would be hard to get even a second degree murder charge. But Felony Murder might fly, assuming you can prove a felony, because you don't have to prove the killing was an intentional murder.
However, the trick to Felony Murder is that it is a capital charge. In Georgia, prosecutors who bring a capital charge get to ask for a "Death Qualified" jury. This is a jury that is self-selected for the willingness to ask for the death penalty if the charge is proven. Death Qualified juries return not just harsher sentencing recommendations compared to other juries, they also convict more often on any charges.
Now the penalty for type-b Involuntary Manslaughter is a misdemeanor penalty, i.e., up to a year in jail. Felony Murder's penalty is death, for both father and son and the guy who ran down the street with his phone out. Clearly the intention is to use the threat of death for you and your son to squeeze out a plea bargain to some other sort of murder charge from the father, which then doesn't have to be proven in court because he'd have admitted to it.
They've still got good odds, though, because the DA's office cleared them after investigation -- right? Well, it turns out, the FBI has decided to investigate the officials who didn't arrest them. Prosecutors would have a field day in court with the claims that the DA's office was such a hotbed of racism that it was being investigated for Federal hate crimes. Such charges aren't likely to be successfully brought against government officials acting in their official capacity, especially since they didn't take any actions. They can be entertained long enough to get to the plea bargain, though, as a threat to the accused.
Ultimately our justice system is badly broken and extremely warped. I don't know what justice actually looks like in this case, but I know it doesn't look like sentencing both a man and his son to death. Even leveling threats like that is indefensible.
Justice also doesn't look like the kind of railroad they're setting up to avoid having to prove a case in court.
Not just the father and son but the third man, who was filming the incident, have been arrested and charged with felony murder. Felony murder in Georgia means that you were committing a felony -- any felony will do -- and someone got killed as a result of it. This means you don't really have to prove intent to murder someone, which is important in this case because the facts appear to show that the gun went off during a struggle. You might get an involuntary manslaughter charge out of that. Mr. Hines seemed to think so, and 'type b' does allow an otherwise lawful act to be a crime, so even if the DA was right that no crime was committed, you could perhaps persuade a jury. It would be hard to get even a second degree murder charge. But Felony Murder might fly, assuming you can prove a felony, because you don't have to prove the killing was an intentional murder.
However, the trick to Felony Murder is that it is a capital charge. In Georgia, prosecutors who bring a capital charge get to ask for a "Death Qualified" jury. This is a jury that is self-selected for the willingness to ask for the death penalty if the charge is proven. Death Qualified juries return not just harsher sentencing recommendations compared to other juries, they also convict more often on any charges.
Now the penalty for type-b Involuntary Manslaughter is a misdemeanor penalty, i.e., up to a year in jail. Felony Murder's penalty is death, for both father and son and the guy who ran down the street with his phone out. Clearly the intention is to use the threat of death for you and your son to squeeze out a plea bargain to some other sort of murder charge from the father, which then doesn't have to be proven in court because he'd have admitted to it.
They've still got good odds, though, because the DA's office cleared them after investigation -- right? Well, it turns out, the FBI has decided to investigate the officials who didn't arrest them. Prosecutors would have a field day in court with the claims that the DA's office was such a hotbed of racism that it was being investigated for Federal hate crimes. Such charges aren't likely to be successfully brought against government officials acting in their official capacity, especially since they didn't take any actions. They can be entertained long enough to get to the plea bargain, though, as a threat to the accused.
Ultimately our justice system is badly broken and extremely warped. I don't know what justice actually looks like in this case, but I know it doesn't look like sentencing both a man and his son to death. Even leveling threats like that is indefensible.
Justice also doesn't look like the kind of railroad they're setting up to avoid having to prove a case in court.
Real Violence
Maybe this is what Ms. Cooper was expecting from the police? If so, there’s a problem, though I am not convinced the problem is reducible to racism.
Racism Transcendent
Christian Cooper (no relation), a Black man and a bird-watcher, asked Amy to leash her dog. Dogs must be leashed in Central Park from 9am to 9pm, but in the Ramble they must be leashed at all times. Christian later said that he had been worried about the delicate ecosystem of The Ramble and the way in which the dog might affect the birds.White Violence!
Amy, clearly offended, responded by saying that she was going to call the police on him. The video Christian took ended up online, and almost instantly went viral.
In response to the video, many on social media began to speculate and insist that Amy Cooper was a Trump supporter and a member of the “MAGA” movement.
However, campaign contribution information — with donations to Democrats such as Barack Obama, Pete Buttigieg, and John Kerry — leaked online earlier today appeared to suggest that Amy actually identifies as a liberal. This matters, because in this political era, during this most critical US presidential election, it is necessary that we understand and recognize that white violence transcends party lines and political ideology.
She clearly is a racist, though, and a privileged woman who thinks the police exist to put other people in their place for her.
Masculinity and the Expert Left
A man called Tom Nichols, apparently chiefly famous for a work on the value of expertise, wrote a piece this weekend wondering why American working-class men accept Trump in spite of Trump's failure to live up to the standards of American working-class manhood.
I'll let you read it rather than summarize it. It's not unreasonable to ask "Is Trump honorable?" "Is Trump courageous?" "Is Trump a man who respects women?" Does he keep his word? Can you rely on him?
Rather I'd like to note something else by way of explanation. Along the way, Nichols cites an American Psychological Association piece on the manhood values these men hold, generally built around how these men are failing and dying off, and one section of which is entitled, "Manhood Gets in the Way." It's not just analysis, it's a general attack on the values they hold -- an assertion that the values are a problem, that the whole system needs to be undermined by 'more educated men' and 'men in positions of power.' Psychologists should work against such manhood; the educational resources of the state should work to undermine these traditional values; power and persuasion alike should be used to unmake these men. For their own alleged good, of course: they'll be 'psychologically healthier' once they give up their ideals and conform to the preferred gender norms.
That's really the answer to the question. These men like Donald Trump not because he's one of them -- he's not one of them. He's not working class, he's a billionaire. He's not a manly man, but he's not from their class. He is, however, on their side. He respects them. He wants them to succeed. He wants them to have good jobs at better pay, and to make American workers like them the envy of the world.
By the same token, for all his flaws, Donald Trump genuinely loves America like they do. He really wants America to be great. He is not willing to trade American greatness for personal gain. He's attached to America, and wants to see her flourish. In that, too, he is on the American worker's side.
The picture might be different if others could manage to be on America's side in the same way, and to respect the values of the American working man rather than bending themselves to undermining those values and that way of life. The whole 'expert' class seems to be united against them, though; it seems to have decided that the world is tired of men like those, and would be better off without them. And so these men find in Donald Trump not just a friend, but practically their only friend in all the halls of power.
That's why they accept him in spite of his flaws. He accepts them, respects them, supports them and their way of life the best that he can. Who else does?
I'll let you read it rather than summarize it. It's not unreasonable to ask "Is Trump honorable?" "Is Trump courageous?" "Is Trump a man who respects women?" Does he keep his word? Can you rely on him?
Rather I'd like to note something else by way of explanation. Along the way, Nichols cites an American Psychological Association piece on the manhood values these men hold, generally built around how these men are failing and dying off, and one section of which is entitled, "Manhood Gets in the Way." It's not just analysis, it's a general attack on the values they hold -- an assertion that the values are a problem, that the whole system needs to be undermined by 'more educated men' and 'men in positions of power.' Psychologists should work against such manhood; the educational resources of the state should work to undermine these traditional values; power and persuasion alike should be used to unmake these men. For their own alleged good, of course: they'll be 'psychologically healthier' once they give up their ideals and conform to the preferred gender norms.
That's really the answer to the question. These men like Donald Trump not because he's one of them -- he's not one of them. He's not working class, he's a billionaire. He's not a manly man, but he's not from their class. He is, however, on their side. He respects them. He wants them to succeed. He wants them to have good jobs at better pay, and to make American workers like them the envy of the world.
By the same token, for all his flaws, Donald Trump genuinely loves America like they do. He really wants America to be great. He is not willing to trade American greatness for personal gain. He's attached to America, and wants to see her flourish. In that, too, he is on the American worker's side.
The picture might be different if others could manage to be on America's side in the same way, and to respect the values of the American working man rather than bending themselves to undermining those values and that way of life. The whole 'expert' class seems to be united against them, though; it seems to have decided that the world is tired of men like those, and would be better off without them. And so these men find in Donald Trump not just a friend, but practically their only friend in all the halls of power.
That's why they accept him in spite of his flaws. He accepts them, respects them, supports them and their way of life the best that he can. Who else does?
Electric Trucks
I have a friend who builds electric motorcycles as a hobby. He's a smart guy, a logician by training who works on the design of the LSAT as well as its logical reasoning questions. He's been bending my ear about the advantages of electric vehicles for years.
My objections began as a collection of practical points and frankly aesthetic ones: I like my motorcycle to rumble, for example. Still, there are also practical reasons why electric vehicles aren't as wise a choice for long-distance work.
That said, he's convinced me that there are many practical arguments in favor of electrics, too. There are some areas where they are positively superior to gasoline engines:
Charging times and range remain practical considerations. Still, we may be approaching the point at which electric vehicles become viable on the long highway and not just in the city.
My objections began as a collection of practical points and frankly aesthetic ones: I like my motorcycle to rumble, for example. Still, there are also practical reasons why electric vehicles aren't as wise a choice for long-distance work.
That said, he's convinced me that there are many practical arguments in favor of electrics, too. There are some areas where they are positively superior to gasoline engines:
... it can get out of a jam, such as the mud, because it has a precise, computer-controlled motor built into each wheel. The software slows down the wheels, preventing slippage, giving the vehicle better traction than a traditional pickup, Burns said....Electric trucks also have a big advantage in towing, which is that they can deliver peak torque effectively immediately.
"So a typical gasoline drive-train has well over 1,000 parts. When you look at it that way it’s very prehistoric, it’s essentially a Model T," Burns said. "We have four moving parts."
...
Typically, when a pickup's bed is empty, it doesn’t drive well because the engine is in the front and the weight is there, Burns said. In the case of the Endurance, the center of gravity is low and the in-wheel motors put weight on the four corners.
"This is a car without a gear, without a transmission and a drive axle, so there is nothing down the middle of the car. The only four moving parts are the wheels," Burns said. "The result is the software that’s driving that and the suspension that’s driving it means you get a pickup that drives like a sports car.”
He said it has performed well in crash tests, too. But Burns knows there are naysayers who don't believe traditional pickup owners will want an electric version, so why enter a truck war you can't win? He believes he will ultimately win it.
"After hundreds of years of refinement and countless hours of engineering, a pickup truck only gets about 17 mpg and it’s not going to get any better," Burns said. "So it really needs a reset. We’re not coming out with a 10% better pickup truck, we’re coming out with a 500% better pickup truck and it’s safer, it’s quieter and it’s fun to drive and it costs less to own.”
Charging times and range remain practical considerations. Still, we may be approaching the point at which electric vehicles become viable on the long highway and not just in the city.
Rolling Thunder
It turns out last year was the final ride, unless they reconstitute in future years. One year ago today I was there for what organizers billed as the last one. Joel was there too, though we didn’t happen to link up.
Memorial Day Ride
Taking Douglas’ suggestion, I took a ride today. This is Bear Lake.
Looking East
Looking South
Bear Lake is near the mountain town of Cashiers, where I stopped for lunch at the newly-reopened (for outdoor seating only) Ugly Dog Pub. This was the first meal I’ve had seated at a restaurant in months.
After lunch came the ride home, for an evening cookout.
Local hero
We may never know what motivated this young man, Adam Salem Alsahi, but I'll bet we've got a good idea what motivated the MP, so kudos to her this Memorial Day. Two days ago, a Syrian-born naturalized American citizen with jihadist connections was killed trying to crash the gate of a naval base in Corpus Christi:
Great printing job on the dog's muzzle:
The active duty U.S. Navy military police woman at the Ocean Drive gate has probably checked thousands of IDs and allowed access to thousands of authorized people at NAS Corpus Christi.
But yesterday morning, at barely the first light of day, a terrorist tried to get past her. That terrorist, Adam Salem Alsahli (a Syrian born U.S. citizen), picked the wrong gate guard to try to get past. He must’ve thought that all he would have to do is lift the pistol off of his lap, point it at the gate guard (while she looked him in the face) shoot her point blank in the chest and then be able to drive on to the base and use his assault rifle and shotgun to kill as many people as he could.
He sure was wrong!
She took the bullet dead center in her chest, but that happens to be the area of the bullet resistant Kevlar vest, which has a steel, ceramic-coated plate over center mass to protect the heart and vital organs.
Yes, no doubt the impact knocked her down to the floor, but she got right back up and hit the emergency button that activated a very strong pop up barricade, which stopped and disabled the terrorist’s vehicle. Then, as he was getting his assault rifle out of his car, she shot him to death.In case he was wearing a vest as well, I hope she used a head-shot. The local press did not oblige with details.
Great printing job on the dog's muzzle:
Have a Grateful Memorial Day
When someone says "Have a happy Memorial Day", it always sounds a little odd. I saw "Have a <i>grateful</i> Memorial Day" recently, and thought that was perfect.
One reason we erect statues of great historical figures is out of gratitude for their service. One fine example, and that seems especially fitting for the Hall on Memorial Day is this one-
The Darby Legacy Monument, for BGen William O. Darby, of Darby's Rangers, KIA 30 April 1945 in Torbole, Italy.
The monument features a statue in the form of the classic equestrian statue, but with a twist- General Darby is astride an iron horse instead of one of flesh and bone. Unique and noble.
So, have a grateful Memorial Day, everyone. If you're lucky enough to have a steed- either steel or flesh- perhaps go for a ride to celebrate their memories.
One reason we erect statues of great historical figures is out of gratitude for their service. One fine example, and that seems especially fitting for the Hall on Memorial Day is this one-
The Darby Legacy Monument, for BGen William O. Darby, of Darby's Rangers, KIA 30 April 1945 in Torbole, Italy.
The monument features a statue in the form of the classic equestrian statue, but with a twist- General Darby is astride an iron horse instead of one of flesh and bone. Unique and noble.
So, have a grateful Memorial Day, everyone. If you're lucky enough to have a steed- either steel or flesh- perhaps go for a ride to celebrate their memories.
The Oldest Saloon West of the Mississippi
Not closing, this American icon.
Hank Williams is moaning his 1949 hit “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” high and mournful from the old quarter-a-song jukebox when we step off the sunny porch and into the neon light....
“Walls went up in the 1850s,” she says. “Was literally a trapping and trading post for mountain men in the area until 1879. When the town got big enough they moved the dry goods next door and this became a saloon ever since then, including the years of Prohibition.”
“The way that happened was the sheriff was in Ogden, so he either came up by mule or by rail,” she smiles, mischief in her eyes. “They knew he was coming. Sometimes he would arrest the owner, his wife would come over and open the bar back up. So that’s why we’ve kind of had a rebellious spirit.”...
The jukebox, underneath a ceiling one regular estimates has $14,000 in signed $1 bills stapled to it, features Willie, Johnny, Merle, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Charlie Pride, and the U.S. Navy Band’s rendition of “The National Anthem.” When they get a new commander, the airmen bring him by and Leslie lets them know he and his family can consider this their home. Some time later, airmen will fondly replace the old commander’s photograph with the new one in its place of honor — the base of the men’s toilet.
Some Good Songs about Motorcycles
LTC Allen West was injured in a motorcycle wreck this evening. I didn't know he was a rider, but I'm not surprised. I've met him in passing, and had him used as a bad example by two sets of JAG lawyers during pre-deployment briefings to Iraq. I hope he'll be just fine.
In his honor, some appropriate music.
That last one is apparently the whole movie, and it's quite a film. It was two years after Easy Rider, and had the same production crew but nothing like the budget. So it's a werewolf film, but they could only afford the makeup artist for three days at the end; and they couldn't mostly afford actors, so they just hired bikers. It's a better movie for both of those restrictions, a plausible new cinema psychedelic piece. I'm not sure it isn't better than Easy Rider, as a biker movie. The more famous film has a better soundtrack in places -- though check the intro to this film, 11:48, and also 31:23 -- and Easy Rider had some great sweeping visuals through Monument Valley, but is otherwise somewhat overrated. These guys were mostly for real.
There is nevertheless a substantial content warning, especially for nudity, sex, and violence. Language, drinking, drugs... well, it's psychedelic new cinema. You're all adults.
UPDATE: LTC West is resting in stable condition, with some fractures. He’s to be released soon.
In his honor, some appropriate music.
That last one is apparently the whole movie, and it's quite a film. It was two years after Easy Rider, and had the same production crew but nothing like the budget. So it's a werewolf film, but they could only afford the makeup artist for three days at the end; and they couldn't mostly afford actors, so they just hired bikers. It's a better movie for both of those restrictions, a plausible new cinema psychedelic piece. I'm not sure it isn't better than Easy Rider, as a biker movie. The more famous film has a better soundtrack in places -- though check the intro to this film, 11:48, and also 31:23 -- and Easy Rider had some great sweeping visuals through Monument Valley, but is otherwise somewhat overrated. These guys were mostly for real.
There is nevertheless a substantial content warning, especially for nudity, sex, and violence. Language, drinking, drugs... well, it's psychedelic new cinema. You're all adults.
UPDATE: LTC West is resting in stable condition, with some fractures. He’s to be released soon.
Herschel Walker?
This is going to go hard for the SEC states. Herschel is a minor god here, even after all this time.
Fauci: You Know, Locking Down Too Long is Harmful
I’m glad to see this, as it will encourage people to go beyond the simple partisan lock. None of you are there, but many are.
Koch conquers PBS?
We watched the brief Clarence Thomas bio "Created Equal" on PBS last night. Neither of us could figure out why PBS would run such a thing, unless the Koch money included in the credits actually had some effect, which is hard to imagine.
It wasn't the hack job I expected. The questions were sometimes mildly probing, but never in true "gotcha" territory. Justice Thomas was allowed to explain clearly and repeatedly how his judicial philosophy works, and to express his disgust at the idea that any political movement has the right to tell him what views a black man is required to hold. Anita Hill was treated briefly and respectfully, but Thomas's response got even more time and respect. If it hadn't been PBS, I'd have assumed I was watching a serious journalism outlet.
When Thomas graduated from Yale Law School in the mid-1970s, a committed Democrat, he snagged only one job offer, from then Missouri AG John Danforth, a Republican. Thomas's politics already had undergone a fundamental shakeup after a Marxist youth, but clearly the contact with a lot of thoughtful conservatives had a further impact. Within no more than a decade, many law firms with a strong progressive bent would be falling all over themselves to snag black Yale graduates, but they sure missed their chance with Thomas. Danforth, later a U.S. Senator, became a strong lifetime supporter and friend who sat next to Thomas in the grisly confirmation hearings.
Joe Biden presided over the travesty. He came off as an incomprehensible boob, though more cogent and fluent than he could appear today.
It wasn't the hack job I expected. The questions were sometimes mildly probing, but never in true "gotcha" territory. Justice Thomas was allowed to explain clearly and repeatedly how his judicial philosophy works, and to express his disgust at the idea that any political movement has the right to tell him what views a black man is required to hold. Anita Hill was treated briefly and respectfully, but Thomas's response got even more time and respect. If it hadn't been PBS, I'd have assumed I was watching a serious journalism outlet.
When Thomas graduated from Yale Law School in the mid-1970s, a committed Democrat, he snagged only one job offer, from then Missouri AG John Danforth, a Republican. Thomas's politics already had undergone a fundamental shakeup after a Marxist youth, but clearly the contact with a lot of thoughtful conservatives had a further impact. Within no more than a decade, many law firms with a strong progressive bent would be falling all over themselves to snag black Yale graduates, but they sure missed their chance with Thomas. Danforth, later a U.S. Senator, became a strong lifetime supporter and friend who sat next to Thomas in the grisly confirmation hearings.
Joe Biden presided over the travesty. He came off as an incomprehensible boob, though more cogent and fluent than he could appear today.
Why Are Liberals More Afraid of COVID?
Ezra Klein asks a really interesting question: a lot of research suggests that conservatives have a heightened sense that the world is dangerous, and a lot of the difference between liberals and conservatives comes down to this basic disjoint in our perception of the danger of reality. So why is it that conservatives tend to be less worried about the dangers of COVID, and liberals are the ones preparing to hide in their homes for as long as possible?
Unfortunately, it being Vox, while the question is interesting the answers pursued can be described as "Three theories of why conservatives are wrong." These are:
1) Liberals are acting out of care, as is their core value, while their fear is an expression of superior intellectual understanding of the science; conservatives, though panicked, are engaged in psychological transference of this panic to the economy because they are too afraid or too inferior to grapple honestly with the research.
2) Conservatives are expressing their fear through intensified partisan obedience to their leader, Donald Trump, who would like to downplay the virus.
3) Conservatives are showing fear, but are expressing it through their usual racism toward foreigners/outsiders rather than, like liberals, a wise and scientific approach to epidemiology.
Perhaps in some cases? But surely there are theoretical models that don't require assuming that conservatives are wrong.
1) Economic pressures differ: conservatives are much more likely to be small business owners or employees, whereas liberals are over-represented in government, academia, the press, and the tech sector; also, among workers likely to draw unemployment benefits. Conservatives are thus more likely to be feeling intense economic pressure without help. For liberals, a combination of continued pay and/or the ability to work from home is making 'stay at home forever' a more plausible option.
2) Liberals also feel partisan loyalties, especially to oppose Donald Trump. As we have seen elsewhere, especially in the Russia Collusion hoax, this can lead them to accept implausible storylines that might harm the hated enemy. They tend to see this as an expression of 'care,' because they view Trump as especially uncaring; but it is also an expression of injustice, as it leads them to do things like persist in calling people "traitors!" when in fact they have been shown to be falsely accused. There is no reason to think liberal partisanship is more rational nor more scientific.
3) Conservatives do tend to perceive threats more intensely, but they also tend to build their lives around modes of defending against those threats so they can be free, e.g., learning to carry a handgun and use it safely and effectively. In studying this threat, many conservatives have decided it really isn't an unmanageable danger: for example, the risk of death to a man of my age appears to be around 0.001%, concentrated on those with underlying health conditions that I don't have. While I want to take steps to avoid massive viral load exposure and/or the danger of carrying the disease to someone more vulnerable, I think it's both rational and scientific to learn from the data we've seen that this is a risk I can afford to run.
There may be other theories as well. Perhaps there are even theories in which neither side is 'right.'
Unfortunately, it being Vox, while the question is interesting the answers pursued can be described as "Three theories of why conservatives are wrong." These are:
1) Liberals are acting out of care, as is their core value, while their fear is an expression of superior intellectual understanding of the science; conservatives, though panicked, are engaged in psychological transference of this panic to the economy because they are too afraid or too inferior to grapple honestly with the research.
2) Conservatives are expressing their fear through intensified partisan obedience to their leader, Donald Trump, who would like to downplay the virus.
3) Conservatives are showing fear, but are expressing it through their usual racism toward foreigners/outsiders rather than, like liberals, a wise and scientific approach to epidemiology.
Perhaps in some cases? But surely there are theoretical models that don't require assuming that conservatives are wrong.
1) Economic pressures differ: conservatives are much more likely to be small business owners or employees, whereas liberals are over-represented in government, academia, the press, and the tech sector; also, among workers likely to draw unemployment benefits. Conservatives are thus more likely to be feeling intense economic pressure without help. For liberals, a combination of continued pay and/or the ability to work from home is making 'stay at home forever' a more plausible option.
2) Liberals also feel partisan loyalties, especially to oppose Donald Trump. As we have seen elsewhere, especially in the Russia Collusion hoax, this can lead them to accept implausible storylines that might harm the hated enemy. They tend to see this as an expression of 'care,' because they view Trump as especially uncaring; but it is also an expression of injustice, as it leads them to do things like persist in calling people "traitors!" when in fact they have been shown to be falsely accused. There is no reason to think liberal partisanship is more rational nor more scientific.
3) Conservatives do tend to perceive threats more intensely, but they also tend to build their lives around modes of defending against those threats so they can be free, e.g., learning to carry a handgun and use it safely and effectively. In studying this threat, many conservatives have decided it really isn't an unmanageable danger: for example, the risk of death to a man of my age appears to be around 0.001%, concentrated on those with underlying health conditions that I don't have. While I want to take steps to avoid massive viral load exposure and/or the danger of carrying the disease to someone more vulnerable, I think it's both rational and scientific to learn from the data we've seen that this is a risk I can afford to run.
There may be other theories as well. Perhaps there are even theories in which neither side is 'right.'
Machine Politics
J. Melcher dropped an old but fascinating story in the comments of the post on vote monitoring below. It's the sort of story that should have provoked intense reforms, but of course did not.
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