Last Train From Wuhan

A reporter gets aboard. But isn’t that where the story is?

Sorting out the front-runners

People are beginning to suggest this week that it's a race between Sanders and Biden to oppose Trump.  There are signs the D establishment will pull out all the stops to kneecap Sanders in favor of Biden, the theory being that they're comfortable with Biden's crony capitalism but terrified of Sanders heartfelt (though reckless) anti-capitalism.

Here's how I frame the approach of the three candidates:  Biden is a true-blue crony capitalist.  Sanders despises the "capitalist" part of that equation, while Trump is at least skeptical of the "crony" part.

To adopt a different spectrum of organization:  on a scale of enthusiasm for centralized command-and-control economies, Bernie is all in for control by an enlightened socialist elite, Biden favors control by cronies, and Trump genuinely prefers a more free market with distributed control in the hands of as many ordinary Americans as possible.

To the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns

We attended a Burns Night supper this evening.

Robbie Burns

That’s a haggis, in case you’ve never actually seen one. Note that the supper did not serve a choice of beer or wine or whisky. All three were served together. 

To Fight Discrimination, Discrimination

On race and sex, but also national origin.

Wall Street's biggest underwriter of initial public offerings in the U.S. will no longer take a company public in the U.S. and Europe if it lacks a director who is either female or diverse. Asia is not yet included in the firm’s new policy.

Soft bigotry of low expectations, that last.

Le quatrième pouvoir, c'est moi

Lots of good links from Maggie's Farm this morning. Here's one about Laura Ingraham's report that the New York Times quashed a story about a White House meeting on the eve of Trump's inauguration, involving Eric Ciaramella and Ukrainian officials, and addressing the problem of Hunter Biden's Burisma connections.

Ingraham asked the NYT why they quashed the story. The answer was, in effect, we did it because it's what we do.

That's me, "fringe thinker"

Somebody better shut me down.

“YouTube, Reddit and Facebook have allowed fringe thinkers to bypass traditional gatekeepers and reach millions of people directly.”

I'm shocked to learn that conservative argument "gets clicks by generating fear and outrage, not by appealing to reason." That would never happen on the left.

I like the term "anti-establishment conservative content." These days it turns out I get to be conservative and anti-establishment at the same time, a childhood dream fulfilled. This one's good, too:

Senior CNN Reporter Oliver Darcy says citizens resist his reporting because they “just won’t digest facts.”

You can believe me, because I never lie, and I'm always right!

A monopoly on charity

The usual response by command-and-control monopolists to the anxiety that they'll be outcompeted by the private sector:

The same journalist who wrote the recent Time cover story also authored a book savaging philanthropy as “an elite charade” that does more harm than good, a tool of injustice in a rigged system, a means of suppressing dissent, a way of disguising merciless taking by appearing to give back. He attributes to donors every imaginable motive -- vanity, cynical reputation laundering, undemocratic manipulation, drop-in-the-bucket cheapness -- except altruism and good faith. For these fashionable arguments the work was anointed a “book of the year” by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and NPR.

Other critics make the same arguments. Philanthropic giving is “an undemocratic exercise of power” which should be wielded only by the state, says Stanford’s resident philanthropy academic. Even well-intentioned charitable efforts must be shut down, say the new activists, because they undercut the revenue and authority of the federal government. Powerful interests ranging from elite media to Democrats running for president insist that only government officials should be allowed to improve public welfare and reform society.

Sky Eyes

It is a surprising fact that, if you go up to the right height, roads and human construction become obviously visible though they may be thousands of years old. Though they may, in fact, be completely invisible if you are walking the land, from above you can see clearly where once men scarred the earth.

For example, spy satellites have recently discovered an older city than any on record — a city long forgotten. Robert E. Howard was right.

The buzz

The Bee reports on Schiff anxiety:

"When the Founders wrote that founding document thing, they never imagined there would be electoral outcomes that Democrats did not agree with."

Democrats also said they even have hard evidence that the 2016 election was compromised by Republicans voting for Trump.

That's something you don't hear very often

Something described as a "grinding" facility in NW Houston blew up early this morning, damaging houses in a surprisingly large radius.  Two deaths have been reported, apparently from right at the blast site.

Watching the local news coverage, I was struck by three things.  First, police and firefighter representatives are completely comfortable switching back and forth between fluent English and Spanish.  Second, the warning to potential looters was fierce and completely believable, including the advice to consider what happened to Harvey looters (a 20-year sentence, in one case).  Finally, residents were gently encouraged to search their yards and roofs for body parts.  That's a first for me.

The blast showed up clearly on weather radar, a signal covering several square miles.  Here's a shot from a front-porch security camera that was far enough away to require a couple of seconds for the shock wave to hit.

"I dreamed I saw Kurt Schlichter last night...."

Organize!

[T]urn your anger into votes. The gunfascists got into power because far too many of you thought, “Oh, we’ve had Democrats in power in Virginia before and it’s no big deal.” Okay, wrong. The Democrats today are not the Democrats of yesterday.

And, as he advises, watch out for wusses in the Republican primaries, too.

Paid your own loans back? You're a chump

PowerLine reports candidate Warren's "Joe the Plumber" moment.

The Hill notes that the man cited his friend who makes more money than he does and, instead of paying off his loans, bought a car and went on expensive vacations.

“I saved my money,” the man said. “He made more than I did. I worked a double shift, worked extra … so you’re laughing at me.”

Warren's riposte was devastating:

“No I’m not,” Warren responded.

Iran's Failure

Jim Hanson (formerly "Uncle Jimbo" of BLACKFIVE fame) has a piece on the failure of Iran to extend itself across the Levant.  Their strategic situation has become much worse thanks to the Trump administration, even apart from the Suleimani killing.

A Peaceful Insurgency

Colonel Kurt on the way forward in Virginia.

Conservative Democracy

A defense at First Things.

Hail, RE Howard!

Today was his birthday. Let’s re-up Joel’s essay on his Conan stories as American mythology.

ANTIFA Did Make it Out to the VA March

And they were doing good work there, even. Recognizing a famous Holocaust denier, they challenged him and kept him from blending in and seeming acceptable.

I think it’s nice that we can come together on opposing tyrants like this dude, and that other dude in blackface or the Klan outfit.

The Definition of Tyranny

D29 left an interesting article in the comments below. It's an argument that much of what the regulatory state does is beyond unconstitutional, it's anti-constitutional. This is because it undoes the constitutional design of separation of powers, instead concentrating the three functions of government in the hands of unelected agencies like the Federal Trade Commission.

It's worth a read.

No More Peaceful Transfers of Power

Rep. Schiff confesses that there will be no acceptance that Trump "fairly" won the election later this year by members of his party.

What's stopping them from nominating someone besides Biden, if this Ukraine stuff is really such a big damage to Biden? There are plenty of other candidates, and no votes have yet been cast. There's no reason any of this Biden/Ukraine stuff should affect the November election at all. Run Bernie instead. Run Tulsi. Heck, run Yang. At least if he's called upon to defend America as President, he knows how to throw a fair axe.

Speaking of Tulsi, be sure to read her complaint suing Hillary Clinton for defamation. I suppose they won't be able to run her in November because of her questionable suicide.

Top vs. Bottom

A review.

That exposes Levin’s deep misunderstanding of today’s populism. It is not antinomian, it just wants laws to be made by legislatures, not executives, judges, or (worst of all) unaccountable bureaucrats. It is not mistrustful of all authority, just those authorities that have made themselves unaccountable to the very laws and bylaws they wield against others.

And it is not fundamentally cynical, just distrustful of elites with overgrown senses of entitlement and superiority.
Levin also misunderstands the culture war to which he frequently refers. He views the culture war as an epic struggle between partisans of the Left and Right that has knocked valuable institutions off the rails. Journalism, politics, academia, professional societies, religions: these institutions and others have been “deformed...into the contours of the broader culture war” to their detriment, and ours.

But institutions are not innocent bystanders in this war. They are the warriors. It is political parties, the media, corporations, and universities that have created, expanded, and sustained the culture war against tradition, evolved practice, received wisdom, and common sense. Today’s culture war is less a struggle between Left and Right than a war of Top against Bottom.