SCOTUS What Have You Wrought

I can’t believe the fallout this morning over the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action. As the universities look for an end-around to maintain their quota system of admissions we are left to contemplate in our experience, has diversity in race been an actual benefit in our own education?  Although at some times interesting, oftentimes annoying, I’d have to give that a hard no. Or at least pick C: none of the above. It would seem to benefit the recipients of race-based admissions far greater than those who won their place based on meritocracy.

NPR Madness

I did it again. I listened to NPR. This time it was their “Marketplace” segment, thinking how can they possibly inject stock market analysis with their malignant brand of socialism. Wrong. Today's topic was a discussion of how the Supreme Court's decision to strike down affirmative action in higher education will put American businesses at a global disadvantage. How so you ask? They interviewed a former business school Dean who repeated ad nauseum that evidence shows that diverse “work teams”, and by ad nauseum I mean he repeated the words “work teams” over and over again as if he was somehow stuck without a thesaurus, are superior in performance to non-diverse work teams. Hold on a minute. What study is this?  Published in what journal?  If this is going to be the sole basis for your argument, then I want to see the data. Because it’s total nonsense, to be polite. Do you mean to tell me that a team made up of people selected solely on their racial makeup will outperform a non-diverse team selected on merit and qualifications? That’s just preposterous. How do you explain the Japanese, living in perhaps the most non-diverse place on the planet, dominating the automobile industry with the likes of Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Mazda, and Acura? How about the Chinese? Does anyone doubt their prowess in business and manufacturing?  What about Korea? And although Germany has become a much more diverse nation, their management at BMW, Porsche, and Audi remain positively Teutonic. They seem to be competing just fine in the world marketplace. And as long as we continue to see everything through the lens of racism, and fail to adhere to the principles of meritocracy, they’re going to eat our lunch on the world stage.

A Matter Of Time

It will be interesting to see who Joe Biden throws under the bus. Smoking guns are everywhere. The IRS, the DOJ, the AG, and appearing center stage, is Hunter Biden, all of them implicated in the scandal. Taking money, strong-arming people for money, hiding money, protecting people who took money, slow-walking investigations of who took money….it’s a tangled web they’ve woven. The only one who hasn’t had his dot connected is the Big Guy himself, but they’re getting close. The best play at this juncture might be to offer up a sacrificial lamb. It would serve as a distraction, and it would placate the media’s bloodlust, but who is the most likely candidate?  Merrick Garland fits the bill. He’s a whiny, weasely, partisan foot soldier who will garner little public sympathy. But is he enough?  Or will they actually offer up Hunter, portraying him as having delusions of grandeur while feeding a drug habit, a poor tortured soul who needs our love and forgiveness?  Whoever falls on his sword to protect the Big Guy, better start rehearsing his lines. When the liberal media starts asking hard questions, you know your time is up. 

Rhode Island Embarrassment

Did you see RI state Senator Joshua Miller try to weasel his way out of being caught on surveillance footage keying a car in Garden City in Cranston, supposedly because the car had a “Biden Sucks” bumper sticker?  His excuse was he thought he was being stalked by a “gun nut.” This is from the legislator that sponsored Rhode Island’s assault weapon ban. Spin much, Senator? Until we start holding our elected officials to a higher standard, and institute serious repercussions for blatant unethical behavior, we will be stuck with the likes of Nadler, Schiff, Hillary Clinton, and the Biden crime family. Add Joshua Miller to the list. 

The Witching Hour Is Upon Us

There is no question the Progressive Democrat’s end game is to fundamentally change our Representative Democracy, as defined by our Constitution, by altering our societal mores, diminishing our sovereignty, and fostering a socialistic welfare state. Their tactics manifested in open borders, lawlessness, corruption, economic decline, debt, and budgetary apportionment, aided and abetted by a viral compliant dark state bureaucracy. Our current Democrat administration has brought about the culmination of that progressive strategy in stark reality. The question is, have we slipped over the edge and are plummeting into the abyss of irrelevance as a nation of consequence, or can we right our ship of state and revive the spirit of the great American Experiment, involving not only the revival of our morality and patriotism, in adherence to our Constitution, but restoring the hopes of all humanity aspiring for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Come the 2024 elections, the die will be cast, and our fate sealed. Between now and then, our task will be to constrain the Democrat-controlled executive and legislative branches of our government from further stacking the deck against us in political mischief and malpractice.

A Tilt To The Hard Right

I have been off my usual conservative news sources and have gone hardcore, listening to Breitbart who Wikipedia describes as “misogynist, xenophobic and racist.” Drag out those leftist buzzwords and you know they must be on to them. Very informative, hard right, no-nonsense. They interviewed Sebastian Gorka yesterday who I only knew from the relief factor ads. He was off on a rant predicated by the statement that he is a “stickler” for proper English usage and is thus horrified by the preposterously named “Juneteenth” holiday, calling it just another excuse for a federal workers' day off. Couldn’t have named it Emancipation Day or something with more gravitas than that, he said. He also noted that it is officially called Juneteenth Independence Day and being so close on the calendar to our actual Independence Day he thought it ironic that our national holiday to bring people together is preceded by one that separates us. He then segued into how Americans are belittling their holidays making a single Presidents’ Day to replace Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays. Lumping them both into a Monday thus giving federal workers a long weekend, plus generically naming it Presidents’ Day suggests that we also have to honor the likes of Carter, Clinton, and Obama. Alex Marlow was the host and he just announced he’s leaving his morning show to pursue other projects. Most notably he will be releasing an exhaustive investigative book on the Biden crime family entitled “Breaking Biden.”  Now that should be interesting.

Looking In The Wrong Places

Interesting to note that with the national debt now equivalent to our GDP, the government is contemplating all sorts of schemes, such as gradually increasing the retirement age, cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and increasing payroll taxes consistent with the European model. Glaringly absent is any suggestion that we reduce the spending of our generous welfare state with cuts to entitlements and Medicaid. Rather ironic, the suggestion that we increase the retirement age in the face of falling life expectancy and increasingly difficult access to healthcare. The plan appears to be to leave the entitlements intact but continue to squeeze the maximum revenue out of the productive members of society, then give them nothing in their retirement years, shortened as they are trending to be. 

Newsome Follies

It’s difficult to deal with this democrat trend of telling us that what we see is not the truth. Newsome repeatedly countered Hannity’s assertions on last night’s interview with statistics that, if not outright fabrications, could not possibly be verified on the spot. Hannity’s claim that business is fleeing high-tax California was met with Newsome countering that they are seeing a 47% increase in business startups this year. Is that true? Does that compensate for the number of businesses that have either failed or left the state?  And does that monetarily make up for high-profile successful businesses like Tesla leaving the state? And predictably this morning liberal news outlets leapt to his defense, spewing headlines that Newsome “pierced the Fox News bubble” calling their reporting a “fact check.” But even more predictably, the articles don’t fact check any of Newsome’s assertions, merely parrot his opinions that Biden is mentally competent to serve another term, calling his last few years a “master class in results”, or opining that conservative states are using migrants as “pawns.”  Claiming Biden has created “six times more jobs than the previous three Republican administrations combined” is not only hyperbole, to use a favorite Biden administration tag, but is both not factual and disingenuous as it includes the fabricated return to employment after a pandemic where the government shut down the economy then praised itself for a return to productivity when the shackles were removed. Manipulation of the facts. Newsome even went so far as to blame a Republican administration from 18 years ago for the current homeless crisis plaguing California cities. This guy is brash, slick, and smart and despite denying the possibility of a primary run against Biden, he is surely cueing up a presidential run in the future.  But when the time comes, be wary of this new trend in politics to have a prepared narrative full of questionable assertions and deliver that narrative even if it requires talking over the interviewer and ducking the important questions. And both sides are doing

Declaration Of Independence Redux

I often reread the Declaration of Independence, an exercise that at one time was a reminder of the genius of the Founding Fathers but has now become an irritant, a reminder of what we are in danger of losing.  For example, the passage that makes the case against the King begins with “The history of the King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.”  What follows is a myriad of objections to authoritarian rule, but one objection, in particular, stands out.  “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”  To anyone that has the grave misfortune of living in a blue state, or perhaps a democrat-controlled city, this passage should sound vaguely familiar.  And if you consider “our people” to be conservatives, then you’re really on to something. On the federal level, virtually any of the three-letter abominations qualify for inclusion in the tyrannical category. Recent evidence shows the FBI and the DOJ applying the rule of law subjectively, charging conservatives, and in particular Donald Trump, with offenses that are totally disregarded when perpetrated by democrats. The speed at which these charges progress through the system when a conservative is accused is contrasted with slow-walking investigations, vanishing evidence, or a refusal to bring charges altogether.  Witness the manipulative and supremely arrogant James Comey with his proclamation that  “no prosecutor would bring a case” regarding Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified material and ultimately her obstruction by destroying over 33000 emails, SIM cards, and devices that contained evidence. Contrast that with the treatment of Trump. The rabid and incessant attacks on former President Trump, from the debunked Russian collusion theory to the dredging up of a 1917 statute to accuse him of espionage, strikes one as glaringly hypocritical given the video evidence of the Biden crime family engaging in pay-to-play schemes and outright extortion. The stark comparison of the harsh treatment of supposed insurrectionists on January 6 contrasts sharply with the complete disregard for much more serious and injurious offenses that occurred during the Black Lives Matter riots in the summer of 2021. And we can’t disregard the most powerful and punitive three-letter bureaucracy in the land, the weaponized IRS, which admittedly targeted conservative organizations under the guidance of Lois Lerner, who either outright denied them tax-exempt status or delayed that status so they would be unable to influence the 2012 elections.  Despite “substantial evidence of mismanagement,” Lerner was allowed to retire with pension intact and no charges filed.  Mission accomplished.  And now we have Joe Biden seeking to increase funding for the IRS with additional agents to squeeze even more tax revenue out of working Americans. I wonder which Americans will be squeezed. Recall, “swarms of Officers to harass our people.”  But even on the state level, bureaucracy has run amok.  Unelected officials are entrenched in state offices and departments that mete out rules, regulations, and punishment with impunity. The State of New York leads the nation in licensing and controlling everything from medical practice to hair braiding and cosmetology.  Fees are levied, and hours of continuing education are required. Business licenses and a license to collect sales tax are all required to do business. 

And how about your local tax assessor?  You have the right to contest your assessment, but in my experience, that rarely leads to success. They need more money, they raise your taxes, and there’s virtually nothing you can do about it. A “view tax” surcharge, a waterfront surcharge, a “village” tax, a library tax, a fire tax, and the exorbitant school tax all ringing the government cash registers. That’s the “eat out their substance” part of it.

One can only surmise that as time marches on, our government is becoming less like what our Founding Fathers intended, instead becoming more like the tyrannical oppressors from whom we secured independence.  Is the endgame totalitarianism?  Or, with the national debt now equal to our GDP, will we descend into insolvency like Venezuela? We are so preoccupied with political partisanship, racial division, bail reform, and gender identity that we have forgotten about the blueprint from which we built the greatest constitutional republic in history.

Enough Already

CNN lured me in with a headline proclaiming that support for transgender athletes competing in sports based on their gender affiliation is falling. Say it isn’t so. The implication naturally is that Americans actually should support this gender nonsense. Fact: less than a third support it and that number is falling. And the reason, according to the CNN article, is a Republican campaign to suppress the “science” that “trans men are men and trans women are women,” with data showing that transitioning offers no advantage to trans athletes. That’s not data. That’s a lie. And calling out CNN for disinformation does not make me a transphobe. Call yourself whatever you want, dress however you want but don’t include me in your psychosis. No matter how advanced medical procedures are, transition surgery cannot produce a biologically functioning member of the opposite sex. And any male athlete that transitions to female after puberty has already gained the advantages of being a biological male. Any first-year biology major can tell you the difference between phenotype and genotype. Phenotype is the outward appearance of the organism, whereas genotype is the actual genetic makeup of the organism.  You can alter the appearance surgically, but you cannot alter genetic makeup. Nor can you alter the sex organs to make them functional for procreation. And how about that data?  How can a mediocre male swimmer transition to female and become NCAA Division I national champion?  Just watching him tower over his biologically female competitors gives you some idea. In swimming, size matters. He is taller, he has broader shoulders, longer arms, bigger hands, and feet. He has larger lungs, a bigger heart, and leaner muscle mass. This translates into a bigger, more efficient engine with bigger paddles. Similarly, Connecticut high school sports have seen two males that transitioned to females break nearly all of the 17 women’s track and field records. Merely looking at them provides all the data you need. They are bigger, stronger, leaner, and more muscular, with narrower hips and broader shoulders than the other biologically female competitors. Not to mention an unsightly bulge in the crotch of their spandex. It’s clearly not right, yet the media wants us to deny what we see in favor of what they feel. Rubbish. International track and field made a stand to preserve the integrity of women’s sports by banning biological males from competing in women’s events. It’s about time the rest of the sporting world put their politics aside and did the same thing to protect female athletes. 

Irresponsible

So President Biden vetoed the bill that would have repealed months of a pause in student loan payments and upped to $20,000 in debt forgiveness. Shocking. That bill incidentally received overwhelming support from not just republicans, but also independent  Arizona Senator Kirsten Sinema as well as democrats Manchin and Tester. Cue the outrage. Now making the rounds on all the liberal outlets is the photograph of three barely post pubescent poster children holding signs, professionally produced signs, saying “stop hurting 40M student loan borrowers.” Where did those signs come from? And hurting? Please. How about we teach these young people something about responsibility, the definition of “loan” and instill in them a work ethic instead of using them as props and filling their heads with confusing gender nonsense, existential climate change, a sense of entitlement, and an unhealthy addiction to social media. No wonder this generation has set a new standard for mental illness. How about we return to the days when we educated our children in subjects that prepared them for the real world, making them smart enough to realize that spending $25000 on a degree in gender studies, art history or film is not going to see a return on your investment. Sure, major in whatever you want, but only if you can afford it, because there’s no reason anybody else, especially hard working Americans that paid their debt or passed on the college experience altogether, should pay your way.

Another Day Of Infamy

What a coincidence. On the same day that we discover Joe Biden received $5M in bribes from Ukraine as Vice President, part of a total $10M funneled to the Biden crime family, the weaponized department of justice indicts former president and leading Republican candidate Donald Trump for espionage and obstruction of justice for possessing classified documents, the same type of documents found strewn all over Chinatown, the University of Pennsylvania and Biden’s garage. Remember this day. The day we officially became a banana republic.