WSJ Betrayal

The Wall Street Journal is really trying my patience.  I don’t expect to be spoon-fed conservative-biased reporting like some Instagram algorithm, but I have come to expect them to offer some degree of support for conservative candidates, especially when one considers the radical alternatives offered by the democrats. But they've steadily skewed left, are distinctly negative when reporting on Trump policies, and don’t even get me started on Peggy Noonan’s weekly demonstrations of end-stage TDS.  Their latest editorial, seemingly ripped from the pages of the New York Times, claims that a segment of the Republican Party has become “hostile to ethnic and religious minorities” and uses the recent comments by Bo French as an example. Who, you ask? Exactly.  The author of this editorial, Mr. Sadanand Dhume, is trying to support his thesis based on the rantings of a candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission? But perhaps you are being a bit sensitive, Sadanand.  Or perhaps biased yourself. The aforementioned Mr. French does indeed have a history of making some racially controversial comments, perhaps the only reason anyone would even know that the TRC exists, let alone the fact that Bo French is a candidate for the office.  But this particular comment pointed out that the University of Texas student body, in a candid photo, appeared more representative of Mumbai's population than Austin's. So what. As an observation, that is a rational conclusion that would be apparent to any objective observer, albeit based on a single photograph.  And in a state that prides itself on football, oil, cowboys, cattle and the American frontier, wouldn’t it be disconcerting to an old Texan like Mr. French that the University that bears the state’s name may be losing its Texas identity? In the name of worshipping at the altar of diversity, must everywhere look the same as everywhere else? Now Bo could have left it at that, but he spun it as a negative by simply stating “it’s worse than I thought.” But if by “worse” he means not representative of Texas, he may indeed be correct.  The population of the state of Texas remains majority White at 53.93%, with Hispanics making up the next largest ethnic group at 39.3%. The University of Texas, however, does not reflect those state statistics, with 31.57% of the student body White and 28.28% Hispanic.  Surprisingly, Asians make up 25.37% of the student population, despite accounting for only 5% of the state population.  The University does not break down the racial groups any finer than that, so we might conclude that Indians (as in India) may be included in the group labeled as Asian. Also surprising is that the Black population of Texas accounts for 11.9%, whereas they make up only 4.67% of the student body. And that in itself is interesting.  If DEI policies have been abandoned, then perhaps meritocracy is the reason why high-performing Asian students are overrepresented, a phenomenon that has appeared at most Ivy League and highly selective universities, most notably Harvard, which have been accused of discriminating against Asians in their admissions process. Maybe by “worse than I thought,” Mr. French was actually lamenting the underrepresentation of white and Hispanic students compared to Texas’ population, which would suggest their academic performance is falling behind their Asian counterparts. Depends on how you spin it

The Ithaca Schism

I met a high school teacher yesterday from Ithaca… sanctuary city and home of Cornell University and, even farther to the left, Ithaca College, the bastion of lefty hippies, theater majors, and No Kings protests. Insanity at its finest. She had the day off as Ithaca public schools were closed in observance of Yom Kippur. Ridiculous, she said, and I’m Jewish. She went on to note that they also observe the Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Diwali in addition to the traditional Christian Holiday of Christmas, Thanksgiving (surprised at that one), MLK Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day and Labor Day. President’s Day gets incorporated into the mid-winter week-long recess, winter recess picks up Kwanza and New Year’s Day, and Spring recess is just there to keep Florida bars in business. If the school is a polling place, it's also closed on Election Day. Notably, they have eliminated the Monday after Easter Sunday as well as Good Friday. So roughly one month worth of days off, not including teacher “resource” days, superintendent days and other teacher benefits in what is already a short school year when you factor in summer vacation as well. No wonder our children are idiots. They’re never in school. And Kathy Hochul, in her infinite wisdom, eliminated New York Regents exams as a requirement to graduate. With underperforming students getting pushed through to graduate on schedule and grade inflation making grades essentially meaningless, the Regents served as the only indicator of student proficiency. Over the years, the Regents have even been dumbed down to compensate for deteriorating student performance and the phenomenon of educators simply teaching to the test to assure the appearance of proficiency in subject matter. The question remains whether the poor pass rate was a reflection on the quality of students or a condemnation of the quality of our educators… and the culpable teachers’ union. If the students aren’t being held to a standard and the educators, along with a top-heavy bureaucracy, are not held accountable, how exactly can we assess and improve what appears to be a failing education system in America?

Labor Day Lament

Why do we allow people who do not pay taxes, and thus have “no skin in the game,” to vote for candidates who promise them more “freebies” at the expense of people who go to work every day? The argument will be that all Americans pay taxes, be it sales tax, payroll tax, or state and local taxes, but that pales in comparison to the federal tax burden. Like virtually everything in the Constitution, the original intent has been watered down. The Founders originally proposed that only landowners should have the right to vote, and we once had a “poll tax” that was eliminated as well. And if you listen to the democrats, their platform continues to support expanding voting “rights” to include non-citizens and the incarcerated. In a country with the most progressive tax structure in the world, and socialist candidates in the Democrat party screaming for more punitive taxation on success, perhaps it’s time we revisited the issue. But alas, it would require Congress to get onboard and with 37.4 percent of Americans effectively paying no federal income tax…..yes, that’s nearly forty percent that pay no federal income tax or worse yet, receive more money in return than they paid…it would appear that we are well past the tipping point where there are more takers than makers. 

Big Brother Is Watching

Mike Skater on Breitbart was interviewing a tech specialist this morning, discussing the pros and cons of technology, with the cons mostly related to privacy issues. The proliferation of Flock cameras, small automated license plate readers (ALPS), is troubling, as they are widely employed by law enforcement to scan passing vehicles and upload that information to a database. So at any given time, they can access where your vehicle has been and, in real time, where it’s going. Granted, a useful tool if your vehicle has been stolen, or a crime has been committed, and the perpetrator escaped in a vehicle. Unfortunately, the data is also being used to track movement across state lines to buy fireworks or marijuana that is illegal in the state of origin, allowing law enforcement to lie in wait for when the vehicle returns home. Kinda petty.  Unscrupulous law enforcement officers have also used it for personal use, such as tracking ex-spouses or girlfriends. Not cool. The other concern, particularly in anti-Second Amendment states, is that the data can be used to track vehicles that frequent gun stores or gun ranges, essentially providing de facto gun registration in states where it is illegal to keep a database of gun purchases and ownership. Also not cool, as the net is cast so wide that it ensnares significantly more law-abiding folks than the criminal element.  And down the rabbit hole we go: Vehicles present at a Trump rally, vehicles that go back and forth to Republican Party headquarters, vehicles at a Turning Point USA event, vehicles coming and going from a politician’s home or even the politician’s personal vehicle. You get the drift. And who exactly has access to this database? Then there’s human error. In one state, a murder was committed, and the getaway car’s license plate was incorrectly entered into the system. The mistake resulted in an innocent woman being aggressively pursued and stopped on the highway, removed from her vehicle, and arrested at gunpoint. The error was discovered, and she was sent on her way. Oops, sorry about that. But the original error was not corrected in the system, resulting in her being subjected to yet another traumatic traffic stop a week later. Yikes. Orwellian stuff. What could possibly go wrong? For any of you concerned that big brother is coming, fear not. He’s already here.

Welfare Where Art Thou

The WSJ editorial “Why the Welfare Debate Went Silent” is spot on and enough to infuriate all but the most liberal taxpayers. As Rush Limbaugh summed up in a more simplistic manner: “Why don’t we feed the bears?  Because the bears become dependent on us feeding them.” But in searching for that exact quote, I came across an article in the “Religious Dispatch” by some obscure author named Ian Reifowitz, looking to say something profound and outrageous, but ultimately an example of unhinged bias, who opined shortly after Rush’s death that his “race-baiting and gaslighting of Obama paved the way for Trump.” He goes on to theorize that Rush “tribalized” politics and used religion to divide us, suggesting Obama was a Muslim when he was “in fact” a Christian. The only mention of his association with the radical preaching of Reverend Wright was by name, with no explanation, using the association as another example of being a faithful Christian. Only a passing reference to Obama’s Muslim father, his distinctly Muslim name, his Indonesian youth, his practicing Muslim stepfather….all glossed over by the killing of Osama Bin Laden as proof of his allegiance to Christianity. So in essence, the treatise is based on Obama being a Christian with no reference to his politics. Whatever omissions necessary to make your flimsy case. But calling Limbaugh a “hateful… lying gaslighter” is beyond the pale. Just using “gaslighter, a favorite term of the pseudo-intellectual left, suggests which side of the aisle you’re on, and using divisive rhetoric has long been the calling card of the Democrat party. Andrew Breitbart leveled the divisive accusation at democrats years before this twit Reifowitz wrote this fluff piece in an obscure publication. And trashing a deceased conservative pundit who would have eviscerated you in a confrontation reeks of cowardice. An internet search revealed Reifowitz in his burrow, naturally a faculty member at Empire State University in New York, supposedly a professor of historical studies. Yet another example of our biased education system indoctrinating our youth. Apparently, the rest of the media horde was unimpressed… we haven’t heard anything of substance from him since 2021.   

Sublime To The Ridiculous

With each passing day, we see more evidence that the republic is crumbling. University of Michigan dropping grades for first-year students to stem their mental health crisis. Sure, let’s pamper them some more; that will definitely help them adjust to the real world. The Washington Post criticizing Trump for using a ruse to conceal his air travel plans returning from Turkey after threats from Iran. Heaven's no, let’s detail our president’s travel itinerary so our enemies know exactly where he can be targeted. Idiots. An actual communist is leading in the polls in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary after proposing a 17% state income tax, elimination of the right-to-work law, tax deduction on union dues, abolishing the police, abolishing the presidency, government confiscation of private businesses, government running grocery stores, abolishing Congress and opening our borders. All this from a woman who claims to be a chef and drove her Ramen noodle restaurant into bankruptcy. Sure, pick her to run your state. 

DSA Abomination

I can understand the youth vote trending towards the DSA candidates, given the current popularity of the class warfare, pay your fair share, redistribution, give me free stuff mentality that has pervaded the Democrat party messaging. As Andrew Breitbart opined, “they divide, they divide,” separating us into the haves and have-nots in this case, disregarding and minimizing that which we have in common. There has been no better target in the age of social media than disaffected youth feeling as though they have been shut out of the American dream after being promised upward mobility with a six-figure gender studies degree. But what I can’t understand is the embrace of….let’s call it what it is…..communism by the limousine liberals: those older, well-educated, financially secure white progressives that have embraced the radical leftist, anti-American policies of El-Sayed, Piker, Hong and their communist ilk. Do they realize that when these candidates talk about redistribution, government control of personal property, control of housing, and business seizures, they will not be immune to the economic catastrophe just because they virtue-signaled at the ballot box?  Not yet, apparently. But we can only hope that the motivated 20% of registered Democrat voters that cast their votes for this level of insanity do not represent the 80 percent that stayed home.  Polls however tend to show that Democrat voters are considerably more receptive to communist ideals than their conservative counterparts, that leads to a concern that when faced with the option of a Republican candidate, who will undoubtedly be immersed in the perfume of MAGA association by the media, or a Democrat, even one with unhinged socialist policies, anti-constitution rhetoric, anti-semitism and adhering to the communist manifesto, they will reflexively pull the lever without weighing the consequences. This embrace of Communism, and in some cases what could be more appropriately labeled as Islamo-Marxism, is a frightening development, and hopefully a brief fling that will be squashed at the ballot box when cooler heads will prevail this November. But midterm elections have historically been problematic for the party in the White House, and just as the Obama and Biden administrations swung the pendulum hard to the right, the Trump era may have the opposite effect, swinging it dangerously far left. These wild gyrations are not good for the health of the republic, and should the DSA gain a foothold in the midterms, this will not end well.