All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
The Z-Man has a very clever analogy between government and software systems.
He compares government reform to software revision. but he makes the case that at a certain point the program needs to be replaced with something new. This corresponds to revolution. My hope is he’s wrong about what needs to be done.
Today was an amazing day on the site traffic wise. Whatfinger picked up my little Debate Comedy Post and depending on whether you use Google Analytics or another index that counts the bots too, we had something between 660 and 830 page views as of 10 pm eastern time.
But as exciting as that is, I still haven’t succeeded in getting viewers from all 50 states in the same day.
This time it’s Alaska and South Dakota that are holding out. Other times it’s been Vermont or Delaware.
Ah well, there’s still time. But I fear I will be denied again. The color darkness represents the number of readers in a state. In this case you can see that Texas has the highest number of readers at 70. If anyone knows anyone in Alaska or South Dakota that needs a laugh at Bernie Sanders’ expense let them know tonight is the night to click in.
Read the words, enjoy the panic.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/23/sanders-democratic-establishment-panic-mode-117065
Notice they mention losing the House. Just so delicious.
Dramatis Personae: Bernie Sanders (BP); Joe Biden (JB); Elizabeth Warren (EW); Amy Klobuchar (AK); Mike Bloomberg (MB); Mystery Candidate (MC); Christiane Amanpour (CA); Rudy Giuliani (RG); Joy Reid (JR); Anderson Cooper (AC); Rachel Maddow (RM);
(Scene 1: Inside the media booth at the final Democratic Debate in San Francisco)
CA – Hello, I’m Christiane Amanpour with my interesting British accent, and we’re here at the final 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate in beautiful San Francisco, California.
RG – Beautiful? You call trying to navigate around a sidewalk festooned with human feces and vomit beautiful? Christiane, that’s some weird alternate reality you live in.
CA – And as you can see and hear, I’m joined by the always cantankerous, former Mayor of New York and current attorney for President Trump, Rudy Giuliani.
RG – I can live with cantankerous.
CA – And we’ll be here to see who will step up and try to knock Bernie Sanders off his trajectory of winning the Democratic Presidential Nomination.
RG – Actually I’m here for the laughs. These losers are trying to stop the Crazy Party from nominating the King of the Lunatics. That seems to be an impossibility.
CA – Despite Rudy’s penchant for Right Wing propaganda, it will be interesting to see if the more moderate candidates attempt to make an issue of Bernie Sanders flirtation with socialism.
RG – Flirtation? I would say that it was consummated to use a polite word. To continue your analogy, if this were seventy years ago, we’d be seeing a shotgun wedding between Bernie and Communism.
CA – Well, enough of this banter. Let’s go to the debate stage. The seven candidates are now advancing to their podiums and the moderators are seated. We have CNN’s Anderson Cooper and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid.
RG – Ah yes, the voices of reason. Where did I put my barf bag?
(Scene 2: Wide shot of the moderators and candidates on the debate stage)
JR – I’m Joy Reid and welcome to the audience here at the Palace of Fine Arts here in vibrant San Francisco.
(A voice from the audience gives a loud bitter laugh and an epithet. A struggle is seen in the audience and a man is tased and carried away.)
JR – Spirits are high and let’s meet our panel and the candidates. I’m joined by my colleagues Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper who know in their hearts that that wasn’t me who allegedly said those homophobic remarks all those years ago because that is not who I am.
(Maddow and Cooper glare at her over rigid smiles.)
JR – And here are the 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates. In decreasing order of electoral relevance, Senator Bernie Sanders, the socialist democrat from Vermont; Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City; Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend Indiana; Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; Billionaire Tom Steyer of San Francisco California. Welcome all of you or Zae, Zee, Zi, Zo, Zou and sometimes Zy.
(The candidates look confused and mumble some replies.)
RM – Hey wait a minute, that’s not Tom Steyer there at the loser end of the podium. It’s a masked intruder in an ill-fitting white pantsuit!
MC – That’s right Rachel Maddow, I am the “mystery candidate” and Tom Steyer has voluntarily surrendered his place on the stage and his billion-dollar fortune to me in my run for the presidency.
AC – But that’s nonsense. This is the end of the campaign and there’s no way that can be justified under the rules of the debate or the DNC campaign requirements.
BP – Wanna bet Anderson? How do you think they justified screwing me out of the nomination last time?
RM – Alright but why the mask? You’re obviously Hillary Clinton and you’re not fooling anyone.
MC – That’s ridiculous! Hillary Clinton is so beloved by the people that she would never disguise herself. It would be throwing away her natural advantage.
RM – If that’s so how come you lost the last two times you ran.
MC – That’s a damn lie. The Russians stole the election from me. … I mean from her.
JR – Alright, whatever, we don’t have all night let’s move on and get this show on the road.
AC – The first question will be answered by all the candidates. Why do you want to be President of the United States of America? Senator Sanders?
BS – I wanna say that when I am President the first order of business will be to make the minimum wage $500 dollars an hour. That way all Americans will be earning a million dollars a year. Then I will make the tax on the million-dollar bracket 100%. That will flood the treasury with cash and balance the budget. I would seize all businesses and nationalize them and all profits would be divided equally by all the people. And finally, I would declare all humans and some primates American citizens and allow them all to enjoy the fruits of this land. To each according to his needs and from each according to his abilities.
RM – Hey that’s misogynist! You should have said her or at least their.
BS – Yes, that’s what I should have said. But, I am very old, you know.
MB – Hey can I say something in rebuttal?
AC – Well Mayor Bloomberg, it’s your turn to answer the question. If you want to discuss Senator Sander’s answer feel free.
MB- Thanks. Bernie Sanders is a dangerous lunatic. What he just laid out was a delusional plan that would bankrupt the country and collapse the financial system of the entire planet. I can’t actually calculate how bad it would be but I guess that tens of millions would starve in the first few months and the urban areas would devolve into cannibalism within the first year. Shortly after that the Chinese would invade and occupy the more desirable farming and mining areas and allow the rest to revert to primitive tribalism.
BS – This bloated plutocrat is lying. He has grown fat on the forced labor of the lumpen proletariat.
MB – Hey looks who’s talking about bloated and fat. I keep my weight at a very optimal point and you look pretty flabby to me Mr. Millionaire Communist.
BS – Liar, I’m a Democratic Socialist! And a millionaire isn’t a billionaire like you!
MB – Socialist, Communist. Potato, pattata.
AC – Well Mayor Bloomberg, you’ve critiqued your opponent’s plan. What is you reason for running?
MB – I see the most urgent threat that America is faced with is what to do about the “Big Gulp.” Are you aware that the fifty-ounce beverage is killing more Americans each year than cancer and opioids combined? And also, the average American butt size has increased by eleven inches over the last twenty years. I am on a crusade to bring health and longevity to the people of this great country. Once my War on gulps is victorious, I intend to go after the Big Mac, the Whopper and, God willing, the all you can eat Lobster Fest at Red Lobster.
AC – Well I see what you mean about butt size. It’s a pet peeve of mine too. Well Mr. Vice President, it’s your turn.
JB – You know when I was the right-hand man of a certain clean articulate President named Barack Obama, I suppose you remember him, he said to me, he said, “Joe, old friend, what can be done to stop the Big Gulp?” Well I drew up a plan and pushed through the legislation in record time and that’s how we defeated the Big Gulp.
MB – That never happened.
JB – Listen you lying, dog-faced pony soldier, why don’t we have a push up contest or go out behind the barn and decide this the old-fashioned way with chains and straight razors.
AC – Please Mr. Vice President, try to stay on track.
JB – Well as I was saying, back last year when I was Vice President, I set up the program that made the minimum wage $500 an hour and that’s how we ended poverty in our lifetime.
(Stunned silence descends on the stage and crowd.)
AC – While the former Vice President is being escorted to the emergency room for treatment, can you tell us your reason for being President, Mayor Buttigieg.
PB – Thank you Anderson, we all acknowledge the terrible struggle you’ve endured at the hands of the rampant homophobia that is America’s scourge. I too have tasted the whiplash sting of its cruelty.
AC – Ahhhh? You do know I’m a Vanderbilt and have hundreds of millions of dollars, right?
PB – No amount of wealth can make up for the whiplash sting of cruelty.
AC – Sure, but it really helps, don’t you think?
PB – Well, maybe. Anyway, my priority will be ensuring that every American child knows the name and correct pronunciation for the names of all the Latin American dictators, uhhh … I mean leaders in our hemisphere.
AK – Screw you, you little jerk.
AC – Please Senator Klobuchar, your turn isn’t next.
AK – He sucks!
PB – Homophobe!
AK – Ahhh, grow a pair you little weasel!
AC – Please, please! Let’s get back to business. Senator Warren it’s your turn.
EW – Thank you Anderson. One of the most important parts of my candidacy is bringing a woman’s perspective to the presidency. Women are the practical money handlers in their families. We know how to avoid debt and live within our means. Looking at Senator Sanders’ ridiculous proposal it doesn’t take a CPA to see that a $500 an hour minimum wage is insanity. The fact that he doesn’t recognize its absurdity is proof of his unfitness to be President. Applying a real-world perspective along with a woman’s social justice instincts points to a minimum wage that is absolutely no higher than $450 an hour.
MB – Is it too late for me to get a MAGA hat?
AC – Alright let’s hang in there for a few more minutes. This thing is almost over. Senator Klobuchar have you got some brief comments you’d like to make.
AK – You betcha. I can’t win this thing. I’m too close to normal. What I would like to do is throw something at that little weasel Buttigieg. If someone will just hold him for a second, I’ll kick his skinny little butt.
AC – Security please escort Senator Klobuchar from the stage and get Mayor Pete some smelling salts. Alright, “Mystery Candidate,” would you like a shot at the question?
MC – I’d be delighted Anderson. For all of my life I’ve strived to educate the American people about their unworthiness and what they needed to do to atone for their sins. And at the top of that list is making me their President. I’ve suffered as no other woman ever has. I’ve been ridiculed for my looks, my weight, my voice, my husband’s womanizing and for the very large number of coincidental suicides that seem to occur all around me. I want to be President so that all this persecution will end. I will set up a Presidential tribunal that will adjudicate all these capitol offenses fairly and once these people have been brought to justice, I intend to eliminate the 22nd amendment by executive order and give the United States the permanent and hereditary leadership it has always deserved.
AC – Okay, I think my colleagues will agree to skip their questioning so that we can escape before the voters storm this building and drag us off to Alcatraz for summary execution. I apologize heartily to the American people and promise to find a real job where I can atone for my connection to this lunatic asylum.
(Scene 3: Inside the media booth)
RG – Well there you have it. Christiane Amanpour has fled the building with Joe Biden in hot pursuit trying to grab her shoulders and smell her hair. I haven’t had such a good time since the Yankees won the World Series from the Mets in 2000. Well anyway, it doesn’t look like there’ll be much drama in November but I suppose that’s best for the country. But I hope you’ve enjoyed the show. Sorry it couldn’t have gone longer but these people really do need to get back to the hospital. Good night and Keep America Great in November.
Apparently the ten judges that President Trump has appointed to the historically leftist 9th District Federal Court has switched the balance from Left to Right.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-22/trump-conservative-judges-9th-circuit
Considering the thorn in the side that that court has been for conservatives you’ve got to love that.
Here we are at the end of the third week of relentlessly bad news for the progressives. The Impeachment was a nothing burger. The State of the Union Address was great optics for President Trump and a disaster for Nancy “the Ripper” Pelosi and her handmaidens in white. Every primary, every debate, every news story has embarrassed the candidates and demoralized the progressive voters. Bernie has surged in the polls and the party leadership are running out of options to stop him from getting the nomination. They know if he goes into the convention with a plurality of the delegates and they appoint someone else in a smoke filled room that the Bernie Bros will freak out and either stay home on election day or vote for Trump out of revenge.
But even if they did anoint someone else who could it be? All the other candidates are hopeless misfits that only appeal to one strand in the liberal coalition of the offended. The Buttigieg voters hate Warren and Klobuchar. The black voters only want Biden because of his link to Obama. If he seems unelectable they’ll have to switch horses in mid-stream. But which one? Buttigieg and Warren won’t interest them. Could they buy into Klobuchar? Maybe, but it’s not a natural fit. All in all, the present situation is racking the nerves of the Dem electorate. The path forward is unclear.
This actually matches up with the outcome a lot of the contrarians were speculating about last year. They were saying that Hillary would be plucked out of the air as the candidate or Michelle Obama or Oprah. Would the Democrats do that? I think they would if they thought they had a unifying savior. I don’t think Hillary is an option. Her loss in 2016 has tarnished her too badly. she is a spent force. I think Michelle Obama is a possibility. She would energize the black voting block. And the lure of the Obama years would fascinate a lot of the other progressive groups. But it does seem unlikely. I think the Obamas think 2024 is the right time to re-emerge. They probably are hoping that a downturn in the economy will allow them to insinuate themselves back onto the national scene.
For these reasons I don’t think there is a viable alternative to Bernie Sanders. Bloomberg has the money and the moderate credentials but he just got his head handed to him in the first debate. He is not the right profile to inspire the Left to electoral victory. So it will be Bernie. Good. Bernie has a loyal following of millenials. They will vote for him. He will get the loyalist Dem voters who will hold their noses and pull the lever. But he won’t get the independents. These libertarian types will listen when Bernie says he is going to take their money and redistribute it to the poor and they will believe him. And they’ll think, “I like my money, it’s my best friend. I don’t want to give it all to Bernie.” And they will vote for Trump or stay home. So I think the Dems are screwed. They all got on board the green new deal and free college and free healthcare and free everything and because of that people who work and can count are going to give them the thumbs down.
So here’s to nine more months of Democrat depression followed by the election night despair. I hope their healthcare plans include free anti-depressants. They’re gonna need them.
What can you say about Pete Buttigieg that doesn’t make him out as a jerk? During the debate in Las Vegas, some Telemundo reporter calls out Klobuchar for forgetting the name of the Mexican president and, right away, Hall Monitor Pete chastises her for being a bad senator. Now far be it from me to defend Klobuchar, she is just as toxic as all the other Dems on that stage. They pander to illegal aliens and espouse insane policies that throw around multi-trillion dollar price tags like they were trinkets. But I just want to reflect on the rodent-like quality of Petey Boy’s character. Klobuchar at least correctly characterized the gotcha, trivia, Jeopardy aspect of this non-event correctly. Memorizing the names of Latin American puppet leaders doesn’t really prove anything about leadership. Now granted when you’re pandering to the large Hispanic population of Nevada and grant an interview with Telemundo you probably could expect that they will try to ambush you on some Latino advocacy question. And so she got what she deserved.
But it takes a particularly petty individual to jump on that gotcha moment and try to make it into something meaningful. I’m trying to select the best varmint to compare to it. Weasel? Rat? Skunk? Let’s go with weasel. It takes an especially weaselly critter to try and churn something as meaningless as forgetting the name of the President of Mexico into a disqualifying event. I can just bet that prior to this debate Petey Boy was in touch with Telemundo ensuring that the debate question about this was going to be used. And probably he stayed up all night memorizing the names of all the Latin American leaders from the border of Texas down to the tip of Argentina. And I’m sure he would have relished trilling his r’s and pronouncing the tilde on the letter n. This is the annoying kid that everyone had in his class that preened for the teacher and answered all the ridiculous trivia that gets away from the point of whatever lesson is being learned. He’s someone who just grinds it out and accumulates those extra credit points without ever becoming proficient at something useful.
Can you imagine if this guy actually ever became president? We would be the laughing stock of the world and it wouldn’t be long until some fifth rate nation like Venezuela started kidnapping Americans and forcing Petey Boy to pay ransom and apologize for anything they cared to specify. It really reflects just how low we’ve sunk when a specimen like Buttigieg is even considered a possible candidate for President of the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. Klobuchar has more spunk than that little doofus even though half the time she looks like she’s having a nervous breakdown. At this point it’s pretty clear that Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Warren and Biden are not getting the nomination. But it is still possible that Petey Boy could end up as running mate for the Dem candidate. Even that possibility should bring shame to every American male. To think that someone as weird, petty and dysfunctional as Petey Boy is deemed the crème de la crème of American manhood is just a crying shame.
With all the talk about Bloomberg coming in and being handed the nomination I thought about which scenario was better for us. Honestly I can’t rightly say. Bloomberg is maybe a little less crazy but he has plenty of faults that will make him a big target in November.
But putting aside questions of tactics I keep coming back to how much fun it would be if Bernie were the nominee. Imagine a debate between President Trump and him. If asked about healthcare he would tout his Medicaid for All. When he was forced to admit it, he would confirm that it would eliminate all the private insurance in the country and throw us into an awful government system like the Canadians and British. These are systems where you might have to wait years for an expensive test or treatment. In fact some cancer patients have died waiting for such tests. Can you imagine what President Trump would do with an opportunity to reply to a Bernie answer on health insurance? It would be devastating.
And how about the rest of Bernie’s agenda? He believes in eliminating border controls. He wants free college for all. He wants to provide free medical and education benefits to all illegals. He’s on board with the pipe dream plan in the “green new deal.” The shock and horror of moderates and independents when Bernie admits that he’s going to ramp their taxes exponentially to pay for all these absurdities will lose him every sane voter in middle America. In such a situation we can probably win Colorado, and Nevada on top of all the states Trump won in 2016 along with the likely addition of Minnesota.
And the best part of the whole thing will be all those progressives wailing and gnashing their teeth on Election Day night. Miley Cyrus whining and crying, again, about how it was Bernie’s turn. Rachel Maddow telling us, again, that this is no nightmare, this is our lives. Without a doubt the “ragin’ Cajun,” James Carville’s head will explode out of frustration that his warnings about Bernie were ignored. The Young Turks will be swearing continuously again. Every single word will be bleeped out. I wonder if Russia will be blamed again. Of course, it would be better to blame the Soviet Union than Russia. that will be the actual cause of the loss. Because when you come right down to it, less than half of Americans are crazy enough to prefer socialism to capitalism. Not that capitalism has been doing a bang up job lately but even the semi-delusional will look into Bernie Sander’s apoplectic face and recognize a lunatic when they see one.
Of course 2020 will be much better than 2016. we wont have to wait for months for President Trump to be sworn in and then assemble a cabinet. He’ll already be there. And with no more campaigning in his future he’ll be unconstrained. His Justice Department can use his next four years to frog-march the likes of Comey, McCabe, Brennan and Clapper right into the big house. My won’t that be fun.
Here’s someone else who is mining the important but horrific story in Christopher Caldwell’s book, “The Age of Entitlement.” I’m glad to see Caldwell getting coverage all over the Right. His story is an eye opener and should wake up many normies who are confused by how we got where we are now. In the parlance of the kids it will red-pill many and black-pill more than a few. But it will also show how the judiciary was weaponized and that will indicate how a conservative court could reverse huge swaths of the unconstitutional overreach by admitting that anti-white discrimination is still discrimination and is a crime.
For someone as old as I am, one of the more horrific side effects of reading Christopher Caldwell’s book “The Age of Entitlement” is reliving all of the political debacles that he chronicles. Each one comes back and delivers the same pain you felt originally plus the additional grief you get from reflecting on how that defeat reverberated through the years.
To select a specific example, Caldwell details the 1978 court case in which a white male applicant to the UC Davis medical school, Allan Bakke, was rejected in favor of a minority student. Allan Bakke had board scores in the 96th, 94th, 97th and 72nd percentile while the minority candidate had scores in the 34th, 30th, 37th and 18th percentile. Back then the California court rightfully ruled that Bakke had been discriminated against and also ruled that the California program that made this preference was racially discriminatory and must be eliminated. But the University of California appealed to the Supreme Court and by a five to four vote the Court decided that although discrimination was being practiced, diversity was so important that quotas were acceptable as long as they were masked by calling them diversity “plus factors.” Previous to this, no one had ever heard of diversity as a constitutional requirement. So what we had was the very same anti-discrimination laws that the civil rights movement championed ten years before would now be purposefully broken by their government allies to disadvantage a population of people on the basis of race and gender. How ironic.
This was the decision that sealed the fate of white male students across the country. Women and various minorities would be put at the front of the line and regardless of how low their scores were they would get the seats ensured by the hidden quotas that all the universities employed. And eventually the same system would be used by all the major corporations that were monitored by the Federal government which is essentially every one that had more than a handful of employees.
And that is where we are today. The only difference is that additional “protected groups” like homosexuals and illegal aliens have been added over time to the rolls of the favored. And now we have reached a place where every organization, whether a college, corporation or non-profit social group justifies this by employing a mantra that they drum into their employees, namely, “diversity is our strength.”
Diversity is our strength. What does that even mean? In what sense is it a strength? I have personally witnessed diversity hires who have proven so incompetent that they effectively destroyed the functionality of a whole department.
I can remember a technical director standing up at a company meeting and during the “diversity and inclusion” sermon stating that he knew diversity was our strength because a company culture survey had confirmed that it was. I tried not to smile, but failed because I remembered the last time a supposedly “anonymous” culture survey had provided results that contradicted the official narrative. But anonymity was only maintained at the individual level. All survey respondents were identified to the level of the supervisor above. The low-level supervisors of the anonymous dissenters were told that their poor managerial skills were responsible for the “uninformed” nature of the contradictory responses of their direct reports and if the trend continued it would be handled by demoting the supervisors. Naturally, the supervisors then begged their reports to toe the line if they didn’t want to see them fired. So essentially the proof of diversity being a strength is that the company told the employees that it is.
Let’s look at it rationally. If you wanted to hire mechanics what would you be looking for? Several things; mechanical aptitude, strength, conscientiousness, experience and resourcefulness. Now several of these general qualities we could hope to find in applicants of any race or either gender. But if you are looking for strength and mechanical aptitude you would not be surprised to find that the great majority of the best applicants were men. So, hiring an equal number of men and women as mechanics, while obviously producing more diversity than with an all-male staff is going to provide you with a weaker crew both in terms of strength and skill.
If you wanted to choose good medical school students what would you look for? Until 1964 you would be looking for emotional composure, honesty but most importantly for very high analytical intelligence. That is why science and math are the most important prerequisites for medical school. But if after the civil rights era you would accept candidates solely based on their sex or race regardless of how low their testing scores for analytical intelligence were then you would get a weaker class of medical students.
This same exercise can be employed for any job that requires anything more than rudimentary skills. In each case choosing candidates by a quota, regardless of fitness for the position does not give you a stronger employee, it gives a weaker one. From this analysis I conclude that “diversity is our strength” is not just untrue but that the opposite statement is shown to be true. If choosing applicants according to core job competency is subordinated to checking off gender and race boxes then you have purposefully picked less talented individuals as part of your selection process. That is stupid. And worse than stupid, it is dishonest. And since the victims of this dishonesty, namely the co-workers, have to pretend they don’t see what’s happening it is also highly demoralizing for them.
There it is. A dishonest process to defend an illogical goal.
There are many things that a conservative Supreme Court needs to do. Reverse the homosexuality agenda, re-establish the right of free association and protect the First and Second Amendment Rights of all Americans. But if I were to rank the priorities, I would say that ruling affirmative action unconstitutional is the first priority of a conservative agenda. American society as a whole would benefit from the elimination of the dishonesty, incompetence and resentment that this insane practice foists on all of us.
Will the Supreme Court take up something like this? Under John Roberts and with the current conservative/liberal 5/4 split it will not. But with the 6/3 split that might soon exist it is possible. And that is why I especially hope that President Trump ends up with a strong majority in the Senate after this year’s election. I know he will be making an additional nomination within the next five years. I want it to be a bold conservative judge who will make a bold step like eliminating affirmative action.