I’m very interested to see how this plays out. I worked for the Census Bureau for six years and who got counted in the decennial census was always very contentious. After every census the Bureau would be sued by several states who believed their population were undercounted (states always want to maximize their population to get the maximum number of congressional seats). The Census’ position always was that the Constitution states that they are to count the number of “persons” in each state without any other qualifiers. There is a historical basis for this since slaves were not citizens and they were to be counted (the 3/5 rule would be mute otherwise). Of course slaves were here legally. I suspect the legal folks at the Census Bureau are scrambling right now and I don’t know how they are going to officially react. We live in interesting times for sure.
Category: Glenn W
Super Power Relations
Glenn W sent an email with a link to a podcast where Jeff Nyquist and Alex Benesch discuss how Donald Trump’s election impacts the global power struggle between the United States, Russia and China (link below).
https://youtu.be/OOiVNxt9I0M?si=bUOHY_mfan-wEOGu
It’s an analysis of the Chinese strategy to undermine Trump’s domestic political coalition. There is also discussion of how Trump’s handling of the Ukraine war will impact Chinese/Russian relations.
Thank you, Glenn for passing this along. It’s interesting to know how much the Chinese think about and plan to undermine the American domestic political situation. And if the CIA were any good at their job, they’d have all of this intel available for Trump in a useful and convenient form as soon as it is available. But, of course, they’re so busy trying to undermine him themselves that they can’t get around to something like that.
Watching the video made me think about how American domestic politics is viewed in such different places as Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China.
But it didn’t change my belief that almost all the problem in our country and most of the problems in the world are a result of the dysfunctional and even destructive system and culture that has taken hold of our country and by extension is being imposed on the rest of the world. The adoption of a culture that celebrates above all else aberrant sexual identities and practices, but also emphasizes the vilification of European peoples and cultures and the need to eliminate their identity from their own countries, is singlehandedly bringing about the destruction of Western civilization.
I believe that most of the problems in this country stem from these two cultural projects of the Left. And I think if these programs are eliminated it will cure most of the social dysfunction, we see around us today.
And that is why I believe that if Trump continues on with his program to eliminate things like the recognition of multiple “genders” and DEI and other affirmative action programs from the US federal government he will single-handedly solve the majority of societal ills that we find ourselves engulfed by.
Now as far as foreign policy goes, I see a clear linkage between the war in Ukraine and these same cultural dysfunctions. Russia is a pariah for the Left because it eschews the LGBTQ movement absolutely and refuses to accept the “white shame” culture within its borders. Whereas Ukraine was willing to accept the rainbow flag as the price it paid to get CIA and State Department funding for its color revolution. And you can see a similar dynamic in Hungary where Orban refused to bend the knee to the homosexual mandate and so he also became an enemy of the left. They tried to overthrow him in a recent election, pouring in all kinds of USAID money into the effort. But he won and now he’ll benefit from Trump’s reform of the State Department and foreign relations in general.
It was heartening to see JD Vance meet with the AfD candidates for parliament in Germany and confront the government there with their refusal to stem immigration and their anti-free speech polices and attitudes. It’s this kind of confidence in the advantages of a free and populist society that will advance our point of view in many places.
And that brings me to the question of what I think American policy should be toward the powerful countries like China and Russia. We should be neither fearful of nor bellicose toward them. The United States has ample enough stockpiles of nuclear tipped ICBMs to ensure that neither Russia nor China will attack us or our allies. But by the same token, what business have we rattling sabers at Putin or Xi? Our neocons in the State Department initiated the color revolution in Ukraine and then provided massive military aid and convinced the Ukrainians that the Russians would just capitulate to Ukraine joining NATO. Up until Obama’s administration it was understood that attempting to bring Ukraine into NATO would be crossing a glowing red line that Putin would retaliate against. So, they did it anyway and he invaded. Now he’s been bloodied by our Ukrainian proxies using our most sophisticated weapons systems and so we’ve turned this into a war of attrition where Russia will lose a million men and Ukraine will lose two million men and a third of their country and we’ve possibly made the Russians our bitterest enemies for generations to come. And they’ve embraced China because of it.
If Trump can figure out a way to blunt some of this damage, he should get a Nobel Peace Prize for sure. But in general, I hope Trump’s foreign policy is guided by the precept that our foreign policy should be primarily concerned with improving the security and prosperity of the American people. That’s it. We’re not out to spread democracy and we’re not trying to save the world. Climate Change and Ending World Hunger are not our priorities. Evicting the illegal aliens and bringing the price of a dozen eggs down are. So that explains my myopic vision of foreign policy. If the Chinese try to get involved in undermining the Trump voter coalition, I’m guessing they’ll be a lot less effective than the Democrats are. The Left knows the American lingo better and they’re much better liars than the Chinese are.
So, Donald Trump, just keep pummeling the Left and everything else will follow along like a master plan.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 26APR2024 – Power to the People
I used to think that the wealthy in this country recognized that a healthy middle class was good for business, literally that a strong middle class is a “win-win” for everyone. I have now come to the conclusion that I was terribly naive. The uber wealthy want both money and power.
Once a person hits a certain level of wealth they no longer need more money. Sure, a bigger villa in Tuscany or a larger yacht may be nice but does it really matter? What’s an ambitious person to do? It looks like the answer is power. Sure you own a lot of nice stuff but look how many serfs I have.
I remember a few years back, Tucker Carlson was in a discussion (maybe with Ben Shapiro?) where he said that driverless trucks should be banned. He wanted the ban because so many American workers with only high school diplomas work as truck drivers that much of the middle class would be impoverished. I agree with Carlson on that. We need policies that encourage a strong middle class even if it hurts economic efficiency.
Economic efficiency is another thing I have become very leery of. I always liked Milton Friedman and at one time he had me convinced of the righteousness of completely free trade with no tariffs or import quotas. His argument went something like this: if American manufacturing goes to cheaper overseas manufacturers those products will still be sold in the U.S. The dollars generated from those sales will ultimately need to be spent in the U.S. thereby encouraging formation of new, more efficient businesses here. How did that work out? Well, all the manufacturing from the Midwest was relocated overseas and the profits generated did come back to the U.S. as bond sales. The Midwest was sucked dry but New York city (where the bond trading takes place) profited handsomely. Thanks but no thanks. Milton Friedman was wrong.
I also agree about encouraging direct participation in our own governance. I’m not sure what the solution is but I’m willing to hear anyone’s ides on the topic.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 16APR2024 – Photo-Expedition – 2024 Eclipse
Editor’s Comment:
Glenn was kind enough to allow me to publish a private e-mail he sent me. As some of the regulars know I set up this website originally because I resented the left-bias that permeated most if not all of the photography websites. So I am always excited when someone on the site has a photography-based post to share. And going on a trip to get a special photographic shot is near and dear to my heart.
Hi photog,
Since you were kind enough to give me photography advice for the eclipse I wanted to get back to you and let you know how it went.
First off, I purchased a Tamron 150-500mm f/5-6.7 lens. Rather than buying brand new I decided to buy a “good as new” lens from MPB. I think it was a good choice and I like the lens. I don’t know what reputation it has in the photography community but the non-solar images I’ve taken seem really sharp and I like it.
Leading up to the eclipse I was practicing by taking pictures of the sun. I felt like I was having problems getting sharp focus (you can’t use auto focus when using a solar filter, there’s not enough light). I found a tip by a solar photographer that you can get a good focus for solar photography by going out after dark and focusing on a far away star at the f-stop you will be using for the photographs. I did that and marked the spot on my focus ring using a marker.
I took a lot of photos of the eclipse but in the end I am disappointed in my photographs. I am not surprised that they weren’t as good as I hoped but I wouldn’t have missed the opportunity for the world, I still had a great time. I made a newbie mistake that I only found out about after the eclipse. I had my shutter speed set to 1/30 sec in order to get good color and detail. Well, I found a page on reddit where some experienced folks were chatting and they say that the minimum shutter speed for photographing the sun should be 1/250 sec otherwise motion blur will be induced. Sigh… I never imagined the earth and sun could move that much relative to each other in 1/30 of a second.
I still had a blast and enjoyed trying my hand at the photography. My wife and I sat on a berm on the edge of a Walmart parking lot in Decatur, IN. We ended out chatting with a bunch of fellow eclipse watchers and had an all around good time. The sun moving from partial eclipse to full eclipse in the blink of an eye was one of the most dramatic things I have ever witnessed. It was sudden and dramatic. Many people in the crowd let out a gasp when it happened. I witnessed a solar prominence moving with my naked eye from over 90 million miles away. It’s one thing to read about such things and another thing to see it in person.
Once again thank you for the help!
photog’s reply:
Hi Glenn. Thanks for sharing your experiences during the eclipse. The point of totality must have been very impressive. Very exciting.
I’ve always wanted to see a total eclipse. But life intervenes.
I know what you mean about photographic mistakes. A couple of years ago I went on a river trip to see bald eagles. I had the right lens and the camera was adequate but what I failed to notice is that I had the exposure set too slow for the focal length and it introduced too much shake into the shots. Out of more than a thousand files barely a handful were truly sharp. But you live and learn.
I don’t know all the latest tastes in lenses but my feeling is if the lens allows you to get the shots you want and provides a quality you’re happy with, then it’s the right lens. 500mm is a good long focal length. Birds, other wildlife and landscapes and cityscapes fit right in with such a lens. As you can probably tell from my daily photos I have a 90mm macro lens on my camera a lot. But when an interesting project presents itself it’s good to make sure you have the right lens.
Recently I was talking to a friend about a “walk-around” lens. He was enjoying a 24-105mm zoom. I told him that I used to have a 28-75mm f2.8 zoom that had been described derisively as kind of plastic-y. And it was made of a lot of plastic. But what it was good for was a walk-around cityscape lens. It was plastic so it was light but the images looked excellent to me. Now that was an a-mount lens so I sold it when I bought into e-mount. But I never forgot how much fun it was to have this light, versatile lens when I was walking around Manhattan for hours. So it’s great to learn all the places where different lenses serve their purposes.
Thanks for sending this message. This was the original reason I started the site. I was tired of the liberal bias on most of the photographic websites. They would ruin the fun of talking about photos by saying something stupid about politics and then because the moderators were also liberal they’d punish only one side for arguing. Very annoying.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 23MAR2024 – Smartest Guys in the Room
Like the other readers of this blog I have been watching our culture slowly disintegrate over my lifetime. I am certain that the oligarchs have ran many simulations (remember the Club of Rome?) and are certain that they have the winning hand. That being said I think they have made a very basic logic error which is human beings have agency. Anyone who has a science or engineering background usually views every process as being a mix deterministic or random, it’s drilled into us. However I don’t believe that applies to human beings who have agency. A steel beam doesn’t evaluate the torsion being applied to it and decide how to react but a person does evaluate the forces being applied to him and reasons about how he should react. I think that’s why we constantly hear about how those stupid so-and-sos didn’t do the “rational” thing. Actually they did, it’s your model that’s stupid.
Time will tell but I don’t think the “smartest guys in the room” really know very much.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 04FEB2024 – Free Association
Hi photog,
I basically agree with your analysis (I haven’t listened to the Zman’s podcast though). Freedom of association is critically important and it’s childish for people to demand to be included in clubs where they aren’t welcome. For example all the current hubbub about Taylor Swift is, in my opinion, because football was one of the last few bastions of testosterone heavy entertainment remaining and now even it is being eroded.
I completely agree that all levels of government must be color blind in their enforcement of the law. Separate but equal was always nonsense.
I will say I have some reservations about “public accommodations” being excluded from freedom of association. I can see forcing grocery stores to allow all law abiding members of a community (that would exclude shop lifters) to purchase food. On the other hand I don’t see why we need to force coffee shops to serve their over priced drinks to everyone. When I was younger the general attitude was that if we force people who don’t like each other to associate then we’ll all discover we aren’t so different after all. The ink is black, the page is white, together we learn to read and write… That just doesn’t seem to be true.
Feel free to call me an idiot (well, within reason :-)).
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 12DEC2023 – The New Political Reality
I have already a noticed a change in how I approach other people and politics in general. I no longer seek to argue my position to outsiders. I know I’ve debated with all of you but, shock!, I don’t consider you all to be outsiders. Convincing my neighbor of the righteousness of my position is irrelevant and a waste of my time.
I have begun to look for allies, people who I might not agree with on everything but can still trust. Coalitions can be built based on common interest. I am not interested in walking ten miles in someone else’s shoes. Who can I ally with to bring about desired change? I guess I have come around to the coalition building approach of the Democrat Party and Tammany Hall. It’s us against them; you’re either with us or against us. No more foolish open mindedness that lets me be manipulated.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 07DEC2023 – Human Rights Continued
It is true that rights are violated all the time but that does not mean they do not exist. Yes, rights need to be guarded and defended. The truth that the defense of those rights requires, at times, violence does not negate them.
The concept of natural rights as used in our founding set limits on what the federal government was allowed to do. It was meant to be a practical application of a moral principle for our internal governance.
The dissident right is antagonistic to the concept of a social contract, which is based on natural rights, between the government and the people. I agree that the social contract is an abstract concept but I have never heard of any political theory that isn’t full of abstractions. That includes the communitarians and the dissident right theorists.
What set John Locke’s political theory apart from the other philosophers who used the social contract (Hobbes, Rousseau, etc.) was that Locke was explicitly Christian. He based his principle that all men are created equal on the belief we are all created in the Image of God. A king has no more of that image than a peasant. As Thomas Jefferson phrased it “The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” I believe all of us in this country, both believer and unbeliever, have benefited tremendously from this approach to government.
It’s important to note that in Locke’s philosophy the “pursuit of happiness” was a lot more than a state of mind. There is no point in going into it here but this article provides a deep dive into the concept if you are interested.
I think I’ve said my piece on the topic, you all know where I stand on this and I’m going to let this be my last response. I hope you all have a merry Christmas.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 06DEC2023 – Human Rights
Hi Arthur,
I agree that these ideas of rights are ours in the West, really the Anglo-Saxon West. They are the product of a particular time and place and most of us in the West no longer understand them much less the invaders. I also agree that there is such a thing as reality and it is important to discuss what that reality is. Our worldviews aren’t really that far apart.
Zman is big on western tradition which is great but he certainly values some tradition above other tradition (I know that’s not a surprise). Zman’s post disturbed me enough that I bookmarked it (see Survival of Rights). I think this quote lays it out well:
The thing they will not find among the decaying buildings, rusting vehicles and collapsed bridges will be piles of human rights. They will not open a door of some oddly preserved building and find a bunch of skeletons who had found shelter along with their sacred human rights. In fact, they will probably find no trace of human rights or any discussion of the concept. Given that most of our knowledge is now digital, these sorts of things will be impossible to detect.
The main reason for this is human rights do not exist. They are a thing that humans invented late in the history of mankind. People say that human rights are real and point to various authorities to support the claim, but rights are not real things. They exist only as a figment of our imagination, like the concept of lust. No other species has this concept so it is possible the aliens will not understand it either. It will be as alien to them as our entirely made up concept of human rights.
Without individual rights liberty does not exist. Personal liberty is my tradition and I will do everything in my power to keep it.
Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 05DEC2023 – CN to DR Discussion
The dissident right (DR) certainly has an appeal to anyone who has watched the disintegration of American society and culture over the last sixty years (I am currently 62 years old). I found the DR critique of many of the United States current problems to be very insightful. In the end though, I think the proposed DR solutions to our problems will cause more problems than they solve.
I agree that Heritage Americans have been reviled and treated with a hatred that has surprised me. The question is: is that hatred solely an ethnic hatred? I would say that it isn’t. “White people” are strongly associated with being Christian. I don’t think that’s particularly true anymore but that is the stereotype and lefties love them some stereotypes. The BLM website at onetime listed both stable marriage between a man and a woman and deferred gratification as being examples of white privilege. No, those are examples of Christian morality. Of course ethnic differences are used as a wedge to fracture our society and it has been wildly effective.
Can different ethnicities live side by side peaceably? I don’t see why not in theory but in practice it may no longer be possible. The well has been poisoned and there may be no way back to what we were, the old culture looks to be gone. What is the DR solution then? After giving it a lot of thought I think the DR has settled on some type of ethnic caste system. One set of laws for thee and one for me. Anyone who believes in objective standards of right and wrong (that apply to all people) will find that to be a real problem. I know I do.
I would also like to ask: how should ethnicity be defined? Even in the founding of the United States the English weren’t as homogeneous as we’d like to imagine (see Albion’s Seed). Add in all the immigration that has already happened and can’t be reversed, it’s a hopeless mess. Lines will have to be drawn in the new system but no one will say how this will happen.
The thing that finally tore it for me is when Zman declared that there is no such thing as “rights.” Declaring rights to be an abstract concept that don’t actually exist, he dismissed them out of hand. If there is no such thing as individual rights then there is no such thing as personal liberty. Everyone nowadays seems to want to put a leash on me. Zman’s statement reminded me of a quote by communitarian Alasdair MacIntyre:
“From this it does not of course follow that there are no natural or human rights; it only follows that no one could have known that there were. And this at least raises certain questions. But we do not need to be distracted into answering them, for the truth is plain: there are no such rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and in unicorns.”
― Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
I am not familiar with the work of Professor Özkırımlı but the title of his book seems to indicate that his is a “critical theory.” This country is dying from too much Hegelian theory, do we really need more?