Affirmative Action, Once More into the Breach

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The US Supreme Court is currently deliberating on two cases about affirmative action in higher education.  The Harvard University case is called “Students for Fair Admissions v. Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College.”  And the University of North Carolina case is called “Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina.”

The crux of the case is whether it’s constitutional to allow discrimination against someone based on race.  Most colleges boost the chances of black and Hispanic students to gain entry into a college by manipulating their profile in ways that do not reflect their academic achievement.  And by virtue of this boosting, they harm the chances of white and Asian candidates that are competing for these college admissions.

Now this has been looked at before.  Over the last fifty years various Supreme Court cases have admitted that affirmative action is unconstitutional.  But its practice has been justified as a temporary crutch to compensate for past injustices that discriminated against minorities.  However, fifty years is a pretty permanent “temporary.”  Could this be the Supreme Court that finally ends this unjust practice?  From what I’ve read a decision is expected in the next six weeks.  Some leftist think tanks believe that the court is poised to throw out affirmative action.  Well, I hope they’re right but I’m not all that confident.

Let’s review.  John Roberts is a hopeless liberal.  Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have proven unreliable on occasion so it’s a complete crapshoot.  What is certain is that the latest case will answer the question whether there’s any hope at all of this court providing justice on constitutional grounds for such things as freedom of speech, freedom of association and other constitutional rights that have been stolen from us by courts and the administrative state.

I’m pretty excited about this case regardless of its outcome.  Like so much of what has gone on over the last few years, this event will provide clarity about another facet of our world.  Like the fraudulent elections and the Justice Department lawfare against Donald Trump and the January 6th defendants, each of these examples strips away another part of the façade that hides the reality of the American system of government.  There’s a liberating feeling that comes from seeing things as they actually are.  Surprisingly, instead of making someone feel powerless, seeing through these ruses gives one a feeling of power.  You feel much more in control.  These facades are like buoys in the ocean.  You know that there are dangerous rocks below the surface but because there is a marker, you can choose to avoid them.  It’s the fakes that you don’t know about that can do the real harm.

Well, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts; do your worst.  In six weeks, we’ll find out just how awful you really are.  Put in those terms, I’m expecting the worst, so if I’m surprised, I can only be pleasantly surprised.  What has been pleasant was reading about Clarence Thomas’s cross-examination on the benefits of affirmative action.  Being a recipient of affirmative action, he knows exactly what it does and doesn’t do.  And he wasn’t buying any of the “research” that its defenders presented.  I at least know how his vote will be cast, for honesty and justice.

23JUN2023 – Bud Light Redux

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The video below was the first tweet Bud Light has put out since April.  Sucks being them.

23JUN2023 – Quote of the Day

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There are occasions when the simplest and fewest words surpass in effect all the wealth of rhetorical amplification. An example may be seen in the passage which has been a favourite illustration from the days of Longinus to our own. “God said: Let there be light! and there was light.” This is a conception of power so calm and simple that it needs only to be presented in the fewest and the plainest words, and would be confused or weakened by any suggestion of accessories.

George Henry Lewes

22JUN2023 – Update on Ukraine

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Information on the Ukraine War is both ubiquitous and dubious.  Probably the best policy is to wait until information from both Russian and Ukrainian sources intersect.  Well, I couldn’t get that yet but at least both sides agree that the Ukrainians are finding the Russian defenses daunting.

“But as for Putin’s video, the amount of losses he quotes are interesting: ~250 tanks and almost 700 other armor/vehicles. I outlined recently how even at the highest Western estimates, Ukraine is said to have 600-800 total tanks remaining (as per Pentagon leaks, etc.). If Putin’s numbers are even remotely true, it would mean the Not-Offensive has potentially wiped out upwards of 30-45% of Ukraine’s remaining heavy armor which would put them in dire straits. Recall, that even remaining armor is misleading as much of it is older tanks with 105mm or 115mm cannons that are no match for Russian MBTs, and the majority of remaining 125mm’ers are likely T-64s, which likewise is not promising.”

So that’s by a Russian partisan.  Now here is an article from the Institute for the Study of War, neo-con think-tank.

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the progress of Ukrainian counteroffensives has been slower than expected, likely due to effective Russian defenses. Zelensky stated that Ukrainian counteroffensive progress has been “slower than desired” and will take time.[6] Zelensky noted that Ukrainian advances are not easy because Russian forces have mined 200,000 square kilometers of frontline territory.[7] Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensives and preposterously claimed that Russian forces have destroyed 244 tanks and 679 armored vehicles since these operations began on June 4.[8] Russian forces’ doctrinally sound defense in western Zaporizhia Oblast and prepared defensive positions throughout southern Ukraine are likely slowing Ukrainian advances, as ISW has previously assessed.[9] A Russian milblogger claimed that Russian defensive positions in southern Ukraine, dubbed the “Surovikin Line” after former overall theater commander Army General Sergei Surovikin, consist of several defensive zones between lines along dominant elevated positions up to 30km into Russian held territory.[10] The milblogger claimed that the “Surovikin Line” consists of a forward line of defense with several dozen platoon and company strongholds, and a main defensive line roughly 25km back with minefields, anti-tank ditches, and other defensive structures in between, though the extent of these defenses along the entire front line is unclear.[11] These Russian defensive lines are likely arrayed to enable a first echelon of Russian forces, deployed to the forward defensive line, to slow advancing Ukrainian forces while a second echelon of forces deployed closer to the main defensive line launch counterattacks against any Ukrainian breakthroughs, as well as providing prepared fallback positions for frontline Russian units.[12] Localized Ukrainian territorial gains are unlikely to immediately disrupt these Russian defensive lines and localized Ukrainian attempts at rapid breakthroughs are less likely to degrade these lines than a wider concerted operational effort, one which may be focused on degrading Russian defenders and fixing reserves rather than the immediate liberation of territory.”

Notice this article scoffs at the Russian numbers of Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles destroyed, but agrees that the offensive has been “slower than desired.”

But what were they expecting?  Driving tanks across heavily mined fields into flat steppe-land where hand-held anti-tank weapons and aircraft missiles are waiting for them doesn’t sound like a cake walk to me.  And that’s before they get within twenty miles of the reinforced entrenchment lines and anti-tank emplacements.

I can’t make up my mind whether the Ukrainians will commit to the full offensive or not.  Without air superiority or overwhelming numerical advantage what they are attempting is very likely to cost them tens of thousands of casualties and still come up short of their objective.  If they lose forty or fifty thousand men and don’t even reach the coast it will be a disaster of enormous magnitude.  That will probably cost them the war.

I suspect they will continue on with the probing attacks for a month or two more and then declare victory somehow or other.  Maybe they capture a few towns or smaller cities and wait for the F-16’s to save the day.  But I’m not sure.

The Ukrainians have fought very bravely but modern war is very tough on the underdog.  The Russians have a big advantage in population size, quantity of artillery and aerial offense and defense.  They are waging a war of attrition where they stand back and bombard the Ukrainians from a distance.  It’s slow and wasteful of munitions but it conserves lives.

Lately even Washington insiders are starting to talk about the necessity of negotiations with the Russians.  And the terms they mention are more or less what the Russians proposed in Turkey.  But I don’t think they’re likely to agree to those terms any longer.  They’ve been forced to put their country on a war footing and and it’s unlikely they’ll be satisfied until they obtain most of what they currently want.  They want the four regions they’ve officially annexed, they probably want further territorial gains that include Odessa and the rest of Black Sea coastline.  They may also demand a buffer zone between Russia and Ukraine to avoid guerilla warfare after the war.  And they want Ukraine disarmed and neutral.

So this may be a long war because it may be a very slow one.  If the Ukrainians hold off on their big offensive then the Russian counter-offensive will be more of what we saw in Bakhmut; a long slow war of attrition that pounds the Ukrainians down inch by slow inch.  In other words, hell on earth.

22JUN2023 – Quote of the Day

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An artist produces an effect in virtue of the distinctness with which he sees the objects he represents, seeing them not vaguely as in vanishing apparitions, but steadily, and in their most characteristic relations. To this Vision he adds artistic skill with which to make us see. He may have clear conceptions, yet fail to make them clear to us: in this case he has imagination, but is not an artist. Without clear Vision no skill can avail. Imperfect Vision necessitates imperfect representation; words take the place of ideas.

George Henry Lewes

Summer Solstice 2023

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Today is the longest day of the year and the first official day of summer.  Regular readers know that I have an inordinate attachment to summer.  This probably developed when I was a child and despised school as a form of imprisonment.  This week has been unpleasantly crowded with commitments that have kept me from writing and performing my other blog duties.  Well, it can’t be helped.

Most of the news today has to do with the submarine that has disappeared during a trip to the Titanic wreck site on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.  From what I’ve read, the guy who runs the company that brings sight-seers to the Titanic was piloting the sub.  Opinions about whether the trip was a senseless death trap or a brave adventure seems about evenly split.  As someone very familiar with pressure vessel design, I wonder if carbon fiber as a structural material is well understood.  Materials like stainless steel and other alloys have been tested for decades to understand their reaction to pressure, temperature, corrosion and other factors.  I guess this situation will probably bring to light the details of this company’s policies with respect to design and risk.

Elsewhere in the news, Hunter Biden and Donald Trump and their comparative treatment at the hands of the Justice Department is providing supplementary examples of what a two-tier justice system means in practical terms.  We’re all going to learn over the course of the next year and a half whether the awakening of the American public to the realities of who runs this country makes any difference at all in how those in charge behave.  We may find that they now have nothing to fear from us at all.

On the Ukraine front, the summer offensive by the Ukrainians has been ongoing for about three weeks.  It’s not completely clear whether the operations are probing attacks or some kind of multiple axis maneuvering.  At this point, the Ukrainians have lost about 20 – 30% of the tanks and armored vehicles that the West provided them since December.  This is due to the extensive minefields that the Russians have laid out in front of the defensive lines that they built.  Maybe there will be a successful penetration of those Russian lines in the near future but so far it doesn’t look promising.  There’s a NATO meeting coming up in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11th.  Speculation is that the Ukrainians have until that meeting to show that they can use the equipment and training that the West has given them to make significant progress against the Russians on the battle front.  We’ll see how that turns out.

As far as the economy, prices continue to soar on just about everything and companies report lower earnings.  Of course, “no recession in sight.”  But that may be just the new way the economy is reported.  Basically, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.  Well, we’ll see how that goes in the fall when the election is in high gear.  Once again, maybe our masters no longer care what we think or say.

On the home front, Camera Girl continues to stuff me with splendiferous foods whenever I return from the various annoying errands, I’ve been assigned this week.  Tonight, is eggplant stuffed with sausage and rice.  I guess I shouldn’t complain about living in bondage if it includes good food.  But of course, in Biden’s America the sausage will be replaced with crickets.  So, there is that.