Heels 96 - 'Noles 85

4th win in a row...

First four out or bust!

I can't believe Leonard Hamilton is retiring.

America: TRUMP KICKS ASS

Permit me this bit of irrational exuberance.

Trump's policies are extremely popular--e.g. much more popular than Biden's.

There is absolutely no surprise there whatsoever.

Now, I don't put all that must stock in such polls. For one thing, I'm sure most respondents don't know much about the policies their commenting on. I sure don't really understand some of them.

But, anyway--and this is an obvious point many people have made: the left went so far left that it left a wide avenue of sanity open straight down the middle of the American political spectrum.

Trump--Donald Trump--was the guy who turned down that road and returned the USA to sanity.

Donald Trump may well save the nation.

Donald.

Freakin'

Trump.

This is the weirdest timeline.

Charles W. Cooke: In the Time of Peak Trump

I think I'm inclined to agree with pretty much all of this.

Trump won, IMO, because (as Cooke and others note) the Dems have ceded the middle. In fact, the American left has lost its collective mind. Trump, by comparison, was the normal option, the guy out there defending common sense--despite his Trumpiness. Basically, we had no real choice. But Trump's standard deviation is high. He has the capacity to do (and, obviously, to say) crazy things.

Anyway, to repeat myself repeating myself: I fear Trump because I don't know what he'll do. But I fear the (contemporary) Democrats because I do know what they'll do.

The safest prediction seems to be: the Pubs will err by hubris. They'll go too far in various ways...and Trump will say and do some stupid shit. The Dems will probably regress to the mean. Eventually the difference between the two parties will be less. I expect the Dems to be competitive again sooner than you might think. Of course the Pubs will also have a more normal candidate by '28. Vance, probably. But if the Dems moderate a bit, and run a competent candidate (e.g. Shapiro) who can plausibly be represented as a centrist, they could win. Hell, they came closer this time than they should have. And Trump fatigue will have set in by then...and that'll count against Vance.

Eh, what do I know?

I have no special understanding of any of this.

"Trump's Endgame"?

Possible.

Samuel Lair: How "Postcolonial" Education Endangers Our Way of Life

The left has a whole array of nonsense views: Marxism, Freudianism, Critical Theory (including CRT), queer theory, poststructuralism, postmodernism, postcolonialism, radical feminism, gender ideology...but one thing they all have in common: they all have a radical leftist, anti-Western orientation. It's a kind of rotating magazine of anti-Western ammunition. Revolution and the destruction of the West is always right there at the center of this skeptical, relativistic, irrationalist, anti-liberal mess.

   Philosophers generally just think about addressing particular views on philosophical terms.

   But more and more I think it does matter what the ulterior motive behind it all is.

   Each view is really a mere cover story for the real, ultimate goal, the one that remains through all the philosophical change--the destruction ("dismantling") of Western Civilization.

"The Gulf of America" and the AP's Recent History of Linguistic Atrocities

Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico is stupid.

The AP is right about that one, and no doubt.

But that name-change is nothing compared to the woke PC madness the AP has engaged in over the past few years.
Just for the record.

"Pregnant people" is a funny one. Decades ago I remember thinking that "pregnant women" was a bit odd because redundant. Every pregnant person has, of course, been a woman. If the point of 'pregnant people' were, indeed, to eliminate that redundancy, that would at least be one thing. But it isn't. As AP itself says, it's (mostly) because some women pretend to be men--even when pregnant. Of course the actual number of pregnant men (all time) is 0.00. But this isn't about facts and logic, it's about Lysenkoism.

Also again: 'Denali' is a much cooler name than 'Mt. McKinley'...

"Zizian" Trans Murder Cult

WSJ thinks it's more important to identify them as "militant vegans"...

For the real story on these guys, you really need to go to Andy Ngo, though I don't have any links handy.

Scott Bessent: Economic Partnership Will Protect Ukrainian People and U.S. Taxpayer

Ok, I mentioned this previously and it IS grounds for optimism, seems to me. So I was wrong to say that I don't like anything I'm hearing about the negotiations. This seems like one of those weird, "disruptive" Trumpian solutions that just might work. But I'm basically kibbitzing in the dark, so...

WSJ: How a U.S. President Pivoted Toward Russia

I don't understand such negotiations at all, but I dislike just about everything I'm hearing about Trump's Ukraine negotiations. The WSJ newsroom is just about as anti-Trump as any other, so there's a lot of contentious spin in this story. For example, its account of Trump's 9/19 phone call with Zelenskyy. The story gives a thoroughly blue account of the incident, with no mention of, e.g., the fact that Trump was probably right about Biden family money shenanigans in Ukraine, and that his inquiry was legit. He was impeached for asking legitimate questions. Biden wasn't touched for his family's underhanded business dealings...but Trump was impeached for asking about them.

   And there is, of course, no mention of the Democrats' Russiagate hoax in radicalizing Trump on this score...

   But a President shouldn't allow himself to be driven by such resentments about this sort of thing, appalling that it is. And, however despicable the left's treatment of him, his approach to the Russia-Ukraine problem seems way, way wrong. To me, anyway.

   It's certainly true that the American right has basically allowed itself to be similarly thrown off track, and has embraced Russia basically just because the left has become so obsessively anti-Russia. I mean, the American left is certainly right that Russia is the bad guy in this situation. Their reaction to the mess--turning it into another occasion for virtue-signaling and political cheerleading--has been weird. But it's nothing compared to the right's loony reaction to it all.

   Very damn concerning.

   But, again: I knew who I was voting for.

Can the 5EX Eagle Compete With 5th-Gen Fighters?

   Honestly, this doesn't surprise me all that much. Even trying to ignore my inner F-15 fanboy, I think the Super Eagle is an important piece of the American defense puzzle.

(I refuse to use the extremely nonstandard designation "Eagle II." It's not an Eagle II. The A-10 is the Thunderbolt II. The F-35 is the Lightning II. The EX is not a different aircraft named after an older aircraft. It's an upgrade--like the Super Hornet. IT'S THE SUPER EAGLE.)

   It can fly higher and faster than either of our stealth fighters. It's got longer range and can carry nearly 30,000 lbs. of ordnance. We are never not going to want a high, fast, long-legged, maneuverable fighter with a big-ass radar--even if it's just serving as a missile truck. (And this is not even to mention EPAWSS...) Stick some AIM-174s on that baby and bring on the Might Be Draggin's...

   But it's sounding like the EX might not be relegated to the missile truck role...:

Tinian B-29 Base Fully Reclaimed for Future Pacific Fight

This is cool.

Also, turns out a friend did some work there on a related project.

Kurt Volker: Why a U.S.-Ukraine Resource Deal Makes Sense for Ukraine

I know nothing about this, but it sure does sound prima facie plausible.

The Gorge: Anya Taylor-Joy is Your Manic Pixie Dream Sniper

Spoiler alert?

This movie has everything: Anya Taylor-Joy, chess, guns, monsters, jeeps (or halftracks or something, I don't remember) winching themselves up cliffs...you name it.

   And I'll watch just about anything with ATJ (who Jonny Quest calls "that fish-eyed girl") in it.

   On the down side, this seems to have been made to be some kind of Valentine's Day movie, if you can believe that...

   Also, Eddie Eagle and the entire NRA firearm safety team would have seizures if they saw the scene where ATJ and...I dunno...what's-his-name...are flirting by shooting at each other. Not even kidding.

   Anyway, almost all such movies collapse in the last half-hour or so, and this one is no exception.

   But the setup was actually interesting enough that I was pretty into it...until it turned into a romance. But that didn't really last all that long. It's really just something for the movie to do until they have to disappoint the audience with the big reveal. Not all that many movies can really pull off the monster part--Alien(s), Cloverfield, the original Godzilla...but not all that many more.

   My long-standing theory is that, if you've got a move idea, just set that mofo at Christmas and you'll make twice as much money for, like, ever.

   Valentine's Day, however, is basically the lamest holiday. So I don't see that angle really working for it.

   Anyhoo, I may change my mind after watching it again.

   But, for now, Philosoraptor say: check it out.

Carolina 97 - State 73

Excellent.

Did This House Dem Suggest that Women Don't Go Into Manufacturing Because the Word Has 'Man' in it?

The radical academic left loves asshat arguments like this.

Back in the paleo-PC era, a professor in NC got sent to reeducation camp for using the word 'niggardly'.

I am not making this up.

The 'Dear Colleague' Letter that Changes Everything: Die, Die, DEI

Donald Trump might actually save Western Civilization.

This is the strangest timeline....

National Review: Ukraine is Not the Problem

It certainly isn't.

The right will try to represent this as a savvy negotiating strategy, of course.

Christian Schneider: Trump is an Arsonist Posing as a Fireman

Reluctantly agree.

Not surprised.

If only he could be 10% less Trumpy.

If he screws this up--or does enough things that the big blue propaganda machine can represent as screwing things up--we could end up with President Warren or President Buttigieg in 2029...

(I presume that potential President Newsome's chances have gone up in smoke...but I guess you never know...)

This Week's Stupidest Article of All Time: Rebecca Traister, "Woke is Not to Blame for Trump"

tl;dr: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

To repeat myself: wokeness is probably largely responsible for so many people switching parties from D to R. However, wokeness is a cancer on the nation and the world, and so it's natural to attribute responsibility to it. What better explanation for people abandoning a political party than it's adopting an ideology that is a cancer on the nation and the world? But sometimes the obvious thing isn't the real cause. And such complex things as political routes are often multicausal.

   It wasn't a paradigmatic route, of course...but it was routey.

   Traister has only one interesting point: that there was no red wave in the '22 midterms, at what she deems the height of Woketarian asshattery. Though she doesn't use exactly that terminology...

   The response to that point seems obvious: the pro-abortion hysteria in the wake of Dobbs. I mean, I tend to be libertarian on abortion...but it was hysteria. Donald Trump killed abortion and all that. Not to mention the Handmaid's Tale cosplay and whatnot. They really love that shit, don't they? Kinda like the giant puppets at all those World Bank protests. Those people are weird... (Which is, incidentally, my take on why they tried the They're weird campaign against Trump and Vance--it was an attempt to block the obvious charge from being thrown at them...)

   Anyhoo, you can't always answer such questions from the armchair. But, from where I'm sitting, it seems that:

Woketarianism is fucking insane and evil

People tend to dislike fucking insane and evil things

The Democrats were and are largely Woketarians

There's a whole movement of people reporting that "the left left them" by rocketing to their left

So:

It seems likely that Woketarianism played a significant role in Trump's win

   But, then, I do want it to be the case that Woketarianism is responsible...so take it with a grain of salt.

   People on the not-left like to say: Hey, you guys keep on REEEEEing on. Keep on being woke, so that you keep on losing elections.

   Part of me agrees.

   Part of me says: Be careful what you wish for. This moonbattery isn't gone. It's back on its heels right now, thanks to Trump's Shock and Awe campaign. But it isn't gone. They'll get their footing soon enough and be back to trying to Wokefy and Sovietize the USA before you know it.

   And they will win elections again--probably soon.

   And they didn't lose by nearly as much as such a lunatic faction should have lost.

   And, even if the good guys win decisively this time, I still don't believe they're gone for good. This multifaceted Marxist-feminist-Critical-Theory-poststructuralist-postmodernist-Lysenkoist madness is so deeply entrenched in the academy, that crucial, Leninist bottleneck of the culture, that it'll be back.

   To caution you again with My Great Wisdom and Experience: we thought we beat this shit back in the '90s. 

   We did not.

   Maybe it'll be different this time.

   But maybe it won't.