Did Trump Suggest Using the Military Against the Bond Market?

No.

I mean...maybe...but of course the media and the left (but I repeat myself) have twisted his words for a decade. They love to mock his inarticulateness and incoherence, but they ignore that when they find a way to make it seem like he said something truly insane. Then they treat him as if he's a paragon of clarity.

   Though, TBF: he's capable of saying almost anything...and possibly even meaning it.

   But the first node in the flow chart for translating Trump into people-speak looks something like this:

Is it clear what he was saying?

...and, of course, the answer is generally: NO.

   What the hell he was saying here?

   It's more likely that he was just talking about completely different types of interventions. That's certainly more likely than that he thinks there's a way to militarily attack the bond market...

   Though, with Trump, ya never really know.

WSJ: Trump's Iran Credibility Problem

Iran?

Nothing really special about Iran in this respect...

The dude has done enormous...borderline incalculable...good...but Jesus Christ I'm sick to death of his bullshit.

I kinda think he'll win this out of sheer cussedness...or at least that's how I'd bet if I absolutely had to...

But what a freakin' trainwreck.

WSJ: Our $40 Trillion Nightmare

Please don't make me think about this:

There are no easy solutions, because the causes of the debt are not what political demagogues claim. Despite recent tax cuts, federal revenue as a share of GDP is at approximately the same level as it has been for the past 75 years. Defense spending is also not to blame, as it constitutes a historically small and shrinking percentage of the economy.
The real driver of national debt is ever-increasing social spending, particularly on entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — whose growth is attributable to an aging population and mounting health-care expenses. Because these programs run on autopilot and are overwhelmingly popular, lawmakers of both parties have no incentive to touch them before it’s too late.
There are still several ways to reform entitlements by restraining their cost growth and reducing benefits for the highest earners. But the choices get worse the longer we wait, just as they are far more difficult now than they were years ago.
The first thing Congress has to do is quit throwing fuel on the fire with even more unpaid-for spending. Republicans, especially, must relearn their commitment to fiscal responsibility, since Democrats never had one to begin with. Then, lawmakers will need to level with voters about the cold, hard trade-offs they face.

Though look: Clinton was the last President to balance the budget... And Gore would have very likely done the same--starting with not invading Iraq for no goddamned reason whatsoever...  Two-and-a-half $trillion-with-a-T right there... Which may not sound like so much from our current predicament...but, ya know...a trillion here, a trillion there...

WSJ: Nathan Cofnas: "The controversial academic who ignited the Jason Arday furor"...by speaking unspeakable truths

Nathan Cofnas is a pariah mainly because he speaks obvious but politically incorrect truths--commonsense propositions that are also confirmed by science but that are inconsistent with leftist ideology. Foremost among them: races are real. They are natural, biological kinds. In biology, races are such kinds that fall below the level of subspecies.

   The politically correct view--which pervades the left and academia (but I repeat myself) is that races are magical things that somehow are both fictional/fabricated and the Very Most Important Things In The World... The most important things about "social constructs" for the left is that they can be fictive when you want them to be and real when you want them to be... This is the twilight realm of the "social construct." I've discussed the conceptual trainwreck of "social construction" over and over...so I won't address it here...

   At any rate, the PC/Woketarian cult has deemed it racist to even believe that races are biological kinds/categories...although that races are such kinds is something believed by everyone else everywhere else everywhen else...something which any objective assessment of the scientific evidence supports...but, y'know...bad...

   The left has had an adversarial relationship to genetics since Lysenko and the USSR's opposition to "Mendelianism." The academic left has basically averted its gaze since the beginnings of the mapping of the human genome. Humans, you see, are blank slates upon which culture inscribes its "narrative"...

   In fact, the entire universe is a blank slate--the original and most (in)famous version of social constructionism being "reality is socially constructed"...

   At any rate, Cofnas might possibly have squeaked by as a purely theoretical race realist (a view that becomes "scientific racism" in PC Newspeak)...but he dares to take the findings of the cognitive science of intelligence seriously, too...and to apply it to DEI... Some unpleasant conclusions follow--which Cofnas admits are unpleasant. The difference between Cofnas and the PC left is that, when the evidence diverges from leftist ideology, as it so often does, Cofnas follows the evidence. Unfortunately, without DEI or affirmative action or something similar, Cofnas reckons that blacks would make up something like 0.7% of Harvard faculty. That sucks. But that doesn't mean it isn't true.

   Incidentally, not that it should be relevant: Cofnas thinks that we might ought to have some kind of affirmative action quotas in order to maintain confidence in academia by "under"represented races...

   In fact, his view (last I heard him express it, anyway) is similar to mine: we may need some form of "affirmative action"...but, if so, it should take the form of straightforward quotas...rather than an all-encompassing prop for leftist ideology like DEI. Quotas are straightforward and don't constitute a catspaw for the unmaking ("reimagining") of the institution.

   Anyway...Cofnas also blew the whistle on Jason Arday. And so now he's getting fired again.

   Of course: he was right. Arday's plagiarism and lies were obvious and off the scale. Others--e.g. the Times Education Supplement--had already caught Arday out. But some scumbag law firm lawfared them into submission and they didn't publish. Other black scholars also claim to have known Arday was dirty. His students say he was shit in the classroom, basically just holding forth extemporaneously on racism every class.

   Cofnas was 100% right. His evidence is ironclad.

   But, still, he's a racist...because reasons...

   The rector of Ghent University who is the point person on trying to oust Cofnas is herself a lefty lunatic. She's former head of the Belgian Greens. She wrote her rector's acceptance speech with AI. Truth-tellers like Cofnas are anathema to such people.

   Academia today is--to a great extent anyway--revolting.

Incidentally:

Note that the left is now trying to do the same thing to sex and "gender" that it did to race: muddy up the biology and claim that the categories in question are actually social.

The left is the greatest threat to academia of my lifetime.

Trump's Korea Follies

JESUS CHRIST TRUMP IS A FUCKING IDIOT

Nathan Cofnas Suspended by Plagiarist Far Left Rector of Ghent U. (Petra De Sutter) for Breaking the Jason Arday Story

Utter fucking bullshit, obviously.

Cofnas deserves a medal.

De Sutter used AI to write her first address as rector. That address included several fabricated quotes (AI "hallucinations").

The left's view is: it's ok for leftists to plagiarize, and non-leftists are evil if they expose the plagiarism.

Cultists.

Bjorn Lomborg at PragerU: Where Have All The Climate Alarmists Gone?

Universities Threaten Disciplinary Action Against Students Who Refuse to Use "Transgender" Newspeak

That is, if they use the actual name of a "transgender," or refer to that person using the correct pronouns.

"Trans" Newspeak calls these things "deadnaming" and "misgendering."

Eric Boehm: "I played a game simulating the outcome of the '28 election--here's how it went"

What a nightmare.

I'm still rooting for some kind of moderate health crisis to get Trump out of office.

Unfortunately, he seems healthy as a horse.

It's a long shot...but more likely than Trump suddenly becoming reasonable.

Although I see the left--which is playing the long game, and devoted to thought-control and its "Long March Through the Institutions"--as the greater threat, I think a spasm of violence and overt theft of the Presidency as more likely to come from the right.

"Why 'Woke 1' Failed Seems So Obvious Now"

These people are still cracked.

"Woke 1," you see, was land acknowledgements, nuking Thanksgiving, and spelling 'folks' folx...

Ha ha that was crazy!

Except it was all right...that is, correct...politically correct...it was just annoying and didn't go anywhere...the U.S. is still a genocidal shithole...but we can't do anything about it..

   Not mentioned by the author: gender ideology (women have penises, men have babies, brainwashing and sexually mutilating children, insane men in women's restrooms, locker rooms, sports, shelters, prisons...), critical race theory and its penumbra of lunacy (all whites are racist by definition, it is impossible for non-whites to be racist by definition, the U.S. is made of racism ("systemic," "structural," "institutional"...and, of course, definitional...) open borders + no enforcement of immigration laws once illegals are inside our borders, abolish ICE, etc., "depolicing," "decarceration," and "equity" in charging and conviction, yielding a racialized, two-tier "justice" system, rampant "cancellation," crushing of free speech, politicization of everything, DEI, DEI, DEI (preferential hiring, mandatory indoctrination sessions for everyone, etc.), "social constructionism" about everything, the politicization of all our institutions including academia, Lysenkoism, i.e. the subordination of science to leftist lunacy...and, in fact, the subordination of everything to leftist lunacy....just for starters.

   As Chris Bray has said, this is an attempt to effect some kind of reset without really admitting error...and without abandoning any of the most insane ideas and principles of the Cult.

"U.S. Universities are Sliding into Decline"

link

I thought I was reading something from a decent source...but about 1/3 of the way through I realized it was pretty much crap...and realized it was from the Washington Monthly...

   It doesn't address the most important problems with academia--politicization, vocationalization, and lack of rigor. Cost is a big problem--though if universities actually delivered what they promise--or suggest that they're promising--it wouldn't be. If universities really did transform students for the better, they might be worth the cost. But they probably don't and they're probably not.

   Universities are eaten up with Woketarianism--which is the approximate intellectual and moral equivalent of Scientology. Grade inflation is rampant--largely because [a] student evaluations of instructors are rampant, easier grades mean easier eval scores, and hiring and promotion largely depend on such scores; and [b] high grades mean happy students, and happy students mean less work for the instructor. A colleague who went to grad school at Harvard told me that there giving 'A's was a conscious strategy among grad students--to some extent to get good evals, but mostly so that time didn't have to be wasted on grading. No student questions an 'A'...

   As for universities getting less federal funding: well, stop with the DEI and Woketarian indoctrination. Fact is, universities value those things more even than they value federal $$...which, lemme tell you, they value a lot.

   As for faculty looking to move to other countries: a lot of that is probably because they're leftists, and looking for lefty cred for pretending to flee from Trump. Lemme know if there's ever an actual wave of faculty emigration.

   But, then, I didn't sleep and I'm cranky.

Luther Ray Abel: The President is an Idiot

Ugh.

This is more and more difficult to deny.

I've had trouble reconciling his apparent stupidity with the fact that he's been right about so many things--and he's been right about many of them for a long, long time...

Maybe there's just no reconciling them.

Though it may be that he just can't stand to be opposed.

I dunno, man.

But I'm just sick to death of the guy.

Given one political wish, I might well use it to swap out Trump for Rubio.

David Strom: No, Jason Arday was Not Hounded to Death

link

   As many (including me) have already said: to the extent that anyone but Arday is responsible for his death, it was the academic left and its DEI madness. Basically, the rules were suspended for him. He was credentialed and promoted far beyond his abilities because he was black. Oh, sorry: "Black." When it was discovered that he was a fraud, this was--eventually--widely reported. I'm sorry Arday killed himself. But he knew he was a fraud, and that he had no sound response to the evidence. Arday was put in this absurd position by leftist people, principles and policies that lower standards for blacks and other preferred minorities. In Arday's case, standards were basically thrown out the window. The left prefers: non-whites over whites, women over men, non-heterosexuals and other such people over heterosexuals. Demography is more important to them than merit. In fact, it's common on the academic left to claim that the very idea of merit is racist. Well, of course, everything is racist according to them.

   Matt Walsh makes a point in the post that many have made. It's an old point, and it's right...though I myself tend to avoid it: according to the principles of the left, only white men are really human. Humanity goes along with freedom and responsibility. But women and non-whites (except Jews!) tend to not be held responsible, hence are not really considered free. (It's a bit more complicated than that. White women are given preferred treatment over white men...but black men are preferred over white women... Black women are the best, of course... So freedom and responsibility are suspended selectively.) I avoid this point because--though correct--in a way it's saying: you're hurting blacks! But the left has to learn that not every reason must reduce to something about the welfare of blacks (or other preferred demographic groups). You might conceivably get them to concede the specific point via that argument...but it won't touch their fundamental confusions. They need to learn that blacks are not more important than whites, women are not more important than men, and non-heterosexuals (etc.) are not more important than heterosexuals. Blacks can be wrong. Whites can be right. Etc.

Fleccas: DSA "Women" Call for the Destruction of America

Tyler Austin Harper: Why I Quit the Tenure Track: The Insufferable Hypocrisy of Elite Academia [A Must-Read]

This dude is my new hero.

The Second Amendment Could Protect Owning Cannons, Heavily-Armed Ships

Now we're goddamn talkin'!

Alex Berenson on Jason Arday

link

Colin Wright: How Many Girls on Testosterone is Too Many?

I was explaining to a progressive friend once that the number of unarmed black men per year killed by police was not in the tens of thousands, as many in her faction believed, but closer to 10. Her response: "one is too many"...

   There should be a name for this fallacy. The "one is too many" fallacy? Not exactly snappy?

   One is regrettable--but for almost any major type of phenomenon, it isn't "too many." Not in the sense that it's too many to continue doing things the way we are doing them, anyway. Unfortunately, almost now matter how rational and effective a way of doing things is, if you do it enough, some people will die from it. Some people die from exercising every year. That's regrettable. But it isn't "too many." Not too many for us to continue exercising, anyway... If we stopped doing everything that caused more than zero deaths, that would be the end of not only civilization, but human beings.

   However, we're not talking one case here.

   Rather: in Oregon, 1 out of 240 girls with health insurance is on testosterone.

   That, you see, is way too many.

   I'd say that 1 in 10,000 might possibly be defensible...but that's just based on...well, nothing, really. That's just the number I'd choose if I had to pick on out of thin air.

   And, of course, since I think this psychotic gender lunacy is the utterest bullshit...I guess I kinda do think one is too many in this case...

Brittany Berstein: How "Gender Transitions" for Minors Became a Lucrative Business

To the tune of about $120 million...

I guess I'm naive, but I've always been skeptical of the claim that medical transanity was about money. It seems to me that these people are true believers--they are passionately, ideologically, quasi-religiously devoted to this web of lunatic ideas.

There's No Such Thing as "Woke 2.0"

Just because the left declares something doesn't make it so.

And, of course: they have strategic reasons for declaring it.

My guess:

They want to basically declare by fiat that there's a sane version of Woketarianism...

...and that that's what they're advocating now.

So, see: they're not responsible for any of that crazy shit from the last decade...

....but they're not abandoning it, either...

Remember: Woketarianism is just political correctness + 35 years of extra crazy. It's more grounded in critical theory than in postmodernism. And it adds transanity to its obsession with non- and anti-heterosexuality. The PC holy trinity was race, sex, and class. The Woketarian trinity is race, "gender," and...I dunno, something else. Can't currently remember my own ranting points.

Hey, remember "dark woke"?

That was fun for like two weeks.

It was woke + cursing.

I'm trying to get "wokemaxxing" to catch on.

I don't really know what it would be...just sounds like regular woke (i.e. crazymaxxing) to me...

Longtime Dem Council and Strategist Julian Epstein: Why the Democrat Party has Gone to Hell: Postmodern Liberalism

Jason Arday Found Dead; "Unexpected but Not Suspicious"

link

I'm sorry for the guy.

I'm sure his loony lefty defenders will try to, as they say, "weaponize" this against his critics, and sane people generally.

But the fact is: he was not in any way qualified for the Cambridge position. And none of this would have happened if the DEI cult had not elevated him to a position that he could not possibly have maintained for long. An even minimally competent and objective mentor...or friend...or colleague...would have told him long ago that he was on a crash trajectory...

In a very real way, Jason Arday is dead because of his race. He wasn't really a scholar to the people who elevated him beyond the limits of his abilities. He wasn't really a person. He was just black. That's all they cared about.

Chris Bray on "Woke 1" / "Woke 2.0" Shenanigans

link

So I've warned many times that we thought we beat political correctness--i.e. Woke 0--back in the '90s...but, of course, we were wrong. It just retreated into universities until it had brainwashed enough students to then burst forth again ca. 2014, even crazier than it was before. But PC Phase 1 / Woke 0 had been mostly limited to campus...PC2 / "Woke 1" nearly took over the Western world...

   I've wondered here many times what the left's strategy would be for denying that they ever thought that women had penises--and that they had sexually mutilated children on the basis of gender pseudoscience... I still don't know what they'll do. Currently, they seem to be committed to just continuing to insist that the view is true, hoping that they'll be able to fend off the day of reckoning. They seem to think they can still win this--continuing to pretend that 2+2=5 forever...

   But I'm not sure I ever wondered how they would address this problem with Woketarianism generally.

   Well, they've launched a trial balloon. It looks like this:

Oh, woopsie! Ha ha ha! All that woke stuff was really just "woke 1"! So funny! Like those clothes we were wearing back in the '90s! Soooo embarrassing!...

   As Bray says, basically, the aim is to pretend that was all just a funny phase that didn't really do anything bad...and to suggest without saying it that there's a better version of Woketarianism that's serious and to be taken seriously and that can't be criticized for being, ya know, in-fucking-sane...

   PC/Woketarianism isn't dead. It's currently losing...but unless we continue to crush the life out of it, it'll just go on the offensive again. The "Woke 2.0" bullshit makes that clear--as if it wasn't before.

   And even if we eliminate all its gains--which is unlikely--it's just going to do what it did before--retreat into universities, fester, hone its lunatic rhetorical tricks, and emerge again (perhaps crazier than ever, perhaps in some more moderate guise) a few years hence.

   Also note that AOC only admits that the "rhetoric" of "woke 1" was defective. She doesn't admit that they were wrong about anything substantive...

Trump Orders Navy to Go Back to Steam Catapults

facepalm

Well, after a decade of the left insisting that Trump is literally Hitler...finally, an actual Hitlerian act: micromanaging military technology as if he actually knew something about it.

I disagree with Mark Kelly a lot--but this pretty much sums it up:

“I’ve launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and am a test pilot, and even I wouldn’t suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships,” ...

And, look: I'm no expert, but seems to me that glitches are basically expected in new systems. You put up with them so that you find out how to eliminate them in future versions of the system.

Oh, wait--I forgot about the "Trump-class battleships"...so there's another, earlier example...

[To be perfectly clear: I'm not saying that Trump is wrong about catapults...I'm saying that he doesn't know enough to make the decision.]