‘Democracy’ Ruins Everything

Posted on | August 18, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Democracy’ Ruins Everything

Last year, my son Jefferson was studying the Punic Wars — Hannibal, Cannae and all that — and in discussing it with me, remarked that at the time, slaves were about half the population of the city of Rome. These were white slaves, however, and the Roman Empire collapsed long ago, so there’s no “critical theory” or “systemic racism” angle to be exploited for political gain, which is why most people never contemplate the condition of Roman slaves. Of course, considering the general decline of education in this country, most Americans know next to nothing about ancient Rome, and in particular don’t understand the path by which Rome went from a Republic to an Empire. Julius Caesar was aligned with what was called the Populares (democratic) party in Roman politics, whereas Cicero was a leader of the Optimates (aristocratic) party. It was on behalf of “the people,” therefore, that Caesar assumed the dictatorship and, after his assassination led to civil war, it was Caesar’s ally Mark Antony who insisted on Cicero’s assassination.

Some scholarly readers will protest against my drastic oversimplification of this history — necessary for the sake of brevity — but my point is that (a) ancient Rome was not a democracy, and (b) it was the populares who, by their opposition to the senatorial voices of aristocratic tradition, helped pave the way toward the destruction of the Republic and the tyranny of imperial power. “Democracy” ruins everything.

The reason I put “democracy” inside scare-quotes is because the word has so many different meanings as to have almost no meaning at all, as Orwell famously observed: “In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning.” But in general it refers to a demand for equality, particularly in terms of representation in government, but also in economic terms — many people vote for Democrats simply because they hate and envy the rich, and expect Democrats to pursue policies to punish the rich (for the sake of equality), which is why you hear Joe Biden frequently inveighing against billionaires. Never mind that Biden himself is quite wealthy, or that billionaires are major contributors to the Democratic Party. The resentment of wealth, and a desire to punish the rich, have for decades been at the heart of the Democratic Party’s electoral appeal, so that this is what “democracy” really means to many Americans.

All of this is preamble to a discussion about what’s wrong with education in America. My friends know never to get me started on this subject because I can rant for hours about it. Instapundit today linked to a discussion of the subject by an anonymous Substacker, who discusses education in the context of fighting against a system of “managerial neoliberalism,” and uses that phrase in such a way as to indicate to the cognoscenti that the author is familiar with the work of Sam Francis.

Ah, my fellow Thought Criminals are everywhere nowadays! But to continue with the idea of how “democracy” ruins everything, my points is that the democratization of education — “equal opportunity,” subsidized by the taxpayers — is the true root of the problem. Once upon a time, young people were likely to get only so much education as their parents could afford to give them. Even when “free” public schools became the norm, it was not until well into the 20th century that a majority of Americans obtained a high-school diploma. Prior to the advent of the Welfare State (implemented via the New Deal) children of the poor often had to go to work to support their families. Such was the case for my wife’s maternal grandfather, whose father died when he was still quite young. There were no child labor laws to obstruct the boy in pursuing work, and this was sufficiently commonplace that he was far from the only 12-year-old working full-time in his West Virginia community.

Thanks to “democracy,” however, now we have school systems that spend $21,000 per student annually — and none of the students can do math or reading at grade level. But enough about Baltimore . . .

What is the purpose of education? This is where people have become badly confused. Supposedly, education is about obtaining the credentials necessary to a successful career — to make money, in other words — but this is almost exactly backward from what education was originally. Education was originally an aristocratic pursuit; as only the wealthy could afford to hire tutors, or to send their children to an academy, education belonged almost exclusively to the offspring of the well-to-do. The successful businessman or the prosperous farmer would pay to send his son to college, so that he might obtain some of the refinements of knowledge suitable to a gentleman, particularly in terms of preparing the young man for his role as a social and political leader of his community.

Many of America’s early leaders — e.g., Benjamin Franklin — had little or no formal education, but were autodidacts. What law school did Abraham Lincoln attend? None. He became a lawyer by “reading law” in a local attorney’s office. He never even got a high school diploma!

The influence of “democracy” on American education is simple: More schooling, less learning. Never before in human history have so many idiots obtained master’s degrees — thanks, “democracy”!

As I said, however, once I get started on this subject, I can rant for hours, but my daughter just informed me that she’d like me to stop typing — clickety-clack, clickety-clack — so that she can take a relaxing bath and go to bed without the noisy disturbance from my nearby office. So the readers will have to hash it out in the comments, and I’ll return to the topic again on some evening when my daughter isn’t around.

Category: Education

How Do We Manage Compromise?

Posted on | August 16, 2023 | Comments Off on How Do We Manage Compromise?

by Smitty

Kurt Schilchter is one of the true thought leaders on the right.
He posed a serious question, and I, rudely, answered with another.

As is universally the case, the better answer is straight out of the Bible.
We’ve been looking at the Saul/David divide in Sunday School in I Samuel.
If one can generalize from Saul to the tyrannical Left, and David to the patriotic Right, some insights obtain:

Saul cannot be reached, despite literal decades of effort. Pray without ceasing (absolutely) but know that the bad guy gets a vote, and it is often cast in favor of tragedy over repentance.
Honoring the Lord remains the overarching priority. You cannot achieve good ends through evil means. The Left has laundered evil through the law; but good in man’s eyes isn’t justification in the Lord’s. A grey area here is the mail-in ballots. They are a trap. Election security is thrown to the wind. The GOP is not making an issue of this, or promising reform. This is an indicator.
Violence happens. David holds on as long as he can, then flees for his life. Preparedness is key to success.
Violence is not met with violence. No one–no one–would have blamed David for snuffing Saul either of the clear times that David could have ended the drama. David’s insight was that whatever means were used aginst Saul would be the New Rules that would be applied to him as king.
Vengeance is the Lord’s. As a daily excercise, pray for President Biden, VP Harris, and all of the other degenerates on the Left. It is theraputic for you to hold up their humanity in prayer, with sincerity. You are arguably better than they. Sure. But if God is 1, then you and I are so far out to the right of the decimal as to render such comparisons moot. So let’s ge over our flesh and be assured that, even if they skate under the sun, they will meet the Judge Eternal, who heedeth not CNN.

After a good, prayerful soul-purge, we can tone down the hormones and calmly consider the situation.

The country has jacked around. Has for [you pick the number] of years.

We are on the cusp of finding out.

Finding out whether that “American Exceptionalism” means shag-all. Not that the country was bullet-proof. The 1st Amendment leaves plenty of roomm for lying and gaslighting and mal-education to take a toll. Exceptionalism means that, having thrown a runtime exception, the country’s founding principles are sunk deep enough to puke out the godless Commie falsehoods and restore the Republic. Or not.

Who’s leading this recovery?

You are.

The recovery starts with *NOT* externalizing the work, and seeking the correct name for the ballot to sink a sling-stone into the forehead of the Deep State Goliath. That’s not how this works.

While Trump affords some distraction, and hormonal release for some, I have yet to hear a coherent reform plan from him. Stipulating that he prevails next year, it doesn’t matter if he jails half the government and treat the U.S. Code like Maui: if you don’t fundamentally alter the context, then you shall have obtained passing entertainment at best.

So: who follows the 2024 nominee? On what course? These are the needed discussions.

I don’t know either, but I do know that, if we’re not deeply in prayer regarding them, then all of the social media hue and cry is so much flatus. I’ll define compromise as: “Being willing to ease the rudder, without yielding on the eventual course to steer.” Know the Way.

Category: Uncategorized

Looting Nordstrom and Other Recent News From Zimbabwe, U.S.A.

Posted on | August 16, 2023 | Comments Off on Looting Nordstrom and Other Recent News From Zimbabwe, U.S.A.

Another weekend in the decline and fall of Western civilization:

Shocking video captured a mob-style smash-and-grab robbery at a mall in Topanga and police are now searching for up to 30 suspects involved.
Police said it happened around 4:15 p.m. Saturday at the Nordstrom store inside Westfield Topanga Mall.
Video shared by an Instagram user shows the large group of suspects smashing display cases, grabbing merchandise and running out the door.
Police said a security guard at the store was sprayed with either Mace pepper spray or bear spray. Between 20 to 30 suspects were involved and all fled the scene in several vehicles, including a BMW, a Lexus and a Honda, police said.
“I really didn’t understand at first what was going on and then I recognized what was really happening when all the security … everybody was going to the one area,” said a witness.
Investigators said the group stole between $60,000 and $100,000 worth of merchandise.
“We were sitting having coffee and all of a sudden, we saw so many people running out of the store,” said another witness. “We were not in the store. We were at the entry of the store … so many people coming out.”
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued the following statement Saturday evening:

“What happened today at the Nordstrom in the Topanga Mall is absolutely unacceptable. Those who committed these acts and acts like it in neighboring areas must be held accountable. The Los Angeles Police Department will continue to work to not only find those responsible for this incident but to prevent these attacks on retailers from happening in the future.”

“Absolutely unacceptable,” says the mayor who was elected by these same criminals. That’s just it — California has become the world’s first mass kleptocracy. All the honest people have left the state, and the criminals have taken over. Everybody is stealing everything:

Proposition 47 . . . reduced penalties on property thefts less than $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor. This means no prison time. Charges for grand larceny (a felony) now require thefts of more than $950 – more than double the previous threshold of $400.
Now, not only will a thief steal more without facing a felony charge, they may steal again, and again, and again, without serious consequences. Each theft is counted as a single incident. The law allows for serial thefts. Thieves can repeat their criminal behavior as long as they don’t steal more than $950 in each larceny.

Proposition 47 passed with 60% of the vote in 2014, and opponents of the measure clearly warned that this would happen, so it’s not as if the people of California are victims — they inflicted this disaster on themselves.

More than a decade ago, I began comparing California to the kleptocratic regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe:

The thievish, parasitical mentality of liberals, who view taxpayers only a source of plunder, eventually runs head-on into economic reality. Capital is portable, and predatory governments will eventually cause disinvestment, as investors seek opportunities elsewhere. As investment flees, private-sector employment stagnates and declines, and smart young people leave to find someplace where they have a chance to get ahead.

Once this trend reaches a tipping point — and Jerry Brown’s return to the governorship in 2011 seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back in California — the collapse accelerates. Decent people refuse to live in such conditions, and now that California has chased away every decent person who formerly resided there — my friend Dianna Deeley left the San Francisco Bay area and moved to Valdosta, Georgia — they are living with the nightmarish consequences. And they still don’t get it.

When a woman in San Francisco took to TikTok to share her shock at having someone spit in her face when she went to the grocery store, the Twitter account Comfortably Smug pointed out that just a couple of years earlier, this same woman had urged her fellow liberals to “vote as if you were the most marginalized, oppressed person you know.”

This lady voted for this! I hope things get much worse for her, and that she doesn't move to a red state and vote for the same policies that ruined San Francisco! https://t.co/O2mdkgUQ0J pic.twitter.com/sl83bYjTMk

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 7, 2023

Yeah, how’s that working out for you, sweetheart?

Category: California

In The Mailbox: 08.15.23 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | August 16, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.15.23 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Off to the VA tomorrow, back Thursday. Blogging may be (more) erratic.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Chicago Really Was A Great City
EBL: The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Ukraine Summer 2023, and Flashback Election Denial: Stacy Abrams Refusing To Concede Georgia Governor Race
Twitchy: Is Geraldo OK?, Three Positions On The Joint Chiefs Of Staff Vacant For The First Time, and Why Is It Forbidden To Question The 2020 Election?
Louder With Crowder: 80s TV star gets angry her movie was sold to a network that promotes “family values” so she’s doing something in response, Rapper 50 Cent is getting the last laugh after viral flash mob attacks Los Angeles Nordstrom: “Told ya so”, and Budweiser blasted for latest desperate attempt to win back customers (that rips off pro-America competitor Yuengling)
Vox Popoli: Converged From Birth, Their Children Write Their Epitaphs, The Risk of Computerized Cars, and Are the Lahaina Fires Fake?

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: A Week of Summer Prayer
American Conservative: A Warning for Oliver Anthony
American Greatness: Trump Announces That He Will Share ‘Irrefutable’ Report Next Week on ‘Rigged’ 2020 Election in Georgia, Government Employees Told to Work From Home Due to Crime Crisis Near Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, and FBI Agent: Biden Transition Team, Secret Service were Warned About 2020 Plans to Interview Hunter
American Thinker: Ballot Harvesting — Only The Brain Dead Believe It Now!
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Paleo-anthropology News
Babalu Blog: Inflation forces Cuban parents to choose between buying food or school uniforms for their children, Cuban ‘Ironman’ entertains his fellow noble savages by pounding his body with a sledgehammer, and They are dancing sort of a Trump tango in Argentina
Baldilocks: Memories Of The First Life, Part 1, also, Tools & Excuses
BattleSwarm: F16s = Fatigue For Soviet Aircraft?
Behind The Black: Intuitive Machines sets mid-November launch date for its Nova-C lunar lander, Webb confirms galaxy as one of the earliest known in the universe, Ingenuity’s 55th flight completed, The impact that almost cracked Mars open, and We are becoming a nation of barbarians
CDR Salamander: Russians Advance The Ratchet Another Click In The Black Sea
Da Tech Guy: Rethinking support for Ukraine, also, The Actual Question Concerning the Left
Dana Loesch: Trump Indictment 4.0
Don Surber: National Review Crashes & Burns Over “Rich Men North Of Richmond”
First Street Journal: The Islamic Terrorists are still a threat
Gates Of Vienna: Another Skirmish in the Burkini Wars, AfD Candidate Beaten up by Migrants, Things to Come — Life in Woke Britain, and Culture-Enriching Rogue Cops in Berlin
The Geller Report: Hawaii: Vacationing Biden Says “No Comment” To WORST Fire Disaster in Nation’s History, Hundred Dead, Thousand Still “Missing”
Glenn Reynolds: Is This Heaven? No, It’s Iowa
Hogewash: The Times They Are A-Changin’, Disinformation, M104 in IR, and Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Hollywood In Toto: Why Dazed and Confused Is So Much More Than a Stoner Classic, Pop Culture Crisis Star Mary Morgan Won’t Say ‘Get Woke Go Broke’, Bill Maher: College is ‘Bulls***,’ a ‘Scam’, and Media Downplay Oliver Anthony’s Overnight Success (And We Know Why)
The Lid: Israel’s Unity Is Our Secret Weapon
Legal Insurrection: Judge Sanctions Southwest’s Attorneys, Orders ‘Religious-Liberty Training’ by Alliance Defending Freedom, Mark Meadows Files To Remove Georgia State Prosecution To Federal Court, U. Chicago Survey: 30 Million Americans Think Violence Justified to Stop Trump From Winning the Presidency, DeSantis and Other GOP Presidential Candidates Respond to Trump’s Georgia Indictment, and Kansas Paper Raided by Police was Investigating Police Chief Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations
Nebraska Energy Observer: Uh-oh!
Outkick: Carli Lloyd On USWNT: ‘I Was The Only One Brave Enough To Say How It Is’, Tuohy Family Claims Ex-NFLer Michael Oher Attempted $15 Million ‘Shakedown’ Before Filing Petition Against Conservatorship, Air Force Football Uniforms Will Honor The WWII Moment When America Landed A Right Hook On Japan’s Jaw, Sage Steele Won, Haley Cavinder Hates Weak Men: ‘Can’t Stand Any Sense Of Softness’, and Tim Tebow Joins Dan Dakich To Advocate For Fairness In Women’s Sports
Power Line: I Read the Georgia Indictment, So You Don’t Have To, Take a load off Fani, and The Prophet of Power Density
Shark Tank: Rick Scott Chastises Biden For Blocking School Hunter Education Funds
Shot In The Dark: Mitch’s DFL Translation Service, Tea Leaves, and False Idols
The Political Hat: Modern Education: The Individual Or The Collective
This Ain’t Hell: Sikh graduates Marine Basic, also, Elon Musk-Mark Zuckerberg fight confirmed-proceeds to go to veterans charities
Victory Girls: Salon, Snow White and the Woke War on Women
Volokh Conspiracy: Time to Pass the Afghan Adjustment Act
Watts Up With That: Heat Pumps Not Good Enough for Chris Stark!, Kids Win Montana Climate Change Lawsuit, and Comments From Supporters of EPA’s New Power Plant Rule
The Federalist: The Longer Republicans Sit On Their Hands, The More Likely America’s Self-Destruction Becomes Irreversible, Trump’s Georgia Indictment Shows The Democrat Political Prosecutions Are So Much Worse Than The Supposed Crimes, Biden Ships $200 Million To Ukraine While American Soldiers Go Hungry, Merrick Garland Reminds Us Regularly Why He’s Never Deserved To Sit On The Supreme Court, Oliver Anthony Strikes A Chord Where The Right And Left Agree: Our Failed Elites, and If Saying An Election Is Stolen Is A Crime, Why Isn’t Stacey Abrams In Prison?
Mark Steyn: Beyond the Bollards (Out Of Time Part X)

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Category: Linkagery

CNN’s Endless Indictment Orgasm

Posted on | August 15, 2023 | Comments Off on CNN’s Endless Indictment Orgasm

Because my office TV was tuned to CNN today, I got to hear more-or-less endless “reporting” about the Fulton County indictment of Trump. This is all banana republic stuff, a circus performance to excite Democrats and distract the public from Biden’s scandals and general incompetence.

But oh! How the CNN anchors stroked themselves into paroxysms of orgasmic bliss today! They’ve invented a new genre — indictment porn, with Fani Willis as the new superstar performer. Sure, they got some thrills out of the New York indictment, and then the two indictments from Jack Smith, but this indictment — with a BLACK WOMAN prosecuting the hated Trump — finally pushed them over the edge.

CNN analyst Stephen Collinson:

The most astonishing aspect of former President Donald Trump’s fourth criminal indictment is not the scale of an alleged multi-layered conspiracy to steal Georgia’s electoral votes in 2020 from their rightful winner.
It is that Trump – the accused kingpin of the scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, who was charged on Monday along with 18 others — could in 17 months be raising his right hand as the 47th president and swearing to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution he was accused of plotting to shred.
The grave political crisis created by Trump’s aberrant presidency and subsequent efforts to hold him to account deepened significantly just before midnight [Monday] with the unsealing of yet another indictment against him — this one from a grand jury in the critical swing state of Georgia. The charges in this state case — which bring to 91 the total number of criminal charges he’s facing across four separate cases — intensified an already epochal collision between Trump’s now extreme legal quagmire and the 2024 election in which he is the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
The 98-page indictment includes 41 counts that chart in stunning detail an alleged conspiracy to pressure local officials, make false statements about electoral fraud to state legislatures, harrass election workers, and solicit Justice Department officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence. It also alleges an attempt to unlawfully breach election equipment in Georgia and elsewhere and includes a list of actions by Trump and associates it says were all attempts to advance the conspiracy.

Love those adjectives. Now go take a shower, you sick freak.

Category: CNN, Donald Trump

In The Mailbox: 08.15.23 (Early Morning Edition)

Posted on | August 15, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.15.23 (Early Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Good Guys 3, Bad Guys 0
EBL: Blame Hawaii Democrats For Maui Fires, Oliver Anthony: Rich Men North of Richmond, Cologne Cathedral Completed, and Georgia Indictment? Does this mean no library for Donald J. Trump?
Twitchy: Glenn Greenwald Roasts “True Conservative” David French, Laura Loomer Outs “Racist, Transphobic, & Homophobic” “Max Nordau”, and National Review Tells Us The Song Oliver Anthony Should Have Written
Louder With Crowder: Lizzo dropped from Super Bowl consideration amid alleged fat-shaming, Barack Obama wrote to ex-girlfriend that he fantasized about sexing up dudes in newly discovered redacted letter, and Rolling Stone leads the expected media attacks against Oliver Anthony and “Rich Men North of Richmond”
Vox Popoli: The Unaccountable, How to Fail, Vocation and Articulation, They Can’t Hide the Bodies, and SF is Dying and LA is Next
Stoic Observations: With No Further Assistance Or Guidance From You
Gab News: Academics Shocked By Study Comparing Gab & Facebook

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Should a Woman save her Husband or her Child?
American Conservative: Why Bill Watterson Vanished, also, The Other Populist in the Race
American Greatness: Joe Biden’s Race Against the Truth, Introducing Contempt of Public, and GOP Critics Call Appointment of David Weiss to Special Counsel an Attempt to ‘Whitewash’ Biden Family Corruption
American Thinker: Comparing the Tactics of the Dems to the Nazis is No Longer Seen as Unreasonable, The Weaponization of Justice, and Of Course the Climate Has Always Been Changing
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Russian tourists complain of nightmarish experiences in their Cuban ‘dream holidays’, Cuba’s medical crisis totally ignored by UN, EU, capitalist governments and world’s fawning news media, Cuban dictatorship launches new propaganda campaign in the U.S., Slide show: Havana’s fountains prove the city is dying of thirst — except at apartheid hotels, of course, and Cuba’s self-employed face eight-fold increase in their social security taxes
Baldilocks: Evil Twin
BattleSwarm: Red China’s New Enemy: Deflation, Red China Is Screwed: Pipe People, and Ruble Now A Penny
Behind The Black: Red China’s Long March 3B launches radar satellite, Axiom signs deal with Poland and ESA to send Polish astronaut to Axiom’s future space station, Residual ice on the shaded north-facing slope of northern Martian crater, Chandrayaan-3 completes next-to-last orbital maneuver before releasing Vikram lander, and Today’s blacklisted American: Gestapo in Kansas raid home of 98-year-old newspaper owner, causing her death
Cafe Hayek: A “Climate Psychology Certificate Program”?
CDR Salamander: Red China’s Summer From The Aleutians To Guadalcanal, also, Industrial Security At Last?
Chicago Boyz: Disturbing
Da Tech Guy: Modern students suck, The Single Best Explanation of “Woke” Christianity Actually is, The studio albums by The Band, ranked, and DeSantis 2024 is to the GOP Deepstate Establishment what Greek Food is to Leonard Hofstadter
Dana Loesch: Trump Charges Leaked In Georgia?,
Don Surber: It’s Our Party & We’ll Trump If We Want To
First Street Journal: The Feds believe that conservative Catholics are an extremist threat, Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, and The left want poorer, minority neighborhoods to have nicer things, but fret that them having nicer things will attract more white people to move in!
Gates Of Vienna: It Ain’t Over Till the Imam Sings, Paul Weston: “Question Everything”, What’s a Few Death Threats Among Friends?, On the Beach, and Deportation? What’s That?
The Geller Report: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel Confirms 10K Voter Registrations Delivered to Muskegon Clerk in October 2020 Were FRAUDULENT, Bribed Biden Asks for ANOTHER $40 Billion in Additional Nazi Ukraine Aid, and Two Princeton, MIT Scientists Say EPA Climate Regulations Based on a ‘Hoax’
Hogewash: A Hazy Lenticular Galaxy, A Cosmic Ribbon, A Rocket Launch As Seen From The ISS, Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, and A Birthday
Hollywood In Toto: Judy Greer Shines (Yet Again) in Aporia, Shape of Shadows Looks Beyond Paranormal Hot Spot, Tom MacDonald’s ‘Your America’: Destructive Ideologies Come from the Left, and Jim Carrey’s Truman Show Predicted Our Binge-Watching Age
The Lid: Hunter’s New Special Council Appointment Is A False Flag, also, Bring Back ‘Redskins’ Movement Is Gaining Steam, And LOOK Who’s Driving It!
Legal Insurrection: George Washington U. Cuts Ties With Group Following Vote of Support for BDS, Trump Indicted on 13 Counts in Georgia 2020 Election Probe, West Virginia University Planning to Cut a Dozen Majors, Reduce Staff, NY Democrat: Erie County Won’t Take More Migrants After Second Alleged Assault Involving Asylum Seeker, U.S. Energy Industry Warns Biden EPA’s Proposed Carbon Emissions Rules are ‘Unworkable’, and Maui’s Wildfire Disaster: Media Pushes ‘Climate Crisis’ Cause, People Are Pushing Back
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, Tenth Sunday after Trinity, and Remembrance and Legacy
Outkick: Male Powerlifter Sets Another Women’s Record At Canadian Championship; Riley Gaines, Martina Navratilova React, Michael Oher Alleges Tuohy Family Tricked Him, Never Adopted Him, And That He Lost Out On Millions In ‘Blind Side’ Movie, Tim Tebow Has No Regrets About How His Faith May Have Impacted His NFL Career, Mark Zuckerberg Pulls Out Of Fight With Elon Musk, Claims Tesla CEO ‘Isn’t Serious’, Russell Wilson Ruthlessly Mocked By Cardinals After Preseason Loss, and Joe Thomas Reveals The Moment He Knew Johnny Manziel Was Going To Be A Problem
Power Line: Why Weiss?, Whither the Weather?, Consequences of Eroding Meritocracy, and The Great Realignment
Shark Tank: Frost Whines Suspension Of Worrell Is “Fascism”
Shot In The Dark: Life & Death In A Blue Sinecure, also, Their Best Interests
This Ain’t Hell: “Oh, My Stars, My Linda’s Gone to Mars” – David Grusch again, Skittles’ “Black Trans Lives Matter” Slogan Stirs Uproar, A real feel-good story, Treamon Lacy is indicted for crashing Humvee at Fort Stewart headquarters, and Flag Promotions Threatened!
Transterrestrial Musings: Biden Corruption Coverage, California’s Math Framework, The Pros And Cons Of Living In Each State, The Fix Is In, and AI
Victory Girls: Harry Sisson, Screeching Child, Democrat Shill, Doesn’t Know History, Trans Widow Details Dark Side of The Ideology, and RFK Jr. Flip-Flops On Abortion Limits Because He’s A Democrat
Volokh Conspiracy: Prof. Michael McConnell, Responding About the Fourteenth Amendment, “Insurrection,” and Trump
Watts Up With That: Comments On The Insanity Of EPA’s New Power Plant Rule, The Origin of the Hawaii Fires/Preventing a Similar Tragedy in the Future, Biden-backed electric vehicle company files for bankruptcy, Europe’s Self-Imposed Energy Crisis: Paying Homage to Gaia, and Great Reset U-Turn: British Mainstream Political Parties are Road Testing Anti-Green Policies
The Federalist: Generational Divides Show The Dangers Of Discarding What Makes Us Great, To Beat Leftist Groupthink, Put Down Your Phone And Pick Up A Hobby, Two Years Later, We Know The Deadly Fall Of Kabul Didn’t Have To Happen This Way, Ruth Marcus’ Alito Attack Is Grossly Hypocritical Considering Her Endorsement Of Nina Totenberg’s Work, 6 Takeaways From The Biden Admin’s Court Quest To Keep Censoring Americans Online, With The ‘Suicide Card,’ Transgender Activists Weaponize Kindness, and What My Family’s Bloody History In The Spanish Civil War Teaches About The FBI’s Assault On Catholics
Mark Steyn: No More Heroes Any More: Noir Goes to London in Night and the City, Nessun dorma, and When the Edge of the Map Moves Inward

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Category: Linkagery

‘Huddled Masses’ Update: Why Is This ‘Crisis’ Costing New York Billions?

Posted on | August 14, 2023 | 1 Comment

Our moral and intellectual superiors:

New York City’s surging migrant population is set to double by June 2024 — meaning the city will be on the hook for 100,000 homeless immigrants — as costs are estimated to rise to a mind-boggling high of $12 billion over the next three years.
“We are past our breaking point,” Mayor Adams declared in a dire address at City Hall Wednesday, pleading with the feds and everyday New Yorkers to help mitigate the crisis.
The city currently spends a nightly average of $383 per 25,600 asylum-seeker households, including families with kids, adult couples and singles — for housing, food and other services, according to officials.
“With more than 57,300 individuals currently in our care on an average night, it amounts to $9.8 million a day. Almost $300 million a month and nearly $3.6 billion a year,” the mayor said.
“This is the floor, not the ceiling,” he warned, revealing the city’s current expenses could rise even further.

(Hat-tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)

Apparently, no one else has bothered doing the arithmetic here. Saturday night on The Other Podcast, this topic was raised by John Hoge who had a post about a similar “crisis” in Massachusetts. The reason Democrat-controlled “blue” states are now caterwauling about their “crisis” is that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whose state has been coping for years with the flood of illegal immigrants caused by the failure of the federal government to secure the border, decided to start sending busloads of these asylum seekers to the places where liberals vote for “sanctuary laws” and elect liberal Democrats who embrace such policies.

Yes, but what about the arithmetic? Adams speaks of “25,600 asylum-seeker households” costing the city $383 per day or, by another calculus, “57,300 individuals” who cost the city $9.8 million a day — which simple division tells me amounts to $171.03 per “individual.” Multiply that by 365 days of the year, and this means that New York City is spending $62,425.83 per year on each member of its “surging migrant population.”

Every man, woman and child of these “huddled masses” is consuming, at taxpayer expense, a sum nearly $10,000 a year greater than the median household income in Alabama. Of course, the migrants themselves get nary a nickel of that spending, which is funneled through a vast bureaucracy and into the coffers of non-profit social-service charities, so that what most of this money actually goes to is keeping sociology majors employed. Also, a lot of the money is paid to rent hotel rooms for the “57,300 individuals,” so that spending $9.8 million a day functions as a subsidy to hotel owners, and also guaranteeing employment for the hotel maids whose job it is to clean up after the “huddled masses.”

While it is not my habit to offer advice to liberal Democrats, perhaps Mayor Adams will heed this suggestion: New York City can help these migrants, and ultimately end the city’s refugee “crisis,” by the simple expedient of (a) giving money directly to the migrants, on condition that (b) they leave New York. Basically, offer them a free one-way plane ticket and guarantee them $3,000 a month for the first six months in their new place of residence, on condition that they never return to New York.

For a lump-sum expenditure of less than $20,000, you thereby save the taxpayers of New York $40,000 a year going forward. Oh, and I should add, that’s $3,000 a month for each member of the migrant household, including children, so that a family of four would get $12,000 a month for six months after their relocation from New York. And you know something, Mayor Adams? There are lots of places in this country — certainly Alabama is among them — where any family with a monthly income of $12,000 would be considered wealthy. Hell, these migrants could be living it up like the Kardashians, if only you’d do it my way.

Perhaps readers now understand why it’s not my habit to offer advice to liberal Democrats — my ideas are just too pure genius for them.

Category: Immigration, New York

Rule 5 Sunday: Potato On The Beach

Posted on | August 14, 2023 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Potato On The Beach

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Many many weeks ago I posted a pic of Vietnamese model Potato Godzilla cosplaying as Asuka Langley from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Here’s a recent pic of her on the beach.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.