Friday, May 27, 2016
Quick update
I'm in the midst of traveling. We've finally made it to Montana ("we" includes the entire staff of Unforeseen Contingencies) and should be up an running again soon!
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Excellent piece from Walter Russell Mead
What ails America? Walter Russell Mead has a very perceptive analysis, succinct and quite thoughtful. Unless you are a subscriber to The American Interest, clicking will use up your one free article per month. It's worth it.
A few excerpts:
"The state of our union can be summed up pretty easily: Democratic policy ideas don’t work, and the Republican Party is melting down."
...
"The more “Democratic” an institution is these days, on the whole the less well it is working. What institution in the United States has been under Democratic control longer and more thoroughly than the failing public school systems of major cities? Or their police departments?
"Yet against the backdrop of failing Democratic policies and institutions, the collapse of the Republican Party into political and intellectual incoherence is all the more striking. The Democrats, for all their inability to achieve their stated end of social progress through their chosen means of good governance, are clearly more competent at the essential business of party management than their GOP rivals. The failures of Democratic governance are so apparent, and the public unhappiness with the cronyism and inequality of interest group liberalism so deep, that organizing an effective opposition should be a fairly easy task—but even that basic objective has eluded the contemporary GOP."
...
"American culture was originally shaped by a set of Christian and Enlightenment ideas, sometimes in tension with each other, that nevertheless provided a framework for common social and political discussion. We’ve moved away from this classic American synthesis without finding an effective replacement—if indeed a replacement can be found—and both the spiritual and intellectual roots of American life are growing more and more attenuated."
WRM's piece is definitely worth reading.
A few excerpts:
"The state of our union can be summed up pretty easily: Democratic policy ideas don’t work, and the Republican Party is melting down."
...
"The more “Democratic” an institution is these days, on the whole the less well it is working. What institution in the United States has been under Democratic control longer and more thoroughly than the failing public school systems of major cities? Or their police departments?
"Yet against the backdrop of failing Democratic policies and institutions, the collapse of the Republican Party into political and intellectual incoherence is all the more striking. The Democrats, for all their inability to achieve their stated end of social progress through their chosen means of good governance, are clearly more competent at the essential business of party management than their GOP rivals. The failures of Democratic governance are so apparent, and the public unhappiness with the cronyism and inequality of interest group liberalism so deep, that organizing an effective opposition should be a fairly easy task—but even that basic objective has eluded the contemporary GOP."
...
"American culture was originally shaped by a set of Christian and Enlightenment ideas, sometimes in tension with each other, that nevertheless provided a framework for common social and political discussion. We’ve moved away from this classic American synthesis without finding an effective replacement—if indeed a replacement can be found—and both the spiritual and intellectual roots of American life are growing more and more attenuated."
WRM's piece is definitely worth reading.
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Trump goes left
That didn't take long! Less than 24 hours after it appears Trump has the Republican nomination locked in, he has reversed himself on the minimum wage, said he'd consider Sanders' proposal for a federal minimum wage of $15.00, and declared he will start winning over Sanders' supporters. If he adopts $15.00, Trump will be left of Hillary Clinton on the issue. (She proposes $12.00.)
Tuesday, May 03, 2016
Cruz quits. Guess what follows.
Cruz made a terrible mistake in quitting. We are now left with a choice between a radical leftist, Hillary Clinton, and a leftist fascist, Donald Trump. I don't see much difference between them. Neither believes in individual liberty. Both are corrupt, nasty, and vindictive. I would expect either one to use government agencies to go after enemies. This is a very dangerous thing.
Cruz quit on the day when Donald Trump claimed Cruz' father assassinated President Kennedy. Cruz has just turned the Republican nomination over to a lying maniac. And what kind of people would, today, support Trump?
Not me. Trump can go to hell, and I hope he does, soon. May he take his supporters with him.
What follows? Trump will swing left, and remain crazy. Heaven knows what his supporters will do, they seem able to absorb anything. Clinton's supporters are similarly capable of tolerating anything, since it's quite clear the Clintons traded favors for millions in "speaker fees," and Hillary Clinton repeatedly and knowingly violated federal law and compromised national security. An enormous amount of dirt on Trump is about to surface, and Trump will no longer be given a pass in the media. I think it will go very badly for him. I predict, contrary to my January prediction, that Hillary Clinton will win. I don't know what to make of predictions that a Trump loss would cause the GOP to lose both houses of Congress. I certainly hope not, but if so, I imagine that the Democrats will try to quickly lock in Supreme Court nominees, gun control, a national health care system, and draconian energy regulations. Civil war follows any attempt at gun confiscation, and could well follow crackdowns on religious groups that don't surrender on the homosexual issue.
But these specific predictions are just guesses. What isn't a guess is that if either of these thugs becomes president there'll be trouble. I can't imagine how the United States could have smooth sailing ahead.
Cruz quit on the day when Donald Trump claimed Cruz' father assassinated President Kennedy. Cruz has just turned the Republican nomination over to a lying maniac. And what kind of people would, today, support Trump?
Not me. Trump can go to hell, and I hope he does, soon. May he take his supporters with him.
What follows? Trump will swing left, and remain crazy. Heaven knows what his supporters will do, they seem able to absorb anything. Clinton's supporters are similarly capable of tolerating anything, since it's quite clear the Clintons traded favors for millions in "speaker fees," and Hillary Clinton repeatedly and knowingly violated federal law and compromised national security. An enormous amount of dirt on Trump is about to surface, and Trump will no longer be given a pass in the media. I think it will go very badly for him. I predict, contrary to my January prediction, that Hillary Clinton will win. I don't know what to make of predictions that a Trump loss would cause the GOP to lose both houses of Congress. I certainly hope not, but if so, I imagine that the Democrats will try to quickly lock in Supreme Court nominees, gun control, a national health care system, and draconian energy regulations. Civil war follows any attempt at gun confiscation, and could well follow crackdowns on religious groups that don't surrender on the homosexual issue.
But these specific predictions are just guesses. What isn't a guess is that if either of these thugs becomes president there'll be trouble. I can't imagine how the United States could have smooth sailing ahead.
