Friends, last Halloween you might have seen some trick-or-treaters wearing this popular mask. You guessed it: they were pretending to be a "Karen", an entitled, angry, racist white woman. Of course, the stereotype of a "Karen" is itself racist, but it's anti-racist racism, so it's cool. I'm glad we got that settled.
Who's the biggest and baddest Karen of them all? It's looking like the answer might be: Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D - Arizona). Now, you wouldn't think that an avowedly feminist and bisexual Democratic Senator would even make the list, but Sinema's insistence on bipartisanship and upholding the Senate's tradition of the filibuster is making progressives hopping mad. Sinema and Joe Manchin are standing in the way of the enactment of many elements of the progressive agenda. Ergo, Sinema's a baddy, and all baddies are racists, ipso facto. Calling an old white guy like Joe Manchin a racist is a no-brainer, but it looks like now the LGBTQ+ heroine Krysten Sinema is in for the same treatment. She's got "toxic white lady energy"! You can't make this nonsense up, people.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/kyrsten-sinema-toxic-white-lady-energy.html?via=rss
In other news, and relatedly, we're getting poll numbers that prove that leftists are becoming disspirited about the slow pace of change under Bidenist rule. Congress is supposed to be grinding conservatives underfoot and instituting universal Bolshevism, but, because of the filibuster and Sinema and Manchin, it's no dice. This was inevitable, of course. Biden and his cronies on Capitol Hill could never be woke enough to satisfy the true believers. There's bound to be a reckoning.
More good news: most Americans don't like Big Tech and want these massive companies broken up. This is, in addition, a bipartisan movement. Will it someday bear fruit? I hope so.
https://www.newsmax.com/us/us-voters-big-tech-antitrust-poll/2021/06/18/id/1025556/
Also, most Americans are increasingly comfortable with resuming "normal activities" now that we have the coronavirus on the run. I went to a car show last night and virtually no one was wearing a mask. It was a refreshing change!
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/poll-virus-outbreak-reopening/2021/06/18/id/1025549/
Normalcy may be returning in the good ole USA, but Canada is clinging on to its pandemic anxieties for dear life.
Eh. Who needs Canada anyway?
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/canada-travel-ban/2021/06/18/id/1025585/
The U.S. military believes that China has no imminent plans to attack Taiwan, and it may even lack the military means to take the island by force. Interesting. It seems to me that there are a lot of unanswered questions about today's military balance. For one thing, virtually all advanced countries are bristling with sophisticated anti-ship missiles. Assuming that the missiles will "always get through", modern navies are in big trouble. That's a potentially flawed assumption, however, as anti-missile tech has also greatly improved. The future of places like Taiwan may very well come down to this: who has more and better missiles, and would China risk frightful losses among its amphibious expeditionary force...and possibly the destruction of that force and of its navy before any of it ever got near Taiwan? Someday we may find out.
Calls to abandon academic standards, and especially standardized testing, are growing louder and louder. How are we ever to implement "anti-racism", for instance, if black people are asked to fill out bubble sheets and answer questions? That's textbook white supremacy!!!
It's official: "Juneteenth" is now a federal holiday. That happened mighty quick, didn't it? The vast majority of Congressional Republicans voted for the bill, incidentally. Now, on the face of it, there's nothing wrong with celebrating the end of slavery in the USA, but the fact is that a short time ago most of us had never heard of "Juneteenth", and we certainly didn't understand its significance. Apparently "President" Biden was among those who found "Juneteenth" inscrutable. Let's also admit that most politicians and more than a few non-politicians are now embracing Juneteenth for one reason and one reason only: virtue-signalling. We can't possibly pass up an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how "anti-racist" we are, right? Let's also remember that we already have a federal holiday that focuses on our country's struggle to achieve racial equality: MLK's birthday. Now we have two holidays on the theme of race, plus Pride Month, plus Women's History Month, plus...you get the idea. The progressives won't be happy until EVERY conversation we have, and every day of the year, is devoted to America-bashing and pillorying white racists, i.e. anyone who doesn't endorse neo-Marxism and reverse racism. Republican politicians may think they can get a little political cover by voting for the Juneteenth bill. They're wrong. The harrowing cries of "Racism!" will never stop. They're the heart and soul of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement, after all. Get used to it.
https://thepostmillennial.com/flashback-biden-juneteenth-year-ago
https://apnews.com/article/juneteenth-congress-federal-holiday-3cc3b7a56ec97b0bae3dbdff1da092ee
Dr.Waddy from Jack: I think its a solid expectation that missiles will get through, just as some of the Kamikaze did. But do they have the power to sink our carriers? In 1945, several Brit carriers joined our fleet off Okinawa and mainland Japan. They fared better than did our most modern carriers against Kamikaze because they were heavily armored. That made them miasmic tropical hellholes for their crews and reduced their complement of planes.But the U.S. Navy noted their survivability and our postwar super carriers had much armor (I lived under it for 4 years). No perfect antiaircraft system has ever been devised,so some Chinese missiles would probably get thru. They COULD carry nuke warheads, which would vaporize a carrier. Our inevitable response might only be against their ships or seaside naval bases ; that might be a risk theChinese are willing to take, since neither homeland would be at consummate hazard and that might head off a general excha n ge I read today that our JCS Chair thinks the Chinese may attack Taiwan within the next five years. One thing of which I remain convinced: China knows its power now and rejoices in it after their 160 year humiliation. They WILL at some point seek all territory they consider unjustly taken from them in their temporary dissolution. I would take that to the bank.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that The Corona Virus (not caused by drinking the beer of that name) is on the run, and that "normalcy" (whatever that is these days) is returning.
ReplyDeleteI have some friends in Idaho who saw normalcy return to that state late last year with hardly anyone wearing masks, and schools in session. No surges in cases out there since then, by the way. Red States can be different, can't they?
Meanwhile, back at my old alma mater in Oregon on The Left Coast, students, staff, and faculty returning to Linfield University for Fall Semester 2021 are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Exemptions may be granted for medical and non-medical reasons, such as religious beliefs.
Speaking of holidays, don't forget CINCO DE MAYO. However, I don't believe that Cinco de Mayo is an official holiday in the U.S., yet.
ReplyDeleteUnless I'm missing something, I'm wondering when there will be an official George Floyd Holiday. There will be one, won't there?
Speaking of China (PRC) and racism, although in different contexts in the above article, it should not be forgotten that when Japan invaded China in 1937 (a primary cause of the U.S. getting into war with Japan), that the Japanese regarded the Chinese as sub-humans. The late Iris Chang emphasizes this in her book "The Rape of Nanking" over and over.
ReplyDeleteMost Americans believe that racism is primarily Whites against Blacks, and forget that it is (in this case) Asians against Asians. Racism also exists (heavily) in Africa, where (for example) Arabs have utter contempt for most Black Africans, including those who are Muslim.
In fact, the origins of the slave trade as we know it, began with the Arab Muslim enslavement of Black Africans, many centuries before White Europeans got involved, with the Portuguese starting that part of the trade in the 15th Century.
It should also be noted that slaves in The Roman Empire were mostly White, and that there were usually gradations in who got sent to work in mines and those who ended up in rich households as tutors. For example, educated Greeks were favored as tutors for the children of upper class Latin Romans.
Best book I have ever seen on slavery, devoid of CRT crap, is Slavery by Hugh Thomas.
Dr.Waddy and Ray from Jack : China has played several roles in the views of the Japanese. Early Japanese dynasties like the Heian dynasty, purposefully imitated China in many ways. The layout of Japan's premier city of our 10th century,Heian, (present day Kyoto)was modeled on Chang An, the capital of the glorious Tang dynasty. The Japanese adopted the Chinese written syllabary and use it today in combination with their "Kana". Their art and architecture show strong Chinese influence and I think Buddhism came to them from China. By the late 19th century, China had been reduced to near anarchy, in part because of Western predation.But the Japanese had resolved not to be reduced(what an interesting thesis or dissertation, examining possible effects of Commodore Perry's "visit" on perhaps consummate Japanese resolve not to allow the West to subjugate it, could be written. But then, its probably been thoroughly examined by now).
ReplyDeleteJack, I thought our carriers were very lightly armored, based on the theory that their escorts and planes could protect them from virtually anything. Anyway, I'm sure modern anti-ship missiles carry beastly conventional warheads. I wouldn't like to find myself on the business end of one of them.
ReplyDeletePresumably, if we had a naval conflict with China, it would begin by both sides firing a "shitload" of missiles at each other...and one side would be left in a winning position. Ergo, even a non-nuclear conflict could be "decided" in 30 minutes or less!
Ray, requiring vaccinations for college students seems to be the norm, which I must say is odd because such a requirement doesn't seem common at all in the business world or anywhere else. College students are presumed to be compliant, I guess...and not without good reason.
Good point: why isn't George Floyd's birthday hallowed yet? Or better yet his death day... Give it time.
Ray, that's absolutely right that racism and enslavement both have a long, complex history, and theoretical paradigms that posit whites as the perennial baddies are pure crap. Pure RACIST crap, in point of fact. Today, I daresay the most racist people in America ARE black. They can be as racist as they please, after all, and most whites will look the other way.
Jack, I'm sure many fascinating books could be written on Japanese/Chinese relations. I'm curious how the Japanese view the Chinese NOW. Do they look up to them or down? I could easily see them saying, "Sure, if there were 1.4 billion Japanese, we could rule the (economic) world too!"
Dr Waddy from Jack: Up until the end of WWII, our carriers were built with unarmored flight decks(I think at least partly of wood). That was probably to keep weight down because speed was essential; they had no catapults and on windless days had to create their own wind in order to launch. But the Brits did armor their flight decks. The flight deck is the most accessible target on a carrier. Wreck it and it can't launch or recover and dive bombers had far more success than torpedo planes. Put a bomb through the flight deck into the hangar and you can work all manner of explosive mischief. So our post war carriers had armored flight decks. The planes are certainly part of the carrier's defense against ships, subs and planes but I don't think they are good against hypersonic missiles. Our carriers also have spectacularly effective gatling guns for lastditch defense against missiles. The only test of survivability of our carriers (all of which follow, generally, the design of all of our post war "Supercarriers) was when Forrestal set off itself and MANY of its bombs in 1967; it survived, as did Enterprise with a similar fire. I have no doubt the Chinese have studied these incidents intensely. Perhaps their missiles are designed to close at wave level, impacting the hull, which I think is not armored.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: That's a great question! How do the Japanese view the Chinese now? Japanese culture owes much to that of China and I think Japan's enacted 1930's eventually murderous contempt for the Chinese nation stemmed from insular outrage that China would not follow their lead in resisting Western depradation. The Japanese displayed very much vindictiveness throughout the lands they temporarily dominated, when they encountered resistance to their unique culture's standards of conduct ( eg. their savage treatment of POWs, who were by their definition unworthy of any respect, or such relatively minor things as face slapping, common in Japanese settings between those perceived superior or subordinate but among Filipinos a mortal insult!)
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: China: I would guess it is seen by the Japa ese with a realism born of their eye opening defeat in WWII. China is a far more militarily powerful country. Economically, I would guess the Japanese think they can compete. When I went to University in Singapore with Japanese students, I'd swear, if they saw anyone working 23 hours a day, they would work 24! As for military force, they have our nuclear umbrella and, as all East Asia remembers, they are capable of marshalling and exercising very much power. But fundamentally,I do not know what all of these factors add up to now.
ReplyDeleteJack, as I'm sure you know, the modern Japanese are continually overlooked as a military power, but the degree to which they would ever be willing to use that power, or to stand up to a suddenly aggressive China, is totally unknown. I still find it hard to believe that anyone outside of Taiwan would dig in their heels for the Taiwanese. China is to Taiwan as the Third Reich was to Austria, if you see my point. Now, where is China's "Poland"? My guess would be somewhere in Southeast Asia. Another Vietnam War, anyone???
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: I think it well to believe that Taiwan has developed into the first world economy it has, with the expectation of American protection from communist but now post communist incursion. That may well place upon us a moral obligation to yet defend Taiwan.We are perhaps the only major power able to deploy force for principle, not necessarily objective gain. But take it to the bank; China WILL attempt to regain Taiwan, through force or negotiation, at a time perhaps of its choosing, since it purposes recovery of all that was, in their view, unjustly taken from China in its (to them) brief interlude of uncharacteristic weakness (1820 - 1949).
ReplyDeleteJack, it may be true that Taiwan expects us to help in its defense, but I don't set great store by that. There's been no formal commitment along those lines, and so I would say we're free to decide for ourselves what's in our best interests. In my view, when we accepted Red China as the REAL China, we signed Taiwan's death warrant, in effect. They've been lucky to survive this long. If their quasi-independence lasts to 2040, I'd be surprised.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: That makes a!ot of sense. Perhaps though, China's vindictive gaze is upon, rather, the Maritime Province, which includes Vladivostok, snatched from China in the 19th century. They might seek to negotiate or buy it back, perhaps by sharing Vladivostok withe the Russkies (?).
ReplyDeleteI would be VERY surprised if the Russkies would part with any more territory -- willingly, that is. If China ever swallows up part of Russia, the West would be justified in pushing the panic button!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: We might do so inadvisedly. China is a self consciously historically great nation determined to recover that which they think, with some justification, their's and unjustly taken from them. If they go beyond that, then we may WELL react!
ReplyDelete