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Friday, February 24, 2023

A Spring in His Step?

 


Friends, as you know, American and Western foreign policy is based mostly on wish fulfillment, not rationality.  So, for instance, we'll talk endlessly about how Ukraine is going to beat Russia into the ground, and Vladimir Putin will be overthrown, and good ole Tomski Jefferson will become Russia's new head of state, and we'll ride off into the sunset together and eat ice cream!  Sounds nice, doesn't it?  The only problem is that there's no reason to think that Putin's regime is in any danger, and there's precious little justification for the assumption that either Ukraine or Russia is on the verge of anything, except more bloodshed.  I repeat: self-congratulation is not an exit strategy!


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-support-for-putins-war-in-ukraine-is-hardening/ar-AA17P6vI

 

In other news, DEI is taking over this country, bit by bit, and Joe Biden is doing his best to ensure that the federal government is shot through with DEI bureaucrats and commissars.  In other words, our leftist Deep State will, in predictable fashion, become even more leftist and even more self-consciously and proudly racist the longer we let Biden and friends rule the roost.  At the very least, we need to educate ourselves on the tactics of the DEI crowd so we have a fighting chance if we choose to resist (and I sure hope we will).


https://rufo.substack.com/p/biden-creates-a-national-dei-bureaucracy

 

Finally, in yet another case of "Do as I say, not as I do", U.S. higher education is becoming more and more elitist at the same time that it howls at the top of its lungs about "equity" and "inclusion".  Our Ivy League universities and the junior ivies are thriving, as well-connected and well-heeled youngsters flock there.  Our less prestigious private colleges are struggling, and in fact they're disappearing at a fast clip.  Meanwhile, the high cost of higher ed is persuading many young adults to forego college altogether.  In the end, we'll have fewer colleges and universities, and probably a declining percentage of Americans will attend them.  Who will they be?  They'll be the privileged few who can afford to pay, plus the "disadvantaged" few who get a free ride based on their demographic star power and their ideological pliability.  Is that "equity"?  You tell me.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/22/more-colleges-to-close-even-as-top-schools-experience-application-boom.html 

6 comments:

  1. Dr.Waddy from Jack: Equity is a subjective term and to the left it can be whatever the left says it is. They have cannily substituted "equity" for "equality" as their premier nonnegotiable demand; widespread quality of opportunity having taken the intimidation out the term equality. Too, lack of equality of results from enormous progress in equality of opportunity, liberally aided by "affirmative action" ,has presented radical activists the incipient discreditation of their vital victimhood and the loss of their livelihoods. This administration , bound by obsequious allegiance to the radical left, is promulgating administrative law mandating that "equity" is to be considered sine qua non in the dutiful fulfillment of federal departments' tasks regardless of their nominal responsibilities. They are ordered now to ensure that all of their actions be demonstrated and thoroughly documented as serving the needs of "equity" first and without fail. Because of the monstrous reach of the Federal executive branch, the limitless quest for "equity"will be thereby institutionalized.

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  2. Dr.Waddy from Jack: As a country with a brief history we may well still, after 120 years of intense involvement in world affairs, not truly appreciate the relationships built up over centuries and millenia. I think that is a major factor in our failure to fully consider Russian and Ukrainian history. Its almost as if we pretend it didn't happen; its just a small gallant nation against a murderous bully neighbor. But there is more to it and we can't avoid facing it now since we have unwisely made this conflict a matter of vital national security. Most of Ukraine understandably loathes Russia and Russia understandly cannot abide Ukrainian membership in a demonstrated expansive antiRussian alliance. As the Brits say "now we're for it!"

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  3. Yes, "equity" is frightfully vague! Usually, its substance consists of mathematical models of how resources ought to be distributed and, if that isn't so, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc etc. can be assumed to be the cause, and ANY methodology that gets us closer to the golden metrics is justified. (The metrics can also be shifted at will.) For public consumption, though, "equity" probably just implies a longing for fairness, and who doesn't like fairness? Control of all our major institutions gives the Left the luxury of being two-faced when it comes to the pursuit of its goals, without fear of accountability. Oh, how they exploit that glorious loophole!

    Yes, Jack, the Russian-Ukrainian relationship is a mighty complex and deep one. Sadly, this war is forcing both sides into opposing corners, and the amity and closeness that once existed between these two peoples will be VERY hard to rebuild. Of course, one does have to wonder how many Ukrainians are on board with Zelensky's jingoistic version of Ukrainian nationalism, and how many Ukrainians, even if they hate the invasion, blame the Russian people for it, or Russian culture...

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  4. Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think WWI is widely regarded as one which was blundered into by the great powers. If the Ukraine war blows up in everyone's faces it may well be regarded as a reprise of that stupendous catastrophe.Gad's bread, the most benighted of species we may well be. Apparently H.G. Wells was finally convinced ,after living to 1946,that the self destruction of all human beings was certain.

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  5. Dr.Waddy from Jack: "Ought" to be distributed. . . Since 1917 doctrines purporting to define that word have caused catastrophic injustice by imposing their empirically unprovable ,solely imagined , sociopathically assumed infallible definition of that term on luckless multitudes. Wokeness is a product of that kind of thought and, in the irresistable power it seeks with typical leftist myopic zeal, would be every bit as murderous as its detested 20th century predecessors.

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  6. Well said! Now, I'm an optimist compared to Wells: I doubt that WWIII will kill more than 90% of the human population. So get ready for some extra elbow room, Jack!

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