Friends, I wouldn't take the poll below all that seriously, but it does suggest something interesting: when you give Americans the choice of voting for Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or...someone else, quite a few people choose someone else. That's hardly surprising. In this case, it's Cornel West that's getting the "Option C" treatment, but it could just as well be someone different. The takeaway? The 2024 election is one that could very easily be determined by the presence of third party candidates. That is to say, the "spoilers" could be the deciding factor.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/07/08/poll-trump-leads-biden-swing-states/
In other news, for those who care about the Supreme Court's abolition of affirmative action in college admissions, these articles give you some good context on what race preferences have achieved, up to now, and what institutions of higher ed are likely to do to salvage their DEI efforts. In many ways, we've seen this dog and pony show before, with efforts to restrict the number of Jews attending elite schools in the early 20th century. Today's Asian-Americans are, not unreasonably, sometimes called the "New Jews". Interesting, no?
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-affirmative-action-illusion
https://www.thefp.com/p/what-happens-after-the-end-of-affirmative
Finally, conservatives have been celebrating the decline in Bud Light sales, because it indicates that "right-wing" consumers are finally have an impact on corporate decision-making. So how chastened is corporate America? A tad. It's mostly continuing its bowing and scraping with respect to progressive causes, but at least it's having some second thoughts. Note that this article totally dismisses the idea that companies could simply keep their mouths shut about politics and stick to making money. Oh yeah? Why the heck not?
Dr.Waddy from Jack: The Chinese ,who probably comprise the majority of the Asians for whom the disgracefully compromised american academy bears such, well, if not repugnance, a wish that they would just go away, are often called the Jews of S.E. Asia.Like Jewish culture, Chinese civilization reveres family, education, senior citizens and an indefatigable work ethic. When the tragic 19th century drove them into neighboring lands, the Chinese quickly dominated peoples of more casual miens.Enterprising Chinese students are an unacceptable counter to the victimology which imbues the apologetic elite academy's recruitment exclusive (i.e. not "inclusive") devotion to "diversity" of a sort and must needs be put in their "place"lest doctrine be heretically hazarded.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Free enterprise must show profit; abundant profit enables personal prosperity. But our culture is so intimidated by the marxist tale that prosperity is a zero sum phenomenom - "if I succeed, someone else loses" - that we often seek to make recompense for our mere good fortune. Canny big business cynically addresses this guilty need by paying often counterintuitively excessive homage to groups which, sometimes disingenuously, employ victimology.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: I've actually seen a Cornel West for President sign here in our little town in common sense southwestern NY! I'd like to hear him rant in a debate; the public would see why not even Harvard could abide him.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Big business will shut its political yaps when and if it is proven bad business.Meanwhile, Madame DeFarge waits and knits at the foot of the scaffold for any who think they may buy and cringe their way out of the left's murderous intent.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Scotus Justice Jackson was placed there,sans the disgraceful calumny levelled at President Trump's nominees, in order to express a consummately bigoted, frantically emotional position bereft of any consideration of empirical evidence or measured argument such as that cited and made by heroic Justice Thomas. She did her job as a good factotum does.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: The President is in Europe and I'm sure he'll be discussing Ukraine in his way. I trust you will be writing about so I'll presume to comment here.Reportedly he'll say Ukraine is not ready to join Nato. The real issue is: will Russia ever be ready for it? With Russia's execrable conduct in Ukraine its a hard reality to acknowedge that NO, they never will be! Last night on Fox they had a former American Ambassador to Poland on and he said" Russia had attacked for no good purpose". If he meant humanitarian or moral motivation well ok but I think beside the point.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: The point is: whether we like it or not, Russia sees Ukraine in Nato as a completely unendurable national security threat and an affront made far worse by the West's ingratitude for the many astonishing concessions they have made since 1989. This tragic truth can plausibly lead to this conclusion: the only way to end Ukraine's agony is to assure Russia tha
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack. . . assure Russia, painfully ,yes, that Ukraine in Nato is a dead letter. Russian painfully and unwillingly faced the reality that it could not stop Nato's eastern advance - it allowed itself to be "flanked" on three sides, which is military anathema - now we must face the reality that Russia nonetheless has its limits and we mistook to challenge them. The late Dr. Stephen Cohen, a Russia expert at Princeton and NYU,warned that we would risk a Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse if we did what we have done. Why? Nato is more powerful than Russia even without Ukraine and all we in recklessly ignoring hard, hard truth, is prolong Ukraine's suffering.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The Ambassador said: " we must not let Russia decide who gets in Nato". When, in Nato's astonishing march to their borders, has Russia done so.Putin is a vicious and murderous man but he has refused to endure the unendurable as any Russian leader would be constrained to do.
ReplyDeleteJack, the very success of Asian-Americans is an affront to progressive ideology ,and thus they must be closely watched and, if possible, made to celebrate their own debasement. Quite a few of them do.
ReplyDeleteNot that I have any expertise on such matters, but I wonder whether the Chinese diaspora is truly representative of "typical" Chinamen (back in the PRC)?
Quite right, Jack -- most corporate kowtowing to wokeness is merely profit-seeking by other means. Or, if you prefer, it's a relatively low-cost way of appeasing the (vengeful) gods of progressivism. Then again, many corporations have A LOT of fairly useless employees on their payrolls, many of whom are there for no good reason except that they check some demographic box. You would think those costs alone would add up, after a time...
Wow, a Cornel West sign! That's a good...sign. I know for a fact that many diehard lefties are intrigued by RFK, Jr. If he runs as a third party candidate, in addition to West, things could get interesting! Of course, the net effect is hard to calculate, because I suspect quite a few Republicans will be looking for someone other than Trump who might be worthy of their votes...
Yes, Justice Jackson was chosen for her pliability, not her brilliance. Even her asinine "opinions" may well be written by someone else, but no matter -- so are Joe Biden's speeches.
I feel fairly confident in predicting that Ukraine will NEVER be a NATO member. I'm not entirely convinced that Ukraine will survive the West's sponsorship, and the present war, at all, but if it does it will be because it makes an accommodation with Russia. The MINIMUM Russia would accept is an ironclad commitment from Ukraine that it will not seek, nor accept, NATO membership. Of course, that doesn't preclude some other byzantine "security arrangements", but NATO? I think not.
Dr.Waddy from Jack: Many many who left China were from S.Eastern China. Dialects different from the dominant Mandarin Chinese are commonly found there (eg. Cantonese, Hokkien ). That does suggest other cultural variations. Ido not know if the attributes I cited are common across China; I have always just assumed they were. Good point you raised.
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