Friends, if you're like me, you're getting worried about Kamala Harris's improved poll position, vis-a-vis Joe Biden. Fair enough, but it's important to understand what's happening here. If you dig deep in the numbers, DJT's poll numbers haven't gone down. Instead, what we're seeing is that many Democrats and Democrat-leaning voters, who weren't prepared to vote for Sleepy Joe, are prepared -- for now -- to vote for Kam-Kam. Quite a few of these voters were telling pollsters they would cast their ballots for Kennedy, West, or Stein. In the past few days, these candidates' numbers have tanked. Why? Because Kamala isn't yet damaged goods, at least not in the same way that Joe Biden was. People who don't like Trump can easily say, at this stage, "Sure, I'll vote for Kamala", because she's been subjected no real scrutiny, and the GOP hate machine hasn't been recalibrated to target her effectively. Give it time. The number one job of Republicans at this stage is to tell the American people about Harris and her record. Once her brand is tarnished, the polls should return to where they were before, more or less. Just you wait!
https://www.realclearpolling.com/
In other news, a major study confirms that most popular A.I. chatbots have a leftist bias. No kidding! If their designers think blue, and the major search engines curate the internet according to progressive prejudices, it could hardly be otherwise. Anyway, it's good that we're aware of the problem, and I would hope that someone like Elon Musk is working on a partial solution.
This is an interesting story, and I ran into this buzz saw myself just days ago. A lefty chided me for mispronouncing Kamala's name, which frankly is easy to do, because they are at least three plausible pronunciations. In any case, I suggest you learn to say it the "right" way, because otherwise the DEI enforcers will come for you in the night...
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210108-the-signals-we-send-when-we-get-names-wrong
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I expected a surge of renewed dem enthusiasm after their being delivered from Bidenesque disaster . Also the customary honeymoon obtains. She'll also probably get a boost from the convention. Of course they would rally behind ANYONE who presents a minimally acceptable alternative to insanely despised DJT. That would be this particular mediocrity's only purpose just now. Her possible conduct in the Presidency is of little moment to them but her obvious far left convictions do help.
ReplyDeleteThe true election season is customarily said to start in September. We'll see then. The MSM is in full partisan mode but what else is new? The assassination attempt and consequent developments are already relegated to the third page. They sure don't want us connecting their hate to that plausibly predictable act.
Most of all, we must keep the faith. Any possibility of her winning is painful to contemplate but we must plow through it and continue at full speed toward the really simple immediate goal: get all Americans out to vote!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Oh my, it would be completely comic were it not true. The antiamerican left which has directed gross and unrelenting excoriation at DJT (who is after all well liked by a great many people), now seek to expand their arsenal of a arrogated opportunities for reflexive discreditation of opponents by making the pronunciation of her ambiguous name an issue. Here we go again: "Uhh, her name is pronounced - - - - - - ! Show a little respect why don't you! Oh now what was your point about her, hmmm?"
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The article you cited describing creditably analyzed leftist bias in AI applications is appalling and even more so, not surprising.
ReplyDeleteA far left ever devoted to subjugating the world for its "own good" and confident that it alone can justify this in its infinite wisdom and justice is of course striving to corner this Promethean technology. It credibly and perceptively sees in it the means to final totalitarian triumph. Its intent and fully mobilized effort to achieve it MUST be recognized for all who would live in freedom not as a potential threat but as a terrifyingly PRESENT one.
The 20th century did not exhaust the then newly technologically enabled ability of purposeful human evil to plumb theretofore unimaginable depths of unapologetic cruelty while at the same time reprising the worst of atavistic inhumanity, all the while protesting benevolent motivation. Resisting the present neomarxist assault on civilization is already a terribly demanding effort; America's watershed decision in the next some 90 days is exemplary. But now we must face this ever more trying reality; we must, NOW!
A credited historian some few years ago proposed that "liberal" (liberal in the sense it bore before it was cynically preempted as a far left euphemism) democracy and free enterprise heralded the "end of history", the culmination of mankind's gradual ascent to life as it should be. We have but to clearly consider the painful history of the human condition to know that that condition HAS been reached in some settings ( look no further than a modern supermarket).
But no, we face an infinitely darker prospect, also argued, with already historically catastrophic consequences, as a fulfillment of human organizational potential. AI bodes terribly, unless we set to with grim resolve, to actually work such unlimited cataclysm.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Paschendale was the title of the most apparently authentic film depiction of WWI combat I've seen. That terrible tragedy was much compounded by the fact that it was conceived as a massive flanking attack( a traditionally devastating tactic when well executed) after theretofore unimaginable murderous, inanely repeated, atavistic frontal assaults on the unyielding German trenches. It carried with it some forlorn hope which was utterly discredited in its yet again enmired failure.
ReplyDeleteYou are right in observing that the always enterprising Germans learned from their WWI experience of having been finally defeated simply by
direct main force, that skillful maneuver and extreme dispatch,enabled by the technology (eg. tanks and massive air support)which they alone fully appreciated in the interwar years , would defeat forces which relied on the mostly static strategy of the Great War (eg, the French with their Maginot Line).
There is a warning in this for triumphant nations which prepare to fight the last war. I hope US naval war planners are schooled by the example set by the unexpected eclipse of the until then dominant battleship in WWII. We persist in the construction of the aircraft carriers which enable very creditable projection of US power, short of all out nuclear war at sea. Our carriers are very effective now in mobile concentration of US power but. . . in an all out fight at sea they would be quickly atomized, I think. Our naval powers and thinkers that be are infinitely better at evaluating this prospect than I but I hope they have resisted a reflexive tendency to follow up on the successes of the Pacific War, where carriers made all the difference.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: In the ' 60s I worked at a big old steel plant with guys who had worked there in the '30s. They described how dirty and dangerous the working conditions were and how difficult the effort for labor's consequent organization was .
ReplyDeleteI'm going to guess the the organization of the Teamsters in which perhaps unavoidably badass Hoffa was key, may at some point, have "necessitated" some cooperation with organized crime. Maybe, just maybe, he acquiesced in this out of his realization that there was no alternative. Incarceration wore him out and perhaps he lost patience with the wise guys, to his demise. There are a lot of good, regular guys in the Teamsters.
I knew a man who was a UMW activist just after WWII, in which he dutifully fought, who refrained from further activism after Mafia incursion in his union. He told me "you CAN"T say no to those guys" . Maybe an otherwise heroic Hoffa faced such an onerous choice(?).
Quite right, Jack: Harris's coronation, and the Dems' glee in ridding themselves of Biden, are bitter pills to swallow, especially as we brought this calamity on ourselves, to a large extent, but this too shall pass, and we need to keep our eyes on the prize, which is still very attainable.
ReplyDeleteJack, I tend to agree that we may have seen, or may soon see, the end of human want, but the survival of "democracy" is another matter entirely. Preserving liberty requires presence of mind and public virtue, neither of which are inevitable or eternal.
Quite right, Jack: we need to resist the urge to refight the LAST war and concentrate on the likely dynamics of the next one. What's happening in Ukraine suggests that offensive operations may become increasingly problematic, and the advantage may lie, for the moment, with the defender. This further suggests that wars in the immediate future may be WWI-style meat grinders, which is a very good reason to avoid them!
Yes, it's easy to condemn the mob, in the abstract, but many Americans lived in a context where spurning the mafia, or avoiding any association with it, were impossible. Thugs tend to get their way the world over, I fear, and ordinary, decent people are all too often bullied into acquiescence, or even active collaboration. It's a fallen world, after all. I don't judge those who act accordingly.