Friends, as you know, those Russkies and those Ukrainians just keep pounding away at each other in a bitter conflict cheered on by most of the Western elite. DJT promised us he could end the war lickety-split, but doing so has proved very challenging. Now, the U.S. has come up with a 28-point peace plan and is putting great pressure on Ukraine to toe the line. Would Trump be willing to cut off Ukraine's supply of cash, intelligence, and weapons if it demurs? That's the $64,000 question! Personally, I'm sick and tired of this war, and I would like to see it ended ASAP, before the geniuses who run NATO find a way of making it into WWIII...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5g4r9l4dlo
Well, it's official: using AI to do your homework is a venial sin. So implied Pope Leo XIV in a virtual conversation with American students. I have my doubts whether this revelation will dampen students' use of AI, however. After all, our Christian God is nothing if not forgiving, so why not lean on ChatGPT now, and ask for absolution later? These Gen Z types know how to play the angles...
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c99704g0x4ro
Finally, President Trump has met in the Oval Office with Zohran Mamdani, soon to be the Marxist-Leninist Mayor of New York City. What's more, the two men were cordial and conciliatory! Who saw that coming? Presumably, they'll go right back to calling one another "fascist!" and "communist!" soon, but it's nice that they could manage this brief ceasefire.
Dr. Waddy from Jack:At the risk of using a common far left hyperbole: Churchill's colleague Anthony Eden sat down for cordial conversation with Hitler about their mutual experiences in WWI. Then they went about their ways.
ReplyDeleteI think Mamdani and President Trump will be unmoved by this meeting and will continue their antipathetic policies. No doubt they both did some sizing up of their opponent. Mamdani is a very smart politician. He may play a canny con game of moderation before advancing his DSA agenda ,maybe even until the midterms. He is obviously now a far left/Dem leader and at his age may well be willing to play the "long con" on what he probably considers a credulous America. If the GOP loses some or all of Congress he may then be emboldened to hazard the wrath of a politically weakened President Trump. If he has Presidential ambitions he may be circumspect in forcing Marxism on NYC but it would be folly to regard him as anything but devoted to DSA's plainly expressed Marxist totalitarian intent.
Had he expressed neoNazi convictions during his rise, well, he wouldn't have risen. But he is a declared member of DSA, which is informed by a doctrine demonstrated even more murderous than the Nazis. Perhaps he knows that America would never knowingly submit to such subjugation. Maybe he believes it possible though to establish oases of far left dominance; he certainly picked a good place to test that out and perhaps even make of NY state an "autonomous region". One must feel very bad for the common sense people for whom NYC is their home. And we are sure to perceive his malign influence even in this down to earth Western section of benighted NY state.
Dr. Waddy from Jack:Praise be that the President's proposal for ending the Russia/Ukraine war includes an assurance to Russia that Ukraine will never join Nato. Its unclear to me whether our President proposes that Ukraine provide such a guarantee or that the U.S. unapologetically state that it will not vote for Ukrainian membership, thus preventing it. The latter measure would save face for Ukraine and we owe them that favor and more (economic aid for rebuilding) for having recklessly suggested to Ukraine that they present Russia with an alliance clearly ABSOLUTE anathema to Russia.
ReplyDeleteThat issue is a rock bottom truth. We may express any measure of revulsion for sadly reprised traditional brutal Russian conduct in this war. We may subject Russia to economic sanctions and castigation akin to that once directed toward S. Africa. IT IS OF NO MOMENT TO RUSSIA! They will never tolerate Ukraine in Nato, NYET!They will do whatever they are capable of doing to prevent it. Whatever!
Finland fought gallantly against hellhound Stalin's land grab in the Russo- Finnish war and the "Continuation War" of the 40's . But Finland finally had no choice but to face the bitter reality of direct proximity to massive Russia and to cede Russia land it retains to this day. In doing so they flim flammed monstrous Stalin into thinking they liked him! Yes, it was painful in the extreme but it did keep Finland from becoming the Karelian SSR. Ukraine must reluctantly consider this example.
President Trump usually means what he says when he declares a firm position and puts a deadline on it. He might extend the deadline but to do so he must see progress. He means just that; and it should be nonetheless obvious to a cynical old world which still tends to see America as a brash and bumptious newcomer on the international stage. All other features of this proposal are probably negotiable and compared to this vital reality, ancillary.
The prospect of Western imposition of Ukraine in Nato, after the astonishing retreat of Russia before Nato through its imposed Warsaw Pact shield unto its very borders , is , for plausible geographical and historical reasons, seen by a Russia as a fundamental affront (raising the prospect for them of further offense) and as a national security threat of the highest degree. We cannot dissuade them of this ; they are a very rugged nation which endured the worst that war can offer in their nationally monumental "Great Patriotic War". This is a grim historical reality which the West disdains at unnecessarily hazarded risk!
The direct address to this reality contained in the President's proposal is of paramount importance. Let's not make it necessary for a Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse to bring Nato and the West to its senses. NATO has accomplished its mission: it presents AS IS a very dependable barrier against any Russian expansionism. Ukrainian membership in Nato, which would assure a catastrophic Russian response, is not necessary in order to contain any possible Russian expansion.
Dr. Waddy from Jackj The Pope is a moral exemplar and leader: as such it is his duty to counsel honesty My understanding is that some students use AI in a possibly disingenuous manner in order to complete assignments.
ReplyDeleteWell. AI is going to be a vital and indispensable factor in the world students will inherit. It may be safe to say that we don't know alot of what we don't know about changes AI is going to manifest in our civilization. Morals can evolve; the history of religion proves it. Moral considerations were the subject of intense introspection among those who guided the development of nuclear power and especially nuclear weapons. On the face of it, creating a device as incalculably destructive as the H bomb could be responsibly judged to be evil. But we know it was necessary in defending the free world against totalitarian inhumanity.
AI may present us with moral dialectics which may have unpredictable results. Its good though that an upright man like Pope Leo does his part in helping to ensure that the traditional standoff between right and wrong, with personal responsibility to a higher power which he can authoritatively quote, will be part of the process of AI's advent and expansion.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Lots of back and forth just now on the encouragement of disobedience of "illegal orders" directed at our military by influential political figures in connection with the use of our national forces to aid local law enforcement in restoring a modicum of order to localities burdened by civic leaders who display apparent regard for the "rights" of criminals which they hold superior to the certain rights of the law abiding public.
ReplyDeletePresident Trump has suggested that this message to our military, an institution with uniquely dutiful obligations enforced by the legal code under which it serves, constitutes both sedition and treason.For this he has garnered much castigation from the "American " far left and its Dem party serfs. Well gee; they ought to know all about treason and sedition!
A creditable definition of sedition is"promotion of public disorder or contempt for governmental authority, often through speech and writing" and the Federal penalty can range up to 20 years in the joint, with the most unbecoming of close company. Treason is the actual accomplishment of subsequent disorder or defiance and/or aid and comfort to the enemy(in this case a domestic enemy) and yes, it is punishable by death. President Trump expresses simple fact in noting this.
Sorry far left "patriots": President Trump's accusations of sedition and or treason in this matter are creditable.
Of course politics are involved. They are the only reason commie loving movie stars have not celebrated 5 decades in Federal custody. Conservative columnist Rich Lowry has suggested that the most that those who choose to follow this clarion call to conscience would face are charges of insubordination. Of course their defence would be the "illegality" of orders to aid police forces previously prevented from protecting the law abiding by local officials who regard criminals as victims . Try selling that notion to a Court Martial. And for those who encourage such "insubordination", they ought to face consideration of charges of sedition and/or treason.
The Trump administration has much precedent (Lincoln, Wilson, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy's use of even Federal regulars to address otherwise unalleviated unendurable disorder and injustice) backing it in sending the troops to cities suffering shameful oppression by unopposed presumptuous thugs. The refusal of apologetic or even sympathetic local officials to take criminals in hand exposes the law abiding citizens of AMERICAN communities to sometimes mortal risk against which our President is right to deploy the troops. So far , he is achieving success in intimidating the victimizers and discrediting their admirers.
I agree, Jack: the temporary truce between DJT and Mamdani signifies very little. You suggest that Mamdani could have more lofty political ambitions. Eek! I'd like to think that he's already risen way above his station, but I guess you never know...
ReplyDeleteJack, President Trump has already shown signs of flexibility about the terms of a final settlement between Ukraine and Russia, and even his deadlines appear to be movable, so let's hope that the forces of mayhem and destruction, which seem to hold sway over large swaths of the American and European political elites, are not able to derail the current initiative with backpedaling and dissembling. Trump will need every ounce of grit he has at his disposal to thread this needle!
Jack, it occurs to me that AI is just the latest in a long line of "tools" that students can, and often do, abuse in completing their assignments. Cheating, quite possibly, is an older and more venerable human institution than, oh, higher ed?
"Sedition" is an interesting crime, for sure, and one susceptible to varying interpretations. I wouldn't imagine that it is a crime that Americans are too often charged with or found guilty of. I wonder, has any public official ever been locked away for "sedition"? It might be time to dust off those legal tomes and explore our options. Of course, if any such trials were to be held in DC, well, we might as well not bother.
RAY TO DR. WADDY AND JACK
DeleteHappy Thanksgiving to the both of you.
Ray from Jack: And to you also.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteThanks. Really busy these days. However, still time to read Dr. Waddy's articles and your comments.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Oh yeah, I remember my college fellows resorting to "Classics Illustrated " comic books instead of reading , say, Hamlet. Of course I held myself aloof from such blasphemy!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I remember in the '60s students casually describing their having "ripped off" groceries as though there was no opprobrium to such crime. The moral relativism of that turbulent era had already found fecund patronage among some of the boomers.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: In considering Mamdani's prospects I think about Obama having been elected during his first term in the Senate. Of course he never came close to fulfilling his threat of "fundamentally transforming " our imperfect country but this Mamdani is a far more grimly determined "reformer". He may be very skillful in presenting his unapologetic DSA membership as entirely compatible with American democracy. It is not; it is utterly incompatible with America's proven convictions.
ReplyDeleteThe Dem party has already been so defiled by the far left that their nomination of a DSA member for President is plausibly conceivable. That could mark the final degradation of a once vital party to that of a pitiable outlier OR it could give our maybe too complacent, maybe too tolerant nation a real "skeer"as we realize just what terrible folly we have hazarded.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Not only do we have the catastrophic and inhuman record of dominant socialism in luckless foreign countries but we have the sobering record of "affirmative action" in our own land and its record is one which is especially significant in considering the possible "penumbras and emanations" of the measures intended by the DSA in the executive power it has lacked up to now.
ReplyDeleteWhen the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed, Hubert Humphrey assured the nation "oh no , there won't be any quotas". But in good time there most certainly were de facto quotas . I experienced this several times , once personally, in state government employment .
Let's say they evolved, with of course the assistance of leftist activist judges who construed the '64 Act with, shall we say, latitude. I interviewed a minority member candidate for the position of assistant to me. There were several other candidates and some were scheduled after that person's interview. My canny and experienced supervisor told me"the search is over, we must hire her no matter how her qualifications may size up" He said this not because he thought it proper but because he knew that the state would not allow us to pass over any minority candidate. Oh and I was required to interview all the rest of the candidates despite knowing they had no chance of being hired. That was a disturbing experience.
Later, in a time when layoffs were expected, I was told that should they occur in my job title I would be considered subordinate to my assistant despite the fact that I had earned the highest seniority in my state region. Why? That person had a physical impairment . I would have had to move hundreds of miles if I wanted to keep my job, which was my living and largely that of my family. Did I deserve this disadvantage because of his condition? Did I cause it? That was of no moment to those who made this regulation. If they wanted to protect that person's position why didn't they just exempt that person's position from the layoff procedure? But no, they chose their remedy without regard for the wrong it could do. That's far left reasoning for you and it defines what we can expect from the DSA if it advances further in our government.
This contretemps illustrates the injustice of "affirmative action" in that people completely innocent of imposing the disadvantages experienced by "protected classes" are made to endure undeserved , sometimes devastating disadvantages in this virtue signaling (the relevant administrators are of course not adversely effected by their effort to work "justice"). In state employment I saw several highly qualified persons passed over for advancement in order to accommodate less qualified people from "protected classes".
I cite this experience for this reason: we are seeing the ominous advance of a far left political doctrine, Marxism, which is certain, if it gains the power to do so, to sort us into classes of those deserving and undeserving of income, property, deference, government financial benefits , housing, education , medical care, advancement and equality before the law, throughout our heretofore private and our public lives . It would start incipiently , taking cynical advantage of our legal system which has proved capable of disingenuous modification of democratically promulgated law after the 1964 Civil Rights Acts. After awhile it would ,if not prevented, abandon all pretense and impose totalitarian dictation of the far left version of justice.
We need not speculate on this; we have all the evidence we need to KNOW that the Democratic Socialists of America, who have probably hijacked the dem party, intend forcing this kind of rule upon America by "any means necessary". Knowing this , can we in good conscience shrink from firm resolution that we will stand for our America against this assured evil? DSA devotees like Mandami, Seattle's new Mayor and otherwise comic disdainful "beat generation" Sanders are the vanguard of this profoundly antiAmerican invasion.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Ray! Glad you're still circling in the icy waters adjacent to WaddyIsRight. Feel free to move in for the (rhetorical) kill anytime!
ReplyDeleteJack, as I understand it, moral relativism has given way to moral indifference among most American youth. They would happily lie, cheat, or steal, if there was the slightest advantage to doing so, which of course there generally is!
Jack, I would remind you that Bernie Sanders very nearly emerged as the Democratic Party's nominee for president already -- and if that party was run democratically, rather than as a fiefdom of the progressive elite, he almost certainly would have prevailed.
Jack, I too have experienced the ravages of affirmative action, indirectly. I am aware, in other words, of circumstances in which unequal and unfair criteria were used to advance female or minority candidates. Leftists believe, as a matter of faith, that female and minority candidates are still discriminated AGAINST far more often than they are discriminated FOR, as it were. There is precious little evidence to support that assumption, but that never stopped the lefties before.
Dr. Waddy from Jack:There is also though to consider this truth: many in the now esconsed, institutionalized and succored by apologetic decision makers, who depend upon victimization , for themselves or those who they "advocate" , for sometimes quite comfortable livings ,are loathe to acknowledge any progress in racial justice in our country. Why it might deny them their sinecures!
ReplyDelete