Logical Extremes

Hamas said its political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in an overnight strike in the Iranian capital Tehran.

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Polls showed that in 1964, two years after the Cuban missile crisis, only 38 percent of Americans knew that the Soviet Union was not a NATO member. In 2006, only 42 percent could name the government’s three branches. The average American works harder at being informed when choosing a refrigerator than when picking a president.

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The estimate is that, with the end of the academic year, the student protests will move elsewhere. Does that mean go on holiday?

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Braves agreed to a deal with the San Francisco Giants to acquire All-Star outfielder and two-time World Series champion Jorge Soler.


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Logical Extremes

Abortion will be a linchpin in American elections forever. It ranks as the prime national question among several demographics despite demonstrable threats to the very existence of the republic, so much so its abrasiveness has become a threat itself. One who tried to pour oil on the waters was Nisbet.

Robert Nisbet, a philosophically sophisticated sociologist who provided intellectual ballast to conservatism in the second half of the 20th century, considered it incoherent for conservatives to make opposition to abortion a fundamental tenet of their doctrine. He said “the major theme of Western conservatism” is “the preservation, to the extent feasible, of the autonomy of social groups against the state.” And particularly the preservation of “the family’s authority over its own.”

Abortion has been considered an intractably divisive issue because it supposedly was not amenable to the basic business of politics: the splitting of differences. Nisbet noted, however, that “there is no record of any religion, including Christianity, ever pronouncing an accidental miscarriage as a death to be commemorated in prayer and ritual.” This, Nisbet implied, indicates an ancient, durable, and widespread cultural tendency to say this: Societies that assert an interest in protecting life before birth are not required, by custom or a settled, articulated logic, to ban all deliberate terminations of pregnancies. (from Will)

This may all be true. But it does seem to be an effort to avoid the basic question that is raised by partial-birth abortion. And philosophical efforts to avoid definitive decisions are unsettling. And, as an aside, why is precedence a trump card? It isn't with the ancient institution of slavery.

 

A Priest at Normandy

Harris wants a 31% corporate tax.

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There are election riots in Paraguay. Troops are shooting demonstrators in the street.

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Shapiro is the obvious VP choice but apparently, there is a strong internal resistance to him.

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A Priest at Normandy

Fr. Francis L. Sampson was not killed at Normandy, but he overcame his fears and expectations so that he could serve those who put their lives on the line.


Born in Cherokee, Iowa, he graduated from Notre Dame in 1937 and was ordained a priest in 1941. After serving as a parish priest in Iowa, he volunteered for chaplain service in the Army.


He later admitted that he didn’t really know what he was getting himself into.

“Frankly, I did not know when I signed up for the airborne that chaplains would be expected to jump from an airplane in flight,” he said. “Had I known this beforehand, I am positive that I should have turned a deaf ear to the plea for airborne chaplains."

As a member of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, he parachuted into Normandy on June 6 and made his way to a French farmhouse where injured soldiers were being treated. Fr. Sampson chose to stay with them, even though the area was about to be overrun by German troops. He was captured and taken to an area to be executed. He later confessed that he was so scared that he prayed Grace Before Meals instead of an Act of Contrition.


But a Catholic German non-commissioned officer intervened, and the priest, considered harmless, was allowed to stay at the first aid station.

The Will of the People

 

The Will of the People

Kamala's campaign has received an astonishing $200 million since her coronation. So it has been with money in politics and so it will always be. Do people think this kind of money is put in as a sort of detergent, trying to clean up what it can? Or is it what it appears, a powerful influence that can overturn the results of months of a voting primary in a day.

As an unsuccessful candidate for her party’s nomination in 2008, and accepting her party’s nomination in 2016, Hillary Clinton wanted to “get money out of politics.” But also in 2016 she overcame her aversion to money and outspent Trump 3 to 1. The progressive aspiration is to remove private money from politics.

This would extend government’s domination of society to politics — to the debate about the composition of government. The maximum progressive aim is to remove voluntary political contributions from politics and restrict candidates to spending money that government extracts from voters by taxation. The overwhelming majority of voters — this we know — will not voluntarily pay for politics.

Every year, Americans can check a box on their tax returns, thereby giving $3 (without increasing their tax liabilities) to fund the presidential campaigns of nominees who agree not to accept other money. In 2023, only 3.35 percent of tax filers checked the box.

Signal

Harris is Prsident and is not. She was Border Czar and was not. 

A woman for all seasons.

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France’s high-speed rail network was hit Friday with widespread and “criminal” acts of vandalism including arson attacks, paralyzing travel to Paris from across the rest of France and Europe only hours before the grand opening ceremony of the Olympics.

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Signal 

The Signal Foundation, created in 2017 with $50m in funding from WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, exists to “protect free expression and enable secure global communication through open source privacy technology”.
It took over the development of its messaging app, also called Signal, in 2018, Meridith Whittaker came on board in the newly created role of president in 2022 – just in time to begin defending Signal, and encryption in general, against a wave of attacks from nation states and companies around the world.
“Through the 80s, there’s deep unease about the idea that the NSA [US National Security Agency] and GCHQ would lose the monopoly on encryption, and by the 90s, it ends up controlled under arms treaties – this is the ‘crypto wars’. You couldn’t send your code in the mail to someone in Europe; it was considered a munitions export,” Whittaker said.
Surveillance, she says, was a “disease” from the very beginning of the internet, and encryption is “deeply threatening to the type of power that constitutes itself via these information asymmetries”.
All this means that she doesn’t expect the fight to end soon. “I don’t think these arguments are in good faith. There’s a deeper tension here, because in 20 years of the development of this metastatic tech industry, we have seen every aspect of our lives become subject to mass surveillance perpetrated by a handful of companies partnering with the US government and other ‘Five Eyes’ agencies to gather more surveillance data about us than has ever been available to any entity in human history.
The criticisms of encrypted communications are as old as the technology: allowing anyone to speak without the state being able to tap into their conversations is a godsend for criminals, terrorists, and pedophiles around the world.
But, Whittaker argues, few of Signal’s loudest critics seem to be consistent in what they care about. “If we really cared about helping children, why are the UK’s schools crumbling? Why was social services funded at only 7% of the amount that was suggested to fully resource the agencies that are on the frontlines of stopping abuse?”
Regrettably, both these arguments could be true. The problem with security is that is an all-or-nothing proposition.
“Signal either works for everyone or it works for no one. Every military in the world uses Signal, every politician I’m aware of uses Signal. Every CEO I know uses Signal because anyone who has anything truly confidential to communicate recognises that storing that on a Meta database or in the clear on some Google server is not good practice.”

Oil Leases

Biden finally explained his reason for dropping out of the race: it was to save democracy.
He would have done more good for democracy if he had dropped out of the 2020 race.

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NORAD chased off a joint flight by the Russians and the Chinese last night.

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Oil Leases

There was an oil lease auction held by the U.S. Government of Alaskan properties. Only nine were actually sold.

First is the fact that, while 9 “oil and gas” leases were sold in that January lease sale, not a single one of them was auctioned off to an actual “oil and gas” company. Indeed, 7 of the 9 were bought by the State of Alaska itself, via its Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

The two remaining leases were purchased by placeholder entities that are so insubstantial that neither of them - Knick Arm Services LLC and Regenerate Alaska, Inc. - even has its own website.

No real gas and oil company.

The reasons why are simple: Drilling in ANWR is too controversial, too legally difficult, too costly and there are too many other good places around the globe to explore for oil and gas. These are “oil and gas” leases in name only.

Democracy on the Ballot

It's been written that, at the time of Joan of Arc, a man could walk from the English Channel to the Rhine and never see the sun because of the unbroken canopy of leaves

England's forest coverage now is greater than at any time since the Black Death nearly 700 years ago, with some 1.33 million hectares of the country covered in woodlands. The UK as a whole has nearly three times as much forest as it did at the start of the 20th century.

That’s not by a long way the most impressive performance. China’s forests have increased by about 607,000 square kilometers since 1992, a region the size of Ukraine. The European Union has added an area equivalent to Cambodia to its woodlands, while the US and India have together planted forests that would cover Bangladesh in an unbroken canopy of leaves.

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Democracy on the Ballot

Mr. Biden said his original plan to “provide millions of working families with debt relief for their college student debt” was derailed by “MAGA Republicans” and “special interests” who challenged the plan in court. “The Supreme Court blocked it,” Mr. Biden added, “but that didn’t stop me.”

What does that mean? That this was a political decision initiated by 'Maga Republicans' and 'special interests'? But the Court does not decide on the value of a law, -- whether or not debt forgiveness is a good idea is not involved. The Supreme Court is the arbiter of what powers are granted to the government and where those powers are housed. Does Biden not accept the arbiter role of the Court? Does he think their opinion only one of many? It would be like, after appealing an 'out' call at second base, asking for a third opinion....from somewhere.

The peculiar battle cry that 'democracy is on the ballot' might be true. The nature of the Supreme Court is integral to the country's structure; many countries do not do this hierarchical balance well and instability is the result. The relationship between the government and its agreed-upon, assigned, limits is a difficult concept for many and can be exploited by the ambitious and the ill-informed. This can be exaggerated by our current political personalities; we seem to be governed by the lowest quintile of the country's graduating classes. This makes the complex more obtuse than they should be.

Education vs. Sports

The US’ lurch from its post-World War II free trade principles offers China a golden opportunity. On the world stage, China will espouse open free trade and investment. China will encourage EV and battery firms to establish plants in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and elsewhere, essentially daring the US to damage its own alliances by restricting third-country imports containing Chinese components.--Hufbauer

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Although protectionists stubbornly refuse to acknowledge this reality, trade deficits are not synonymous with borrowing. Foreigners’ purchases of American real estate and their creation of equity in American-based businesses, as well as foreigners simply holding dollars, contribute to American trade deficits without Americans’ borrowing anything from anyone.

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Education vs. Sports

It would be of interest to survey men and women separately as to the notable events they felt were of the greatest influence in their formative years. The academic world might well blush as it is likely sports and particular sporting events or moments would likely be high on the list of the men. Higher than most classroom experiences.

All the usual subjects would be rounded up -- the value of hard work and its correlation with success, surrendering individual for team goals, the importance of preparation and practice, the need for self-control during competition, the subtle relationship between athlete and coach and how to take instruction, good sportsmanship, comradeship, how to eat and exercise--and all would be seen as important to some degree among the men surveyed.

The most complex sports lesson, though, is how to win. Physical skills, preparation, practice, diet, and training are all important components but not learning how to win can trump them all. And it is not easy to learn because one can not learn to win unless one learns to lose. The heart is tender in the hardest athlete, and shy in the gruffest competitor. and can easily protect itself in the shade of indifference. Pledging oneself completely to the task at hand carries great risk as failure can be devastating. So failure--losing--must be understood and managed. While the individual submits completely to the event, he must somehow make his investment total yet contained. He must understand that the struggle is not with his opponent but with himself, to perform as best he can and recognize that and nothing more is at stake and is enough. The outcome is not a judgment, it is a conclusion. The outcome is his own preparation and effort coming to fruition. Sometimes the opponent is faster, quicker, stronger, and will be victorious; such qualities are unlearned and are gifts of God. But the opponent must never be more committed or more dedicated, he must never fear failure less. Only when one learns that the outcome is nothing personal can losing become tolerable. Then the athlete can dissolve his fear of failure and learn to win.