It’s Wednesday, May 18th, 2016…but before we begin, Thomas Sowell lends his brilliant insight to the dilemma facing voters in November, at least at the moment:
Grim Choices
“We must frankly face the fact that the front runners in both political parties represent a new low, at a time of domestic polarization and unprecedented nuclear dangers internationally. This year’s general election will offer a choice between a thoroughly corrupt liar and an utterly irresponsible egomaniac. (Who is also a serial liar.)
…The very fact that we are left with such desperate options is not only a rebuke to the professional politicians, but also a painful revelation about the voting public.
Immediately after electing a President with virtually no track record, on the basis of rhetoric and symbolism, and seeing disaster after disaster during his administration, many are now prepared to do the same thing all over again.
More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” If so, can people who cannot be bothered to look up from their electronic devices expect to remain a free people?“
Not to mention the tens of millions who cannot be bothered to turn off the latest reality television farce, cable series or video game to become seriously aware of the forces and circumstances which are bringing the country and the world down around their earbuds.
As depicted in the following cartoon…
…the biggest thing Trump may have going for him is the decided dislike the vast majority of the American electorate has for Hillary, though it must be noted The Donald is viewed with only a slightly lower level of distaste.
Now, here’s The Gouge!
Picking up where Sowell left off, writing at his Morning Jolt, Jim Geraghty helps in…
Sorting Out the Bad Choice Before Us in November
I’m #NeverTrump for life, but I hope my brethren recognize that if we think Trump is terrible choice for president (and he is) and Hillary is a terrible choice for president (and she is), then someone who concludes Trump is slightly less terrible than Hillary . . . is not that far from our own assessment.
I find the incoherent authoritarian populist demagogue as bad as the corrupt oligarchic progressive pathological liar. (Cue jokes: “Wait, which one is which?”) But if you find the incoherent authoritarian populist demagogue slightly less bad than the corrupt oligarchic progressive pathological liar… eh, it’s not like we’re miles apart. The bet of pro-Trump conservatives is that the ideologically unmoored, detail-averse mogul will get more right (and Right) by accident than Hillary, who will get everything wrong (and Left) deliberately. Those aren’t particularly good odds, and the potential for Trump going wrong seems pretty catastrophic, but I can see that calculation.
The real problem is when a self-described Constitutional conservative starts arguing that the incoherent authoritarian populist demagogue is a good choice.
Similarly, if a conservative barely prefers the corrupt oligarchic progressive pathological liar devil that he knows over the incoherent authoritarian populist demagogue devil that he doesn’t, that’s not an outlandish perspective either. But once a conservative starts chanting, “Hooray for the corrupt oligarchic progressive pathological liar!”…the distance between us starts to feel interstellar.
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Our old friend Daniel Hannan, British conservative member of the European Parliament and one of the loudest pro-American voice in that continent’s politics, takes a look at the choice:
Don’t vote for an unfit candidate simply because you dislike another unfit candidate. Doing so makes you complicit. It means endorsing one of two amoral, power-hungry people who would very probably ignore their oath of office.
As Vaclav Havel used to say in Czechoslovakia, living under a Communist regime doesn’t mean that you have to legitimize it. A citizen can still retain his or her integrity by refusing to vote for the approved list, refusing to display party posters, refusing to repeat official slogans. And integrity matters. Indeed, at present, it’s pretty much all that American conservatives have left. For the love of God, cousins, don’t throw it away.
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Since we’re on integrity, or in the case of the current occupant of the Oval Office, a complete and utter lack thereof, we turn to three items exemplifying the latest means with which The Dear Misleader hopes to fracture the moral fabric of America. First, courtesy of The Old Grey Nag…
“…Queer and gay culture has been so widely co-opted and incorporated into mainstream popular culture that it can feel commonplace, embraced by default. On the surface, that feels like a positive thing — queer narratives, like those featured in “Carol,” “The Danish Girl,” “Modern Family” and “Transparent” go a long way toward humanizing difference. We may live in troubled times, but this visibility suggests people are finding their way.
Yet, pop culture has barely started grappling with more complex and ugly contemporary narratives, ones that make clear that universal acceptance is still a fantasy — like North Carolina’s law limiting bathroom access to transgender people. This is what makes “Drag Race,” which airs its Season 8 finale on Monday night, so valuable…”
Note well the term the Times uses: “universal acceptance“; which is disingenuous at best, as what The Left’s really pushing for is not just “acceptance”, but mandatory affirmation and endorsement of whatever perversion a sick mind can concoct…regardless of its impact on the rest of us.
Which is why, as NRO‘s Frederick Hess observes, these…
New Transgender Rules for Schools Are about Obama’s Culture War
“President Obama so loves Rahm Emanuel’s adage “Never let a serious crisis go to waste” that he has adopted a corollary: “Never miss a chance to create a crisis.” This has certainly been the rule when it comes to education. On Friday, the Obama administration sought to revolutionize how schools and colleges deal with sexual identity. In a new guidance letter, Obama’s Education and Justice Departments assert that for federal civil-rights purposes, a student’s gender identity is now his or her sex. Henceforth, in other words, a student’s sex is whatever the student says it is.
When applying Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education, this means that Washington no longer deems biological sex relevant. A school or college that receives federal funds is now violating civil-rights law if, for instance, it restricts to one biological sex the use of restrooms or locker rooms designated for that sex. While the new guidance does not officially carry the force of law, experience teaches that it will be treated as such by plenty of nervous educators. Meanwhile, the enthusiastic media coverage made clear that those who express qualms will be depicted as bigots and bullies. (Not to mention a surprising number of otherwise sensible Conservatives, including cartoonist Nate Beeler, whose complete misrepresentation of the facts is shown below.) As the headline in Politico’s Morning Education put it, “White House Stands Up for Transgendered Students.”
One can empathize with transgender students and their desire for privacy, dignity, and security and still be struck by just how radical the guidance actually is. It states that:
Transgender students have the right to access bathrooms and locker rooms, live in single-sex housing, and participate on athletic teams that correspond with their chosen gender identity.
Schools are allowed to offer private changing areas when students request them, but transgendered students can’t be required to use them. In other words, even if private changing rooms or bathrooms are provided, students have a right to use whatever bathrooms and locker rooms they prefer.
Colleges must allow transgender students to live in housing consistent with their gender identity and may not require them to live in single-occupancy rooms.
When students tell a school they are transgendered, school personnel must treat them in accord with their preferred gender identity. This is true regardless of what biological sex a student’s records indicate. Schools are prohibited from requiring that transgender students have a medical diagnosis, undergo any medical treatment, or produce a birth certificate.
The presumption is that conventional, biologically informed male–female distinctions are such a blatant violation of civil rights that sweeping change is the only viable course. Suggestions that the needs and sensitivities of other students also deserve consideration are dismissed as an apologia for oppression. Indeed, the guidance bluntly rejects notions of mutual accommodation or competing privacy rights, declaring, “As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”
The administration went out of its way to seek a culture clash. Indeed, until last week, LBGT advocates argued that the problem with state laws governing bathroom or locker-room usage was that they got in the way of sensible case-by-case solutions for the relatively tiny population of transgender students…”
Not now, cuz Barry, he knows better…4,500 years of Judeo-Christian history and morality to the contrary notwithstanding!
As Mario Loyola, also writing at NRO relates, this is all part of a transparent path to complete Progressive despotism and oppression:
The progressive dictatorship takes another step.
“…What is a law? The question has occupied legal philosophers for centuries, but boiled down to its essence, a law is the commandment of a sovereign to do this or that, or face some punishment. The supposedly voluntary programs that go under the pleasant-sounding name of “cooperative federalism” all satisfy that essential definition of a law. Through the threat of withholding funds or imposing some other regulatory penalty, the federal government has done what the Supreme Court specifically says it cannot do, namely take over the states.
The Environmental Clean Power Plan is a perfect example of this circumvention of a clear limit on federal power. Obama’s original cap-and-trade scheme failed to pass Congress, so instead his EPA enacted a rule that requires all the states to adopt something like the disastrously wasteful renewable-energy regulations of California and New England. Compliance is voluntary, of course.
But notice the gun to the head.
By its own admission, the EPA has no power to regulate the electrical grid in the states. But because the EPA can regulate coal-plant emissions, it can regulate coal plants out of existence, and that is the gun to the head. EPA essentially says to the states: Either adopt the electrical regulations we want you to, which by the way we have no authority to impose on you, or we will shut down your coal plants and leave you without a third of your electrical power capacity, and if people die because they can’t heat their houses in the middle of winter, it’s your problem.
Obama’s Orwellian transgender “guidance” boils down to this same tactic. As National Review’s David French notes, the administration has denied that the letter is a threat, noting that it is mere “guidance.” But that’s just Newspeak. The whole point of the letter is to warn school administrators that they will lose crucial federal funds if they don’t comply with the new rule.
The reason for the Newspeak is that Federal courts still require the administration to at least pretend that it’s not taking over the states through dictatorial proclamations. The dirty secret is that the federal courts will let the president do precisely that, so long as he pretends to be doing something else. The president is no longer even trying to govern according to a national consensus of what the Constitution means.
Americans should beware. With the connivance of the federal courts, (Including Chief Justice John Roberts (thank you George W. Bush!!!)) Congress has already delegated the president enough authority to rule by decree as long as he stays even somewhat close to the boundaries of those sweeping delegations. But through executive federalism, the president doesn’t even need to stay within those limits. The president now systematically uses the machinery of state government to enact national laws entirely outside the constitutional process.
The very structure of our Constitution — its separation of powers among three branches, its separation of powers between federal and state governments, and its insistence that the federal government has only limited and enumerated powers — is dissolving before our eyes. It’s being replaced by a new Constitution that says the progressive political coalition can have whatever it wants.
The president is no longer even trying to govern according to a national consensus of what the Constitution means. The Supreme Law of the Land is now little more than an exercise in exaltation of the latest progressive fashion trend. Step by step, the progressives are creating a dictatorship according to their whims and fancies.
Every state government should follow the lead of Texas governor Greg Abbott, who announced that Texas would fight the new rule. Texas is set to instruct schools to disregard the federal proclamation. That’s the right course. If the administration carries through on its implied threat and moves to cut education funding, the state should sue on behalf of those school districts. In court, the states should wave high the Supreme Court’s decision in the Obamacare case, which warned that the federal government cannot hold a “gun to the head” of the states.
And if the courts won’t stop the administration’s lawlessness, the states will have to fight back by more drastic measures, including blanket refusal to accept any more federal money or the refusal to participate in any more federal regulatory schemes. The federal government will impose a fearsome penalty for such dissent. But as Obama has done such a good job of showing, that fearsome penalty is still better than the tyranny of progressive fashion trends.“
Can we hear a hearty “AMEN”?!? Here’s hoping the vast majority of states and local jurisdictions have the fortitude…and moral courage…to resist.
But as the WSJ notes, there’s yet another reason this bathroom kerfuffle really has less to do with transgender rights…
“This being a presidential election year, we’ll indulge some cynicism about this sudden invention of national grade-school transgender rights. The Obama White House will rub whatever raw political nerves it takes to kick up a culture clash in order to mobilize the Obama election coalition for Hillary Clinton’s flagging campaign.“
…and far more about electoral politics. Progressives are quite literally willing to destroy the country to maintain their grip on power.
Oh, and a word to the wise…along with the vast remainder of the GOP: the problem here isn’t about sharing bathrooms. As we’ve said before, regardless of what restroom on might choose, given the restrictions God imposed upon the sexes at birth, you’ll wind up using a stall.
The key here is locker rooms…and showers! Use the facts…and the feelings of outrage they’ll produce in the majority of Americans. This is a line in the sand which needs to be drawn; and, with the proper phrasing and context, a battle the forces of Right can win.
Next up, two items which prove birds of a Socialist feather not only flock together, but foul up every thing they touch…every time they touch it. Exhibit “A”:
“…Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wife made a big-ticket purchase during her tenure as head of a small, private college in Vermont — and, in the end, the institution got burned.
Burlington College, which Jane Sanders ran from 2004 to 2011, will close its doors on May 27 due to financial and accrediting problems, it was announced Monday. The college has about 70 students.
Jane Sanders’ tenure as president of the tiny school in Burlington, Vt., saw it make a bold real estate purchase to replace its cramped quarters: Sanders spearheaded a deal to buy 33 acres along Lake Champlain, in hopes that the scenic property would help the college attract new students and donors. To pay for the prime lakefront land, the college used $10 million in bonds and loans, according to reports by the Burlington Free Press.
But the large expenditure didn’t pan out, Sanders resigned the following year, and her successors could not save the college from financial ruin…”
Can you say “Venezuela” boys and girls?!? Which brings us, of course, to Exhibit “B”:
“Like every Socialist who’s ever cursed the planet, you can always depend upon me for one thing: looking out for Numero Uno!!!”
“Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro extended a state of emergency another 60 days as several riots broke out in grocery stores this past week. The country is running out of food, the workweek has been reduced to two days, there is a water shortage and — soon — a gasoline shortage in a country with more oil than Saudi Arabia, there are long blackouts as electricity is scarce, and 70% of the voters want Maduro out this year.
Welcome to the socialist paradise…”
Other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Chavez?!? Why waste a thousand words when you can say it all with one picture:
In an follow-up to our earlier item concerning the gay pastor who filed what we maintained at the time to be a bogus claim against Whole Foods…
As to why Brown would lodge such an obviously fraudulent claim, it appears he may have needed the cash:
Six weeks before Brown started his legal battle with Whole Foods, court records show, he was sued for allegedly defaulting on his college loans. According to a lawsuit filed against Brown on March 11, Brown took out college loans from Union Federal Savings Bank for the 2007-08 school year at Slippery Rock University, a school in western Pennsylvania about an hour north of Brown’s hometown of Pittsburgh. The loans were transferred to the plaintiff, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust, the lawsuit says.
The deferral period for the loans expired and, according to the lawsuit, Brown stopped making loan payments. On Feb. 2, the National Collegiate Student Loan Trust sent Brown a letter about the outstanding debt but payments were never received, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit filed in Travis County civil court seeks an unpaid balance of $24,885.25 and $3,030.26 in interest (as of March 4) and court costs.
No wonder Brown appears…
…so blue!
And in the Environmental Moment, courtesy today of Jeff Foutch, as the WSJ records, when it comes to the Enivonazis, “endangered species” is a very relative term:
Sacrificing 4,200 of the birds a year for green energy sounds fine to regulators.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with protecting bald and golden eagles, is once again trying to make it easier for the wind industry to kill those birds.
Two weeks ago the agency opened public comment on “proposed improvements” to its eagle conservation program. It wants to extend the length of permits for accidental eagle kills from the current five years to 30 years. The changes would allow wind-energy producers to kill or injure as many as 4,200 bald eagles every year. That’s a lot. The agency estimates there are now about 72,434 bald eagles in the continental U.S.
…The new rule could further harm golden eagles, which are rarer than bald eagles and are being whacked by wind turbines in far greater numbers. Mr. Hutchins says that the lack of protection for golden eagles is “the biggest weakness of this whole rule.”
The double standard is stunning. In 2011 the Fish and Wildlife Service convinced the Justice Department to file criminal indictments against three oil companies working in North Dakota’s Bakken field for inadvertently killing six ducks and one phoebe…”
So it seems the issue isn’t whose ox is being gored, but whose ox is committing the goring…or, to be more accurate, whose energy production facilities are rending the raptors.
Which brings us to The Lighter Side:
And finally, we’ll call it a wrap with the Science Section, which today brings hope for Irish-Americans across these fruited plains:
“A Boston hospital says a cancer patient has received the first penis transplant in the United States. Massachusetts General Hospital has confirmed that Thomas Manning of Halifax, Massachusetts, received the transplanted penis in a 15-hour procedure last week. The organ was transplanted from a deceased donor.
…Dr. Curtis Cetrulo, who helped lead the surgical team, tells the newspaper that normal urination should be possible for the 64-year-old Manning in a few weeks, with sexual function possible in weeks to months…”
Two quick thoughts: one, this brings new meaning to the phrase, “Give me eight inches and make it hurt!” Two, in a similar…vein…we only hope for his sake the photo above is Manning’s telling us he feels fine, rather than indicating the size of his new johnson.
Magoo
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