Category Archives: View

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

The map is not the territory.

Alfred Korzybski

Electricity has become a luxury good in Germany.

Der Spiegel

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana

I view with profound relief my documents in Word on my main machine: they look as usual, nothing fancy, unlike the horrible formats I was confined to on Word in my back bedroom machine. That system, Swan, is on the advanced Microsoft update schedule, getting Windows and Office updates on the experimental advanced schedule, and apparently the combination was too much to bear: they’re updating Word to the point of unusability. The opening default format is several pages to the screen, all in tiny print. I can see how that might have been useful back when my eyes were better, but now it just makes things impossible. Doubtless others will complain as I have, and it will all be fixed before most users ever see it; a good argument for the early release test program, and a better argument for not allowing main production machines to be on the early release installation program.

Swan is in the back bedroom where I’m pretty well stuck late at night. It’s not really a main production machine, and thus a reasonable place for previewing early release stuff. Apparently the release I have is messed up in discriminating between “Read” and “Print Layout” views (lower right hand part of screen) neither of which is explained well; and there is no “edit” or “create” or “ordinary normal vanilla” mode or view. Possibly an interaction with a new version of Office 365 and a new release of Windows. Of no real matter, except it was frustrating last night to be stuck; possibly a restart of the machine will help; I’ll go back and test that later.

Health improves daily, but energy levels still lag. Not much I can do about that but rest; but too much rest turns me into a vegetable and one I’m not fond of, so it’s time to get on a new daily schedule. I have a dermatology appointment tomorrow – the biopsy showed the thing on my forehead has to go – and an internist appointment next week; by then I hope to be well into daily Five Tibetan Rites, which is my solution to the vegetation menace.

The news continues to be depressing. The main stream media continues to report every single thing President Trump does as a major disaster; the media has pretty well joined “The Resistance” which is indistinguishable from the Never Trump movement. Google “Kushner” and look at the results as an example. And predictably, Senator McCain is joining the resistance, going out of his way to tell us he doesn’t like whatever it is Mr. Kushner did even though he doesn’t really know what it was; but it was being nice to Russia, and that’s all we really need to know isn’t it?

The Paris Accords on Climate have reduced Germany to a state in which electricity is a luxury good according to Der Spiegel; so naturally President Trump is exhorted to agree to this nonsense. After all, the Europeans have; why should we be spared the economic pain? Surely Europe’s misery from self inflicted wounds is a more pressing problem for the US than the agenda Mr. Trump was elected for? Perhaps Senator McCain will tell us what the Paris Accords will do for the Earth, Europe, South America, various other places, and, perhaps even how they would affect the United States. We have natural gas; making it more expensive will certainly help Russia. Perhaps that’s it.

But I ramble.

We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating:

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/05/rocket-startup-s-about-eat-elon-musks-lunch/138153/?oref=d-nextpost

The use of new materials and technology that now allow batteries to power rocket fuel pumps is fascinating. Werner von Braun used a kerosene turbine to power the fuel delivery pumps in V2. Then we started Expanders, Staged Combustion, and all kinds of ways, many of which blew up rockets. Now it’s lithium batteries, which are much safer; are they rechargeable also? They will be…

 

Rocket Lab

the issue with launches isn’t cost-per-launch, it’s cost-per-pound
prices to LEO
Rocket Lab pans to launch 500 pounds for $5m or $10k/pound
space-x Falcon launches 50,000 pounds for $55m or $1.1k/pound
the Falcon Heavy will launch 140,000 pounds for $90m or $650/pound
ULA Atlas V launches ~40,000 pounds for ~$160m or ~$4k/pound
ULA Delata IV launches ~62,000 pounds for (indirectly calculated) >$300m or ~5k/pound
and this is not including savings Space-X will see from ‘flight tested’ boosters (including the eventual savings for the initial user), but the expectation is that it will cut costs by at least half.
Yes, there will be a market for ‘I need it right now and it’s small’ satellites, but far more of them can wait, and could piggy-back on another launch and include maneuvering capacity to get them into their own orbits at less cost than an individual launch (The Iridium launches launch 10 satellites/launch and they include enough maneuvering capacity to get them into their individual orbits)
It’s good to see someone else get into the market, but to describe this as “About to Eat Elon Musk’s Lunch” is overstating things by a lot.
I also think you may be interested in https://copenhagensuborbitals.com/ an amateur group working towards a manned sub-orbital flight. They routinely post videos to YouTube showing their progress.

David

 

It is trivially true that cost/pound-in-orbit is the long term determiner; but the new techniques keep expendables in the business, and that means it’s easier (takes less capital) to get into the rocket business. Obviously over the long run reusables will drive out most expendables.

 

As I’ve often said, I’m not a “Climate Change Denier”, but I am definitely a model denier: the current models can’t predict the past. (Start with 1930 initial conditions and run to 1999; the results vary but are nowhere near reality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_weather_prediction

Mathematical models based on the same physical principles can be used to generate either short-term weather forecasts or longer-term climate predictions; the latter are widely applied for understanding and projecting climate change. … Manipulating the vast datasets and performing the complex calculations necessary to modern numerical weather prediction requires some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. Even with the increasing power of supercomputers, the forecast skill of numerical weather models extends to only about six days….A more fundamental problem lies in the chaotic nature of the partial differential equations that govern the atmosphere. It is impossible to solve these equations exactly, and small errors grow with time (doubling about every five days). Present understanding is that this chaotic behavior limits accurate forecasts to about 14 days even with perfectly accurate input data and a flawless model.

_____

So, once again: the climate modelers take a weather model good for a week (or less), dumb it down by a factor of at least 300,000 (simplified physics, longer time steps, and coarser geographic cell sizes), and claim they can forecast half a degree (Celsius; 1 degree Fahrenheit) accuracy of the average global temperature after 100 years.

J

Precisely. We need to fund some new models, selected for ability to predict the past; when they can do that, we might look to the future. Incidentally, for next year’s weather, you would do better to rely on The Farmer’s Almanac rather than our most sophisticated (and expensive) models; at least past performance would indicate that.

Dropping the Hammer on Comey… Brilliant!

For what it’s worth, I’ve just run across the following link which appears to be one of the earliest postings of this article:

http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=72788

This article states it as coming from an uncredited Facebook post.

The Expert Disease

Dear Doctor Pournelle,

In a history class at university we were assigned a book that detailed the rise of the Expert Class in the late 19the century in America.

Between about 1875 and 1900 there emerged a new type of professional, and associations devoted to their professional advancement, all in service of Progress. Everything from Accounting to Zoo Management suddenly had a career path, a degree or certificate, and a professional Society to advance the New Way Of Doing Things.

Of course, this was all presented in the book as a Good Thing, reinforced by the lectures based on the book. There was progress, but at what cost?

Here is an example: I know a fellow whose father was a federal meat inspector. His dad’s job involved visiting stockyards and processing plants in his Midwestern state, ensuring everything was up to federal standards for health and safety of the product. One night, quite late, he was called out of bed to visit the scene of a highway wreck. He took along his son, from whom I have the tale. A truck full of frozen beef had jackknifed on the highway, and spilled most of its’ load. Thee highway patrol could not fully secure the scene, and people were scooping up the meat and loading it into their vehicles. The meat inspector was beside himself at this violation of all protocol, the utter disregard for potential contamination and subsequent health problems for anyone consuming the presumably tainted product, and did all he could to explain to the looters that they must cease this at once. I gather eventually, probably with highway patrol help, he succeeded. The son, when relating this story, explained how his father had taught him a valuable lesson that night: that people need to be protected from themselves, that experts are there to do that, and that we had better always listen to the experts.

Would you be surprised to hear that the son is also a far left advocate of socialism, believes in the hard version of human caused Global Warming and all that goes with being a leftist?

It is a disease. Those people on the highway may have been wrong to take the meat, but if it was spoiled or rotten, would they have really eaten it? Seems unlikely. But of course the idea of allowing people to exercise personal judgment is anathema to experts.

Not to mention that a common highway mishap literally became a Federal Case. Ah, sweet reason and Progress!

Petronius

I don’t think the Philadelphia Constitution intended that to be a federal matter, but it is not unreasonable to say that the Interstate Commerce clause permits it to become one. Of course there’s no possible way you can grant a government a power that won’t be used.

Size matters in libraries now…

https://qz.com/802744/the-legendary-new-york-public-library-shelves-books-in-its-underground-stacks-by-size-not-subject/

“Compared to the old system, where a small volume about geography might be shelved next to a large book of maps, the size-based approach eliminates the wasted space above each book. “This just maximizes the number of books you can put into the area,” Oliva says, noting that Princeton University and Columbia University’s libraries have adopted similar systems. The new book sorting system has increased the library’s storage capacity by 40%.”

Charles Brumbelow

I suppose there needs to be compromise between saving space and making things easier to find.

Special Operations in Africa

This doesn’t interest most people but it should. The tone and pace of special operations increased, globally, but increased even more in Africa. The reasons and the highlights are spread throughout this article, which I think is worth your time.

It seems that Africa will become more a threat than the Middle East for terrorism. Also, it seems that affairs are on a downward trajectory. I’ve been following the interest in Africa for over a decade but the committal of more resources is comparatively recent and “too little too late” in my opinion.

To his credit, Bush II foresaw this malaise and created Africom — much to the annoyance of the antiwar crowd. But, it’s taken time to shift resources to this entity. Why this didn’t happen after Mogadishu is beyond me, but our firefighters are there, doing their

jobs:

<.>

In 2006, just 1 percent of all U.S. commandos deployed overseas were in Africa. In 2010, it was 3 percent. By 2016, that number had jumped to more than 17 percent. In fact, according to data supplied by U.S.

Special Operations Command, there are now more special operations personnel devoted to Africa than anywhere except the Middle East —

1,700 people spread out across 20 countries dedicated to assisting the U.S. military’s African partners in their fight against terrorism and extremism.

</>

https://news.vice.com/story/the-u-s-is-waging-a-massive-shadow-war-in-africa-exclusive-documents-reveal

That snip tells nothing, really; the article is worth reading if you’re interested in geopolitics generally or special operations specifically. It’s also of interest to anyone who wants to know what’s happening in Africa today. Even though I’m not certain if these are core interests of yours, I think you’ll find this worth looking at because this is about to catch many by surprise.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

What You Need to Know About Climate, In One Chart

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-climate-in-one-chart.php

From Andy May at Watts Up With That, a chart that contains an enormous amount of information relevant to the climate debate. It shows global temperature as inferred from proxies (tree rings and the like), carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, and temperatures as predicted by the alarmists’ models for the Holocene epoch, the time since the end of the last Ice Age.

May comments:

In the figure below (source Javier, here) proxy global average temperatures for the whole Holocene (last 11,500 years) are shown in black. Computer model temperatures calculated by Liu, et al. (2014) are shown in green, carbon dioxide and methane concentrations from ice cores are also shown. For the Neoglacial Period, temperatures go down, but the computer model temperatures go up, so does the carbon dioxide level. Quite obviously, for the Holocene, neither CO2 nor the computer models are predictive of temperature.

 

As the chart reflects, we are currently living in a relatively cool period. Global temperatures change over time, and while there are various theories, no one really knows why. If the alarmists were real scientists they would go back to the drawing board.

 

Analysis: It’s not just droughts, but nearly all extreme weather is declining or at or near record lows

http://www.climatedepot.com/2017/04/27/analysis-its-not-just-droughts-but-nearly-all-extreme-weather-is-either-declining-or-at-or-near-record-lows/

On Eve of DC climate march, drought drops to record lows in U.S. as nearly all extreme weather is either declining or at or near record lows (See: Climate Bullies Take to the Streets for ‘People’s Climate March’ in DC on April 29th’)

“It is not just droughts that are at or near record levels. On almost every measure of extreme weather, the data is not cooperating with the claims of the climate change campaigners. Tornadoes, floods, droughts, and hurricanes are failing to fit in with the global warming narrative.”

Brennan Says Nothing New

This is just an update; it’s nothing we don’t already know but it’s interesting to see former DIRCIA Brennan twisting in the wind, nearly a year later, repeating the same mantra:

<.>

Former CIA director John Brennan testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that he was not sure if there was any evidence of collusion between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Yet Democrats are thrilled by his testimony, because he said there were contacts between Russian officials and some “U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign,” and hence an FBI investigation was warranted.

Note that there is nothing new in what Brennan said. The New York Times reported on January 19 — in a story timed to appear on Inauguration Day — that the intelligence services had “intercepted communications” between several Trump “associates” and Russian officials. (The same story said there was “no conclusive evidence of

wrongdoing.”) And last week, Reuters reported that there were 18 such contacts — over seven months, less than three per month.

All that Brennan presented was his opinion. And it is not clear what prompted his opinion. He said he convened a group, including the FBI and NSA, to investigate possible Russian attempts to affect the election in late July 2016.

</>

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/23/brennan-russia-house-intelligence-late-july-liberal-media/

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

There hasn’t been anything new since Podesta invented the Russia myth as a distraction from the leaks about Mrs. Clinton’s unauthorized server. The investigations continue. Witch hunts usually find at least a hint of a witch.

Robots, books, and anger 

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

I’m sorry to hear you had a bout with pneumonia, I hope you shape up soon!

Here is an interesting article on robot farmers who are in the process of transforming the way we do agriculture:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/robots-are-now-working-down-on-the-farm-2016-07-07

And, giving hope to people like my family, 3d printed ovaries which can be used to make kids, replacing those destroyed by endometriosis:

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/may/3-d-printed-ovaries-offspring/

Alas, the modern world is still crazy in many ways . Make sure you don’t have a black character in your next book, as editors seem to take offense at white people writing in black characters.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447867/white-author-editor-told-me-my-fictional-book-shouldnt-have-black-protagonist-because

So I expect in five years the same people complaining about

‘appropriation’ will be complaining about ‘erasure’ instead. I fear

for the field of SF, as the insistence of Americans on these rigid standards contributes to a narrow mindset which will greatly hamper our imaginations.

Perhaps we should just use fantasy creatures and cultures only, since they don’t have any real-world people to complain about their appropriation.

Oh, and I thought this article in Spiked on the late events in Manchester was spot on. In brief: Stop the weeping, stop the mourning, get angry and solve the problem.

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/after-manchester-its-time-for-anger/19849#.WSSXGeuLT3j

Cordially yours,

Brian P.

 

I have often said that by 2024 – actually I suspect a bit sooner than that – at least half the jobs in the United States can be performed by a robot costing no more than 10% of the annual wage paid to the person now performing that job.  The implications of this are not all obvious.

 

 

Nye’s Quadrant

Posted on May 2, 2017

https://judithcurry.com/2017/05/02/nyes-quadrant/#more-23029

by Judith Curry

The scary emergence of Nye’s Quadrant in dominating the public discourse on climate change.

If you are unfamiliar with Pasteur’s Quadrant, read my previous post [link].  The focus of my previous post was on use-inspired basic research.  I struggled with the 4th quadrant (lower left), which is sometimes referred to as ‘taxonomy’.  In the context of climate science, I interpreted this as climate model taxonomy, which analyzed the results of climate model simulations to identify alarming future possibilities.

Nye’s Quadrant

In response to my previous post on the Science March, which mentioned Pasteur’s Quadrant, David Deeble tweeted this version of the Quadrant diagram:

 

 

Besides being hysterically funny, the more I thought about it, I realized how profound this is.

Enemies of the People

Hi Jerry
Do hope you are getting better and everything well.

With all the political noise in the US thought you might find this Canadian perspective refreshing. Conrad Black again seems to capture salient historical moments as touchstones to the present. Take care of yourself.
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/conrad-black-the-malicious-and-dishonest-media-really-are-as-trump-says-enemies-of-the-people

: Sam

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Memorial Day

The map is not the territory.

Alfred Korzybski

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

Happy Memorial Day, and my thanks to all who served.

I can barely read this. WORD on this machine seems invulnerable to changes in text size, so my big monitor is useless and I have to use a magnifying glass to read I had intended to post something, but on my bedroom machine with the latest Office 365 I have two columns of tiny text and no way I know of changing that. The text expansion thing at the bottom of the screen doesn’t respond. Control scroll wheel can make it smaller but not larger.

I have managed to make the text larger but only by increasing font size, so I’ll be able to post something, but not much. My office machine works fine, so I’ll just have to make do for tonight, but Microsoft has improved Word once again to the point of unusability for anyone actually trying to USE it. It sure has a lot of features, though. I’ll do an actual essay tomorrow.

I try to scroll and it moves everything sideways. I don’t seem to be able to change that either. This is weird.

The news media have gone insane. Now the President’s son in law is “vulnerable” because he discussed communication channels with the Russian Ambassador. As I recall, Eisenhower had direct back channel communications (teletype I think) with the Kremlin. Why not?

As to sharing secrets with the Russians, President Obama shared every secret we have in electronic counter intelligence after the election but before he left office by directing that all 17 agencies including the leakiest ones be given all the intercept information we get, no need to know involved; thus insuring that the Washington Post and other Press would have access to it all, as indeed they did.

This was in his power, although it was possibly unwise. But Trump, as President, shared combat information with Russia about Syrian operations, and of course this must be investigated.

As was observed, those experts who took over our government don’t mean to give it back to the amateurs.

The trials of Lois Lerner

Hello Jerry,

In your prequel to the story about suppressing Lerner’s testimony because releasing it would be hazardous to her health:

“Apparently as a government worker you can be so outrageous as to put yourself in danger of tar and feathers… and the government must protect you from that public outrage by keeping it secret. Deep government indeed. I’m sure it’s all Trump’s fault, through Russian operations.”

it is apparently assumed that the hazard would be posed by the outraged victims of her actions.

I’m not sure that the assumption is justified.  

The conservative populace at large, subject to years of progressive administrations weaponizing the government bureaucracy and using it against their actual and potential opponents, has never (yet) taken up pitchforks and gone after their tormenters.

On the other hand, the long and growing list of fatalities among those who opposed the Clintons/generic progressive agenda or were close to the Clintons, had reason to be familiar with some of their more nefarious schemes, and who were reportedly preparing to provide testimony regarding same suggests that the hazard to Lerner may not be posed by her victims, but from those who provided her marching orders and who put her into position to carry them out.  The term ‘Arkancide’ was not coined out of a vacuum.

Bob Ludwick

Perhaps I did not make my own views very clear.

A10 and U2

Dr. Pournelle,
U2 and A10 retirement postponed in next year’s budget: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/05/28/warthog-attack-plane-finds-new-life-trump-administration.html
-d
That is very good to hear.

This doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has thought about the problem.

There are combat jobs women can do. And there are women who can do any job demanded. But these need to be assessed realistically on a case by case basis, without regard for quotas – just as with men, when attempting to qualify for the same jobs.

The reductio ad absurdum: can you imagine Obama having done this if he thought it was good for the combat effectiveness of the US military?

Subj: NOT PC, but accurate

You might want to read this twice.
http://usdefensewatch.com/2017/05/female-fighters/

It takes a special kind of “stupid” to believe anything in the MSM these days, including the current weather report.

Something to take seriously if you are a first responder:

: Opioid risk to investigating police

http://www.waff.com/story/35531441/in-opioid-crisis-a-new-risk-for-police-accidental-overdose

 

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday, May 27, 2017

The map is not the territory.

Alfred Korzybski

Recovery continues and I’m almost caught up with mail. I have a large accumulation of items that ought to be posted – some anonymous, which I don’t like much, but the content speaks for itself, and I understand why some of my correspondents prefer not to be publicly identified. I suppose that’s a form of leaking, but I prefer that to silence.

I’m not up to full energy yet, I sleep more than I used to, and I get less done; but I’m beginning to be back in business.

If there is anything interesting in this week’s Weekly Standard, I won’t see it. I gave up reading the standard neo-con editorials several months ago, but I usually enjoy the opening humor in the Scrapbook; but it too has now become a Trump bash along with everything else. I started — attempted to start – the article on the “special investigation” but it opened with sufficient Trump bashing that I simply threw the whole thing in the trash. I don’t know how long my subscription runs, but I won’t be renewing. One fewer thing to read, so it will save time. There’s nothing in it I can’t get almost any random “news” source. I use the word “source” but I don’t really mean that: the New York Times used to say that citing anonymous sources was a last resort; but that was long ago and in another country. Now it’s using actual sources that’s rare.

I don’t usually recommend video editorials, but this one is short and very well worth the couple of minutes that it takes; I think you will appreciate it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F0Hv9TUrfs

This is from the Daily Signal, a Heritage publication. The complete story (along with a fund raiser plea) is at http://dailysignal.com/2017/05/23/what-a-tea-party-leader-thinks-of-lois-lerners-latest-move-in-the-court-case/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Top5&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWlRsa1pUWXdPVEl3TVRoaSIsInQiOiJmektWVm02TUU4NFU1TEc1YzNLb2JDaVVXcUY0d2VJcVIwREJxbXBaZENSRXltMlZNUDI3R1FQU1JKMjdubW1kVDVUclU0dWN4WFV1dGxvUXNcL1BiV1NFbUFFZjlydzJCbGRVTTdUQXlNdlBsTmRmSm1XWndXQk9lTlc1cUFwOE4ifQ%3D%3D and is interesting. Apparently as a government worker you can be so outrageous as to put yourself in danger of tar and feathers… and the government must protect you from that public outrage by keeping it secret. Deep government indeed. I’m sure it’s all Trump’s fault, through Russian operations.

Lerner and Paz said in the court papers that making public details about how IRS workers in Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., “handled applications for tax-exempt status from tea party groups” could endanger their lives, USA Today reported.

Engelbrecht’s organization, which filed for tax-exempt status in 2010, was asked hundreds of questions by the IRS that she said “had nothing to do with nonprofit status.”

After the IRS requested copies of speeches she had given and groups she had interacted with, Engelbrecht said in the interview, she had had enough.

“We finally sued them and are still in court with the IRS over viewpoint discrimination,” Engelbrecht said.

“The only way you can ever heal a problem is if you understand the root source.

But lawyers for Paz and Lerner said their testimony in out-of-court depositions should be kept private.

“This documentation, as the court will see, makes very personal references and contains graphic, profane, and disturbing language that would lead to unnecessary intrusion and embarrassment if made public,” the lawyers said in a court brief.

The lawyers added that “public dissemination of their deposition testimony would put their lives in serious jeopardy.”

“That is a stunning admission, that what they did is so egregiously wrong and so criminal that people might be very angry with them over it,” John Eastman, professor of law at Chapman University, told The Daily Signal in an interview. “That’s exactly why it’s important that this see that light of day.”

The Real Reason Zuckerberg Supports A Universal Basic Income.

<http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/the-real-reason-zuckerberg-supports-a-universal-basic-income/>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

This was on Fox News among other places; Mr. Zuckerberg wants the government to fund a minimum annual wage, paid by taxes 9eventually; there isn’t much detail about that part). If a Harvard dropout thinks this way, imagine what he might come up with as a graduate.

I doubt whether Larry and I working hard for a month could have made this up. It illustrates why your $28,000 student loan debt might not have bought you as much as you thought it would.

Academia

http://www.pagepulp.com/wp-content/academia.jpg

When Bill Waterson published this Calvin and Hobbes comic literally decades ago it was funny. Real funny. Then, in 1996, Alan Sokal got a nonsensical paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. Now this:

http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/conceptual-penis-social-contruct-sokal-style-hoax-on-gender-studies/

It’s absolutely hilarious, and it makes me wonder what the reviewers who liked the paper talk about when they’re not being academics.

And yes, Cogent Social Sciences has removed the paper from their web site. But I’ll bet the reviewers are still employed there.

Takeaway quotes:

“If you’re having trouble understanding what any of that means, there are two important points to consider. First, we don’t understand it either. Nobody does.”

“It gets worse. Not only is the text ridiculous, so are the references. Most of our references are quotations from papers and figures in the field that barely make sense in the context of the text. Others were obtained by searching keywords and grabbing papers that sounded plausibly connected to words we cited. We read exactly zero of the sources we cited, by intention, as part of the hoax.”

What do you want to bet that Cogent Social Sciences is flooded with bogus papers? If I had $625 to burn, I might want to do it just so I could brag that I had been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Richard White

Del Valle, Texas

And yes, there really is such a respected peer reviewed journal, still being published.

Capleville education ca 1945

Dr. Pournelle,
I think that there may be a few details of your primary education that are also pertinent to any comparison with the present:
1. Probably your Tennessee rural school was segregated, indicating that there was another primary school with different standards in the same district.
2. Your teacher may have had a two-year degree in education. The black student’s school teacher(s) may not have had even as much. The current school district probably requires its teachers hold a Masters of Education degree, or that teachers be a candidate for MS, and have earned multiple specialist certificates.
3. No one in the federal government even kept statistics on attendance, competence, nutrition, diversity, or other attributes ad nauseum on the Capleville schools. This may have been implied in your description, but should be stated explicitly.
4. The principals, and likely the teachers, of the two respective Capleville schools probably knew at least one of all the student’s parents socially.
5. No one outside of Capleville cared or regulated the quality of Capleville schools education. (Again, implied, but deserving of explicit statement).
If there is a present-day Capleville school, it likely serves many, many more students of many different backgrounds, is required by State and Federal regulation to meet a variety of standards (often without commensurate funding) and bureaucratic oversight, liability insurance or bonding, expensively diploma’d and certified teachers and administrators, the immediate availability of social, medical, and psychological health services, and must meet an arbitrary level of educational standards for most subjects for the majority of students. The eductional standard is notionally oriented to the successful graduate going on to attend just enough college or university to be indebted for 10 to 20 years of loan payments of a substantial part of their annual earnings. The class of ’45 graduate was expected to operate a tractor or a grain elevator with little or no further education.
More likely, the small town school system has been absorbed by a system that has all these features.
20 years later, my own education took place under systems (some in Tennessee) that had begun to change, but were not really substantially different.
My takeaway from the comparison is that (1) the ’45 – ’65 system doesn’t scale up to a larger student population. (2) No matter how integrated, the current system hasn’t become color-blind, but is probably more culturally-dependent. (3) Teacher education is not a determinating characteristic of educational competence. (4) Neither legislative nor judicial regulation can instill educational competence. (5) Higher costs don’t drive educational quality.
Did I miss anything?
Hoping that you and Roberta continue in your recovery,
-d

So I should shoot dope or otherwise handicap myself? How is this relevant to the topic of discussion, namely the upward spiraling cost and lowering standards of the public schools? I put it to you that I received a better education at lower costs than public schools deliver to essentially anyone today; the fact that there was a segregated school, Hickory Hill, about half a mile from where I lived is irrelevant. It so happens that Shelby County boss Ed Crump insisted of “equal” in segregates schools (in teacher qualification, etc.), is also irrelevant.

They paid less for Capleville than the worst schools just about anywhere, segregated or diversified.

Or are you saying that if we must educate blacks it will necessarily cost more? I doubt you meant that.

I don’t purport to know how to fix 75 year old problems, and generally do not discuss that subject. My topic was today’s schools, which I contend cost more and deliver less than the “primitive” schools I attended.

Jerry Pournelle

Not at all. Nor was I trying to give offense.  I was trying to, at a minimum, sing what I thought was the refrain: government is incapable of providing universal goodness no matter how pure the motive.  Perhaps I am still missing your point?

I didn’t understand you to be merely reminiscing, or that you thought we could return to 1945 in order to fix education.  But it is interesting that you should lead your response with self harm through drugs or handicapping.  I’m going to have to think about that. 
Two factors changed the student population of school systems since your Capleville: a huge increase in population and integration.  When the baby boom flagged, the population continued to increase through immigration.  None of these are bad things, but they changed the dynamic.  It is a frequent kind of mistake to believe that small successes can be scaled up to be bigger successes simply by making them bigger. 

Not given in evidence is a teacher salary chart for the same period as the staffing chart you included.  It is another kind of mistake to believe that spending more money on a failed program will make it better.  Yet the people running the public school lobby (and those running every local school district that I have seen) seem to keep going back to that approach.  One way they do that is to claim that there aren’t enough qualified teachers; qualification often being an MS in instruction with a specialization (but not demonstrated competence) in a field of study, plus sundry other expensive training certifications.  I assert that a teacher pay scale plotted over the years of 1945-2015 would show an even greater increase than the staff chart, and corrected for inflation would show a greater increase in compensation than that of the general public.

At some point since 1964 we thought we could wag the dog by changing our perceived social shortcomings through the schools.  That move pretty much ruined education for efficiency, and otherwise the experiment has failed on multiple levels.

Did they pay less for Capleville schools than the best or worst schools of the time or the schools in the present day?  My guess is that you meant to compare your primary school to present day.  I think your experience was probably typical of the time, and not very much different from the experience of the student from about 1890 through about 1960.   It would be incorrect to do failure analysis on education without at least acknowledging that in about 1964 we began to throw out all the things we knew how to do in schools so that we could try to do things we would like to do in our society.  
The increase in school personnel appears to me to be a byproduct of your own Iron Law, and we have decided that a government bureaucracy can solve all our problems.  Perhaps a corollary is that the number of bureaucrats will modulate in inverse proportion to the efficiency of the services provided?    
Maybe I was reading the wrong music? 
-d

My point, really, was that if local taxpayers had to pay for the nonsense we buy in the name of education, we would not put up with it; but we are in the hands of deep government, and some have known since 1980 that it would always get worse, not better. We pay a great deal more and get far worse results, and in general that statement is universally true year after year; and nothing is done or will be done. Perhaps I am merely depressed. I do know that every one of our black sharecroppers and farmhands in segregated Tennessee could read.

They paid whatever it cost to get teachers in that district. Each school district took care of paying its staff; they didn’t get State or Federal support. Only taxpayers voted in school elections.

Please excuse me if I am not as clear as usual.

In case you’ve not seen this:

The Rocket Startup That’s About to Eat Elon Musk’s Lunch

The Rocket Startup That’s About to Eat Elon Musk’s Lunch

The Rocket Startup That’s About to Eat Elon Musk’s Lunch

Rocket Lab is aiming to put small satellites in low Earth orbit at a fraction of the cost of even SpaceX.

Rod McFadden

This is an encouraging development in commercial space. International competition is useful. Use of newly developed materials for special purposes is important.

Sorry, Breaking News

I’m sorry; I know you don’t like breaking news but this is too good not to pass on:

<.>

FBI source tells me Comey dropped the Susan Rice unmasking investigation bc it would have implicated himself. Developing

— Jack

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/863112363578462212

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I’ve seen no more on this. The list of Comey entanglements grows. But he did manage to send Martha Stewart to jail, and I am sure that made us all safer.

This is not a new happening; I’ve watched crap like this go on for some time at various universities across the nation. I’ve declined to write to you about this because you’re generally not interested in topical news. But, these affairs continued for so long that it’s time to share some of this:

<.>

Over the last 72 hours, students have taken over a small liberal arts college in Washington state, and only one adult has tried to stop them.

Students at Evergreen State College in Olympia, who filmed their exploits and posted the videos on social media, have occupied and barricaded the library, shouting down anyone who disagrees with them or shows insufficient passion for racial justice.

Biology professor Bret Weinstein was berated by dozens of students outside of his classroom Tuesday morning for refusing to participate in an event in which white people were invited to leave campus for a day. Now he says police have told him to hold his classes off campus due to safety concerns.

</>

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/25/evergreen-state-students-demand-professor-resign-f/

Don’t you love how the “journalist” says whites were “invited to leave”? You mean someone tried to kick them out? And now these kids created a climate where classes cannot occur? First they make it unsafe for speakers they don’t like to come express their ideas and now they force teachers who do not agree with their criminal activities to hold classes off campus for their personal safety? Why

would anyone pay to go to school in one of these circuses? Were I a

student, I would sue to get my tuition back.

And it gets worse! This is just like in Berkley when the police were forced to stand down by the mayor and the university police were forced to stand down by the administration during one of the comparatively recent riots this year:

<.>

Things are “out of control at Evergreen,” he said.

“Police told me protesters stopped cars yesterday, demanding information about occupants,” Mr. Weinstein told The Washington Times.

“They believe I was being sought. It appears that the campus has been under the effective control of protesters since 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Police are on lockdown, hamstrung by the college administration.

Students, staff and faculty are not safe.”

</>

So the administration won’t allow the police to enforce the law? Who the hell gave them the right to tell police when, where, and how to enforce the law in the first place? What is going on in this country?

Are we now run by unelected bureaucrats like the EU?

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

This was on Fox last night, and is another example of what you get for your student loan debts. And they never catch wise… As to your final question, deep government is everywhere, and after all it’s our fault for electing Trump. Someone must provide continuity.

Niemeier:  ‘Thanks almost entirely to Amazon, more books are being published each year than ever before, and more authors are making a living with their writing than at any time in human history.’

<http://www.brianniemeier.com/2017/05/amazon-terrifies-big-5.html>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

 

Incorrect statement regarding Lynch’s recusal

“Attorney General Lynch recused herself from deciding whether to prosecute Mrs. Clinton and left the decision to the FBI; this is not normal practice for an investigative agency, but then it is not normal to call in a Corporate Counsel from private practice to head the FBI.”
Lynch did not formally recuse herself from the investigation. She stated she would “leave the decision [to prosecute] up to the FBI”, but never recused herself. And the FBI (recommending whether or not to prosecute isn’t their job to begin with) conveniently came up with a decision not to prosecute…coincidence, surely.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/no-don-lemon-loretta-lynch-didnt-recuse-herself-from-the-clinton-email-scandal/article/2616265
Enjoyed the read, some very interesting things you’ve compiled.

A

Comey

Dear Sir,
First, I wish you a speedy return to health.
Now, on your correspondent’s fairly lengthy communique wrt Comey, I would like to add one detail that he leaves out: Comey’s involvement with the Clintons goes back to the Senate Whitewater probe in 1996, even before the Marc Rich thing. In that case Comey was, among other things, lead prosecutor, and he pressed no charges while explicitly finding that Hillary Clinton destroyed documents that she was legally obligated to preserve (and “mishandled” others that she was obligated to divulge).
It was sort of a rehearsal for the email investigation: Comey found criminal conduct, described that conduct accurately, and then declared that it did not warrant prosecution. In 1996 Comey accused Hillary of “a highly improper pattern of deliberate misconduct.” In 2016 Hillary was “extremely careless”, i.e. grossly negligent. In both cases Comey spelled out the elements of a criminal offense and then declared that there was nothing more to see or do.

K

Lying to Federal Employees

I just wanted to let you know that this statement below it way off and you may want to correct it.
“But then Martha Stewart was jailed by then Assistant US Attorney (for Southern New York) Comey for denying that she said something that was not a crime if she said it. She was not under oath at the time, thus providing a new code of conduct in dealing with Federal Authorities even in unsworn statements: Say Nothing About Anything. Cooperation Could Get You Jailed.”
If you look at this federal code provision you will see that lying to a federal employee is a criminal offense (I am simplifying it here) that has nothing to do with being under oath and had been on the books for quite some time. This is what Martha Stewart was charged with.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001
This statute may be unfair and give way to much power to the feds but it was not uniquely applied to Martha Stewart. I advise all my clients before the speak to the FBI or the SEC that lying can be worse that the underlying conduct.

J

Martha Stewart said, in conversation, that she never said something (a denial of an action that was itself not illegal). That was wrong – lying, forgetfulness, wandering of mind, deliberate intent to mislead? It was not in a formal statement or under penalty of perjury. I suppose Congress could make failing to bow to federal investigator, or failure to say Good Morning to a federal janitor a crime. In general this “lying” is not applied universally; this is the problem with giving “investigators” such discretion. Submitting a signed document is one thing; notes of a conversation is quite another. You may advise your clients as you will. I would advise – I am of course no attorney – my readers to say nothing, and withhold all observations including their opinion of the weather, from anyone identifying themselves as a Federal Employee. That probably hampers their “investigation” but it’s safer. Communicate only in writing, if you have the time and inclination.

I know it’s the law; but then every one of us breaks at least one Federal Law every week. That was not the purpose of this nation’s founding, and particularly not the purpose of the Philadelphia Constitution.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

The map is not the territory.

Alfred Korzybski

This will be brief. I am halfway through the antibiotics prescription for dealing with pneumonia, and I definitely feel that I am recovering. I don’t trust my thought processes with anything requiring judgment, and it uses all my energy to write much of anything, but I am definitely improving. I won’t estimate when I will be recovered; every time I tried that before I ended up with a relapse, so I am taking things as they come. I have a few items for your contemplation.

This is provided as received. I cannot find any confirming source online.

It contains assertions of fact I had not seen in other sources. Take it with as little or as much salt as you deem appropriate.

This unidentified email confirms many suspicions and fills in some details that I could not understand.

 

There are very few crime/mystery novels that approach this true story for compelling drama, intrigue and brinkmanship (with the nation in the balance).

Don’t believe the fake-media story that Trump made a mistake or huge gaffe by firing Comey.

Don’t believe the media narrative from the left that it was an attempt to silence Comey from some investigation into Trump.

Don’t believe the RINO narrative that Comey is a good guy just trying to do his job in terrible circumstances and the timing was bad.

Don’t believe the lie that Comey was admired and respected by career FBI investigators and agents.

Don’t believe the lie that Trump’s “tweets” are not professional and have no strategic purpose.  His tweets are weaponized and deadly.

James Comey is a poisonous snake of the highest order… a deep-water Swamp Denizen who has been highly paid to deliberately provide cover for high-level corruption by the Clintons and Obama.  He is has been central to trying to destroy the Trump campaign and then the Trump administration from the start. He is as dirty as they come in DC.  He had highest-level cover (the FBI no less) and was deep into an effort to eliminate Trump.  Trump had to move hard, fast, and at exactly the right time to cut the head off the snake without getting bitten by the snake or being finished by the other swamp denizens.

Begin by noticing how the President fired Comey when Comey was 3,000 miles away from his office, that Comey had no inkling he was being cut, that all his files, computers, and everything in his office were seized by his boss Sessions and the justice department.  This was not a violation of protocol, it was tactical. Notice how Prez Trump compartmentalized the strike and did not inform any of his White House “staff” to prevent leaks.  Notice how he emasculated Comey and the swamp denizens by letting them know in a tweet that the Attorney General got information (surveillance “tapes” from the seizure of Comey’s office) to let Comey and his handlers know that Trump’s DOJ has the goods on them.  This was a brilliant, strategic and totally imperative move at exactly the right time against horrible, evil and corrupt powers infesting our government.

The swamp is on notice that the President is on to them, they are sweating bullets because their criminal games of corruption are being pursued and they know it.  They are screaming and ranting because they are desperate denizens of the swamp who are beginning to realize they are roadkill.

THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE COMEY SCAM.  Taken from credible public sources (readily available if you want to look or want me to sent them to you), with a few reasonable “fill in the blank” conclusions of my own.

The Highlights:

Comey was a minor assistant US attorney in the late 90’s.  He only gained power and money by being the DOJ official who “investigated” and cleared Bill Clinton of any wrong-doing in Clinton’s totally corrupt pardon (for huge payoffs) of criminal financier Marc Rich as Clinton was leaving the Presidency.  This is how Comey began his career as a creature of the “swamp” years ago, as a servant of the Clintons.

Comey provided “cover” for the Clintons in their gaining incredible power and wealth after leaving office through pardoning a billionaire money-launderer, arms dealer and criminal.  Comey was a key piece in how the Clintons upped their corruption game and gained incredible wealth through their foundation after leaving the White House.  A huge part of the scheme was giving Marc Rich a free pass when he should have spent life in prison, and that is what Comey covered-up for the Clintons.  This set up Comey to be part of the corruption machine, making him powerful and wealthy.

Immediately after doing the Clinton’s dirty work as a DOJ official, Comey resigned from the DOJ and took a position as the head attorney (Counsel) of the Lockheed Martin company, a huge military contractor.  While he was in that position Lockheed became a major contributor (millions) to the Clinton Foundation and its fake charity spin-offs.  In return for these payment to Clinton Inc., Lockheed received huge contracts with Hillary’s state department.  Comey was the chief legal officer of Lockheed throughout this period of contributions to Clinton Inc. in return for State Dept. contracts.

In late 2012, after overseeing Lockheed’s successful relationship with the Hillary State Department and the resulting profits, Comey stepped down from Lockheed and received a $6 million dollar payout for his services.

In 2013, the largest bank of England, HSBC Holdings, was deep into a scandal.  Investigations by federal authorities and law-enforcement had revealed that for years HSBC had been laundering billions of dollars for Mexican Drug Cartels, channeling money for Saudi banks who were financing terror, moving money for Iran in violation of the sanctions, and other major criminal activity.  HSBC’s criminality was pervasive and deliberate by the Bank and its officials.  HSBC was a huge Clinton Foundation contributor (many millions) throughout the “investigation” and Bill Clinton was being paid large personal fees for speaking at HSBC events (while Hillary was Sec of State).   Eric Holder and the Obama Justice Department did what they were paid to do, and let HSBC off of the hook for a paltry 1.2 Billion dollar fine (paid by its stockholders), and not one Director, officer or management member at HSBC was fired or charged with any criminal.  Exactly when everyone involved with HSBC Bank (including the Clintons and all of their “donors”) were being let off without penalty, and cover had to be provided to HSBC, Comey was appointed as a Director and Member of the Board of HSBC (in the middle of the fallout from the scandal).  He was part of the effort to cover up the scandal and make HSBC “respectable” again.

After about a year as HSBC director, despite his lack of any law enforcement experience, no DOJ leadership experience, and no qualifications for the job, Comey was appointed FBI director by Obama.  The only qualification Comey had was that the Clinton’s and their cronies knew Comey was in bed with them, was compromised and was willing to do their dirty work.  Comey was appointed to the FBI right when Hillary was leaving the State Department, and was vulnerable to the FBI because she had been using a private-server, mis-handling classified information, selling access to favors/contracts from the State Department to Clinton Foundation Donors (including Comey’s Lockheed Martin), and much more. Remember that this was about the time the Inspector General of the State Department found over 2 billion “missing” from the State Department finances during Hillary’s tenure.

The obvious conclusion is that Comey was appointed to the FBI (along with other reliable Clinton-Obama cronies)  to run interference for the Clinton’s and Obama’s at the nation’s federal law enforcement agency(in conjunction with a corrupt Department of Justice).  Comey was and is owned by the Clintons.  He owed all of his power and wealth to being part of their machine and providing them with cover.

In late 2015 and early 2016, information began to come out about the Clinton Foundation and its use by the Clinton’s as a multi-billion dollar slush fund for corruption and political favors. (even Chelsea’s wedding had been paid for by the “charity) This was right as Hillary was beginning her campaign for President. It was revealed that the Foundation had never completed required reports or had an audit.  Supposedly the FBI, under Comey, began an “investigation” of the Clinton Funds.  A “professional” accounting firm was brought in by the Clintons to do a review, file some reports, make recommendations to the Clinton Foundation Board, and provide a veneer of legitimacy to the Clinton Fund operations.  Predictably, one of the partners in the firm that was chosen (and paid lots of money) is the brother of James Comey (FBI Director).  This brother owes James Comey $700,000 for a loan James gave him to buy a house, and presumably some of the money from the Clinton Fund was used to make payments to James on the loan.  Over 2 years later and nothing has happened as a result of the FBI “investigating” the Clinton Funds under Comey.

No one in congress or federal law enforcement was intending to actually pursue the Clintons, but Judicial Watch and other independent sources obtained information proving that Hillary had been running her own server, sending out classified information, etc.  This information began to come out right in the middle of her campaign to be coronated as President.  A “show” investigation had to be performed to appear to look into it and clear her.  Who to use?…the reliable shill James Comey.

As head of the FBI, Comey (and his lackeys in key positions) deliberately screwed up the investigation into Hillary’s use of a private server and her plain violation of national security law on classified information.  The investigation was deliberately mis-handled in every aspect. Comey gave immunity to all of Hillary’s lackeys, did not use subpoenas or warrants, lost evidence, allowed the destruction of evidence, failed to do any searches or seizures of evidence, did not use a grand-jury, did not swear witnesses, did not record testimony, allowed attorneys to represent multiple suspects (corrupting the testimony).  Everything that could be done to ruin the FBI investigation and to cover for Hillary was done.  A “slam-dunk” case became a mess. Immunity was given every witness even though they provided no help.  Maybe more importantly, by focusing the FBI on the email scandal, attention was drawn away from the much bigger scandal of the Clinton Foundation that could bring down a huge number of corrupt politicians, lobbyists, and even governments.

Originally, Comey’s job was simply to totally botch the Hillary investigation and ruin the case against her and her minions within the FBI regarding he emails. At the same time Comey also started work on a parallel assignment to illegally “wiretap” and surveil Donald Trump and every other person involved in the Republican campaign.  He was tasked with digging up any dirt or fact that could be used to hurt the Trump campaign later.  This included using a fake “dossier” paid for by the Clinton campaign to obtain authorization for the surveillance and to try to associate Trump’s campaign with the Russians. Under Comey’s direction the Trump/republican campaign was monitored and surveilled and all information was provided to the Obama Whitehouse and the Clinton camp all during the campaign. 

Lorretta Lynch was supposed to complete the coverup for Hillary as Attorney General by issuing a finding that the deliberately botched FBI “investigation” did not justify prosecution of Hillary.  But someone screwed up and Bill Clinton was video’d meeting with Loretta Lynch in Arizona shortly before she was supposed to make her decision on Hillary (interference with a federal investigation), and Lynch could no longer credibly squash the Hillary scandal.  The solution, give the job to James.  The Clinton’s owned him and he would have to do whatever is necessary to provide cover.

Comey goes on national TV and violates every rule of the FBI, the Justice Department and American law enforcement by revealing some of the FBI’s “evidence” of what Hillary did (enough to make it look like the FBI and Comey did some investigation), then declaring that there was no “intent” and clearing Hillary.  He did what he was ordered to do.  The Justice Department and Obama backed Comey’s coverup and it looked like Hillary had survived the scandal.

Then, right before the election, the NYPD obtained pervert Anthony Wiener’s laptop and found classified emails from Hillary on the laptop.  The NYPD began leaking details to new-media outlets, and the story was about to explode.  Comey once again stepped in to cover Hillary.  He short-circuited the NYPD leaks by publicly acknowledging the laptop and the emails, but then claimed just days later that hundreds of thousands of emails had all been reviewed and “nothing new” was on the laptop.  Once again, he had done his job.  Providing cover and FBI “protection” for Hillary on the newest scandal when it broke.

If Hillary had won, Comey would have kept right on providing cover for the corruption of the Clinton machine.  He would have kept the FBI paralyzed, prevented the Clinton Fund from being investigated, and continued to do his job as the Clinton’s personal scandal eraser at the FBI.

BUT TRUMP WON.

The Swamp and its bottom-dwelling denizens realize they are at risk from this political outsider who is not connected to the uni-party machines.  Before Trump takes office, a “failsafe” plan is implemented to ruin Trump’s administration and try to force him out of the Presidency.  The key players committed to the plan are the democrat politicians, the RINO establishment, the media, the Obama-Clinton operatives imbedded throughout the intelligence agencies and the entire bureaucracy, and most importantly, the Obama DOJ and JAMES COMEY.    The scheme is to smear Trump with Russian “connections,” through a fake FBI “investigation” and more importantly, to trap him into a charge of criminal interference with the FBI.   COMEY IS THE CENTRAL FIGURE IN THE SCHEME TO TAKE DOWN TRUMP.

The surveillance of the Trump campaign is continued after he is elected, all participants are “unmasked” illegally, and the transcripts are leaked throughout the government and to the media.  When General Flynn appropriately calls Russian officials on behalf of Trump, they brush off the old fake “dossier” and all of the surveillance of the campaign, and Comey creates the “Russian Conspiracy” investigation. With help by RINO swamp kingpin and warmonger sell-out McCain, the fake “Russian pee dossier” is leaked to the press. There is no actual evidence of any collusion or connection between Trump or his campaign with Russia, but that does not prevent Comey from initiating an “investigation” at the FBI.  This provides Comey with protection from Trump firing him immediately.  Comey (or his minions) constantly leak news of the “Russia Investigation” to the media, and the media does its scripted part by screaming constantly about “Russia.”  The Democrats fill their role and constantly scream about “Russia.”  McCain and the RINO establishment do their part by promising to “investigate” how the Russians influenced the campaign.

Immediately after Trump is sworn in, the DOJ Hillary/Obama operatives and Comey start the direct attack.  This is before Sessions has been appointed to the Department of Justice and the DOJ is still controlled by Obama operatives. DOJ Obama appointee Sally Yates approaches the Whitehouse with news that General Flynn had been in contact with Russia and alleges that he might be compromised.  She reveals that there is an FBI “investigation” into the Russia ties (which they are constantly leaking to the media themselves).  The White House Counsel (who Yates talks to, not Trump) asks for some more information.

The day before the promised additional information is to be provided by Yates to the Whitehouse, Comey sets up a dinner with Trump.  If he can get Trump to ask about Flynn or try to intervene regarding Flynn or Russia then Trump can be charged with “interfering with an FBI investigation.”  MY OPINION IS THAT COMEY SURVEILLED AND “TAPED” THIS MEETING IN HIS ATTEMPT TO SET UP TRUMP.

This is a two-pronged attack.  It protects Comey and DOJ democrat holdovers from being terminated by the new administration because they are involved in an “ongoing investigation” that they control the timetable on(albeit one with absolutely no evidence). If Trump fires Comey then he is “interfering with the investigation” which is itself a federal crime that the FBI could then “investigate.”  Alternatively, if they can get Trump to question Comey about Flynn or try to get him to back off of Flynn or the “Russia” investigation, then they again have him “interfering.”

Trump knows it is a set up by Comey and that he is probably being recorded (tips from FBI or DOJ who are not part of the corruption?)  Maybe because his phone calls in the Whitehouse as President have already been bugged and released to the media.  (FBI is in the best position to do this) Maybe because he was used to the Mafia in NY trying to shake him down every time he built a hotel.   Comey tells Trump that Trump is not under investigation regarding Russia, but that others involved with the campaign are being investigated.  Trump does not take the bait and attempt to intervene about Flynn or the Russia scam.  Later, Flynn is cut loose because he is being used by Comey and the Obama-holdover Justice to try to damage Trump.  He did not thing wrong, but if he stayed the charge of “interfering with an investigation” might seem to have teeth.  Comey verbally tells Trump on two more occasions that he is not being investigated, but refuses to state this fact publicly or when testifying in Congress.

Trump knows everything I have gone through above about Comey.  But he has to move carefully.  He has to get his Attorney General and Deputy AG in place, get enough leverage on the Russia narrative, and ideally get rid of Comey in a way that allows him to obtain all the information that Comey has been accumulating (if he is taping Trump he is taping others).  Comey, and others testify in Congress.  Under oath, both Sally Yates and Intelligence officials from the Obama administration state that there has been no actual evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.  More importantly, Comey, while refusing to say that Trump is not under investigation, testifies that he has informed the Senate Intelligence Committee heads who exactly is under investigation regarding Russia.

Trump tells almost no one at the White House that he is moving against Comey (so no leaks… no listening in on his conversations) Trump somehow contacts Sen. Grassley (the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee) and confirms that Comey told the Senator that Trump was not under investigation personally.  Trump gets both the Attorney General and the new Deputy Attorney General to legitimately review Comey’s unprofessional actions at the FBI and to recommend in writing that Trump terminate Comey.  Somehow Comey goes to California (at the request of AG Sessions or already scheduled and someone at FBI telling Trump?).

Trump seizes the moment and acts. While Comey is in California, 3000 miles away and 7 hours from his office, Trump prepares a letter firing him (with Sessions and the Deputy AG recommendations attached).  In the letter Trump states that he had been told 3 times by Comey that he (Trump) was not under investigation.  The letter is hand-delivered to the FBI headquarters by DOJ officials to lock-down and seize everything in Comey’s office, including all surveillance files (“tapes”) of Trump and others.  All of Comey’s files, docs, computers and “tapes” are taken to Sessions at DOJ.  They are not taken to the Whitehouse or Trump, but to Sessions, who has every right to have them.  Sessions can tell Trump that Comey had surveillance tapes of Trump that contradict what Comey has been telling Trump, and perhaps tapes of conversations with other swamp “conspirators.”  But Trump does not have them personally or at the Whitehouse.

Comey learns he has been fired when the media broadcasts it in California.  He had no idea it was coming and he is ticked.  On cue, the Democrat politicians and media begin screaming about Trump’s “interference with the Russia  investigation” in accordance with the plan to set up Trump for that charge.  The Swamp wants to blow up the Russia narrative using Comey, and Comey is set to testify before Congress to try to hurt Trump by saying he was interfering with the FBI investigation.  Comey intends to follow through with the plan to take down Trump.

But because of his brilliant timing on this, Trump has Comey’s files, documents and information safely with Sessions at DOJ.  Trump sends out a “crazy” tweet that says:  “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.” 

The media and the politicians go crazy about the “inappropriateness” of this tweet.   They accuse Trump of “taping” everyone at the White House (forgetting that the Presidents phone calls with foreign leaders have been “taped” without his knowledge.)

Notice that Trump did not say he taped anyone, or that he has any tapes at the White House. It seem apparent that Trump is telling Comey that the DOJ (who has every legal right to possess it) has the surveillance information and files from Comey’s office, the “tapes” obtained and kept by Comey.  Comey and all the Swamp Creatures understand the clear message… their plan has failed and Trump’s DOJ is now holding all the cards.

The whole Russia interference scheme crashes and burns. While the mouthpiece media, Hollywood and the insane fringe continue to scream about Russia and Comey being fired, the politicians  who will soon be in the crosshairs of a legitimate (and ticked) FBI and DOJ are starting to fall strangely silent.  Comey realizes all the leverage is with Trump and that he will be lucky if he is not added to the Clinton Death List because of his knowledge (better not take any baths near an electrical outlet or get on any airplanes). 

Comey tells Congress he will not testify and writes a public letter to the FBI accepting his firing and telling them he does not want to discuss why or how he was terminated.  Senator Grassley and Senator Feinstein (she must be covering her butt in fear …) issue public statements confirming that Comey told them that the “Russia Investigation” does not involve President Trump personally.

AG Sessions and his Deputy AG use the Comey trove of information to determine who has been part of the Comey Syndicate at the FBI.  They will be appointing an “interim” Director of the FBI shortly who has not been compromised by Comey, Clinton or Obama.  That “interim” Director does not have to be approved by Congress or anyone, and can immediately begin cleaning house at the FBI of all Comey/Clinton/Obama minions, initiating investigations of the Clintons, Clinton Fund, violations of intelligence confidentiality laws by Susan Rice and Obama, human trafficking in DC, political corruption… draining the Swamp.  Using the Comey files they can be fairly certain they are not getting another Comey as an “interim”, and they do not have to wait for the circus of appointing a new permanent “Director” through Congressional approval.  Most of the heavy lifting on rooting out FBI corruption and starting investigations into the swamp will be done by the “interim” before a new director is appointed. I suspect the Trump administration hopes the approval FBI Director process will be slow and tedious, so there is no political interference with the housecleaning that is starting.

In one masterstroke, Trump has eliminated a truly toxic and dangerous enemy to his administration and our country, dealt a horrendous blow to the Clinton/Obama and deep state machines, begun the restoration of the integrity of the FBI and the DOJ, and gained incredible ammunition to begin hunting the foul creatures in the swamp.

Once again, I warn you that this analysis contains statements I have not verified, and clearly states opinions as well as facts. I will add that I have always been puzzled at why a private corporate lawyer, with no real investigative experience, and no law enforcement background, was suddenly called out of his private practice to become the head of the major investigative arm of the federal government.

In that capacity he headed the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unlawful e-mail server, allowing destruction of evidence – deletion of much of the content on Mrs. Clinton’s judgment that it was not relevant, and the physical destruction of the device after those deletions – and other violations of law. The Clinton server investigation came to nothing despite hard evidence of compromise of classified information.

He was also head of the Russian collusion investigation, although, as Harvard Professor Dershowitz a leading liberal figure, observes there has been no allegation of a crime: it would be politically inadvisable, but there is no law preventing a Presidential Candidate from asking a foreign government for assistance in an election. Even the aged Logan Act does not prevent that. The “Russian investigation” was kept open for months despite no allegation that any crime whatever was committed, or any effective Russian act was undertaken..

But then Martha Stewart was jailed by then Assistant US Attorney (for Southern New York) Comey for denying that she said something that was not a crime if she said it. She was not under oath at the time, thus providing a new code of conduct in dealing with Federal Authorities even in unsworn statements: Say Nothing About Anything. Cooperation Could Get You Jailed.

Attorney General Lynch recused herself from deciding whether to prosecute Mrs. Clinton and left the decision to the FBI; this is not normal practice for an investigative agency, but then it is not normal to call in a Corporate Counsel from private practice to head the FBI.

With regard to the Flynn affair: I remind you that Flynn called the Russian Ambassador after President Obama declared persona non grata about 30 Russian diplomats and their families. If there is anyone who believes that the National Security Advisor designate (this was after the election but before inauguration) could talk to the Russian Ambassador and that subject would not come up, I have yet to meet that person; thus if Flynn, who called from the Trump Tower on a Trump phone with Trump permission was somehow being evasive about what he talked with the Russian Ambassador, it would be strange – especially when Flynn must have known that the FBI was listening to that phone call. And sure enough, Flynn, whose identity was supposed to be kept masked, was publicly unmasked and the details leaked to the Press: and that unmaking and leak is the one black letter felony we know of, proved to have happened, in this affair. It has yet to be prosecuted. There were other FISA unmaskings dating back to last summer, where the identities of US citizens known to have talked to foreign FISA tapped phones were commonly circulated in the White House during the campaign. No charges have ever been made about this although once again it is a black latter law felony The FBI must have been too busy investigating the Russian incidents to have time to look into these felonies.

I often include this in the header to remind you that the school problem is not new, and has been getting worse for decades – for some of you, all your lives.

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

This may help understanding:

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/overlooked-statistic-may-explain-americas-education-problems

 

 

 

The purpose of most school administrators is to deal with regulations made by other school administrators. I went to Capleville public school during WW II. There were two grades to the room, about 25 pupils per grade. It was about an hour’s ride on the school bus to get there, and about an hour’s walk down the railroad track to get home in the afternoon if I didn’t want to spend the time on the school bus.

There were two grades to the room, about 25 pupils per grade. Four teachers were the entire faculty for a school of 8 grades; the 7-8 grade teacher was principal, and the 5-6 grade teacher was librarian. All of the teachers were two year graduates of teachers’ normal schools, associates of arts.

There was a janitorial staff, and a secretary, and sometimes a nurse. That was it for staff.

I would rate the education I received, in World, US, and Tennessee History, arithmetic and figuring/cyphering, and in English both grammar and literature, well above what my neighbors’ children are receiving in one of the top rated public schools in Los Angeles. Of course the current public schools all have principals, assistant principals, and “specialist consultants” who do not actually teach; many secretaries; and a number of teaching assistants (and at our local school, volunteers to assist in classes). None have read Evangeline, The Lady of the Lake, The Song of Hiawatha, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, or much other literature and essentially no poetry, but the children are happy, apparently, and the neighborhood housing prices reflect the high rating of the local school.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.