Thursday roundup

Another hurl-inducing instance of post-American corporate cowardice in the face of Chinese intimidation:

Houston Rockets sneakers and other merchandise were pulled from several Nike stores in major Chinese cities amid the furor surrounding a tweet from the team’s general manager in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

Managers at five Nike stores in Beijing and Shanghai told Reuters during visits on Thursday they had been told in recent days via a memo from management that all Rockets merchandise had to be removed. Reuters was unable to view the memo.

Although Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has since apologized for his tweet last week, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver further angered authorities when he said the league backed Morey’s right to exercise his freedom of expression.

Despite the controversy, the NBA was pressing ahead with an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets in Shanghai on Thursday night. Promotional events earlier in the week had been canceled.

From the "identity politics inevitably winds up eating its own" file:

A group of minority rights activists are challenging the anti-climate change movement’s unquestioning embrace of sixteen year old Greta Thunberg and calling support for Thunberg over “woker” eco-spokespeople “racism,” and evidence of “white supremacy.”

A New Zealand news outlet reports that activists who push for greater rights for indigenous peoples — some of the very same activists who are at the forefront of the global anti-climate change movement — are concerned that putting a young, white teenager at the helm of a movement that largely affects the third world sends the wrong message, especially since indigineous people have been pressing the same message for decades.

The activists took to social media to express their distaste in light of Thunberg’s recent appearance in front of the United Nations.

“Y’all need to ask yourselves why you find it so much easier to hear from white people, regardless of age, when it comes to the violence they have caused across the world,” one tweeted. “Our GOBAL climate is in CRISIS. We need EVERYONE to care about this & take action. With that said, it is high time that the very people who have caused such problems STOP getting praised & recognized for finally doing the RIGHT THING.”

“It is a SYMPTOM of global white supremacy that certain people are HEARD & given a platform, certain people have access to the RESOURCES to be the HEROES that the world will pay attention to,” said another. 

In 2016, James Shupe became the first legally recognized non-binary person in post-America. By 2018, he was having misgivings, and went back to being a male. He now thinks all the gender fluidity business is a dangerous delusion. Nicole Russell at The Federalist has an interview with him.

I resonated with Dominic Green's essay at Spectator USA entitled "Who Killed The American Arts?" Longtime LITD readers know that my position, which is also Green's, is that post-American culture is rotten through and through. He goes so far as to say that we've descended into barbarism, which, as I think about it, I really cannot argue with.

There are two Florida businessmen, Lev Parnas and and Igor Fruman, who have a company called Global Energy Producers. They also raise lots of money for Republican political candidates. They also are buds with Rudy Giuliani. They also introduced Giuliani to three former and current Ukrainian prosecutors, with whom Giuliani discussed getting dirt on the Bidens. 

A heart-wrenching series of tweets from FNC's Jennifer Griffin:

Jennifer Griffin‏Verified account @JenGriffinFNC

I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the SDF Kurdish forces. It was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever taken. "I am ashamed for the first time in my career."

3:02 PM - 9 Oct 2019

• 55,154 Retweets
• 111,311 Likes
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5,803 replies55,154 retweets111,311 likes

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   Jennifer Griffin‏Verified account @JenGriffinFNC 20h20 hours ago
   
   This veteran US Special forces soldier has trained indigenous forces on multiple continents. He is on the frontlines tonight and said they are witnessing Turkish atrocities. "Turkey is not doing what it agreed to. It's horrible," this military source on the ground told me.
   373 replies8,898 retweets23,143 likes
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Jennifer Griffin‏Verified account @JenGriffinFNC 20h20 hours ago
   
   "We met every single security agreement. The Kurds met every single agreement. There was NO threat to the Turks - NONE - from this side of the border." "This is insanity," the concerned US service member told me. ""I don't know what they call atrocities but they are happening."
   265 replies9,788 retweets25,453 likes
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Jennifer Griffin‏Verified account @JenGriffinFNC 20h20 hours ago
   
   This American soldier told me the Kurds have not left their positions guarding the ISIS prisoners. In fact "they prevented a prison break last night without us." "They are not abandoning our side (yet)." The Kurds are "pleading for our support." We are doing "nothing."
   487 replies12,836 retweets28,776 likes
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Jennifer Griffin‏Verified account @JenGriffinFNC 20h20 hours ago
   
   Troops on the ground in Syria and their commanders were "surprised" by the decision Sunday night. Of the President's decision: "He doesn't understand the problem. He doesn't understand the repercussions of this. Erdogan is an Islamist, not a level headed actor."
   270 replies6,805 retweets20,980 likes
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Jennifer Griffin‏Verified account @JenGriffinFNC 20h20 hours ago
   
   Acc to this US soldier on the ground tonight in Syria: "The Kurds are as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone. "It's a shame. It's horrible." "This is not helping the ISIS fight." Re: ISIS prisoners: "Many of them will be free in the coming days and weeks."
   311 replies7,451 retweets20,202 likes
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Jennifer Griffin‏Verified account @JenGriffinFNC 20h20 hours ago
   
   This US Special Forces soldier wanted me to know: "The Kurds are sticking by us. No other partner I have ever dealt with would stand by us." Disappointed in the decisions coming from their senior leaders.
   968 replies9,021 retweets28,404 likes
   
   
   
   

Which makes the VSG's smart-ass remark about the Kurds and D-Day all the more vomit-inducing:

He shrugged off the likely escape of ISIS fighters from Kurdish prisons, essentially saying it is Europe's problem, not his. "Well, they're going to be escaping to Europe, that's where they want to go," Trump said. He added that "we have no soldiers in the area." 

Trump downplayed the alliance with the Kurds, 11,000 of whom died fighting to help the US mission against ISIS. "They didn't help us in the second World War, they didn't help us with Normandy for example," Trump said. "They're there to help us with their land, and that's a different thing." Normandy is an area of France, not the US. 

Great Steve Berman essay at The Resurgent entitled "Trump Can't Deliver The Goods He's Promised." It's a good summation of the VSG's foreign-policy failures, including China, North Korea, Russia and Turkey.

It’s all a show to Trump. None of this is “real” except his ratings and what he sees on late-night Fox News shows. He cares much more for what CNN and MSNBC are saying than what he should say on a phone call to a foreign leader.

Trump treats friendly nations like he treated contractors bidding for work on a new resort hotel. But hostiles are handled with kid gloves. If anything were impeachable conduct, it’s that, not asking Ukraine for dirt on Hunter Biden.

Don’t talk to me about other nations paying their “fair share.” Of course, we want that. But not at the cost of letting tyrants, communists, and criminal regimes enjoy carte blanche while America holds the door for them.

Apropos the delusion discussed in the above-linked Federalist piece, Fauxcahontas, the liar who says Daren Wilson murdered Michael Brown, would have male felons suffering from that delusion serve their sentences in women's prisons.

Turkey crosses the border

It's already begun air and artillery strikes in northern Syria in order to pave the way for the seizing of ground.

In his signature style, Trump has made a mess of this entire thing. Consider his mixed signals to Erdogan. Turkey is a NATO member in good standing, but we'll be keeping a sharp eye out for any "unnecessary fighting," which would bring on sanctions that would "obliterate" Turkey's economy. Oh, and would you like to come to the US for a state visit next month?

And the troop withdrawal itself was handled in the worst way possible:

“The abrupt policy decision to seemingly abandon our Kurdish partners could not come at a worse time,” former U.S. Central Command chief, retired Gen. Joseph Votel writesin the The Atlantic. “The decision was made without consulting U.S. allies or senior U.S. military leadership and threatens to affect future partnerships at precisely the time we need them most.”

Votel is the U.S. commander who put together the Syrian Democratic Forces, which began the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, that Turkey considers terrorists. 

“Over four years, the SDF freed tens of thousands of square miles and millions of people from the grip of ISIS. Throughout the fight, it sustained nearly 11,000 casualties. By comparison, six U.S. service members, as well as two civilians, have been killed in the anti-ISIS campaign,” Votel notes in an essay co-authored by Elizabeth Dent, a former State Department counterterrorism official. 

“Key to this effective relationship was mutual trust,” they write. “The sudden policy change this week breaks that trust at the most crucial juncture and leaves our partners with very limited options.”

Already, the VSG shills are putting the not-worth-one-drop-of-American-blood spin on this, disregarding the implications Votel points out above. Tucker Carlson and Kurt Schlichter come to mind.

But a move like this sends signals. Every bad actor out there gunning for the US has been served notice that this nation, with the Very Stable Genius at the helm, is a dazed and stumbling giant.

It's this kind of stuff - today's edition

Actually, I may either need to rename this series of LITD posts or begin another series the name of which expresses a greater degree of alarm at how the Trump phenomenon is making a mess out of several levels of our national life: foreign policy, political discourse, the nation's economic health, and conservatism as a recognizable world view. "It's this kind of stuff" indicates mere annoyance, a message of, "He sure does make it hard to continue supporting him." I was never going to don a MAGA hat, but until recently, I had a fairly solid sense that there were enough adults in positions of influence within the administration that it presented the actual alternative to the Left's obvious agenda of civilizational destruction. I'm now increasingly convinced that it presents nothing but a steaming pile of incoherence.

There's foreign policy.

Regarding China, there is the Very Stable Genius's call for the Chinese government to investigate the Bidens - something which caused LITD to express gratification that Ben Sasse had spoken against it. There's also the VSG's pledge to China to not weigh in on the Hong Kong situation as long as US-China trade negotiations were ongoing. Those freedom-loving protestors filling Hong Kong's streets are not a bargaining chip in a deal, Mr. President. To go back a bit further, there is Trump's characterization, in a tweet, of Xi as an enemy, mere days after saying they had a great relationship (and, in order, you'll recall, to set up Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell as much more of an enemy than Xi - yet another example of how Trump expects heads of autonomous agencies to be his personal henchmen).

Then there is this withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria (a move that has apparently left the Pentagon "completely blindsided") Turkish president Reccep Tayyip Erdogan has long held the region's Kurdish population in low regard, and it's clear he's about to have Turkey invade it. That will pretty much pull the plug on any confidence the largely-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces has had in the United States. And then who will be left to fight the resurgent ISIS that will waste no time regrouping and reestablishing its hellish rule?

Two Senators who have, of late, been quite willing to see Trump as a glass half full are no fans of this latest move:

Here’s what Rubio has said on Twitter: “If reports about US retreat in Syria are accurate, the Trump administration has made a grave mistake that will have implications far beyond Syria.” There’s a weird balance here between condemnation—”a grave mistake”—and a tentative escape route for Trump—”if reports…are accurate.” But of course the reports are accurate! They’re not reports. The White House released the news itself!

Graham was far tougher: “By abandoning the Kurds we have sent the most dangerous signal possible – America is an unreliable ally and it’s just a matter of time before China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea act out in dangerous ways.”

Then there's political discourse. A recent response to a remark by Mitt Romney on Trump's conduct of foreign policy engaged the Utah Senator on the merits of his argument for one short tweet and then  took the alpha-male / playground-bully tactic of trying to portray Romney as a political weakling and loser, alluding, without substantiation, to some kind of growing buyers' remorse on the part of Utah voters, and an assertion (a false assertion) that Romney had begged for Trump's endorsement when Romney ran for Senate.

Rick Moran at PJ Media states exactly what this boils down to:

. . . it's Trump's insistence on slavish loyalty that makes him dangerous. He brooks no criticism whatsoever. If you get out of line by a millimeter, he falls on you like a ton of bricks. He has Republicans terrified and running scared. Trump is partially aided by the hysterical partisanship of Democrats, which creates an atmosphere where sticking together is the only way to survive. But that support is a mile wide and an inch deep. It will melt away if it's found Trump committed an impeachable offense.

Is this really the sort of Republican Party you want -- with Trump as fuhrer taking out his rage on anyone who isn't 100% for him? Romney is a meaningless actor in this drama. Why spend the time cutting his legs off? Used to be in America that "everyone has his own opinion." In Trumpland, you're not allowed that freedom.

Trump's thin skin and pettiness may yet be his undoing.

If the current trajectory continues, we may reach a juncture at which a critical number of GOP lawmakers decide that being shredded on Twitter by the VSG - and the attendant effect on the flow of donor dollars - is a price they're willing to pay in order to speak out against what is happening.

At this point, at the very least, I think Trumpists are beginning to see that actual conservatives with a dedication to a coherent worldview and consistent set of principles never went anywhere, were not marginalized, and intend to keep defending the only viable alternative to leftism.

The West's current decline fits a historical pattern

A most thought-provoking essay at Quillette by Benedict Beckeld. 

He sets the table - somewhat literally - with his recollection of a scene in Rome:

It was an Italian evening in late summer at the end of the previous decade, and I was having dinner outside in the shade of the Roman Colosseum—the emblem of a decadent Empire whose ruins were everywhere to be seen. One of my fellow diners, a young graduate student of Ancient History, suddenly made the disquieting observation that she could never speak ill of another culture. Not only was she unable to do so, but in fact she emphasized that she did not even have the right to do so. When I asked her, alluding to her own Austrian roots, what she might say of a culture that produced, say, Adolf Hitler, she replied that she as an Austrian European may criticize European and Austrian culture, and consequently that brutal dictator.

My follow-up question, whether then by her logic a non-Austrian or non-European should not be allowed to criticize Nazism, did not receive a clear reply. But my fellow diner continued to insist that we should only criticize our own cultures, never others. I thus had one of my frequent meetings with the intellectually bankrupt posture of oikophobia, the hatred or dislike of one’s own cultural home. Significantly, my interlocutor was a part, or at least a future part, of our social elite: a Ph.D. in the making, generally quick-witted, and with a mastery of several languages, both modern and ancient. I looked up at the Colosseum, whose dark and gaping ruin reminds us that all things will perish: our own civilization is heading your way.

This exchange was similar to many that I have had in countries all around the Western world. They reveal a civilization that has stopped believing in itself, that hates itself, and that is therefore unwilling to defend the values of individual freedom, democracy, and scientific and scholarly skepticism that have been handed down to us since antiquity. We are all familiar with this phenomenon, and every single day brings news stories in which oikophobia is involved. To mention just a couple among literally thousands of clearly oikophobic incidents of recent times: this past July the San Francisco School Board voted to remove a mural of George Washington from one of its public schools because of its purported racism; the group leader of American volunteer teachers in Africa some years ago informed the volunteers that residing in a foreign culture had taught her that the United States deserved the 9/11 terrorist attacks because of U.S. foreign policy (I know this because I was one of the volunteers). Actions and statements of this kind have become perfectly commonplace by now, and we all know about them, but most people cannot explain why things are this way. How can it have come to such cultural self-hatred? The answer lies in an oft-repeated historical process that takes a society from naïve and self-promoting beginnings to self-contempt and decline.

He then traces the etymology of the term "oikophpbia" back to a 2003 book by Roger Sruton entitled England and the Need for Nations. Oikos is the ancient Greek term for house or home.

The pattern he describes by which a nation rises to greatness, becomes predominant on the world stage, and then turns inward as its citizens, enjoying an unprecedented standard of living, begin to turn to unproductive preoccupations and to turn on each other.

He says that oikophobia and xenophobia are, generally speaking, recognizably concentrated within the left and right within our culture:

As has been the case in other civilizations, insofar as the political terms of “left” and “right” may have been applicable to them (“progressive” and “conservative” are often more appropriate for ancient civilizations), the oikophobes dominate in left-wing areas, while non-oikophobes and, in some cases, xenophobes and anti-oikophobic reactionaries dominate in right-wing areas. The increased hostility between these two sides in the United States comes at the expected time, since the country has already slipped from its peak and is slowly descending on the other side. The historical development of oikophobia has had a debilitating effect on many aspects of our society, on its culture, politics, and military. It is a nation so fixated by internal squabbles that it is no longer capable of effectively projecting outward, unified force.

That's going to be most unhelpful the next time a hostile foreign power poses an undeniably existential threat  - and that is going to happen at some point.

In the meantime, our biggest danger is going to be that all this civilizational self-hatred is going to remove us ever farther from the West's foundations. Before long - maybe we are already there - we won't even know what it is we need to return to.

That's the challenge: to keep the candle flickering, even though it is so very late in the day.

Barney & Clyde - episode 16

It's here.

Welcome back to the Libation Station!

Pour yourself something bracing, pull up a stool, and join us for an examination of:

1. Dictators in Suits Don't Fool Us!
- China’s 70th Communist Anniversary and Trump’s Tweet about it

2. The Ban on Advancement
- Renewable Portfolio Standards
- Julian Castro’s call for a Nuclear Energy Ban
- Back When Global Cooling was the big scare

3. Maybe Someday we’ll Try a Free Market
- Should there be an International Price Index for Drugs?

Plus Bonus a Patreon only discussion on the Marion County Prosecutor's decision to throw out most Marijuana possession charges!

It's this kind of stuff - today's edition

I suppose there's a dollop of subjectivity in this observation, but it seems to me that the Trump-is-right-and-great-in-any-and-all circumstances crowd is starting to look a little precariously perched on its somewhat-sawed-off branch.

LITD is still nowhere near drawing a firm conclusion on the legality or constitutionality of all that the  VSG has said and done with regard to Ukraine, China, and his political opponents. But we can safely say that it bewilders those with whom he's dealing, and, more basically, that it's damn unseemly.

I'm clearly not the first to point out that he's brought the sharp-elbowed, horse-trading ways of the New York development world to what he sees as proper and effective presidential conduct. The deal is all that matters. The party across the negotiating table is going to be so okay with the terms of a deal that all the previous insults and slander will be forgotten. Furthermore, bargaining chips are where you find them. In the case of China, it may mean not weighing in on the Hong Kong situation in order to keep China engaged on trade:

When President Donald Trump suggested — without prompting — that China should investigate Joe Biden and his son, he thrust another political grudge into what was already the world's most complicated and consequential relationship.

The move startled Chinese officials, who say they have little interest in becoming embroiled in a US political controversy. And it amounted to the latest extraordinary effort by Trump to openly request political assistance from foreign governments.

Thursday's comments weren't the first time Trump has injected Biden into his relationship with China, though he said Thursday he has never pushed Xi to investigate the former vice president. Nor is it the first time he has sought to trade favors with Xi, who this week celebrated the 70th birthday of his communist state with a note of congratulations from Trump.

During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden's political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed.

Now, to someone who sets great store by the flourishing of human rights and sees Hong Kong as the lone outpost of Western-style governing in China, this will register as obscene. To Trump, it's just a component in a game.

Then there's the matter of China's strategic aims. Is it really the kind of regime before which we ought to be airing our dirty laundry, having our president discuss political squabbles? The Chinese use any other kind of US weak spot they find to their advantage, why would this be any different?

I may not know all the exact ways in which this is objectionable, but I would ask the throne-sniffers this: In what way is it defensible?

Ben Sasse's principles appear to be in good shape

A few days ago, I wrote a post entitled "Has Ben Sasse Put A Dent In His Integrity? I'm Not Convinced,"  in which I brought up a recent Charlie Sykes essay at NBC News's Think page. I pointed out that Sykes's substantiation for declaring a Trumpward drift on Sasse's part was pretty thin gruel:

He hangs his argument on three somewhat narrow points of substantiation, though: the national-emergency vote in the Senate, the low profile Sykes claims that Sasse has been keeping since earlier this year, and Trump's endorsement of him.

I thin noted that I was, as I wrote, listening to a Jonah Goldberg podcast conversation with Senator Sasse, and that it satisfied me regarding any concerns Sykes had enumerated.

I'm further encouraged by the forthright way Sasse has responded to the latest boneheaded idea from the Very Stable Genius:

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) pushed back strongly on Thursday night against President Trump's suggestion that the Chinese government investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

 

"Hold up: Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth. If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that’s a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps," Sasse said in a statement to the Omaha World-Herald.

Thank you, Senator.

The wickedness afoot in Seattle public schools

As LITD noted earlier today, in the post about the doctor who got fired for refusing to use a transgender patient's preferred pronouns and the abortionist who offers mother-killers the opportunity to cuddle the corpses of the aborted kids, the Left wants us to value two things pretty much above all else: relativity and feelings. Nothing is fixed or absolute, they would have us believe, and how anything makes you feel is the most important aspect of whatever the thing is.

And, you see, if the thing in question - such as, say, some kind of "white Christian male power structure" - makes you feel "marginalized," well, then, we all have to have an "uncomfortable conversation" about it.

That's clearly the agenda behind this bit of civilization-destruction:

Seattle Public Schools . . . has offered a course for K-12 students titled “Math Ethnic Studies.” The framework for the class lists multiple themes, what students will learn from those themes, and important questions to be asked.

The first theme, “Origins, Identity, and Agency,” is defined as “the ways in which we view ourselves as mathematicians and members of broader mathematical communities.”

“Mathematical theory and application is rooted in the ancient histories of people and empires of color. All human endeavors include mathematical thinking; from humanities to the arts to the sciences,” the framework continues. 

 The “learning targets” for this theme start off without a hitch, suggesting students taking the class will be able to “identify ancient mathematicians and their contributions to mathematics” and “know the continents and countries that were and are at the core of the development of mathematics.” Math history doesn’t seem so bad.

But then the course starts to go off the rails. Under “essential questions” students are asked the following questions, among others:

“What is my mathematical identity”

“How does it feel to be a Mathematician”

“What other mathematicians are in my learning community?”

“Is there an authority for math knowledge?”

“What stories are important to your cultural connection to mathematics?”

“What does it mean to do math?”

“How important is it to be Right? What is Right? Says Who?”

Power and Oppression

Yes, Seattle has determined that such terms exist in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The theme is defined as “the ways in which individuals and groups define mathematical knowledge so as to see ‘Western’ mathematics as the only legitimate expression of mathematical identity and intelligence.”

“This definition of legitimacy is then used to disenfranchise people and communities of color. This erases the historical contributions of people and communities of color,” the framework continues.

The “learning targets” for this themes state that students will be able to “analyze the ways in which ancient mathematical knowledge has been appropriated by Western culture” and to identify and explain how math and other sciences have been “used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”

Further, students will be able to “critique systems of power that deny access to mathematical knowledge to people and communities of color,” “identify the inherent inequities of the standardized testing system used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color,” “explain how math has been used to exploit natural resources,” and “explain how math dictates economic oppression.”

A lengthy list of “essential questions” for this theme include the following:

“Who holds power in a mathematical classroom?”

“Is there a place for power and authority in the math classroom?”

“Who gets to say if an answer is right?”

“Who is Smart? Who is not Smart?”

“Can you recognize and name oppressive mathematical practices in your experience?”

“Why/how does data-driven processes prevent liberation?”

“How is math manipulated to allow inequality and oppression to persist?”

This is one of those cases that almost reads like a parody of what it is. One can easily imagine writers for a comedy show, or an astute opinion writer coming up with this when challenged to create a caricature of woke curriculum design.

Alas, it's for real. This passed through faculty committees and the administrative level of the school district.

How long before your district is spreading this poison?

 

How are we to parse this particular utterance from the Very Stable Genius?

In the space of less than a minute:

Ryan Struyk‏Verified account @ryanstruyk

Trump at 10:37:24 a.m., talking about trade negotiations: "I have a lot of options on China, but if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power." Trump at 10:37:54 a.m., asked about Ukraine probe: "Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens."

8:08 AM - 3 Oct 2019

Now, within that length of time, he apparently was spurred by questions to switch subjects, and so it could be that he sees the two topics as being pretty much unrelated. Perhaps he'd even forgotten about the squeeze-China-if-it-doesn't-do-what-what-we-want-trade-wise talk. I have no great faith in his attention span. Then again, maybe he saw it as his opportunity to tie the two together, to construct a quid pro quo arrangement, much like many perceive he was doing in the Zelensky phone conversation.

Allow me to offer another possibility: He was just winging it, just shooting off his mouth. He just gets off on tough-negotiator talk and is incapable of considering that any feathers he might ruffle disincline others from conducting business with him.

In other words, it's usually a safe course of action not to read too much into his utterances. They fly out of his mouth - or off the keypad of his phone - and he has an entirely different way of looking at it by the time the media and social media are talking about it.

Satan's agents are on the case

Today's metric for gauging how close Western civilization is to completely flatlining:

On Tuesday, a British court ruled that belief in the Bible was “incompatible with human dignity.”

That statement came in a case involving Dr. David Mackereth, a devout Christian who had worked as an emergency doctor for the National Health Service for 26 years. He said he was fired from his job because he refused to call a biological man a woman. The court’s ruling stated: “Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals.” The court added. “… in so far as those beliefs form part of his wider faith, his wider faith also does not satisfy the requirement of being worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with the fundamental rights of others.”

The Telegraph reported that Mackereth said he was removed from his job with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in late June 2018 after his boss “interrogated” him about his personal religious convictions. Mackereth told the court in July that his line manager had asked him, “If you have a man six foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as ‘she’ and ‘Mrs’ would you do that?” Mackereth said that because of his religious beliefs, he could not, and his job was subsequently terminated.

CBN reported that Mackereth’s attorney, Michael Phillips, told the court, “His belief in the truth of the Bible, and in particular, the truth of Genesis 1:27: ‘So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’ It follows that every person is created by God as either male or female. A person cannot change their sex/gender at will. Any attempt at, or pretense of, doing so, is pointless, self-destructive, and sinful.” 

That's a noteworthy aspect of the demonic nature of this situation. The movement to force us all, by virtue of the language we use, to indulge this fantasy that a man can be a woman and vice-versa is aimed at rendering God's creation unrecognizable. Indeed, it's the ultimate gaslighting - getting us to question whether anything can be objectively true.

And we can file this one under, "I Need To Vomit Right Now":

The infamous abortionist LeRoy Carhart invites women to cuddle with their freshly killed babies. His clinic also offers them take-home keepsakes such as photographs and footprints of their child.

Carhart specializes in third-trimester abortions, those done when the baby is approximately 24 weeks of gestation and older. You may recall that he was at the center of the debate on partial-birth abortion when the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 2000. Seven years later, the court upheld a ban on partial-birth abortion.

Along with cuddling, you can avail yourself of these services:

. . . the brochure offers the following “Services After Your Delivery: Viewing your baby after the delivery; Holding your baby after the delivery; Photographs of your baby; Cremation services referral; Funeral arrangements referral; Footprints; Spiritual and ceremonial accommodations [through the facility’s partnership with pro-abort clergy of various stripes]; Remembrance certificate.” 

Again, a particularly demonic aspect of this grotesquerie is the new level to which it takes all-about-me-ism. It offers the illusion of absolving the killer, of wrapping the killer in the warm blanket of "perfectly understandable mixed feelings." A person is dead at the hands of Dr. Carhart and at the direction of the mother, but that is a mere secondary consideration. The dead person's impact on the mother's "feelings" is overwhelmingly what matters.

Where all this leads is a godless state that determines who each of us is, what we are worth, and for what purpose we're allowed to exist.

God will not tolerate our giving him the middle finger forever.

Some excellent and much-needed pushback against the utter fiction that the global climate is in a state of crisis

A declaration that needs wide dissemination:

The message was clear: “There is no climate emergency.”

With those five simple words, a global network of scientists and professionals attempted to inject reasonableness and decorum into what should be a robust discussion about a complex scientific and public policy issue, but has instead degenerated into an ever more intense mud-slinging contest over the years.

People on one side of the argument dismiss their opponents as wild-eyed socialists attempting to leverage public fear and ignorance to further their political agenda. On the opposite side, people dismiss those who disagree with their supposedly settled scientific conclusions as nothing more than knowing shills or ignorant dupes of evil energy interests.

In between those extremes that are so popular with armies of public relations professionals, who shape the messages of public interest groups and professional politicians to maximum effect, are a not-so-quiet silent majority of scientists and professionals who take a more measured, reasoned view of the science when considering the supposed climate emergency some say we’re facing.

A group of 500-some scientists and professionals signed on to the “European Climate Declaration” that was released last week. This simple, short, and understandable statement proposed how analysis of any public policy issue involving complex science should be approached from a reasoned, fact-based perspective.

Wait a minute, what about that 97 percent consensus?

 

Statements such as “97 percent of climatologists agree that anthropogenic climate change is occurring” isn’t a statement of fact, it’s an opinion twice removed. It’s an opinion that involves evaluation of the legitimacy of how the results of the poll in question were sorted to dismiss some answers and allow others, and it’s an opinion in terms of how representative the sample size is with respect to all climate professionals.

Statements such as “modeling shows that catastrophic climate change will occur in the next [pick a number] years unless drastic changes are made” is also an opinion. It’s an opinion because the results of any model, and in particular any model that purports to predict the future of anything as complex as the entire planet’s climate system, necessarily relies on a multitude of choices made by the model’s designer. The relative importance of the many, many factors that go into the model’s complex calculations are based on the judgments of the model designer, and those judgments are matters of opinion, not statements of fact.

The signatories have also sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guttierez. We shall see if he has any response.

Three big takeaways from the declaration:

One: “The world has warmed at less than half the originally predicted rate, and at less than half the rate to be expected on the basis of net anthropogenic forcing and radiative imbalance. It tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.”

Two: “Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools. Moreover, they most likely exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.”

Three: “There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. If better approaches emerge, we will have ample time to reflect and adapt. The aim of international policy should be to provide reliable and affordable energy at all times, and throughout the world.”

Thank you, signatories.

 

Two major obstacles to the Dems' impeachment agenda

John Podhoretz at Commentary says there are two factors that have arisen that could quickly turn this latest attempt to nail the president into a big fizzle:

The first concerns a difficult-to-understand detail in one of the early stories on the matter by Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times. Vogel reported that the Ukrainians were unaware of the suspension of U.S. military aid when Presidents Trump and Zelensky had their phone call on July 25. That detail has now been confirmed by Christopher Miller, an expert reporter in Kyiv, in a Buzzfeed dispatch: “The Ukrainian government didn’t know it was being held up in Washington by Trump, according to the two Ukrainian officials. Nearly a month after the call—which Zelensky has since described as ‘good’ and Trump has called ‘perfect’—the Ukrainian government was left stumped when they received word that the aid had in fact been suspended.”

Obviously, if Zelensky did not know about the aid suspension, then the entire notion that the call was drenched in Trumpian mob-boss menace is wrong. To be sure, Ukraine is dependent on American good will, and when Trump asked Zelensky for the favor of looking into something, he was leaning on that. But the “do this for me or you’ll never get that money” threat was not hanging unspoken in the air for the simple reason that Zelensky had no idea the money wasn’t in the pipeline. The House can investigate this all they like and find every manner of supposedly nefarious conduct in the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and thus-far inexplicable aid suspension (and reinstatement on September 11).

The second detail is that the whistleblower who revealed the phone conversation in the first place was in touch with the office of Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee—which means Schiff knew about the whistleblower’s concerns before he wrote the report. The New York Times story claims the whistleblower was dissatisfied with the way the chief lawyer at the CIA heard his claims. An aide to Schiff “suggested the officer find a lawyer to advise him and meet with an inspector general, with whom he could file a whistle-blower complaint. The aide shared some of what the officer conveyed to Mr. Schiff.” Thus it appears the way in which the contents of the phone call made its way into the general conversation was literally orchestrated by Schiff’s office. If this is accurate, it means Schiff has been an active participant in these events rather than merely a horrified spectator and eventual judge in his role as House Judiciary Committee chair. And a liar, as he said he had no idea what was in the report.

Podhoretz goes on to stress that he is in no way defending how the Very Stable Genius has handled all of this. The VSG's utter lack of discretion, subtlety, and ability to put together two coherent sentences in a row,  combined with his conflation of his own political situation with the national interest, brought on his present troubles.

He continues to make it worse, by the way. His tweets over the last few days have exuded a fair amount of meltdown vibe. His bizarre and awkward press interaction while seated next to the Finnish president was unhelpful in the extreme.

This is one of those contemporary situations we see so frequently in post-America that, unless one is an ate-up tribalist of one stripe or another, presents us with no heroes to cheer for.

Tuesday roundup

One area where the moment of having been made great again seems to have petered out:

A gauge of U.S. manufacturing showed the lowest reading in more than 10 years in September as exports dived amid the escalated trade war.

The U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers’ index from the Institute for Supply Management came in at 47.8% in September, the lowest since June 2009, marking the second consecutive month of contraction. Any figure below 50% signals a contraction.

The new export orders index was only 41%, the lowest level since March 2009, down from the August reading of 43.3%, ISM data showed.

“We have now tariffed our way into a manufacturing recession in the U.S. and globally,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. 

Go ahead and toss that well-marbled boneless ribeye on the grill:

A study jointly released by McMaster and Dalhousie universities, out in Science Daily yesterday, found that international scientists have “systematically reviewed the evidence” and “have recommended that most adults should continue to eat their current levels of red and processed meat.”

Wow. Here’s more from the findings:

The researchers performed four systematic reviews focused on randomized controlled trials and observational studies looking at the impact of red meat and processed meat consumption on cardiometabolic and cancer outcomes.

In one review of 12 trials with 54,000 people, the researchers did not find statistically significant or an important association between meat consumption and the risk of heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

In three systematic reviews of cohort studies following millions of people, a very small reduction in risk among those who had three fewer servings of red or processed meat a week, but the association was uncertain.

The authors also did a fifth systematic review looking at people’s attitudes and health-related values around eating red and processed meats. They found people eat meat because they see it as healthy, they like the taste and they are reluctant to change their diet.

The five systematic reviews, a recommendation and an editorial on the topic were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine today.

Secretary of State Pompeo tells the House Foreign Affairs Committee, forget about getting depositions from people from my department. You just want a chance to bully them.

What's with the VSG tweeting congratulations to Xi on Communist China's 70th anniversary?

The inspector general for the intelligence community says the whistleblower used the proper form to file his or her complaint.