In logic, a single negative undermines a universal affirmative.
Here's an example:
Universal affirmative: All trees are yellow.
Single negative: Yes, perhaps, but over there is a brown tree.
Universal affirmative: Yeah, so what? Who cares?
That's how marriages end.
It becomes tiresome listening to folks state universal affirmatives that easily can be undercut by a single negative. For those who are convinced that their universal affirmative is sound, they might better argue that the greater preponderance of evidence supports their theory rather than yours. It's Law School 101. To win over the jury, you start with a theory and then do your best to back it up. Science works that way, too. One starts with an hypothesis. The person who makes the claim must back it up with facts. The burden is upon the claimant to provide sufficient evidence. That's how arguments work ... or at least how they should work ... assuming the presumption of innocence ... or ignorance. Or maybe I'm mansplaining. I guess it depends on how you want the night to end. A plea deal might work better.
Skepticism should be the default position in any serious disagreement. Trust me, the best first response is to bow up, raise a wary eyebrow and say, Me? You talking about me? Force the person making the claim to back it up with compelling evidence. Otherwise, it's just a bald-faced claim swinging in the wind, or, to switch metaphors, an emotional statement in search of an argument, and you defend accordingly. Most couples work through such disagreements. Some don't, given the evidence. You must be the judge of that.
Anyway, I wasn't thinking about you. My mind was on ...
Elena Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor were incensed this past Wednesday when a majority of their fellow Supreme Court justices ruled 5-4 against forcing government employees to pay union dues. Here's a snippet:
In a major legal and political defeat for big labor, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that state government workers cannot be forced to pay so-called "fair share" fees to support collective bargaining and other union activities.
And here's a major reason why the SC ruled the way it did. I'm not opposed to unions per se, just so you know. Indeed, there was a time in our nation's history when it was lese majeste to criticize unions, and rightfully so. Coal miners and steel workers led a noble charge in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Then, with success and dues-paying wealth came internal corruption among the most powerful of labor leaders. Yes, I've just oversimplified a complicated history, but these days a growing number of government workers don't want to see the blanket imposition of mandatory dues get spent on political causes they think are wrong. The Supreme Court agrees.
The majority decision represents a huge blow to government unions, who spend a sizable portion of those dues on contributions to Democrat re-election campaigns.
Following the SC vote, a neighbor of mine got both Kagan and Sotomayor on a conference call. My neighbor is a polite, cheerful and articulate woman who simply disagrees that dues forcibly extracted from employees must be paid out to Democrat causes. Here's the only part of her conversation I overheard (/s):
Nice lady, I tell ya'.
*****
In other news ...
10-term Democrat incumbent Joe Crowley (D-NY, 14th Congressional District) just got primaried and blown-out by fellow Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28 year-old avowed Democrat-Socialist who ran on a campaign of "free stuff." Some thought Crowley would be next in line to follow Pelosi as House Democrat leader. The primary results measured 9.6 on the political Richter Scale, similar to when Republican Eric Cantor got primaried back in 2014 over the Obamacare issue. The Democrat Party just keeps lurching farther and farther left. Problem is, they are losing Libertarians and a significant number of minorities, which helps explain why the #WalkAway movement is getting traction. Go here, if it interests you, or here, to learn more about the #WalkAway folks.
Political activist Linda Sarsour once again is ramping up to scream tomorrow that Trump and his deplorables are fascists. Last time it was because Trump proposed restrictions on immigration from certain Muslim countries with poor airport security protocols, which Sarsour said caused her to be oppressed and denied her humanity. Oy, veh. I would hate to live in her brain. Her screed tomorrow will be about ripping children from their parents at the border. Ho hum. Her hateful jeremiads have become tiresome. Recent medical studies claim that regular sex contributes to good mental and physical health. Linda Sarsour strikes me as a sourpuss. Perhaps she will pursue a medicinal cure.
And now even CNN's Jake Tapper has turned on Keith Ellison, deputy-chair of the Democratic National Committee, for Ellison's support of Louis Farrakhan's sexist, anti-LGBTQ and anti-semitic references. Here's Tapper:
“You’ve been decrying President Trump’s bigotry, obviously you used to follow somebody who continually expressed sexist, anti-LGBTQ and anti-Semitic bigotry, Louis Farrakhan...
You can watch Ellison's equivocation here. Trust me, eating a can of alphabet soup does not make you intelligent.
Yes, Democrats, this is the near future of your party. Having no platform except vitriol, bitter aspersions, a penchant for hypocrisy and a preference for higher taxes and increased unemployment, your party lurches ever closer toward the cliff. So you don't think I pick sides, I also notice that Republicans won't stop shooting themselves in the foot until they get all ten toes. John McCain and Jeff Flake help lead the way, followed by many others who keep their heads down so you don't know who they are. There are some good people on both sides, separated only by their policy proposals. On the Republican side, I will cite Devin Nunes. On the Democrat side, Tulsi Gabbard. There are others. Nonetheless, the swamp runs through both aisles. Trump is draining their habitat. Just count the number of folks not running for re-election. Record highs.
*****
Now for some fun stuff. Such as this "You Woke?" video courtesy of the BBC. It's all you need to know about today's thought-police. Sorry I can't post the video itself, but the link will get you there. The final sentence is priceless.
Okay, except for a few of my friends who are rich, fat and lazy -- well, okay, mostly rich but not fat and lazy, though you know who you are -- the rest of us need a reason to finish the week. It's hump day Wednesday for us. We're only halfway there. So, naturally, this post is for us. Our paychecks don't come until the end of the week.
So anyway ...
I guess you heard about Maxine Waters. Yeah, me too. Ugh. Poor woman doesn't know better. She's dumb as a post. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Allegedly, at some point she had a brain. Or so I heard. Now she's doing her best imitation of Nancy Pelosi. Birds of a feather, or so the saying goes. So enough about them.
I love Candice Owens. Not just smart, but young and pretty. She's a lucky girl to have both qualities. I'm proud for her parents and family, regardless of their politics. What a daughter they produced! Good people are just ... good. It works that way. It's an apple and tree kind of thing.
Speaking of funny in a serious kind of way, did you catch the 2018 MTV Award recently given to Chris Pratt? If not, you can see it here. Hide you eyes if you are inoculated against religious beliefs mixed with humor. And totally ignore the point where he advises mixing dog food with meat, when he's actually referring to his own strategy for feeding his religious message to the audience. More importantly, listen to how the youthful audience cheers at the high points:
Otherwise, enjoy. Leftists simply don't realize when they are being trolled.
Anyway, Happy Wednesday. Friday is just two days away. Then we get paid.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. So said Dean Wormer (Animal House).
Why, oh why, aren't illegal immigrants flooding into Venezuela, provided they bring their own toilet paper and an edible pet or two. You think maybe for this reason?
Why, oh why, aren't immigrants illegally flooding into Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Somalia?
Oh, that's right, I forgot. For this reason, and this and this.
People tend to vote with their feet. Just like Jews who fled Germany in the late 1930s, and who fled the Russian pogroms before that. So if Drumpf is such an evil dictator, why aren't Mexicans trying to stop us at the border from fleeing Drumpf's persecutions? Why aren't they demanding a wall to keep us out? Please respond. Apparently I'm missing something.
Those who claim that the U.S. is a country founded by immigrants are certainly correct, even if we go back to the days of native American Indians, all of whom forcibly took their happy hunting grounds from earlier tribes, if I understand recorded history correctly. I doubt anyone with a third-grade education would claim otherwise. It must have sucked to have been an original inhabitant. But it's also true that 2+2 equals 4. So what's the point about the U.S. being a land of immigrants? What relevant question does that answer?
The U.S. is also the former home of sabre-toothed tigers, the La Brea tar pits and a breeding ground of mosquitoes that carry viruses. It's also the place where scalping one's enemies once was popular, bedbugs were common, smallpox and cholera were deadly and subsistence-living was the norm, where alligator gar still can be found in most southern rivers, and where grizzly bears still may tear you apart. All of these statements are statements of fact. None of them are claimed to be the answer to anything but a trivial question. They merely are statements that can be verified (or falsified) in regard to the history of the land mass now known as the U.S.A. And they all existed, in one form or another, in recorded history. So if someone defends an open border policy by insisting that America is a land of immigrants, please help introduce them to the fourth grade. I think history begins to be taught then. Then comes logic, which I hear is still offered in some colleges.
Anyway, what was my point? I don't remember. So, I'll start another one.
Don't be stupid. But if you suspect you might be, just keep your mouth shut. It makes you look smart.
In Nassim Taleb's 2018 NYTimes #1 bestseller entitled Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life, he has a chapter entitled, The Intellectual Yet Idiot. Taleb is no dummy. His 2007 book, The Black Swan, was hailed by Britain's Sunday Times as one of the 12 most influential books since WWII. The year following his publication of The Black Swan, in which he predicted an impending banking and economic disaster, international markets collapsed because only a few of the "experts" were willing to recognize the black swan in their midst. We all took a hit in those days.
Anyway, in his most recent book, Skin in the Game, he turns his attention to a term he introduced several years earlier, The Intellectual Yet Idiot, about which he wrote:
What we have been seeing worldwide, from India to the UK to the US, is the rebellion against the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policymaking “clerks” and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think… and 5) who to vote for.
But the problem is the one-eyed following the blind: these self-described members of the “intelligentsia” can’t find a coconut in Coconut Island, meaning they aren’t intelligent enough to define intelligence hence fall into circularities — but their main skill is capacity to pass exams written by people like them. With psychology papers replicating less than 40%, dietary advice reversing after 30 years of fatphobia, macroeconomic analysis working worse than astrology, the appointment of Bernanke who was less than clueless of the risks, and pharmaceutical trials replicating at best only 1/3 of the time, people are perfectly entitled to rely on their own ancestral instinct and listen to their grandmothers (or Montaigne and such filtered classical knowledge) with a better track record than these policymaking goons.
Taleb is an intellectual who understands his own kind all too well. He's not referring to smart people, per se, but to smart people (especially decision-makers) who have no skin in the game. Those are the ones we must keep an eye on. Taleb says they are the most-likely candidates for intellectuals yet idiots, and he cites numerous examples.
Being book-smart is commendable. Nothing wrong with it in the least. Our education system is built on the premise that book-smart people tend to do better financially than most others, and they do. Plus, they contribute admirably to society. No complaint there. Who wants a dummy for a neuro-surgeon or a lawyer? But Taleb points out that many book-smart people tend to have a difficult time surviving on Main Street aside from their connections, inherited bank account, licensing pedigree or glib tongue, unless they stand to lose just as much as the people who suffer from their bad judgments. IYIs can make decisions and hold opinions that are as idiotic as the dumbest guy in their high school graduating class, and oftentimes more destructive, if only because they have no skin in the game. Ask the honest among them and they will tell you so themselves. Hence Taleb's intellectual yet idiot.
If you want to get into the Way Back Machine, here's Milton Friedman in the 1970s doing his best impression of Nassim Taleb with an IYI (-- ignore the ads on the screen; I couldn't find the original video on short notice):
In other words, don't sell yourself or the wisdom of your ancestors short. Common sense, humility and shared responsibility are good things. For those who smugly disagree, there's always a life in politics, academia or the annals of the Darwin Award.
If you care to discuss the current illegal immigration problem with others, this unrolled thread by "Sundance" at The Last Refuge is a helpful place to start.
Thread by @TheLastRefuge2: "1. Once you see the strings on the marionettes you can never watch the pantomime the same way you did before you noticed them. 2. DATELINE - […]"
1. Once you see the strings on the marionettes you can never watch the pantomime the same way you did before you noticed them.
2. DATELINE - May 2011 – President Obama travels to the Rio Grande sector of the border to push for his immigration platform (ie. Amnesty). He proclaims the border is safe and secure and famously attacks his opposition for wanting an “alligator moat”.
3. November 2012 – Election year campaign(s). Using wedge issues like “War on Women”, and “Immigration / Amnesty”, candidate Obama promises to push congress for “amnesty”, under the guise of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”, if elected.
President Obama wins reelection.
4. December 2012 – Immediately following reelection President Barack Obama signs an Executive Order creating the “Deferred Action Program“, or DACA. Allowing millions of illegal aliens to avoid deportation.
5. According to White House own internal documents and research, this Deferred Action Program is what the Central American communities immediately began using as the reason for attempted immigration.
6. In both (A) Border Control Study; and (B) DHS intelligence report; the DACA program is mentioned by the people apprehended at the border in 2013 and 2014.
7. May 2013 – President Barack Obama visits South America. Following a speech for Mexican entrepreneurs, Obama then traveled to Costa Rica, his first visit as president.
8. cont.. In addition to meetings with Costa Rican President Laura Chincilla, President Obama attended a gathering of leaders from the Central American Integration System, (CAIS).
9. The regional network includes the leaders of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. President Obama meets with the leaders of the Central American Countries.
10. Summer 2013 – Numbers of Illegal Unaccompanied Minors reaching the Southern U.S. border from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua doubles. 20,000+ reach U.S. Southern border by travelling through Mexico. Media primarily ignores. fpc.state.gov/documents/orga…
11. October 2013 – At the conclusion of the immigrant travel season. White House receives notification that tens of thousands of illegal Unaccompanied Minors should be anticipated to hit the Southern U.S. border the following Summer [2014].
12. An estimated 850% increase in the number of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC's) were reported to the White House. fpc.state.gov/documents/orga…
[In 2012 less than 10,000 were projected]
13. January 2014 – In response to the projections, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posts a jobs notification seeking bids to facilitate 65,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children. fbo.gov/index?s=opport…
14. IMPORTANT. This job posting was January 2014. The Obama administration was *planning for* 65,000 childhood arrivals. In January 2014 they were taking contractor bids for services to be used later in year. Almost no-one noticed.
15. On January 29, 2014, the federal gov. posted an ad seeking bids for a vendor contract to handle “Unaccompanied Alien Children“. Not just any contract mind you, a very specific contract – for a very specific number of unaccompanied minors: "65,000." fbo.gov/index?s=opport…
16. [*Two Weeks Later*] February 2014 – President Obama visits Mexico for “bilateral talks”, in an unusual and unscheduled one day visit:
17. Spring 2014 – With a full year of DACA, successful transport and border crossing without deportation – DHS begins to notice a significant uptick in number of criminal elements from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; which have joined with UAC’s to gain entry.
18. Additionally, 2014 internal administration DHS documents reveal the “refugee” status is now being used by both criminal cartels, and potentially by Central American government(s) to send prison inmates into the U.S.
19. June 2014 – Tens-of-thousands of UAC's from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua hit the border and the headlines. Despite the known planning, and prior internal notifications, the White House claims it did not see this coming.
20. Internal documents including a –DHS Border Security Alert– show that in March, 2014, fully three months earlier, the White House was aware of what was coming in June.
21. June 20th 2014 – Congressional leadership and key Latino Democrats from the Democrat Hispanic Caucus meet with representatives from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. kfgo.com/news/articles/…
22. June/July 2014 – By the end of June the media have picked up the story and it’s called “A Border Crisis”. However, the White House is desperate to avoid exposure to the known criminal elements within the story.
23. July 3rd, 2014 – President Obama requests $3,700,000,000 ($3.7 billion) in supplemental budget appropriations to deal with the border crisis. Only $109 million is for actual border security or efforts to stop the outflow from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
24. Hidden inside the massive budget request is Obama seeking legal authorization to spend taxpayer funds for lawyers and legal proceedings on behalf of UAC’s and their families. Congress is being asked to approve/fund executive branch’s violation of immigration law (DACA).
25. Section 292 of Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits representation of aliens “in immigration proceedings at government expense“. President Obama was seeking authorization to use taxpayer funds to provide Illegal Aliens with government lawyers.
26. July 10th, 2014 – Facing pushback from congress as well as sticker shock at the amount he is requesting, President Obama sends his DHS team to Capitol Hill to ramp up anxiety, and threats of consequences: politico.com/story/2014/07/…
27. “We are preparing for a scenario in which the number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the border could reach up to 90,000 by the end of fiscal 2014,” Johnson’s testimony reads: politico.com/story/2014/07/…
28. Not only did the White House know what was going to happen (as far back as 2012), but White House actually constructed events to fall into a very specific pattern and intentionally did NOTHING to stop the consequences from the DACA executive order issued in December 2012.
29. This is the origin of the crisis. It all started with DACA. Having tracked this issue so closely through the years it often feels futile to discuss. It is an ongoing insufferable political game/scheme within the issue of illegal immigrants and "children".
30. Massive illegal immigration is supported by both sides of the professional political machine. There are few issues more unifying for the K-Street purchased voices of DC politicians than keeping the borders open and the influx of illegal aliens as high as possible.
31. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pays politicians to keep this system in place. All Democrats and most Republicans support mass immigration. Almost no DC politicians want to take action on any policy or legislation that stops the influx.
32. There are billions at stake. None of the GOP leadership want to actually stop illegal immigration; it’s a lucrative business. Almost all of the CONservative groups and politicians lie about it.
33. The religious right is also part of the problem. In the past 15 years illegal immigration and refugee settlement has been financially beneficial for them.
34. There is no greater disconnect from ordinary Americans on any singular issue than the policy positions of Democrats and Republicans in Washington DC surrounding immigration. President Donald Trump is confronting their unified interests.
35. All political opposition to the Trump administration on this issue is structured, planned & coordinated. The issue is a valuable tool for the professional political class to sow chaos amid politicians. The resulting crisis is useful for them; therefore they fuel the crisis.
36. Washington DC and the activist media, are infested with illegal immigration supporters; the issue is at the heart of the UniParty. Follow the money. It’s the Acorn business model:
37. Southwest Key has been given $310,000,000, in taxpayer funds so far in 2018. And that’s just one company, in one part of a year. Prior CTH research showed this specific “Private Company” nets 98.76% of earnings from government grants. taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDe…
38. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which provides foster care and other child welfare services to migrant children. “Faith Based Immigration Services” is a code-speak for legalized human smuggling. taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDe…
39. The “faith-based” crew don’t want it to stop, because facilitating illegal alien import is now the financial bread and butter amid groups in their base of support. taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDe…
40. The man/woman in the pew might not know; but the corporation minister, preacher or priest (inside the process) surely does. BIG BUSINESS !! taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/RecipDe…
41. These immigration groups, get *MASSIVE* HHS grants and then pay-off the DC politicians and human smugglers. Billions of dollars are spent, and the business end of immigration has exploded in the past six years.
42. It’s a vicious cycle. Trafficked children are more valuable than adults because the organizations involved get more funding for a child than an adult. Each illegal alien child is worth about $56,000 in grant money. The system is full of fraud.
43. Approximately 65% of the money HHS provides is spent on executive pay and benefits, opaque administrative payrolls, bribes, kick-backs to DC politicians and payoffs to the South American smugglers who bring them more immigrants.
44. As best it can be determined, approximately 35% ($19,000) of HHS funds are spent on the alien/immigrant child; maybe. It gets really sketchy deep in the accounting.
45. All of those advocates gnashing their teeth and crying on television have no idea just who is controlling this process; and immigration idiots like Ted Cruz are only adding more fuel, more money, to the bottom line:
"This has to stop," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said when asked about the separation of migrant families at the border in his state. He'll also be introducing legislation "that will mandate that kids must stay with their parents."
46. By threatening to secure the border, President Trump is threatening a Washington DC-based business model that makes money for a lot of connected interests.
47. Beyond enrichment schemes, the entire process of immigration, and Washington-DC legalized human smuggling, has side benefits for all the participants; child sexploitation, child labor, and yes, much worse (you can imagine).
48. So the next time you see this type of terribly misplaced "crying girl" corporate propaganda:
49. Maybe, just maybe, we can remember the *real* consequences of actual legalized human smuggling that has been created -within the business- by U.S. political policy.
