The Problem of Hindsight

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Events in the rearview mirror appear clearer than they are.

It is important to remember that though we are the victims of a 20th century “conspiracy” it wasn’t really a conspiracy. More of a prospiracy. A loose group of people blundering around doing things because they seemed right, who didn’t actually foresee the disastrous and terrifying consequences of their behavior, their ideological allegiance, or their corruption of what their profession should be.

Take war for instance.

A lot of us are quietly revolted at what the Trump presidency and those who oppose it revealed. We thought Trump was nuts when he spoke of withdrawing our support from things like NATO, or at least making the other nations pay their fair share.

And then– Well, the Trump presidency happened, with its twin revelations that the war in the Middle East, and our involvement in it, including our dependency on foreign oil was optional, and that the military industrial complex would do anything — ANYTHING — rather than let the permanent state of war end.

This has hit me very hard, coming from an Academia background (look, not my fault, okay? I got pushed into it) and having heard the left natter forever about the Military-industrial-complex. I don’t want to think they were right, including the hippie paranoia that young men were sent to die so old men could keep power.

But in the light of how hard the brass fought to keep us from withdrawing from the Middle East, and how strangely they seem to be cheering for a world war, it’s hard to keep from agreeing.

This has hit me very hard. It’s hit my military veteran friends harder.

However, it helps if you realize that no, you didn’t fight for a lie. You fought for what seemed from facts available as the best thing to do, at the time, for us and for our country.

First, let’s dispose of the sappy, bizarre idea of our er… friends on the left, who think the US military is a sort of charitable organization, which should be deployed abroad, whenever someone is being mistreated or even to enforce the left’s rather weird beliefs and gospel. (Hence trying to push transgender notions on Afghanistanis that give laughter belly aches to Iowa farm boys.)

That’s not the purpose of a military. That was never the purpose of a military. No matter how much you would like the military to be sort of missionaries of wokeness, that’s not what an armed force is for. An armed force is either to protect the homeland (which our current administration is singularly determined in refusing to do) or to invade other nations (which they want to do, but only if our boys can die to prove … I don’t know what. Maybe to protect 10% for the big guy.)

At least the American right’s use of the military is seemingly saner. Seemingly, because it tries to fit into those two uses. To be fair, into the first one. It’s just that over time it too has gotten corrupted and slid away from what is needed and into pie in the sky.

And then there is the tendency for any human institution to perpetuate itself, no matter how stupid or harmful its purpose, because it is the job of the persons running it.
Suppose tomorrow there was a plague that rotted infants from the toes up, so that if you didn’t immediately cut an infants’ toes off, they would die sometime before five. An organization would be formed to cut infants’ toes off, and develop all sorts of branches and sub-organizations. Then twenty years later, someone discovered that a simple antibiotic stopped the death. Do you think the infant-toes-cutting-off bureaucracy would go away? Really? Why?

I bet you they would come up with a million reasons why cutting off day-olds’ toes was better for the baby, and stridently refuse to disband and/or change policy.

This is sort of how we got here.

No one meant to create a bureaucracy that would overshadow the elected branches, only… well, the future was self-obviously more organized and centralized. Look at how much better centralized production worked. And how more efficient it was. And educated people had a clear vision of what the future brought — dinned into their heads by statist and increasingly more Marxian professors — that they could make true, no matter what goobers were elected.

No one meant to create a self-perpetuating military that would hobble itself in order to lose wars to the world’s most liliputian militaries and be about as useful as a chocolate hammer, but less tasty.

But the US really despises foreign entanglements, as a culture. We want to live in our land and tend our garden. And we can. But WWI and WWII and the cold war were viewed as “they just won’t live us alone.”

Our intelligence services are even less useful than a chocolate hammer. Perhaps as useful as Kleenex soaked in piss. Part of this is that Americans born and bred are curiously blind to the uniqueness of America and incapable of understanding totalitarian regimes. So they took Moscow — and Beijing — at their own word. Which made them seem like a formidable enemy indeed.

So…. well, peace through superior firepower. We’ll finally get them to leave us alone. Which means we grew, and grew, and grew. And the industry and commerce associated with war grew along with the military. And all of it tended toward use. Not helped by the “threats” our intelligence agencies keep finding or manufacturing.

It wasn’t so much a fine tuned conspiracy. Back then with what we knew — and remember agencies and governments relied on the exact same corrupt prospiracy we call the Main Stream Media — we did what seemed right. We, both as a country and as individuals.

It is acceptable to sigh at how deluded we were. It’s not acceptable to think the delusion was carefully created.

It was the result of bad education, bad media, and people’s natural tendency to want their job to be important.

That it’s now revealed to be a tissue of lies is important too.

The human tendency is to lie to ourselves, to unify our fractured understanding by telling ourselves no, it’s all right, we were right all along. I think that’s why the left is chivvying us along to world war, and it will be through no fault of their own if we’re not at war in our territory by March 2024. At some level they want the dissonance to go away. They want “unity” inside and out.

But we can’t afford it. Either the war, or the false plastering over the truths we now know.

The world has changed. We see very clearly what’s been going on. After the crash everyone can feel, it’s important to remember this is above all the result of centralization and bureaucratization of government.

It’s important to go small, go local, go as specific as possible.

Because no matter how evil or temporary their purpose, bureaucracies will self-perpetuate and destroy the republic.

Let’s build the republic and prune back bureaucracy.

150 thoughts on “The Problem of Hindsight”

  1. War is the health of the state, It was a lefty who wrote it and a lefty (zinn, spit) who still keeps it alive, but it’s true, all too true.

    Good money in war and people at war will put up with all sorts they wouldn’t otherwise.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Possibly pack up his skimmed money in a Swiss bank account and head for some country where he he can’t be extradited to the US, Russia or the Ukraine. Although the FSB doesn’t tend to use extradition, they just pump you full of polonium or have you “fall” off a building.

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          1. I’m simply assuming Trump will be on the side of “Don’t go to war with Russia over Ukraine, and stop sending billions of U.S. tax dollars to Ukrainian oligarchs with zero oversight or accountability.” I think that’s a reasonable assumption.

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            1. I concur, Trump holds what is a reasonable position which is we don’t intervene if there is NOT a clear national interest. The clear national interest was keeping promises to the Ukrainians after convincing them to give up their WMD. Obumbles threw that out the door in 2014. Why keep throwing money at something when it is clear that government there is a Kleptocracy. On top of that its clear the folks primarily benefiting on our side are your direct opponents. Maybe Zelensky will stay and fight on, but I’m not going to put money on it. The only thing that has let Ukraine hang in there is the fact that the Russian Military is doing the usual dumb military general thing and fighting the last war (in this case WWII, or the Great Patriotic War). And to be honest without gobs of lend lease and a willingness to spend soldiery like they were water they wouldn’t have fared well in that but for some serious dumbassery by Hitler near the mid to end game.

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          2. If Trump isn’t cheated he will end the war within 24 hours.
            That doesn’t mean he is on the side of the Russians.
            It means he isn’t on the side of war.
            I’m surprised you don’t understand that.

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  2. “Because no matter how evil good their purpose, bureaucracies will self-perpetuate and destroy the republic.”

    Pretty sure you want to fix this.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Good bureaucracies self-perpetuating become evil, eventually, I think. The “self-perpetuating” part seems to mean that they continue going on, not because they are needed, but because the people in them depend on them. Or convince themselves they are needed.

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        1. Because there is evil inherent in every single human soul, evil is within the bureaucracy from the get-go. That evil is, as our host stated, in the unwillingness to surrender power, the need for control, and the excuse-making when it comes time to anything that reduces the size of the budget.

          Whilst some bureaucracy is necessary for things to get done,
          I believe it to also be blindingly obvious that bureaucracies needed to be aggressively weeded back on a regular basis to keep them from getting uppity.

          Also that the weeding back should not be done by another bureaucracy, for obvious reasons. But people are lazy. Thus, the current situation.

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          1. Yes! We all are capable of both great evil and great good. The problem is evil is the path of least resistance while good is only comes with great effort and self control. This is why the constitution was set up to prevent any single person (or group) from getting unchecked power. Once you succumb to money/power/sex it is extremely difficult to repent and turn around.

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      2. There is no such thing as a good bureaucracy. Please see Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics:

        Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.
        Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing.
        The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

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        1. Um….. how about some bureaucracies aren’t outright evil? I know some usually charitable, dating back to the middle ages. Sometimes annoying, but not evil.

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  3. The appropriate tool for pruning the bureaucracy is a chainsaw. Start with 95% and then decide how much more to cut.
    ———————————
    The one thing we need more of from the government is LESS!!

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      1. The Reader thinks that’s a tad overkill. 5 MT will do nicely without collateral damage beyond the DC suburbs.

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      2. It’s tempting, but think off Abraham’s argument over Sodom and Gomorrah. It would be unjust to the hookers, waiters, maids, and other servants to just kill them for what their masters have done.

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        2. Some slaves are quite willing to be shackled. They glee in the chaining of other slaves.

          (Spit)

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        3. In my boozy moments I sometimes contemplate that a refusal to target innocents is the main reason DC is not already a radioactive ruin.

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        4. When they’ve spent long enough in the sewer, we can no longer presume they are innocent. They have either seen, or deliberately avoided seeing, too much.

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          1. You’d kill the hookers to get at the masters? Prudence if nothing else would tell you otherwise. I think we’re far to willing to act, well speak or write, exactly as those evil clowns we purport to oppose do

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              1. Unfortunately, both you and BGE have just shown why human shields / hostages work against us. The Left won’t care.

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                1. I know. And there are times I’ve gone with, “Hold a very public funeral for any hostages, to make it clear we won’t back down.” In a weird way that might even protect them.
                  But mass destruction will also create a bunch of vengeful relatives of the innocent, and where does it stop?

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                  1. With the Second Coming, unfortunately.

                    As for the relatives of the innocent? Exactly how many innocent were in Dresden? We set the precedent that if the innocent and their relatives go along with those doing evil, then it’s on them too.

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      3. No, 50 sounds about right, purification is the goal. Might need to do it twice once the slime oozes out of their bunkers. Rebuild in the middle of Kansas, no one wants to go to Kansas in August or December. Make DC the International Monument to the radioactive ash tray. They won’t be missed.

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        1. My only issue/compliant can be summed up as “DC is relatively contained due to geography and by the standards of a ruling capital of an empire, it’s not that corrupt. Any city that would take over the job (most likely New York or Chicago) would be worse.”

          (Damming with faint praise, I know. But still…)

          If/when we start fixing things, we should require at least 75% of any Federal agency’s payroll-by amount-must be spent outside of DC with employees that reside outside of DC on a formula based upon a mixture of distance and duration (i.e. if you’re in West Virgina, you have to spend 90% of your time in West Virginia, versus 60% if you’re based out of Hawaii).

          There’s a lot of swamp to be drained. And right now with Russia in chaos and China looking like it’s going to have issues soon, this is the best time to get things fixed.

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          1. Maybe, maybe not.

            Xi (or another leader of a failing country) might do something reckless in a desperate attempt to avoid losing power.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. There’s also the fact that Washington DC has no purpose other than politics, power and corruption. New York has trade and finance, Chicago has Great Lakes trade, meat processing and transportation, but there is nothing in DC aside from the feral government and the parasites that have grown on it.

            OK, and the monuments and the Smithsonian, but DC can’t support the lifestyle to which it has become accustomed with tourism. Washington DC is a giant leech that produces NOTHING of value.

            Audiences cheered when aliens blew up the White House! They laughed when the Martians disintegrated Congress! If The International Lord Of Hate’s ‘Spellbound’ ever gets made into a movie, the giant demon will get applause for tromping all over DC.
            ———————————
            Only idiots believe they know how other people should live their lives. The stupider they are, the more blindly they believe it.

            Liked by 2 people

        2. Originally, no one wanted to go to DC, either. It doesn’t matter where you move the centers of power. The fact that the centers are there guarantees that everything currently wrong with DC will follow.

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          1. I occasionally toy with the idea that all elected federal officials can just stay in their own home state and conduct their business by phone or teleconference. OTOH, The details change a lot as I figure out new ways to corrupt it. OTGH, I’d like to think the distribution of power would make it more resistant to the corruption we see today but I am not sure.

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            2. I’d still want physical contact, if only because internet connectivity these days is a question of “when security is penetrated” not “if security is penetrated.” Especially with the quality of deepfakes getting better every year.

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            3. That’s kinda the way it was until the 17th amendment was adopted in 1913. Who was president then?

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              1. The amendment passed the 3/4 of the states threshold on April 8, 1913 when Woodrow Wilson was President. However, the Amendment was passed by Congress in 1911 under Taft.

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    2. The proper location to start using said chainsaw on bureaucracies is the opposite of where you start when you use a chainsaw to fell trees.

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        1. That was one of the dumbest movies I’ve seen Arnold it, yet it was worth watching for the gags. But True Lies upped the ante, and was a classic.

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          1. True Lies was probably his last great movie. Pretty much everything he did from Conan to True Lies was at least somewhat interesting if not good; after True Lies his career really got a lot less interesting.

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  4. ” I must disagree with “No one meant to create a bureaucracy that would overshadow the elected branches”. That is precisely what Woodrow Wilson and his ilk sought, and Wilson vocally denounced constitutional provisions that thwarted doing so. They have wanted to create an autocratic “rule by experts” for over 100 years. The massive bureaucratic state is exactly what Wilson sought.

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      1. But various totalitarian ideas were rather popular when Wilson was elected. For a science fiction context, look at Edward Ballamy’s novel Looking Backward which envisioned a utopian socialist America in which the entire population is in effect militarized from an early age. Decisions are in the hands of a technocratic elite and everyone is assigned their role. Everyone eats in communal facilities. The novel was so immensely popular that there were Looking Backward societies across the country.
        Similarly, Woodrow Wilson was pretty open about what he wanted to do. And although there were lots of people who disagreed Wilson had an organized army of thugs to intimidate and beat up people who publicly disagreed. (Antifa anyone?)

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      2. The eager participation of the bureaucrats suggest they enthusiasticly endorse rule by ‘crat. At best, some are indifferent to harm as long as the check clears. Most are active and eager proponents, and hate you and fellow patriots passionately.

        By their fruit shall you know them.

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        1. Bureaucrats always go along with it. Either they want the power, or they have good intentions and think that they (and no one else) can be trusted with the power.

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          2. These bureaucrats never admit–much less support–solutions which threaten their power and paychecks–which helps to explain why government agencies never actually solve problems.

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        2. All the government employees that I have known were enthusiastic supporters of the subordination of the citizen to the Deep State. They always had “reasons” why individuals should shut up and do whatever the apparat said. And that includes the ones who were science fiction fans.

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  5. Sarah, I just wanted to offer my sympathies on the death of your kitten. As an animal lover, I understand how much some animals mean to us. Kittens are pretty high on the list of lovable creatures. There was probably nothing you could have done. I wish I lived in a building that welcomed animals, but the opposite is true.

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  6. I honestly thought, back in the day (after 9/11 and the start of the Iraq War) that we had a chance to make Iraq into something … something more stable, a counterbalance to Iran. A nation more like the present-Day Jordan. It might eventually sort itself out like South Korea, which was totally wrecked when I was born (while my father was serving there in the Army) and forty years later – stable, well-organized, almost first-world.
    Afghanistan was never going to be anything more than a collection of tribal quarrels with a border – so I always thought that it should just be given over to be a playground for small units of Special Forces, to bop the Talibunnies over the head if they got too obstreperous. Otherwise, leave alone.
    But Obama chose to throw away Iraq, leaving it to the tender mercies of ISIS … and continue pouring troops into Afghanistan. I thought it was almost as if he were doing it deliberately, rejoicing in his heart every time a load of coffins off-loaded Stateside.
    And then leaving diplomatic personnel and contractors to die in Benghazi, rather than embarrass Hilary Clinton and the Obama administration – and relieve the senior officers who were already in theater and ready to mount a rescue…
    The bungled withdrawal from Kabul, though – that takes the absolute cake, as far as I am concerned. Affirmative Action Austin and Milley Vanilli ought to have resigned in shame over that debacle, and gone to live in a monastery somewhere, doing penance for the rest of their lives…
    When I first got into the Air Force, I served with mid-rank NCOs who were Vietnam-era or Vietnam veterans, and to a man they loathed Robert McNamara with the heat of a thousand burning suns, even though he hadn’t been Defense Secretary for a couple of years. I have a feeling that Austin and Milley are loathed with similar heat by present-day troops.

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      1. No! They need to be expelled from the government, divested of their pensions and left destitute. Mocked and humiliated, pilloried and pelted with spoiled fruits and vegetables. If they want a pistol and ammunition, they can buy their own. Or they can just buy some rope, or go jump off a bridge.

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        1. Or for maximum effect, they could just…disappear, like the Warden’s detatchment in TMIAHM. “They went in; NOTHING came out.”

          Pour encouger… ;-)

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      3. I actually like the original English response to treason for those traitors (drawing and quartering) but our Forefathers thoughtfully took that out of our hands with the 8th amendment.

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    3. “But Obama chose to throw away Iraq, leaving it to the tender mercies of ISIS”

      That pre-dates Obama. The election farce around W, and then 9/11 was the first time the Left showed their hands openly, From the three letter agencies who “dropped the ball”, to the State Department who was no help with Turkey and then botched up the occupation when they were put in charge of it, plus the Democrats in both Houses who kneecapped legislation until they got a Federal employee TSA, the pattern was quite clear.

      And I said so. Starting on the emerald obloid, Insty, Protein Wisdom, Daily Pundit, and Steven den Beste’s blog, as well as here, when I found it. A big part of my sunny nature over the years was based on simply seeing that pattern, and knowing where it would almost inevitably lead.

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      1. Sadly I think Iraq was lost in 1991 when Bush the Elder stopped the attacks on the retreating Iraqi regulars and Republican Guard units on the “Highway of Death” . You couldn’t take the coalition to Baghdad but you could remove Saddam’s ability to control things by removing large portions of his force (and doing a Deadpool oops) and letting chaos loose in Iraq. Of course that might have let Iran in, but then the Saudi’s would have agreed to going into Iraq as they hate and fear the Shia/Iranians. Afghanistan is baffling, At one point in the 60’s it (and Iran) were moving towards a more liberal Islam and looked in some parts like more western places in the cities. Not sure if in opposing the USSR by helping the Taliban we created some of the mess that is the more aggressive Islam we deal with today, or if it was just being suppressed and by letting the USSR pull the cork we let that Djinn on the loose.

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  8. I’m just waiting for the states to start leaving the union. California wants to go it’s own way, very obviously. So do Oregon and Washington. I think a few of the New England states will, possibly together. And maybe some in the south and the southwest.

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        1. Definitely already has.
          Fair elections? Last to federal ones were not.
          Equal Justice under the law? Hillary was bad, Biden just rubbed our noses in it.
          Speedy trial? Jan 6 prisoners are STILL in jail awaiting trial. All the evidence that would have freed them was withheld by the government under ridiculous pretenses.
          Protect the borders? Ha.
          Using the government to attack political rivals? Sure.
          Freedom of speech? They just put a guy in jail for ten years for using his…

          The list just goes on and on. The republic is dead and Biden just drove a stake through its heart.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The republic is not Biden. It’s we the people. And it’s not dead, yet. It’s got a skim of hard core slime at the top, but is not dead.
            We came back from Woodrow Wilson. We. Can. Come. Back.
            And we will. Just, I’d prefer sooner, so my kids and grandkids don’t have to do the work.

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            1. It’s Dead. The people don’t care. Notice no one has done a damn thing.
              The republic is over.

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              1. John, You’re confusing the media spotlights for the people. I’ll remind you in the face of the most determined psy-op ever they went out and relected Trump in a landslide. And they know they were robbed.
                Do about it? They don’t know what to do about it yet. Americans are always slow to war.
                Kick the damn black dog to the curb. It’s lying to you.

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                  1. Well, you must keep in mind people are scared of saying what they think that does NOT echo the media.
                    I’ve lived in these conditions, most of you haven’t. The US voted against the skim of shit at a the top. Just…. have a bit of hope, okay?
                    And we’re ALWAYS super-slow to anger. That hasn’t changed.
                    Hell, I’m still hoping we SOMEHOW find a peaceful solution.

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                    1. Yeah, right, we voted, and they stole the election, and the next one too. They even had help from RINOs like Vichy Mitchy and Mittles. They’re making sure everything is in place to steal next year’s election even more blatantly. Nobody knows how many actual, breathing Democrat voters there are because the fraud has been going on longer than most people have been alive.
                      ———————————
                      Grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

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                  2. A shadow lies around you
                    And all that’s bright seems grey.
                    The darkness lies about you
                    With all that it can say.

                    The lies from mouths of others
                    That draw the darkness close.
                    It harries and it bothers
                    And it murmurs in its dross.

                    “There is no use in trying”
                    It whispers in your ear.
                    “The hopeful are just denying.”
                    Until it’s all that you can hear.

                    False whispers build around you
                    And weave their web of lies.
                    Until their words confound you
                    And no hope can yet arise.

                    Look up from the depth of darkness
                    Come take a step away.
                    There is no power in their sharpness,
                    Come step into the day.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  3. Hang out with real people.

                    The USA remains, and will not fall, and will not dissolve.

                    Not happening. So stop listening to the bullshitters who can only win if patriots quit.

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                    1. You talk a great game – but what have you actually DONE?
                      Nothing, I’m sure.
                      I made it onto the Clinton hate list and had several years of my life completely fucked up while all of those ‘Patriots’ told me to stay in my lane and behave myself.
                      That things weren’t that bad.
                      That we would prevail.
                      uh-huh.
                      So yeah, lesson learned won’t ever do THAT again.

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                    2. Keep in mind it might take 20 years. I intend to be around.
                      Look, there are people STILL who don’t get the gravity of the situation. I think my husband only half-gets it. He’s brilliant, but he hates politics. He only started paying attention in 2008. And there’s a lot he still misses.
                      WE ARE NOT NORMAL.

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            3. Black dog, red pill, china flu vax, age of reason, era of mass psychosis, sunshine follows darkness or day precedes the night, in my opinion the proper response is the same no matter what:

              Prepare for the worse, hope for the best. Care for yourself and those near and dear. Enjoy the light, bear with the night, that’s the the only way to assure the possibility of a morrow.

              Oh, and far better to laugh than cry. How can you not laugh hard and loud when our duly appointed president is the absolute master, (Sigh, I gonna use that word for the seventh time in my life.) literally, of the prat fall? Laugh at Buck Fiden, laugh at me, laugh at yourself and it’ll be right. Allow not the progeny of those barking at the moon abrade you.

              & OK Dylan (The Wind blown one, not the Wales Christmas one.) may well be right about the hard rain coming, but black dog, et al, best hope for the, & still prepare for the, -but most important enjoy the now , it’s the only one you can be sure of.

              Now if I can just get Sarah and John V S to let me on on that bet, giving me two to one odds, I’ll bet two bucks pro with one, two bucks con with the other, I’ll have doubled my money and be be sitting in the catbird seat in 20 years when I’m a hundred and four! ;-)

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    2. California and its ilk don’t want to leave the US; they want to impose their radical leftism on the rest of the country and make the entire USA like they are. They loathe the idea of being separate from the USA, because they can’t tolerate that other states don’t adhere to the same leftist ideology and policies that they do.

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      1. Yup. California has cultivated a level of arrogance. As the saying goes, “As goes California, so goes the country.” And there’s a certain amount of precedent to that. Part of the reason why the left goes so nuts in California is because the lefties want to use California as a springboard to push their nonsense on the rest of the country after displaying it in California first.

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  9. Mission creep, or rather mission self-reassignment. How many charities have done that? The March of Dimes started fighting polio. Polio went away*. So did the March of Dimes? No, now they focus on prenatal care and birth defects. All laudable goals and things that do good, but not what they started out as. Other groups took over the efforts to if not eradicate polio, to make it much, much less common even in the Third World.

    And that’s a “good” bureaucracy. Jerry Pournelle’s Iron Law at work, even when it is done for what seem to be good reasons. The neutral to malign bureaucracies? Shudder.

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    1. That particular example isn’t so much “mission creep” as “deliberate redirect.” The MoD decided that they’d done their stated mission and then picked a new one with purpose. A lot of bureaucracies just assume that a related goal is in their purview and whoosh! Assimilated.

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  10. I will now relate two pieces of good news. First, the Ivy League has lost their case in front of the Supreme Court. 6-3 and 6-2. They can no longer use a student’s race as a basis for admission to their schools.

    Second, the even better news is that you can read both the decision and the dissent on line.

    The decision could have been predicted by any high school civics class. Making admission decisions based on race is unconstitutional. Obviously so. It matters not if it is Harvard University or the Harvard Lunch Counter on the corner of Spruce and Bruce.

    The dissent, as one might easily presume, consists of the three dissenters carefully explaining to us, “SHUT UP!!!” That’s all they got. Which anyone who ever gave this even a moment’s though would know. They’ve been screaming “shut up!” since 1968.

    And just like that, the Lefties can kiss Affirmative Action goodby. Its over. Hasta la vista, baby.

    So there you go. Confucius said “all the darkness in the world cannot put out a single candle.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Unfortunately, the Reader thinks that the reaction in academia will be similar to the reaction to Bruen in blue state legislatures, i.e. something approaching nullification via lawfare. The Supreme Court needs to preemptively deal with this by putting new college admissions policies (and post Bruen state gun laws) under the same kind of preclearance the Southern States were subject to with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Short of that, clever lawyers and friendly lower court judges will make this largely moot. And don’t get the Reader started on ‘standing’.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. It absolutely will be like that. I’ve already seen a university do it, and double its effectiveness at it, too — not by lawfare, but just by ignoring the law and getting sneakier about its methods. Massive “opportunity” programs, many promising tuition discounts simply for attending, to which people of pallor are not invited; millions upon millions of dollars of scholarships and “need-based” aid that are technically available to everyone, but only given to the special ones.

        But as someone said on Discord, even if this Supreme Court ruling can’t fix the problem, it does open a window of opportunity. We have avenues of attack that we didn’t have before. Lawfare is a game both sides can play.

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          1. And that’s only part of it.

            My niece’s hubby discovered that good grades was insufficient to get accepted to med school since he was a straight, white, male. He switched to a chem engineering role, and is now employed in an industry that A) manufactures in the USA, and B) makes a product that’s actually useful.

            The family practice clinic I go to is affiliated with the Oregon med school system. Some of the residents there do not instill confidence in the future of healthcare. It’s a very rural county, so for anything more advanced than vaccine shots (no more, thank you) or basic med care, I’m stuck. TPTB running the county’s med school/hospital/clinic/specialist complex tried and failed to put independent clinics out of business, but I think they’ll eventually succeed with the smaller ones.

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      3. There are a few obvious first steps that red states can take. Step number one is to pass a law that all four year colleges in the state will use a standardized test, administered by a non-university entity, and nothing else, for admission of all students, including athletes. If they refuse, then no state tax dollars, of any sort, will be paid to them.

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    2. The truth is Liberals would rather see all of us Dead or Enslaved than they would admit they are wrong. Liberalism/Communism is the ultimate Death Cult.

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    4. Public universities in California are already banned from using race as a determining factor in admissions due to a ballot proposition that passed back in the ’90s (and the Dems have repeatedly tried to overturn it; the voters aren’t having it, though). Hasn’t stopped the public universities from finding ways to use race anyway. IIRC, zip codes are a popular alternative, since distinct minorities tend to live near each other. And there are other ways.

      The opinion even left a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. If an individual mentions his or her race in an admissions essay in the context of the writer’s personal life story, it’s allowed.

      On the other hand, that option is something that should be present if it’s a legitimate part of the writer’s life story. But it’s going to be abused and abused and abused. Given that, it’s going to be a serious problem going forward.

      But despite that, it was a victory. IIRC, the last ruling on this was back in the ’80s. And the majority opinion basically said, “It’s okay for now, but not for much longer.” It’s been a lot longer. And I’m glad to see this brand of racial bias at least officially done away with.

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      1. The cynics are almost certainly right that the DIE bureaucracies within higher education will attempt to continue what they’ve been doing, legal or no. Still worth celebrating another right legal precedent. And as for the rest? We route around.
        Follow Florida’s example and rotate accrediting agencies. Ban ESG investing in endowments. Limit endowments in any number of ways. Ease licensing restrictions. Fund an internship program. Undermine Duke v. Griggs? Lots of options.

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      2. Heck barely thinking about it and I can see routes around entire thing. Sure students get in. But only approved minorities get scholarships, etc. Just because you work and make the grade doesn’t mean you can afford to go.

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      3. This opinion outright says that the previous SC opinion was 2003.

        Though, in the listing of precedents, the 1980s one may have been the change.

        I’ve slept since reading it.

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  12. Well, I’m almost finished crying like a little kid – losing any part of a family, kitten, puppy, person or even that annoying gerbil who ran in the wheel all night is tough stuff. Lost our 18 year old doggie back about eight years ago and it still hurts. The new girl just hit seven and is a joy in our lives. Lost Brother a couple of months ago just after loosing Step Mom at the start of the year. You never “get over it” but you do learn to cope and deal – with time and it is very helpful to have other friends, family etc. to just be with you even if only in sprit. Carry on Hoyt clan – you are loved.

    As for hindsight – Boy, I’ve got that 20/20! Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex and it turns out he wasn’t kidding. However, the part most seem to forget is how unique, huge and varied the good old USA actually is. The left wing goof-balls who think everything can magically be electric will run into hard reality as it just ain’t gonna happen. We also need to remember that all the shouting and all the “news” is being generated by a tiny fraction of the population. Soon, the much larger segment will say enough and the temper tantrum left will be spanked.

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  13. 100% correct on the amputating infant toes medical industrial complex. Look, we’ve been circumcising males for a couple of thousand years due to a religious belief that doesn’t seem to have any practical application, but does have a significant rate of adverse side effects.

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      1. The doctors, NGOs and the billionaires that encourage, fund and push this sickness on children need a spin on the Involuntary Wheel of Organ Donation…

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      1. Perhaps. For one, how many people lived long enough for it to ever happen, or for them to ever die from it? Secondly, that cancer’s causation is more from infection and inflammation mostly due to poor hygiene; hygiene which may not have been easily accomplished in a resource and technologically poor, desert environment.

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    1. And every single person who signed off on that committed a crime. They lied on an official government document when they said, “… the Justices stripped women of their right to abortion.” SCOTUS most emphatically did NOT strip any rights from women. (Nor did they state that a human fetus has the right to life.) In accordance with the precedent set in the Martha Stewart case, every one of them should be immediately imprisoned for 5 years.

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      1. Five years? That sounds like a good start, but I’m thinking fifteen per. Maybe five for Reps and fifteen for Senators, no parole possible for either, so that the successors to their Congressional seats will be two terms and a half installed, or already voted out themselves, effectively preventing the resurrection of the cons’ political careers.

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        1. Well, let’s see. According to Wikipedia, Stewart was convicted of nine criminal charges. Mostly felony insider trading and securities fraud. Three were related to conspiracy to obstruct, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and of making false statements to federal investigators; which can probably be lumped into the description of “lying”. (Note, this was a verbal, not written, interview and not under oath.)

          Stewart was sentenced to 5 months (not years) in prison, 2 years of supervised release (probation – 5 months of those with electronic monitoring), and fined $30,000. Related civil case cost her $58,062 including interest from losses she avoided (loss avoided was ($45,673), plus 3 times the value of the loss avoided ($137,019), plus a 5 year ban from serving as any officer involved in finances for a public company.

          False claims or statements are covered under Section 1001 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which generally prohibits knowingly and willfully making false or fraudulent statements, or concealing information, in “any matter within the jurisdiction” of the federal government of the United States. This is punishable by fines, imprisonment of not more than 5 years (8 years if related to domestic terrorism – I’d say these Congresscritters are engaged in domestic terrorism.)

          I guess a good question would be if you plead in court not guilty of a crime you committed, can you be charged with this crime also? (Issue appears to be unresolved.) Other question is, can this be considered an infringement on your right to free speech?

          “…many observers have concluded that it is best for anyone with the slightest degree of criminal exposure to refrain from submitting to an interview by government agents. Solomon L. Wisenberg suggests simply asking for the agent’s business card and saying, “[M]y attorney will be in contact with you.”” I’m tempted to say that any interaction with our government should involve an attorney working on your behalf. But that ties back into the observation that Sarah and others have made in the past about the erosion of a culture of trust in the U.S.

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    1. Rightly said. The killing of innocent children will never be, can never be supported by the faith I was raised in.

      To utter otherwise exhibits a grievous lack of understanding of the Catholic faith. At the LEAST.

      Liked by 2 people

  16. Anybody heard from Mr. M.Z. Williamson lately, lot a storms in Indiana as of late. Tornadoes and the such.

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  17. “An armed force is either to protect the homeland (which our current administration is singularly determined in refusing to do) or to invade other nations (which they want to do, but only if our boys can die to prove … I don’t know what. Maybe to protect 10% for the big guy.)”

    I’ve a simpler take. A military exists to kill people and break stuff. Full stop.

    Suckers invading your country? Enough of the above, and they’ll stop. Suckers invading somebody else’s country that we’re friends with? Pretty much the same.

    The military exists to do these things so we don’t have to. Like the police, they are allowed to use force that the common citizen is barred from by law. The military is not there to save lives, but to take them. The former may happen because the latter did. That could be an intended consequence.

    I want our guys to be the meanest, toughest, most lethal force in the world. the kind of military that makes wannabe dictators, bandits, pirates, and suchlike weak in the bladder when they think of crossing us or our interests. I want them to do the job of the military, to kill stuff and break things, VERY well.

    I believe this to be a far better and more moral position than any other I can think of. One simply does not use a sword to cut cheese. There are better tools.

    However, if what one needs is a sword… A cheeseknife would be a poor substitute.

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    1. Hookah, Oo-rah, and all the other five-letter words!

      If only it WAS a cheese-knife: from what I’ve seen it’s as often the spoon from a pink plastic tea-set, wielded like a nun’s ruler by those who know nothing else about nuns, nor rulers.

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      2. My Army-brain was NOT in Army mode yesterday, or I might have caught the autocorrect of “Hooah!” to the name of a water-pipe (not for plumbing, and not always for tobacco either, if you follow me). But the autocorrect and its Sleudian Fripp might be the more accurate.

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    3. The US armed forces should inspire our true friends to say:

      “Thank God the Americans are here!”

      Our armed forces should inspire everyone else to say:

      “Thank God! The Americans have left!”

      As a pretty smart Roman once quipped, “Let them hate us, so long as they fear us.”

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  18. Btw, I finally got around to start reading KJ Parker’s Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, and the beginning is really good. It is Roman military stuff with a lot of humor, because Parker = Tom Holt.

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    1. The really hilarious part about the “who is KJ Parker?” thing is that, because of a mutual friend, I was in on the “secret” from the beginning. And I’d hear people at conventions speculating about the Big Secret and wonder that I was in on the conspiracy.

      (I honestly think the humor hits better in the Parker works than the Holt stories, because it’s a little bit more Veddy British than, say, Douglas Adams, and in its pure form it falls flat for me. But put it up in contrast to dark writing, and wow.)

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  19. It will be interesting to see what the childish and petulant Leftiods will do now that the supreme court has whacked their ideology right in the face with these last three court rulings. Contracts were again reinforced by the Phony debt bail out bribe rejection, and racist affirmative action took a hit as well. I am sorry it is just common sense, you can’t get rid of racism by being racist. And you can’t force people to work for you if they don’t want to. Again why would you? They are not going to give it their best effort. Common sense may be making a come back? And Paris and France are burning and it spread to Belgium. Please pass the pop corn and keep your eyes open and your powder dry.

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  20. Pingback: end of the drought | Dio's Workshop

  21. “Let’s build the republic and prune back bureaucracy.”

    Solid policy, I think the best, most, good we could do.
    Maybe the only good we can be sure of.

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