Monday Morning Smile

 

Tom on Affirmative Action

 As almost everybody thought would happen, SCOTUS  essentially banned the use of race as a factor in college admissions. Folks to the left side of the political spectrum are predictably outraged by the ruling, and a dispassionate observer might conclude that today's decision prohibited any member of one of the previously protected classes: Blacks, Hispancs, and Native Americans would be prohibited from attending college at all, rather than that admission be due to racial considerations in whole or in part. Those to the right side of the political spectrum are looking at a new day in college admissions in which the only members of the previously protected classes admitted to the nation's colleges would be athletes, certain theatre types, and a smattering of cute Black and Hispanic girls. The fact is that the SCOTUS may have made an important point with today's decision.. 

There have always been favored and disfavored groups in the area of college admissions. Favored groups have included so-called 'legacy" applicants, who are relatives of people who have attended that same school. Additionally, non-legacy applicants from a universe of preparatory schools that have historically served as 'feeder schools' to our most selective and prestigious institutions always contribute their share of new students. Disfavored groups, like the poor, have always been with us, although they have changed over time.

The Irish were  unwelcome at many of the 'best' schools until the early 20th century, when they were replaced by the Eastern and Southern European immigrant children whose parents flocked to these shores during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Jews were subjected to quotas because it was feared that should they be allowed unrestricted access to the 'best schools', they would crowd out students less dedicated to the acquisition of knowledge than their usual applicant . Striving Asian applicants have mostly replaced the Jews of the first half of the 20th century as existential threats to those  unwilling to work hard .

The truth is that college admissions are as much art as science. Admissions officers at every college in the land see it as their task to assemble an incoming class that brings a variety of life experiences to the table. They want an incoming class to reflect different ideas about what they want to get out of their educational journey. Their goal is to construct a mosaic that will make college a special period in the lives of all who accept the school's offer of admission.

But too often this mosaic included few Black tiles. In my class at St A's there was only one  Black kid in my year, and he happened to live directly across the hall from me. There were a couple more in the class following mine, and I like to think that I saved one of them from a savage beating one fine Saturday morning. 

I was on my way to get the morning papers when I came across a big dude about my dad's age with an angry look on his face. He asked me if I knew where a kid named Billy Washington lived. I had a nodding acquaintance with him because he lived next door to my debate partner.

Anyway this guy who was looking for him looked like trouble squared, so I went to his room and woke him from a sound sleep and told him what was happening, and he near shit himself because the angry dude was his girlfriend's dad, and he was not at all happy that his Princess, a cute White girl from Maine, was allowing herself to be touched inappropriately by a 6'4"Black dude. Anyway we went over to my dorm where we called security and they got the Dean of Students to talk the angry dad down.    

All of this took place around the time of what was the high water mark of the Civil Rights movement: the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, along with along with all manner of legislative and regulatory efforts to address the wrongs perpetrated upon our Black population by an aggressively racist subset of White citizens who thought that things were fine just as they were. Out of all this tumult emerged the spectre of Affirmative Action. 

Affirmative Action was a chainsaw of a remedy directed at a real problem that would have benefited from a more nuanced approach.

The remedy has served it's purpose and it's time to move on. The practice put a good many Black and Hispanic kids into educational venues in which they had no hope of succeeding.

There is a significant difference in the suitability of a valedictorian from a challenging high school such as Boston Latin or New Trier to achieve success at a challenging school like MIT or Johns Hopkins. A valedictorian  from a crappy high school in Chicago has absolutely no chance of success in such a rarified educational atmosphere. These kids would be better served by attending a school more suited to their actual abilities where they had a realistic chance of success. 

Affirmative Action should be a class based remedy, rather than a racially based one. But the overriding purpose of any type of remediation should be to place kids into an environment where they are likely to succeed, rather than the school that offers the most prestigious rear window decal.

Tom on Climate Change

 

Climate change may be due to manmade causes such as the demonstrated effects of the Industrial Revolution of the early 19h century, or the exponential growth in human population in recent decades.

The matter of the effects of industrial activity largely speaks for itself, but the question of population growth deserves some explanation.  To that end, I turn to the 18th century economist, Thomas Malthus, who  offered a novel thesis of population growth in 1798.

His fundamental assumption was that, while the resources that mankind depended upon for basic survival and growing prosperity were increasing at a linear rate, human population was increasing at an exponential rate. As Malthus explained, there would come a point where the carrying capacity of the planet would be overwhelmed by the increase in population which would  lead to what economists call a "Malthusian Crisis".  When that happens, large numbers of people will die from such causes as hunger and thirst. Dreaded diseases will ravage the populace in the souks of Baghdad and Cairo; in the slums of Mumbai and Lagos. Frightened national leaders will fight wars over the control of increasingly scarce resources, and the die-off could be beyond our ability to comprehend, especially if nuclear weapons come into play.

Malthus's dire predictions never came to pass, in part because he failed to take into account the degree to which advances in science and technology increased the carrying capacity of the planet. Mankind learned to understand the disease process and developed the insights and tools needed to successfully overcome the problem of unnaturally early death. We transformed agriculture so that a relatively small number of farmers could easily feed the world, and those displaced from the farms could find more appropriate employment that treated them as men rather than animated agricultural implements.

The 19th century saw the development of mechanised agricultural implements that vastly reduced the number of people needed to work farms, and the 20th century brought us rapid growth in more effective agronomy, culminating in the so-called "Green Revolution of the 1960s that transformed India and Pakistan from regular importers of food to self sufficiency.

The downside of that achievement is that the transformation to high-yielding agriculture requires the extensive use of fertilizers ,and expensive hybrid seeds which has led to the marginalisation of traditional family farms in favor of the industrial behemoths that increasingly provide the bulk of our food at least in the developed world 

But now that climate change is wreaking havoc over the land, it may be time to revisit the dark predictions of Rev Malthus, if only as a reminder of what awaits us if we don't begin addressing the coming apocalypse. It's useful to remember what the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse represented: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. That will be mankind's fate if we don't begin taking immediate steps to deal with the problems facing us. We'll be living in a Malthusian dystopia for however long it takes to rebalance the planet's carrying capacity. 

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Tom on the Bidens

 Both Joe and Hunter Biden were in the news albeit for different reasons Joe referred to Chinese President Xi as a "Dictator"in remarks made at a fundraiser in Marin County late Tuesday and indicated that Mr Xi was ignorant of the Chinese spy balloon kerfuffle that took place earlier this year While the conventional wisdom holds that Mr Biden is a senile old coot who has no idea what he's saying half the time But I think that Mr Biden is a bit more clever than most observers give him credit for As I see it he has two opponents in this instance The first is geopolitical and the second is domestic 

In the first instance Mr Biden is insulting Mr Xi in a couple of different ways By referring to him as a 'Dictator' he's taking a direct slap at Mr Xi's legitimacy Xi has always fancied himself as some sort of Philosopher-King whose life's purpose is to guide his people to a promised land of 'Happy Shiny People who have faith in their omniscient leader Mr Biden called out  Mr Xi for being the thin-skinned thug that he really is rather than the benevolent father figure that he imagines himself to be In the second instance Mr Biden is sending a message to his domestic foes that he's not afraid to confront both the Chinese and those who doubt his resolve in dealing with the threat posed by China By thinking him an addled fool the opposition underestimates him The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu once said that: “There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.” Whatever you might think of Mr Biden just realise that a politician doesn't survive or thrive in the cesspool that is our nation's capital as long as he has without knowing how to mix it up in dark alleys 

And then there is the matter of Young Hunter Biden Yesterday he pleaded guilty to a few charges brought by David Weiss the US Attorney for the District of Delaware Two were charges of failure to file tax returns in a timely manner for the 2017 and 2018 tax years and those charges were settled years ago when taxes owed were paid in full along with applicable interest and penalties The remaining charge was that Mr Biden committed the unspeakable crime of possession of a gun while addicted to drugs Mr Biden has agreed to plead guilty to the charges and the US Attorney has agreed to accept a plea bargain that calls for a sentence of probation Now given that certain elements of the Republican Party have been howling for Mr Biden's head since at least 2017 you might think that there would be a sigh of relief that this modern day version of "Jarndyce v Jarndyce" was finally over If you thought that you would be wrong Despite the fact that both the US Attorney who brought these charges and the Judge judge who will actually pronounce the sentence on Mr Trump's appointees congressional Republicans are furious because they believe that their florid allegations are always true despite the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that they the accusations are true 

I mentioned above the that Washington DC was something of a 'cesspool and today's response to an unpublished story in Politico by Justice Samuel Alito in today's Wall Street Journal underscored just how normalised casual corruption has become on the nation's highest court In Justice Alito's case he accepted a posh vacation trip to a remote Alaskan resort to fish for King Salmon His tab for this sumptuous trip was picked up by billionaire investor Paul Singer who had a case involving an Argentine default  Justices Thomas and Gorsuch sold properties to buyers who paid above market rates for those properties and also had cases before the court We already know about Justice Thomas's vast appetite for luxury vacations that he doesn't have to pay for Justice Sontamayor ruled on a case involving her publisher Chief Justice Roberts refused to testify before Congress on judicial ethics and in about a week the justices will scatter to the 4 corners of the earth and rake in the cash for little real work 

Just True Facts

 

Monday Morning Smile

 

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Tom on Trump's Indictment

 Now that Donald Trump is under numerous indictments for the many violations of laws pertaining to his Mar-A-Lago classified document storage facility, (his bathroom), much of the Republican Party officeholders, both state and federal ,as well as most of the declared GOP presidential candidates, have engaged in a frenzy of teeth gnashing and garment rending at the unfairness of it all. They see Mr Trump as a mythic hero, like Joan of Arc or Jesus H Christ, who were ultimately betrayed by their own people.

Republicans portray themselves as the 'Law and Order' Party, an appellation that dates back to the Nixon Administration. When Democrats are under the legal microscope Republicans howl for blood like so many ravening hyenas, but when Republicans stand accused of misconduct they cry "Witch Hunt" and claim "Unfair Prosecution". 

In the matter of Mr Trump's litany of problems, anyone who feels that he is some sort of victim is guilty of Magical Thinking at the very least. His legal problems are mostly self-inflicted and are  growing apace, and one of these days the legendary 'Million Pound Shithammer' will come crashing down on his prematurely orange head. And that's not even taking into account the federal charges that he faces for his role in the Jan 6 insurrection, or the state charges that he faces in Fulton County down in the Land of Georgia. 

Being simplistic about the array of legal issues that Mr Trump faces, we can reduce the possible outcomes to two: Trump is convicted or Trump is acquitted. Although he is currently leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination, I see no way that he can prevail in a general election. So if Mr Trump manages to dodge all of the bullets aimed in his direction, he can spend the remainder of his days playing golf and basking in the adulation of his acolytes like an obese and disagreeable manatee.

But what happens if he's found guilty? The current set of charges that he faces carries possible penalties of over 400 years in a federal prison. Now nobody in their right mind would expect a sentence that is draconian to be imposed in the event of a conviction, but Mr Trump is pushing 80. A 5 year sentence would likely turn out to be a life sentence. I fear that the imposition of such a sentence might lead to a certain amount of civil unrest. What's a judge to do?

I found myself pondering that very question earlier today. There's nothing much that we can do about Mr Trump if he manages to navigate the legal gauntlet he faces unscathed. But if he's found guilty, what would be the best way of dealing with him? I remembered a short story that I read in high school called "The Man Without a Country" ,that told the story of an army officer on trial for treason. He was convicted, and because he had denounced the United States, he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life confined to US Naval vessels, but never again be allowed to step foot on US soil. And I found myself wondering if that might be the way to deal with a guilty Mr Trump.

Let us say that Mr Trump finds himself standing before a Judge awaiting sentencing. But the Judge surprises everyone and offers Mr Trump a deal. He can accept a 10 year prison sentence which will commence immediately. He will not be free pending appeal. His next meal will be some of the execrable vegetable loaf that is commonly served in state and federal prisons. Or he can renounce his American citizenship and accept exile to one of the following countries: Saudi Arabia, Russia, North Korea, or Hungary. It sounds more than a bit off kilter, but sometimes you have to think outside the box..

Educate Yourself on Trumps Indictment, share with a MAGAT

 Quote from Jack Smith

“Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced, violations of those laws put our country at risk.”

Hear Jack Smith

READ the full indictment at this link:

https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2023/06/trump-indictment.pdf

Monday Morning Smile