As advertised on Zero Hedge.

GARB YOURSELF FOR THE NEXT ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL.

Can’t beat the Right at going from VIOLENCE straight to MONEY.

AMERICA, THE BOOGALOO,

GOD GREASE THY PALMS WITH GORE!

Just remember to wear cotton WHEN RIOTING.

From Niall Ferguson via Bloomberg.com. 

I’m Helping to Start a New College Because Higher Ed Is Broken

And, in part, because of this:

Some nuggets:

• “Something is rotten in the state of academia and it’s no laughing matter. 

  “Grade inflation. Spiraling costs. Corruption and racial discrimination in admissions. Junk content (“Grievance Studies”) published in risible journals.

  “Above all, the erosion of academic freedom and the ascendancy of an illiberal “successor ideology” known to its critics as wokeism, which manifests itself as career-ending “cancelations” and speaker disinvitations, but less visibly generates a pervasive climate of anxiety and self-censorship.”

• “In Heterodox Academy’s 2020 Campus Expression Survey, 62% of sampled college students agreed that the climate on their campus prevented them from saying things they believed, up from 55% in 2019, while 41% were reluctant to discuss politics in a classroom, up from 32% in 2019. Some 60% of students said they were reluctant to speak up in class because they were concerned other students would criticize their views as being offensive.”
• “According to a nationwide survey of a thousand undergraduates by the Challey Institute for Global Innovation, 85% of self-described liberal students would report a professor to the university if the professor said something that they found offensive, while 76% would report another student.”
• “Three-quarters of conservative American and British academics in the social sciences and humanities said there is a hostile climate for their beliefs in their department. This compares to just 5% among left-wing faculty in the U.S.”
• “Trigger warnings. Safe spaces. Preferred pronouns. Checked privileges. Microaggressions. Antiracism. All these terms are routinely deployed on campuses throughout the English-speaking world as part of a sustained campaign to impose ideological conformity in the name of diversity. As a result, it often feels as if there is less free speech and free thought in the American university today than in almost any other institution in the U.S.”
• “As students collect their degrees and enter the workforce, they inevitably carry some of what they have learned at college with them. Multiple manifestations of ‘woke’ thinking and behavior at newspapers, publishing houses, technology companies and other corporations have confirmed Andrew Sullivan’s 2018 observation, ‘We all live on campus now.'”

And who wants that?

God, is Adam ever on a roll with his youtube guests.  Not to mention featuring another brilliant woman — this time, Stephanie Pomboy.

Of particular interest is Pomboy’s call that China will trigger the next global financial meltdown and is ALREADY IN THE PROCESS OF PROACTIVELY ENGINEERING IT.

Pomboy’s thesis — and I’ve seen it discussed elsewhere — is that the Evergrande meltdown is being used by China as a means of bursting its own financial/property bubble with the intention of catching the US and other hyper-indebted western countries on the back foot as they continue to print money at an ever-reckless pace.

At the same time, she contends, China will then introduce the Yuan as the world’s preferred “harder” currency either on the basis of it being BACKED BY GOLD or simply because of China’s being, at that point, less indebted.

This “China watch” part of the video runs from approximately 28:35 to 38:42 and is without doubt the FILET MIGNON portion.  If you don’t watch the whole video, DO WATCH THIS SEGMENT.

Here it is in its entirety:

Apparently, it’s now an unforgivable cardinal sin to defend the right of women to “restrict access to some women-only spaces to those who are biologically female.”

“Kathleen Stock, a philosopher and feminist who” . . . did exactly that . . . “was last week forced to resign her position at the University of Sussex after being subjected to a campaign of harassment from trans activists and their fellow travelers. Her decision to quit was not preceded by a demand by her bosses to step aside. Instead, a number of her colleagues at Sussex, as well as students and administrators at the university, created the toxic environment that forced her out.”

SO MUCH FOR FREE SPEECH.

What we’re witnessing here is EXTREME HYSTERIA in the face of mounting social complexity we neither understand nor have a framework to deal with.

IN OTHER WORDS, THIS IS PANIC.

Here’s the entire piece by Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of London:

Kathleen Stock Won’t Be the Last

That goes WITHOUT SAYING.

From Zero Hedge:

“Rolls-Royce Group, BNF Resources UK Limited, and Exelon Generation Limited will develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that will allow the country to meet net-zero commitments. SMRs will be built in the UK and open for export to customers worldwide.”

THIS HAD TO HAPPEN.

And here’s how these reactors will work:

There’s NO OTHER BRIDGE besides nuclear. Renewables alone can’t match hydrocarbons — AT LEAST, NOT FOR DECADES.

More from the DATA GODS.

Through the Myers-Briggs Lens

The Myers-Briggs personality test serves as a robust framework for analyzing the connection between personality and income, in a way that is easily understood and familiar to many people.

The theory outlines four personality dimensions that are described using opposing traits.

• Extraversion vs. Introversion: Extroverts gain energy by interacting with others, while introverts draw energy from spending time alone.

• Sensing vs. Intuition: Sensors prefer concrete and factual information, while intuitive types use their imagination or wider patterns to interpret information.

• Thinking vs. Feeling: Thinkers make rational decisions based on logic, while feelers make empathetic decisions considering the needs of others.

• Judging vs. Perceiving: Judging types organize their life in a structured manner, while perceiving types are more flexible and spontaneous.

For example, someone who aligns with extraversion, sensing, thinking, and judging would be described as an ESTJ type.

Traits With the Highest Earning Potential

Based on the above four dimensions, extroverts, sensors, thinkers, and judgers tend to be the most financially successful. Diving into specific personality characteristics, certain traits are more closely correlated with higher income.

The Top Earners

Which personality types earn the highest incomes of all? Extroverted thinking types dominate the ranks again.

Personality and the Gender Pay Gap

With all these factors in mind, the researchers analyzed whether personality differences would affect the gender pay gap.

When the average salaries were separated for men and women, the results were clear: men of almost all personality types earn more than the average income for the sample overall, while all but two personality types of women earned less than the average.

Thank God for SCORECARDS.

And it’s exactly the right question to ask.  So, luckily enough, Chuck Almdale of Counterweight has some answers.

But first, his succinct summation of Critical Social Justice (CSJ) IDEOLOGY, the various THEORIES that comprise the “WOKE” curriculum:

“CSJ ideology is a collective of related theories emerging out of postmodern philosophy, notably: Critical Race Theory (CRT), Critical Gender Theory (CGT), Postcolonial Theory (PCT), Queer Theory, and Support-Group Identity Theory (disability and fatness). Unlike scientific theories, CSJ theories are poorly supported by studies and evidence, instead relying on anecdotes, personal stories and dogmatic assumptions. CRT contains assertions such as: All whites are racist, even if they don’t know it. Such assertions are dogma, not theory, as they utilize circular reasoning and cannot be rebutted, let alone proven or disproven. The term ‘woke’ gradually became an alternative, short label for all things pertaining to cumbersome terms like ‘Critical Social Justice Theory’. In recent years it has been adopted and used pejoratively by those who oppose CSJ. Thus, for the remainder of this essay CSJ and “woke” will refer to approaches to social justice by society at large and on the individual level which utilise or endorse un-scientific and unsubstantiated claims to remedy the “oppressive” state of society.”

In other words, CSJ is a PERSPECTIVE based on DOGMATIC ASSUMPTIONS LARGELY UNTESTED.  It’s also a weapon in an asymmetric power struggle that in corporate terms resembles an attempt at a REVERSE TAKEOVER.

But here’s the heart of the piece — Almdale’s admonition of what to be aware of if one should find oneself subjected to some kind of DIVERSITY TRAINING.  He lists 10 things to be particularly mindful of which, if present, suggest that one isn’t being “trained in diversity” so much as BRAINWASHED.

1. It’s mandatory.
2. “Listen with curiosity, without judgment.”
3. “Check your privilege.”
4. “How do you identify?”
5. “What are your pronouns?”
6. Black Allyship.
7. No humor.
8. Shaming for disagreement or critical questions.
9. Diversity of race, gender and ethnicity but not of thought or speech.
10. New terms, rarely supported or defined.

Got all of that?  Sounds like the MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE MEETS EST.  Clearly, this is EXTREMELY PERNICIUS STUFF.

Wish to dig deeper?

Here’s the full essay.

Ten Signs Your Diversity Training Session Is CSJ Indoctrination

Most of my liberal friends and acquaintances have NEVER SET FOOT in a poor neighborhood.  While they speak the language of HUMANITY, they’re extremely careful to QUARANTINE THEMSELVES from the day to day world of the poor and minorities.

The linked video which focuses on what it argues is liberal hypocrisy in HOUSING, TAXATION and EDUCATION may have indeed CHERRY-PICKED its examples, but that these problems DO EXIST is undeniable.  Plus, there are many similar examples that liberals ALWAYS TALK UP BUT SELDOM ADDRESS CONCRETELY.

While liberals want the GOOD LIFE FOR ALL, they seldom wish to make the MATERIAL SACRIFICES that would allow that to occur.  A lot of GOOD INTENTIONS but ZERO PERSONAL SACRIFICE.  To be fair, I’m not making those sacrifices either, but then I see this as a HOBBSEIAN dog-eat-dog world.  In other words, a society of autonomous, competing individuals.

The GOOD LIFE FOR ALL is not a birthright, nor has it ever existed for long in any society in history.  As for the American Dream, it comes down to luck.  Too bad it’s also America’s religion.  And just as pie-in-the-sky.

. . . and Its Problems.

Plenty to chew on here in this clubby, leather-chair chat between Ferguson and John Anderson:

Key Ferguson points:

• China’s principal problems — as per its own academics and officials — are enormous and largely domestic.
• The first is the relationship between China’s declining population growth-rate and that of its economy which, over time, must also decline as a consequence.
• The period of China’s cheap-labor comparative advantage is OVER.
• The second major problem is the continuing EXPANSION OF CREDIT in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis.
• Gross indebtedness has expanded enormously.
• The nightmare scenario for China is as growth declines, it’s population never makes it out of the MIDDLE INCOME TRAP.  In other words, it remains a relatively poor country per capita.
• The third major problem is China’s continuing failure to deal with CLIMATE CHANGE.
• China has accounted for more than half of the increase in carbon emissions since 2007 and shows no signs of letting up.  For instance, China builds a NEW COAL-FIRED POWER STATION EVERY WEEK.

The remainder of the discussion is just as interesting — if not more so — in this extremely manageable 14:17 clip.