The Trump Test: Are You More Populist Than Conservative?

Are you appalled at Trump's policy but drawn to his plain speech?  He's no conservative but he is a populist.  Populism is more democratic than conservatism.  Conservatism depends on policy, not how governments surrender to change.    I must be more populist than conservative because I want a break from suck-up phony language more than I want a balanced budget.

From Commentary Magazine:   Populism has been defined as “an ideology which pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity and voice.”

The encroachment of elites on my speech and behaviour in the personal realm has been bothering me more of late than the deficits, debasing of currency, and tentacular expansion of the state in the financial realm.  Some plain talk is needed.  Maybe homosexuality isn't the greatest or even a particularly good choice.  Maybe having children isn't bad and possibly even an awesome undertaking.   Maybe making nice to nasty people won't re-set the world and might even make it a more dangerous place.   Maybe letting kids play on their own as long as they get home in time for bed isn't child abandonment and possibly even a good way to bring them up.   Trump isn't saying that but the topics he has hit on get that kind of plain talk.

Two loudmouths (National Post)

Now that the US has it's own Rob Ford, embrace it for a bit.  Trump is as much of a political genius as your typical Hollywood star who likes to pontificate in front of a microphone.  But he has the ability to change the way the wind sock of public debate is pointing.  Even the current GOP roster of candidates will speak more plainly, if only to combat Trump.    I'll be listening to the August 6th debate.  (Hoping to see Walker shine and sorry Fiorina will miss).

"End of Christianity in the Middle East. Obama doesn't much seem to care and the Pope seems more interested in climate change"

Headline at Instapundit,   Seems about right.  Link.

Thought for the day:  "Who will rise up for me against the wicked?"

From the NYT article

Did you view this animation of Muslim conquest with over a thousand attacks into Europe matched by a handful as Europe pushed back?

This time Europe will fall.

From Kurt Schlichter:

"Human nature hasn’t changed one iota. Thugs like Vladimir Putin and Islamofascists like ISIS understand the bloody mathematics of power in the way the espresso-sippers refuse to.            Ukraine will fall. The Baltics will fall. Turkey will fall. The Balkans will fall. Europe will fall.   ..  When people realize that this time no one in Europe will die for a line on a map, Russia will cross them. And, of course ... Iran will soon have the bomb."

Read the rest at The Federalist

Deadly thing with 200 million year orbit keeps blasting Earth with death?

The great and minor extinctions in our fossil record have a bit of a rhythm near the 195 million year mark and another in the 26-35 million year range.   David Brin speculated in 1984 that the periodical encounter with a galactic shock wave or a ray-spewing black hole orbiting a little quicker than Earth's 240 million year track around the galaxy could explain this.  The math isn't much different than the calculations for earth-moon interactions.  If it exists, it is about 2.4 kilo-parsecs out from the galaxy core while earth sits at 10.  All this is in addition to meteor mashups.  A periodic particle flux can collapse Earth's ecosystem.  What a beautiful idea on a cosmic scale!

Round we go.

The author, David Brin, links to an update to this speculation which involves dark matter and the thoughts of NYU's Michael Rampino.

"Overnight civil liberties have become a Republican issue"

From the Federalist:

The Left ... has taken on the role of Grand Inquisitor so rapidly that overnight civil liberties have become a Republican issue. Slowly but surely, the American Right is adopting the role of the cultural insurgent standing up for the freedom of the little guy. They crowdfund the pizza shop, baker, and photographer; they rebel against the establishment in the gaming media and at sci-fi conventions; they buy their chicken sandwiches in droves.

The Left as The Lord High Executioner, a figure of fun until it's your
head that's chopped.  Tim Hunt, for example.

Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize Winner, whose career was
just chopped by an outraged feminist
(with fake credentials)
and her fellow travelers.
His crime: Joking about falling in love
with attractive co-workers..