Higher than WHAT?

Hey, we’re still here in Washington, but the house is going on the market soon, probably next month. Booze is in the usual place, beer is out in the mudroom, and dinner will be a pasta Primavera. As always, please notice the cup at the tip jar Where we restock the bar. And thanks to the supporters of this little soapbox.

I suppose I should mention that the pope died. Not a catholic, not my circus, not my monkey, don’t care, other than I object to putting the US national flag at half mast for the leader of a foreign state.

A dear friend of ours works as the Emergency Management Director for a major college in the area. From them I get a feed on what is going on with the faculty and administration of the post K-12 education system.

During one of the meetings of the senior staff several years ago, a quote came out that really resonated with me. One of the tenured profs was sounding off at length about the noblesse oblige of the college educated and the glories of Higher Education, when the president of the university interrupted them to say, “Higher Education? Higher than WHAT?”

This week we’ve seen some real doozies come out of the colleges and universities of our nation, and we’re going to talk about it a bit, along with other things.

Chris Bray, over at “Tell Me How This Ends” (by the way, if you haven’t taken a look at his stuff, you’re delinquent, get yourself over there and subscribe, he’s got good stuff) was talking about Harvard’s latest stupidity, and referencing another blogger that should be on your subscription list, El Gato Malo, at Bad Cattitude. I’m not going to rehash their work, it’s perfect just as it is, and you should go look at it: chrisbray/p/harvards cultural suicide leaves a much younger corpse and Bad Cattitude: elite-universities-are-over

El Gato Malo sometimes goes over the top, but he’s usually on point, and always entertaining.

All of the discussion by these gents, is over Harvard, (and now some other universities) Sueing the federal government, because they have:

1) threatened to cut off the gravy train.

2) are taking a hard look at the foreign students filling our “prestigious” universities.

3) are filling their student body with quotas instead of the best and brightest.

We’ll tackle the first two at some length, I’m not going to bother with the third one, because the bad cat covered it perfectly.

First off, the lawsuits over cuts in grants and funding. If you have somehow missed the stupidity, well, please tell me what rock you were hiding under, and if there’s room for one more.

Harvard, which has a $50,000,000,000 endowment that could run that joint for the next five hundred years without touching the principle, is screaming like an unpaid hooker (yes, I realize that’s an insult to whores everywhere, who at least give some service in return for their money!) Because Trump is threatening to cut all federal money going into the place, and pull their tax-exempt status, if they don’t change their ways.

What are we talking about here? $9,000,000,000 a YEAR in federal research grants, and another $500,000,000 in other federal funding. This is not counting the removal of tax exemption, which I would have to hire an accountant to put a value on, because I have no idea what the tax is on the interest from fifty billion dollars, that’s more money than I contemplate.

To put it in things that are easy to reference, fifty billion will buy six and a quarter new Gerald Ford class Aircraft carriers, or twenty-five nuclear submarines. Dwell on that shit for just a second, one fucking university with a vastly over inflated sense of it’s own value, has enough money to build half as many aircraft carriers as the US Navy currently owns, or OVER half as many submarines as we have, and they are crying because Uncle Sam is threatening to quit paying them to do what ever the fuck they want.

See, the thing is, Trump’s position is simple. I’m giving you money, so I get some say on what you do. After all, any other investor, or employer, gets some say on what their employee or the company they hold stock in does, right?

He’s demanding that if they want to keep sucking on the federal tit, they admit students based on the quality of their competency instead of the color of their skin. (Among other issues, like the demand that they provide a more diverse viewpoint. I know, the absolute GALL!)

When people who are admitted to HARVARD need an new introductory algebra course below the 99 level—

A little explanation here, if you haven’t had the “pleasure” of dealing with colleges, anything below 100 level courses, doesn’t count for your degree, it’s stuff that you should have picked up in high school, but didn’t, and so you’re not ready for college level work. When I finally went to college, after the Navy and at the turn of the century, there wasn’t anything below a .90 level course. These new courses seem to be .80 level.

Seriously, an introductory course to the introductory course in algebra, for a Harvard student??? Trump is demanding that they get back to offering entrance to people that don’t need bonehead math, before they can actually take any courses that count, instead of offering entrance based on “well we didn’t get enough (fill in minority here) this year, lower the bar and look again.”

On the other hand, Harvard’s position comes down to:

“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” - Harvard President Alan Garber

They are saying “we get to hire whoever we want, select as students whoever we want, and teach whatever we want, and you don’t get to say fuck-all about it. We’re the oldest college in America, and we did wonderful things in the past, so you have no right to tell us anything, or to do anything except keep giving us money!”

Now the sad thing—and this is where Bad Cat, and I disagree—is that I am willing to bet Harvard wins the lawsuit. (Yes, I will put my money where my mouth is, Gato, if you read this, I’ll lay you ten dollars that Harvard wins the suit.)

Here’s why: first off, the courts have already ruled against Trump a couple of times with the justification that “well that money was already allocated and approved by your predecessor, so you can’t unspend it, even if they aren’t doing what they are being paid to do.

Is this bullshit? Oh yes, but nothing is too bullshit in the minds of the left, if it puts a stick in Trump’s spokes. The second reason I’m sure Harvard will win, is even easier to see. How many judges are alumni of Harvard, or one of the other Ivy leagues?

Much like the “ring knocker’s protective association” of Canoe U grads protects other academy grads from the results of their actions, so too does Alumni side with their university, even if it’s wrong.

Now let’s look at that second piece, the hard look at foreign nationals in our colleges and universities. Harvard isn’t quite as up in the air about this one as, oh say, “The Big Ten” universities, and the smaller but more productive ones like MIT, Cal Poly, Rensselaer Poly and many others. Many of these schools are still actively producing graduates in the hard sciences that know what the hell they’re doing.

BTW, when I say “hard science” I mean it’s testable, repeatable and math can be applied to understand it. That includes almost all the engineering disciplines, any science degree that doesn’t include the words “Political,” “Social,” “Behavioral,” “Racial,” or “International.” It also does not include Economics, because when people as disparate as Sowell and Krugman can both be considered the top expert in the field, what you have is not a science, it’s an opinion, IE it does not pass the “repeatability” test. Krugman is still an advocate for socialism/communism after some 30 million dead victims of that economic experiment, and yet people listen to and believe him. OPINION.

The problem with these schools is that a large number of their grads are foreign nationals.

See when we first started inviting foreign students to study in our universities and colleges, the theory was that by exposing the best and brightest of other countries, even our enemies countries, to our culture for four to ten years (depending on degree) we will assimilate them, because how can you live in our society for that long and not understand that Uncle Sam knows best?

Somewhere the ghost of Emperor Theodosius is laughing bitterly. Along side him, Emperor Petronius Maximus is weeping into his beer, Sun Yat-sen is drinking heavily, As is Fulgencio Batista, Vincent Auriol just blew his brains out (he was president of France when they tried this with Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot.) Edward Heath is quietly getting stoned. (British Prime Minister while Osama bin Laden was attending Oxford.) In short, we have two thousand years or more of history showing that this theory, and the whole “soft power will win the hearts and minds” schtick DOES NOT WORK. It seems that your mother’s milk culture wins out often enough that what you really do by educating the children of your enemies, is make more capable enemies.

So why do we continue to do it?

See a student from inside the state, if you’re what is called a “public” institution, like Cal Poly, or MIT, University of WA, or Florida State, gets a huge break on his tuition, as compared to what the school wants to charge. Even a student from another state gets some breaks… But a foreign national? Oh, you get to charge them through the nose.

One of the Nasty little secrets in .EDU, is that the people we get as students, by and large, are not ‘the best and brightest, most promising’ in most cases. They’re the second and third sons and daughters, and especially in the case of those from the orient, are the “problem” children of money. The ones that are an embarrassment to the family.

First borns stay home, get educated by the best university of the nation, and learn the family business (even if the family business is government rule, or illegal drug manufacture and distribution, or the running of slave and prostitute rings.)

Now please note that I said “by and large” because we do get some of the best and brightest, especially from enemy states. States like the PRC, and most of the Middle East. These students all have a couple things in common, other than being from cultures that would like to see ours completely destroyed, and being the best and brightest of their nation.

1) They all take disciplines in things that we do really well, and that are “Dual Use Technologies” DUT. What is a DUT you ask? Well Nuclear physics is an obvious example. It can be used to create life-saving radioisotopes, or third-stage Fusion Bombs. Civil Engineer; can build roads and water purification systems, or assault roads, tunnels, and fortresses. Aeronautics, and literal rocket scientists, the flavor of physicist that plays with radio propagation (IE Stealth systems) and so on, especially including medical studies on immunology and infectious disease. (Was COVID a test run for a bioweapon? Well, if it wasn’t, please explain how a test run would be different. Show your work.)

If it can be considered a science or engineering field that has domestic, peaceful use, our schools can teach it to foreigners. The fact that you can also use it to make weapons of war is irrelevant to the idiots running our schools.

2) They are all also graduates of some sort of spying for your motherland school.

Am I saying that all of the students from the PRC are spies?

YES!

Yes, I am. Even those that are not under the direct command of the Ministry of State Security, are by law (the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China) to “provide needed support, assistance, and cooperation to state intelligence work organs, when legally carrying forth intelligence work.” In short, understand and embrace the fact that any Chinese national in this country is going to report everything that they see, hear, or read to the PLA.

Of course, the PRC isn’t alone in this, they’re just the 800 lb. gorilla in the room on this subject.

Well, under the direction of the head of the executive branch (that would be Trump) ICE is taking a good hard look at who we are educating and offering those who look like they may be a threat, or who are here illegally, a one-way trip out of the country. This bothers the various schools in question greatly.

1) Because Trump is doing it, and anything he does they are automatically against. (I wish he would start a major anti-suicide program, just to watch all of these fuckers end themselves in protest.)

2) It’s hitting their bottom line; it’s costing them money from their favorite cash cows. As a result, they are preaching revolution. But they are preaching it to an ever-dwindling audience. People are staying away from colleges and universities in droves.

The fact that the average parlor pink tenured professor at any post-secondary school in America couldn’t find the safety or successfully load a magazine with twenty rounds on a firearm in such a way that it would fire, seems to be irrelevant to them, because of course they don’t expect to be the front line troops, oh no, they’ll be the high command, directing those lesser beings on who to kill and why it is needful.

If you think I’m joking about the inability to load a mag, it’s because you’ve never been the range master and watch a bunch of morons load rounds in their magazines backwards or try to put the mag in the rifle backwards. You have to dummy it down to “claymore mine level” you know, the one with the big letters “this face towards enemy?”

You know, I am always amazed at the left’s hubris in thinking they will be in the top positions in and after a revolution. It’s not something new to this generation, every revolution after the US one has suffered from this problem, and every time, the liberal intelligencia wound up lined up against a wall, kneeling in front of a ditch, in line for their visit with Madam Guillotine, or otherwise on the wrong side of a deadly weapon. They bring nothing but ideology to the fight, and they have no useful knowledge for the administration of the nation post victory. In short, they are, as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili put it, “Useful Idiots.”

Sigh, some people learn from history, some from observation, and some have to piss on the electric fence themselves.

I think that in the end, Bad Cat, and Chris Bray are right. The major Universities, as we know them, are dead.

The loss in reputation.

The bitter observation that graduates of these schools are not capable of doing the work they’re hired for without major training, (training that hiring a college grad was supposed to allow you to avoid.)

The ever-increasing salary demands that a college grad brings to the table, to pay for the horrible debt they took on, and

The ideological brainwashing that costs most companies huge amounts of money to deal with… (The Walt Disney Company, black curtesy phone, Walt Disney black curtesy phone please.) Are all combining to make that sheepskin useful only for polishing cars.

What comes out the other end, I don’t know, but it won’t be the system that existed when I was growing up. However, getting there is going to be ugly, painful, expensive, and might just get violent. With billions upon billions of dollars, and the reputations of some of the most powerful men in the world resting on the Status Quo Ante, this isn’t going to go gently into that good night.

On to other things.

If you have the displeasure to live in or around Washington state, you’ll not be surprised to find out that the city council and the mayor of Seattle suddenly discovered that there’s someone they haven’t messed with enough, and are taking a hard turn on that.

Montlake is a district of Seattle composed mostly of old, sometimes very old homes. (its oldest homes are one hundred and fifty years old.) It’s a section of Seattle that the city grew around, surrounded, and then continued to grow.

While it’s not “in the hart of the city” as Daniel Beekman, the beclowned author of /how-montlake-became-a-suburb-in-the-middle-of-seattle-and-whats-next for the Seattle Times put it, it is now surrounded by city.

Oh, and it’s not: nothing but rat warren of man-in-a-can apartment buildings and concrete jungles. Well now that the “urban planners” have “discovered” the existence of this cluster of single-family dwellings, surrounded by the high density five thousand dollar a month 1000 square foot condos, they aim to do something about it!

See, according to the reporter, and the various city planners, Montlake is just too. Too white (77% when the rest of the city averages 62%) Too rich (average household income $298K when the rest of the city averages $170K) and just generally too happy! So, they’re designating Montlake along with thirty other “Neighborhood Centers” as “High Urban Density Construction Areas.” (it’s worth noting that the rest of those 30 are also alcoves of the rich and old money.)

I’m trying hard to feel sorry for the poor folks in Montlake, who are about to see their neighborhoods destroyed in the name of ‘the right of the people to have more housing.’ The thing is, I just can’t quite reach… See these smug bastards voted for this. For decades they’ve been voting for “Populist heroes” who were going to “bring the blessings of socialism to our fair city!” While smugly confident that their beat would go on. You get what you voted for, good and hard, without any lube.

In New Mexico, a judge “Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano” who had been on the bench since 2011 and was a former cop, (yes, he’s a Democrat) has resigned following the arrest of an illegal alien who was a buddy of his, that he had living in his house, took shooting, and so on… It seems that Chisthian Ortega-Lopez is accused of being a member of Tren de Aragua, and had photos of mutilated and decapitated bodies on his phone… Oh and yes, he came across the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass Texas, was caught by the Border Patrol, was held in South Laredo for three days, but then released due to overcrowding… All under the Biden regime.

I am sure that we’ll be seeing things about how this poor misunderstood gentleman was a wonderful construction worker, and a pillar of the community, and he didn’t-do-nuffin, and needs to be released instead of being sent back to Venezuela, from the media soon.

While we’re talking about the southern Border, apparently Coronado Naval Special Warfare Command Training Group is having some major issues, between January of ’19 and May of ’23. 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illness was reported among the BUDS students there, many of them hospitalized. The culprit? Raw sewage dumped in the ocean from Tijuana Mexico. It’s not enough that the Mexican government is passing the shit sandwich of gang members, terrorists, and spies across our border, they’re also sending their actual shit. If we could afford it, I would support moving the base up to, oh say Oregon. There’s a defunct USCG base on the coast that would be perfect, and it’s near the Dunes, so they could play there too. Water’s colder, but the better to get “wet and sandy.” Hell, I would pull everything out of California, and let Mexico have it, if I thought it would matter. Trouble is, the issues would still be there, because Mexico would fuck that shit up in no time flat, and then be pounding on the door somewhere else.

Oh, and in late breaking news, Dick Durbin the minority whip in the Senate and eighty fucking years old, has announced that he won’t be running for reelection. He’s from Illinois, so don’t believe all the hype that this will make any difference, Illinois is still the state that Daily built, Chicago runs the state as it’s own personal fiefdom, and as the originators of “vote early, vote often” will ensure that a Republican has as much chance of winning that seat, as I do of being appointed Secretary General of the UN. Still, I won’t morn his departure.

QOTD "If we let our government deport and jail a non-citizen MS-13 gang member who beats his wife and has a court order to be deported, it's a slippery slope until they take your mom. Did I do that right?" —Scott Adams

Yours in Service,

William Lehman