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March 2026
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  • Scattershots – 23mar26 (updated 24mar26)

    George Rebane

    Millionaire taxes on the rich don’t work.  Massachusetts tried that in 2023 and lost $4.2B in state revenues.  A large number of the rich just high-tailed it out of the state.  This is not reported in the lamestream media, so none of the Democrat voters know about it and will no doubt support the same stupid policies proposed by New York, Illinois, and California.  We must always keep in mind that it is the carefully conditioned ignorant liberal voter that votes for the sleazebags who come up with such insane pro-socialist public policies.

    Trump is giving the Iranian ragheads five more days to open up the Strait of Hormuz, based on recently opened “good talks” with the regime.  The Iranians are denying that any such talks are ongoing.  In any case the markets went nuts this morning in hopes that the strait will soon be opened and the war ends.  The reality is that any talks with this regime will be as fruitless as they have been for the last almost 50 years.  The only acceptable end to the hostilities will come when the current regime is removed from power, and the Iranian people establish a new pro-western government.  Any other conclusion to the conflict will constitute a massive geo-strategic loss for the western countries and an unsurvivable political disaster for President Trump and his administration that will usher in the beginning of a socialist winter in the United States.

    [24mar26 update]  Trump’s lead mid-east negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff should not be involved in any negotiations with Iran’s current regime of theocratic thugs.  Kushner and Witkoff have a good record negotiating with various Islamic parties who can be expected to keep their word in trust-but-verify agreements.  That cannot be said for the towelheads in Tehran who have been destabilizing the mid-east, lying and violating every agreement they have signed.  Trump’s using the Kushner/Witkoff team gives explicit and unwarranted credibility to the regime as being good-faith negotiators who share US/Israeli goals for a stable and prosperous region.  Such expectations expose our president’s continued naivete in negotiating with the likes tyrants such as Putin, Xi, Kim, and the Iranian theocrats.  There remains only one thing to negotiate – how the current thugs may be allowed to leave Iran in one piece.  Absent that, the clear alternative is that we kill them.  And to carry out such a negation requires substitution of one of our senior military hard-asses who can explain the matter to them with succinct clarity.  All other approaches will hasten President Trump’s political future as an obviously naïve post-election lame duck.

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  • The Iran Propaganda War

    George Rebane

    The Democrats are winning the Iran propaganda war hands down in the lamestream media and in the polls.  Their daily anti-American, anti-Trump screeds have successfully convinced over half of our population that the war was ill-conceived, and is being poorly executed with no clear objectives to be achieved.  That none of this is true does not matter, it is how the Left’s leadership – e.g. Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, et al – expertly interpret the war news to their favor that carries the day.

    For their part, the Republicans and conservative media mavens are trying to put the best face on the daily war news out of the White House.  Some, like economist Larry Kudlow, organize daily happy dances on Fox Business, celebrating the administration’s reports of more Iran’s leaders killed, missile launchers destroyed, and other military facilities laid to waste.  In sum, we have defeated Iran, eliminated the leading sponsor of world terrorism, and secured the world from the threat of an imminent rogue nuclear power.

    But it doesn’t take much to read between the lines and see what’s really going on around the Persian Gulf.  No matter the levels of destruction cited, Iran has increased its attacks on Israel and now on its nearby Arab oil producing neighbors.  It has successfully shut down the Hormuz Strait and now determines which ships it allows passage.  On the diplomatic front Iran continues issuing demands and conditions for cessation of hostilities that are off-the-wall and outrageous.  On its home front, it is able to suppress all opposition with its murderous militia thugs who have an established reputation of killing tens of thousands of protesting Iranian citizens.  The streets are quiet as people fear going into the streets.

    President Trump’s assurances to support an Iranian regime change by its people have so far convinced no one.  And our inability to open Hormuz is noted by the whole world and reflected in the behavior of its security markets and the soaring price of oil.  It is clear that counting nuclear carriers, assault ships, number of Marines on station, and the thousands of sorties flown to date has had little impact on Iran’s capacity to continue dictating the course and intensity of the conflict.

    And with the upcoming elections, our Democrats are making hay from all of this, while the Republicans’ response sounds more hollow with each passing day, with no clear evidence that Iran is really on the verge of collapse militarily or of a popular uprising of its people..  And we Americans see all this and understand when the administration’s war news is nothing but meaningless statistics that have yet to bear on what is happening on the ground.  Simply put, both our political sides are engaged in a propaganda war that the Left is winning.

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  • Sandbox – 17mar26

    [Our liberal readers who only get told a highly biased half of the news never encountered any statements by the Democratic leadership vowing to fundamentally transform America from a constitutional republic to something like a Marxist socialist democracy coded as a ‘progressive society’.  In doing elementary research we can start with Obama’s 30oct08 campaign rally at the University of Missouri where he first stated,  “After decades of broken politics in Washington, and eight years of failed policies from George W. Bush, and 21 months of a campaign that’s taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” Check also statements by Sanders, AOC, et al. gjr] 

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  • Iran War – on the edge of quagmire?

    George Rebane

    We have definitely become bogged down in our prosecution of the Iran war.  As we enter the war’s third week, it is clear that no material progress has been made toward ending the conflict for at least the last seven days.  Iran has successfully hunkered down and continues to launch missiles and drones at any and all regional targets of its choosing.  All we are now told is that we continue to hit military and oil producing targets with great effect that, unfortunately, is neither measurable nor indicative of progress toward the conclusion of hostilities.

    Media reporting on the war divides into two distinct camps.  The leftwing media are giddy in their reports of an ‘illegal war with no objectives nor plans for ending it’.  Surprisingly, they are making political hay in their lack of support for the military or its war effort.  News from the field allows them to present the whole affair as the strongest support yet for Trump hatred (aka TDS).  Heady stuff with the approaching primaries.

    The rightwing media continue putting the best face on the lack of progress by having their anchors interview an endless stream of Republican congress critters and ‘experts’, most of whom are unknown to the viewers.  And all of whom have nothing new to add to their repetition of the talking points that justify attacking Iran.  Anyone who pays attention can tell that such reports have become self-defeating – most certainly they are not good politicking.

    At this point the whole thing has come to a focus on the Strait of Hormuz, the passage through which appears to be completely under Iran’s control.  We are not prepared to risk any of our naval assets to open up the strait, claiming that it would become a “kill zone” for our navy.  Curiously though, we have no problem asking our allies to send their ships to help secure the strait before announcing any plans or timetable to commit our own forces.  Our allies’ reluctance to send their ships is therefore totally understandable.

    So what could we posit as reasonable indicators that Iran has been defeated.  Regime change resulting from Iranians massing in the streets would be a robust sign of which there is no hint of coming to pass.  The cessation of Iranian counter attacks on Israel, former gulf allies, and American bases would be another positive development.  The self-exiling of the remnant regime to foreign shores would indicate the beginning of the end.  And finally, the acceptance by the IRGC and related armed militia groups of a new pro-western government would definitely signal a successful end to the Iranian theocracy and its support of global Islamic terrorism.

    However, continuing to witness the steady stream of the Democrats’ anti-American and anti-administration propaganda, along with hopeful Republican reports repeatedly vindicating the purpose and progress of the military enterprise, leaves one to conclude that we are at the precipice of another geo-political quagmire.  The time is fast approaching to either defecate or relinquish the receptacle.

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  • The American People – where are they?

    George Rebane

    We are assured daily by politicians and media mavens of all stripes that the “American people” support this or oppose that.  Each one of these worthies attempts to convince us that they have divined the will of the American people who supposedly make up a cohesive cohort of the population that share in common this or that belief about the way various things are or will be.  Nothing could be further from reality.  There is no such over-arching population of like thinkers living in the United States.

    Almost every national issue divides Americans into two or three major groups who disagree markedly with each other.  Perhaps, if 80 or 90% agree on some proposition – e.g. secure borders – then we may accept that to be the sentiment of the American people.  But claiming the country to be of like mind on any division less than that is a blatant lie intended to mislead.

    Consider the following summary of data put out by the Commerce Department, Federal Reserve, IRS, and various prominent polling organizations (e.g. Gallup, Pew, …).  Major shares of the total U.S. population (totaling roughly 341–349 million in 2025–2026) include:

    • Non-Hispanic White: approximately 58–59%.
    • Hispanic or Latino (of any race): approximately 19%.
    • Non-Hispanic Black or African American: approximately 12–13% (with the broader Black population, including multiracial identifiers, reaching about 49 million or roughly 14% in 2024).
    • Non-Hispanic Asian: approximately 6%.
    • Multiracial (two or more races): approximately 10–11%, a category that has grown significantly.
    • Smaller groups, such as American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, each account for under 1–2%.

    Ideological divisions are measured primarily through self-identification on a liberal–conservative spectrum and through partisan affiliation (including those who lean toward one of the two major parties). Surveys from Gallup and Pew Research Center indicate that Americans are roughly evenly split in partisan terms, with a large and growing share of independents. Ideology shows a plurality identifying as conservative, though moderates and liberals together comprise a substantial portion. These categories align strongly with the two major political parties, which have grown more ideologically apart over time.  Recent data (2025) show:

    • Ideological self-identification: approximately 35% conservative (including “very conservative”), 28% liberal (including “very liberal”), and 33% moderate.
    • Partisan affiliation: 27% identify as Democrats and 27% as Republicans, with a record 45% identifying as independents. When independents are included via leaning, the split is nearly even (approximately 45–47% Democratic-leaning and 42–46% Republican-leaning).
    • Within parties: Republicans are overwhelmingly conservative (around 77%), while Democrats are predominantly liberal (around 55%, a historic high).

    In recent decades polarization has increased markedly, with greater ideological distance between the parties and a reduced overlap in moderate views.  Though a sizable moderate/independent segment persists, no one can identify any common ground from which to start reducing our polarization.  Instead, it is clear that our conservative/progressive partisan populations live in distinctly different worlds, each embracing their own facts, histories, values, and ways of reasoning.  And each holds the other to be somewhere between hopelessly ignorant and evil.

    More granular analyses, such as Pew Research Center’s political typology, further subdivide the public into nine cohesive groups based strictly on values and attitudes, underscoring that the primary fault line remains the partisan-ideological divide between conservative-Republican and liberal-Democratic alignments.

    In sum, anyone who cites ‘American people’ as the overwhelming share of people with similar thoughts on any important issue or public policy is an ignorant charlatan at best, but most likely an agenda-driven liar.

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  • America’s Foreign Policy Misrepresented

    [This commentary was published in the 10mar26 edition of The Union.]

    George Rebane

    Our worthy warriors of the Left continue to bombard us with various messages assembled under the theme of America, the evil racially-drenched imperialist warmonger that seeks to beggar the world to the benefit of its capitalist overlords.  Today TDS is their most effective weapon in the public arena where ideologies contend.  Most recently many of our prominent local leftists – e.g. Daryl Grigsby, Richard Howell, et al – have issued challenges to continue opposing the Trump administration and to gather us in the streets to show our displeasure.  Given his intellectual bent, Mr Grigsby has composed a distinctly historically one-sided missive – ‘When will we wake up?’ (7mar26) – intended to convince readers of the wrong-headed evil currently perpetrated by our administration in Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba, … .

    Grigsby’s argument hews to the Democratic Party line that totally omits the historical foundations of America’s foreign policy and its implementation since WW2.  The better-read student is aware of The Long Telegram, an 8,000-word cable, sent on 22 February 1946 by George F. Kennan, the American chargé d’affaires in Moscow. It is widely considered one of the most influential documents in American diplomatic history, as it provided the intellectual foundation for the U.S. Cold War policy of containment.

    Kennan’s analysis was divided into five parts, covering international communism’s (a la USSR) worldview, its historical roots, and subsequent recommendations for U.S. policy.

    • Inherent Hostility: Kennan argued that the Soviet leadership viewed the world as divided into “capitalist” and “socialist” camps that could never peacefully coexist.
    • Insecurity and Neurosis: He asserted that Soviet aggression was not based on objective reality but on a “traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity” and a need for an external enemy to justify internal autocratic rule.
    • Expansionist Nature: The Soviet regime was “inherently expansionist” and would relentlessly seek to spread its influence wherever it encountered “diseased tissue” or weakness in the West.
    • Logic of Force: Kennan noted that the Soviet Union, unlike Nazi Germany, was “highly sensitive to the logic of force” and would withdraw if it encountered sufficient resistance.
    • Containment Policy: The telegram argued that the U.S. should pursue a “long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies”.

    Kennan’s bottom line was that until communism (now abetted by Islam) changed its raison d’etre, the US, as the only viable opposing hegemon, should be prepared to fight small wars in perpetuity against communism where and whenever it rose to challenge the west.  As is evident, we have pursued that world order with various levels of success.  To wit, our 1950 entry into the Korean War to oppose the communist north’s invasion of the south, and the CIA’s subversion of Iran’s democratically elected Mossadegh who used the communist Tudeh Party as his “foot soldiers”.

    And today the beat goes on with conflicts in Ukraine, Mid-east, Iran, and preparations for the promised invasion of Taiwan.  Within this background our domestic Left successfully refocuses America’s attention on the bombastic and auto-promoting nature of our fearless leader, President Trump.  Despite his many domestic and foreign policy successes, with more to come, Mr Trump is not a naturally lovable character.  Instead, he’s the champion of how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, providing the leftwing media a constant flow of ample material that distracts main street from learning of or understanding his abundant successes.

    In sum, today’s Iran conflict is not a “forever war” as its critics describe it.  It is just the latest effort by the US to push back the most current attack on western culture, and the forms of beneficent governance and economies it has promoted in the world.  There is no mistaking that America intends to maintain its position as the free-world’s hegemon, and to do that with a strong leader like Trump through policies and uses of force that satisfy ‘America first’ interests.  The sad conflict we have internally is that today half of us no longer share these sentiments – according to a recent Gallup poll, two of three Democrats view socialism more favorably than capitalism – and are actively working for the best interests of our declared enemies.

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  • Sandbox – 1mar26

    [Well, it all finally hit the fan yesterday.  The video of Khamenei’s compound being destroyed by multiple missile impacts is quite terrific and impressive.  That was, of course, the first target destroyed, else every raghead at the planning meeting would have high-tailed it out of there.  Now we have to hope that we do put some surreptitious boots on the ground and help the Iranians get organized to take care of regime change.  Rallying around Prince Reza Pahlavi is not a bad starting point for forming a temporary government before elections can be held.  gjr]

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  • America’s Literacy and Numeracy Crisis: The High Cost of Left-Wing Dominance in Public Education

    [This commentary was published in the 25feb26 edition of The Union.  It is posted here as it appeared in the newspaper. gjr]

    Over the years in these pages and on my blog I have been a critic of our nation’s public school system that has produced a workforce and electorate marginally able to maintain our democratic republic.  At every turn I have been attacked by our progressive neighbors for my undeserved criticisms and ignorance on the matter.  Nevertheless, these neighbors and their voting record give ample evidence on how this crisis in education came about and continues unabated.

    Recent international assessments paint a damning picture of American adult skills. The 2023 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), conducted by the OECD, reveals that U.S. adults aged 16–65 rank a mediocre 14th in literacy and a dismal 24th in numeracy among 31 participating countries. Literacy scores fell 12 points from 2017 to 2023, while numeracy dropped 7 points. About one of three adults now score at the lowest literacy levels, and struggle with reasoning and basic numeracy—skills essential for everything from reading basic instructions to managing finances. These declines affect a workforce already lagging behind peers in Finland, Japan, and Sweden, where adults excel in both domains.

    This is not a story of underfunding. The United States spends lavishly on public education—around $15,500 to $20,000 per K-12 student annually, far exceeding the OECD average of about $10,700–$11,900 for primary and secondary levels. Including higher education, per-student expenditure reaches $37,400, double the OECD norm. Yet despite this investment, outcomes remain stubbornly poor. American taxpayers pour in resources, but results point to systemic failure rather than scarcity.

    At the heart of this dysfunction lies the left-wing stranglehold on public education. The nation’s two largest teachers’ unions—the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—wield enormous influence over policy, curriculum, and reform efforts. These organizations are not neutral; they are partisan powerhouses. Over 90% of their political donations flow to Democratic candidates and causes, with tens of millions funneled to left-wing advocacy groups since 2022 alone. In election cycles, union dues—often mandatory—finance progressive agendas, from opposing school accountability to blocking merit-based pay.

    This ideological dominance has prioritized social engineering over foundational skills. For decades, progressive education theories have reshaped classrooms, emphasizing “child-centered” approaches, equity initiatives, and social justice themes at the expense of rigorous instruction. In reading, methods like “whole language”—long favored by progressive educators—downplay phonics in favor of guessing from context, contributing to stalled progress since the early 2010s. Math instruction has suffered similarly, with “discovery-based” curricula encouraging students to invent their own methods rather than master standard algorithms. Critics point to these shifts as key factors in declining scores, as evidenced by flat or falling NAEP results in reading and math over the past decade.

    Compounding this is a broader cultural shift within public education toward ideological indoctrination. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, critical theories on race and gender, and politicized curricula have proliferated, often diverting time and resources from core academics. Republican voters increasingly perceive public schools as promoting liberal viewpoints, a sentiment backed by surveys showing widespread concern over one-sided teaching. This leftward tilt stifles dissent, resists evidence-based reforms like expanded phonics or traditional math, and protects underperforming systems from competition.

    The result? A second generation now entering adulthood ill-equipped for a knowledge economy that requires workers with skills in logic, reasoning, and critical thinking.  Absent these, we have functional illiteracy and innumeracy which hinder economic mobility, innovation, and even constructive civic participation. Poverty, immigration, and family factors play roles, but they do not excuse a system that spends lavishly yet struggles for mediocrity.

    Reform requires breaking the monopoly. School choice—vouchers, charters, and tax-credit scholarships—offers a path forward by empowering parents and introducing competition to government education. Evidence is mixed, but competitive pressures have driven improvements in some contexts, forcing public schools to innovate or lose students. Without such options, left-wing interests will continue safeguarding failure.

    America cannot afford more decades of ideological stranglehold. To reclaim excellence, we must demand accountability, depoliticize classrooms, and prioritize proven teaching over progressive experimentation. The PIAAC data is a wake-up call: our public education system, dominated by left-wing forces, is failing its fundamental mission. It’s past time for change.

    George Rebane, PhD

    Nevada County

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  • Scattershots – 16feb26

    George Rebane

    Hit to Gov Newsom and the state’s Democrats for finally figuring out the homeless problem.  By spending $24B (supposedly) on California’s homeless, that then increased their numbers by 20% to over 180,000 according to HUD data, the Democrats have shown that taxpayers need only pay about $800,000 to add each additional person to our homeless rolls.  And to reward such clever solutions to increasing our homeless problem (already at 2 out of 3 in the country), in their wisdom by passing Prop 50, California voters will again faithfully re-elect even more Democrats to their established one-party sinecures.  With such a crop of resident geniuses, we count our blessings. https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/01/hud-pit-count-2024/

    Feds to pay for AI training of employees.  This new program is supposed to reduce the likelihood of rampant systemic unemployment that is waiting in the wings.  Where it misses the boat is that the only feasible training accessible to most is to learn how to compose an AI prompt.  But the contents of a prompt that elicits a useful response must be based on deep knowledge about the requirements for the desired task that the AI will satisfy.  Not all lower level employees have such deep knowledge.  And that is the reason that they become redundant when, say, their manager with such deep knowledge can write the prompt that will do their work, and thereby increase his own productivity.  Bottom line, AI survivors will have to have higher levels of intellect and knowledge than lower level workers.

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  • The Singularity is here?

    George Rebane

    “The accelerating sophistication of artificial intelligence is driving a wave of warnings (from tech insiders) that AI can create real-world harms, including autonomous cyberattacks, mass unemployment, unrelenting market disruption and the replacement of human relationships.” (WSJ 15feb26)  It is getting very hard to argue that we are not already witnessing the Singularity.  And it has come upon us in a form that was unexpected – an insidious arrival instead of a widely recognized event as would have been with the sudden advent of AGI (artificial generalized intelligence).

    And given the already demonstrated level of dumbth in the nation, along with the rising systemic unemployment worries, most observers see the future with AI as dystopic.  This acknowledges that there is still a cohort of naifs who consider the LLMs arrival as just another technological milestone as those in the past that have created more jobs for people of all intellectual levels than were displaced/lost.

    Regarding Singularity’s advent and expanding on the functions remaining to humanity in a society populated by ubiquitous AGIs, I had the following conversation with SuperGrok (here).

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6 comments on Scattershots – 23mar26 (updated 24mar26)