Rebane's Ruminations

About

January 2026
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

ARCHIVES

OUR LINKS

YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog

  • Scattershots – 15may25

    George Rebane

    “California’s poverty rate has increased significantly, with disproportionate impacts on Black and Laninx residents” during the Biden years (2021-2024).  The California Budget & Policy Center reports (here) on the continuous disaster foisted on our formerly golden state by the double dummy Democrats who inhabit Sacramento at all levels.  And it is getting worse by the month as we hear from our know-nothing  governor.  With its policies of providing all kinds of social benefits to illegal aliens, thereby inviting more of them to come, the state has run up another deficit of over $12B this year.  This, of course, requires more taxes and fees that will mostly impact the state’s poor, thereby raising the poverty levels even more.  The terminally ignorant liberal constituencies (some comment here) have no idea what’s happening or what’s causing it.  They are focused happily on the lamestream reports that California has the world’s fourth biggest economy (contributed by Silicon Valley companies which employ a minimal workforce of highly paid employees that give rise to the large income gap among Californians generated by the exodus of middle class workers).

    Birthright citizenship reporting again reveals the strong progressive tilt of our National Propaganda Radio.  As SCOTUS starts to hear arguments on the matter, the NPR Marxists go through all the tragic tales of not granting such citizenship to the offspring of illegal aliens.  With serious mien they intone the provisions of the 14th Amendment, citing its “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  Not once do they mention that the post Civil War amendment was written to unambiguously grant citizenship to the South’s slaves freed by Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.  The 14th was never intended to be a y’all come invitation to illegals crossing our purposely porous borders to provide legions of future Democrat voters through planned amnesties to the parents of newly born birthright citizens.  Again, the lamestream media makes sure that their audiences never hear any of this.

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    69 comments on Scattershots – 15may25

  • The Matter of Abrego Garcia

    George Rebane

    Democrat lies abound in all sizes and shapes; they wash over us daily during our consumption of the news, be it from conservative or progressive outlets.  The lies about the deported gang member and wife beater Abrego Garcia have gotten a lot of mileage, and proivdes a lot of holier-than-thou comments on blogs from leftwing readers.

    Unfortunately, the rightwing outlets fall down on explaining to viewers the crux of the Garcia deportation argument – maintained by the Left that he was denied due process.  In reality Garcia was provided all that he had coming under our deportation laws.  The Heritage Foundation makes this clear in ‘Abrego Garcia: The Poster Child for the Left’s Demands of Endless “Due Process”’ –

    When an alien becomes deportable—either because they entered the U.S. illegally, overstayed their temporary visa, committed a crime, committed fraud, participated in terrorist activity, or other reasons—ICE charges the alien with ground(s) of deportability, which initiates removal proceedings with the Justice Department’s administrative immigration court system.

    These are civil proceedings, not criminal. The administrative immigration judges are Justice Department employees in the executive branch; they are not federal judges under the Article III Judiciary of the U.S. Constitution.

    That means deportable aliens in deportation proceedings do not have the same rights as a person in a criminal trial, such as being innocent until proven guilty, the right to a taxpayer funded public defendant, etc. Removing a deportable alien is not a criminal sentence

    The unsuspecting news consumer is told that Garcia was wrongfully treated like a criminal and denied the ‘due process’ that US criminals receive after being arrested.  The Left emphasizes this point while the Right remains silent, thereby letting the Left’s lie remain unchallenged.  Hopefully, this little bagatelle will explain the matter to open-minded readers, while true believers of the Left remain unreachable.

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    30 comments on The Matter of Abrego Garcia

  • Triangle Problem

    George Rebane

    Two circles of areas A1 and A2 are embedded in an equilateral triangle as shown below.  What is the area of the triangle?

    TriangleProb2
    ©2025 GJ Rebane

     

    Posted at

    in

    ,
    1 comment on Triangle Problem

  • Scattershots – 4may25 (updated 7may25)

    George Rebane

    Today the Rebanes landed on these shores 76 years ago (here).  It was the most fortuitous and wisest move by my parents to accept America’s 1948 invitation to the Balts then ensconced in displaced persons camps all over West Germany.  It has been documented many times since by historians and journalists that the then racially biased US considered northern European refugees from USSR-invaded countries as the most desirable immigrants to fill the country’s needs for educated and skilled workers.  My father was an electrician and mom was an accomplished seamstress.

    The leftwing (aka ‘mainstream’, lamestream) media confirms its continuing distortions of the news it chooses to cover.  The most recent example, now ongoing, is the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan.  According to the ultra-leftwing AP (here), Judge Dugan simply “helped a man evade immigration authorities”.  Nowhere in the report is it disclosed that “the man” was a criminal illegal alien on trial for whom ICE agents had a warrant and were waiting to arrest him outside Judge Dugan’s courtroom door.  Knowing this, Dugan took it upon herself to spirit the criminal alien and his lawyer out a courthouse side door.  The man was later caught by ICE and arrested.  Judge Dugan was suspended pending an investigation, and the usual leftwing mob quickly assembled to protest the arrest.  It was led by a Democratic politician Rep Ryan Clancy who blamed Trump for the whole thing – “The judiciary acts as a check to unchecked executive power.  And functioning democracies do not lock up judges.”  Presumably because liberal judges are above the law as the last four years have demonstrated.

    [7may25 update] ‘California’s green new scam could cost your $20,000.’ (here)  The clowns in Sacramento are determined to do all they can to economically sink the state’s middle class, leaving the rich and those on the government tit the only ones who can afford to stay here.  Every statement about the benefits of their new green mandates is turning out to be a lie, and more on the way.  “Aside from higher costs, these mandates will also soon bring major energy shortfalls – the state will be 21.2% short of the power needed to fuel the grid each day – when the state’s 100% renewable energy and electric vehicle mandates are in effect. And this doesn’t include huge looming power demands for artificial intelligence, or for green appliances and HVAC mandates on homes and businesses that will take effect in the coming years.”

    The benefits of the anti-parasite drug Ivermectin have been extensively covered in these pages during the Covid pandemic.  Since then big pharmas opposition to its manifold benefits have been exposed and waning.  Now Louisiana follows Tennessee, Idaho, and Arkansas to pass a bill allowing over-counter Ivermectin to be sold (here).  “Making Ivermectin over the counter will ensure access to the human form of the medication in safe dosing from a pharmacy for its varied uses, …‘Off-label’ use is a well-established practice. It is understood that many drugs, once FDA-approved, will be used to treat other conditions and diseases that were not tested for in the trial.”

    Colorado’s collapse under one-party rule allows the state to join California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois as the next double-dummy Democratic fiefdom in the tank for the lowest economic performance and freedoms available to its citizens. (here)  The Denver Gazette summarizes the results –

    • 39th in the nation for personal income growth.
    • Sixth worst regulatory burden in the nation.
    • In March, we had the second-highest unemployment rate (not an atypical month).
    • Job-growth rate of 0.17% (March 2024-March 2025), 43rd in the nation.
    • A bottom-10 destination for people moving in from other states.

    Beginning in 2019 “Colorado has obstructed energy production — a major Colorado export — at an expense of the state’s economy and high-wage blue-collar jobs.” The paper added, “In all, multiple new regulations since 2018 have Colorado producing less oil and gas in 2025 than in 2019, as the country’s production has increased.”

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    77 comments on Scattershots – 4may25 (updated 7may25)

  • Sandbox – 1may25

    [Apologies for letting the last sandbox become a little overused and festered.  Here's some fresh sand that I'm sure will be welcomed.  gjr]

    Posted at

    in

  • Trump trumped?

    George Rebane

    Given the choices I remain a Trump supporter.  I have voted for him three times.  But as RR pages witness and its readers know, I am not an uncritical acolyte of his administration.  He has totally misread what may be termed the elements of negotiating with totalitarians, especially those of the communist stripe like Putin and Xi.  On the hopeful side, there are some indications that the president is beginning to realize that he has been played by the KGB thug.

    Students of history know that negotiating progress with communist regimes only occurs when they have demonstrated a strategic gain in the field, or they are afraid of suffering a near-term defeat in the field.  When things are normative, the communist bides his time by rope-a-doping his counterpart.  Lenin put that in the playbook, and Stalin perfected and demonstrated its application.  His successors, until this day, have fastidiously and faithfully continued the practice.

    An early illustration of this was Stalin’s response to critics of his ante-bellum ruthless domestic policies.  When informed that the Pope, strongly influencing world opinion, was very unhappy with the millions being killed in the USSR, Iosif Vissarionovich responded by asking ‘How many divisions does the Pope have?’  Existential force and the demonstrated willingness to employ it is the opposition’s ONLY attribute recognized by the totalitarian.  Everything else is simply bullshit and a display of weakness.  Trump’s favorable characterizations of Putin and Xi have strengthened their resolve to treat our president, despite his usual bravado, as a naif in international relations.

    So there we have it today.  Putin has intensified his attacks on Ukrainian civilians while supposedly negotiating a cease fire, and Xi is overtly violating Taiwanese airspace and holding large-scale invasion rehearsals in waters that completely surround the island nation.  Both feeling quite certain that Trump will never put American boots on the ground, nor challenge China with our blue water Navy.  And every day that passes without a strong response only serves to strengthen the dictators’ resolve.

    And don’t get me started on tariffs (again).

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    14 comments on Trump trumped?

  • Scattershots – 24apr25

    George Rebane

    Trump is being played by Putin for all to see, and the man has finally stumbled into one of his blind spots, apparently without a clue.  In brokering the Ukraine/Russia peace he is announcing daily progress with Russia, who continues to bomb the crap out of Ukraine’s civilian centers, and dunning Zelensky for being “difficult”.  The difficulty lies in Trump’s wanting to give Russia all of its conquered Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, while not requiring any concessions from Putin that would be politically palatable to make public.  In short, the KGB thug is taking Trump on an embarrassing ride who is belatedly realizes that he’s being viewed as a dolt in the world’s eyes.

    Trump’s trade wars are not going well.  He has received offers to negotiate from over 70 countries but none are promising any near-term mutually beneficial results.  Meanwhile, the president has had to stand down on the levels and application dates of his precipitously announced tariffs.  Rebane doctrine follows the teaching of the Austrian school on tariffs as made clear in these pages.  Overall they are bad medicine for world trade, and soon we’ll see if they can even serve as useful stakes in the ground for starting negotiations.  The markets remain conditionally hopeful.

    On the political front a hopeful sign.  The Democrats, currently sans leaders and public policies, are getting more convinced daily that they should hand the reins over to a younger generation of socialists cum communists.  The latter conclusion supported by their growing howls to punish the producers and the ‘rich’ by spreading wealth to their loyal voter blocks of light thinkers kept ensconced in urban ghettos ruled by Democrat demagogues.  In the meantime by their silence today's prominent Democrats quietly support their radical cohorts in acts of violence against Republican leaders and conservative business interests.  This will not bode well for the Left in 2026.

    An idea to oppose pro-terrorist and antisemitic violence on campuses.  The students who oppose Islam-supported terror and support Israel and world Jewry should do what the Danes did during WW2 when their occupying Nazis mandated that all Jews should wear a yellow Star of David armband when in public.  The Danes’ response was that everyone, Christians and Jews, turned out wearing the required armbands.  Imitating the brave and unflinching Danes would send a strong message to the country that these pro-terrorist campus radicals do not represent the institutions’ student bodies.

    Posted at

    in

    , , , ,
    9 comments on Scattershots – 24apr25

  • Those discriminating selfish countries

    George Rebane

    The Marschak Colloquium is a 50+ year institution at UCLA that features world class thinkers, artists, and scientists as invited speakers.  Jo Ann and I were in regular attendance when we lived in SoCal.  As with academe in general, Marschak has drifted leftward ideologically.  The next scheduled talk will be given by a hard left academic who has no idea what motivates the generation of wealth.  The announcement of his upcoming presentation is given below.

    Why are citizens of some countries so much richer, on average, than citizens of other countries? Charles Kurzman, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, posits that citizenship itself may be one of the key explanations. At the same time as new methods of extraction and productivity have generated vast wealth over the last two centuries, countries have hoarded this wealth by discriminating against non-citizens, limiting political rights and economic claims and reshaping inequality on a global scale.

    RSVP to hear Professor Kurzman explore citizenship discrimination and global inequality on Tuesday, April 29 at 1 p.m. This talk will be held in person in the Charles E. Young Research Library main conference room and over Zoom.

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    2 comments on Those discriminating selfish countries

  • He is Risen!

    George Rebane

    Hearing that strong assertion, the Christian answers joyfully, ‘He is risen indeed!’

    HeIsRisen

    For us, Christmas is the promise, and Easter its fulfillment.  The summation of all Christianity is Christ’s covenant in the promised transcendence of Man, all concentrated into one simple declaration – ‘He is risen!’  Without this, our faith is a fraud; with it, Christianity promises Man to become an unending part of God’s love of all Creation.

    This is RR’s annual message celebrating Easter.

    Posted at

    in

    2 comments on He is Risen!

  • A little puzzlement (updated 23apr25)

    George Rebane

    As a fun diversion, here’s your Easter Egg problem albeit with a round egg.  Given three mutually perpendicular line segments of lengths a, b, c, as shown in the figure,  Problem: (A) derive the expression for the radius r of the circle, then (B) for (a, b, c) = (13,6,18) calculate the value of r.

    Picture1

     

    [23apr25 update]  My solution is shown below.

    TTprob

    Posted at

    in

    ,
    12 comments on A little puzzlement (updated 23apr25)

RR FUNDAMENTALS

About the Bastiat Triangle

Glossary & Semantics

A Conservetarian Credo

Commenting Rules

RECENT POSTS

RECENT COMMENTS

CATEGORIES

69 comments on Scattershots – 15may25