The Conservative Cave

I teach calculus at Berkeley. Some of my students can’t do middle school math

I would think Berzerkley would SELECT for math ig'nant students like this. After all, if they can perform basic math, they can't be sold on the perfection of socialism, and if they can't be indoctrinated to the wonderfulness of socialism, why, exactly are they at Berzerkley???

 

NSA Blocked Reports of CCP Interference in US Elections From Reaching Trump: Declassified Docs

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/nsa-blocked-reports-of-ccp-interference-in-us-elections-from-reaching-trump-declassified-docs-6076308?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport&src_src=partner&src_cmp=BonginoReport

WASHINGTON—Newly declassified intelligence emails reveal that decisions were made by National Security Agency (NSA) leadership to block reports of Chinese influence in American elections from reaching President Donald Trump.

Four pages of emails, all dated March 13, 2020, were released on Aug. 18 by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.

According to one email—written by an unidentified NSA employee following a meeting about intelligence reporting foreign efforts to target the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections in the United States beginning in 2014—internal concerns were raised about the agency’s suppression of the reports.

“We did not know why we were here, trying to defend the election and identify threats to it, if we were unable to actually report what those threats were because of issues like this,” the NSA employee wrote.
According to another email, NSA analysts had proposed releasing the reports in 2018.

Task force officials are digging through files to determine why evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to influence the elections was not passed on to the president, Congress, and some intelligence leaders, including then Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, now CIA director.

Certain aspects of the reports on the Chinese election influence were censored because “it was judged that some of the details regarding the 2016 election were ‘sensational’ and so required a limited distribution [redacted],” an NSA analyst wrote, noting that colleagues tried for 16 months to get the information published.
...
Intelligence officers were told in February 2020 that the office approved the report, and analysts prioritized its delivery, but the NSA deputy director blocked its release, according to the documents.

George Barnes served as NSA deputy director from 2017 to 2023.

Summarizing a bit, the NSA began investigating foreign attempts to influence US elections in 2014. Some time between 2014 and 2018, the NSA found evidence that China was trying to influence the 2016 Presidential election, but kept it secret through 2020, with the Deputy Director, in early 2020, directly blocking its release.

IOW, the agency that participated in the failed attempt to transmogrify ordinary Russian attempts to create confusion in the 2016 election into the Trump-Russia Collusion Delusion, concealed from Trump, for four years, equal or greater "interference" in the 2016 election by China. The article does not go into what the 2016 "interference" was, whether "just" disguised Chinese trolls stirring @#$% on FB and other social media or something more substantial.

That the Deputy Director, in 2020 blocked release of the info could have been to prevent scrutiny, but keeping it secret for four years was partisan, Anti-Trump action.

Borrowing from Rush's phrase, Wanniski seems to have been a Red Diaper Baby who grew up and didn't get into dope.

Off the Deep End: Dems Make 'Abolish ICE' Official Position

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/08/17/off-the-deep-end-dems-make-abolish-ice-official-position-n3818075

Give Democrats at least this much credit for sticking to their priorities. After losing a national election largely on the issue of border security and immigration enforcement, the DNC wants to double down in the midterms.

Of course, given the DNC's cash position at the moment, "double down" is entirely figurative.

The DNC kicked off its summer meeting in Austin by deciding that voters got it all wrong two years ago. The committee that handles policy resolutions approved two proposed additions to the party's official positions in the midterms. The first would "reform" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while the second would abolish it altogether. The full membership passed both by unanimous acclamation:

Quote

The Democratic National Committee adopted a resolution Saturday urging congressional Democrats to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alongside a competing measure calling only for reforms to the agency, at the party’s summer meeting in Austin, Texas.

This comes as no surprise, since practically every Democrat candidate in this cycle has adopted both positions simultaneously. The few who oppose it, such as House Democrat Henry Cuellar in Texas, are keeping their mouths shut about it. The position of their party is that ICE should not exist, Border Patrol should not exist, no illegal aliens should be detained, and that every possible method of enforcement of immigration law should be prohibited.

Dem Party misleaders seem to believe that "Defund the Police" worked well in 2020, and simply was not pushed hard and far enough in 2024. I guess we'll see in November how successfully the Dems and their MSM-shills have demonized ICE and how well this works for the Dems.

I had not heard the term, but here's how W'pedia describes it, quite fifferently that 4bonhoffer, BTW, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_Wanniski#The_Two_Santa_Claus_Theory :

The Two Santa Claus Theory
The Two Santa Claus Theory is a political theory and strategy published by Wanniski in 1976, which he promoted within the United States Republican Party. The theory states that in democratic elections, if members of the rival Democratic Party appeal to voters by proposing programs to help people, then the Republicans cannot gain broader appeal by proposing less spending. The first "Santa Claus" of the theory title refers to the Democrats who promise programs to help the disadvantaged. The "Two Santa Claus Theory" recommends that the Republicans must assume the role of a second Santa Claus by not arguing to cut spending but offering the option of cutting taxes.

According to Wanniski, the theory is simple. In 1976, he wrote that the Two-Santa Claus Theory suggests that "the Republicans should concentrate on tax-rate reduction. As they succeed in expanding incentives to produce, they will move the economy back to full employment and thereby reduce social pressures for public spending. Just as an increase in Government spending inevitably means taxes must be raised, a cut in tax rates—by expanding the private sector—will diminish the relative size of the public sector." Wanniski suggested this position, as left-liberal observer Thom Hartmann has clarified, so that the Democrats would "have to be anti-Santas by raising taxes, or anti-Santas by cutting spending. Either one would lose them elections."

I've also never heard of Jude Wanniski.

His "Theory", carried out, would benefit the economy two ways: government takes less $$ out of the economy by force; people invest less conservatively - = safer low-tax investments - and instead invest in businesses, which are higher risk, higher profit, and, paradoxically, result in increased government revenue. Arthur Laffer, at least, apparently predicted that paradoxic outcome.