I have corruption on my mind this week. An article describing China’s President Xi and his approach to corruption coincided with the ongoing ArriveCan scandal in Canada so the “This Week’s News” and “What I’m Reading” sections are going to have a “corruption” theme this week.
This Week’s News
In “Corruption News:”
'We paid too much': Canada's AG blasts CBSA over ArriveCan app – how much is too much? 10%? 20%? Stop me when I get warm. Oh, 7,437.5%. Well mistakes happen right? But we’ll get to the bottom of it no doubt. What? An auditor general report says it’s “impossible to determine due to poor financial record-keeping.” That’s not good. We should probably hold an inquiry then. What, Liberal and NDP MPs suspended hearings “after reading ‘scary’ secret report?” Can I ask a serious question? Are you all corrupt, incompetent, or both?
It’s a rhetorical question - In 76% of the applicable contracts, some or all of the resources proposed by the successful supplier did not perform any work on the contract.
Xi Jinping's never-ending hunt for corruption in the Communist Party – In contrast to the Canadian approach to political corruption (bury, deny, evade, ignore, and if all else fails, appoint the ethics commissioners that will look into your crimes), the Chinese approach is to use it to consolidate power. In a single party state reelection is not a concern so denial is unnecessary, instead, accusations of corruption are used to purge the party of individuals deemed insufficiently loyal. The fact that everyone in the party is guilty of corruption just makes the process easier.
And back to Canada (are we officially a banana republic yet?) – Canadian manufacturers of masks and other COVID related equipment are suing the federal government for $5 billion in damages because the government in “Ottawa misled them about buying and helping sell their products.” The companies allege that "negligent misrepresentations…from the very top of our Canadian government” led them to make investments with the understanding that contracts would go to Canadian companies. The government subsequently “shunned homegrown companies ‘and instead supported foreign competition.’"
A Georgia judge is set to consider whether to remove Fani Willis from the election interference case - Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney in charge of Georgia’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump has been accused of an inappropriate romantic relationship with attorney Nathan Wade whom she hired “to manage an investigation into whether Trump and others committed any crimes as they tried to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.” Willis’s defense, which should come as no surprise, was to suggest that racism is driving the accusations. The accusations threaten to derail or significantly delay the case against Trump, which is itself a significant example of corruption.
“In other news:”
Biden’s allies push back against special counsel’s memory allegations – the “plan” seems to come down to asserting that the 81-year-old President “is capable of being commander in chief and trying to discredit people who portray him as enfeebled” by highlighting that the 77-year-old Trump “has also confused names and facts.” That fact that it’s possible for both of them to be too old (and corrupt) seems to escape everyone’s notice.
Concordia University 'decolonizes' engineering – DEI is starting to “infect” areas where it can do real damage – up until now DEI has almost ruined entertainment, killed merit, and poisoned politics, but it hasn’t reached the point where bridges are falling down and planes are falling from the sky. That may soon change. Concordia University, located in Montreal, Quebec has announced a 5-year strategic plan that will draw upon the “principles embodied in the Two Row Wampum Belt … an ethical framework for how colonial-settler governments are to conduct themselves while living in the land of the Rotinonhsión:ni — more commonly known as the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy.” If this sounds like nonsense, it’s probably because it is. Engineering, math, and science are based in objective reality, if you want to preach about “native ways of learning” or “decolonizing” education transfer into an area that’s already useless like women’s or gender studies where the worst you can do is trick a gullible student into going deep into debt for a worthless degree. If my plane ever falls from the sky, it will be no consolation to me that the engineering team that designed the plane looked like a United Colors of Benetton ad.
Note: This type of activity also provides insight into why the cost of a university education is rising. Roles like “Director of Decolonizing Curriculum and Pedagogy,” “Vice-Provost of Innovation in Teaching and Learning,” and “Research Chair in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Science” provide no value but add cost to the university’s bottom line which is then passed onto students.
What I’m Reading
The Transgender Money Pipeline – Award-winning journalist and author and Pulitzer finalist Gerald Posner does a deep dive into the murky world of Transgender donations finding that ideologues, doctors, and therapists are simply the foot soldiers for a movement funded by wealthy activists.
The World’s Easiest Sociological Prediction Has Been Verified – as a Canadian I can’t help but appreciate William M. Briggs’ use of hockey to explain how the quality of university students and graduates has fallen over time. Long story short, if universities admit everyone and make it impossible to fail, quality declines.
How the New Left Damaged Democrats in the 1960s and 1970s – Jeff Bloodworth, at The Liberal Patriot, examines the parallels between the New Left of the 60s and 70s and today’s Progressive wing of the Democratic Party. He describes how the New Left’s excesses ultimately drove mainstream liberals into the arms of the GOP and Ronald Reagan and wonders if today’s Progressive obsessions with postmodernism and Critical Race Theory coupled with the “nihilism of their ideology” might not lead to a similar outcome.
My Podcast Recommendation(s) of the Week
I’ve been heroically struggling with stoically bearing heroically and stoically battling COVID this week so have not listened to as many podcasts as I typically do. However, this one is worth the time if you’re concerned, as I am, with the growing influence of identity politics:
The Michael Shermer Show – Against the New Politics of Identity
Philosopher Ronald A. Lindsay offers criticism of the cultural transformation, driven largely by the political left, in which individuals are defined primarily by their group identity (i.e. race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation). This transformation has led to the grouping of individuals into oppressed and oppressor classes and has predictably elicited a reaction from the Right in the form of Christian nationalism. He warns that “If we are to save liberal democracy and the rights of individuals “the dogmas of identity politics must be challenged and refuted.”
Hey Plilip
Reminds me of this:
https://www.wrongspeakpublishing.com/p/trickle-down-effects-of-well-meaning?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2