Read it.

In modern industrial societies, Marx’s claim that the major division would be among capitalists who control the means of production and proletarians without productive assets other than their own labor has proven to be influential and useful. In these pages (Summer 2017), I have argued that the Marxist conception was usefully modified by James Burnham and others, for whom a bureaucratic, managerial group in both the private and public sectors displaced an older, owner-operator-investor bourgeoisie. In this view, modern advanced industrial societies are divided chiefly among two classes. One is a substantial managerial-professional minority, as large as 30 percent or so if all recipients of college degrees are included in it, but arguably no more than the top 10 or 15 percent. The other is the working class, increasingly working in the nontraded domestic service sector as manufacturing jobs are eliminated by a combination of offshoring and automation.

But a vocation, or a constellation of related vocations, is not in itself a class, any more than an income category is. In ordinary discourse, one is born into a class. What turns a mere vocation or income or wealth category into a class is a high degree of persistence of its membership across generations. The source of hereditary class advantage need not be formal legal privileges, or even inherited wealth; it can also take the form of attitudes, skills, and connections bequeathed by parents to their children.

Thus the best definition of a class, I would suggest, is this: a class is a group of families within a society whose members are disproportionately likely to work in certain vocations and also disproportionately likely to marry and have children with one another. This definition unites the functional and nepotistic aspects of class.

Steve Sailer takes a look at the Party of Hate.

One reason the Democrats keep ancient warhorses like Nancy Pelosi around is to forestall the Diverse Party’s upcoming internal war of all against all over who gets the spoils. Now, elderly black Congressional leader Jim Clyburn is putting himself forward as a potential Speaker of the House, cleverly positioning himself as reassuring to non-blacks as being too old to launch the Democratic Party’s upcoming internal race war, but also as galvanizing to blacks by promising to help position younger blacks to win the Race War for Control of the Democratic Party after his time.

Read it.

Since the old requirements of ebenbürtigkeit have fallen by the wayside, the princes of the world now have their pick of ‘trophy wives’ without the bother of having built up a fortune first.

Unsurprisingly, this candidate pool runs heavily to actresses (e.g. Duchess of Sussex) and models (e.g. Duchess of Värmland). Such people can be presumed to have adjusted to the 24/7 publicity machine that is one of the chief defects of the royal life. The primary constraints are finding candidates that aren’t tainted by the psychological problems for which actresses and models are famou, but princes usually have the best vetting systems available to them, so this ought not to be a problem.

I predict that Diana Spencer will be the last ‘blue blood’ to marry into the British royal family; such people no longer have the background for it.

Read it.

I’d be in favor of using VX, myself. It’s hard to obtain but a little goes a long way.

Read it.

Betcha he has tattoos.

Check it out.

A titanic struggle.

Read it.

I guess WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE Women and Minorities Hardest Hit etc. didn’t actually happen.

I don’t suppose we’ll get an apology.

Read it.

The medieval Catholic Church was against Catholics marrying even moderately distant cousins and other kin, which HBD Chick has long argued is a key reason why Westerners are the way they are (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic: WEIRD)

…

This is one of the great forgotten achievements of history: the Dark Age Catholic Church’s detribalizing the militant tribes that overturned the Roman Empire. In England, nobody worries about Angles and Saxons being at each other’s throats, whereas in much of the rest of the world, the tribes of 600 AD are more or less the tribes of 2018 AD.

Read it.

Conservatives have been saying for a long time that our porous southern border poses a security risk. Over the years there have been multiple news stories about Middle Easterners with terrorist connections being apprehended at the border, or after crossing the border. But because these crossings haven’t resulted in successful terrorist attacks, they have gotten essentially no notice.

Meanwhile, Democrats are committed to the view that there is no reason to want a secure border other than racism. This is pretty much insane–countries have wanted secure borders for centuries, and until now no one thought there was anything untoward about it–but it is the media narrative, and anything that contradicts the Democrats’ narrative will not be publicized.

I’d say they both are.

Read it.

Gee, how could that happen? Don’t they read the newspapers?

Watch it.

Victor Davis Hanson is always worth hearing.

Read it.

Everyone loves having everything delivered to their door. I do. But there’s nothing quite like going to the mall for a pair of jeans, finding the huge wall of pants all neatly stacked, with all the different options — slim, boot cut, high rise, relaxed, tense, lying waistband size for the days you feel bloated, and so on. They still don’t have your size, but if they did, you could try them on.

Read it.

All it takes is one country willing to stand up against the conspiracy to import a new African population for Europe.

It can be done.

Read it.

Well, we seem to have an opportunity, here.

1. Fracking causes earthquakes — just ask the nearest proglodyte.
2. Earthquakes can cause islands to rise.

The solution to global warming, therefore, is obvious. Just frack the living Hell out of places threatened by the rapidly rising sea levels that all good climatistas are warning us about, and everything will be shiny.

Charles C. W. Cooke lays it out.

Once that “serious consideration” was undertaken, the house of cards fell, and Americans got back their right to keep and bear arms. Perhaps the neatest illustration of the change can be found in the work of Harvard’s Laurence Tribe. In the 1978 edition of his American Constitu­tional Lawtextbook, the Second Amendment is mentioned only in a footnote, and cast solely as a means by which “to prevent such federal interferences with the state militia as would permit the establishment of a standing national army and the consequent destruction of local autonomy.” The 1988 revision contains the same characterization. The 2000 edition, by contrast, confirms that the provision represents an individual right. “The amendment achieves its central purpose,” Tribe maintained, “by assuring that the federal government may not disarm individual citizens without some unusually strong justification. . . . That assurance in turn is provided through recognizing a right . . . on the part of individuals to possess and use firearms in defense of themselves and their homes.”

Read it.

First, these countries are not technically socialist. By the YDSA’s definition, socialism entails a centrally planned economy with nationalized means of production. Although these countries have high income taxes and provide generous social programs, they remain prosperous because of their free-market economies.

Read it.

Conservative women lined up to challenge New York Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to a debate on Thursday. Their challenges came after she dismissed a similar challenge from conservative commentator Ben Shapiro as sexist (“just like catcalling”), claiming that he had “bad intentions.”

Proglodytes keep forgetting that most of the quality in their Oppressed Minorities are on the other side.

Cant is generally a smokescreen for won’t … or daren’t.

Read it.

Apparently this Voice of the Crust has a problem with that.

I don’t.

Read it.

First thing to think about is that Jobs was born in 1955. His biological mother, an unwed graduate student, gave birth and arranged for his adoption. This was 18 years before abortion became legal in America by way of Roe v. Wade.

If Jobs was conceived 18 years later, or if Roe v. Wade had become law of the land 18 years earlier, there is some chance that there never would have been a Steve Jobs. The life that would have become Steve Jobs could have been another in the vast sea of abortion statistics. There would be no Macs, iPods or iPhones.

And I would not be comfortably retired now.

Read it.

And yet if a Muslim called for non-Muslims to be gassed and sterilized, do you think he would go to jail for hate speech?

Sura 8, ayat 12: Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): “I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.”

Let’s ask Sarah Jeong.

Read it.

Still won’t get into Harvard. Wrong color.

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Well, you know, priorities. Sometimes the old ways are best.

Read it.

What does he know that you don’t?

Read it.

Isn’t it funny how close elections tend to turn up uncounted Democrat votes? (Yeah, I’m looking at YOU, Al Franken).

Can you remember any such case where the Republican candidate gained more than the Democrat from these Oh, look! votes?

I can’t.

Best description of Malcolm Gladwell I’ve ever seen.

Read it.

With responses ranging from “squirming in discomfort” to “completely discouraged from studying science and engineering,” a nationwide poll group of high school-age girls revealed Tuesday that the nation’s young women are being utterly creeped out by scientists twice their age constantly attempting to lure them into the study of science, technology, engineering, and math. “They’re always hanging around our classrooms and sending us targeted messages online—they sometimes even offer us money if we’re into their sort of thing. It’s so desperate,” said 13-year-old Tessa Levin, recounting the several times she and her friends had been approached by the type of much older chemical engineers or web developers who frequent science fairs with the hopes of involving girls in non-profit mentorship programs or computer programming sleepaway camps. “They always try to treat us like we’re special, but the truth is, they’ll go after pretty much any girl under 18 who can draw a simple parallel circuit diagram. They’re clearly trying to groom girls for their weird lifestyle from a young age. At first it was kind of funny, but the more we learn, the more it just seems gross.” The poll also revealed that some scientists also seem to have a thing for young black and latino boys.

From the Onion, of course. But you can see how easy it is to gin up a crisis by the way it’s reported.

Read it.

There goes Trump, kissing Putin’s ass again…. Will the collusion never stop?

Read it.

I’ve always wondered about that….

Read it.

I have an idea: Let’s put the border wall on the California border, and let them have all the illegal immigrants.

They wind up as Mexifornia and slide slowly into the sea, and the rest of us go on our way. Win-win.

David Cole reminisces.

I recall one black classmate telling me she’d finally “figured out” what this Jew thing is all about: “You guys just wear the cross, but without the little man on it, because you don’t think Jesus is the savior. But we Christians wear the little man because we believe in him.”

Bless her heart, at least she tried.

…

The point I wanted to make is that if you’re a typical American Jew, the gentiles in your life almost certainly know what a Jew is, and they’re properly respectful. Jews don’t like moving in circles where that’s not the case. And frankly, I think that’s a mistake. Whether it’s spending time in the darkest corners of inner-city black America, or in a Mexican slum, every Jew needs the occasional reminder that to a lot of people in the world, we’re not just “nuthin’ special,” we’re worse—we’re white.

Read it.

Lest we wander too far afield, here, let us get back to our roots.

Kevin Williamson scratches his head.

What is it that Paul Manafort is charged with again? So far, the prosecution seems to be trying him for the crime of being a rich a**hole with bad taste.

Or having been. I take it his finances have declined.

Much is being made of Manafort’s shopping addiction: this expensive suit, that expensive ostrich-skin jacket, etc. (Yes, you’d think a guy who spent like that on clothes would have a better wristwatch.) My understanding is that he’s charged with getting his money badly, not spending it badly. But I’m no lawyer, I suppose.

If bad fashion choices were a crime, Hillary would have been behind bars years ago.

Read it.

American culture rules.

Read it.

However much people have complained about Trump’s handling of foreign affairs, nobody has expelled a U.S. Ambassador and frozen trade with the U.S.

Looks as if the orange-haired guy beats the woke metrosexual when it comes to government.

Just sayin’.

Tyler Cowan is not afraid to ask the obvious questions.

One factor that he overlooks, unusual for an economist, is that tech has political problems for the same reason that everyone has political problems — people are so used to using government power as a stick to beat their enemies that everybody winds up covered in bruises. The way to reduce the scope of ‘political problems’ is to reduce the ability of governments to cause or exacerbate problems, and that means reducing the power of government. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening.

Read it.

Today’s @realDonaldTrump approval ratings among black voters: 29%

This time last year: 15% http://bit.ly/preztrack  @POTUS @realDonaldTrump

Damn straight. But, hey, Democrats.

Read it.

Our favourite identity thief Peter Gleick, who stole documents from Heartland while serving as chairman of the AGU ethics committee, has written a deliciously confused piece in which he urges people not to give up, despite the inevitability of serious climate change.

The situation is hopeless, but you can still do your part.

Read it.

There’s an image that won’t leave you soon.

Read it.

Belgium has no reason to exist as a separate country. It’s basically a relic of the wars of religion that were over by 1700. Now that animosity has abated between Catholics and Calvinists, the northern part ought to be part of the Netherlands and the southern part belongs in France.

Read it.

Doing well by doing good.

Whenever a government establishes a ‘program’, the first thing that happens is that bottom-feeders congregate with the thought ‘I’m going to get some of that free government money for myself’, and the rest is history. Cronyism is one of the cornerstones of political corruption, and elected officials soon realize that buying votes with Other People’s Money is one of the surest ways to guarantee a long tenure.

Read it.

Well, what else can they do? They have no skills with which to get a Real Job. You will seek in vain in the job listings for ‘Wanted: Former Regime Apparatchik. Must be able to look busy, push paper, and collude in government oppression. Equal Opportunity Employer. No white people need apply.’

Read it.

Or you could just avoid the whole problem by avoiding The Trail. The choice is yours.

Good advice.