Thanks to the flow of foreign information into the Hermit Kingdom, North Korea is changing from the inside out — and Kim Jong Un is running to catch up. The growing split between the North Korean people and the state is proving difficult for the Kim regime to reverse.

The influx of foreign media and knowledge has been growing for years, and like the red pill from The Matrix, it has the power to transform North Koreans’ understanding of the world. It permeates all levels of North Korean life, and civilians are becoming increasingly self-aware.

Foreign media infiltrating the North — South Korean dramas, in particular — have done the most to reshape the way North Koreans view their southern neighbors and, in turn, their own realities. From fashion to an awareness of human rights, foreign ideas now increasingly color the lives of ordinary North Koreans.

Read more...

Regarding my TTP article last week (12/20), The Left Vs. Thermodynamics, Julius Wroblewski on the Forum reminded me that “Many of the 9/11 Islamo-kamikazes and Aum Shinriyo gassers were STEM boys, after all.”

Great point. Julius.

STEM alone is not the central point. As Julius noted, a STEM education can be a fine thing but is not the solution by itself.

From my personal experience, there are problems with STEM programs as presently taught. I have been one of the State of Ohio finalist judges for the State Science Fair since 1991. I was a regional judge before that.  These many years of judging reveal some trends.

First, the understanding of the Scientific Method has eroded in the public schools  The second trend is an erosion of an understanding of thermodynamics itself and specifically the concept of entropy. And that enables us to defeat the left with it.

To be a leftist, fascist, communist, Islamic terrorist, etc. is to have a worldview that excludes universal thermodynamic laws. Their designs always fail given enough time. Always.

Read more...

Merry Christmas, America! As we gather with families and enjoy this holiday season, let us pause to consider: things could be much, much worse. Some perspective is in order.

The Christmas holiday this year delivers a welcome and much-needed time out. Our country is anxious on many fronts. Our nation’s leaders in Congress appear unable and unwilling to lead, and financial markets have turned volatile and fearful, giving up the gains of the past year as traders prepare for a slowdown.

Meanwhile, Democrats – especially their media propagandists and those planning to run for president in 2020 -- are desperate to topple President Trump.

So, where’s the good news?  How about this? Notwithstanding the gloom factory that is the liberal media, the country remains upbeat.  They know it’s a MAGA Merry Christmas.  Our troops in Iraq sure know it.

Read more...

Against what or whom is the contemporary Western public pushing back?

The French non-Parisians against new green taxes on already unaffordable gasoline?

Broke southern European Union nations against the financial demands of German bankers?

The Eastern Europeans against French and German open-border mandates?

The British masses against both the EU and their own government that either cannot or will not follow the will of the people and implement Brexit?

The American populists against outsourcing, offshoring, and illegal immigration?

The common target of all these populist pushbacks is an administrative and cultural elite that shares a set of transnational and globalist values and harbors mostly contempt for the majority of their own Neanderthal citizens who are deemed hopelessly unwoken to environmental, racial, gender, and cultural inevitabilities.

Read more...

[Note by JW: Here is more proof that so much of the unique value of To The Point lies in the brilliance of TTPer contributions to the Forum. Duane Purvin’s comments on Victor Davis Hanson’s The Evil of the Global Elite (12/18) are an example, while Mike Ryan’s are simply breathtaking.  Again, the best Christmas Present you can give a friend or loved one is a Gift Subscription to TTP!]

Duane Purvin said:

“Even the Constitution is being re interpreted, the New Testament, Gender, conversion of concepts of individual liberty/freedom into identity politics and Reality as recognized by an educated, sentient man as now created and fed to humankind in the trough of social media, propaganda, omission and lies.”

The problem is a product of the humanities departments at the elite universities as Hanson pointed out. The sciences and applied science departments are much less of a problem.

Why? The intersection of Rationalism and Empirical science is known as thermodynamics.

Nothing like it exists within the programs favored by the Left. Show me a conservative university department, and I will bet a box of donuts that thermo is part of the curriculum in one form or another. Either to be taught as physical laws or as spiritual or philosophical virtues.

Read more...

It’s time for all of us to admit that Alphabet, Inc. is the 21st century equivalent of Ma Bell: it is an almost all-controlling monopoly that restricts consumer choice in order to maximize profit for the company.

We all know what Ronald Reagan did to AT&T. He broke up that monopoly so Americans could have real choices and the free market could actually work.

So it’s time for the Trump Administration to break up the Alphabet, Inc. monopoly. But unlike the Ma Bell monopoly, Alphabet, Inc.’s monopoly—which includes the search-engine behemoth Google—isn’t just about greater competition and more choices for the American people.

It’s about so much more: free political discourse and our privacy rights as citizens.

Read more...

All of Washington is focused on the political peril President Trump faces from Robert Mueller's investigation. But the Mueller probe could very well turn out to be a disaster, not for Trump, but for the Democrats.

The special counsel was appointed to investigate whether Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. If Mueller finds incontrovertible evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, then the president will be -- and should be -- removed from office.

But it is very likely that Mueller will not find evidence that Trump conspired with Russia – resulting in Mueller or federal prosecutors in New York's Southern District finding evidence for some other charge unrelated to a conspiracy with Russia -- such as Trump's hush-money payments to alleged former mistresses or crimes related to Trump's family business.

That would be a nightmare scenario for Democrats, for three reasons.

Read more...