Archive for 2016
December 4, 2016
IT SEEMS POINTLESS, BUT DON’T FORGET THAT JILL STEIN RAISED A LOT OF MONEY AND GOT A NEW LIST OF SUCKERS DONORS: Wisconsin Recount Farce Continues. “The filing fee for a recount in the state of Wisconsin, which Jill Stein had to pay, is $1.1M. In addition, the State Board of Elections provided a cost estimate for the entire operation, which also had to be paid in advance, of $3.8M. And what there is to show for it so far is a net gain for Donald J. Trump of 3 votes. . . . Donald Trump need lose no sleep over this, as the real losers are the people who contributed to Stein’s recount fund.”
LEFT STILL KEEPING IT CLASSY AFTER ELECTION LOSS: Democrat Brands Bill Banning Gay Conversion Therapy with Mike Pence’s Name.
RIGHT-WING GUY WON IN AUSTRIA, COURT ORDERED NEW ELECTION, NOW: Mainstream relief as leftist candidate wins in Austria.
More here.
FROM ACE, A COLLECTION: This is why we have Trump. “This first one was from 2009. Remember? A reporter snarkily confronting the Wrong Kind of protestors. Apparently she thinks it’s her job to fight her subjects, and that this is somehow not unprofessional behavior. Gee, I wonder why they’re so angry with media? Mysterious.”
CHOOSE THE FORM OF YOUR DESTRUCTOR: Dick Cheney Tells CNN’s Barbara Starr that Trump Took Us To “the Point Where We Don’t Need You Guys Anymore.”
(Via Ace of Spades.)
STEPHEN HAWKING: Stephen Hawking: Automation and AI Are Going to Decimate Middle Class Jobs. Honestly, if they only reduce them by a tenth — which is what “decimate” actually means — I’ll be surprised. And so would Hawking, I’ll bet. Too bad the headline writer apparently thinks that “decimate” is a synonym for “devastate.”
FAKE NEWS UPDATE: Newsweek never read their own “Madam President” issue. “Here’s the interview. It’s worth watching because of all of the squirming going on [by Newsweek political editor Matthew Cooper] and increasing level of disbelief which seems to consume Tucker Carlson as it drags on.”
ALTERNATE HEADLINE IF WE HAD A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT: Administration’s “Insider Threat” Program Destroys Career of Innocent Diplomat, Damages Diplomacy While Secretary of State Does Nothing.
IN THE MAIL: 365 New Words-A-Year Page-A-Day Calendar 2017.
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Plus: Save up to 50% on select Pacific Bikes and Accessories for kids and adults.
MEGAN MCARDLE: The Left’s Doomed Effort to Coerce the Right.
Over the last few years, as controversies have erupted over the rights of cake bakers and pizza places to refuse to cater gay weddings, the rights of nuns to refuse to provide insurance that covers birth control, the rights of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions, and the rights of Christian schools to teach (and require students and teachers to practice) traditional Christian morality, some Christians have begun to feel that their communities are under existential threat.
The response from the left has (mostly) been that this is so much whining, clinging to a victimhood belied by Christians’ social power and majority status. No one, they have been assured, wants to touch their freedom to worship, but when they enter the commercial realm, they have to abide by anti-discrimination laws, whatever their private beliefs.
What happened to the Gaines family makes that feel like a false assurance. Buzzfeed had no evidence that the Gaines family was discriminating. (It is true that they have not featured any gay couples on their show, but they live in Waco, Texas; how many gay couples had applied?) They had not, as Mozilla’s Brendan Eich did, donated to an anti-gay-marriage campaign. The entire substance of the article is: “They attend a church where the pastor espouses something I find reprehensible.”
What message does this send? “Sure, the government won’t actually shut your church down. But the left will use its positions of institutional power to try to hound anyone who attends that church from public life. You can believe whatever you want — but if we catch you, or if we even catch you in proximity to people who believe it, we will threaten your livelihood.”
Punch back twice as hard, as a famous man once said.
PRESIDENT ASH CARTER SAYS U.S. AND ALLIES NEED TO REMAIN IN IRAQ AFTER ISIS DEFEAT: Semi-retired president Barack Obama was unavailable for comment. (Carter’s video interview with Bret Baier is worth the look.)
IT’S COME TO THIS: Ohio State student: ‘After terrorist attack I’ve learned Left’s more scared of Trump than ISIS.’ “Because after this terror attack I haven’t heard anything about, you know, ‘We’re praying for the victims’ or this and that. I’ve heard things about how we need to understand Islam, the vibrant Somali community we have here, how we need to embrace them even though this is the third attack by a Somali in the last year here in Columbus, and all this stuff about, you know, Muslim sensitivity.”
THE HARD LEFT’S VIOLENT REACTION TO TRUMP’S ELECTION IS VILE AND DANGEROUS: My latest NY Observer essay in “The War On Honesty” series. You might check an older one out as well. Written in the wee hours of Wednesday, November 9, it discusses why Trump’s thumping the mainstream media is a strategic victory for America. (Bumped.)
TOM RICKS ON THE MATTIS PICK: The General Who Should Lead the Pentagon.
General Mattis is not another George Patton, a comparison Mr. Trump is fond of making. General Mattis, who retired in 2013, after leading United States Central Command for three years, is far more disciplined than Patton was, and a far more strategic thinker.
Usually, I’d oppose having a general as secretary of defense, because it could undermine our tradition of civilian control of the military.
But these are not normal times. The incoming president appears to be a profoundly ignorant man who often seems to act on gut impulse or on what pleases the crowd. That is a dangerous combination to have in the White House. Having known General Mattis for many years, I am confident that he will be a restraint on Mr. Trump’s impulsiveness. . . .
The public notion of generals is that they know how to use only the military as a means of policy and so are more likely to get the nation into wars. That is a false conception in most cases, but especially in this one. General Mattis knows that war is the last resort, not the first one. He also understands that the threat of force works best when it works in conjunction with robust diplomatic efforts.
Some in Congress have said that they oppose waiving the law that bans recently retired generals from being secretary of defense. (Such a waiver was required to give Marshall the job.) But Congress did not bar generals from the office, it only required that they be out of uniform for seven years. The idea was to make people consider that it is unusual, and a departure from American tradition, to have military men or women in the position. In this case, waiving the law is the best course.
Here’s a thought: Maybe Trump isn’t as impulsive or ignorant as you think. Maybe that’s why he picked Mattis.
UPDATE: From the comments: “First rate leaders surround themselves with first rate staff. Second rate leaders surround themselves with third rate staff. Looking at their cabinet nominees, it’s easy to tell what kind of leader Obama is versus Trump.”
By the way, for those readers who don’t know who Tom Ricks is, his book about the Marines, Making the Corps, is really first-rate. But it’s 20 years old, and there’s been a lot of Derangement Syndrome under the bridge since then. . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Wow, Louise is really into this appointment:
MORE: Reportedly, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) may oppose Mattis over transgender rights in the military. I hope she does. . . .
IS ITALY THE NEXT E.U. DOMINO? Will Renzi be next casualty of 2016’s populist wave?
FUNNIEST PART OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’S TRUMP-TWEETING SKETCH? Trump’s Real-Life Tweet In Response.
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TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME: Feminist Journalist: Sex Will ‘Get A Lot Less Fun’ Under Trump.
I dunno, for some reason that statement makes me think of this:
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO LIE ABOUT RAPE! (CONT’D): Two Female Students In Legal Trouble After False Rape Reports. The way you teach that is by punishing them for lying.