THEY TOLD US THAT THE SCIENCE WAS SETTLED, AND ONLY SHILLS FOR BIG TOBACCO DOUBTED IT: We Used Terrible Science to Justify Smoking Bans.
Archive for 2017
February 13, 2017
JOHN FUND: Washington Is Out to Get Steve Bannon. “NYT smear logic: If you mention the name of a fascist, just once, you must support fascism.” Plus:
In 2009, President Obama’s White House communications director, Anita Dunn, sought to restrict Fox News’ access to the White House. She even said, “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent.” The media’s outrage over that remark was restrained, to say the least.
All the people who tell me that Trump is impulsive, dishonest, and ignorant would have a stronger case if they weren’t constantly displaying impulsiveness, dishonesty, and ignorance themselves.
DO YOU WANT MORE TRUMP? BECAUSE THIS IS HOW YOU GET MORE TRUMP: Militant, Anti-Trump Anarchist: ‘Confront the Police and Destroy Corporate Property.’
AT AMAZON, Hot New Releases – Updated Every Hour.
Also, shop today’s Kindle Daily Deals.
Plus, today’s Digital Deals.
And don’t miss today’s deals in Grocery and Gourmet Food.
MICHAEL WALSH: Obama Bureaucrats Disconsolate Over Regulation Repeal.
I can’t seem to find my sad face.
QUESTION ASKED: Did Trump and Abe just launch a new chapter in U.S.-Japan relations?
Trump’s meeting with Abe struck a different chord. After their Washington meeting last week, the two leaders issued a joint statement to reaffirm their “unshakeable alliance.” Trump also displayed his affection for Abe during a joint news conference, stating, “I shook hands, but I grabbed him and hugged him because that’s the way we feel. We have a very, very good bond — very, very good chemistry.” And responding to North Korea’s missile test early Sunday, Trump stood by Abe and declared that the United States was behind “our great ally, 100 percent.”
Abe, a calm and collected politician, has been intentional and strategic in his outreach to the new U.S. president. Shortly after the November election, Abe met with the president-elect at Trump Towers to “build trust” and seek clarification on the future of the U.S.-Japan alliance.
During his campaign, Trump called Japan a currency manipulator and accused Japan of free-riding on the U.S. security regime in Asia. And the decision to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership came as a blow to Abe, in particular. The trade pact would have linked the United States with Japan and 10 other nations, and Abe had invested significant political capital to move the agreement forward.
Despite these hurdles, the Trump-Abe relationship seems to be on sound footing.
Trump’s election posturing on Japan seems to have been just that — posturing. The same may be proving true of his pre-swearing-in statements which nearly threatened the NATO alliance.
That aside, Trump and Abe seem to be not so much launching “a new chapter in U.S.-Japan relations,” but instead returning to the postwar norm after an eight-year interregnum.
THEY TOLD ME IF TRUMP WERE ELECTED WE’D SEE UNASHAMED CHRISTIANIST THEOCRATS POPPING UP EVERYWHERE — AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Top Democrat Brands Texas Sanctuary City Bill ‘Anti-Christian.’
SALENA ZITO: Trump attack on judge hardly unprecedented. FDR, LBJ and Obama did the same.
It’s tough to digest the outrage from reporters or politicians who claim something “never happened before in our history” when such statements lack any hint of historical perspective, any intellectual curiosity to discover if something truly is unprecedented.
It has become a common problem, this reacting in the arrogance of the moment rather than trying to understand how our system has worked for more than 200 years.
In short, we should step back and learn American history, people.
That would interfere with the outrage-fest. Also, nothing’s ever a threat to the Constitution if a Democrat does it.
TO BORK OR NOT TO BORK: The Old Fight That Shows Democrats Why, and How, to Stop Gorsuch.
Julian Zelizer:
Today Judge Neil Gorsuch’s supporters are warning that the Democrats should not “Bork” President Trump’s nominee. Given Gorsuch’s stellar professional record, his competence does not seem to be in question. At least from the leaked remarks about his meeting with Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, he appears to have a healthy unease with President Trump’s aggressive statements about the judiciary.
But there are many reasons for Democrats to consider using their power to filibuster his nomination. After Republicans refused to confirm former President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland—leaving many Democrats to feel like this is a “stolen seat”—the president could have sent a consensus nominee.
After having lost the popular election by large numbers and now stimulating fears that he won’t respect our system of checks and balances, this was the moment to demonstrate that he understands the tensions he’s helped create. Rather than a pick intended to please the right, he could have selected someone who Democrats could have felt good about supporting even if it came from this administration.
Anyone arguing that the “popular election” means anything or that there’s some requirement that the President has a responsibility to make opposition party members “feel good,” might want to refrain from writing about constitutional issues.
DONALD SENSING: “I said that what I hear and see today reminds me of the national polity of the 1850s, which ended badly. I have before called the underlying ideology of the American Left, totalism. The label was first used by psychiatrist and historian Robert Lifton.”
MARK SERRANO: Senate Democrats: Be afraid when Trump comes to town. “Among the 23 Democratic senators up for re-election in 2018, there are 10 from states that President Trump won in 2016. Now that Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party have decided to resist every plan, policy, proposal and nomination by the fledgling Trump administration, these senators should beware the power that Trump ultimately has to respond. . . . Since his inauguration on Jan. 20, the Democrats have deployed a political strategy to oppose all things Trump. Even more troubling, they have closely aligned themselves with the alt-left of their party that will use violent demonstrations to oppose the president.”
You want more Trump? Because that’s how you get more Trump.
THE TRUMP TAX CUT: How Much, How Soon, How Certain.
Grover Norquist rates the abolition of the death tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax as “very likely,” along with lowering the top rate and consolidating the middle rates to 25% and 12%. But without an increase in the personal deduction — not mentioned here — much of the middle class wouldn’t see any relief at all.
A CULTURE OF MEANNESS: Liberals Are Very Upset That Jeff Bezos And Amazon Are Standing By Ivanka Trump.
You can buy her stuff via Amazon here, if you’re so inclined.
BAD LUCK: No word when evacuation order for 188,000 will be lifted as Oroville threat remains.
Sondrakistan has the photo essay on how bad planning and worse maintenance caused this crisis.
UPDATE: Sondra’s site has been Instalanched, but hopefully it will be back up soonish. I promise the photos are worth the wait.
CHANGE: Tennessee Bills Take on Asset Forfeiture, Close Federal Loophole in Most Cases. “Rep. Martin Daniel (R-Knoxville) introduced House Bill 4021 (HB4021) on Feb. 2. Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) introduced the companion bill in the Senate (SB316). The legislation would reform Tennessee law by requiring a criminal conviction before prosecutors can proceed with asset forfeiture. Under current law, the state can seize assets even if a person is never found guilty of a crime and sometimes without even filing charges. The bills would also establish a trust fund for asset forfeiture proceeds. Currently, up to 100 percent of asset forfeiture money goes directly to law enforcement agencies, creating a perverse policing for profit motive.”
I DON’T THINK MANY TRUMP VOTERS WILL BE MOVED BY THIS STORY AS THE NY TIMES INTENDS: ‘A Sense of Dread’ for Civil Servants Shaken by Trump Transition. I’m not so sure Albert Gallatin would be as upset as career GS types. But really, one would need a heart of stone not to laugh at this:
“It’s almost a sense of dread, as in, what will happen to us,” said Gabrielle Martin, a trial lawyer and 30-year veteran at the Denver office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where colleagues now share daily, grim predictions about the fate of their jobs under Mr. Trump’s leadership.
“It’s like the movie music when the shark is coming,” Ms. Martin said, referring to “Jaws,” the 1975 thriller. “People are just wary — is the shark going to come up out of the water?”
This article is based on interviews around the country with more than three dozen current and recently departed federal employees from the Internal Revenue Service; the Pentagon; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Justice and Treasury Departments; the Departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development; and other parts of the government. They reveal a federal work force that is more fundamentally shaken than usual by the uncertainties that follow a presidential transition from one party to the other.
Federal workers are more likely to be Democrats, according to surveys. But partisanship and ideology explain only some of the intense feelings among workers, many of whom have seen Democrats and Republicans in the White House come and go.
Well, there’s also class-identification and overall smugness. But stuff like this makes serious civil service reform more likely to take place:
At the Environmental Protection Agency, a group of scientists strategized this past week about how to slow-walk President Trump’s environmental orders without being fired.
At the Treasury Department, civil servants are quietly gathering information about whistle-blower protections as they polish their résumés.
At the United States Digital Service — the youthful cadre of employees who left jobs at Google, Facebook or Microsoft to join the Obama administration — workers are debating how to stop Mr. Trump should he want to use the databases they made more efficient to target specific immigrant groups.
Just imagine how differently the New York Times would have played a story about federal employees planning to resist Obama initiatives. But it is more support for my theory that if you want checks and balances, you need a white, male Republican in the White House!
UPDATE: Flashback: Washington’s ‘governing elite’ think Americans are morons. And now they’re scared and unhappy that Americans are returning the sentiment.
JUSTICE? Bowe Bergdahl lawyers likely to cite Trump in his defense.
Defense attorneys argue Mr. Trump violated Bergdahl’s due process rights by repeatedly calling him a “traitor” and making other harsh statements about the soldier. The defense motion, filed shortly after Mr. Trump was sworn in as president, cites more than 40 instances of Mr. Trump’s criticism at public appearances and media interviews through August 2016.
Bergdahl’s attorneys argue that potential jurors may feel obligated to agree with the new president and would have a hard time ignoring what he said.
Although Mr. Trump repeatedly said Bergdahl should face stiff punishment, even suggesting he be thrown out of a plane, prosecutors contend any reasonable observer would understand Mr. Trump’s comments amounted to campaign rhetoric and should not be taken literally.
They argue Mr. Trump’s use of the term “traitor” was not meant in the legal sense, but in a conversational way.
Bergdahl, who is from Idaho, has said he walked off his post to cause alarm and draw attention to what he saw as problems with his unit.
The worst problem with Bergdahl’s unit was Bergdahl.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. James Webb: Democratic Party has moved ‘very far to the left.’
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Webb said the Democrats are looking at 2018 and they “don’t have a message.”
“When you can’t have a Jefferson-Jackson dinner, which was a primary celebratory event of the Democratic Party for years, because Jefferson and Jackson were slaveholders,” Webb, a candidate in the 2016 Democratic primary race, said.
“They were also great Americans in their day. Something different has happened to the Democratic Party.”
Webb said the Democratic Party’s message has “been shaped toward identity politics”
“And they’ve lost the key part of their base,” he said.
“The people who believe that regardless of any of these identity segments, you need to have a voice in a quarters of power for those that have no voice. And we’ve lost that for the Democratic Party.”
Webb said the Democrats haven’t done the kind of “self reflection” they needed starting in 2010.
“You’ve lost white working people. You’ve lost flyover land, and you saw in this election what happens when people get frustrated enough that they say, ‘I’m not going to take this,'” he said.
“There is an aristocracy now that pervades American politics. It’s got to be broken somehow in both parties, and I think that’s what the Trump message was that echoed so strongly in these flyover communities.”
Webb also declined to share his vote in the presidential election.
Hmm.
EIGHT YEARS AGO, ON INSTAPUNDIT:
IS IT THE END OF “LIBERALTARIANISM?” “During the ‘long boom’ unleashed by the Reagan revolution, it was possible for libertarian intellectuals to believe that the arguments for economic freedom were now so blindingly vindicated that even their progressive peers must admit the obvious truth.” The coming years will be a test of intellectual honesty vs. class solidarity.
Class solidarity turned out to be awfully strong.
FROM DOROTHY GRANT: Scaling The Rim.
DOES SHE REMEMBER WHAT SHE DID TO HER REAL SISTER? Lena Dunham Declares White Women Need ‘Enlightening’ by Feminists.