Archive for 2020
September 30, 2020
IN THE MAIL: The Richest Man in Babylon.
MATT MARGOLIS: Here’s How We Know Trump Won the First Debate.
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Disgraced former Trudeau Finance Minister was chauffeured around Toronto, Ottawa during peak lockdown.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Prof calls for all cops to be strangled, complains about doxxing and death threats afterward.
ROGER SIMON: The Worst Debate Ever Made Worse by the Moderator. “Forget Candy Crowley. Chris Wallace was the worst moderator in recent memory. Clearly biased and argumentative, he was anything but the invisible presence he promised he was going to be.”
SOCIAL DISTANCING: Extramarital affairs soar in pandemic with technology’s help. “Shortly after U.S. lockdowns began, the Ashley Madison ‘married dating’ site saw an uptick in members. Today, more than 21,000 people are signing up each day for the online membership service, up from 17,000 a day in March. That’s on top of a worldwide base of 65 million members around the world in 2019.”
A REAL HUMAN RIGHTS HERO, RIP YURI ORLOV: Natan Sharansky: With Yuri Orlov’s bold vision, we lit a fire under the Soviet regime. While Orlov was being sent to a prison camp in Siberia, woke-hero-de jure Angela Davis was acting a shill for the USSR as a prominent member of the Soviet-controlled U.S. Communist Party. It’s worth recounting this anecdote from Alan Dershowitz’ book, Chutzpah. In the late 1979, when Jews in the USSR were being locked up for asserting their right to live Jewish lives, teach and learn Hebrew, and emigrate to Israel, Alan Dershowitz appealed to Davis, with her very close relationship with the USSR to intercede on their behalf. “Several days later, I [Dershowitz] received a call back from Ms. Davis’ secretary informing me that Davis had looked into the people on my list and none were political prisoners. ‘They are all Zionist fascists and opponents of socialism.’ Davis would urge that they be kept in prison where they belonged.” Yet somehow Ibram Kendi makes her the primary “anti-racist” hero of his book Stamped.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Please God Let the Next 2 Debates Die In a Fire and Spare Us All. “That’s an ongoing problem of mine with modern presidential debates — the questions are always on topics that the Democrats want to make important whether they are or not. Last night it was Trump’s taxes and climate change, for example. There was nothing about the Hillary bombshell from earlier in the day yet Wallace let Biden babble on unchallenged about Trump and Russia.”
Wallace let — encouraged? — Trump to bring out his worst, while also being the best part of Biden’s performance.
But other than that he did a fine job.
PROF. JACOBSON: First Presidential Debate Quick Take: Aggressive Trump, Old Biden. “Andrew Sullivan: ‘I’ve never seen Biden seem so old or so weak. He can’t land a strong blow. He’s being successfully heckled. I want to look away.'”
Surveying the reactions, I don’t think it was a win for anybody, though it was clearly a debacle for Chris Wallace.
HEY, REMEMBER WHEN A CNN ANCHOR PRETENDED TO GET THE VAPORS OVER THE WORD “BOOBS?” CNN’s Dana Bash calls first presidential debate a ‘s—show.’
JUDICIAL CONFIRMATION AND THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE:
Such a norm is what allowed for the unanimous confirmation of Justice Antonin Scalia, and near-unanimous confirmation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, despite the fact that many Senators disagreed with them on many issues. (Consider: If pro-choice Senators should vote against a nominee who is skeptical of Roe, pro-life Senators should have voted against Ginsburg, who was replacing the reliably anti-Roe justice, Byron White.).
As Wittes and Estrada noted in 2016, however, this norm of largely deferring to the President’s nominees did not last very long. Indeed, some Senators actively sought to destroy it, finding other ways to obstruct nominees (as the Washington Post reported on Nov. 12, 1985) and eventually arguing that ideology alone was sufficient reason to oppose a judge’s confirmation (which was the point of a set of hearings held in 2001). Senators hold grudges, and unilateral disarmament is not a viable strategy, so the result was an escalating game of tit-for-tat. It may have begun in the 1980s, when the confirmation of judicial nominees was held up in election years, but rapidly metastasized, producing serious consequences. . . .
Like Wittes, I spent years arguing for various de-escalatory reforms, but neither side was interested. True de-escalation requires sacrifice—a willingness not to take advantage of the upper hand—and that’s not a language today’s politicians understand. President George W. Bush re-nominated one of Clinton’s failed appellate nominees (Roger Gregory), over the objections of Republican Senators. This minor gesture was never reciprocated, nor repeated. The lesson learned was seems to have been that de-escalation is for suckers.
When your political class is result-focused and capable only of short-term thinking, that’s what you get.
THE PROPER RESPONSE: “My stupid football article caused you to feel ‘Hurt, Sadness, Frustration, Fatigue, Exhaustion and Pain’? Good! That kind of stupidity should be painful — it’s the only way you’ll change.” Ohio State Professor Apologizes for ‘Hurt, Sadness, Frustration, Fatigue, Exhaustion and Pain’ Caused By Pro-Football Article.
AT AMAZON, Prime Deal, Van Heusen Men’s Long-Sleeve Oxford Dress Shirt, White.
STEPHEN GUTOWSKI: Barrett Nomination Could Signal End of Supreme Court Inaction on Guns.
BOYCOTT? Steve Scalise: GOP voters return to help Trump after 2018 boycott. Ah, he’s saying that they weren’t as enthused by the Paul Ryan Congress as by Trump, which seems plausible.
NEWS YOU’LL HOPEFULLY NEVER HAVE TO USE: Never Apologize to the Mob. Never video from PragerU:
GRILL HIM: 10 Questions James Comey Could Face During His Senate Testimony.
Your PJ Media crew will liveblog the hearings starting at 10am Eastern.
NO WONDER BIDEN POO-POOED SWINE FLU: Issues & Insights points out this morning the reasons why former Veep Joe Biden didn’t want to go there when President Donald Trump brought up the H1N1 epidemic:
“According to the Centers for Disease Control’s latest numbers, out of the more than 200,000 people who died with COVID-19, only 92 were under age 18.
“But 1,282 children died from the H1N1 pandemic of 2009-2010, when Barack Obama was in the White House and Joe Biden was vice president.
“The number of children hospitalized from COVID has been around 8,000. The number hospitalized because of H1N1 – 86,813.
“The swine flu was particularly worrisome because, unlike COVID and the seasonal flu – this one targeted the young more than the elderly. In fact, fully 10% of the deaths from H1N1 were age 17 or younger, while just 13% were over age 65.”