Archive for 2020
February 8, 2020
SEE ALSO: KENNEDY, TED. Media suddenly fall in love with Romney now that his politics align with theirs.
Romney’s vilification by the press in 2012 was a key mile marker on the road to Trump. And as with the late John McCain, his Stockholm Syndrome-levels of seeking the proverbial “strange new respect” from those who clearly hate him is painful to watch.
TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME ON STEROIDS: Joy Behar has bizarre outburst after Trump acquittal: He’s winning and ‘I’m getting nuttier and nuttier.’
IT SHOULD BE AGAINST THE LAW FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES TO LIE TO CITIZENS: Louisiana Prosecutors Say They Can’t Be Sued Over the Fake Subpoenas They Used To Pressure Witnesses Into Testifying. And fake subpoenas should be grounds for disbarment at the very least.
OLD AND BUSTED: Clinton adviser says Democrats will dominate for 40 years.
—The London Telegraph, May 14, 2009.
The New Hotness? James Carville Drops a Truth Bomb on Dems: ‘We’re Losing Our Damn Minds.’
I want to give you an example of the problem here. A few weeks ago Binyamin Appelbaum, an economics writer for the New York Times, posted a snarky tweet about how LSU cancelled classes for the National Championship game. And then he said, do the “Warren/Sanders free public college proposals include LSU, or would it only apply to actual schools?”
You know how fucking patronizing that is to people in the South or in the middle of the country? First, LSU has an unusually high graduation rate, but that’s not the point. It’s the goddamn smugness. This is from a guy who lives in New York and serves on the Times editorial board and there’s not a single person he knows that doesn’t pat him on the back for that kind of tweet. He’s so fucking smart.
Appelbaum doesn’t speak for the Democratic Party, but he does represent the urbanist mindset. We can’t win the Senate by looking down at people. The Democratic Party has to drive a narrative that doesn’t give off vapors that we’re smarter than everyone or culturally arrogant.
Good luck with that. As Dr. Helen has written, that dopamine hit of smugness is what being a leftist is all about. QED, the exchange between the aforementioned Binyamin Appelbaum and Pete Buttigieg, which went viral on Twitter last month, after Appelbaum looked and sounded like he was auditioning to be the head of SPECTRE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh2SxQa1RqQ
TRUMP WANTED VOTERS TO KNOW WHAT HE STOOD FOR. DEMOCRATS ARE AFRAID VOTERS WILL FIND OUT: Why Democrats Aren’t Naming Names.
Candidate Donald Trump’s decision to provide a list of jurists from which he would appoint his first Supreme Court justice was both a brilliant political stroke and an act in the public interest—two qualities that are rarely combined. For Trump, it created favorable publicity and allowed him to rebut critics who accused him of lacking knowledge or interest in matters of governance, specifically the Supreme Court.
The list also advanced public understanding. The appointment of a Supreme Court justice is one of the President’s most consequential acts, with effects lasting decades into the future. Of course, presidential candidates can and do make vague statements about the kind of justices they will appoint: They promise “strict constructionists” or “judges with empathy.” They may vow to take some current justice on the Court as a model, pledging to appoint justices in the mold of Clarence Thomas or Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But nothing is as informative as an actual list of specific candidates that can be vetted by everyone.
Moreover, a list disciplines the President once in office. After pledging himself to a specific list of judges, he cannot compromise his commitment to a particular constitutional jurisprudence in favor of other calculations, like pleasing a key Senator, gaining an easy confirmation, ensuring the smooth passage of legislation, or just appointing a crony. Some critics said that Trump could not be trusted to choose from his list, but they were proven completely wrong.
Given the demonstrated political advantage and public interest involved in offering a list, it is striking that no candidate for the Democratic nomination has provided one of his or her own—despite the pressure to stand out in a crowded primary. The best explanations show the problems that face Democrats in raising the salience of the Supreme Court in a political campaign—problems which would also create complications for a Democratic president in appointing justices and federal judges.
Read the whole thing.
February 7, 2020
STEPHEN GREEN ON TONIGHT’S DEMOCRAT CHINFEST: “It was a debate about nothing.” By nobodies.
Plus: “I honestly can’t wait to drunkblog the New Hampshire results on Tuesday. They can’t all lose, but some of them surely will — and what a thrill that will be.”
AT AMAZON, save on Cleaning Supplies.
HONG KONG: So I saw this piece on coronavirus panic in Hong Kong and reached out to a friend who’s lived there for a long time. His response:
There’s a bit of panic going on.
Park N Shop (grocery store) opens at 8 a.m.
[REDACTED] (my wife) was there at 8:01 – dozens of people there already.
Manager restricted purchases of toilet paper and tissue paper to two each.
A fight breaks out in that area – plenty of profanity, etc.
The store was sold out at 8:02.My wife went to the hardware store as they were getting some in this morning.
They were charging US$20 for 20 masks.
Apparently the first person in the shop bought out the entire stock – leaving none for anyone who came to the store.Meanwhile, a head of lettuce is now up to HK$20 a head ( about US$2.75).
People are worried that the new border restrictions will stop shipments of food products and paper products.
We have enough food for the family to last 4 to 6 weeks without going to the store – same with paper products.
But many live in very small flats (average size of 400 sq. ft) – so no real ability to store a lot of supplies on a regular basis.Grocery stores tend to stock just-in-time; so any type of run means that they run out almost immediately.
As to masks, I received my lai see from our company this week. It was a pack of 20 masks – apparently they were sourced from Korea.
Last week when in Squaw Valley for Chinese New Year, we checked grocery stores and drug stores in Tahoe City – sold out.
Checked Walmart and CVS in Rocklin (north of Sacramento) – sold out.
Checked Walmart in Dixon (south of Davis) – sold out.
We did get a few masks from a hardware store in the area where they sell masks for painting, sanding, etc.
And of course none in the four drug stores we checked in San Francisco.A friend of mine who used to live in Hong Kong and now lives in Phoenix told me he is getting requests from HK friends to mail them masks.
His local CVS got a truck with them in today. Kept up by the pharmacist. Will be gone by tomorrow or Sunday.
He will mail 180 masks to HK tomorrow.I can make a mask last a week, as only wear it when entering / exiting a building (it is an N95 reusable mask).
Don’t wear one in my office or at home.My father-in-law said that as long as you are not within 4 feet of someone, you should be safe.
With the streets relatively empty, I can walk to and from work without encountering others for the most part if I choose the right path.
So there you have it firsthand.
IF ONLY IT WERE TRUE:
There’s a lot of empty space at Thule AFB. Trump should establish a new Arctic Climate Change Study Group there and transfer all the folks in the military who cross him. There should be space for civilian liaisons from the FBI, CIA, etc., too.
THAT WAS THE DEBATE THAT WAS: Friday fight night in Manchester, New Hampshire.
WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY, THEY FIRST MAKE INSANE:
AND DESERVEDLY SO: Chinese Communist Party Faces Recriminations Over Virus.
AT AMAZON, Keystone Natural Canned Ground Beef.
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF, WELL, DEFINITELY NOT BABES:
I’D MAKE A CRUISE SHIP JOKE, BUT IT WOULD BE BOTH IN POOR TASTE AND PERFECTLY APPROPRIATE AT THE SAME TIME:
OPEN THREAD: Try to find something to discuss from the news-desert that has been this week.
THIS IS SORT OF LIKE SINGER SWITCHING FROM SEWING MACHINES TO RIFLES IN WWII: iPhone maker Foxconn to make face masks as WHO sounds shortage warning. “In a social media post on Thursday, Foxconn – formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. – said it had begun trial production of surgical masks at its Longhua Park plant in Shenzhen and expects to produce 2 million masks daily by the end of the month.”
WATCHING IT SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO: Stephen Green is drunkblogging the Dem debate.