Archive for 2021
January 26, 2021
THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND STUPID: Republicans Rally Against Impeachment Trial, Signaling Likely Acquittal for Trump.
I REMEMBER WHEN ANTHONY FAUCI SAID MASKS DON’T WORK AT ALL: Now: If you haven’t been double-masking, research says to start now.
OPEN THREAD: Do that comment voodoo that you do so well.
FROM MY COLLEAGUE MICHAEL HIGDON: If You Grant It, They Will Come: The Enduring Legal Legacy of Migratory Divorce.
He’s done a lot of fun research into the culture of people staying in Reno, and he found a number of amusing postcards from the era, some of which appear in the piece.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: As Teachers Unions and Bureaucrats Battle, Families Choose Alternative Schools.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: How a 22-year-old CEO with virtually no health-care experience got picked to run the first mass vaccination clinic in Philadelphia.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
Shot: Biden Has Signed a Record 21 Executive Orders In Less Than a Week.
—MRCTV, today.
—Joe Biden, October, 2020.
SPACE: SpaceX, Amazon spat pits world’s richest men against each other over space real estate. “At the center of the back-and-forth is a recent attempt by SpaceX to modify its license for Starlink, a massive constellation of internet satellites, of which SpaceX has already launched more than 900. SpaceX already has permission from the US federal government to launch thousands of satellites to bulk up the Starlink constellation, and in recent filings with the Federal Communications Commission, SpaceX said it wants to put a few thousand of those satellites in a lower altitude than previously planned or authorized. That proposed change could put Starlink satellites in the way of another constellation, called Project Kuiper, that’s been proposed by Amazon. The company has not yet launched any satellites, but it has secured an FCC license for the project.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Deprogram the Sun.
Following are the procedures for deprogramming The New York Sun. We offer them in light of Katie Couric’s swipe at Trump supporters. “The question,” she told Bill Maher, “is how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump.” The Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson reckons the number of Americans who need to be deprogrammed is in the “millions.”
Ms. Couric’s remark seems to be rippling through the Internet. Just this week, Meghan McCain told the View that she doesn’t need to be reprogrammed, thank you very much. Of those calling for all this reprogramming, Ms. McCain advised, “Honestly, they can go to hell.” Good for her, we say, though for those who are interested, here are the manufacturer’s steps for deprogramming the Sun.
Step 1. Disconnecting the Republican solenoid. This device was installed after the Civil War by the Sun’s new proprietor, Charles Dana. Before the war, Dana had been fired from the Tribune by that jackanape Horace Greeley, who’d endorsed Southern secession, to which Dana’d objected. Whereupon Dana got hired by Abe Lincoln to cover the war for one reader — the president. Detach the ground wire only after this step.
Read the whole thing.
IT’S A PRETTY EASY TEST, SO IF YOU CAN’T PASS IT YEAH, YOU SHOULD SEE A DOCTOR: The One Fitness Test You Have to Pass.
WITH DNC IN MIND, CITY BANS CARRYING URINE, FECES: Comedian seeks permit for smiling poop sculpture in NYC. “If you thought ‘Fearless Girl’ was a bad look for the Wall Street bull, wait till you see this.”
(Classical reference in headline.)
GREAT MOMENTS IN AIRBRUSHING: Salon smears Tom Cotton, Newsweek airbrushes 2015 articles on first female Rangers graduating to conform to Salon’s hot take.
In 2015, many media outlets also hailed the two Ranger School graduates as America’s first female Army Rangers.
The American Legion’s official Twitter account shared a CBS story identifying the women as Rangers: “Via @CBSNews: First female @USArmy Rangers’ trailblazing achievement.”
Obama-administration official Ronald Klain, who now serves as President Biden’s chief of staff, shared a Huffington Post article identifying the women as Rangers.
Fox News called Haver and Griest “America’s first female Army Rangers.”
“America: Meet Your First Female Rangers,” read the headline at Time.
Newsweek reported in 2015 that for “the first time in the Army Ranger School’s 64-year history, two women have completed the intense training program and will become Rangers.” The same 2015 Newsweek story that said Haver and Griest “will become Rangers” acknowledged that “the 75th Ranger Regiment does not allow female Rangers.”
Over the weekend, Newsweek picked up Salon’s story attacking Cotton under the headline: “Tom Cotton Blasted for Claims About Being an Army Ranger by Lawmaker Who Was One.”
Cotton’s communications director Caroline Tabler tells National Review that Cotton’s office contacted Newsweek this weekend to point out that Newsweek had identified the female Ranger school graduates as Army Rangers in 2015. Newsweek responded by editing its 2015 story to conform to Salon’s new smear of Cotton. The 2015 Newsweek story no longer says the two women “will become rangers” — the edited version says they “will be allowed to wear the coveted Ranger tab on their uniforms.” (The original Newsweek story can be viewed here.)
If you want to get a sense of how insincere Salon’s attack on Cotton is, just take a look at all the times Salon articles referred to graduates of Ranger school as Army Rangers. An article published on Salon in May 2020 identified the Salon author, a Ranger school graduate, as an Army Ranger.
Read the whole thing.
OLD AND BUSTED: Brexit.
The New Hotness? #Texit! Texas Rep. Introduces Bill That Would Let Residents Vote on Seceding From the US.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I understand the appeal, but Russia and China — and a lot of other bad actors — would love to see the US split up, and would then work to encourage the splinters to go to war with one another.
ANOTHER UPDATE FROM GLENN: Jim Bennett emails that it’s Russia, not China:
Talking up secession on both the red state and blue state side is being pushed by FSB bots and sock puppets. It’s his ultimate revenge for 1991. The Chinese don’t like secession even though it weakens the USA, because they are vulnerable to it themselves and fear blowback. From Putin’s point of view, the worst has already happened.
Federalism is the solution. Even as a worst case, an “Austro-Hungarian” solution. Secession is not.
He adds: “The 1/6 Capitol Hill event bears all the hallmarks of the sort of 5G warfare the Russians have been pulling off in eastern Ukraine. It’s not illogical to see QAnon and Antifa both being Putin puppets.”
Cui bono?
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: CDC: One in five people in U.S. has a sexually transmitted infection.
WHY ARE DEMOCRAT MONOPOLY INSTITUTIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF SEXISM AND RACISM? CBS executives placed on leave after reports of “racist” and “sexist” comments.
LIFE IN THE BLUE ZONES: Death of NYC’s most beloved restaurants puts landlords in danger.
Related: City, state and federal leaders are all giving us pandemic chaos.
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple. Don’t mind the maggots!
UPDATE: In the comments, someone notes that no one ever proposes a property tax jubilee for the benefit of landlords, even as they’re trying to block evictions of nonpaying tenants. The government is very protective of its own receipts.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Yesterday’s mental illness is today’s social policy.”
MCCONNELL VOTES TO DECLARE TRUMP IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL:’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) voted in favor of a resolution declaring the impeachment trial of former President Trump “unconstitutional” on Tuesday.
The point of order resolution was put forward by McConnell’s colleague from Kentucky, Rand Paul, and effectively forced Republicans to declare on the record whether they consider the impeachment trial constitutional, given that it’s taking place after Trump has left office. The resolution failed after a majority of senators voted against it, meaning the impeachment trial will go ahead as planned.
However, only five Republicans voted against the resolution: Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. At the close of the impeachment trial itself, at least 17 Republican senators would need to join Democrats in order to convict Trump.
“I think there will be enough support on” the point-of-order resolution “to show there’s no chance they can impeach the president,” Paul told reporters before the vote on Tuesday. “If 34 people support my resolution that this is an unconstitutional proceeding, it shows they don’t have the votes and we’re basically wasting our time.”
More here: Watch: Rand Paul’s Fiery Speech Denouncing Trump Impeachment.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): My take:. The only remedies in impeachment are removal from office and disqualification to hold positions of “trust or profit.” The disqualification vote can’t take place until after the removal, and you can’t “remove” someone from an office they don’t hold. What’s more if you’re impeaching the President the Chief Justice must preside. The Chief Justice isn’t presiding, so this can’t be a presidential impeachment. But if you’re not impeaching a president, and you can’t impeach a private citizen, then there’s no power to impeach Trump.
Shame on Mitt Romney, et al., for throwing the Constitution under the bus to score points.
ANOTHER UPDATE FROM GLENN: Mollie Hemingway:
ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE AMMO SHORTAGE.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Portland Mayor Pepper Sprays Man After Maskless Confrontation.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he pepper-sprayed a man who confronted him at a pub Sunday night. The man allegedly confronted Wheeler as he left the pub and chastised him for not wearing a mask while eating.
* * * * * * * *
While running for re-election against a self-proclaimed Antifa candidate, Wheeler joined in a violent protest at the federal courthouse in Portland. He ended up on the receiving end of tear gas deployed by federal agents protecting the building, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak wrote.
In September, he ordered Portland Police Bureau to not use tear gas for riot control, Joshua Caplan reported for Breitbart. The order allowed police to continue using pepper spray and mace.