NOT ONLY IS 2021 STRANGER THAN WE IMAGINED, IT IS STRANGER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE: Browns shock Steelers, win first playoff game since 1995.
Archive for 2021
January 10, 2021
HEY, ISN’T THIS HOW 2020 BEGAN AS WELL? Pelosi: Democrats will move to impeach Trump.
UPDATE: Ocasio-Cortez, youth protesters storm Pelosi office to push for climate plan. How did Pelosi respond?
MORE: 10 Times Democrats Urged Violence Against Trump And His Supporters. “More recently, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that, in politics, ‘when you’re in the arena, you have to be ready to take a punch, and you have to be ready to throw a punch … for the children.’ Sen. Jon Tester of Montana took it one step further, encouraging people to ‘punch Trump in the face.’”
(Updated and bumped.)
POINTS AND FIGURES: Republicans Have To Fight. “Establishment Republicans do not know how to win. They do not know how to hold and consolidate power. They don’t know how to use power effectively. They are talkers, not doers. Democrats have their own problems.”
IN THE WAKE OF LAST WEDNESDAY’S DISASTER, PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN FOCUSES ON WHAT UNITES US AS AMERICANS: Just kidding.
FOR ONCE, THEY’RE SERVING AS ROLE MODELS FOR US ALL: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could quit social media for good.
THE PEOPLE WHO TOLD US NOT TO NORMALIZE TRUMP ARE DENORMALIZING AMERICA: Alan Dershowitz: Democrats Cannot Impeach Trump, and You Can’t Impeach Him After Leaving Office. “Congress has no power to impeach or try a private citizen, whether it be a private citizen named Donald Trump or named Barack Obama or anyone else.”
I should also note that they can’t disqualify him from running again. The penalty for impeachment only includes disqualification from offices of “trust or profit,” and as Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman demonstrated some time ago, those offices are appointed, not elected offices.
OPEN THREAD: How was your weekend?
THEY’RE POWERFUL. THEY’RE NOT NECESSARILY SMART, AND THEY’RE CERTAINLY NOT WISE:
Those who think they like this new censorship really need to step back and take the long view. Conspiracy theories about taking down Donald Trump will go on for 100 years. All of these efforts at suppression will be woven and rewoven into these theories. Driving the theories off the front pages of social media will make them wilder and crazier, and we won’t be able to see them or argue with them. How many millions of serious devotees does Trump have? What will they do now? Why is depriving them of their Twitter connection a wholesome curative?
When you have the leaders of business implementing the political agenda of a political party against its opposition, that’s the definition of fascism.
SO STEP DOWN AND MAKE JAMES CLYBURN SPEAKER, OLD WHITE LADY: The Latest: Pelosi Ties Rioters’ Actions to ‘Whiteness.’
TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Explainer: Trump is heading for second impeachment. Here’s how it could play out.
THE PEOPLE WHO TOLD US NOT TO NORMALIZE TRUMP HAVE DENORMALIZED AMERICA: All the platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far.
FIGHT THE POWER: Parler CEO ‘Prepared to Take Full Legal Action’ After Big Tech Companies Target Platform. I remember one year when Michael Yon made more money suing people for stealing his photos than from selling his photos. “Matze said on his Parler account late Jan. 9 that he believes Amazon, Google, and Apple coordinated to ‘try and ensure they don’t have competition.'” Likewise, this lawsuit may turn out to be the most profitable thing Parler does.
Plus, motes and beams: “Parler has no groups-style feature, and Facebook was the number one tool for coordinating meetups for that event.”
Also, “Twitter let ‘Hang Mike Pence’ trend the same day Parler was banned from Google … the double standard is obvious.”
Meanwhile I’m watching an NFL Black Lives Matter ad right now that says “No Justice, No Peace!” But that’s different because shut up.
Related: Rep. Nunes Calls for Racketeering Investigation Into Big Tech Companies Following Parler Ban.
RIOTS FOR THEE, BUT NOT FOR ME: WA Governor who refused National Guard for Seattle’s ‘autonomous zone’ calls up Guard to protect Governor’s Mansion.
(Classical reference in headline.)
THE W.H.O. SAYS LOCKDOWNS DON’T WORK, but everyone is doing it:
Brisbane locks down as new strains put Australia on high alert.
US logs record virus caseload as millions in Asia enter new lockdowns.
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY CALLS OUT MEDIA’S DOUBLE STANDARD ON RIOTS AND VIOLENCE.
QED: The Double Standard of the American Riot: The nationwide protests against police killings have been called un-American by critics, but rebellion has always been used to defend liberty.
—The Atlantic, June 1st, 2020. The article’s meta title reads, “Riots Are the American Way: On the George Floyd Protests.”
Related: Where did the Capitol protest anger come from? What to do about it?
JUSTICE DEPT. TO PROBE SHOOTING OF AIR FORCE VET AT CAPITOL RIOT:
Of the five people who died during the January 6 riot at the Capitol building in Washington, two of them will now be the subjects of investigations by the Justice Department. Three of the deaths have thus far been deemed accidental. One woman was trampled to death in the melee, while two others succumbed to unspecified “medical emergencies.” Two people were killed by others. One was Capitol Hill Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher by rioters. A Justice Department investigation into his death is already underway. The last, and the subject of the investigation in question was 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt. She was shot in the chest by an officer while attempting to break through a window inside the Capitol and later died of her injuries.
Read the whole thing.
WEIRD: Higher pollen levels may trigger pelvic pain. “Our study provides evidence to suggest increased pollen counts may trigger symptom flares in people living with UCPPS [urologic chronic pelvic pain syndrome].”