ONLY SIX? The Top Seven Lies Adam Schiff Has Told to Boost Impeachment

I take it back: Matt upgraded to seven when I wasn’t looking.

EVERY TIME I THINK I COULDN”T POSSIBLY BE MORE CYNICAL, SOMEONE PROVES ME WRONG: So, a tweet thread from Joe Lockhart.

Screenshot for posterity, but here’s the original tweet,
and here’s the confession.

Notice that Lockhart is a CNN Contributor. Clearly, CNN hasn’t hit bottom yet.

NO BRAIN? NO PROBLEM! What We Can Learn About Impeachment From Slime Molds

MAZIE HIRONO REDEFINES “CONSPIRACY THEORY”: Dem Senator Says It’s a ‘Conspiracy Theory’ to Say Dems Were Out to Get Trump From Beginning.

No, “conspiracy theory” doesn’t mean “inconvenient”.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: The FBI Scandal.

Donald Trump published the most consequential tweet of his presidency on March 4, 2017. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process,” the chief executive pondered. “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

The response from Trump’s opposition was outrage. The Washington Post fact checker gave it four Pinocchios. The director of the FBI, James Comey, rebuked Trump and said such a thing had never happened. James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, assured NBC’s Meet the Press that no warrants had been issued in 2016 to surveil members of the Trump campaign.

In a narrow sense, the pushback against Trump’s tweet was correct; Trump himself was never personally the target of an FBI wiretap. In any case, the president doesn’t order such a thing; the FBI applies for a warrant to eavesdrop on Americans from a secret court. No such warrant was issued to bug the president’s offices.

But the furious denials were misleading. To paraphrase a cliché from 2016, Trump’s tweet should have been taken seriously, not literally. Obama did not tap Trump’s phones. But his FBI did spy on Trump’s campaign. That fact is no longer in dispute. The question is whether the FBI was justified in treating the Trump campaign itself as a suspect in this crime against the 2016 election.

I’d quibble with a couple of points — for example, it does appear FBI was monitoring phones in Trump’s campaign HQ and transition team, which sure sound like “Trump’s phones” to me — but it’s a good review.

WHAT’S THE FIRST STEP? Is It Time For Twelve Steps For the Legacy Media?

TRUST, BUT VERIFY. ME TOO: The Misleading Math of Climate Activism (Updated)

In the course of doing a back-of-the-envelope on the “five Hiroshimas a second” I made a couple of mistakes. This has a revision including the spreadsheet. Once I was done, it came out that instead of this implying 0.7°C per century, it’s actually 0.04°C per century.

Oh, and this is a VIP article. Sign up for VIP and you’ll get to see me admit to a mistake. Use promo code CHARLIE and you’ll get a discount.

TRUST BUT VERIFY. WELL, ACTUALLY, JUST VERIFY: The Misleading Math of Climate Activism.

This is a VIP article. If you haven’t signed up yet, get on the stick, and use CHARLIE as a promo code for a nice discount.

EYES ON THE PRIZE: Buzz Aldrin is My Hero.

A PIECE FROM THE DAY JOB: Agile is a Thing of the Spirit.

Almost 20 years ago, the Agile Manifesto proposed a change in the way software is developed that values

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

Twenty years later, people still don’t understand how radical that was — including a lot of people who think they are practicing agile.

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN REWARDING? What BF Skinner and Richard Feynman Can Tell Us About Iran.

THE POOR KID: The Martyrdom of Saint Greta of Sweden.

IT AALL DEPENDS ON WHOSE OX GORES YOU: The Democrats Impeachment Dilemma.

This is a PJM VIP piece. If you haven’t signed up for ad-free PJ VIP yet (and why not?) you can get a discount with promo code CHARLIE.

GREAT SKY FIRE RETURNS! Wait, Now It’s Winter?.

BEHOLD THE AWESOME MIGHT OF A SINGLE SNOWFLAKE: SantaGate: Microsoft Removes Santa Hat Icon After a Single User Complained It Was ‘Pushing Religion’.

AMERICA’S PAPER OF RECORD: Unbiased Washington Post Launches Celebratory Fireworks as Trump Impeached.

But, you say, the Babylon Bee is satire!

NOW I CAN’T TELL IF I WAS RIGHT OR WRONG: What if they held an impeachment and nobody came?

MAYBE THEY REALLY ARE CRAZY: Bedlam in the (Mad) House.

I THINK WE SHOULD BELIEVE THEM: Why We Had Reason to Believe Greta Thunburg the First Time

MAKE ONE GUESS: Why Don’t Americans Trust the Media?

This is a VIP column. You can still sign up for VIP at a discount with promo code CHARLIE.

PRO TIP — CLASSIFICATION IS A PRESIDENTAL POWER: How Were the Impeachment Transcripts Classified?

THE PROSPECT OF DEMOCRAT TRAUMATIC INJURY TO THE METATARSALS: Why I Still Don’t Think Trump will be Impeached

BECAUSE THIS IS WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME THIS QUESTION: Cyber Monday — What Computer Should You Buy for 2020?

ANNALS OF TRUMP DERANGEMENT: Newsweek, Suckered by Trump, Grudgingly Corrects Thanksgiving Story

ELECTION 2020: PJ is starting up a separate section for Election coverage. Here are a couple of recent pieces.

Bloomberg: ‘America Needs An Awful Lot More Immigrants’

Pete Buttigieg in 2011: Minority Children Don’t Have Role Models Who Value Education