IT’S SCHEDULED FOR TOMORROW AT 12:25 PM: NASA to stream coverage ahead of planned Boeing Starliner launch.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
May 31, 2024
FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: Department of Labor refers to women as ‘menstruators.’
ERIC COWPERTHWAITE: Observations During the Late Republic.
In the late Roman Republic, Patricians, wealthy Plebians, and successful Generals were often prosecuted for crimes (real and imaginary) after they left office and no longer were protected by the office they held. They were prosecuted by their political enemies, as a general rule of thumb, in order to gain power, prevent the individual from gaining further power, and so forth.
One of the key reasons that Julius Caesar broke Roman law and led his Army across the Rubicon River and into Italy was that he knew that his political enemies were going to prosecute him for crimes they believed he had committed while Consul. Once his 10 year term of Pro-Consul of Cis-Alpine Gaul was complete, they would bring charges against him and then have him exiled or executed. He attempted to negotiate with the Senate for amnesty from prosecution in return for relinquishing command of his Legions, but the Senate refused and ordered him to relinquish command and return to Rome alone.
When Julius Caesar refused, he knew (and said) that the die was cast, meaning that he would have to fight a civil war now. And he led his legions into Italy, which ultimately ended the Republic.
If you think this isn’t what we see happening right now in America, you don’t understand that history and how it is repeating itself.
I was hoping to sidestep the little bits of history repeating.
CHANGE WAS LONG OVERDUE: EXCLUSIVE: An Interview With New National Rifle Association EVP and CEO Doug Hamlin.
I LEFT USA TODAY BECAUSE THEY SPIKED MY HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP COLUMN: USA Today newspapers delete senator’s op-ed blasting trans athletes in collegiate sports.
Disagreement with the Gentry Class’s conventional wisdom is “inflammatory.”
INSURRECTION: SJP chapters organize to ‘surround the White House’ after Hamas, other terror orgs call on students to ‘beseige’ Biden’s residence. “Several Students for Justice in Palestine chapters are set to travel to Washington D.C. to ‘surround the White House’ just days after Hamas and other Palestinian organizations issued a call for students to ‘besiege’ President Biden’s residence.”
Prediction: They won’t be thrown in solitary confinement and prosecuted on trumped-up charges like certain other D.C. protesters have been.
YEAH, PRETTY MUCH: Welcome to Venezuelamerica.
Part of our ruling class’s ongoing game of Civilizational Jenga. They appear to have taken to heart Rhett Butler’s adage that you can make just as much money from tearing a civilization down as from building one up. And, to be fair, the former is more in line with their talents.
FLASHBACK: How Team Obama tried to hack the election. “The irony is mind-boggling: Targeting political opposition is long a technique of police states like Russia, which Team Obama has loudly condemned for allegedly using its own intelligence agencies to hack into our election. The revelations, as well as testimony this week from former Obama intel officials, show the extent to which the Obama administration politicized and weaponized intelligence against Americans. . . . A number of those searches were made from the White House, and included private citizens working for the Trump campaign, some of whose identities were leaked to the media. The revelations earned a stern rebuke from the ACLU and from civil liberties champion Sen. Rand Paul.”
SEPARATION OF POWERS: Chief Justice Roberts declines to meet Senate Democrats amid calls for Alito recusal. Their opinions here don’t matter, unless they want to try to impeach. Which they don’t, because their complaints are transparently stupid and just meant to create an atmosphere of intimidation.
I’M HEARING THIS TOO.
I’m hearing a lot of this out here in the wild.
A lot.
A LOT.
My personal favorite was “I am so ardently resolved to vote for Trump that I would traverse a mile of shattered glass to cast my ballot.” https://t.co/dJP24QT07z— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) May 31, 2024
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: College World Series-Bound Baseball Team Receives Tremendous Support as Its School Shuts Down. “On Memorial Day, I brought you the bittersweet, inspiring story of the Birmingham-Southern Panthers baseball team. The team won its Super Regional postseason tournament and is set to play in the Division III College World Series. What’s remarkable about this feat is that the baseball team will outlast its school, which shuts its doors on Friday.”
This is sad, as my parents met at Birmingham Southern.
PINE TREE FLAG UPDATE: This article isn’t new, but it’s relevant: Appeal to Heaven: On the Religious Origins of the Constitutional Right of Revolution.
And as a sidebar, though I regard the January 6 “insurrection” talk as BS — it wasn’t an insurrection at all, and if Trump had wanted one, it would have been easy to have a real one, and he didn’t — it’s also true that the right of revolution is built into our system and was revered by the Framers.
Note the first two sections of the Tennessee Constitution, which dates to 1796 and which Thomas Jefferson praised at the time:
Section 1. That all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness; for the advancement of those ends they have at all times, an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper.
Section 2. That government being instituted for the common benefit, the doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
This was unremarkable at the time of the Framers, when badges of office did not possess a talismanic power.
JOHN LUCAS ON THE TRUMP CONVICTION: The Most Dangerous Day in the History of Our Country in Our Lifetimes.
The Roman Republic ended in no small part because of legal shenanigans like this, where no one could afford to surrender power for fear of political prosecutions.
May 30, 2024
HE SHOULD. IT SAYS TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT NEW YORK’S JUSTICE SYSTEM, AND AMERICA’S. Jonathan Turley Has a Lot to Say About the Trump Verdict. “I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes.”
Related:
I respect the rule of law and believe we should treat President Trump like any other individual convicted of 34 felonies in New York City: just let him out
— Met Gala Loser Balding 大老板 (@BaldingsWorld) May 30, 2024
Hell, if they’d treated him like anybody else with felony charges in NYC they’d never have brought him to trial.
WHY NOT?
Biden and Garland should be indicted in Texas tomorrow for their ongoing criminal human trafficking conspiracy across the border and into the state of Texas, in direct contravention of state law.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 31, 2024
ANDREW DAVIS: A Republic, If You Can Keep It. Rome couldn’t, and we appear to be going the same way.
OPEN THREAD: Party on.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Chinese reusable rocket maker to cooperate on new MEO constellation.
JOHN LUCAS ON THE TRUMP CONVICTION: The Most Dangerous Day in the History of Our Country in Our Lifetimes.
The Roman Republic ended in no small part because of legal shenanigans like this, where no one could afford to surrender power for fear of political prosecutions.
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Hunter’s laptop, Wuhan and more: ‘Disinformation’ and ‘conspiracies’ turn out to be true — again and again. And yet no one has been prosecuted for this document fraud.