Sherrod Brown 2020?

Worth taking seriously...though he's actually pretty lefty by my standards. He signed some ridiculous thing about "gender identity" in schools. Aaaand hes got this anti-flag-desecration thing he's got going on... Maybe he's an interesting centrist...but he could be the worst of both worlds. He's only been on the periphery of my radar. But, prima facie, he seems like an option. The "dignity of work" stuff also sounds initially pretty interesting...but some of what I've read makes it seem more lefty than you might think.

Carl Bernstein Has Lost It Over Trump and Putin

Incoherent speculation.

TDS is sweeping the nation, kids!

Did the left used to be sane? Or am I misremembering?

Probably some of both, I reckon.

(Actually, the left I sympathized with wasn't very left, so.)

In addition to everything else, this non-stop shrieking about the DEADLY WORLD-ENDING SUPER-RACIST THERMONUCLEAR PUTIN-CONTROLLED MECHA-TRUMP is making actual Trump seem...well...y'know...pretty ok by comparison. 

Nice work, you guys. I didn't think it was possible. But you've done it.

Next time: BUT HE SERVED THEM HAMBURGERS!!!!111

Brooks: "The Cruelty Of Call-Out Culture"

"The Insanity of..." would have been a more apt title.

Q: "Why Is Congress So Dumb?"

A: New Gingrich

Study Finds People Enjoy Sex More When Baked Than When Drunk

Por que no los dos?

Newsweek: Bernstein: Putin Runs Teh Trump!!!!!111

Right...so...write this down as a firm prediction of the left.
Because you have to be really, really stupid and nuts to think it's true.
Now hear this: Trump is a moron...not a Russian catspaw.
Seriously...I'd rather have Trumpo the clown in office than these other loony shitheads.

Beauty and Evolution

Interesting.
Seems to me that people tend to ignore the possibility that evolution acts in rather general ways, and that it might equip creatures to have an appreciation for beauty that's rather more general...rather than just an arbitrary preference for some specific visual stimulus. This is the kind of thing that seems to happen with intelligence. Evolution equips us with intelligence, and then we go nuts with it. It doesn't equip us to find the Lowenheim-Skolem theorem fascinating...it equips us with intelligence generally, and then lots of stuff follows from that for our behavior.

The Loss Of Confidence Project

This looks really, really interesting and important.

James Watson Stripped Of Honors And Fired By Cold Spring Harbor

What Watson said was injudicious and rather callous...rude, I suppose...but it's more than merely consistent with what we seem to know about IQ.

   Here's a question. If you're a scholar, in some sense it's the only question: is what Watson said based on respectable evidence? Or is it not.

   The fact of the matter is that it is. You don't want it to be true. I don't want it to be true. No sensible person wants it to be true. But the universe does not care about our feelings. How is it that this even needs to be said?

   I am not insensitive to the painfulness of the relevant evidence. But I am far more concerned about the mass subordination of evidence to politics that has migrated from the humanities to the social sciences and now to the actual sciences. The subordination of evidence to politics is the essence of political correctness. It is an intellectual cancer. And it's a betrayal of our only sacred obligation as inquirers. 

   Cowardice...intellectual dishonesty...the desire for the approval of others...these are deadly to inquiry. 

   A secular religion now controls what we--and what scientists--can say and think. Some truths are now unsayable. And this new secular religion is much more restrictive than the old, religious religion. Meet the new boss...considerably goddamn worse than the old boss.

   And this is James F*cking Watson. 

   Imagine what will happen to li'l ol' me if/when I'm eventually doxed... I'll be retroactively fired to before my hiring and forced to pay back my salary for like the decade before I started my current job...

Obama's Border Patrol Chief: Build The Wall

link
(via Instapundit)

David Leonhardt: Get Rid Of Trump; He's Demonstrably Unfit For Office

link
It would be a lot easier for me to agree with this case if the other side were acting even vaguely sane.
   IMO the Bush administration was much, much worse. They tried to steal the election of 2000, and basically only failed because they--unbeknownst to anyone--had already won. Bush v. Gore was a train wreck. Then they not only lied us into Iraq, but used the tragedy of 9/11 as the fulcrum for their lies. And let OBL get away because they wanted the personnel and materiel to attack Iraq. I'll never stop being angry about those things. Neither should you.
   But, more to the point: it's hard for me to understand the freak-out about Trump given our largely passive acceptance of what '43 did. Unless Trump completely freaks out, he's on track to be a much, much, much, much better president than '43. Which means he could still be terrible.
   It's also clear that much of the hatred of Trump is based in his rejection of the craziest crazy of the PC left--his appointment of DeVos and reform of Ed, his rejection of transgender ideology, his rejection of tacit open borders and identity politics...the freak out isn't entirely principled. It's largely--though not entirely--political.
   But, all that having been said, I still think the guy is terrible and semi-terrifying. I don't know exactly how bad he is, nor how bad he might become, but I think he's just too erratic to hold the highest office. (The presidency maybe shouldn't have been allowed to become this powerful...but one problem at a time...) Which doesn't mean that I think he should be removed. Impeach him, if there are grounds. Let the system work the problem.
   737 days remaining as of now. Maybe the left should stop thinking about a moonshot and start thinking about how to beat him at the polls. The Dems can do that by stiff-arming the crazy left and running to the center. Or, rather: the Dems and the crazy left could do it in concert if the former runs a centrist and the latter sticks with the former. But will they? If the Dems ran a Blue Dog, would progressives vote for him or her? If not, that's evidence that leftist anti-Trumpery isn't all that principled, but, rather largely political.

F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working For Russia

This is the latest totally the end of Drumpf. As if opening the investigation were the same thing as finding that the concern was true..
   Needless to say, it's beyond bad that a president would even be suspected of such a thing. But the hysterical left keeps managing to make Trump look less badthan he actually is by repeatedly crying 'wolf,' and blowing such things wildly out of proportion. By being merely awful, Trump so exceeds the expectations set by the lunatic left that he kinda comes out looking almost good.
   And, incidentally: no, Trump is not secretly working for Russia. who the hell would even take such a thing seriously? I mean...I'm glad that the FBI investigated it. But if you think there's any appreciable chance of it being true, your TDS is probably acting up again.

Carolina 62 - Louisville 83

Wow.
That was a thrashin'.

Ron Martinelli: "The Tuth About Crime, Illegal Immigrants, And Sanctuary Cities"

Wow...can this be true? The claim that illegals commit fewer crimes per capita is repeated over and over like a mantra. I was under the impression that it was proven. In fact, I've thought and said that Trump's emphasis on crime by illegals was not particularly relevant, and not great tactically.
   Anyway...big if true. Huge if true, in fact. If this were true, it would mean that we've been bamboozled by the progressive media / controllers-of-culture again...in an almost unbelievably major way.
   But I doubt that it's true. It seems pretty unlikely that they'd have been able to suppress something this big for this long. Not that they wouldn't...but I doubt that they can.

"For Gay Conservatives, The Trump Era Is The Best And Worst Of Times"

Pretty interesting...but waaay too long. So not, in my case, interesting enough to finish. But YMMV.
Of course I disagree with lumping the "transgendered" in with homosexuals and bisexuals. In my view it's a completely different matter. But that's just one aspect of the thing. There's a pretty funny and interesting bit about Colton Buckley, a Republican from Oklahoma. I'd completely vote for the dude. There's also a lot of gossipy stuff that basically just waters down what's interesting about the piece. But anyway, of possible interest.

Yet Another Prophecy Of Trump?

Is this for real?
   Pretty funny if so.
   Snopes says it's real...but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's fake...
   I don't think I remember this series, but I might. It's the sort of thing that might well have been on reruns when I was a kid.
   While we're on approximately the subject, don't forget the works of fiction that foretold the rise of the progressive left...

Marco Rubio Is Absolutely Right About The Wall/Shutdown [*]

This guy could have been our president.
That's on you, Pubs.
Well...I guess the blue team shares the blame. But...less.
   The Dems' resistance to improving border security is irrational. But a shutdown seems like the wrong response. And: if we let Trump get away with this bogus declaration of emergency...and we shouldn't...we're basically laying the groundwork for President Harris (saints preserve us) to declare a climate-change emergency in order to, say, force through the "green new deal." (Or...red new deal...amirite?) So, anyway, I think you should be against the Trump thing. But if you aren't, maybe you'll be against the Harris thing.
   It's not that this is all easy...but: it's easy to at least try to say sensible things about the basics.
   Though I realize more and more than I don't really understand anything about government and politics.

* Eh, what do I know? It's all one big swirly clown show to me now.

Grassley: Don't Declare An Emergency To Build The Wall

link

Behold The PC Left

Anything Good To Read On Forcing Government Shut-Downs?

This seems like shenanigans to me, but honestly I don't know anything about it. If anybody knows something to read, please to pass it on.

Giulliani: Trump Team Should Get To 'Correct' The Final Mueller Report?

Eh, this is probably being twisted/blown out of proportion...he may very well have meant something like: correct obvious factual errors...
I mean...how else could it make any sense?
But anyway: yeah, no. You don't get to correct the report.

If You're An Academician, Write Portland State About Their Politically-Motivated Retribution Against Peter Boghossian

Honestly, does any doubt remain that the PC / "social justice" left basically controls academia?

The First 700 Miles Of Border Fencing Was Fine...

...the 701st mile is, however, immoral...

"Mexico Will Pay For The Wall"

Wow, progressives just won't shut up about this one.
Maybe I should care more about it...but I just don't.
I never thought that was a serious claim. I mean, Trump just says shit. Honestly, who believed that? I mean, Trump shouldn't just say shit. (We've fallen on hard times when we have to say this about the POTUS...) And he ought to be hammered for just saying shit. So, I mean, go to it. But it isn't much of a criticism of the wall thing. Perhaps they're leaning on this because so many of their other arguments are so dumb. I dunno.
   Also: fer chrissake, maybe we could set the barrier question aside for now and all agree to mandate the use of E-Verify? Well...of course we can't...
   721ish days down, 739 remaining...nearing the halfway point for Trumpo the Clown.
   As for the loony leftists who control our cultural superstructure: no end--and no halfway point--in sight.

The Wall Is Immoral...

...but the border isn't?
That position requires some gymnastics to defend...
Ooorrr...it fits together seamlessly/naturally/effortlessly with an open borders position...
Huh. Wonder which it is?
Seriously. I do wonder.

Border Fence Follies: They'll Climb Over! They'll Tunnell Under!

Yeah, no.
Fences, you see, are not perfect barriers. The point is, basically, to make it significantly harder to move along a given trajectory...not to make it absolutely impossible. This sort of perfection fallacy tends to crop up when people have already made their mind up about something and, hence, have stopped actually thinking about it.
Compare:

• Seatbelts don't work because it's possible for them to come unfastened
• Antibiotics don't work because it's possible for the infection to survive
• Coats don't work because you might still be cold
• Cell phones don't work because you might lose service

Blah, blah, blah.
Here's the only kind of argument that is going to work here: there are alternative methods of border enforcement that are more cost-effective than additional fencing. Give us an argument like that or shut the hell up. Er...no disrespect to Speaker Pelosi. She ok. I'm not a big fan, but I do respect her. But c'mon: get serious.

Trump Won / Trump Lost

Thiessen: Trump Won
Frum: Trump Defeated Himself
So he either won or he not only lost but kicked his own ass.
I don't see him winning this. Although I think he's probably less wrong than the Dems, and expended fencing would be good, Congress controls the purse-strings. And part of me kinda likes to see them slap down the president--especially this guy.
I don't see Trump winning this one.