"Biden Had a Good Run, But He Needs to Step Aside"

Well, you're half right...

(RCP's title, not the Grauniad's)

Greenwald: The Ukraine War is Basically Lost

I disagree with Greenwald about Vietnam and some other things he mentioned, but his Ukraine graphic is breathtaking.

Elon Musk: Build the Wall

Face it, Trump is right about everything.

Well...close enough, anyway...

Including this stuff.

And now Elon is right about it, too.

   As I've said for a decade or so, what we really need is radically expanded and improved fencing. The fence that Trump built seems great. More of that. The reason only fencing might do is that we have to have a solution that Democrats can't just ignore when they come to power. Biden just threw the metaphorical gates open when he came to office--but to do so with physical gates would be a PR disaster. Democrats will welcome it...but no one else will. Nothing is idiot Democrat-proof. But removing a physical barrier and letting hoards of illegals flood into the country would be very costly politically. Hell, despite my repeated arguments that a whole-border fence is a crazy idea, Trump may be right about that, too. It may be that illegals will simply keep moving to the parts of the border without fencing, no matter how remote, and Democrats will keep letting them through. Maybe the only thing with a snowball's chance of working over the relatively long term is a whole-border fence...

   Musk is wrong about expanding legal immigration. But that's a different story for a different day.

Addendum:

Even Jake Tapper can't take Ayanna Pressley's bullshit about the border being secure.

And when you've lost Jake Tapper...

Start this at 11:22; ignore the random idiot at the beginning of the video.

Your Blue Future: ARRRRR, Matey: Pirates in the Oakland, CA Estuary

So the Democrat crime wave has come to this.

What next?

Highwaymen?

Train robberies?

Claim-jumping?

Yes, There's Lots of Evidence of Biden Influence-Peddling--Plenty to Warrant Investigation--But No Proof Yet

The Democrats insist there is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER of Biden influence peddling. This is absurd. There's plenty of evidence. More than enough to justify an investigation. Certainly more damning evidence than the Dems had for impeaching Trump the first time. In fact, in effect, Trump was impeached for investigating Biden's influence-peddling operation.

   I was extremely skeptical, as I said many times, of these charges at first. And, of course, I have no idea whether Biden committed impeachable offenses like accepting money from these shady deals while in office. But it's obvious that there's evidence. In fact, there's lots of evidence. Plenty to warrant an official investigation. It's that evidence that changed my mind months ago. I now think (a) it's clear that Biden was involved in shady dealings, and (b) it's not unlikely that he did something impeachable. 

   Note that the same Democrats who still refuse to accept the irrefutable evidence that Trump is innocent of Russian "collusion" insist that there no evidence whatsoever of wrongdoing by Biden. That's just loony.

RIP Senator Feinstein (1933-2023)

Even when I disagreed with her, I respected her.

It's Probably Time For This Great Classic Again Right About Now

The Postpostmodern Progressive Left in Yet Another Nutshell: Steve Schmidt, Postmodern Hermeneuticist

When you adopt the method of free-form literary interpretation, anything can mean anything:

.@SteveSchmidtSES on Trump saying he needs “six months to a year” to reform the federal govt: “This is a racist code whistle to every white supremacist in the country because it’s how long it took Adolf Hitler to take Weimar Germany to a complete and total dictatorship.” pic.twitter.com/PGQPzH5eT8

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 26, 2023

 It's really the lunatic philosophy/epistemology underlying this madness that concerns me most. This isn't just some isolated instance--this is how the left reasons now. It's no longer isolated to the weaker regions of the humanities and social sciences. It's seeped in so deep as to have infected formerly-not-so-crazy people like Schmidt. One of the leading ideas that has driven the academic left mad is that "everything is a text." Worse is the idea that all reasoning can be conducted in the manner of bad poetry interpretation: a free-form rummaging through vague hints of suggestions of implications, looking for bits and pieces and fragments of thoughts that you can string together into some vaguely suggestive hogwash of a pseudo-conclusion that you wanted to "prove" from the get-go. Add leftist politics--which doesn't really have to be added, because it's basically inseparable from this nonsense--and you get what we see today. Six months??? You know who else took six months to do something once???? HITLER

   As loony as Trump is, he is, by far, less insane than these people. 

(Two) High School Students Unhappy that Climate Totalitarianism Isn't Total Enough--Not Discussed in Every Class (and Every T.V. Show)

A hundred years from now, this could serve as a very short introduction to early-21st-century climate hysteria.

   And, of course, there's the pretense that this is some widespread phenomenon...but no data is given beyond citing two disgruntled schoolgirls.

Nico Perrino: Right-Wing Activist Christopher Rufo Became the Thing He Claims to Hate

Rufo has definitely slipped toward the Dark Side of late.

   As for the "Stop Woke" act--though this can't be said of Perrion or FIRE, it's funny how the academic left suddenly started caring about free speech and open inquiry...

   What that act and many similar acts aims at stopping is indoctrination. And that's good--and consistent with the First Amendment. They've gone about it the wrong way--though their not generally as bad as the academic left wants you to believe. Their argument is basically: You must permit us to continue the unbridled brainwashing students and professors because the new laws that attempt to prohibit us from doing so could, possibly, if interpreted as uncharitably as possible, prevent us from teaching about some ideas central to our ideology at all...

   Of course, if the academic left would stop the blatant abuse of universities, this would be an issue. They could easily stop the "STOP WOKE" (God how I hate cutesy names for legislation) act by eliminating the need for it. They are like criminals arguing that the police should not be able to hinder their crime spree in any respect because doing so might possibly interfere with their rights. 

   Nevertheless, it is important that we not become like the progressive left. And Rufo lost me to some extent when he basically agreed with the ridiculous leftist mantra that all education is political. To the extent that that's even an intelligible claim, it isn't true. To try to win the battle by adopting strategies that constitute losing the war...not a great idea.

DEI Madness at the USAF Academy, With Comments on DEI Totalitarianism

Insanity

Part of the problem with DEI is that it is one tentacle of the totalitarian progressive-left octopus. The more modest and limited a policy, the weaker the arguments in support of it can be. The more ambitious and unlimited a policy, the heavier the burden of proof its advocates must carry--and the greater its potential for harm. And the more resistant we should be to its implementation.

   My view is that the problem isn't so much DEI as it is the postpostmodern, politically correct progressive left. That position is antiliberal, antirationalist, and totalitarian. DEI--a rather bad idea to begin with--could be spun in a less-destructive direction if implemented by more liberal and rational institutions, or by a more liberal and reasonable faction. It might even have some good effects if applied modestly, at the margins.

   But DEI is now little more than an efficient tool for institutionalizing the insane ideas of the contemporary--totalitarian--left.

   As such, it is no surprise that DEI itself has become totalitarian. What might have been an at least moderately reasonable idea if implemented modestly has, instead, become a set of ideas that are being forced into every corner of institutions. That's certainly true of my institution, and, as the piece linked to above makes clear, it's happening at USAFA. And those two institutions are in no way unrepresentative in this respect. 

   DEI is now being imposed on students in many of their classes, by the para-faculty of "student affairs," by other students and student organizations--from, in short, every direction. It is now often represented as the most important end of universities. That's to say: many leftists now openly (or not-so-openly) say that advancing DEI / "social justice" / "antiracism" etc. are the real aims of universities. Even good ideas would become bad if implemented in that way. 

   Today's left is irrational and destructive both because of its illiberal, irrationalist ideas and because it is religiously dedicated to the project of converting the unbeliever via rhetorical and institutional force--including what is, in effect, brainwashing. 

   In my view, DEI must be destroyed. At this point, there is no reforming it. Any promise by progressives to salvage it will be a smokescreen. Any weapon we leave them will be used against us, because their weapons are mere means. Taking away DEI is a virtually necessary, but by no means sufficient, step toward prying control of our institutions away from the illiberal, antirationalist left.

Trump Leads by 10, Biden's Numbers in the Dumpster

The 10-point lead is an outlier, and I don't believe it. 

A second Trump term would not exactly be good news...but by this point in my life I suppose I should be used to supporting the lesser available evil.

The Biden Administration is Now Flying Illegal Aliens Directly from Venezuela to The U.S. and Giving Them Automatic Work Visas

You really can't make this stuff up.

Ibram Kendi's "Center for Antiracist Research" at BU is a Scam

Which isn't a surprise.

What's a surprise is that it's collapsing.

The left props up such scams--e.g. BLM--as long as possible. For an enterprise like this to collapse, it's got to be really exceptionally, transparently scammy.

NDG Morphed Into Bill Nye "The Science" Guy So Gradually I Didn't Even Notice

A shorter version of the previously-posted Triggernometry episode.

NDG's performance is shameful.

As one of the comments pithily puts it: a scientist asking "Why do you care [to know]" is like a doctor asking "Why do you want to be healthy."

RCOR Poll: Bad News re: Free Speech, and Some Good

link

Republicans, men, and olds are mostly committed to free speech...though less than I'd like. 

Democrats are a wreck. Women are wobbly. The kids are not alright.

Republican voters (74%) and independents (61%) believe speech should be legal “under any circumstances, while Democrats are almost evenly divided. A bare majority of Democrats (53%) say speech should be legal under any circumstances, while 47% say it should be legal “only under certain circumstances.”
Nearly one-third of Democratic voters (34%) say Americans have “too much freedom.” This compared to 14.6% of Republicans. Republicans were most likely to say Americans have too little freedom (46%), while only 22% of Democrats feel that way. Independents were in the middle in both categories.
Although majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree the news media should be able to report stories they believe are in the national interest, this consensus shifts when it comes to social media censorship. A majority of Democrats (52%) approve of the government censoring social media content under the rubric of protecting national security. Among Republicans and independents, this percentage is only one-third.
Poll respondents were read this statement: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Only 31% of Democratic voters “strongly agreed” with that sentiment, compared to 51% of Republicans.
Fully three-fourths of Democrats believe government has a responsibility to limit “hateful” social media posts, while Republicans are more split, with 50% believing the government has a responsibility to restrict hateful posts. (Independents, once again, are in the middle.)
Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to favor stifling the free speech rights of political extremists. Also, Republicans don’t vary by the group: Only about half of GOP voters favor censorship — whether asked about the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, or the Communist Party. [My emphases]

One encouraging finding: Republican opposition to censorship seems principle-based and content neutral (whereas Dems tend to favor censoring speakers based on the content and political valence of their message). 

   One of the most surprisingly things about the bizarre political shakeup of the last...uh...five to forty (?) years is the parties' switching valence on this issue. Back in the day, it was Dems championing free speech, and Pubs pushing for nutty things like anti-flag-burning legislation, prayer in schools, and mandatory Pledge of Allegiance...

Zeducation, SJW Cringe Compilation pt. 13: Z0MFG

Niel DeGrasse Tyson Bullshits About Transism

Wow, he is really terrible.

He has no idea what he's talking about, but that doesn't undermine his confidence in the least.

NPR on the Wokification of White Liberal Democrats

Surprisingly balanced.

One of the more telling facts about these (illiberal) "liberals" is that they are they only group that views their own racial group more negatively than other groups.

I don't see any reason to comment on that. It speaks for itself.

Overemotional neurotics divorced from reality.

Exactly the wrong people to choose the direction of the nation.

Knuckle-dragging conservatives would probably be less destructive. At least they don't choose political fantasy over reality as a matter of principle..

Anyone who thinks that Trump is a "white supremacist" is an idiot.

Ibram Kendi / BU Antiracism Center Produced Two Research Papers Since 2020

Good news, actually.

The less they do, the better.

He's not an actual scholar, and this isn't an actual area of scholarly research.

It' could be--and there is good scholarly work being done on the topic, e.g. by Zack Goldberg. But the good research doesn't point in politically correct directions.

Hanke, Herby and Jonung Contra The Royal Society's Positive Evaluation of Lockdowns (etc.)

Of course I'm not qualified even to kibbitz about this.

All I really have to offer is: (a) there should be a heavy burden of proof on any mandatory measures, especially lockdowns, (b) given the information available to and understandable by me, that burden has not been carried, and (c) it's fairly obvious that the establishment is biased in favor of such mandatory measures.

   I continue to think that the Great Barrington Declaration represents the most reasonable view I know of on such stuff.

Wingnuts Freak Out Over Fetterman "Body Double"

facepalm

   The right really does have a large share of credulous morons. It's astonishing how fast this nonsense caught on. And, man, some of these people go from zero to near-religious conviction in sixty seconds or less.

   And none of the obvious alternate hypotheses seem even to occur to them.

   One conservative commenter, trying to talk sense to the sheep stampede, pointed out that finding a double for Fetterman is even less likely than finding one for a more ordinary-looking person. No luck.

   None of this is even to mention the fact that that's not what "body double" means. A body double is someone who substitutes for an actress (or actor) in scenes where only the body is visible. Paradigmatically, it's a person with a nicer body, or who is more willing to be naked on camera. An actor's body double typically doesn't resemble that actor in the face.

   Anyway, the tsunami of crazy that has taken over the American left doesn't mean that the right is inherently any less crazy. The right just isn't currently gripped by the world-historical madness that's infected the left.

"An Out-of-Control GOP is the Party of Nonstop National Crisis"

LOL

I don't understand what the Freedom Caucus is up to. So I'm not defending them. I just don't understand what's going on, nor do I understand that consequences of a shutdown.

But:

(a) I don't understand how anyone can deny that spending has to be cut...and the Dems and much of the GOP have shown that they aren't going to do it.

And, more importantly:

(b) It is the height of absurdity for a Democrat to berate the Republicans for being "the party of nonstop national crisis.

The party of nonstop national crisis is the Democrats. Far and away. No contest. It's preposterous to suggest otherwise. Between creating real crises and fabricating fake ones, the left has immersed us in a seething vat of panic: Climate hysteria, the "racial reckoning," support for mass terroristic BLM/Antifa riots, depolicing, decarceration, the massive crime spike they caused, "systemic racism" hysteria, "white supremacy" hysteria, transgender hysteria and the massive push to brainwash school kids about race, sex, and "gender," the mass sexual mutilation of children, the entire Trump presidency and post-presidency, Russia Russia Russia, repeated impeachments, the politicization of the DoJ and tsunami of Trump prosecutions, JANUARY 6th THE INSURRECTION AND GREATEST ATTACK ON AMERICA OF ALL TIME, COVID, lockdowns, mandates mandates mandates, mis/dis/malinformation, the insane "all-of-society" scramble to suppress free speech...

   My own view is basically that you can't have a rational discussion with the left anymore. Progressives are so locked up in the echo chamber that they can't see what's going on. Or, rather: when they can, they won't. They get glimpses...but when they're immersed in "the narrative" fed to them by the media and everyone they know, it's easy to look away from the occasional glitches in the Matrix...

   The Dems are now the party of nonstop hysteria. Hysteria is now partially (a) something to which they are addicted, and (b) something they use as a weapon to bring about (one of their favorite words) "change." 

   And, of course, it's probably a good idea for them to go ahead and accuse the other side of what they're doing. A common sophistical tactic...

   None of this means that the Pubs are any great shakes. Even Republicans don't trust the Republicans. They are, undoubtedly, less insane than the contemporary Democrats. But you don't get credit when the bar is set that low.

"Watching Girls Die Online:" The Story of Pro-Anorexia Influencers

This is horrifying.

Beware the pictures...

Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Shiver me timbers, lads, International Talk Like A Pirate Day has overhauled us once again.

Arrrrrrr

Chris Rufo Refutes The Hell Out Of Zach Beauchamp

Rufo is pretty damn good, though I have some rather serious disagreements with him. Beauchamp is a tankie clown--a particularly idiotic useful idiot. (Vox in general is a joke, of course. I can't believe it's what Klein and Yglesias had in mind when they made it.) So nothing here surprises.

   Everything on the left is about defending the faith against the infidel...and the facts.

Bee: Biden Forgets to Put on Clothes; Media Praises His Majestic Outfit

Biden Forgets To Put On Clothes, Media Praises His Majestic Outfit https://t.co/R6nvHsdpP3

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 18, 2023

Makary and Hoeg: The Real Data Behind The New COVID Vaccines The White House Is Pushing

This is par for the course for the left these days. They ignore or spin or make up "data" to comport with their political positions...routinely. It's not entirely clear to me how the left became religiously committed to the vax--nor how many on the right became religiously committed against it--but here we are. 

   I just want the straight dope on the thing. And, of course, I know nothing about virology and nothing about vaccines. But I do know the left's M.O...and this all reeks of Lysenkoism. 

   We're in a position here similar to the position we're with respect to voter fraud in the 2020 general election: normally the best we can do is go with expert opinion and official reports. However, there's so much known crazy on the left these days, and so much (as they like to say) "disinformation," that we just can't be sure what to think. We don't have the expertise required to analyze the actual evidence...but we know what shenanigans look like...and so we simply can't have the kind of faith in reports about expert opinion that we used to have. 

   I will be surprised if the vax turns out to be positively bad for us all things considered. But I know that I can't trust the Official Line. So I don't know what to think. So I have to kind of just guess / go with my gut. So: no vax for me. I took the first one, but none since. I would also be very surprised to find out that voter fraud made the difference in the election. In fact, I think it didn't. However, there is so much reason for skepticism that I no longer have the kind of confidence in our elections that I used to have. We know that the elite/progressive-left axis of evil will outright lie most outrageously in order to sustain the status of their preferred so-called "narrative." We also know that they implemented mass changes to elections--like mass mail-in voting--that made fraud easier. We also know that they would do almost anything to stop Trump. So I don't see how anyone could be all that surprised if we were to discover that there was mass voter fraud. My current view is that it simply isn't rational to rule that out--even though, if I had to bet my house, I'd bet against mass/consequential fraud.

Woke Madness Update: University of AZ Teaches Nursing Students to Ask 3-Year-Olds About Their "Gender"

SCOOP: University of Arizona nursing school is teaching future nurses that 3-year-olds can know they are transgender. They’re also being taught to start questioning patients as young as 3 about their gender.

.@UAZNursing did not respond to our request for comment. pic.twitter.com/KlNtwsBWjO

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 6, 2023

Washington College (MD) Students Shout Down Princeton Professor Arguing That Truth-Seeking Is The Purpose Of Universities

Your progressive left, ladies and gentlemen.

If you want to know what the left wants for the nation, look to their agenda for universities.

And if there are any things the left hates, it's the idea of objective truth...and the dispassionate search therefor.

"Titania McGrath:" In Praise of Newspeak

Inclusive new terms really stick it to the menstruators.

Lisa McKenzie: Orwell Would Loathe Today's Left

There simply can be no doubt about that.

As we now say: the left thinks 1984 is an instruction manual.

I recently re-read George Orwell’s 1941 essay, The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius, and I was taken by his description of the bourgeois, left-leaning intelligentsia of his time. They live in the shallowness of ideas, he writes, severed from the common culture and life experiences of the working class.

Leftist intellectuals weave a web of newspeak and shriek like the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers at anyone who dares to question their shibboleths. And the rest of the left goes along with them, partially out of fear of being shrieked at themselves, partially because No enemies to the left...

Mearsheimer and Rosato: Russian Invasion Was a Rational Act

link

I don't now anything about international relations.

So I try to only draw tentative conclusions about all this.

I'm inclined to think that we screwed up by making it reasonable for Russia to invade.

Though, once T-72s started rolling across the border, I think we were all obligated to side with Ukraine.

But more and more I come to appreciate what a dicey game it is to try to understand complex issues with Washington-Post-level understanding. (And this isn't part of my anti-Post jihad. I mean: that level of understanding even when the Post was good.) Even before news organizations like the Times and the Post lost their minds, you just can't understand much about such things with zero expertise and zero practical experience.

At any rate, I'm torn between wanting Ukraine to kick their asses and just wanting the killing to stop. And all the positions in between, if that makes any sense.

In the background is my view that the ChiComs are the biggest threat to the U.S. and world peace. I wish there had been some way for us to hammer out a modus vivendi with Russia. Then we could have focused fully on China. Perhaps even with Russia somewhat on our side.

Turley: Five Facts that Compel Biden Impeachment Inquiry

link

New progressive talking point drops:  THERE'S NO EVIDENCE AT ALL!!!

Because the evidence always magically conforms itself to progressive preferences.

There's more reason to investigate Biden than there was for the first Trump impeachment...In which there really wasn't an investigation anyway... And in which, for those of you keeping score, Trump was right...and right about the very thing at issue now: Biden influence-peddling and using U.S. policy as a tool for personal and familial enrichment.

Look, I was a skeptic about all this--and I've posted about that many times. But at this point (a) an investigation is obligatory and (b) actually, I now kinda think Biden's more likely guilty than not. 

I don't mean legally. I'm no lawyer and know nothing of the relevant law. What I mean is: by this point it's pretty damn clear there were shenanigans going on. 

I used to say: who'd be dumb enough to try to pull something like this as VP? Senate, maybe. Veep? You'd have to be a complete moron to think you could get away with such a thing. Then I remembered two things:

(a) We're talking about Joe Biden here.

(b) The news media can be relied upon not only to not investigate, but to actively cover it up.

So, well, partially for good reasons and partially because he's just not smart, I actually can see Biden doing this.

David French is a [Jackass]

Jesus Christ that guy's an idiot.

He wasn't always, it seems to me.

John Murawski: Here's the Climate Dissent You're Not Hearing About (Because It's Muffled by Society's Top Institutions)

Just about the best short statement I've seen of the position I currently incline toward.

Impeach Lujan: NM Governor Violates 2nd Amendment

idiot

Musk on the Ukrainian Request to Activate Starlink in Crimea

MASSIVE: In case you missed this today, Elon Musk on the request from Ukrainian Government to turn on Starlink in Crimea, says they just called in the middle of the night & gave orders, says Ukraine not in charge of US people or companies. WATCHpic.twitter.com/2jVfjZjamc

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) September 13, 2023

John Kennedy Reads From Two of the Books in Your Kids' School Libraries [Exxxtremely NSFW]

And that facepalmerific witness...props to Kennedy for keeping a straight (wait...is that hate speech?) face...

The Left's Lies About Musk, Starlink, and Ukraine

Contrary to what the MSM and social media were blaring for the last week or so, Musk did not "turn off" Starlink, thwarting a Ukranian naval drone attack.

Unlike the MSM, Ars Technica has enough integrity to correct its original account:

Update on September 9: Author Walter Isaacson now says his book's claim that Elon Musk disabled Starlink to thwart a Ukrainian submarine drone attack is incorrect. Musk did refuse to enable Starlink in the area near Crimea, however.

"To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not," Isaacson wrote. "They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war."

I'll grant that they seem to have gotten the story from Musk's biographer...but it was never plausible. Did they bother to confirm the story? They did not. The lefties really, really, really hate Musk. And that hatred is as fact-free as the rest of their worldview. 

The M1A3 Abrams

link

McCarthy: Biden Impeachment Inquiry Is A Go

This is the right thing to do, obviously.

But I think there also ought to be an eye-for-an-eye element to this.

Biden Freezes Alaskan Oil Drilling; Interior Secretary Haaland Appeals to "Indigenous Knowledge"

As I've said before, the insanity of the PC left is largely grounded in its radical and relativistic epistemology and metaphysics. They have a grab bag of crazy epistemic theories they appeal to as need: skepticism, relativism, "social constructionism," introspective infallibilism, standpoint epistemology, appeals to "lived experience".

   Of course they don't even mean indigenous knowledge... What they mean is "indigenous" belief. Science will take knowledge wherever it can find it. Undoubtedly less-advanced cultures know some things we don't And we hoover up those epistemic tidbits. But they seldom know things relevant to science that we don't already know. What the left really wants is to be able to (a) piously declare their reverence for "indigenous" groups and their beliefs, and (b) appeal those beliefs as convenient. 

   I can virtually guarantee you that whatever they actually appealed to here was some spiritual hoo-ha--indigenous bullshit--not "indigenous "knowledge"."

Hirsanyi: Tucker's Interview With Obama "Accuser" Follows Media's Standard for Covering Sex Scandals

Basically yes, with caveats.

Basically also: I'm done giving the PMSM propaganda machine any benefit of doubt.

   So yes, apparently Obama, in his youth, wrote to a gf about homosexual fantasies. I don't care. Even aside from the fact that posing as bisexual etc. goes in and out of fashion on the left. Private sexual matters. Nothing even plausibly wrong with being non-straight. I don't care. At all.

   Tucker has done some good work...off and on. He's also flipped his shit about UFOs, JFK, and now this.

   This dude who has alleged that he had sex with Obama is bullshit. Why on Earth would anyone believe any such accusation anymore? Accusations are cheap. They mean nothing. They should all be assumed false unless/until proven true. Even aside from this dude being "...the least trustworthy human [some dude] has ever laid eyes on."

   Is there a Dem-Pub double standard?

   That's a ridiculous question.

   There's a Dem-Pub double standard about absolutely everything that matters in the PMSM.

   Hirsanyi is basically right. 

   Kavanaugh's accusers were all liars, and proven to be--or as proven as it's possible to get.

   The pee tape was a Dem dirty trick against Trump: a scurrilous lie.

   The E. Jean Carroll accusations against Trump are almost certainly false--and the law had to be changed in order to even get them to court.

   The MSM is despicable and loathsome.

   Also, of course: false accusations are now just a routine weapon of the left. They automatically accuse anyone who opposes them of being racist* (i.e.: racist or some other rough equivalent from the Standard Litany: misogynist, homophobic, blah blah blah). And false accusations of sexual assault are just one other type of false accusation to be deployed when beneficial. High-profile conservative men now basically go through life walking targets for such accusations. Leftist women can gain fame and in some cases fortune and the admiration of their leftist peers by accusing some prominent conservative of sexual assault. Even when their accusations are proven false, they will likely pay no price.

   Stop. Falling. For. It.

   How naive do you have to be to still be falling for it??

   We could point out that the accusations against Pubs above all either involved crimes or matters pertinent to national security...so at least there's some excuse for attending to them--but no excuse in the Obama case...

   But, again: I'm not interested in expending an ounce of energy being fair to the Dem/MSM propaganda machine anymore.

   Anyway.

Progressives Getting Mugged...and Otherwise Getting Tastes of Their Own Policies...

Vice Chairwoman of MN DFL allegedly beaten and carjacked; goes from Defund the police [clap clap clap] to "Catch them...HOLD THEM IN CUSTODY AND PROSECUTE THEM" in record time.

Eric Adams: influx of illegal aliens will "destroy New York City."

Scott Alexander's Presidential Platform

God bless Scott Alexander, and God bless the United States of America.

From the Ministry of Convenient Timing: "We Need to Set Ground Rules for Presidential Impeachments"

You really can't make these people up.

Shellenberger: The Green Movement is a Disinformation Campaign / Climate Change is Not the End of the World

I agree, FWIW.

James D. Zirin: "Why Trump Must Drop Out"

I tend to think it would be better for the nation were Trump to drop out. I read this hoping to find a good statement of the anti-Trump case. In actual fact, it kind of made me less sympathetic to that position.

   The main points seem to be:

• Trump has been indicted, so he should drop out.
• If Trump drops out, Biden is more likely to drop out, and then Democrats are likely to win.
• Republicans think that the indictments are politically-motivated har har.

Responding in reverse order:

• At least almost all of the indictments are politically-motivated.
• The Democrats winning is the worst outcome.
• An indictment is not a conviction.

What we have here is a man--whatever his faults--who came out of nowhere (politically speaking) to tell us that the establishment is partisan and corrupt and will do whatever it takes to prevent us from taking back the government and the nation. Events since 2016 have, I believe, shown that he is substantially right. Among those events: the liberal/progressive/leftist elites are now using lawfare--one of their favorite despicable tactics--in a blatantly political attempt to imprison the man who blew the whistle on them. Imprison him for the rest of his life, in point of fact. Or, failing that, to misuse the 14th Amendment to prevent him from running for President again.

   I believe Trump to be personally unfit for the office. On the other hand, I tend to believe that he has been substantially right about some of the most important issues facing the nation. Elites on the insane PC/progressive left now seem to be in an alliance with the liberal establishment. They are used to getting their way. They have shown--in Russiagate, Laptopgate, cancel culture, and many other ways--that they are willing to do virtually anything to maintain control of the government and the culture. In short: they have shown and continue to show that Trump is substantially right.

   Now they are misusing the DoJ and the courts to undermine democracy and deny Americans the right to vote on the question of whether he should be President again.

   Crucially: the appalling and despicable political indictments are not merely making Trump more popular among conservatives--they are confirming his theory of an antidemocratic, out-of-control elite establishment. They are not merely making him irrationally popular--they are showing that he is right.

   I don't want President Trump again. But it's becoming more and more difficult to ignore the fact that the alternative is worse.

   And: it's not just Trump. The same kinds of tactics are being used against ordinary Americans who cross the liberal/progressive elites--we are declared racists, white supremacists, insurrectionists, terrorists...

The sad and horrifying fact of the matter is that this goddamned meme is right:

Sally Pipes: Against Single-Payer Health Care

A short piece against single-payer health care.

I don't understand this issue. But all policy is about tradeoffs. People who sing the praises of single-payer in my presence seem not to understand that.

Turley: Dems' TDS and New Enthusiasm for Censorship

Turley sees a connection, but I think they're separate phenomena. The extreme left has always opposed free speech. Now that the Dems have gone that route, it simply meshes well with their TDS.

New CERES Study Throws Cold Water On "Global Boiling:" Warming Findings Could Be Explained by Solar Activity and Measurement Errors

link

   One common argument among apocalyps skeptics is that estimates like those of IPCC underestimate the influence of the, y'know, Sun...

   Another common argument is that too many temperature measuring stations are located in cities, ergo are returning high readings because cities are heat islands. (Also, not mentioned here: many such stations used to be rural, but have, over time, become urban.)

   A major point: regardless of the ultimate fate of these alternate explanations: "The Science"(tm) is not settled. The establishment is pretending there is less certainty in play than there actually is.

The Looming Threat of Climate Lockdowns

Andy Kessler.

Ignoring some details:

If the progressive left advocates climate lockdowns, they must be stripped of power (via legal methods and elections, of course) immediately and mercilessly.

If they don't advocate climate lockdowns, this will show that they don't really believe the climate apocalypticism they've been peddling. And so we should all vote them out of office forever.

[To be clear: this is my argument, not Kessler's.]

Tucker Carlson's Allegations About Obama's Sexual Past

I'm not going to link to this bullshit.

They're old allegations.

I doubt that they're true, but don't give a damn whether they're true or false.

People's private lives should remain private, and their sexual preferences--contrary, incidentally, to what the progressive left seems to think--ought to remain private. (Unless, of course, they themselves have some reason to disclose them).

Accusations are the easiest thing in the world.

We've seen false accusations of sexual harassment and assault pour out of the left over the past decade--including clearly false accusations against Kavanaugh, and E. Jean Carroll's very probably false accusations against Trump.

It's dumb to have to stress this, but: I just do not give a damn about what consenting adults do sexually in private. This was, I'd say, one of the great insights of liberalism: there's a private sphere, and the public shouldn't even want to look inside it.

Progressives and far-conservatives disagree. They agree that "the personal is political"...one of the most loathsome political slogans I know of.

Anyway.

Greenwald: Wikipedia Co-Founder Sanger Calls It "The Most Biased Encyclopedia In History"

Either Greenwald or Sanger mentions that the title of the Wikipedia article on the Biden-Ukraine matter is "Biden-Ukraine Conspiracy Theory"...and its first sentence is:

The Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory is a series of false allegations that Joe Biden, while he was vice president of the United States, withheld a loan guarantee to pressure Ukraine into firing prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to prevent a corruption investigation of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the Burisma board.

The mind, it reels...

   I just noticed today that there is no entry on Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria...but only on "The Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria Controversy"

This is, of course, not how one writes an encyclopedia. Even the title of the ESP entry is "ESP." Not "ESP Pseudoscience" or "The ESP Myth," or "The ESP Controversy"...

   At any point where Wikipedia touches on anything of interest to the left, it is a disaster.

Wikepedia's Entry On Wikipedia Bias Does Not Mention Leftist Bias

You almost couldn't make this up.

Lott: FBI Data Underestimates Concealed-Carry Stopping Mass Shootings

link

CO Kid Wins Gadsden Flag Dust-Up

I can forgive people for not knowing the history of the Gadsden flag off the top of their heads...

But not for not even bothering to Google it...

VDH: From One Unapologetic Media Hoax To The Next

That's about the size of it.