Taibbi: Republicans Betray Causes They Supported Ten Minutes Ago

"The Great Bipartisan Constitution-shredding project of 2024 continues at breakneck speed." (audio)

   Another thing conservatives are largely right about: the Dem/Pub divide doesn't matter so much. It's really America vs. the Uniparty.

   In a similar vein: I read that creationism is making a comeback. The right are amateurs at Lysenkoism compared to the PC left. But they're far from immune.

The Blue Team Insists That The Absurd Bragg Case Against Trump Is A Slam Dunk

link

The Blue Team echo chamber is strong:

The resistance commentariat insists that Trump is going down. Republican Never Trump lawyer George Conway writes in The Atlantic that Bragg’s case is “kind of perfect.” MSNBC host and former Republican operative Nicole Wallace assures viewers that Trump’s lawyers “bombed” their cross-examination of Cohen. Former Justice Department official Andrew Weissman praises Bragg’s “crackerjack team of experienced attorneys” for building an airtight case.
But missing from this wall-to-wall coverage is any mention of the underlying crime that Trump falsified business records to advance his campaign. And that is a fatal flaw in the case, because New York law stipulates that falsifying business records can only be charged as felonies (as Bragg has done) if it’s done to further another crime. Trump has not been charged with another crime, though Bragg has floated the theory that the business records were falsified to deprive 2016 voters of information about his tryst with Daniels.
There are other flaws as well. Robert Costello, one of the lawyers who worked closely with Cohen at the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Southern District of New York, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that his old office declined to prosecute the hush money case against Trump because Cohen was “totally unworthy of belief.”

   As many outside the echo chamber have noted, Bragg might well get a conviction with an NYC jury, but the case will never withstand appeal.

   But the goal is to torpedo Trump's campaign--and it might well do that.

   Unfortunately, also:

Trump already has proven that he will not recognize the results of elections that he doesn’t win. Bragg’s prosecution gives Trump and his supporters a ready-made excuse not to accept the results of the 2024 election should President Joe Biden prevail.

   The wingnut echo chamber is also strong--though not as prominent and well-organized. Comments on various conservative discussion forums vary by the nature of the site, but on some prominent ones (eg Instapundit) it is an article of unshakeable faith that the election was stolen via outright fraud (e.g. printing fake ballots). Especially if Trump remains ahead in the polls, if he loses, they will explode. Many such folk insist that it has been proven that Biden "really" lost the election.

   It's especially nutty given the extensive evidence that the Dems did cheat--not by changing vote totals and the like, but by election rigging: e.g. pumping money illicitly into government GOTV efforts exclusively in Democratic districts (Zuck Bucks and the like), indiscriminate mailing of absentee ballots, illegally ignoring laws about checking and accepting such ballots, courts rewriting election laws, etc. 

   Trump's attorneys told him that he had to fight these things before the election. But he didn't because he is a lazy dumbass. Instead he let them slide and then shrieked about fake ballots and whatnot after he lost.

   And then there are some prominent cases of refusal to investigate obviously fishy cases as in Fulton County, GA, and Milwaukee... In GA we pretty much know that the rules were not followed. These cases won't add up to enough to swing the election...still, they ought to be investigated, not concealed.

   Anyway.

Things I Was Wrong About

An at-least partial (non-chronological) list of somewhat recent dumbassery on my part:

[1] Putin is not going to invade Ukraine.

[2] Trump is not going to try to stay in power if he loses.*

[3] SCOTUS is not going to overturn Roe v. Wade.

[4] Hubert is not ready to Carolina's head coach.

[5] Trump is not going to win.

[6] Trump is going to be a terrible President.

[7] The Democrats are not going to capitulate to the radical pomo prog left.

[8] Rachel Dolezal is going to be the end of transgender madness.

[9] Same-sex marriage is not going to be legal in my lifetime.

[10] If political correctness ever returns, so will New-Agey woo.

  

*It's not clear [2] counts, as what he did wasn't what the left was claiming, nor what I was denying. He didn't launch a coup, or just refuse to leave, he brough what was, IMO, an at-least minimally plausible legal challenge (the Eastman argument). But still.

   Thinking [1] was idiotic. I didn't know anything about what was going on.

    Also, I changed my mind about [3] after ACB replaced RBG. But, still, before that I just didn't think it would ever happen.

   I was really fond of [10], which I made like 35 years ago. There's been a minor return to woo--e.g. an Astrology fad. UFOs doing really count, as that's sci-fi dumbassery, not New-Age woo (NAW). I think you can reasonably suggest--and I think I have--that social constructionism, especially in conjunction with transanity, has incorporated NAW into political correctness. The idea of a secret gendersoul that only you can access via introspection is pretty wooey...but it's more on the side of pseudoscience than NAW.

   I got some stuff right, too, e.g.:

[A] The Democrat's position on illegal immigration is moving toward open borders. (ca. 2011?)

[B] Russiagate is obviously nonsense.

[C] Biden will be a terrible President.

   Pretty short list...but I could be forgetting something... [B] isn't a predication. But it became obvious by late 2017, when I was still on the Blue Team, and no one I knew (except the one extremely conservative conservative who basically redpilled me) thought it was all true. I still had comments on this blog at the time,* and some commenters claimed that Trump being a "Russian asset" was the only explanation of the facts. That was actually a somewhat common Blue Team refrain at the time. Anyway: not a predication. Just an inference from obvious evidence that no other Dems I knew at the time would admit.

   [C] was obvious, and I argued for it repeatedly. Granted, I underestimated how bad he would be. But I said he'd be bad. Also: he's bad largely for the reason I said he'd be bad: he can't/won't stand up to the crazy leftist wing of his party.

   [B] is obvious by now. But, hey, I say it was obvious then.

Lysenkoism Watch: "From Caregivers to Social Reformers," or: the Leftist Corruption of American Medicine

Utter madness...but then, we can say that about so many things now that the characterization loses its bite...

Another instance of the left's totalitarianism--nothing is safe from its crazy ideas. It's not enough that they be promoted at universities. It attempts to inject them into everything.

Blame Canada: Taibbi on Trudeau's Orwellian "Hate Speech" / Pre-Crime Bill

Just fucking insane.

Fulton County Violated GA Election Laws, e.g. Scanned 3k Ballots Twice; Did Not Change Outcome

Pretty much what I guessed.

Again, the really significant violations were the ones e.g. in PA that involved illegal re-writing of election law, e.g. by courts.

I've never really doubted that Biden won--on that score, seems to me that the righties have just lost their damn minds. 

OTHO, the lefty claim that 2020 was the "fairest and most secure election ever" is laughably absurd.

Matthew Yglesias: "Am I an Out-of-Touch Elitist?"

You seem like an alright guy, man...but the answer to this question is painfully obvious.

Princeton Douchebags on Hunger Strike: "Demand" Amesty for Students Who Occupied Building, Discussions of Divestment from Israel

facepalm

Yes, but see, you have nothing to negotiate...sorry..."demand"...with. You being hungry doesn't matter to me at all...and it shouldn't matter to Princeton. 

So fuck off is what I'm saying.

You know, the left has an almost-unique talent for taking causes and making them distinctly unsympathetic... I'm not inherently uninterested in the fate of civilians in Palestine. Though Israel has just cause for going to war, and is, so far as I can tell, conducting the war in a just manner...and though the majority of Palestinians support Hamas and the 10/7 attack...still, I'm not unconcerned about children and other innocent civilians...

But the left is just such a bunch of douchebags that I have to fight the urge to be too opposed to whatever they support.

And I really, honestly, could not care any less about a bunch of rich, privileged (in the normal, ordinary sense of 'privileged'), leftist Ivy League douchebags (allegedly) being hungry because they (allegedly) refuse to eat...

Turley: The Prosecution Is The Punishment

Judge Merchan allows Alvin Bragg to elicit testimony from Stormy Daniels solely in order to embarrass Trump. Later Merchan said that the jury may have to ignore much of what was said...

   The point is to destroy Trump by any means necessary. It's a "whole-of-government" approach!

Trump: shouldn't be President.

Contemporary Democrats: absolutely, positively cannot be allowed to get anywhere near power.

That Time Of Year, or: No, I Will Not Raise Your Grade Just Because You Asked Me To

A few rules and tips for end-of-the-semester grade-grubbing:

1. Do not engage in end-of-semester grade-grubbing.

2. If you ARE going to ask me to raise your grade, do so in person, not via email.

3. Don't ask me to raise your grade.

4. No, there is nothing you can do, now that the final exam is over, to raise your grade. In fact, this is the only time in the past four months such that there is absolutely nothing you can do to raise your grade. (And the only thing you can ever do to raise your grade is: do better on the assignments. And the means to that end is: work harder on the assignments.) 

5. No, there is no extra credit in this class. The syllabus makes it clear how grades are determined, and does not list "extra credit." In fact, it explicitly says there is no extra credit in this class. If there were extra credit, that would not be an option for any student after completion of the final exam. And certainly not after final grades are posted. And doubly certainly not after they are submitted to the Registrar and reported to you. (And: as a colleague once put it: asking for extra credit is asking to receive a 'B' for doing additional 'C'-quality work.)

6. No, telling me that you attended class a lot doesn't change anything. Attendance is at your discretion. Your reward for attending class is understanding of the material...and the higher grades that understanding brings.

7. No, I will not "round up" your grade. But, good news: I also won't round it down.* You've got to draw the line somewhere. So you might as well draw it where it belongs. You can't just give points to select students--especially not just because they asked. And raising everyone's grade by some amount--no matter what amount--will almost always raise another student's grade to be near the cut-off. So down this road lies everyone getting an 'A'

8. Grade-grubbing is really bad form. It makes me think less of those who do it. Though, of course, those who do it probably don't care.

9. blah blah blah

* I actually had a student once send me a terse email at the end of the semester asserting that I had miscalculated her grade. Alarmed, I checked, but it was, unsurprisingly, correct. I informed her of this, and she responded that the error she had in mind was: not rounding up (by over half a percentage point, incidentally). My response was neither happy nor friendly.

LA TImes: "Of Course The Death Penalty Is Racist; It Would Be Wrong Even If It Weren't

Unintentionally hilarious; also probably bullshit.

   Not what you'd call an inherently funny topic...but it's really the "of course it's racist!" bit. I mean...of course it's racist...everything's racist!...according to the almost-literally-insane postpostmodern worldview of the progressive "elites" who run the show at places like the LA Times... They're so locked into their cultish, quasi-religious collective delusions that they can confidently proclaim things like this with abject, dogmatic certainty. Immunity to evidence could almost be a defining feature of progressivism. Well, if the crackpot right weren't also afflicted...

   Though, I'll admit, it is somewhat heartening to see progressives express the opinion that, just maybe, there ought to be limits on government power... (Though both extremes are loony and inconsistent about that.)

   Anyway: journalists aren't journalists anymore. They're activists. They don't, in this post, consider a single argument against their view. And, look: I'm no expert on this. But I've read enough to know that these arguments are very likely bullshit. People who actually know about this topic, and who aren't in the cult, can take apart most such arguments. My prediction about this essay: they're relying on contentious numbers and, especially, a broad and malleable conception of "same type of crime." Blacks and Hispanics commit more violent crimes, on average, than whites and Asians. It would be no surprise if they committed more crimes at the very end of the curve where the death penalty becomes an option. Pervasive ("systematic") racism is an axiom of the left, not a conclusion. It almost always turns out to be bullshit. Their claims about racism in policing have almost all turned out to be bullshit--though with some unclear cases, as I understand it, as with application of stop-and-frisk. Most cases against the death penalty are bullshit, too. Organizations like the Innocence Project are just packed with liars and activists. They are religiously devoted to both the proposition that everything is racist and that the death penalty is bad. 

   So, by a kind of half-assed induction, I conclude that there's no reason to even investigate the claims of this screed. If somebody I trust on the subject, like Peter Moskos or Sean Fitzgerald (Actual Justice Warrior) or Nate the Lawyer were to discuss this topic, I'd certainly take what they said seriously, and likely accept their conclusions unless I saw some overt error. But the LA Times is a joke--at least when it comes to anything that involves politically contentious or culture-war-y issues.

   So this is the kind of thing I either don't even read, or (as this time) skim, forget, and move on.

The Left In Yet Another Nutshell: Yo, Islam, Hope You Like Gays Edition

They're your problem now, Islam:

Trans TikToker contemplates converting to Islam and is 'super excited' to learn 'Allah is beyond gender' 🤡 pic.twitter.com/VvkNzy9Crc

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 5, 2024

Famously Pessimistic Trump Pollster Feels Good About Their Chances

Uh...yay?

November 6th is going to be a somber day no matter what.

Newspeak Watch: "Latine"

LOoOoOoOOoOOooL

As I've said many times: the contemporary left is a very literary/linguistic movement. And ever since the paleo-PC days of yore, they've loved nothing more than making up new pseudo-technical Newspeak. "Latinx" was always hilariously characteristic of this postpostmodern left. Prior to that was 'Latino/a' (or a/o?). Others have pointed out that 'Latin' would be the natural, non-stupid/goofy, non-neologistic term to use...if you gotta use such a term. But that is obviously no good at all! That's, like, WHITE SUPREMACY, man... Or some shit. Sometimes they just press an already-existing word or phrase into service--as they did, say, with 'white supremacy'--or, before that, 'partner'... But that's def. second best! Best is a really, really stupid-sounding new term. Probably my favorite of the past few years was 'misogynoir'...a portmanteau of different components guaranteed to send a frisson of political excitement down the spine of any popomo lefty... Not that you can't puzzle it out, but, of course, it means something like: aversion to black women. Oh, damn, I almost forgot 'transmisogynoir'...an even stupider and more hilarious term...

   At least "Latine" doesn't build in absurd presuppositions like "trans woman" or "assigned female at birth." It's merely irritating. So I guess we can be grateful for that...

IVF and Pre-Natal Sex-Selection: So Much for "Sex is Assigned at Birth"

Yeesh.

So if sex is "assigned" at birth, what are these parents and procedures selecting for?

GW Anti-Israel Protesters Chant "Guillotine," A Reference To Cutting Off The Heads Of Non-Anti-Israel Administrators and Faculty

This seems to me to be basically like the retarded shenanigans of the Capitol Rioters with their toy gallows. That is: not genuine threats...but stupid. (Of course some on the left have tried to claim that, not only was the toy gallows at the Capitol a real threat, it was a real instrument of execution...but that's even dumber.)

   It does, I'd say, tell us something about their ideals, though. Many have pointed out that the neo-PCs are reminiscent of the Jacobins...I guess these protesters, at least, agree... They don't seem to think that's a bad thing...