Monday, September 25, 2023
There Are Standards Other Than "Actual Criminal Conviction"
Lately, we've seen a lot of defenses of powerful people which assert that they deserve "due process," that "we" can't pass judgment on anyone until a jury has. Of course this is not how anything works. I don't have the power to put someone in jail - that's the State - but I can certainly decide if you're a corrupt asshole and react accordingly.
I don't know if the people making these arguments are that stupid or are pretending to be. The eternal mystery.
Anyway, it is possible that the DOJ has manufactured a work of complete fiction about Senator Menendez, but public consequences are not actually limited to what happens when a jury decides his actions are actually illegal. We all know this because people are encouraged to resign from public office regularly due to their likely legal but shameful actions.
That the Supreme Court thinks bribery (especially going into their pockets) is blessed by the constitution does not mean we all have to agree, even if it prevents the State from putting someone away.
I don't know if the people making these arguments are that stupid or are pretending to be. The eternal mystery.
Anyway, it is possible that the DOJ has manufactured a work of complete fiction about Senator Menendez, but public consequences are not actually limited to what happens when a jury decides his actions are actually illegal. We all know this because people are encouraged to resign from public office regularly due to their likely legal but shameful actions.
That the Supreme Court thinks bribery (especially going into their pockets) is blessed by the constitution does not mean we all have to agree, even if it prevents the State from putting someone away.
OH YOU WANT US TO BE LEFT-WING ADVOCATES, DO YOU???
I've seen (and made) the same basic criticisms of journalism-as-practiced, with some variations to fit the times and details of the moment, for over two decades now, and that is almost always the response from journalists.
*I* am bored and tired of it, increasingly resorting to just pointing and saying, "this is more shit, obviously." I don't believe most of them are that stupid, which makes them dishonest, which makes them not worth engaging with at all.
You know - the basic stuff about how objectivity is a conceit, that choices of what and how to cover things are choices which reflect inevitable biases, that such biases are heavily shaped by the socioeconomic background of the journalist themselves, that pretending not to have opinions is not the same as not having them, that their concept of the political center is not supported by the very polls they rely on to justify other things.
That the response in the title is to statements like, "perhaps it's important to have more people of color on staff," betrays a lot, too.
That the response in the title is to statements like, "perhaps it's important to have more people of color on staff," betrays a lot, too.
Then conservatives scream LEFT-WING BIAS and the same journalists rush to apologize and promise to do better by threatening the lives of more trans people.
*I* am bored and tired of it, increasingly resorting to just pointing and saying, "this is more shit, obviously." I don't believe most of them are that stupid, which makes them dishonest, which makes them not worth engaging with at all.
Mash Note
In that fucking newspaper, Jeremy Peters writes a mash note to Dana Perino which contains not a single word of mild criticism from anyone.
This is the kind of objective journalism that liberals, who demand LEFT-WING ADVOCACY JOURNALISM, criticize because they don't understand how sacred neutrality is.
Sources quoted/cited for the story:
This is the kind of objective journalism that liberals, who demand LEFT-WING ADVOCACY JOURNALISM, criticize because they don't understand how sacred neutrality is.
Sources quoted/cited for the story:
Perino herself.
"Current and former colleagues"
"Tony Fratto, a former Bush administration official who worked with Ms. Perino in the White House and remains a friend."
"Tony Fratto, a former Bush administration official who worked with Ms. Perino in the White House and remains a friend."
"Friends and former colleagues"
Ed Gillespie
Greg Gutfeld
Condoleeza Rice
old quote from George Bush
"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."
So she consulted her best source. "I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.' "
Perino is my age.
Strike
Ain't over until it's signed, but sounds promising.
They do not, in fact, know what they're doing.
The major film and television studios and striking writers reached a tentative agreement on Sunday after days of marathon negotiating sessions, the Writers Guild of America said Sunday evening, paving a path forward to end the historic work stoppage that has frozen production and paralyzed much of Hollywood.I've seen some chatter about how this was just some diabolical plan by the studios to save a bit of money by doing nothing, and I would like to suggest that the ridiculous failsons in charge of everything should generally not be given this much credit.
They do not, in fact, know what they're doing.
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Shuffling
I'm sure there's an explanation - perhaps one I could google if google still worked that way - but why is it that slow walking, as one does, say, in a grocery store or walking through a museum, is so much more tiring than actually taking a stroll?
I run a reasonable amount, walk a lot, and hike regularly, but just shuffling through a shopping mall makes me absolutely exhausted in a way those other activities don't.
I run a reasonable amount, walk a lot, and hike regularly, but just shuffling through a shopping mall makes me absolutely exhausted in a way those other activities don't.
They Don't Mean Any Of It
We had decade of "trying to achieve liberal goals through conservative means." You know, like Jack Kemp and Newt Gingrich were going to end urban poverty, but The Conservative Way (tax cuts). Liberals got suckered (or agreed with) that, and now I fear we're having a round of liberals getting sucked into attempting to convince conservatives that THEIR goals can be achieved by liberal means. Like this well-meaning Alyssa Rosenberg piece:
Liberals don’t like talking up marriage. Here’s how they can start.First - you never have to start these pieces with "conservatives have a point, liberals are bad about this." Conservatives don't have a point! They don't care about marriage or perceived benefits of marriage! They don't care about anything even tangential to what liberals care about! When conservatives say, "marriage is good," the words don't mean what you think they mean!
They care about forcing people into the conservative patriarchal "success sequence" and then throwing them to the wolves for their own failures if they don't! Don't live by conservative rules? On to the ice floe for you! And that includes getting divorced!
Generally, the problem people face is precarity and there are policy ways of reducing precarity that don't involve trying to nudge them into cohabitation arrangements. We shouldn't encourage people to get married, we should make life fucking easier so they can choose long term partners if they wish.
There's no benefit to be gained from starting from the conservative obsession du jour. Ever.
Other People Are Doing It Wrong
The early blogosphere days were dominated by a lot of glibertarians, and at the time I realized suburban Dad law professor glibertarian philosophy was, basically, "everyone should be free to be just like me, and people just like me (but not otherwise) should be completely free." Bunch of boring old dudes who thought they were big rebels because they liked bourbon.
As I've aged and seen my peers evolve in various ways, I've realized a pretty good signal for whether people are fundamentally conservative (independent of how they vote or whether they have some good policy views) is how much they get annoyed by other people simply being different.
I don't think "people all get more conservative as they get older" is true, but people who, at age 30, had early signs of being old fogies tend to become moreso.
They tend to blame people for their failures and greatly resent the successes of anybody not like them.
As I've aged and seen my peers evolve in various ways, I've realized a pretty good signal for whether people are fundamentally conservative (independent of how they vote or whether they have some good policy views) is how much they get annoyed by other people simply being different.
I don't think "people all get more conservative as they get older" is true, but people who, at age 30, had early signs of being old fogies tend to become moreso.
They tend to blame people for their failures and greatly resent the successes of anybody not like them.
WOLVERINES!
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Two Weeks Of Wine
Wonder if they'll see any of it.
Rudy Giuliani has failed to pay more than $132,000 in sanctions he faces for failing to respond to parts of a lawsuit from two Georgia election workers, according to a court filing.
In addition, US District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday ordered the former New York mayor to pay an additional $104,000 to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother and daughter he defamed, for additional legal fees they’ve incurred because of his failure to respond to parts of their lawsuit.
Official Disapproval
For decades The Discourse sold the notion that making abortion illegal somehow wouldn't involve actually putting anyone in prison. Certainly not the mothers, and probably not the doctors. Maybe bad guys doing unsanitary abortions which we were also assured wouldn't happen.
It never made any sense, but "nothing actually has consequences unless it has consequences for me" is a standard centrist dipshit thing. A cult of solipsists.
It never made any sense, but "nothing actually has consequences unless it has consequences for me" is a standard centrist dipshit thing. A cult of solipsists.
On Friday, a Nebraska judge sentenced Jessica Burgess to two years in prison after she bought abortion pills for her teen daughter and helped bury the fetal remains in early 2022, according to reporters from Norfolk Daily News and Courthouse News. The sentencing went forward without a court-ordered psychological evaluation that the judge canceled for lack of funding last week. Burgess had faced up to five years in prison after she accepted a plea deal. With good behavior, she could be released in a year.
True, Elon Musk Is A Serious Problem
Honestly just shocked that Victor Davis Hanson is still with us.
Every now and then one of these freaks we use to mock in the old blog days reappears.
Apparently he's only 70! Thought he was 70 twenty years ago!
Every now and then one of these freaks we use to mock in the old blog days reappears.
Apparently he's only 70! Thought he was 70 twenty years ago!
Go Dark Brandon
How dare he take sides, even symbolically, ask a bunch of people who get paid high 6 figures to regularly meet with White House staff to communicate and implement their corporate desires.
Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 22, 2023
It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs.
Friday, September 22, 2023
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