Dancing with the devil

Here’s Ben Sasse:

More than 90 federal and state judges have rejected challenges to the November vote, notably finding allegations of fraud to be without merit.

Sasse wrote in his letter that his GOP colleagues realize what is happening but fear crossing the president and his supporters.

“When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one,” he said. “Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will ‘look’ to President Trump’s most ardent supporters. . . .

“Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage,” Sasse said. “But they’re wrong — and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”

There are very few “adults” left in the congressional GOP.

The GOP is now in the odd position where many of its leaders publicly excuse authoritarianism while privately favoring democracy.

I don’t believe in guilt by association, but many Trumpistas do. For those of you who do believe in guilt by association, consider the following tweets:

And this:

In my comment section, Trumpistas often accuse me of being a communist and a pedophile. (Which is kinda weird, as I may be the most anti-communist person in the entire blogosphere.)

Despite many in Trump’s orbit declaring war on Wood after he pushed for a boycott of the Georgia Senate races, the president himself has personally kept in touch with the firebrand. Trump has not only encouraged Wood and Powell to continue with their “Kraken” lawsuits, but he also hasn’t told them to tone down their rhetoric, much to the dismay of many of Trump’s advisers.

I’m not dismayed by Trump’s behavior, nor by my more extreme Trumpista commenters. Indeed I find their wild accusations to be rather revealing.

PS. And yup, we’re definitely a banana republic:

Secret Service Switching Up Agents Over Worries About Trump Allegiances: Report


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26 Responses to “Dancing with the devil”

  1. Gravatar of anon/portly anon/portly
    1. January 2021 at 11:10

    “more extreme Trumpista”

    I think you need a different word for the “bobsled team,” as I like to think of them (they seem to show up together, are indistinguishable, stay on a very narrow track and somehow their comments just whiz by), of commenters, than “Trumpista.”

    The garden-variety Trumpistas that have been here all along are truly a different species. They are at least going through something we can identify as a cognitive process – a flawed (or “low information”) one, to be sure, but still. Things along the line of “yes, I can’t refute anything Sumner says about Trump’s trade policies, but imagine if something like [irrelevant or false assertion] were true.”

    But the Bobsled Team, they dispense with thought completely. It’s pretty much pure emotion. Emotion of what sort, I’m not sure. Hurt, I guess, that the world doesn’t reward a simple Good/Evil view…. The elation and the woofing and the boundless exaggerating are coping mechanisms, perhaps?

    I also wonder if there aren’t some obvious similarities regarding the Trump Crazies and the Woke Crazies. When a Wokester says that a David Shor or Matt Yglesias makes them “feel unsafe,” this seems to me to be about wanting to see them punished. Unlike Lin Wood or the Bobsled Team, they don’t openly rejoice at the thought of their enemies being arrested and their lives ruined, but it is sort of the same thing.

  2. Gravatar of Zephito Zephito
    1. January 2021 at 12:54

    Agreed with Anon. I was calling them the 3 stooges (more likely a single stooge), commenting one after the other. Anon has a better analogy. No idea what their purpose is or if they actually believe what they say.

  3. Gravatar of Ricardo Ricardo
    1. January 2021 at 13:05

    “I find their wild accusations to be rather revealing” Oh ? Do tell.
    Trump himself is a bigger projector than IMAX. His accusations substitute as a confessional booth.

  4. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    1. January 2021 at 14:12

    anon, Yes, there are similarities between wokesters and Trumpistas. But the Dems didn’t nominate a wokester, the GOP did nominate Trump.

    As far as the less extreme Trump supporters, I’d have more respect for them if they acknowledged I was right. If they acknowledged that Trump encouraged China to put a million Muslims in concentration camps. If that acknowledged that Trump was trying to become an authoritarian dictator by abolishing democracy in America. That he supports war criminals. But I don’t see them acknowledging that I was right and they were wrong, so I draw the obvious conclusion.

    Zephito, Given that they sometimes criticize each other, I doubt they are all one person, but I do suspect that at least several of them are one person.

    And the other point I’d make is that these are not just weird exceptions, as some of Trump’s leading advisors (i.e Lin Wood) are pretty similar people. This is Trumpism in its purist form. The more reasonable people you cite are not true Trumpists. If you don’t believe that Trump is an infallible God, then you are not a true believer.

  5. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    1. January 2021 at 15:34

    The US is a Banana Republic, but one that maintains a fantastically expensive global guard service and foreign-policy apparatus on behalf of multinationals.

  6. Gravatar of xu xu
    1. January 2021 at 16:00

    Lin Wood is an American Patriot, who really loves his country.
    He opposes big government apparatchiks, and he fights for truth. Like all of us, he is imperfect.

    Almost every lawsuit was thrown out, citing “standing”, as the reason for dismissal. Yet, in every congressional hearing (the most recent in Georgia which you clearly did not watch) what do we see? We statistical evidence, forensic evidence, and countless witnesses come forward.

    Jovan Pulitzer is a researcher, and inventor, who hacked into Georgia election systems in “real time” just a few days ago during live testimony. An election supervisor used dominion to change votes – in a live hearing – showing all how easy easy it is to override votes.

    Thousands upon thousands of allegations from citizens: including expert statistical testimony from MIT computer scientists, forensic experts that reviewed the software in Michigan, and other statisticians.

    Instead of refuting their evidence, which you cannot do, you use the old communist tactic of attacking the individual.

    Your idea of a political debate includes comments on Trumps hair, comments denigrating religious folk (at least they believe in universality), Lockean ethics, libertarian principles, and blue collar workers.

    You support apparatchiks, the CCP, moral relativism, the rejection of the inalienable manifested in utilitarian concepts, shutdowns that destroy people’s lives, unlimited outsourcing with no protection for the American worker, and BLM Marxists.

    You are NOT a libertarian.

    And you still have not publicly supported Jimmy Lai, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Are you afraid the CCP will stop paying you?

    Do we need to remind people of your glowing BLM Marxist blog post in July.

    Or perhaps in thuggish and not so genius words of YOUR new totalitarian vice president: “they are not going to stop the violence, and they should not stop”.

    Sounds like a thug from Gori, Georgia.

  7. Gravatar of Sarah Sarah
    1. January 2021 at 16:19

    I don’ think Lin Wood is saying he’s guilty. He’s simply stating that Birds of a feather flock together, and that perhaps investigation is worthwhile.

    And what is the difference between Lin Wood pointing to Roberts flight logs as potential corruption – and Sumner using a fringe Bolton book as his source for proof of potential corruption?

    1. You spent weeks attacking Justice Kavanaugh because he was accused with no evidence.

    2. You spent years saying false things about Trump, using uncorroborated evidence.

    3. You wrote an article saying the NY Post was “making things up” about Joe Biden, when in fact the story was true.

    The list goes on and on.

  8. Gravatar of Benjamin Cole Benjamin Cole
    1. January 2021 at 16:24

    Speaking of bananas, and really big bananas consider that Janet Yellen has collected $7 million in speaking fees from Wall Street in the last couple of years, but is now being considered for Treasury Secretary.

    “According to Yellen’s financial disclosure document, the 74-year-old former Fed chair has raked in a whopping $7.3 million in speaking fees in just the past two years from Wall Street banks and large corporations including Citi, Goldman Sachs, Google, City National Bank, UBS, Citadel, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Salesforce. Did we mention Citadel? We did, but we should mention it again because for some odd reason the high frequency trading firm which was recently busted for frontrunning its own clients (and everyone knows what Citadel has been doing with Robinhood option orderflow) has been Janet Yellen’s biggest customer, paying her over $800,000….”

    —30—

    Right. But it is very “progressive” and not bananarama at all to appoint Janet Yellen….

  9. Gravatar of Dan Dan
    1. January 2021 at 16:37

    lol @ ppl coming here to defend Lin Wood. Birds of a feather flock together alright.

  10. Gravatar of Bob OBrien Bob OBrien
    1. January 2021 at 16:43

    “When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one,”

    I watched all the public hearings on website streaming sites. If the Republican leaders don’t see the fraud it is because they are not paying attention. The public evidence is overwhelming that the election was fraudulent. Unfortunately, you had to look for the streaming sites to see and hear the evidence. If you just watched CNN, Fox etc and read the Wall Street Journal, then you don’t have a clue. (I cancelled my subscription to the Wall Street Journal).

  11. Gravatar of bob bob
    1. January 2021 at 16:46

    Sumner wants to take away your rights.
    He wants us all to live under a totalitarian government run by pedophile democrats. He wants to remove state rights, by removing the electoral college.

    Texas will never surrender to california libtards. We need a big beautiful border around Texas to keep the libtards from coming from California. Too many snowflakes entering our cities, because they need jobs that california destroyed. Well, we don’t want you.

    South Dakota is welcome. Idaho is welcome. Kentucky is welcome. Libtard Sumner communists are not welcome.

  12. Gravatar of Dan Dan
    1. January 2021 at 16:53

    Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug Bob. You can get your fix at Epoch Times buddy!

  13. Gravatar of henry henry
    1. January 2021 at 17:24

    I have a feeling January 6th is going to be very exciting for American patriots. I have good sources who tell me Trump is not going to concede, and that he will follow the oath of office by standing up to domestic enemies. (remember, ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC)

    The 17 states who signed the Amicus brief will support him. Both Biden and Trump will begin to call foreign leaders.

    Biden will be supported by the CCP, and a few European countries.
    Trump will be supported by India & Brazil, Japan, Australia, Israel & Saudi. Putin will toe the line, as will other major leaders.

    Dem states will begin a process of succession, and Trump will attempt to stop it by force.

    What happens afterwards is anyone’s guess.

    I suggest moving USD to SGD, or USD to KRW. The dollar will collapse in 2021.

  14. Gravatar of nick nick
    1. January 2021 at 17:32

    Russians hate Chinese. Putin deals with them, because he has too. They are in his backyard. But Russia is no ally of China. Putin knows that Xi Jinping is an ugly “winnie the pooh hating” freak, whose goal is world domination. And like the Genius he is, he is very careful in how he approaches relations with them. But he’s no friend.

    Even their little sister state of Vietnam is beginning to separate themselves after China threatened its islands and shot down its fisherman.

    That Nazi state is totally and utterly ALONE.

  15. Gravatar of jayne jayne
    1. January 2021 at 17:43

    Remember when I told you all that supporting BLM and ANTIFA, while expedient, would not stop them from attacking you.

    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1289093614165831680

    Well, we are correct again. They just got to Nancy Pelosi’s home.

    Taking a knee, and capitulating to demands, will not stop the Mob!

    It only emboldens them.

    Stalin/Mao 2.0. Don’t let history repeat itself.

    No such thing as systemic racism. No such thing as “historical culpability”. You have nothing to apologize for. You were born white. It’s a color. Not a crime.

  16. Gravatar of anon anon
    1. January 2021 at 19:35

    anon/portly

    [quote]When a Wokester says that a David Shor or Matt Yglesias makes them “feel unsafe,” this seems to me to be about wanting to see them punished[/quote]

    They should start braying for the blood of their parents first and foremost – after all they inherited the genes from them and thus the “feel unsafe” feeling is basically through inheritance/being born in the first place. If nature isn’t sufficient cause, perhaps nurture too. How would that fly with the wokesters for justice?

    I also wondered, what happens to the rights of offspring for the “gender is social construct” crowd.

    A thought experiment: I expect my mom to be a woman. Can she change to “they/their” from “she/her” and expect that “their” offspring should henceforth only call “their” “fom”. Or “thom”? What happens if the gender is fluid – and changes per the phase of the moon or the season. Or worse, changes every X mins!

  17. Gravatar of bob bob
    1. January 2021 at 20:24

    Sumner is a compromised pedophile.
    He wants AOC to place us into communes, so that he can be the overlord.
    He is in bed with Klaus Schwab and the Globalist Agenda that wants to remove your private property, force vaccinate you, and turn you into cyborg slaves for the rich.

    On Jan 6th, we will stop him and his Biden/Harris communist regime.
    We’re human, and we’re coming!

  18. Gravatar of janice janice
    1. January 2021 at 23:49

    I believe in Freedom.
    I believe in Liberty.
    I believe Washington career politicians, and career statemen within the FBI, DOJ, CIA, DepEd, VA, and elsewhere are corrupt.
    I believe the BLM Marxists are mostly funded by the CCP, and other crooked actors who seek to tear apart the fabric of America. BLM has already admitted to being “Trained Marxists”, so I’m not sure why we have commenters even disputing this.
    I believe the election had too many irregularities, across multiple swing states, to be coincidental.
    I believe 5000 allegations of fraud is significant.
    I believe the forensic audit that showed deleted logs is highly suspicious.
    I believe Jovan Pulitzer is a man of integrity.
    I believe Lin Wood is fearless, raises good questions, and that the evidence filed in his lawsuits while not legally permissible (no standing) are noteworthy, and should be acted upon by legislatures.
    I believe MIT scientist Shiva Ayyadurai​ is a man of high intelligence, and integrity.
    And so I believe, after reviewing the information presented by these experts and others, that there should be a provisional election with proper safeguards in place.

    In my lifetime:
    Trump is the only President to stand up to China.
    Trump is the only President to stand up for the Uighurs.
    Trump is the only President to shut the door on the pay to play scheme. Indeed, AT&T admitted under deposition that they “couldn’t gain entrance to the administration” through the usual “back channels”, and were “looking for ways to reach out”.
    Trump is the only President to achieve peace deals in the Middleeast
    Trump is the only President willing to negotiate with Kim Jong Un. Korean and Japanese are very happy with Trumps policy. His tough brinkmanship, but fair approach, eventually led to a good relationship with Kim and the region in general. Trump is the only President willing to put the American worker first. His renegotiation of NAFTA saved hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

    If that makes me a “Trumpista”, then I accept it with great pride.

    Greatest President of my life time.

    I’m curious, what do we call a Biden supporter?

    A pedoista?

  19. Gravatar of anon anon
    2. January 2021 at 02:52

    bob, janice, and other such handles posting ‘Trump is the best thing since sliced bread’, ‘come 6th Jan’, ‘FBI CIA DHS all TLA are traitors’, ‘we are patriots’, kind of messages: one is left wondering if bots have – be it Russian or CCP – built and trained, have figured out some way to use AI/ML to post such messages in this (and other blogs). Are we supposed to take the red pill (or blue pill) – I can never keep that one straight.

  20. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    2. January 2021 at 04:32

    anon,

    could be a version of GPT-2
    https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/19/gpt-2-as-step-toward-general-intelligence/
    https://openai.com/blog/gpt-2-1-5b-release/
    That would make sense given the above commenters’ output, which are full of the usual triggers and keywords, but don’t relate to any content of Scott’s original posts or each other. So it’s a right wing garbage generator of some kind.

    Then again … actual humans are capable of the same.

  21. Gravatar of harry harry
    2. January 2021 at 04:45

    —-“More than 90 federal and state judges have rejected challenges to the November vote, notably finding allegations of fraud to be without merit”—–

    This is not true. First, there have been no evidentiary hearings in any of those 90 cases. Second, over 80 of those cases were brought by third parties unrelated to the campaign or those close to the Campaign: namely, Powell and Wood.

    For a case to be dismissed on “its merits” it needs to be heard. So far, 95% of cases have been dismissed on standing, including Powell, Wood, and Campaign cases.

    Refusing to hear the case is a mistake of historical proportion. It all but ensures a civil war. But unlike the first war, we don’t have clear cut borders. In this case, the disease is in the mind. It’s mostly in our urban centers, prevalent throughout every state, every academy and institution.

    This new war will be neighbor against neighbor. Militia groups will form. Lines will be drawn. States will strive to be safe haven’s for ideology. New country borders will be established. Families will be split apart as they choose sides.

    The leftists have consistently been a nuisance to liberty. It was the democratic party who supported slavery. They hated Grant because he was a binge drinker. Even back then, they chided the imperfect and lived in a fantasy world of purity. They will say he was a drunk, but fail to mention that he was a mathematical genius at West Point. He never lost a battle. And when Lincoln relieved McClellan and appointed Grant, he outclassed the legendary lee in Virginia.

    Republicans are always underestimated. But in the end, with all our imperfections, and much akin Grant, we will emerge victorious. Liberty is our birth right.

  22. Gravatar of Michael Sandifer Michael Sandifer
    2. January 2021 at 06:01

    As a proponent of something like Friedman’s negative income tax, in lieu of traditional welfare programs, I welcome $2000 checks. But, I don’t like where the politics seem to be heading.

    The deep cynicism which continues to set in about government seems to be fostering a “The country’s in decline, let’s take what we can.” mentality across the political spectrum, including on the right. This is disturbingly reminiscent of many Latin American countries in which cycles of populist, inefficient social spending largesse lead to government bankruptcy and inflationary depressions.

    It seems clear, given the evolution of rhetoric on the right, including especially the far right, that economic insecurity is a central issue in the country right now. The fascists want government-provided economic security, but only for their in-groups and are desperate not to be seen as socialist in their own eyes or in the eyes of others among their ranks.

    We are really late in providing the kind of social insurance that most citizens in the 21st century seem to want, and that I’ve long thought should be an entitlement in such a wealthy society.

    This helps explain the exploding popularity of very large minimum wage increases, attacks on corporate America, and attacks on the elite in general.

  23. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    2. January 2021 at 09:18

    Henry, You said:

    “I have a feeling January 6th is going to be very exciting for American patriots. ”

    I agree!!

  24. Gravatar of Johnny Johnny
    4. January 2021 at 06:31

    “In my comment section, Trumpistas often accuse me of being a communist and a pedophile. (Which is kinda weird, as I may be the most anti-communist person in the entire blogosphere.)”

    Scott, this made me laugh really hard – not because I think any of those accusations are even remotely true, but because you basically said “They say I’m a commie and a pedo. I’m not a commie!”

  25. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    4. January 2021 at 13:54

    Johnny, LOL.

    Yeah, I originally wrote “Ironically, I haven’t even ever dated a woman under the age of 20.” (Which is true.) But then I thought that once a person starts denying being a pedophile they sound defensive and always end up losing, so I crossed it out.

  26. Gravatar of Tom Brown Tom Brown
    4. January 2021 at 15:51

    Yep, not just Roberts but ACB, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Thomas and Alito: all *DEEPLY COMMITTED* extreme communist pedophiles and Satan worhipers who hate God, America and command cells of ANTIFA super soldiers. Also they’re all funded by the CCP and George Soros. They’ve all unmasked themselves.

    Ironically the Dems were right about Kavanaugh this whole time: he was a rapist, but what we didn’t know until now is he *RAPES TODDLERS* after torturing them and then cannibalizing them for their adrenochrome, with his best pals Hillary Clinton, Tom Hanks and Satan.

    This will be Republican orthodoxy in a month.

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