Nonsensical thoughts on the hearings
I rarely watch TV (outside sports), but yesterday I watched a couple hours of the Jan. 6 hearings, which were a lot of fun. A few reactions (not to be taken seriously, and not even even consistent with each other):
1. Incredibly biased hearings:
I was stunned by how one-sided the hearings were. Yes, most of the committee members were Democrats, but two Republicans completely dominated the proceedings. And at least in the 2 hours I watched, every single person testifying was a Republican. Not one Democrat was allowed to tell their side of the story. The lopsided bias in the witness list was almost comical. Even Trump’s own family was allowed to testify.
Given the GOP bias, it wasn’t surprising that Bloomberg reported:
Plenty of Republican party actors are still solidly in Trump’s camp. The best comic relief from Thursday night’s session came from the House Republicans’ Twitter account, which declared early in the hearing, “This is all heresy.”
Well . . . it is heresy when you challenge the leader of a religious cult. Isn’t it?
2. Two types of Republicans:
The hearings made it very clear that Trump supported the violent mob that invaded the Capitol, and indeed egged them on. He encouraged the mob to go after Pence, and indeed at one point the Secret Service members defending Pence feared for their lives. But Trump just wouldn’t stop; he kept telling the mob that Pence had betrayed them.
To give you an idea as to how biased and one-sided the hearings were, not a single witness defended Trump’s support for the mob. That’s right, 100% of the witnesses, even his own family members, opposed his decision to support the mob. Many of the rioters would have defended Trump, but the committee cherry picked a few that opposed the attack on the Capitol.
The entire hearing was almost laughably one-sided. Couldn’t they call a single witness defending Trump’s actions? Instead, all we got were a series of RINOs, including much of the White House staff, left wing media figures such as Sean Hannity and traitorous family members like Ivanka and Jared and Donald Jr.
3. Lies, damned lies, and bold-faced lies:
Everyone lies. So why does Trump seem different? One exchange that caught my eye nicely encapsulates what makes Trump different from even a relatively dishonest politician like Nixon. Kevin McCarthy phoned him and asked him to call off his supporters. Trump responded that the mob were not his supporters, they were Antifa. McCarthy responded that they were in fact Trump supporters. Not missing a beat, Trump responded that it seemed like the rioters cared more about the stolen election than did McCarthy.
That kind of bold faced lie requires a certain type of arrogance. Trump knows he’s lying, and knows the other guy knows he’s lying. But Trump also knows that McCarthy will eventually kowtow to him, no matter how much Trump abuses him. He knows that McCarthy is no Liz Cheney.
Another howler was Trump’s statement of something to the effect that, “Everyone knows I won by a landslide.” A normal liar might argue that vote fraud in three states prevented Trump from a narrow victory in the electoral college. Or even that, “Most people secretly know I won by a landslide, but there might be a few deluded Democrats who actually believe Biden won.” But that’s a wimpy lie, unfit for a larger than life figure like Trump. His lies must be not just false, but utterly preposterous. Hence “Everyone knows I one by a landslide.”
4. The history books of 2050
I began to wonder what the history books of 2050 will say. There’s no doubt in my mind that the January 6 events will dominate their coverage of the Trump administration, just as Watergate dominates the Nixon period and Teapot Dome dominates the Harding coverage in history books. In all of US history, only eight times has a senator voted to convict a president of his or her own party. In all eight cases, it was Trump they voted to convict. That’s impressive!
But then when students get to the next chapter they’ll see that Trump was elected again in 2024. How will teachers explain this fact to students? American history is supposed to be a story of progress. We make mistakes, but we learn from those mistakes. So why was Trump re-elected in 2024?
5. Showtime
It had to be Liz Cheney who put together that bit that began by showing Josh Hawley pumping his fist in support of the Trump mob, and then immediately after showed him running like a frightened child through the Capitol fearing for his life.
I don’t agree with Liz Cheney’s politics, but I’d vote for her in a heartbeat. The voters of Wyoming are lucky to have such an impressive woman representing them.
PS. Here’s the FT:
Each of the committee members — seven Democrats and two Republicans — has taken the lead for a different part of the investigation. But those who have worked with it say that behind the scenes Cheney was the one making many of the most important decisions. . . .
Some of those close to Cheney believe that some of the star witnesses would not have testified had it not been for her. Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney-general who has provided some of the committee’s most explosive testimony, served in the same cabinet as her father under president George HW Bush.
“There is no way Barr could have got away with saying no to Liz Cheney,” said Barbara Comstock, a former Republican member of Congress and longtime friend of Cheney. “The problem for a lot of these senior Republicans with Liz being there is they could run from the committee but they couldn’t hide.” . . .
Cheney has hinted that she might launch a presidential run in 2024, but experts say she is unlikely to win a Republican nomination or a general election. Instead, her main achievement might be empowering someone else to take on Trump now that he has been wounded by the committee.
“There is going to be a big field of Republicans running in 2024 thanks to the work of Liz Cheney,” said Comstock. “They should all get to their knees and thank her — although they won’t.”
Yup, this was a GOP show. The Dems cannot seem to do anything right. They are equally inept at politics and public policy.
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23. July 2022 at 02:09
If the Democrats had any sense of politics, they would be forcefully pointing out that almost all Republican politicians facilitated Trump (and support many wildly unpopular policies and oppose many highly popular policies).
23. July 2022 at 05:03
The problem I see for those of us who don’t want a banaca republic is this: Trump does seem to be like a car with a bent frame after all of this, but the more Republican primary challengers who enter and stay in the race, perhaps the better for Trump, given that he still has high poll numbers among the base. That is, good for Trump in the winner-take-call Republican primaries.
But, then he’s a damaged candidate in the general election at best. However, the Democrats may run one of two damaged candidates against him. That would be Biden or Harris. The Democrats could blow this by not running a good candidate, which seems a real danger, but I think the next general election is the Democrats’ to lose.
I disagree about one point. That is that the Democrats are equally bad at politics and policy. They’re worse at politics. While many of their policy ideas are dumb, they occassionally have at least some good policy ideas. Take cap and trade or immigration reform under Obama, for example, which didn’t pass, because Democrats are politically incompetent. They rarely have any good political ideas.
Sure, ideas like the Green New Deal are not only stupid, but colossally stupid, formulated by people who seemingly have no familiarity with budget math or economics. But, at least there are some real problems those bills seek to address. It’s an extremely low bar, I realize.
The Republicans don’t even pretend to have a positive national agenda and haven’t even had national platform in years. It’s an opposition party, even when they control every branch of national government. The only thing they ever do is cut taxes, but they don’t do so in honest, sustainable ways. They finance it with deficits.
23. July 2022 at 07:52
Sumner does a great imitation of a satirist. I say imitation because the secret of great satire is the secret. The wokes are ridiculed, rightfully so, for preferring sensitivity of hurt feelings over honesty. But what about the Trump followers? Why can’t they be ridiculed for being rubes. Sure, they are from the mythical Heartland, but even those from the Heartland can be rubes. This week the leading columnists at the NYT wrote essays acknowledging their greatest wrongness. They had many to choose from, but I was struck by Bret Stephens’s acknowledgment for his wrongness in not understanding the correctness of the Trump followers’ dislike of “elites”. Stephens then proceeds to identify the crimes of the “elites”, starting with the War in Iraq, fought mostly by non-elites from the Heartland. He then goes on to identify other crimes of the “elites”, tax cuts for the wealthy “elites” rather than hard-working non-elites from the Heartland, government bailouts of the “elites” rather than the hard-working non-elites who lost their homes in the financial crisis and Great Recession, and on and on he went agreeing with the Trump followers for their dislike of the “elites”. Who exactly are these “elites” about which you speak? That’s right, Stephens and the rest weren’t actually acknowledging their wrongness, and I don’t expect any of the obsequious Republican elites will ever acknowledge theirs. The first rule of Trump is never admit to being wrong.
23. July 2022 at 07:56
Great post Scott…keep em coming!
23. July 2022 at 10:17
That is a good post, and Michael Sandifer’s comment is good also.
On the brighter side, the betting markets have a Trump second term at under 50%:
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics/us-presidential-election-2024/winner
Maybe the Democrats will decide to run Liz Cheney….
rayward: “This week the leading columnists at the NYT wrote essays acknowledging their greatest wrongness.”
Actually, not really, it’s just supposed to be something they were wrong about, not their “greatest wrongness.” And it would be better if they’d described it as “something I was not entirely right about.”
Krugman admits that being on “Team Relaxed [about inflation]” was a “bad call” in paragraph 1, then introduces his real theme, “but was I really wrong?,” in paragraph 2:
“But what, exactly, did I get wrong? Both the initial debate and the way things have played out were more complicated than I suspect most people realize.”
Later:
“I know it sounds lame to say that Team [not relaxed about] Inflation right for the wrong reasons, but it’s also arguably true.”
Needless to say, Team Relaxed isn’t defended on “we didn’t think the Fed would let nominal spending grow too fast” grounds – nominal spending, monetary offset and The Fed are not mentioned at all.
. Not only is it just something they “got wrong,” there’s very little pretense among the participants that they were even wrong about something.
23. July 2022 at 10:22
Er, my last paragraph there was supposed to be deleted (it was rewritten as my 6th paragraph). And I really thought I did check carefully! (It’s wonderful getting old).
23. July 2022 at 13:48
I wonder what Hawley’s athletic background is—he has the build of a middle distance runner, but he might have done something like baseball or basketball. I don’t think that video clip demonstrated his full potential. When Herschell Walker is senator he could give everybody some coaching in 40 yd sprints and techniques for cutting and dodging. Could be useful.
23. July 2022 at 18:26
Did not watch a minute nor read more than an article or 2 about the insurrection hearings plus this one. It’s interesting how you don’t know there was an insurrection when you read all the other news (and sports like Scott). You would think some of it would leak into other stories as an insurrection would have some impact on our nation. I admit I did see Liz Cheney’s name show up all over the place. I have no idea what her primary concern was.
The one essay I know I read was an opinion piece by Peggy Noonan about how brave that hearsay woman witness was who told some story about Trump choking a Secret Service driver so he could get to the Capital in time to hang Pence, or something like that. That one was excellent.
23. July 2022 at 18:35
PS. Capitol, not Capital. Sorry about that.
23. July 2022 at 18:42
“The hearings made it very clear that Trump supported the violent mob that invaded the Capitol”
1. First of all, as you’ve been told numerous times, Trump didn’t call for violence. He asked them to “march peaceful” and “make it peaceful” twice in his January 6th speech.
2. Secondly, the panel was not randomly chosen, but hand picked by one of the most corrupt politicians in the last 100 years (Pelosi). Not to mention, there was no defense, no ability to call witnesses, to testify under oath, to cross examine the panels carefully curated witnesses. Think about how dangerous that is.
This is Sumner’s vision. This is the future Sumner dreams of. A one party, totalitarian state — preferably global — whereby a panel of politicians, act as judge, jury and executioner.
Is anyone surprised that Sumner supports Ukraine, the country that just arrested its political opposition a few days ago, because they weren’t “pro-liberal”.
This is the type of person who has expressed publicly his desire to “crush” his political opponents into submission with a “big stick”. This is more proof that Sumner gravitates towards totalitarianism and that his neo-liberal thugs, and their big city political machine, are the greatest threat to the American republic since the Civil war.
No reasonable person, seeking truth, would condemn anyone after hearing a one-sided argument. If you were interested in truth, and not political entertainment, which btw received very low ratings, then you would welcome a defense attorney. Only a non partisan political activist would draw such conclusions, after a political charade.
23. July 2022 at 19:12
– Yes, of course there were only Republicans testifying because the Republican party was in power between november 2016 and november 2020.
– Off topic: Australia’s (and the one new Zealand as well) housing bubble is busy imploding. After a giant run up for real estate prices in both 2020 & 2021 combined with rising interest rates in the year 2022. These 2 housing bubbles have been building for some 30 years and are now imploding. Steve Keen has been right all this time. But it took much more years for these 2 bubbles to implode.
– Stop making a fool of yourself by saying that EMH doens’t allow for bubbles to exist. The problem with EMH is that the followers of the EMH think that all the information investors need is available (e.g. available for investors). To the contrary, A LOT OF investors simply haven’t got the faintest clue at what gauges to look at. And even when they know at what gauges to look at lots of investors seem to ignore those indicators or don’t understand the proper meaning of those indicators.
23. July 2022 at 19:13
I believe “bald-faced lies” (not “bold-faced”) is what you want to write, given your age and good taste.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/is-that-lie-bald-faced-or-bold-faced-or-barefaced
23. July 2022 at 19:42
Regarding your point number 4
(1) It’s not impressive, but just a function of the partisan nature of the impeachments of Trump. (And Clinton.) Plenty of Republicans would have voted against Nixon–and so there was no need to impeach him.
(2) “American history is supposed to be a story of progress.” Who supposes? It’s a myth, and always was a myth. It isn’t obvious to me that curricula should be dedicated to teaching myths.
(3) Should Trump be elected in 2024, it will be a simultaneous failure of the Republican party and the Democratic party. As factions and individuals, politicians see profit in playing with this snake rather than killing it, although thinking broadly everyone sees the danger.
23. July 2022 at 20:46
Yep Trump is evil.
He opposes the WEF build back better agenda, globalism, and war. What a horrible person.
He didn’t start any wars in four years. He actually made an effort to reach out to NK and others, and have substantive dialogue, but of course Sumner and his big stick globalists didn’t like that.
He is secretly Adolf Hitler. All of those Tennessee farmers are spies.
Should we put them into CCP style camps Sumner? Reeducation camps? What do you propose? According to you, we have to stop those GOP anti-war, anti-globalist farmers. They are so dangerous for the world.
We need war. We need globalism. We need supranationals to strip away our rights. I suggest camps. I think our dictator Sumner will be happy with that. I want to be promoted; I need a good social credit score, so I should do what Sumner says.
23. July 2022 at 21:58
Michael, Your writing is increasing erratic and incomprehensible. Are you OK?
Willy2, You said:
“After a giant run up for real estate prices in both 2020 & 2021”
Every year for the last decade you’ve come over here telling me Australia’s bubble is popping. And now you are saying that you lied in 2020 and 2021 when you made those claims? You are now saying that prices were rising during those years? I’m confused. Why did you previously tell me prices were falling in 2020 and 2021?
Keep coming back once a year, I appreciate the comic relief.
Susan, You said:
“No reasonable person, seeking truth, would condemn anyone after hearing a one-sided argument.”
I am with you. It’s outrageous that all we heard from was Republicans like Ivanka and Donald Jr. I’d like to hear from some Democrats.
And why won’t they let Trump testify? I’d like to hear his side of the story? And how about McCarthy?
Dzhaughn, You said:
“It’s not impressive, but just a function of the partisan nature of the impeachments of Trump.”
It’s proof of partisanship when a bunch of senators of his own party vote to impeach? Okaaaay . . .
Ricardo, You said:
“I suggest camps.”
So you agreed with Trump when he praised Xi for putting a million Muslims into concentration camps?
24. July 2022 at 01:42
It’s good to see that Scott is still delusional. In 2040, when he’s 90, he’ll be still crying, in his nursing home, about how Trump ushered in a conservative era.
Trump and Desantis will win in 2024, because more people support their policies. It’s really that simple, so get used to it. It’s not 1965. The hippy bus might still be in MA and CA, but the rest of the country has moved on from that bizarre crowd.
People love free trade, but they don’t like your version of free trade, by which I mean economic zones, tax breaks, subsidies, and other forms of favoritism and political cronyism. We’ve had enough of a bloated federal government.
Even the young are turning away from your democrat party.
24. July 2022 at 03:11
Scott—-I really enjoy when you get funny——-you play the superior game —-I also like doing that. But let me also do a semi serious response—sort of.
Here are some thoughts on some recent examples of my “erratic and incomprehensible” thoughts.
First, I really enjoy it when you pull your gaslighting routine——which your comment to me is —-of course—-(it is almost the Brittanica example of a gaslight).
My response to your “nonsense thoughts” essay, naturally, was also a “non-sense” thoughts essay—-but quite explanatory and literal—-with sarcasm built in—just as yours was.
(You of course know what I was doing—-which was the same as you were doing in your essay).
The following are 2 examples of “recent erratic comments” by me.
————-
I recently did a Jackson Browne direct quote bit on your real blog —as a comic compliment (i not e)to the complexity of trying to do Macroeconomics correctly—-being a music guy I figured you would get it—-maybe you don’t know the song—-if you did not get the Analogy—-don’t know what to tell you—-you know Dylan —-Browne is pretty simple by comparison.
Second, you recently denied the accuracy of my ice sheet melt analysis (analysis is not the right word—-multiplication and division are the right words). You “doubted” my conversion of ice sheet cubic miles of ice melt to the rise in water levels in Oceans over the last 30 years——even as it is right from the EPA on an article on that very topic. I even took you seriously and checked. To repeat—-it is about .37 inches of water rise——(which is not literally measurable—models only)——
BTW, have you seen all the recent ice melt essay in Greenland stories?
Back to Trump. He will not be president in 2024. But “even worse than Trump” DeSantis is my front runner (you have read “even worse than Trump” essays I assume.
I hope this response is consistent with my other erratic responses——and yes, I am quite alright.
24. July 2022 at 03:33
PS——-I believe you meant “increasingly” (not increasing) erratic. I constantly make similar errors—-you really need to let commenters correct errors.
24. July 2022 at 05:26
PS. ‘The total amount of ice lost by Greenland and Antarctica from 1992 to 2018 was enough to raise sea level worldwide by an average of roughly seven-tenths of an inch” 4,5———-From EPA
This is about 75% higher than what I calculated using their own underlying numbers—-but who cares——this is the official number—-not .37 inches, but .70 inches. From ice melt in Antarctica and Greenland from 1992-2018. NSID .org sys they have 99% of worlds freshwater ice.
24. July 2022 at 05:30
Nsidc.org ——not nsid.org
24. July 2022 at 06:18
This is today’s pearl of wisdom from the sado-monetarists.
Economies do not grow at their fastest pace over the long-term if rates are too low. Rates need to be higher so that businesses borrowing to invest are forced to add enough value to pay the borrowing costs as well as create profits for their owners.
…
Truss is the candidate of trying something new, hopefully producing lower taxes, higher interest rates and more rapid GDP growth over the medium to long term. I’m with Truss on this. And so are many other economists.
Yes you did read that first sentence correctly. If rates are too low, economies don’t grow at their fastest pace…
The second sentence explains their rationale. With interest rates at, say, 6%, enterprises are disciplined, even forced, to add value of 11% to get a 5% return. At interest rates of 2%, enterprises could slack off and add only 7% value
” Far more likely that a real enterprise would find that 7% AV was as much as they could do, and 1% profit wouldn’t support the real people involved.”
That’s the idea from what I can see. They intend those firms to fail – which is what creates the increase in the unemployment buffer that, as we know, actually halts the inflation.
If that was all that was required we could do the same with wage increases. Increase the wages of the workers, keep the prices the same and you have the same requirement to add value.
But wage increases put up prices, where as interest rate rise don’t put up prices – apparently. Quite why a firm wouldn’t respond in exactly the same way to an increase in costs no matter where it comes from isn’t explained.
Other than the belief that wage earns spend their money and rich deposit holders don’t.
24. July 2022 at 06:20
why you are favour of unelected wonks in banks taxing poor mortgage holders and transferring that money to rich deposit holders, rather than the elected parliament doing the jobs and taxing both poor mortgage payers and rich deposit holders.
Is he just a shill for the rich who wants them to have more money?
24. July 2022 at 07:56
Jerry, LOL, trolling is not very effective unless you know SOMETHING about the views of your victim. Nice try.
Kester, Did you accidentally post this on the wrong blog?
24. July 2022 at 18:21
Scott, you did not say it was “impressive” that 8 senators of his party voted to convict Trump after his second impeachment. You said that it is impressive in light of the partisan unity of Senators in acquitting Clinton, Trump after his first impeachment, and the irrelevant Andrew Johnson.
Sorry, still not impressed. Particular in light of the bipartisan action that successfully removed Nixon, which shows far more health. The overwhelmingly partisan nature of impeachment and trials since then is characteristic of the Bananification of the Republic that you have noted elsewhere. The second Trump trial is no watershed of reform, even if a whole 16% of Republicans Senators voted against the Republican ex-President.
25. July 2022 at 01:49
You essentially have three groups of politicians. The majority are oligarchs, and then you have the radical left and the old right libertarians.
Your banking/corporate/global/news oligarchy is essentially Romney, Cheney, Pelosi, Obama, Bush, Biden, McConnell and other career politicians and families whose patriarchs are approaching 80, along with certain establishment institutions such as the NYT, Washington Post, and The Hill, which depend on the oligarchy for their survival. These folks are all neck deep in corruption.
Romney is not corrupt in the traditional sense, but he is part of the global business oligarchy that needs cheap labor and lots of favorable regulation to achieve the kinds of profit margins his investors expect.
Then, you have the radicals. The Southern poverty law center, the dark money NGO’s funding woke prosecutors, congressional campaigns, etc. AOC, and her group of neo-marxists represent this growing faction. Klaus Schwab might be in this category too, although he’s not American he’s influential.
The old right/libertarian class is the minority. This is more or less Desantis, Cruz, Trump, Blackburn, Paul, Tucker Carlson and a few others who are still attempting to thwart the oligarchs and the radical left.
You could throw in a fourth category, which is one of corruption but with an old school patriotism and common sense. In this category, you might have the Clintons, Manchins, Susan Collins, and the late Ted Kennedy. While these folks are corrupt, they are at least willing to put the people above their plunder, assuming the situation is dire enough that the two become incompatible.
My point is that both parties — when we speak of the establishment — are actually the same party. There is no real substantive philosophical difference between Pelosi and Cheney. They are one in the same. They certainly have slightly different interests. Pelosi is more inclined to support big tuna policy, whereas Cheney is more interested in supporting Goldman Sachs, but nevertheless the two are very similar in their approach to governance, which is to say bigger is better.
Because of this, one cannot take the panel seriously. If you want to accuse someone of a crime, then file charges and let that person have their day in court. Public events where you level accusations but file no charges, because presumably you have no evidence, is not in the least bit interesting.
25. July 2022 at 06:04
I wish the committee would have allowed Bannon to testify and had at least tried to get Trump to.
Then maybe more people would have watched. If we are going to make political theater, then at least make it well.
25. July 2022 at 08:52
Dzhaughn, I agree. On a secret ballot probably 40 GOP senators would have voted to impeach.
Peter, “The old right/libertarian class is the minority. This is more or less Desantis, Cruz, Trump,”
Trump a libertarian? LOL, politics is a helluva drug.
25. July 2022 at 11:30
Polling wise Desantis is in great shape for a non-incumbent. He knows how to do the culture war thing that many of us want right now as a push back against a lot of things pushed by the left but he is far more capable.
I’m with Sumner the left has virtually zero chance at winning in 2024. Its Desantis or Trump. The left has zero ability to connect with the middle class now. The NYT piece I think is off as the GOP is picking up a lot of normie middle class people and its not just people who felt left behind.
25. July 2022 at 12:54
The worst part about the internet is how a whole ecosystem can form to cover up something that everyone can see with their own two eyes. It both makes that event very visible but allows for endless spin towards what people want to hear.
Trump incited the riot. It is so obvious from the videos of the incident. It is obvious from his speech … in which, before the cherry picked statements Trumpists like to give he publicly praised the rioters.
It’s funny when Trump supporters like to respond with, but did you see what the left did, without recognizing that response reveals their own hypocrisy.
This happens with everything it seems. Dont know what to do about it.
26. July 2022 at 03:51
This is an interesting post. I agree with Sean. DeSantis is the best candidate. But my opinions differ from most of these comments.
1. People have a right to protest. There is nothing illegal about showing up to the capitol building. When Aladdin speaks of “his speech”, I presume he is referring to Trump’s speech. There is nothing in the speech that condones violence. But yes, he obviously supports the protest., which is legal.
2. It was not a violent day. There was breaking and entering, but no shots were fired (other than a policeman shooting an unarmed civilian). This was not the whiskey rebellion, or Robert E. Lee marching on the capitol. And quite frankly, it’s not in the best interest of public discourse to call people who love their country “terrorists”. You might say “so what”, but this is where the left begins to lose people. The republicans destroyed the left in the civil war, then essentially gave them amnesty. Nobody was called a “terrorist” and 500M died. It’s reasonable to arrest folks for breaking and entering, and then fine them. It’s another thing to arrest them for months, file no charges, and call them terrorists.
3. I believe the people have every right to overthrow their government, especially a corrupt one. These farmers and factory workers in the American heartland have been pushed around for a long time by an establishment that is more concerned with their own pocket than the people they represent. And they continue to be degraded and pushed around by the left. First, it was “Happy holiday” instead of merry christmas, which everyone shrugged off; then, it was “oh you lost your job, too bad go program, as if everyone can be a programmer. Now you are a racist because you are white, men can become pregnant, and free speech is not permitted unless you parrot the views of the state. They’ve had enough.
If you want this cultural war, then lets have it. If you want a real war, then lets have that too.
Either way, we need to find common ground. If you cannot do that in Washington, then perhaps you’ll do it when the barrel of the gun is pointing at you.
I don’t feel bad for the left, nor the congress. Keep pushing, and its going to get worse. Those unarmed civilians will turn into armed civilians.
26. July 2022 at 04:57
“The worst part about the internet is how a whole ecosystem can form to cover up something that everyone can see with their own two eyes.”
“A whole ecosystem”. You mean the other party. The people who disagree with you. Yes, not everyone agrees with you. Do you believe in a democracy, or do you want a totalitarian party and a bunch of borgs who perceive the world from the very same lens?
And how do you know what you see is the truth. What we see is a carefully curated panel, hand-picked by one of the most corrupt politicians in American history. We see curated witnesses, which are vetted before they give testimony.
Despite the gravity of the accusations, which have continued unabated, for six years, there was no cross examination, no ability to call witnesses, no ability to defend oneself against this form of soviet style political showmanship, and no criminal charges filed. It is an act, a charade, a grand play, whereby the panel and the witnesses are televised show. It’s like hearing the prosecutors case, then telling the defense to go home because you’ve already come to a conclusion.
But it doesn’t stop there. Today, we learn that the word “recession” is now being changed. It used to mean two quarters of negative growth, but that of course was too specific for the Soviet style democrat party. They have replaced two quarters with the words “holistic analysis”, which of course means anything they want it to mean. This is the world we live in today. It’s a world of smoke and mirrors, of shadowy corrupt politicians desperately trying to hold onto to their establishment narrative in an age of alternative news. Technology is the greatest thing to have every happened to this world, so don’t ever disparage it, or try to control the so-called “ecosystem” because you think your oppositions arguments are “spin”.
I don’t condone violence. I don’t believe those protesters should have entered the building, but like Dershowitz, I draw the line when you seek to arrest, belittle, and subjugate the leader of an opposing party, incessantly attacking him and his 75M supporters, in which you call them “incompetent” as if their concerns are irrelevant and unworthy of review.
And after the three months of murders and robbery (BLM), crazed mandates under the pretense of emergency, and calling farmers racists, the radical left which I believe Sumner supports wholeheartedly — although he often tries to feign his support for libertarians — is no longer in a position to take the moral high ground. It’s not like they ever were in a position, especially when you consider their racist and bigoted past, but for a while, particularly during the JFK era, it looked like the left might have been changing course….obviously that hasn’t been the case.
26. July 2022 at 06:40
I just destroyed this morons entire premise, and I did it in a tactful and polite way. His intellectual response was: “LOL. Politics is a hell of a drug?”
His premise: hearings are actually unbiased, because there were republican witnesses and republican panel members.
1. Those two panel members were anti-trumpers, not unbeknownst to Pelosi.
2. There is no difference between the two parties. Both of them have the same policy positions. The difference between cheney and pelosi is an illusion, but the difference between Pelosi and Sanders, or Pelosi and Trump, Paul, Desantis and Cruz are significant. Have you noticed a trend. Sanders and Trump were attacked like nobody else in American history. Are you surprised. Well, yes if you are pro establishment. But most Americans are not anymore. They either side with Sanders or Trump.
What is your next pathetic argument, because I’m waiting with bated breath. I love it when the gloves come off. It just feels so damn good.
Btw, have you been able to lower inflation yet? I’m still kindly waiting for the transitory inflation you promised last January. You are stealing my money, Scott. Since you claim to know everything, I was hoping you might get around to FIXING IT!
26. July 2022 at 08:19
one-sided show trials gave Stalin quite a few laughs too
probably less funny to the thousands of peaceful Jan 6 protesters who have been jailed, suicided or had their lives destroyed for nothing but showing up at a rally for someone you don’t like
26. July 2022 at 09:20
Aladdin, Yeah, virtually all of Trump’s aides pleaded with him to stop the rioting and he refused, saying Pence deserved what he was getting.
People like Edward saying the riot was peaceful just make me shake my head. It’s like they didn’t watch the videos, or listen to the testimony of all the police that were injured.
I don’t recall these right wing nuts saying “Most BLM protesters were peaceful.”
Peter, “I just destroyed this morons entire premise,”
By suggesting Trump was a libertarian? I am a libertarian.
26. July 2022 at 16:28
lol sure, Trump invited the National Guard to his coup… do you people ever stop to think for one second?
855 protesters have been arrested, few of whom did anything wrong
all were given show trials amidst demands for loyalty oaths by Dem prosecutors in front of Dem judges and DC juries stacked with Democrats
thousands more lives have been destroyed by the FBI “investigations” which amount to harassing their relatives and friends and (of course) employers
two suicided
and we still don’t know who killed Rosanne Boyland
lol best of all, all this was done with a complete lack of irony by the same people who warned us this exact sort of political oppression would happen if Trump were elected
but tell us more about the Trump cultists and how evil they are and how they deserve to be jailed and doxxed
I voted against Trump three times but I’m also old to remember when his batshit crazy claims the FBI was spying on him were clear proof of his mental illness
27. July 2022 at 07:24
Edward, Sarah:
You all seem to ignore the fact that, first of all, they were only there that day because Trump continued to lie about the status of the election. Many of these were ridiculous … he claimed, for example, that there must have been voter fraud in Michigan because Detroit went Democrat …
So thats one thing.
The second is that you seem to ignore the whole tone of the speech. No, Trump did not say “storm the capital.” But he didn’t condemn their actions, in which congressmen were threatened for their lives. The committee shows that he removed lines from the speech that did condemn the invasion of the capital!
This framing that every single one of his employees is a never Trumper or lying … tell me, if he hired so many liars, does that not in it of itself show a lack of judgement???
You want to show sympathy for these people? Then tell them the truth! Tell them what happened regarding the election and who won, and what your plan is for next time.
Here is the video by the way: https://youtu.be/_ONC-qQEcfg
Ignore the title. Ignore the framing. You are free to ignore everything out that, but not the footage itself. With a straight face, that’s nonviolent?
If your going to shout hypocrisy regarding BLM, well, your a hypocrite as well. And I dont even disagree that some of the prosecution is overzealous … because I have been, for a very long time, a strong proponent of criminal justice rights.
You only support those then its these people, but then during the current crime wave Republicans fall back into standard tough on crime talking points, so GTFO out.
28. July 2022 at 00:30
There is one silver lining for liberty lovers.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/victor-davis-hanson-how-erode-worlds-greatest-military
The woke army recruiters cannot find anyone! LOL.
Low and behold, the rugged conservative farmer no longer wants to defend the corrupt liberal apparatchiks in Washington.
Are we surprised?
The virtue signaling, highly uneducated democrats — with their watered down degrees — are obviously are unaware that the military is predominantly conservative, with the occasional liberal Irishman (or German) from the northeast.
But here is the good news. A smaller armed forces is good for the budget, and good for other nations who want to live without worrying when and where the next American bomb will drop.
It’s a win/win for Americans and the world.