The Frankish Reich

In honor of the new prospective Veep.

This is where we are. A reminder to “stick to the facts” is now biased.

I don’t hate it. Even you MSM haters should look at the long interview Ross Douthut at the NYT did with Vance. Douthut (a lonely Republican there) has some hope that Vance is putting actual policy meat onto the MAGA nationalist/populist bones.

She's the natural one!

If so, that'll really put the investment banker/Black Rock/Military Industrial crowd in their place! At least he didn't go with winner winner chicken dinner.

Yes, it's a stupid take. They're saying Trump is going to take a different tack in his speech. I really hope so, but I'm not optimistic. This is as stupid as the "what was really going on with Paul Pelosi?" crap. He was shot. Period. Sometimes crazy/bad things happen because there are crazy/bad people out there.

I like it! I somehow forgot about that Cheap Shot to End All Cheap Shots. He belongs on Mt Rushmore. I'll have him take Roger Staubach's case. That stems more from my frustration that the networks actually promoted the America's Team thing, and he (and Landry) were the faces of that.

True. As for the rest: we all have political biases, including judges. Maybe even more so for federal judges, who are appointed by the President, serve life terms, and are in many cases people who've been involved in political campaigns or at least partisan causes. So we know that. I think I'm pretty fair as a lawyer (and for a long time, a federal government lawyer): I don't like advancing legal arguments that ignore the context of a law or the practical implications of a decision. I think that's a conservative value - unless there's a really damn good reason to upend a well-understood meaning of the law or a clause of the constitution, we should continue along the set path. That path set expectations, and people conformed (or should have conformed) their behavior to those expectations.

What do you think of the Eastman plan to refuse to have Pence refuse to certify the election, send the certifications back to certain states, and have the Republican legislatures of those states certify alternate (Trump/Pence) slates? That plan relied on finding loopholes in the constitution and the statutes implementing it. It was a cynical effort to misread the object and purpose of the law without expressly violating any specific term of it. Pence's own counsel found it to be an unconstitutional stretch. I am not arguing the ultra-legalistic "Poindexter" (haven't heard that since I was a kid!) approach. The Eastman ploy was based on a cynical misreading of the constitution (as the California State Bar has found). Cannon's decision here is also based on a cynical "Poindexter-ish" missing-the-forest-for-the-trees misreading of the Appointments Clause.

Idiot who will wait for Jack Posobiec's two-sentence take on a well-researched and corroborated story. Which will no doubt pick on some phrase in the story that he can claim shows some kind of pro-China bias. In a story that is 100% anti-China.

Meanwhile, over at the MSM, a really good report by the NYT today on China's military base in Cambodia. It's fine and wonderful and all First Amendment-y to have all these Twitter hot take monkeys ready to comment on a story, but first someone has to unearth the story. Which is what that pinnacle of the MSM does here in a way that calls out China for its lies and military ambitions. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/14/world/asia/china-cambodia-military-warship-base.html

Do you see anything wrong in the "explosive" memory Mr. Draino is citing? It reminds that media company's reporters (Fox News?) to report that facts and not to speculate in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. I thought that was good journalism.

Another incredibly lazy "the MSM is against us" take. Here's the mainstream WSJ's take: The shooter alone is responsible for his actions. But leaders on both sides need to stop describing the stakes of the election in apocalyptic terms. Democracy won’t end if one or the other candidate is elected. Fascism is not aborning if Mr. Trump wins, unless you have little faith in American institutions. We agree with former Attorney General Bill Barr’s statement Saturday night: “The Democrats have to stop their grossly irresponsible talk about Trump being an existential threat to democracy—he is not.”

It isn't a good legal argument.

The first "leak"

That's real confusing for people like you who can't read the sub-headline? It's literally right there in the tweet: "The campaign has raised over $200,000 for the families of the victims who were wounded or killed." And Newseek isn't exactly an MSM source these days. Get over your persecution complex! I can't get past that sweaty bald head. Sorry.

Wow, pretty damning there Mr. "DC Draino" A news outlet reminding it's reporters to follow what they learned in Journalism 101.

That is probably true as a public opinion matter (and is obviously true as it relates to Republicans). But as a legal matter, the AG still had ultimate authority over Smith's decisions. He was a "special counsel," not the old "independent counsel." The decision is flat wrong as a legal matter given how this has always been interpreted, until Clarence Thomas's opinion (not the majority) a couple weeks ago gave her cover to do this. Another reason Thomas should have recused.

Check out Stepfanie's X right now! The nip slips are not accidental. NSFW. Thanks for giving her just a little more free publicity.

You mean I can't even watch Kung Fu Panda 4?

This is why I've been guessing Burgum. Who the hell would vote for him in 2028? He got like 1 percent in the primaries and that was because he was giving away gift cards to boost his polling so he could qualify for debates. No one allowed to get in the way of Don Jr. 2028 ... Because he's as unlikable as Kamala?

The thing I left out: they became deeply embarrassed by how close (and supportive by allowing him to talk freely for half an hour at a time) they were to Trump, and they've spent the last 8 years trying to make you forget that by their constant anti-Trump drumbeat. They were happy to be the Hannity & Wife of the Left. It made them the darlings of the liberal social/party circuit and they've loved it.

All of these are way too speculative. He was unusual. A bullied introvert. Bright but incredibly socially awkward, and an easy target for high school bullies. Disaffected, angry, heading down a loser path (why no college if he was smart?), finding some kind of solace in guns like so many other kids - an AR-15 as the great equalizer. I'm guessing we'll find out it started with an obsession with video games first-person shooters and then to the real thing. This is a sickness in society with teenage boys. Looking for a target. Could have been his school like so many others. But why not something bigger. Really, I think that's all there is here. Yes, I may be proved wrong, but I doubt it.

Morning Joe: I used to watch it every morning while getting ready for work. Not a particularly entertaining show, but I was well aware that the movers and shakers in DC watched it too, particularly the last hour. When Trump announced for President in 2015, Morning Joe was probably his largest single source of free publicity - what the Trump people started to call "earned media." They'd have him call in over and over again. They pumped up his presidential run (remember, Joe was a Republican then). I was never sure whether they did it for ratings/publicity or because they thought he brought something interesting to the conversation. Whichever, it was noticed and helped propel Trump as a real (not joke) candidate. They turned on him, at first by saying something vaguely anti-Trump (probably his damn fool co-host and soon to be wife Mika), pissing off Trump, and causing Trump to go all Trump on her, commenting on her recent facial surgery. That was the end. Suddenly Trump was the enemy. Mika drove Joe straight into the arms of the Democratic establishment, and the show took on a daily anti-Trump focus. I don't know what it did to ratings, but I do know that it drove me away from the show. Not because I disagreed (no surprise that I was and am anti-Trump) but because it was boring. Blowhard Joe going on 15 minute monologues about how awful Trump is with Mike shaking her head beside him. Just terrible TV with nothing resembling "news" that I ought to know because the policy makers in DC were watching too. So I kind of hope this is the beginning of the end for them. Blowhard egotist and faux intellectual daughter of a real intellectual who now exist mainly to get invitations to liberal social events.

Nutty decision. But not unexpected. Say what you will about some Democratic judicial appointees (and there are some very biased ones); it is clear that this judge is one of the most biased and incompetent I've ever seen.