This is all over the place but it's about 20 minutes and it is worth a watch.
Heiens' argument is not that novel, or at least would not have been 20 years ago, certainly not in Conservative circles, but a combination of populism, and students taught by todays teachers has blinded a whole generation to these realities.
One of the reason's for Trump being elected twice, is the quite well founded sense of betrayal that his followers have regarding the ruling class: i.e.: the managerial credentialled cadre that has run the U.S. and much of the world since the second world war and has become rather decadent at best and case studies in oikophobia at worst (see current events in the U.K.)
This is also the reason for the frothing levels of hysterical hatred directed at him by many on the right. Those of us who count ourselves as conservatives tend to deeply value the institutions and their trappings. and a great many in the comfortable class have no contact with or empathy for the suffering and in many cases sadistic humiliation that has been visited upon those that do not share their experiences.
Trump's own flaws have certainly not helped in this regard, but much of the complaining has as much to do with irrelevancies like fashion as any of his actual manifest shortcomings. Like it or not, Trump is a sort of Tribune of the Plebs, and the Plebians are what his loudest detractors hate more than anything.
BETCHA' DIDN'T KNOW....
Today is election day in Virginia.
On the ballot is this:
Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?
The wording is ....I haven't taken a civics or poly-sci class in years. I don't have access to the style guide...There's a technical/legal/academic term for this that
OH RIGHT!
It's BULLSHIT.
Sorry for the francophone digression but this amendment is Grand Theft State.
Constitutional amendments are NOT in anyway temporary measures.
The before and after if this gets passed is here:
If you are in Virginia and can legally vote please vote no.
We shall see how everything goes down in the general.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Apr 22 09:11:42 2026 (s6adZ)
2
To be frank, given all the mail in shenanigans, I'm astonished that it was as close as it was. This was a double-off-year special election which is something that Republicans are at a severe structural disadvantage at, and yet they almost pulled it off.
The dumbfounding ineptitude of the state Republican party should not be ignored here. Folks need to loose their jobs over the lack of campaigning for "No!" but just a hair under half the state was informed enough to go to the polls on a date there is usually no election to try and stop this.
This bodes well for future elections.
At least in other states.
For Virginians, however, the future is dark indeed. Spanberger and her team will soon control everything and when they do they'll be singing the song of their people.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Apr 22 10:51:05 2026 (dLZLE)
1
GPS in space, it maybe depends. Would definitely be a receiver design problem, if you can get the signal strength. I'm at the 'solves for four distances using a kalman filter' level of understanding, and I am pretty sure it depends on distances and speeds. (I don't actually know what a Kalman filter is yet.)
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Apr 1 17:53:49 2026 (s6adZ)
2
and I think these vehicles have been having helium leak issues at times, and there was some sensor malfunction discussions early on before they decided to go ahead with launch. Too soon to say anything.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Apr 1 18:00:42 2026 (s6adZ)
3
I think we might just be dealing with some very cautious people wanting to log every irregularity in the appropriate parts of the official record.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Apr 1 18:03:40 2026 (s6adZ)
4
Engine hasn't been burning the full time, those are CGI fuel rocket exhaust plumes I think.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Apr 1 18:04:52 2026 (s6adZ)
A Series of Links for Those Who Feel They May Be Suffering From Pollyanishness or Panglossianism
Nick Frietas, Mrs. Queen Bee, and, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn Some Heinz Guy With an Anime Avatar discuss the housing market. this is actually a very informative, comprehensive, well sourced, and well reasoned discussion.
Not recommended for people with anxiety or depression (01:49.31).
Rudyard Lynch presents a very good, well researched overview of the tensions on the subcontinent that flared up a few months ago. He goes into considerably greater detail than I did when I mentioned it back when it was happening. This is a topic that has had me concerned for a while and, while I had made comparisons to the situation and the first World War, Rudyard brings demographic data and a cultural/historical understanding that point out that the parallels are far from superficial. As a bonus he may help affirm that your transcendental fears are not misplaced. One thing he does NOT focus on is the fact that Pakistan's focus on tactical weapons for battlefield use potentially have a lower threshold for use and are sells secure from the terrorist cells that are endemic to the nation.
(NOTE: Bottlecaps will not help)
Dad Saves America has had a lot to say about "Luxery Beliefs". Now he interviews the fellow who literally wrote the book on this topic. Rob Henderson fails to disabuse the host of his concerns.
1
Bro, the dudes who wrote the regulations and theory for practice of nuclear education were mostly tedious detail oriented obsessives. We inherited a bunch of stuff that is good unless you want to do stuff fast without knowing in advance what happens, to see what happens. It ought not be surprising that there was some detail that could be understood as applying to a wasp nest, and that one of the autistic freaks involved with the investigation tracked that down, did the comparision, and recorded that detail.
Somebody was making a fuss about 'where are the wasps'.
My response was to want to joke about them living in assisted care on the moon. Which led to the thought that the NSDAP moon base is obviously part of NASA's area 420, where NASA's science missions are really directed from. So my self-diagnostics this week are positive for excess levels of silly.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sun Aug 3 14:01:17 2025 (rcPLc)
2
nuclear engineer, not nuclear education. My error.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Mon Aug 4 16:39:04 2025 (rcPLc)
Thoughts On Lists, Priorities, and Maintaining PerspectiveSarah Hoyt and Kim DuToit both have perspectives on the recent hysteria over the latest chapter of the Epstein debacle.
I urge you to read both in full. Mr. Du Toit has provided links as well to support his Hypothesis, (Which Mrs. Hoyt largely shares) that the sudden frenzy of screeching inchoate rage amongst the a certain hysterical wing of the right seems strangely timed to distract from several other nefarious deeds being investigated as well as distract from a full appreciation of the current administration's list of victories, which, while not sufficient in and of themselves with regards to the national debt and other issues the country faces, are surprisingly consequential wins if those issues are to be dealt with.
The first corrective action to take when moving in the wrong direction is to slow down. This is what is being done, it may not be enough (historical precedent indicates that the odds are against the U.S. saving itself) but it is an important first step.
As to the lack of Epstein List names being released, this list sat in the hands of a Justice Department infested with Obama's appointments and it is vanishingly unlikely that it has not been sterilized or further corrupted. Getting to the bottom of the matter, if at all possible, will indeed take a long time.
For now the priority has to be preventing such crimes in the future (to the extent such parasitic hedonism can be deterred) and saving the country from its enemies, foreign, domestic, and financial.
Thoughts on That Thing That IS NOT HAPPENING
Team Frietas has a lengthy discussion of the completely safe, non-combustible, and peaceful event that is going on now in Los Angeles.
They include some rather optimistic ideas of how this might blow up in Mexico's face, (though I for one am NOT optimistic).
I've linked to both of these recently, but this really is a good discussion (despite the occasional edgy rants by Christian Hines) and well worth one's time. Data Republican's information she's posting on X is eye opening.
I for one am glad that there is currently a continent between me and this mess, even as I anticipate that such separation will not continue much longs as riot season progresses.
I copy-pasted a screencap from another blog. Given the current image issues IDK if it will be visible, but it talks about the violence erupting in L.A. at the moment because Illegal immigrants are getting deported. The tweet(? what are they called now anyway?) also links to analysis by DataRepublican(small r) indicating that the organization organizing this is largely government funded.
Except for a few specific examples, mostly the U.S. Aid programs that have been taken up by the State Department the vast amounts of Taxpayer money that D.O.G.E discovered has been given to activist groups has not been stopped due to congressional inaction. However that is a real possibility. Secretary Rubio has indicated that about 12% of money allotted to U.S. Aid causes went to the actual causes, meaning that 88% went to....um....
Oh! That's a lot of information behind that "um". Let us have a moment of silence for the sacrifices made by deaf autistic girls in wading through all that data to find the truth.
There.
Now, the up-shot of all this that there are a whole lot of people who have been basically living on sinecures at taxpayer expense and a large number of very big activist organizations that have been funded with money looted from programs that are ostensibly government funded charities. The taxpayer money spigot is now, for the first time since this scam began, actually in very real danger of being turned off. The beneficiaries of this system, faced with loosing their sinecures and rent-a-mobs have always been unlikely to give it up without a fight. (and fight they will)
Heretofore this year, the weather has not been conducive to burning, looting, or murdering, but as we enter summer these beneficiaries of our taxes, who are essentially aristocrats, are likely to get VERY violent (or at least stir others up to violence) in order to protect their payouts and the power they purchase for them.
1
China and possibly Qatar funding domestic terrorism/insurgency means that some of the judges and other parties involved with protecting the US funding sources are maybe prosecutable as co conspirators.
On the reassuring side, hired hands are maybe less likely to be true believers enough to be willing to go to prison for the sake of terrorist acts motivated by their beliefs.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Mon Jun 9 08:33:39 2025 (rcPLc)
We Are Now In the Stage of Republican Governance
...where team "R" is on the cusp of, if not victory, at least major progress. This is the point where Republicans traditionally stop, reflect upon the hard fought political battles that got them this far, the hopes and dreams of their long tormented constituents, who might finally get a measure of what they've been promised since 1982, the awful consequences for the nation if they fail, and having so contemplated their journey, the stakes and their cause, adjust their ties, take deep breath, step forward with grim determination, step into a kiddie pool full of gasoline light it on fire and begin beating each other mercilessly with buffalo chips.
HOW THE F#%k CAN THIS HAVE POSSIBLY....HAPPENED.....um.....AGAIN?
But, those of us who have been through this before know that it's neither super-genius, nor the dark machinations of an Illuminati controlled M.I.C. Rather it's men with agency who believe in something strongly and have different opinions. Tyrannical movements tend to purge those with strong opinions and convictions. They rely upon the agreeable, the compliant, the front-of-the-class-kids who can be relied upon to follow every regulation and helpfully tell the authorities where the non-compliant people are. Despots rely on those who "just don't want any trouble" to guard the camps in which they collect those who dare say "No!"
This also means that tyranny has a major advantage, because they have much better discipline in their ranks. Theirs is not particularly good at innovation, but for pursuing the goals of the clusterB personalities that inevitably float to the top of the commodes that are most top-down, technocratic political movements, they are frequently superior. Despotism is, as Fisher Ames is said to have said..
...like a sleek craft, it sails along well until some bumbling captain runs it into the rocks. Democracy, on the other hand, is like a raft. It never goes down but, dammit, your feet are always wet.
In my experience (note: I am a focus group of 1) this has been the way things play out. The cLiberal, Libertarian, & Conservative, types have strong convictions and are individualists. The progressives have whatever the most recent encyclical from Blue Sky tells them their convictions are, and they are collectivists that crave being part of the group. Things will almost ALWAYS go smoother on the other side, regarding internal discussions...until it doesn't...and when it doesn't it's because their fashion oriented, herd-like mentality predicated against speaking up while the aforementioned Blue-Sky encyclicals compounded in an orgy of virtue signaling and fashionable one-upmanship into an avalanche of sub-optimalization and someone finally has the temerity to notice that they are going off a cliff.
So no. I'm not holding out some forlorn hope that this is not an epic mess. I've seen this happen too many times. My preferred candidate has never won a primary. This is par for the course and part of being the side that's more free.
This well and truly suck, but ifit does not result in utter defeat it can lead to better, more refined policies and better ultimate outcomes.
That up there is a pretty big "if".
There is no denying that this is a dumpster fire that has escalated because of the immense egos of two men whose discourse is rather less erudite, philosophical, and profound than we would like.
UPDATE: I'm ideologically and philosophically skeptical of tariffs as a concept. However, free trade is a two way street, and there are countries that have tariffs on out goods of over 200%. So I'm at least open to the concept.
However, a trade war, particularly given how shaky the global economy is right now, it a quite scary prospect, so there are good arguments for not picking at this scab right now.
On the other hand it is vanishingly unlikely that there will ever be a time to reset global trade to something sane that will not involve risk. This is akin to the conundrum cities face with getting rid of rent control. Trump is term limited and no other president is likely to pursue this with any degree of enthusiasm, so a whole host of counterarguments can be made that it's now or never.
On the gripping hand the people crying most loudly about this are not folks who have been free traders historically, but are people who seem VERY upset at having their rice bowls tipped over. Oppositional Defiant Disorder is not a valid political strategy, but when our tormentors are THIS upset by something, that something should at least be looked at closely. While it is more likely that they are enraged at the loss of their cushy sinecures and their many investments at our expense, it is actually possible that their very different perspective on reality might have given them an insight into something that is a blind spot for us. Both possibilities need to be looked at, but time is running out.
The future is an unlit road, we are driving down it with no headlights and the gas pedal on the floor. Let us pray that the ultimate destination is pleasant, for the drive is likely to be bumpy.
1
Lots and lots of change concepts right now are scary, to super scary. The problem is, 'somebody' screwed us over good with lockdown, BLM, and some other parallel disputes. Separately, one might be able to afford a negotiated and measured pace of political remedy. I can maybe walk away from my own desired to get my personal grievances remedied. But, the totality means that there is a faction that needs to give folks remedy in the form of accountability for other factions. It would actually be dangerous to Trump and Vance if they fail to quickly accomplish some form of decisive remedy. Tariffs are easier to do without breaking the constitution than many other things. The feds were originally funded on tariffs.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Apr 16 12:13:22 2025 (rcPLc)
Marc Andressen has been making the rounds with interviews lately, the two best and most informative can be found below. The Bari Weiss interview is, as is her wont, extremely comprehensive, and while not actively hostile she asks ALL the questions in a meticulous probing manner, very much like one would expect a highly professional reporter to conduct an interview (if one believed in such unicorns). Rogan does a good interview too, but in a more conversational manner.
Both interviews are long and informative, but necessarily cover much of the same ground, though the interviewers are astonished and offer follow up questions to different statements by Andreessen. Still, you can probably get by watching either one.
2hours 5minutes
2hours 40minutes
Both interviews cover the confusion, astonishment and horror that Marc Andreesen felt when the left, which had been so supportive of tech in the 90's and oughts, quite suddenly, in Obama's second term became pathologically anti-tech.
This is not hard to figure out looking at it from the outside and with a historical lens, but must be confusing in the extreme if one is on the inside.
The modern left runs on something that is best described as 'elemental smug'. In most of the rank and file it's not actually the toxic sanctimony of their leadership, it just an aura of a smug, self-assured confidence that the lefties are better, brighter and more creative than the filthy troglodytic plebs who dare contradict them or who don't get with their program with great verve and gusto.
Watch at least until Joe 's eyes roll back in his head and he says "OH MY GOD!"
This sort of thing happened in MOST industries. It's one of the reason that defense procurement is so incestuous. In the early '90s most of the defense contractors were concentrated in to a few huge conglomerates. The theory behind this was that it made them easier to regulate, It also allowed strict gatekeeping and the ability to play them against each other. I should note that this specific economic system, a modern, sort of mutant variant of mercantilism, has a name, and that name begins with "F".
For about 20 years, supporting tech made left leaning policy makers feel smug and superior, after all, progressives were theoretically for "progress" and nothing exemplified progress more than new technology. If new technology displaced the less educated that was surely tragic, and was an opportunity to shed some insincere tears signal one's moral virtue, but ultimately advances in tech that one had financed were an affirmation of one's superiority.
Then, in the early 2010s, tech stopped feeding the smug. First by empowering contradictory voices on the internet, then threatening the jobs of the gentry class as opposed to the peons. At this point, tech needed to be reigned in...as Mr. Andreesen explains to Miss Wise here.
(Watch at least until Bari says "WOW!")
Andreesen seems genuinely confused by this, all of his friends in the DNC used to be so pro tech, but I think that the answer is simply that the Dems did what they have always been trying to do since 1912 (with some noble attempts at change in '60 and '76) which is a technocratic paradise for pencil pushers (and hell for everyone else).
Pack vs. Herd
An extremely thoughtful, knowledgeable, and readable essay on the two broad types of group dynamics that humans engage in can be found over on Unfolding the World.
I have little to add except to say that it is considerably more fair-minded in its look at this issue than most analysis we get these days. Teams and groups both have their places and uses, but most who opine on the topic in current year are convinced that one or the other is evil, and the other is a universal panacea. Such rantings are not helpful. The linked article is.
That South Korean Thing
The pithiest take on the abortive Marshall Law declaration in South Korea I had seen was actually by Pixy, who described the situation as the Korean president having "stripped a gear somehow".
Pixy's take is not far off. However, Nick Frietas and crew have a discussion of the matter that is the very antithesis of pithy, but is quite informative.
Wow.
I've been pretty exhausted the last few weeks, with medical issues, family emergencies and being run into the ground at work. it's been challenging just to keep to a schedule of anodyne rants and lamentations regards my poor video game skills as a cartoon muppet on the internet, let alone do research for thoughtful posts. I've also been quite blackpilled of late, what with assassination attempts, my own trepidation regards the less bad candidate, and what to me were grim portents with regard to polls and societal trnds.
Trump did partially allay my fears by reaching out to a diverse cross section of american right and left-wing polity, whose only common thread is that they are a bit crazy and have been rejected by the establishment, so I did not hold my nose this time when I voted for him against the horrid and strangely vapid politico he was running against. However, I had little hope that the cultural and media headwinds could be overcome.
OMG.
He won the popular vote. HE WON THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE! And did both so convincingly that it seems unlikely that any new surprise pallets of ballots can reverse this.
I'm keeping my head down as I'm surrounded by very angry people at work and in my neighborhood, but I am secretly quite pleased at the moment.
Time will tell if his dream team of eclectic intellectuals, visionary industrialists, and entertaining whackaloons can deal with the myriad issues the country faces, some, like the debt, seem unlikely to be solved by someone of Trumps predilections and temperament, and others, both economic and military are quite challenging to anyone, even someone with Trumps negotiating skills. But the one thing I am sure of is that Trump and his happy band of lunatics will TRY to make things better.
And that is a vast improvement over the current situation and a white-pill I did not expect.
UPDATE:
Bill Whittle implores us to take the high road and facilitate the nations healing. This is an excellent video, watch it in full.
It behooves us to remember that the other side is very much where we were 4 years ago when the rug was pulled out from us. They are more emotional, hence their histrionics rather than the quiet despair that set in for us, but the grief they feel is genuine. Most of their rank and file (as opposed to their leadership) really do believe their sides rhetoric and are genuinely confused and scared.
(of course SOME thoughtful snark is still allowed)
1
Gloating is not necessary, because watching the best part of elections, i.e. the recriminations, start flying will fill the need very nicely.
Posted by: cxt217 at Wed Nov 6 19:05:39 2024 (ZLF73)
2
First off, great to hear from you 'Muppet. I was beginning to wonder if everything was okay.
Okay, Nothing I'm about to say should be taken to mean I would support in any way inflicting the J6 and Trump show Trials or rampant abuse of Gov't power on the losing side. I oppose that.
With that said, I don't want to hear from people about "Take the High Road." We did that during the prior Trump years. We did that during the TEA Party years. We even did that during the W Years. It's never been paid in kind. It's always been taken by our adversaries as an opportunity to walk over us and use us like a cheep suit. In fact I would say that taking the High Road is part of what has lead us to our current pass as it emboldened our Adversaries to believe there would never be consequences, so they could do to us what they wanted. No More.
This go round, we need to break them. Break their hope. Break their will to fight. Break their their belief they are the future and leave them on the ash heap of history they sought to consign us to.
The opportunity to do this is there. With a clean sweep and a slim advantage in the Courts, plus the Dems facing an almost certain power vacuum at the top and a Game of Thrones to see who survives to lead them, plus Hollywood imploding in on itself as the cultural touchstone, there is opportunity to rebuild everything outside the grubby paws of everyone from the Obamas and Clintons through the McConnells and McCains and all the Power 'Elites' and Faceless Illuminati Bureaucrats. But we must be prepared to take it. Our Adversaries picked a knife fight in a swamp, we shy away from it not just at our own peril, but our descendants and successors peril. So no, do not take the High Road, but Rage Against the Night until that dieing light of Freedom burns bright again.
Posted by: stargazera5 at Thu Nov 7 17:54:01 2024 (KA0tm)
3
Stargazer5, I do not want to become the monster, as that makes the whole exercise worse than pointless, but you are correct that mercy has not been reciprocated. For one thing, Hillary Clinton walks free today because Trump did NOT "lock her up".
However, I am from the southeast and know what happens when an effeminate thirst for vengeance takes over and stymies the need to build bridges and heal. Lincoln's admonition to go forward "with malice towards none, and charity to all" did not survive his assassination at the hands of a Democrat-sympathetic actor. Long after reconstruction, the south was not allowed to prosper for a century with knock on effects to the overall economic strength of the U.S. Additionally the misplaced resentment fueled the darkest angels of the losing sides nature, which with the death of the "40 acres and a mule" proposal to the Homestead Act, left the African American part of our population far less liberated than they should have been, even after the healing began in the 1950s and 60s.
There are parts of the right that have been truly tormented by their opponents and like all victims of trauma are inclined to react in unproductive ways. The sad fact is that those tormentors don't think that they've done anything wrong, indeed are convinced that they have been been kind. The cultural divide between the two is astonishing, approaching the historical examples of completely different cultures that have come to cross purposes. The two sides truly don't understand each others most basic motivations. To say this has the potential for much discord is quite the understatement.
SOME examples have to me made to be sure. The Lawfare in particular, as well as the collusion with foreign governments (the false accusations of which led to Trump's impeachment), but we must not be sadistic and have to be meticulously fair.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Nov 7 19:14:21 2024 (3NtfN)
4
I'm mixed on the high road/vengeance bit myself. I'm currently of the opinion that if our defeated enemies show any sign of reflection and acceptance, we can take the high road. If they dig in, keep trying to prevent Trump from actually doing anything as president, going after anyone remotely connected to him... well then, time to make the rubble bounce. And so far, that looks like it's the way we'll need to go.
I very nearly broke my self-imposed rule of "no politics in my Facebook posts, stay underground" when a friend posted something to the effect of "we lost, but we're going to accept it, and that's the difference between us and them." I so badly wanted to ask him if even knew about the inauguration riots in DC in 2016...
Posted by: David Eastman at Thu Nov 7 20:21:39 2024 (aAyxl)
5
I'm not ready to say "water under the bridge" to the people who kept calling us Nazis and Fascists and everything else they could think of. And the last time we were conciliatory and "Shared power" with the dems because we were sorry we beat them, and put them on committees as chairs, they completely shut us out by way of thanks.
We know exactly how they would have acted had they won. there's a difference between being the Better Man and being a sucker.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Nov 8 21:08:23 2024 (nk1Z+)
6
The failure to follow up "Lock her up" with action and instead Take the High Road is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Instead of Taking the High Road, Trump should have opened up a Special Council to do a RICO investigation of the charges, Yes, spare Hilary if we ultimately must. But force her and Bill to sacrifice their middle management to protect themselves. Expose the corruption to the light and destroy Clinton, Inc. The Clintons were the most Machine Politicians of the last century, and if it was broken up in 2017/2018, then The Clinton Machine wouldn't have been available to play it's part in the... oddities of the 2020 election. Taking the High Road also carries a Price, and the 2020 election was a portion of that.
Posted by: stargazera5 at Fri Nov 8 21:50:56 2024 (xnpli)
Well, this is one of those posts that I've tried to type several times but it just gets me depressed and afraid.
I've noted before my misgivings about Trump. However, if one wants to beat him, one needs to make the case, to the American people.
Given Trumps manifest flaws, that ought not to be hard.
Simply ask"Are you better off now than you were....."
Oh.
I guess it IS hard. Golly!
Well, one still needs to make the case.
That's not what the Democrats are doing.
They are trying to take out the front-runner in the current election by lawfare in the manner of a Banana Republic.
This is particularly galling as, despite the chants of "Lock her UP!" Hillary was shown considerable magnanimity, despite claiming for 4 years that her election was stolen by Russia and in spite of the fact that the charges against her credible, easy to understand, already proven, and were quite clearly done with malice aforethought.
Trumps charges on the other hand seem to be pretty much Bullshit.
Yet he is going to be sentenced Next Month, quite possibly to prison. greatly handicapping his ability to run for office. I noted this in my Myriad Misgivings About Trump post noted above, but I had assumed that they'd find something legitimate, not have a Judge instruct a jury that they need not agree on a crime, and scream at a witness who brought exculpatory evidence.
The full horror of this verdict and the bizarre, Frankinsinian nature of the case is pointed out eloquently in this post by a PHD in Statistical Genetics who is not a Trump fan but is horrified by the potential death of the Republic.
"Such drama!"
"Death of the republic" sounds absurd to people who have lived in the firstiest of first world countries all their lives, and never seen what happens when a nation's politics becomes a blood sport. Surly it would have seemed absurd to the citizens of Rome, who had been franchised members of a republic in its 482nd year that the splashes in a small estuary on the west coat if Italy could bring that Institution to an end.
Caesars crossing of the Rubicon came about in part because politics in Rome had devolved into lawfare. Caesar (and Sulla before him) were caught in legal traps by their political opponents that had the potential to invoke financial ruin or death. Both men decided to take control rather than turn themselves in. These two fiascoes destroyed the institutions that held the Republic together. It could only be run by force after that.
What we have seen with Trump in New York has the potential to become precedent and that precedent plays out every day in many of the less fortunate countries around the world, where the loss of power is likely to come with legal troubles, imprisonment and/or death. Such an arrangement is not conducive to anything other than dystopia.
So:
What do we do?
I have no idea.
I have a degree in history. Countries that go down this path go to dark places. Those that have done so and been consequential enough to have major international rivals tend to exist only in history books.
Newt Gingrich...(who is not looking well) has some thoughts. Some thoughts are funny, some are terrifying, but he does give a good presentation on what needs to be done, (less on HOW to do it)
We are on the brink of something REALLY bad.
We've been so comfortable for so long that most cannot conceive of it.
We don't HAVE TO tread down that path.
But we have to know we're on the path; that we might leave it before we no longer can.
UPDATE: More thoughts on the larger matter from one of the most impressive women of our age. This piece dovetails more closely with this recent post, but says everything that post did, better.
1
The die was cast in this way, pretty far back, actually.
January 12th, 2021, is the date on a certain letter by heads of law schools. Paul Caron, the nominal Republican lawyer who had blogged for so many years about Obama's tax scandals, signed it, and was proud of having done so. At best, it is a case of faculty bureaucrats so specialized, that they were unable to take a step back, put on their generalist hat, think about what they were implying to the public, and say nothing.
It is perhaps reasonable, in a novel situation, to be unable to find a formula addressing it in some textbook.
But that no more than around 1/4 of those bureaucrats said 'that is interesting', and found some boffin professor to tell them 'you should say nothing instead of making that statement' says some terrible things about the quality of hiring and training.
Which of course implies enough very badly trained lawyers and judges that you would find some idiots who would screw up on persuading the public instead of abandoning a given effort to 'win' by playing manipulative word games.
Yes, seeing it proven is another thing.
Arguably the universities have been failed for years, the Republicans are seemingly still in denial about fixing them, and we will have the risk of being unable to sustain or achieve peace so long as we have enough commies around.
Yet, I can see hope in the things I do not know. We have an additional visible issue, that does not require some long complicated explanation that I screw up some of the time.
Conservatives may want a serious remedy, that will put a stop to this crud, and restore peace quickly. But, they will also deliberately listen to moderate proposals, including ones that they previously did not have time for.
Our choices to act in ways that the left cannot foresee are advantages. The opposition also have profoundly unreal models of human behavior deep in their fastest and most certain intuitions.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Jun 5 20:43:37 2024 (rcPLc)
2
Looks like the YT link is just to YT, no video as part of the URL.
Posted by: Rick C at Thu Jun 6 01:44:25 2024 (BMUHC)
3
I can't even get YouTube to open in Firefox at the moment, so they might be having issues at their end.
Posted by: Siergen at Thu Jun 6 09:21:42 2024 (MsSHC)
4
Thank guys. I'd missed it. I think I was looking at some cache artifact.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Jun 6 12:38:34 2024 (3NtfN)
Very Cursory Thoughts by a Layman on the New York Situation
My opinion of Donald Trump is summed up here. I think he's crass, ethically fraught, and unlikely to win. However, if one wants to beat him, one needs to make the case, to the American people.
That ought not to be hard.
However, the Democrats have taken his 2016 success as an affront and are trying to destroy Trump via lawfare. They are attempting to keep him off the ballot in several states (an unprecedented bit of chicanery not seen since the lead up to the civil war). And in New York, they are attempting to destroy the man for the crime of existing.
Specifically, they are fining him 355 million ( now over$400 million) Dollars for allegedly overvaluing his properties, in order to secure better interest rates for loans. While judgement has been reached, I say "alleged" because not only did the banks allegedly defrauded by this alleged overestimation actually testify ON TRUMP'S BEHALF in the matter, and denied that they had been wronged in any way, but the judge summarily declared Trump guilty. Now he is being charged interest every day he does not pay the fine, despite the fact that the ruling is being appealed.
Some idea of how bad this is is that what Trump has been accused of is such established past practice that real estate developers, even those who dislike Trump, are fleeing the state because this seems to be such a bullshit verdict, based on politics, & in an era of cancel culture that's a real threat.
The purpose of this is clear, bankrupt Trump, and make it impossible to win the election. This is third world level crap and it unleashes a huge Pandora's box when such a fine, so completely out of line with sentencing guidelines is leveed due to political animus.
The results of this are likely to be quite dark.
When the sum total of the law becomes " I think he's bad! GET HIM" society does not become better. The history of my own part of the U.S. (the southeast) is illustrative of why this is, but it has rarely been articulated so eloquently as by Paul Schofield here...
1
Yeah, this was obvious from around January 12th, 2021, when a bunch of law school heads signed a letter that incidentally impeached some of its own claims, and invented a novel and wide reaching theory of professional liability.
Every day that those people do not resign adds further credibility to the notion that they have decided to conspire to violate civil rights of voters, and that JDs will not fairly act as agents in resolving disputes by litigation.
That was in my view more or less the death of the University, and a fundamental reordering of how we need to think about professions. I have been appalled at how few people, seemingly, are doing that analysis.
I'm actually fairly optimistic about things.
I mean, it is not good, but it is very clear now that the basic fundamentals have been a bit bad for a while. There are no short, fun routes to an excellent state of affairs.
The more we can persuade that some judges are crooks, the more we can persuade to pay closer attention to state politics, and to oversight over public universities.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Fri Mar 1 23:48:16 2024 (r9O5h)
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