…and neither was Barack Obama. I eschew personality cults.
[Update a while later]
Trump as the disruptive president. The mess in Washington could certainly use some disruption.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
The IRS
Why won’t they comply with the Congressional Review Act?
Because like the rest of this administration, they’re corrupt lying political hacks who think they’re above the law.
[Sunday-morning update]
Related: If you think that the bureaucracy is the bulwark against tyranny, you should support Donald Trump:
…the bureaucrats — allied with the press, of course — will do more to check misbehavior by Trump than they’ll ever conceivably do to check misbehavior by Hillary. And certainly much more than they’ve done with Obama, who has weaponized the IRS, the EPA, the Department of Justice, and a host of other federal agencies, all the way down to the Park Service, with barely a peep from within the bureaucracy.
So what people worry about with Trump has already happened under Obama. And that’s part of the problem. Obama broke down and devalued a lot of political traditions in this country, to very little objection from the parts of the political class that matter. That opened up a hole for Trump. My main positive expectation for a Trump presidency is that he will remind people of why those political traditions were important.
They only think they’re important when a Republican, even a faux Republican like Trump, is in the White House. Trump also has the potential to arouse Congress to finally exercise and defend its own prerogatives. The Founders didn’t put in the impeachment power with the idea it would never be used.
I Side With…
Gary Johnson, and 74% Donald Trump (13% Hillary).
Of course, the quiz is based on what Trump says, not on what he’s actually likely to do, since no on, probably including him, even knows what that is.
[Update a few minutes later]
A theory of why Thiel supports Trump. Makes as much sense as anything else.
Settling Space
During the anniversary week of the first human moon landing, Eric Hedman reminds is that we know practically nothing about the effects of partial gravity on human (or any animal) health. This is a sign of how unserious we remain about human spaceflight.
Puerto Rico’s Crisis
Coming soon to a state near you?
The collapse of recklessly-managed state and local finances on the mainland will create a political crisis of far greater proportions than Puerto Rico’s struggles. Congress should heed Padilla’s advice and start pressuring states and localities to get back on track. It should also develop a framework for managing these meltdowns if and when they do occur (Will assistance be available? On what terms?) as they do occur, so as to avoid extended squabbling and gridlock when the rubber meets the road.
As I’ve noted in the past, a bailout of California should be done only on condition that it revert to territory status, and not be allowed to reenter the union as a single state.
#NeverTrump
What it means, and what it doesn’t.
Yes, that’s all it means. I am not going to support Donald Trump. The notion that non-support of Trump is support of Hillary is nonsense.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Will Trump win in a blowout? It could happen. I’ve never said he can’t win the election, just that he’ll be a terrible president. Hillary will be worse.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Hillary’s people “freaked out” by the polls. They’ve been and continue to be in denial about what a truly awful candidate she is. They don’t care about lies and corruption, but Americans do.
[Update a while later]
“‘Crooked’ means crippled for Hillary Clinton“:
Democrats…have been operating on the assumption that most Americans shared Clinton’s belief that talk of her misconduct was just more slander from the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Her inability to get ahead of Trump by a comfortable margin even though he spent the weeks after clinching his nomination going off on racist tangents is remarkable. The problem for her isn’t so much that he has risen—he is still stuck at the same low number that he’s had in national polls for months—as it is that she has declined or failed to gain ground.
Looking ahead, it’s hard to predict how a race between two deeply unpopular candidates will turn out. Trump’s undisciplined character and his alienation of elements of the Republican coalition and inability to appeal to non-white and young voters may ultimately cancel out Clinton’s weaknesses. But the one thing we know for sure is that the Democrats will nominate a crippled candidate. No amount of spending or spin can sell Hillary Clinton to the American people as either honest or competent.
Yup.
[Update a while later]
“Hillary managed her emails like [other] criminals I’ve known.”
Meanwhile, here’s a deep dive into her email mess from Ars Technica. One thing not mentioned; how did the classified info get from the SCIF to her server?
Artificial Sweeteners
Seriously, they not only taste bad, but they’re bad for you, and don’t help with weight loss. But they’re big business.
The Gaps In Hillary’s Email Traffic
No, there’s nothing “strange” about them. It’s straightforward destruction of evidence, for which this administration is determined to let her skate.
[Update early afternoon]
Hillary, the Democrats and the problem of trust:
…if you think promoting trust in government is important, you should nominate someone trustworthy. But there are other priorities, apparently, and they outweigh that trustworthiness, or we’d have different nominees.
The other way you promote trust is through transparency and accountability. Voters should be able to tell what politicians and bureaucrats are doing, and when those politicians and bureaucrats do wrong they should face real consequences. We’re not doing very well on that front either.
No, we’re not.
[Update a few minutes later]
The FBI agents involved with the probe had to sign special secrecy agreements. Gee, this doesn’t look like the fix was in to let her of the hook and they were worried about leaks at all.
The “Lunar Gift Shop”
Some Europeans say that’s the only place that Apollo visited.
@Lee_Ars It's hard for people to appreciate the degree to which Apollo copulated things up, in terms of space.
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) July 14, 2016
A Modest Proposal
I’ve long said that air conditioning was the beginning of the downfall of the Republic, because it made DC habitable, and attractive to all manner of power-hungry grifters.
Well, Glenn Reynolds agrees, and has some suggestions to allow our betters in the federal government to set a good example for the rest of the benighted:
…it’s hard to expect Americans to accept changes to their own lifestyles when the very people who are telling them that it’s a crisis aren’t acting like it’s a crisis. So I have a few suggestions to help bring home the importance of reduced carbon footprints at home and abroad:
- Extend Smith’s bill to cover the entire federal government. We have Skype now, and Facetime. There’s no reason to fly to meetings. I’d let the President keep Air Force One for official travel, but subject to a requirement that absolutely no campaign activity or fundraisers take place on any trips in which the president travels officially.
- Obama makes a great point about setting the thermostat at 72 degrees. We should ban air conditioning in federal buildings. We won two world wars without air conditioning our federal employees. Nothing in their performance over the last 50 or 60 years suggests that A/C has improved things. Besides, The Washington Post informs us that A/C is sexist, and that Europeans think it’s stupid.
- In fact, we should probably ban air conditioning in the entire District of Columbia, to ensure that members of Congress, etc. won’t congregate in lobbyists’ air-conditioned offices.
- Speaking of which, members of Congress shouldn’t be allowed to fly home on the weekends. Not only does this produce halfhearted attention to their jobs — the so-called “Tuesday to Thursday Club” — but, again, it produces too much of a carbon footprint. Even if they pay for the travel out of campaign funds, instead of their own budgets, they need to set an example for the rest of us — and for those skeptical foreigners that Obama mentioned.
Exactly.