Triumphantly riding into the Middle East on a unicorn.
It’s frightening to contemplate how close this guy came to being president.
On the other hand, it would have been a Carteresque single term, and we’d have probably been spared Barack Obama.
Triumphantly riding into the Middle East on a unicorn.
It’s frightening to contemplate how close this guy came to being president.
On the other hand, it would have been a Carteresque single term, and we’d have probably been spared Barack Obama.
In a sensible world, Randall Munroe would have just put a lot of “journalists” out of a job.
Not all that stunning, really, to close observers. I assume he calculates that he’s already gotten as much political mileage as he needs, or is likely to get, from his faux association with Lincoln.
If Barack Obama were in the private sector, he’d be prosecuted for fraud:
Justice Department guidelines, set forth in the U.S. Attorneys Manual, recommend prosecution for fraud in situations involving “any scheme which in its nature is directed to defrauding a class of persons, or the general public, with a substantial pattern of conduct.” So, for example, if a schemer were intentionally to deceive all Americans, or a class of Americans (e.g., people who had health insurance purchased on the individual market), by repeating numerous times — over the airwaves, in mailings, and in electronic announcements — an assertion the schemer knew to be false and misleading, that would constitute an actionable fraud — particularly if the statements induced the victims to take action to their detriment, or lulled the victims into a false sense of security.
For a fraud prosecution to be valid, the fraudulent scheme need not have been successful. Nor is there any requirement that the schemer enrich himself personally. The prosecution must simply prove that some harm to the victim was contemplated by the schemer. If the victim actually was harmed, that is usually the best evidence that harm was what the schemer intended.
Of course, there’s nothing new about that. Social Security has been a Ponzi scheme since its inception.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I would note that there is only one constitutional remedy to a president who engages in criminal activity. The Republicans should at least contemplate it as a potential campaign issue next fall, as the president’s poll numbers continue to tank.
Some depressing thoughts on the state of the nation from Roger Kimball.
Five reasons it’s a second-rate superhero franchise. I never liked it much in the comics, either.
Some ruminations on technology and advertising.
Yeah, I’m getting caught up on my Lileks — had a busy week.
The latest installment. Lileks watches so you don’t have to. Also brings the funny.
Only 65% disapprove? What’s wrong with the rest of them?
[Update a while later]
It occurs to me that this coming January will be the seventh anniversary of when the Democrats first put their boot on the neck of the American economy.