Category: Uncategorized

On The Deficit: Hinderaker’s Endless Sophistry.

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We have mentioned many times before that John was nowhere to be found, with deficit complains for four years, as Tangerine tripled our debt. Crickets.

But let’s just stipulate that Hinderaker is a hypocrite — we all knew that, going in.

No — tonight, I want to point out that as he belly-aches about the deficit, he conveniently ignores that over a quarter of all the federal spending goes to defense-, and defense-related spending. That 1/4 of our budget… is larger than the next nine nations, COMBINED. China, the UK and Russia together are less than half of what we allocate to the US’s total.

Sure, we do a lot — but we could eliminate some weapons research, with Russia so taxed in Ukraine, and China’s economy in need of far more state subsidies… especially in its real estate sector.

We’d never cut troop pay or pensions… but that 25% clearly includes lots of waste. And the safety net programs John wants to attack, in total… are less than 10% of the total federal budget.

So — the truth is… he’s only interested in reducing spending for programs that help people of limited means… because he wants tax cuts on the people with more than $50 million in net worth.

In a word, he wants royal courts to watch peasants… starve. And die young with little or no health care.

But even he admits… fewer than 5% of all American voters agree with him.

Far more would increase taxes on the ultra wealthy rather than cut them.

So yeh — that’s all his piece is really about: pushing a fantasy that the very wealthy are being overtaxed.

No one buys your BS, John. Shut it.

Hinderaker Again “Forgets” That Palestine ≠ Hamas

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Once more, Hinderaker commits the fallacy of composition.

He does so, knowingly — and churlishly. As ever.

He knows “Palestine” is not co-terminous with “Hamas” just as from 2002 to 2008, he knew Muslim was not a circle of Venn diagram with Isis.

But it feeds his rabid GOP followers’ hatreds, so he just… lies.

Completely on brand; utterly… boring.

Y A W N.

Then he attacks (again!) a young environmental activist (now only 20 years old).

She’s still too young to order a hard drink anywhere in the US… but he needs — needs — NEEDS!… to attack her. [More than one side is at fault — no one side is 100% at fault… for 2,300 years of hostilities, John.]

He has admitted that at this same age, at Dartmouth, he was a Communist — and was arrested for taking over the administration building (with the rather whimsical / nutty notion that Dartmouth’s Chancellor could effect the end of “the police action” in Vietnam).

And at that point, we didn’t know about Cambodia / Kissinger. Just imagine if young John had known! “Colonizing imperialists” certainly would have been his rhetorical mantra. And he wouldn’t have been any more wrong than Greta — at 20.

These bitter old irrelevant coots at Powerline… all need a sabbatical.

Seriously — they just need to stop talking.

Altogether.

Out.

And Mirengoff Is Bleating That Justice Sandra Day O’Connor… Wasn’t Very Good At What She Did?! C’mon, Paul. Give It Up.

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Well… I can almost understand why Steve used to get so exasperated with Paul, back in 2021 to early 2022. [Clearly Sandra Day O’Connor outscored him at Stanford Law. Clearly.]

Paul is bent out of shape that people have vilified Henry Kissinger — in death — for his war crimes in life — and he’s likewise bent, that O’Connor is widely loved… precisely because her opinion in Casey (clearly a “correct on the law” decision)… preserved Roe v. Wade, for additional decades.

[C’mon Paul, why should a grown woman be required to get her husband’s consent to abort a cell line in her own uterus?! What if (for example) she KNOWS the cell line is not “of the father”?! She was required to seek permission — even as she divorced the man?! That is lunacy, but it was what Penn. was trying to do in Casey. Damn.]

And Sandra Day O’Connor said… “no, women have fully formed Fourteenth Amendment rights, even after they get married” — they do not become property of their husbands.

And Paul just dislikes that reality.

So, he tears into her, this afternoon — after death has closed off her ability to answer back. [Not that the gracious Justice would have ever felt compelled to answer a… such a provincial and small mind, like his.]

What a tool.

Just… what a… tool.

Hilarious! After Forcing Mirengoff Out — About 21 Months Later, Hayward Is Voted Off — Also.

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

I think that’s the right way to read this.

And also, now that he’ll have some other income starting — he doesn’t so much need whatever Powerline was paying him, likely per word, as a stipend.

As I say… what a kettle of fish.

Onward, grinning — but I am sure Paul Mirengoff (now the founding resident complainer), over at Ringside, is thrilled not to have to deal with Hayward’s over-sized ego — compared to whatever contribution he was making.

Yep. Out.

I Counted What Sounded Like Five (Or More!) Votes… To Crush The Sacklers’ Gambit.

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This is Bloomberg Law’s report, after listening in, as well.

And I agree — this one doesn’t sort itself readily — into the now tiredly-standard liberal/conservative buckets. I think the Chief Justice will lead (in favor of preserving due process of law) here — and only Alito / Thomas / Gorsuch might side with the Sacklers. But it is even possible that Gorsuch leaves Alito and Thomas as a minority dissent at 7-2. A victory for equal, and ordered, liberty under law. We shall see — here’s the bit ($$$ subs. req.):

…The US Supreme Court signaled a likely divide over Purdue Pharma LP’s $6 billion opioid settlement, as the justices weighed Biden administration contentions that the accord improperly shields the Sackler family members who own the company.

In a Monday argument that cut across the court’s normal ideological divides, some justices questioned whether the Sacklers should get the benefit of a legal shield when they haven’t filed for bankruptcy themselves….

Yes. I definitely see KBJ / Sotomayor / Kagan / The Chief as solid votes against the Sacklers’ nonsense — with even Kavanaugh and Gorsuch offering highly skeptical questions, and on due process grounds to boot, of the Purdue counsel. [Only Justice Barrett seemed relatively unbothered by the Sacklers’ gambit, so she’s a wild card. And we know Thomas / Alito are bought and paid for, on this issue.]

So… you never know — until the opinion bell rings. We shall, as ever… see, but (for now) I’ll say… “Vaya Con Dios“, Jamie Sprayregen. Onward.

नमस्ते

[U] Texas Wants… Fifth Cir. Ruling On Renewed Injunction Request… TODAY — But Fifth Was Just Served… THIS MORNING. Dang.

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As I said before — AG Paxton is not much of a lawyer.

That’s been well known — for… well, decades.

But just now on Monday morning, he asked, of a busy Fifth Circuit, after a complete loss — and now just starting on his appeal — that “a ruling is requested by: 12/04/2023. Date of service: 12/04/2023….”

All… after 100% losing on the same motion, just mid-last week, at the USDC level — on clear black letter federal law (well settled for seventy years, no less!) — law he does not dispute… applies to these facts. Dang. Good luck with that one, son.

And so, the able Clerk of the Fifth Circuit just advised the apparent neophyte State Texas AG Paxton, in a corrective letter, as follows:

…Any party filing a matter outside normal business hours (M-F, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) that may require the court’s immediate attention should call the emergency duty deputy and inform them of the filing, even if the matter does not qualify as an emergency under 5th Cir. R. 27.3. The emergency duty deputy can be reached at 504-XXX-XXXX [Redacted here]….

Hilarious.

UPDATED @ 2 PM EST — TX AG Paxton only has until this Friday at 5 PM, under a temporary administrative stay, to get a brief on file — and the CBP will oppose by then as well. Now you know, but that stay is very likely to be dissolved, by next Monday.

नमस्ते

Live Audio — Oral Argument In US Sup. Ct. — Sacklers’ Escape Hatch / Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Maneuvers…

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Here is the link. And… here is the CSPAN link — if the Supremes’ own link is too clogged.

Once we are rolling, I may drop some comments, below:

…Waiting on the “Oyez”

➢ We are underway. Counsel for US Bankruptcy Trustee Harrington now setting the table….

➢ Chief Justice Roberts is now questioning him….

➢ Justice Gorsuch is now questioning regarding “major questions” doctrine. . . “Congress doesn’t hide elephants in mouseholes”, says counsel for Harrington.

➢ And Congress was clear: this is not authorized by the bankruptcy statutes — so as a “major question”, Congress already answered it. The answer is “No” — to the Sacklers’ gambit.

➢ Justice Sotomayor is now asking about how an “opt-in” process would work. But the US Trustee is pointing out that the Sacklers must contribute ALL their assets, not just 15%, if they want to be released in bankruptcy. That’s clear federal law.

➢ Justice Brown-Jackson is helping the US Trustee… by saying this “isn’t it true — that this is more than just trying to “torture” the word “appropriate”… into it is “appropriate” for the alleged wrong-doers to keep ~$15 billion — when they won’t enter bankruptcy themselves….”

➢ In the end, the way this would horribly impact injured Canadians (by depriving them of rights under local Canadian law, in Canada — in injury lawsuits against the Sacklers, directly) might be what may control the Supremes’ thinking….

➢ The US laws cannot extinuish claims against the Sacklers’ that arise in Canada, by Sacklers’ billions in sales, of Oxy- in Canada — where the Sacklers DO NOT SURRENDER ALL THEIR ASSETS to the US Bankruptcy courts (for delivery to the injury plaintiffs, globally)….

➢ There is a “constitutional due process problem” where people who are not even being allowed to ask to opt out, are bound — by someone (i.e., Sacklers) that reaps the benefit of the laws that they haven’t submitted to, themselves, says Justice Sotomayor. She is correct.

More soon. Smiling….

नमस्ते

Oddly… Ironic, From Lloyd, Tonight…

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Billings-puss writes tonight about an act of terror committed in 2015. It was deplorable, true.

But he faults BHO 44 and the FBI — for not stopping it — in advance.

During Tangerine’s four years, over 643 people were killed or injured, in mass shootings. Most by whyte males, and many for racial or religious reasons. Not a peep from Billings-puss — about DJT 45 or FBI failures.

Most notably, he said nothing of the Las Vegas mass shooting: a whyte guy with multiple AR-15s and thousands of rounds… murdered 59 innocents — and injured over 520 people. Insane!

He was… silent.

But only now — December 2023 — he looks back eight years, and to one incident?!

He didn’t complain about Dylan Roof (at Mother Emmanuel — inside a church!), or that Smith a-hole who plowed his car into a crowd in 2018 in Charlottesville.

One might suspect it’s more about demonizing brown and Black people, for Billinspuss, based on the actual evidence, and his conspicuous… silence for four long years… about whyte domestic terrorist acts.

Yep. Out.

Hinderaker and Breitbart Make Patently False Parenting Claims — Off Of Dubious Data. Y A W N.

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Some times (actually, most times) John Hinderaker shades the data he cherry picks. But sometimes, he (and Breitbart) just outright… lie. This is one of those latter times.

The set up — Hinderaker quotes a deeply conservative think tank, the one that commissioned (i.e., paid for) a Gallup survey, designed by the think tank, itself. The questions clearly lead respondents to favor “conservative values” — in describing the mental health of their children.

But that’s not enough — for these jokers. They then… ignore the central learning of the actual data as collected. They ignore the one factor that MOST closely predicted whether children would, in adolescence, show signs of being unhappy — what they called “mental health problems”.

That single most important factor?

I’ve shown you the actual data, at upper right — in the graphic. It is whether the parents have a good internal relationship. Not, not, not whether they are “conservative” (as opposed to liberal). Note that the data on liberal v. conservative — almost completely falls inside the “fuzziness” range of each category… barely getting out of the realm of being statistically… meaningless. But the quality of the parents’ relationship is the single most important predictor (as the bottom graphic shows — and the two charts don’t appear until page 14 of the 16 page report — but they are right above and below each other). Which is to say that if you choose to report it the way Breitbart and John did — you’ve affirmatively chosen to lie about an already deceptively skewed study.

Here’s how any real data scientist would restate the observations these chuckleheads made:

…”As it happens, being raised by parents who self-report a low quality relationship with their partner is a much larger risk factor for mental health problems in adolescence than being raised in a low-income household with parents who did not attend college — and much larger than the small differences seen, due to the overall ideology of the household,” observed all competent adults — able to read studies with confidence levels….

Cheers, to you two chuckleheads!

Out — with Sacklers’ grilling due tomorrow at the Supremes, in the morning….

Just For A Complete Record — Bad Lawyering In Texas Edition.

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Ken Paxton, the AG (for now) in Texas, is not much of a lawyer.

But I will preserve here his seven page argument (for a complete history, of this lunacy) that for all the reasons on the clear black letter law (as opposed to the judge’s unsavory obiter dicta political speechifying) that USDC Judge Alia Moses DENIED him (and his keeper, TX GOP Gov. Abbott) an injunction last week — she ought to give him one… this week.

Yikes.

Who are these clowns?

Oh. Right.

These are the guys endorsing Tangerine for 2024.

Out.

नमस्ते