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In Which Paul Mirengoff… Channels Fox’s Laura Ingraham’s NBA Oppo-Racism…

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

But first, allow me to offer the obligatory “in fairness” disclaimer/caveat: Paul is more than occasionally the only remotely sane voice, on the boys’ website.

He (albeit belatedly-) acknowledged the gravity of Mueller’s findings; he promptly spoke up when Trump threatened people who were married to people from other countries (perhaps only because… he apparently is, as well)…. Most of all, he has made it clear — that he has faced reality, insofar as he knows that Trump will lose, and lose badly, in November.

But under the hood, he still evinces a deep discomfort with politically active pro athletes. [Except Drew Brees, of course. I wonder why, that would be…? I’ll let you decide, dear readers.]

The NBA has, as of today (per Paul), officially endorsed the notion that every player may replace his name, on the back of his jersey, with any political statement or slogan they choose.

I’ve mocked up at least one, for ‘Bronnie, Sr. (above right) — but the inset in the graphic is what he actually regularly warmed up in, in late 2016, IIRC. Maybe 2017… dunno….

This, Paul WILL NOT abide. “How dare the league allow Amendment, First rights of free expression to make an appearance on the floor, during the actual game?!” he screeches. Puleeeze, Paul — stop pearl clutching.

This is — of course — the same Paul who regularly complains that college kids are being “stifled — in their political speech” — when they call other students… the n-word. Or taunt LGBTQ students… or threaten violence against immigrants.

That’s pure free speech for “he — but not for… thee.”

Paul is both a coward, and a hypocrite — as he does nothing this afternoon to explain why he actually holds one content based standard for world class professional black athletes — and an entirely more liberal one, for college kids — to commit what are now clearly defined as federal hate crimes.

I’ll not wait for any explanation — it is all too clear — from the face of his prior on record remarks.

Res ispa, dude.

He just doesn’t want to be reminded that the athletes are — in literally every way — his “betters”.

Out; but not before I note that the below is a shot of the facade of one of the oldest non-Catholic churches in Chicago (Fourth Presbyterian, founded 1871, on Michigan Avenue’s glittering Gold Coast)… as I saw it at lunch today. Godly, indeed. Not “a symbol of hate“, at all, Mr. President — unless you yourself are a hater….

Hinderaker Is Angry That “Not Enough People”… Have Died Yet, In Minn. — Of COVID-19?!

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Here’s his inane quote, from yesterday, now:

“…Minnesota Department of Health data show that there were 278 Minnesotans hospitalized with Covid-19 yesterday, just 140 of whom needed ICU care. This was down from a peak of 263 on May 30th….”

He rambles onward, just the same… proclaiming that the models all predicted more cases and more deaths. For this reason, it seems as though his ass is chapped — like it was shaved with a dull razor, and now he’s been forced to squat in a bowl of gin(!)….

More directly, he chooses to simply ignore that (by his own admission) Minnesota was aggressive with its shut-downs, and mitigation efforts. They saved… perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 lives.

But leave it to John to claim a success by a Democratic administration… is in fact a failure — because not enough people got sick — and died.

Of course, the actual vitriol he is spewing… stems from the fact that he couldn’t easily get a haircut, or sit nursing a drink, inside a crowded public bar… or easily go sit in his office, gazing out the shiny windows — in downtown Minneapolis — for all of about two months. How Ayn Randian of him.

What a…whiner this guy is. His economic interest should trump the elderly’s right to live. Moron — malignant, at that.

Out.

John Is Right, About At Least THIS MUCH: “No One Cares…”

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Mr. Hinderaker’s already all-too familiar lament — from now to November 2020 (as it was in 2008 and 2012) is that “no one cares” — about how great his GOP candidate is.

He’s 100% right. But in this 2020 version — it isn’t that the candidate’s a bland, milque-toast beige non-entity of scant discernible moment… it’s that this candidate should be a convicted felon by now.

But it is this particular morning’s tidbit, I’ve come here to record, for history: John writes Trump’s “generated the strongest economy, probably, in American history….” That’s hilarious — and demonstrably false.

No… Trump inherited a bangingly-hot economy, from Mr. Obama’s eight years of repairing Bush/Cheney malfeasance and meltdown.

Moreover, Trump’s tax cuts are a form of payday loan “juice” — into the system.

We now face, going into 2021… an over $3 trillion US deficit. That is the worst in US history. The worst, bar none. And with a pandemic crimping the US economy, likely into mid-2021 (again due to the feckless Trumpians’ ignoring of well-established epidemiological science)… there will be no easy fix.

We’ve already raided (via Trump)… our collective childrens’ US government savings accounts, so Trump could claim a 29,000 handle on the Dow. [Obviously, a Dow at 29,000 largely benefited only the top five per cent of all US households, as the lower two thirds of American households, by net worth, hold virtually no equity investments. It was always about lining his cronies pockets, exclusively.]

He will lose — and lose, bigly — in November, but once again — an earnest, capable, thoughtful and seasoned Democratic administration… will spend perhaps a decade, undoing his damage to the US’s standing in the world, and (perhaps a little less importantly) our domestic financial system.

Hey Hinderaker: Please Worry More About Protecting Real Live Soldiers — And Less About Dead Stone Markers.

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John waxes… moronic again this morning.

He thinks “Democrats” will actually dynamite Mount Rushmore. He calls them hateful and unpatriotic. It is all part of his fevered imaginings, thus:

“…[T]here must be a few patriotic Democrats left. To those, I say: you don’t have to belong to a party whose members are twisted by hate. You can belong to a party that still believes in freedom and in America….”

Me? I’d prefer to support a political party whose free world leader DOESN’T tolerate and in fact reward the odious criminality of hostile government powers (nay, condone treason — against our troops)… as his tiny-hands officially feckless “policy“.

So… thank you, but no, John — hard pass — on the GOP/Trump treason cult.

Yeah… I STILL Don’t Care, Mr. Hinderaker.

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John complains impotently — in a (to-come) two part editorial “story” — about bigger businesses leaving social media advertising.

He claims it a left-driven (kow-towed?) “boycott of free speech” by companies like Coca-Cola.

Me?

I see companies saying they don’t spend advertising dollars any longer at sites which endorse, or amplify white supremacists’ views.

It is an economic decision to be sure — there is only a small fraction of the population (mostly without any real discretionary income, to boot) that identifies with the white supremacists’ thinking — or acts on it, in the US.

Occam’s Razor in action: the simplest explanation is correct: it is no conspiracy against “conservatives” at all — unless Hinderaker’s is an admission that all the conservatives he knows and travels with… are also avowed racists.

Whatever, John.

I. Don’t Care.

Onward, grinning slyly, southward.

Hinderaker: Unable To… Count… GOP Senators.

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John wrote tonight to claim that Senator Scott… is… something. Or another.

I can’t really tell if John had any point. It seems more a launching point, for a scree about how unfair it is that… there aren’t many (any) other black republican senators.

Let us speak plain: of the eight Black Senators since 1960 (putting aside the post Civil War Reconstruction-era south)… only two have come out of the GOP. In 60 years — only two.

Call me crazy, but I’d say Occam’s Razor would blame the GOP, not the Democratic Party — for the inability to appeal to, or elect people of color.

Here’s the US Senate’s official rundown, on its website — the topic. John wholly omits it:

“…To date, 10 African Americans have served in the United States Senate. In 1870 Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African American senator. Five years later, Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi took the oath of office. It would be nearly another century, 1967, before Edward Brooke of Massachusetts followed in their historic footsteps. Carol Moseley Braun broke new ground in 1993, becoming the first African American woman to serve as U.S. senator. In 2005 Barack Obama of Illinois became the fifth African American to serve and third to be popularly elected. Upon Obama’s resignation to become the nation’s first African American president, Roland Burris was appointed to fill the vacancy, becoming the sixth African American senator and the third to occupy the same Illinois Senate seat. Tim Scott of South Carolina was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2013, becoming the first African American since Reconstruction to represent a southern state in the Senate. He won a special election in 2014 to complete
the term and was elected to a full term in 2016. The appointment of Massachusetts senator William “Mo” Cowan on February 1, 2013, marked the first time that two African Americans have served simultaneously in the United States Senate. Cory Booker of New Jersey became the ninth African American senator when he won a special election to replace Senator Frank Lautenberg on October 31, 2013. Booker won election to a full term in 2014. Kamala Harris became California’s first African American senator on January 3, 2017, bringing the number of African Americans serving simultaneously to three and the total number of African American senators to 10….

I will note with pride that half of the six are from Illinois — and I personally worked to elect three of these fine people, if I include Kamala Harris (but not Roland Burris — a pure opportunist / carpetbagger).

So… yeh — John has essentially… no point. No point, at all.

Tim Scott is a man alone, on an island — an island… of his own making. He was trotted out to defend a completely craven police power grab bill — rather than the GOP Senate offering real reform, like that passed in the US House.

Precious. He is being exploited, but is a willing shill, too. Silly.

Re-Imagining Michael Ramirez, For Veracity, On Vote-Stealings…

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Once again, John Hinderaker posts one of Michael Ramirez’s well-drawn cartoons. He is wrong on politics, but a very accomplished artist.

So, to flip his from right, to left — I’ve re-imagined it, since in fact, it is Ivanka… and her Chinese trademarked electonic voting machines, that are actually stealing votes, as we saw in Georgia, last week — and the weeks before, in Florida local elections.

See this:

Onward — yep , I fixed for ya’ John, and Michael. Grin….

The Shockingly Tragic Human Cost, Of Ignoring Science — In Epidemiology…

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This, when coupled to a president who cannot “science” — at all… one who intentionally chooses no coherent policy, over just minute to minute, shoot from the hip, gut “instincts”… and we have achieved the worst record on the planet — bar none — in managing our outbreak, even though we are (theoretically, at least) the most “over-resourced” nation on Earth. [John Hinderaker, this is to your endless shame, as well — for lying about what was known, and failing to disclose that you in fact were completely unqualified to offer any opinion, at all… and now your fellow Americans will die for it.]

To be sure, Governors Abbott and DeSantis (both of whom, along with Hinderaker, earlier mocked Illinois’, and later, New York’s… efforts — both of which are seeing flat to declining totals now) bear much of the blame here, for killing excessive numbers of their own citizens… but the fish rots from the head. And Trump’s head is absolutely… rotten. From Politico, then — a bit:

…A pair of GOP governors on Friday moved to impose new mitigation measures in their states amid record numbers of new coronavirus infections, with both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordering bars closed and Texas placing new restrictions on other businesses the governor said were linked to the virus’s resurgence.

Texas and Florida are among around a dozen other states that have hit the brakes on reopening their economies amid a resurgence of the virus across the South and West affecting more than half of the states in the country….

This is the same as closing the gate, after the elephant has rumbled out — through its gaping opening. The magnitude of this tragedy is compounded by the fact that it was COMPLETELY foreseeable, and thus. . . avoidable. Disgusting.

नमस्ते

Cruel And Stupid Dept.: “Congress Doesn’t Hide Elephants… In Mouse-holes.”

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[What a cruel — and stupid — view, in the high-time of this pandemic.] I will link here (to preserve the record, for posterity) the stupidly illogical, and anti-textual arguments, from Team Trump — once again, to try to use about seven words in a multi-thousand page law — to declare the whole thing a nullity.

Forget for a moment that the Supremes’ task, so long as the law is constitutional in the main (as the Supremes have twice previously ruled) is to protect, and interpret previously-passed laws — yes, the job of the Court is to try to effectuate the intent of the Congress, not invalidate… the law. But forget that.

Just ask yourself whether the decision not to collect a narrow, particular tax (on a person or thing, in individual cases) is the same thing as committing an unconstitutional act, destroying the entirety of a thousand plus page law. Simple logic dictates it cannot be — putting aside all the long-standing black letter law, on the topic. Trump’s brief is a loser.

“…Congress, we have held, does not alter the fundamental details of a regulatory scheme in vague terms or ancillary provisions — it does not, one might say, hide elephants in mouse-holes….”

That is Scalia, writing for the Court in Whitman. The Trumpers won’t surmount common sense here.

[I will note that yesterday the Supremes dealt a narrow set-back, to what was long-standing “credible fear” hearings law, on immigration and asylum, but I do not have the capacity to cover everything here — and it is a narrow decision, to be sure. So I will focus on what is good — and what matters most.]
Onward, to a better tomorrow.

नमस्ते

John Was Wildly Wrong, On COVID-19… And, He Cannot Stand It.

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Here it is — John trying to mansplain away the fact that he was deadly wrong about COVID-19.

He was wrong because… SCIENCE.

And we aren’t even out of June. We are very likely to see more than 200,000 deaths before October — and perhaps by August — unless the alarming current spikes in Florida and Texas are arrested immediately with drastic measures. These are the red states that belittled the containment efforts, and about which John cheered (i.e., “against known science“).

Now the places that took it seriously, New York, New Jersey and Illinois as examples… are seeing slow returns… to a cautious normal.

Texas, though will now struggle perhaps for years.

We need a vaccine — desperately.

But John wants… magic math, also known as… fantasy — to explain away… a real pandemic’s effects. We will endure economic devastation precisely because old white men like John cannot face scientific realities, any longer — or even to this very night.

Out.