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Frum: Comparing Trump (Unfavorably) To William Jennings Bryan

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Whopperline-Bryan-1910-Trump-2016Of course the parties are reversed since 1910, but so too have many of the salient positions on the issues of race-relations, civil rights, immigration, income equity and free trade, like-wise since then.

Overall, I’d say this former speech-writer for Bush 41 has hit it… spot on. Here’s the piece — and a bit:

“…In the [highly-likely] case of a Trump defeat, surviving Republican officeholders and party leaders will find themselves next year absorbing an amazing result: Their historic base among the better-off and better-educated will have overwhelmingly deserted them. Their yearned-for growth in support among more affluent and ambitious nonwhites will have receded still further away. And their newly expanded base among angry and alienated downscale whites will have cast votes for a set of policies repugnant to those theoretically tasked with trying to implement them.

After November, the outlook of the Republican elite may well be captured by the grim joke told by Bertolt Brecht after the 1953 Berlin uprising: “Would it not be simpler if the government simply dissolved the people and elected another?” Like the post-Bryan Democrats who turned for support from Bryan’s Protestant countryside to Al Smith’s Catholic big cities, the post-Trump Republicans may focus their attention on their lost upmarket and hoped-for minority votes and turn their backs on a working-class base that would be assigned the blame for the 2016 debacle.

There would be some fairness in this….”

Indeed. We may be witnessing the end of the GOP — even though it will retain its same name — for at least one more election cycle. It has lost its way, truly. Hmmm… Maybe Trump will end life as a fire and brimstone preacher. Maybe.

Mr. Hinderaker: Vote Trump Because… WHY?!

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Whopper-Trump-Dollar-2016 As I said back in April of 2016, John Hinderaker is now a prisoner, of sorts — of his bargain with this particular devil — a devil he knows he should never have supported.

In context, Mr. Hinderaker this morning makes his best (and only real) appeal to his remaining readers — for Trump.

This is it: He’s not Hillary Clinton. Well — that’s a gem of parsimonious honesty, if not persuasion. The quote:

“…Donald Trump has many faults as a presidential candidate. You don’t need me to list them for you. But he is not Hillary Clinton….”

Yes. And that is precisely why Mrs. Clinton has opened new and sizable leads in Colorado, Virginia, Wisconsin and North Carolina — each a state that even Republicans concede Mr. Trump must carry, now. Even if the Pence pick for Veep were to tip Indiana his way — he faces now-nearly insurmountable math.

That’s reality. But do throw your money away, all you nutty hard-right zealots — give it to the “pumpkin in a suit.” Maybe he’ll open another (allegedly very shady) for profit real estate “college” for you, after the election — and he is out of politics.

Uh-huh.

For Mr. Hinderaker — A “White Boy Privilege” Poem — From His “Betters”

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…And at perhaps a fourth his age, to boot. Impressive.

Mr. Hinderaker just suggested that the Notorious RBG isn’t in full possession of her senses. That’s his explanation for her earlier Trump remarks. I never heard him say that about Justice Scalia — to wit:

Interesting that Mr. Hinderaker feels no need to make a similar assessment to explain why, in 2004, Justice Scalia felt it was “okay” for Scalia to order his federal accompanying officers to destroy all the present reporters’ recordings of his racially charged public speech, at a high school in Mississippi. I guess it must just be both of their white boy privileges, in full effect. After all, the RBG was telling the truth — and doing so not in a public speech, but in the context of an interview.

Even so, I am glad she acted as the bigger, better person, and called her remarks ill-advised and intemperate.

Okay — now, here is a bit of the poem I promised John (along with a full video of it, below that):

…Dear white boys: I’m not sorry.

I don’t care if you think the feminists are taking over the world, that the Black Lives Matter movement has gotten a little too strong, because that’s bulls—.

I get that change can be scary, but equality shouldn’t be.

Hey white boys: It’s time to act like a woman. To be strong and make a difference. It’s time to let go of that fear.

It’s time to take that ladder and turn it into a bridge….

Indeed.

If Mr. Trump Is Going To Complain About The “Notorious RGB’s” Remarks…

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Whopper-Trump-Ginsberg-2016

Powerline has worked itself into a bit of a froth this morning, on the above topic.

Well… if we are going to read the canons of judicial ethics to go beyond public speaking, and apply to simple interviews — as the canons as written really target only public speeches, and campaigning — that is, endorsing or opposing — then we should probably all point to these Antonin Scalia remarks — at a public speaking engagement at Georgetown Law School — a few years ago:

…Being at the heart of controversy is familiar territory for the outspoken jurist. Last month, Scalia drew criticism for remarks to a group of Georgetown University law students in which he suggested the push to protect certain minority groups under the Constitution could just as easily apply to child molesters.

“It’s up to me to decide deserving minorities?” Scalia asked. “What about pederasts? What about child abusers? So should I on the Supreme Court (say) this is a deserving minority? Nobody loves them….”

final-scal“In addition, Former Justice Antonin Scalia, who died this year, was often the target of demands for apologies for his acerbic comments from the bench or in speeches….

They generally did not materialize, though the justice did apologize to reporters in 2004 after a deputy federal marshal ordered them to destroy recordings of a half-hour speech by Justice Scalia at a Mississippi high school….” — NYT reporting.

Destroying records — belonging to the press — of a sitting Supreme Court Justice’s own public speech remarks?

Well…

It strikes me that this sort of very public speaking (against an entire class of protected persons, under the Fourteenth Amendment — and by that I mean people of color) is more demeaning of the Court’s role in our system of ordered liberty than Justice Ginsburg voicing her grave reservations — in the context of an interview for a book about her life — over a politician (she is free to voice her views of politicians, after all — as was Justice Scalia) — and the salient fact that Mr. Trump refuses to disclose his tax returns.

Update — 07.14.16: The Justice has expressed regret for her remarks, saying they were intemperate and ill-advised. That should be plenty enough to end this. Not that Mr. Trump is likely to let it die.

But I guess the far right sees it the other way. Okay. Trump will lose in a landslide, and it will ultimately be of no moment. Namaste.

Not Reactive — Just Plain Truth.

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MRK-MLK-2016In a brief reply to comments made today at Powerline — about my own views, and my own upbringing, and my education (or perceived lack thereof), and my “treason against my race” (whatever on Earth that might mean), and my chosen profession — and even (trivially, I think), my age. . . I’ll simply let my President answer.

Our 44th President did an amazing and admirable job of balancing — of seeking to weave these discordant threads — the heart-breaking events of the last ten days or so — into a rich tapestry of emerging unity today, in Dallas — but we clearly have a long way yet to go.

Do watch it all — at this link, but here are a few of the best moments, in my opinion:

Now you know. And Namaste, to all of good will.

Finally, to those who would count me as an enemy — I would not so count you.

We are not as divided as we seem. I trust Mr. Obama on that. You should, too.

Force Need Not Be Lethal To Be Discriminatory — And Wrong.

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whopper-alt-nyt-harvard-hinderaker-debunked-2016Over the weekend, Mr. Hinderaker wrote that “Black Lives Matters” is a movement founded on “a lie“.

With an all too typical paucity of evidence, he makes this claim based on his own analysis of police shootings of black and white citizens, from one year of data from The Washington Post — he claims, anyway.

But he only considers lethal encounters — where the citizen is killed. So he engages in a “straw man” fallacy. His straw man falls, but so too does his claim — when more of the data is considered, and sensibly so.

As the New York Times made clear this very morning, and as my graphic at right (derived from Professor Fryer’s Harvard study — referenced in the article) reiterates — the vast bulk of the ten year longitudinal evidence confirms that significant “use of force” by at least New York City police officers is meted out in a significantly disparate (i.e., racially discriminatory) manner — even after controlling for types of escalated, and non-escalated encounters.

So — again, Mr. Hinderaker tells… a lie. A whopper, in fact. Now you know.

Nothing new there, though — and after the servers at blog.com website are resurrected, I’ll move all the four years’ of those historical posts over here — as a solid back-up.

 

Well, This Is… PREPOSTEROUS…

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Whopperline-Hinderaker-Comey-Breathlessness-2016Mr. Hinderaker tonight writes (simply breathlessly, in “Can Hillary Survive?”):

“…As the campaign wears on, and as she grows ever more shrill and desperate, and her health increasingly becomes a question mark, I predict that Director Comey’s denunciation of Hillary’s conduct as Secretary of State will be seen as a turning point in an election that Hillary won’t win.

Hey, I am an optimist. Check with me in November and we will see how that prediction turns out….”

Again — I’ll take the other side of his bet.

Mr.Trump is completely repugnant to over 65 per cent of the electorate. There is no math for him in key states he must win — to have even a small chance of being elected in the general. There just aren’t enough racists left in America, it seems. Smile.

That’s A Bet I’ll Take, Mr. Hinderaker…

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Whopperline-Brexit-Clinton-2016-300x240This Sunday morning, while purporting to sneer at people who (he claims) don’t understand Brexit — Mr. Hinderaker suggests that Brexit is in large part about anti-immigration sentiment — and that this will lead to a Trump presidency. I’ll take the other side of that bet.

In fact I agree with his premise, but he’s drawn an illogical conclusion from it.

That is, I agree — the Brexit “leave” vote is largely about anti-immigrant sentiment (sadly, in my opinion) — but it actually plays to Mrs. Clinton’s stronger hands. She leads by double digits this morning, nation-wide (and she even leads by a few points in the four states Mr. Trump cannot be president without winning: Florida, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Colorado — without these, he has absolutely no math) — and though it is early — it is still not certain that Mr. Trump will survive a rebellion at the GOP convention in Cleveland. Note that Mr. Will has renounced his own party, due to the Trump factor.

Here’s John’s thinking:

“…There is an obvious parallel, as we and everyone else have pointed out, between the enough-immigration movement in Europe and Trumpism in the U.S….

It’s all about fear, according to liberals. People who are not on board with a borderless world are threatened, insecure, fearful, uneducated, elderly and poor. What never occurs to liberal “analysts” is that they might be right. Until liberals start dealing with immigration issues intelligently and on the merits, they will continue to lose the argument….”

Okay. That’s a bet I’ll take. Hillary — in a landslide. Bank on it.