zeke5123
4mo ago
Care to wager? SCOTUS need only say “the law is not self executing; congress passed a law saying what insurrection is, Trump wasn’t found guilty, therefore he is eligible.”
That is of course the prudential thing to do. The Baude argument is and remains silly.
zeke5123
8mo ago
This is just an incorrect statement.
They have found plenty of evidence. They haven’t found a smoking gun. But they also haven’t had complete access to bank records.
zeke5123
10mo ago
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On balance Russia is wrong. But the cartoon cut out of “Russia bad” is over the top.
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There was on-going anti Russian people attacks in the Donbas. If there were a community of Americans living in Mexico that came under attack I imagine Uncle Sam might have something to say.
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The 2014 coup and Ukraine buddying up to Nato suggests Ukraine was in some sense threatening Russia’s interests (the same way the US flipped out re Cuba and the USSR and the same way the US will flip out over PRC and Cuba).
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Now I do think these issues, while influencing Russia, were not the principal reasons behind the Russian war (ie imperialism). So on balance I think Russia is the bad actor. But it isn’t the carton some people pretend.
zeke5123
11mo ago
Re Africa — judge them by their fruits. Either intelligence isn’t really helpful to building prosperity or the Africans aren’t that intelligent.*
*On a large enough time scale.
zeke5123
7mo ago
I think there is a different argument. When one bombs a target, one knows there may be collateral damage. When one purposefully attempts to kill a toddler, the death of the toddler isn’t a side effect.
zeke5123
7mo ago
When actually challenged to explain how, say, conventional arms delivery meaningfully risk nuclear war despite an entire cold war to the contrary, that doesn't seem to be a particular close-held belief when put into context by even casual inquiry.
The Cold War isn’t even close to analogous. Now because of advanced weapons, the US can give Ukraine weapons that easily and frequently do hit Russia’s territory (including Moscow). That never happened during the Cold War as far as I know.
zeke5123
11mo ago
While a somewhat interesting idea, I think it falls pray to missing the point. The opposition to trans isn’t solely rooted in a logical question about categories; it is rooted in the concept that trans ideology imposes social costs (often by harming girls and youngwomen), can be a fetish the person is making others play out with him, and doesn’t lead to human flourishing.
Step moms often can be pro social and therefore the debate about “are they a mom” isn’t really important in the same way.
zeke5123
9mo ago
This is patently absurd. We shouldn’t be searching and contorting rules to criminalize political questions. It isn’t something that is down the fairway (eg tax fraud, bribery).
By the way, the obstruction charge related to the documents is a legit charge.
zeke5123
8mo ago
This reminds me of the “you didn’t build that” argument. Yes, government built roads but it doesn’t imply that because of that whatever the government wants the government can take.
Likewise, the grant of limited liability (premised on the idea that small investors wouldn’t want to expose their entire wealth to liability based on a small investment in Corp x) doesn’t mean it is reasonable for the government to do whatever it wants.
zeke5123
8mo ago
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In the tax law, if I perform services and tell you to pay my kid it is still income to me. Same principle here.
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Other people in the family other than Hunter (including people not involved) got paid.
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Re the meeting it was a private dinner. Not an event with a +1. https://nypost.com/2023/08/10/inside-dcs-cafe-milano-where-joe-biden-met-hunters-cronies/
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I messed up my memory. Joe called the president of Ukraine with Hunter Cced after the call came in for help.
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It isn’t hard to litigate. The state department determined internally that Shokin did enough to qualify Ukraine for funds. John Kerry was impressed. The turnabout was a surprise. Maybe there were internal discussions that disproved the written communications but Biden needs to show that (ie the burden has shifted).
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Your comment that it must be activity after he became president is risible. Some but not all of this info was known before the election. So we have in fact learned NEW facts; our understanding has evolved. Moreover, at the time of the election you had 50 intelligence agents claiming it was Russian disinformation and on that basis social media quashed the story. Now we know that was all bullshit (and in part engineered by Biden’s campaign). So no we aren’t limited to what happened after Joe took the presidency and suggesting that is almost per se bad faith
zeke5123
8mo ago
Long effort posts are often just meandering posts filled with unnecessary asides. We shouldn’t encourage length but quality. Sometimes length and quality go hand and hand. Sometimes brevity and quality go together.
The problem is we have this idea that short equals low effort (and therefore perhaps subject to moderation) whereas long equals high effort. I’d rather we judge based on “is this thoughtful.”
zeke5123
6mo ago
It just seems so obvious that VBM introduces so many problems I dont know why so many people support it (eg no chain of custody, return of machine politics). Is it just because Dems think it gives them an advantage?
zeke5123
7mo ago
I’m fine with libel laws and the incitement standards. They are robust narrowly defined set of rules (I would overturn NYT v Sullivan).
And yes, there is a problem that some people only like free speech when it’s their speech that is being censored. I am honestly okay with allowing progressives, commies, Nazis, or even the Amish to have free speech rights.
zeke5123
9mo ago
It’s fucking bullshit. No one was defrauded. No one was deceived. This slate was claiming there was election fraud and therefore they were the true electors; not that the state actually authorized them.
It was a shitty legal theory acting out a political claim; that isn’t illegal and trying to shoehorn this into fraud or disruption of an official event is disgusting.
zeke5123
4mo ago
I just think racism as a moral failing is just not that important. I think there are probably a lot of truly shitty people that aren’t racists and some nice people who are racists.
Generally, I’d care more about whether someone is generally nice to other people, are they hospitable, do they actively create harm for others, are they a narcissist, etc compared to racism.
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I don’t think liberty is absolute. It is possible that a pandemic could in theory justify things like stay at home orders.
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Florida may not have gone “open” right away but they shifted policy two months in once they realized covid was not one that justified the extreme restrictions — 2 months was extremely quick and showed (1) an understanding of the virus and (2) a presumption more in favor of freedom instead of safety. Florida basically adopted the GBD specifically focusing on targeted protection noting the differential death rate. There is a reason he was labeled Deathsantis. Also, if you go back and listen to RDS during this time you’ll realize he actually had a deep understanding of the facts. He wasn’t just making a political decision.
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DeSantis within six months prohibited local restrictions and had kids back in school. That was very different compared to most of the country.
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Re PA, I can’t speak to every day life. We were looking at buying a house in eastern PA / NJ early 2021. Due to covid restrictions we weren’t allowed to physical view houses in PA since we weren’t PA residents. Philly schools didn’t return to in person learning until Aug 2021 and then were required to mask. That is a full one school year later and with stupid masks compared to Florida. So no, it was not basically the same. It was much worse. I think you live in the Pittsburgh area. They didn’t unveil plans to go back to in person learning until June 2021.
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There is a weird revisionist history where people pretend all states were pretty much the same. No. Florida was much more open and much sooner compared to most states. I was in Florida multiple times during the pandemic. It was entirely different compared to the northeast. There is a reason there was a mass exodus to Florida. Where I am in NJ didn’t get “normal” until 2022. That is at best basically 1.5 years after Florida. Look I was deep into covid policy at the time. You can’t make me misremember what happened. I know you are on the left and the left was terrible on covid so the left is trying to retcon all of this (see Gavin Newsome). Won’t work on me. I lived and live in NJ. I visited Florida a lot (almost moved there despite buying recently in NJ). It was radically different.
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Trump wielded a lot of power since a lot of nonsense derived from the CDC. Trump could’ve fired Collins. He could have fired Fauci. He could’ve not side lined Atlas (if you read Atlas’s book, you’ll see that Trump seemed to agree with Atlas but lacked the courage to implement his messaging in full).
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Finally crisis reveals character. I don’t need to know about how a leader does when the sun shines. I need to know how he does in crisis. DeSantis wasn’t brash but at the same time was willing to take a very different tact compared to the narrative based on a clear understanding of the facts and a freedom oriented perspective. He passed the test with flying colors when many others failed (if you want happy to pull up detailed stats on it).
zeke5123
7mo ago
Does Israel have an obligation to send water or electricity to Gaza? Let’s start there. Are you saying Israel has an obligation before we move on to any blockade.
zeke5123
7mo ago
The claim “I didn’t realize a fire alarm would set off an alarm” is pretty weak.
Of course, I have a strong prior that Bowman is an ass so I’m predisposed to disbelieve him. But…who has ever seen a red box clearly labeled fire alarm and thought “I should pull this to open a door” before even trying to open a door? No, the excuse is so lame that I believe at a “beyond a reasonable doubt” Bowman did it to interfere with Congress. At minimum, he should be expelled because even if his defense is correct then he is too stupid to be a congressmen.
zeke5123
9mo ago
But it goes to downside; not just levels of cooperation. Sure 95% surviving is worse than 100%. But 95% is much better than 55% surviving.
zeke5123
9mo ago
Assertion without evidence. Why isn’t there a right to run for president? Moreover, it seems like doing constitutionally protected “things” (eg advancing legal theories or speech) cannot count as something that is disqualifying.
zeke5123
10mo ago
The question with cost overruns is always why. In the US, litigation is generally the reason why. Is that the same in Canada?
zeke5123
6mo ago
Do you think this is the first time in military history that there was collateral damage? Do you think that conquered people always resist?
Also do you think it is good strategy to basically encourage human shields (provided side A arranges it so that if Party B attacks A, then B will cause collateral damage and be prevented from the collateral damage)? It seems like a really bad idea.
zeke5123
6mo ago
What about modern how many of the lynchings were correct extra judicial hangings (eg the decedent did in fact rape a woman)? I don’t think extra judicial is good (big believer in process) but it doesn’t strike me as a huge problem if say 39/40 of the annual lynchings were based on an accurate view of crime.
To me, the problem of Jim Crow was more the laws that made it difficult for blacks to earn income etc.
First, I don’t really value democracy qua democracy. Second, the point isn’t just affirmative action (which is wrong) but actual dislike and disgust toward whites and specifically white males. That hatred will eventually lead to big problems for white males.
So while China sucks, strategical strengthening an enemy may in fact be beneficial. Granted, I wouldn’t strengthen since it believes in Han superiority. But the basic concept of strengthening the enemy of a regime that despises you isn’t a crazy idea.
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