It’s roundup time. Again.
(1) I often see statements like this one from authors and commenters on the right [emphasis mine]:
In the current system, ballots are gathered or harvested either, legally or illegally, and submitted…This disenfranchising process could not happen if one political party vehemently opposed it.
Statements like that don’t ever seem to be followed by an analysis of exactly how the GOP would have prevented it had it wanted to, in those states (mostly blue and some purple) that have enacted the rules that enable it. There is a possibility it might have been done in Arizona, but if one actually studies the process on a state-by-state basis, I believe the unavoidable conclusion is the one I came to in this previous post.
(2) More on the FTX mess and its implications here. An excerpt:
How many scam artists are using such “bluewashing” in order to cover for malfeasance — all the while colluding with government figures to redraw regulations that benefit them? That, after all, was SBF’s biggest scam: He was an advocate of particular types of regulation that benefitted him and used both familial and business connections in order to protect his corporatism.
And that’s the dog that didn’t bark here: Where were the regulators with whom SBF was close? Where were the supposed advocates of “ethical capitalism,” who posit social responsibility but whose friends seem to repeatedly be caught with their fingers in the cookie jar, dating all the way back to Bernie Madoff?…
Maybe the problem is with a cadre of supposed protectors of the public who aren’t out to protect the public at all, but to hobnob with other “change agents” from Bahamian estates while patting themselves on the back for all the good they’re doing.
(3) I’ve heard people pooh-pooh the idea of the slippery slope, especially when it’s someone on the right pointing out an example of the concept. If you know someone who is a mocker of the slippery slope, have that person read this piece about the history of Canada’s euthanasia program. It’s an excellent illustration of how slippery that slope can be. The ratchet seems to go in only one direction.
(4) I cannot possibly summarize this article entitled “Trans People Are Seeking Nonbinary Bottom Surgeries,” except to say that no, it’s not in the Babylon Bee and I’m going to assume that it describes a real but infrequent phenomenon, and to add that it’s astounding that any doctors would do this. On the other hand, it’s probably less mutilating than traditional (can we speak of a “tradition” here?) “bottom” surgery. It also seems to be exclusive to people born male, which makes me recall that Jordan Peterson has said that biological men who identify as trans women are sometimes autogynephilic. It occurs to me that this group wanting nonbinary surgery might qualify.
(5) Steve Scalise will be the new Majority Leader of the House. It remains to be seen whether McCarthy will become Speaker, but my guess is the answer is “Yes.” And here’s a look at what has gone down involving McConnell in the Senate.
On 5)…like I just said in the open thread, with McConnell and McCarthy as the GOPe leaders nothing will change. We are fighting the uniparty and have no hope of ever changing the corruption.
THX?
(Yer welcome?)
Actually, the biggest scandal involving Fried is not so much the money, though that’s hyuge, but the conniving/cozying up with the SEC.
(Yep, THAT SEC; the big, bad SEC…itself a rogue organization within a rogue govt.)
Barry Meislin:
Thanks, fixed.
All acronyms look alike to me 🙂 .
physicsguy:
As I said in the other thread – please see this – I disagree about this “uniparty” thing.
Yeah, just as soon call it FFS in honor of all those classy types involved in the mega-scam.
The PBS Newshour (like NPR, a fount of leftist propaganda, supported, in part, by tax-payers) managed to run an entire segment on SBF and FTX (probably the scandal of the decade) without once mentioning the fact that the young mini-Madoff was the second largest contributor (after the aged and hardly more appealing Soros) to the Democrats, and without mentioning any connection to the egregious corruption in our funding of corrupt Ukraine (38 billion more announced yesterday). Such is the mendacity of our loathsome media (compare the suspension of Miguel Almaguer by NBC for inconvenient reporting on “l’affaire Pelosi”).
this is when it goes from farce to tragedy
https://tinyurl.com/3yr5yeu8
in arizona, they stalled reforms, they covered the audit with pillows,
in pennsylvania remember the gop was in the majority in 2020
The only solution to election fraud are Republican legislatures and governors. Otherwise no amount of whining will result in anything different.
The AZ secretary of state should not have been in charge of the election. How is that possible when she was a candidate? That’s more than just the appearance of impropriety.
And I agree with the others here that the uni-party is still in charge and little will change.
The Gerontocracy continues apace. Joe Biden turns 80 in just a few days. We’ve got Mitch McConnell at 80 and Nancy Pelosi at 82. Chuck Schumer’s merely 71.
I guess people love power and are loath to relinquish it to the slightly younger
Neo, I read your comment to physics guy. You’re are essentially agreeing with him (and me) that there is a difference between what I term the GOPe and the MAGA conservatives (for lack of a better term). The GOPe is content with not doing much of anything wrt to borders, wars, and trannies in your school. The GOPe seems just as much invested in the bureaucratic state as any Democrat. They don’t want to diminish its size or scope, they mouth the platitudes of the green party, and are very interested in funding the military industrial complex through various military actions both overt and covert. The only thing one can say positive about the GOPe is that they don’t turn the aperatus of the state against their enemies.
I’m ready for something different and will vote that way when I can. Recall that the tea party was squashed by the GOPe. They are not really the enemy of our new conservatism but they’re not our close allies either.
the errors go one way, don’t they,
https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/why-did-the-voting-machines-malfunction
otoh, you saw what a pigs breakfast, the tories did with their overwhelming majority due to brexit, which was blamed on the Russians, even a sky tv/rai series followed that template, devils, where bit coin was the liberating element, snorfle (ht rachel lucas)
Yawrate:
My recollection is that the GOPe was not against the Tea Party per se in its original manifestation, but against many of the GOP candidates the Tea Party promoted. The GOPe was against them because they threatened their power but also – and I think the GOPe had a point here – they believed these candidates would be at great risk of losing in general elections since many of them were quite extreme.
The Tea Party was destroyed, more importantly, by a combination of a relentless drive by the left to label them white supremacist racists. I remember that most particularly, and I don’t think the GOPe was part of that defamatory process.
On “non-binary bottom surgery”: Good grief. At least they’re not doing this to children … yet.
My recollection is that the GOPe was not against the Tea Party per se in its original manifestation, but against many of the GOP candidates the Tea Party promoted.
I’d have to disagree with that some. I recall the WSJ (paper of record for the GOPe) running an editorial where they smeared everyone in the Tea Party as “homunculi.” This was before the Murdochs bought the paper.
The biggest problem with the Tea Party IMO was its lack of organization. There are opportunists everywhere you look in politics and sometimes a good organization can ferret out the posers from the genuine.
I think there may have been some amplification of Tea Party = racist talk by some GOPe people.
Regarding 3)
The Senate is about to pass a perfect example of the “slippery slope”.
“Same-sex marriage legislation clears key Senate hurdle”
“The US on Wednesday is one step closer to codifying the right to same-sex and interracial marriage after the Senate voted to advance a bill that would protect such unions should the Supreme Court overturn its prior decisions that made them law.
By a 62-37 vote, senators decided to end debate on the “Respect for Marriage Act” Wednesday afternoon, moving the bill toward final approval with the support of 12 Republicans* and all Democrats.
The bill would require the federal government to recognize all marriages — regardless of a couple’s race or gender — that were conducted legally under state law, but does not authorize federal recognition of polygamous marriage.”
https://nypost.com/2022/11/16/same-sex-marriage-legislation-clears-key-senate-hurdle/
*the usual suspects
Wherein the slppery slope arises is in that the bill “does not authorize federal recognition of polygamous marriage”.
America has abandoned the sole objective biological standard in marriage that only a man and a woman can naturally create offspring. Exchanging it for a subjective and arbitrary determination that marriage must only consist of two people. As such, it will be unable to withstand future legal challenges. As subjective and arbitrary standards are by definition, discriminatory and therefore a violation of the 14th Amendment. Discrimination is only legal when it offers an unchallengeable societal good, like not allowing young children to drive.
Under the 2 person arbitrary and subjective standard, upon what basis can marriage be limited to just two people?
There now being no logical basis for denying multiple partner marriages.
Nor will it stop there, upon what logical basis can incestuous marriages between consenting adults who cannot have children be banned?
“If there is no God, everything is permitted”. Questionable attribution to Dostoevsky
TommyJay:
I was talking about the GOP members of Congress, or state officials like governors. None of them are responsible for what the WSJ writes. Sometimes there is agreement and sometimes disagreement.
Re: (4)
Finally, people who can actually go f*ck themselves.
What a stupid time to be alive.
Re 4: mikeski made the same remark I saw over on Althouse’s blog yesterday. As for transmen choosing to keep their vagina as well as undergo phalloplasty, here’s an account by a person who is bigenital (although xe doesn’t use the word):
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/gabriel-mac-essay.html
The text is detailed and graphic, and there are photos of the author at the link (mercifully, not of the new phallus)– Kate may want to give this one a miss, as the author’s tone of self-congratulation is as grating as the description of the surgery and its post-op complications. And yes, the author lives in San Francisco, where sanity goes to die.
The next frontier for 4) is cross-species transition. News item here is a school district in Colorado that tried to cover up “a wave of children in local classrooms self-identifying as full-blown humanoid animals. . . . district officials had in fact received complaints from distressed parents, who complained that children were turning up to class wearing clip-on animal ears as part of their animal ‘fursonas,’ and disrupting lessons by barking and meowing, with the seeming acquiescence of teachers.”
One question debated among the alphabet community at present is whether “otherkins” (humans who identify as animals, robots, or even inanimate objects) should be included under the LGBT umbrella or kept outside it in a realm of its own. “In the style of early transgender advocates, otherkins are now banding together into clubs with names such as The Alterhuman Advocacy Group (aka ALT + H, dedicated to “increasing awareness and acceptance of afterhuman people”) and The Freedom of Form Foundation, whose more explicitly medical mission is to lobby doctors, academics, and politicians so that ‘otherhearted people and selfshapers’ can employ ‘biotech for self-expression.'”
You can thread your way through the world of “fursonas” and “otherkins” in this Quillette article:
https://quillette.com/2022/11/16/affirming-your-inner-fursona/
As mikeski said, “What a stupid time to be alive.”
“As I said in the other thread – please see this – I disagree about this “uniparty” thing.”
Uh…Neo? Did you pay attention to how the GOP-led Congress behaved during the first two years of the Trump Administration?
Mike
I’ve heard people pooh-pooh the idea of the slippery slope, especially when it’s someone on the right pointing out an example of the concept. –neo
The Slippery Slope is like Conspiracy Theory. It depends on the specifics. There really are valid slippery slopes and valid conspiracy theories. Others are not.
One case may be true or may be false, but you have to get your hands dirty to decide, and good luck convincing others.
Figure this one out.
Federal law: It’s illegal to vote in an election if you are not a citizen. Ha, ha.
Arizona law: “A registrant who attests to being a citizen but fails to provide proof of citizenship and whose citizenship is not otherwise verified will be eligible to vote only in federal elections (known as being a “federal only” voter). In April 2022, the legislature passed a law requiring proof of citizenship to be eligible to vote in presidential elections (2492); however, this law has not yet gone into effect.”
Ballotpedia website: “Proposition 200, approved by voters in 2004, required voters to present evidence of U.S. citizenship prior to voting. On June 17, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states cannot require proof of citizenship in cases of voter registration for federal elections unless the state receives federal or court approval to do so. The court ruled 7-2. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.[2]
On March 22, 2019, Governor Doug Ducey (R) signed into law legislation requiring voters to present identification at the polls if voting in person at an early voting center.[3]”
Id required to vote: A picture id like a driver’s license or two pieces like a utility bill or bank statement, etc. that have the person’s name and address that matches the one on the voter registration.
It ain’t fraud if it’s legal.
Re: Trans and “fursona”
While living in San Francisco, I encountered members of the BDSM subculture. That’s a rather common sexual fetish. Stats vary, but the numbers are far larger than trans or furries.
Yet I never met any BDSM people who felt it was a terrible oppression not to make leather, chains and whips a 24/7 feature of their public presentation, much less go on about hate crimes.
I’m not sure why.
On item 2:
I’m reminded of a meme Tim Pool refers to as ‘Reset the Clock.’ It was conceived in response to somebody noticing an awful lot of misogyny scandals with outspoken feminists in the central, offending role, but this seems an example of how it’s a more general observation: people will often smokescreen their own malfeasance by very publicly decrying exactly what they are doing.
As bonus points, this A) divides the group most likely to pounce on evidence of the malfeasance (because part of it sees the possible offender as an ally and therefore virtuous beyond doubt) and B) poisons the well for other reformers should the malfeasance go public, since it makes it seem more likely other!reformer is also a camouflaged scoundrel.
“Yet I never met any BDSM people who felt it was a terrible oppression not to make leather, chains and whips a 24/7 feature of their public presentation, much less go on about hate crimes.”
The problem isn’t the trans people. The problem is all the upper-middle class white people who decided to make being pro-trans their way of establishing how special and wonderful they are. Just being pro-black and pro-Latino wasn’t enough anymore.
Mike
But why wouldn’t upper-middle class white people decide to add pro-BDSM to their repertoire of virtue signaling?
According to at least one study, sadomasochists have higher than average IQs, so it would seem more upper-middle class white folks would share that fetish:
________________________
Consensual sadomasochists “appear to be quite bright, in the above-average range, as a group,” says Mirich. In fact, his BDSM subjects had an average IQ score of 113, whereas the average score in the general population is 100, and 96 among his sex offenders.
https://www.westword.com/news/the-psychology-of-pain-5092185
“But why wouldn’t upper-middle class white people decide to add pro-BDSM to their repertoire of virtue signaling?”
Because the behavior/lifestyle/orientation/status has to be linked to some identifiable minority group to have any virtue-signaling value. Too many plain old cisgender white folks are into BDSM.
Mike
Maybe. But there are plenty of white folks who pass as straight but are actually bi or gay.
TMI about those preferences.
I believe the GOPe thing has to do first with the failure of the Establishment to do anything about trade and immigration, and second with the fact that much of the party is always promising to do things that they never do. Maybe they can’t do those things. Maybe they shouldn’t. Some members of the Establishment obviously don’t want to do those things. But the gap between what’s promised and what’s delivered irritates many on the right.
The sordid truth about FTX, already pretty clear, is becoming increasingly viewable in High-Definition Reality (HDR)…
“Disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried blames his EX-GIRLFRIEND for FTX collapse and loss of $32BN – as he admits he lied about being moral and calls ethics a ‘dumb game we woke Westerners play’ “—
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11437361/Sam-Bankman-Fried-admits-lied-ethical.html
The Democratic Party could NOT have expressed it any better.
(Clearly, Merriam-Webster will feel absolutely compelled to redefine “SCUM”…)
Wonder when the Democrats will get their turn…. Hopefully, very, very soon.
j e > “compare the suspension of Miguel Almaguer by NBC for inconvenient reporting on “l’affaire Pelosi” ”
Well, since you mentioned it —
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/16/nolte-nbc-report-says-body-cam-footage-contradicts-doj-narrative-in-paul-pelosi-case/
@ Geoffrey > “The Senate is about to pass a perfect example of the “slippery slope”.”
Also qualifies for the “RINO” awards, even if there is no official Uniparty – “the usual suspects” indeed.
Supposedly the Republicans made sure the bill included language protecting religious objections, but this post observes that is a rhetorical fiction.
https://www.breitbart./politics/2022/11/16/112-senate-republicans-vote-with-democrats-for-far-left-respect-for-marriage-act/
@ miguel > “this is when it goes from farce to tragedy”
https://yournews.com/2022/11/16/2454297/ftx-slush-fund-bankrolled-fake-studies-to-hide-covid-therapeutics/
Somehow I wasn’t surprised to discover that the funding for all those COVID era papers “proving” that several cheap and plentiful therapeutics were “not useful in treating the virus” came from FTX.
As a bonus, the same source as your link posted this article about another faux crisis beloved of the Left – climate change and global warming and bears! Oh My!
https://yournews.com/2022/11/17/2455127/staggering-disconnect-un-climate-summit-boasts-opulent-beef-seafood-menu/
@ huxley > “There really are valid slippery slopes and valid conspiracy theories. ”
Even the Washington Post agrees with you – now that it won’t affect the midterms.
This is only the latest in a string of MSM reports that are essentially admitting that the claims dismissed earlier as just specious tinfoil-hattery on the Right were — what a surprise! — actually true.
https://www.westernjournal.com/right-wapo-quietly-admits-truth-trumps-documents-election/?ff_source=site&ff_medium=aggregator10&ff_campaign=can
Ballot harvesting and mail-in voting is a conundrum I address in a neighboring thread, along with a caveat that I’ll repeat here.
It is safe to assume that casting illegal ballots for dead, ineligible, and nonexistent voters is unpalatable and off the table for virtually the entire MAGAverse. If that’s what it takes to win, we’ll take the loss. Trump most certainly won’t go there, as his brand will only be enhanced (win or lose) if he keeps playing it straight.
I’ll add that accepting the short-term consequence of ethical conduct spares us the hellish karma that Democrats will inherit down the road.
Well, some may be salivating…but, as they say, “Don’t [spit] till you see the whites of their eyes…
“‘Joe Biden Was The Chairman Of The Board’: Republicans Claim President WAS Involved In Hunter’s Foreign Deals Involving ’50 Countries’, Insist Accounts Were ‘Co-Mingled’ And White House Spent $250K To Deflect Stories On Son”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/11/17/joe-biden-was-the-chairman-of-the-board-republicans-claim-president-was-involved-in-hunters-foreign-deals-involving-50-countries-insist-accounts-were-co-mingled-and-white-house-spent/
Huh? Only $250K??
Oh wait, it’s a Daily Mail story…(whatever that might mean…)
File under: Great Expectorations…
– – – – – – – – –
Actually, what I really want to know is…
Where’s Tulsi???
Regarding the GOP and the Tea Party,
My perception was the GOP was sabotaging the Tea Party while pretending to be their friend, much the way they have done with MAGA.
And, as I’ve said for years, the biggest fear of the Democrat and Republican parties is that Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party/MAGA realize they are on the same team. That’s why they keep gin’ning up petty battles over fringe issues; bathrooms, student loans… to keep OWS and TP/MAGA thinking they are enemies.
On 4) again: San Francisco is setting up a program (Guaranteed Income For Transgenders or GIFT) to pay a select group of 55 transgender residents $1200 per month for 18 months: The program will prioritize enrollment of Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex (TGI) people who are also Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), experiencing homelessness, living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, youth and elders, monolingual Spanish-speakers, and those who are legally vulnerable such as TGI people who are undocumented, engaging in survival sex trades, ?or are formerly incarcerated.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/san-francisco-launches-program-to-pay-trans-residents-1200-a-month-for-18-months
Well, when David DePape gets out of his SF jail, all he has to do is claim he’s trans, and he’s good to go.
While not quite as glib about mentioning “uniparty”, I tend to understand and believe it more than disagree that it is a thing. So, I thought about writing about that disagreement with neo until I read:
“Did you pay attention to how the GOP-led Congress behaved during the first two years of the Trump Administration?”
Then I remembered that the GOP-led Congress tried to get rid of Obamacare and a few other things, but for a very small set of Republicans that voted mostly against Trump rather than for Democrats, which I think is neo’s point.
yes they did a bunch of times, but when it came to the big tests, they dropped the ball
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/alt-take-ftx-what-if-it-was-built
Rufus wrote “…the biggest fear of the Democrat and Republican parties is that Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party/MAGA realize they are on the same team.”
Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party traditional conservatives, and Make America Great Again people are not on the same team as Anarcho-Communist crazies Occupy Wall Street.
Re the Uniparty, sundance calls the Republican Party the GAP, or Generic American Party.
It is interesting, the language that a good many of the anti-traditional marriage supporters are using, speaking of how this Senate bill “enshrines” such things. I think it a telling detail.
TEA Party: Taxed Enough Already should have been replaced with Trim Entitlements Already. Then their program would have been addressing the fiscal idiocy resulting prior to and during the 2008/09 collapse, etc. The focus on tax reduction is opposite of what is needed to regain the lost revenues to rebalance our fiscal and monetary ship. As unpleasant as it is to consider, the rather better off (which presumably includes most, but maybe not all, of the commenters here) will have to make some of the sacrifices to bring entitlements under some form of control.
Not sure how a cross-generation campaign would play out, bringing the generations under 40 (or maybe even under 50?) to an awareness that there will not be a full SS available for them, vs. what they have been paying to support their parents and grandparents retirements. Can we contain the impact to only 20% loss on expected claims, or will it go down to 30 or 40 or 50%? Whatever default in entitlements occurs, it will not be a surprise like the FTX situation. [I also prefer an open and honest default over the hidden one buried in inflation.]
I could add a litany of all the things being suggested that won’t work, but will forego that and just reference Larry Kotlikoff as my main source, plus others.