URLs du Jour

2019-07-16

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  • At National Review, Indispensible Geraghty looks at Donald Trump Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tweet: An Act of Political Stupidity. (Online headline: "He Just Can’t Help Himself") We all know what he's talking about.

    Whether or not Donald Trump believes immigrants are not “real Americans” — the man did twice marry immigrants, after all — he certainly has no problem with making statements and arguments that feed into the notion that immigrants are not “real Americans.” He certainly seems to think that AOC, Tlaib, and Pressley have some sort of obligation to fix problems in the lands of their ancestors before attempting to change laws in the United States, and that Omar must do the same in a land she left when she was six years old. Or perhaps the way to interpret Trump’s remarks is that someone born in America to immigrant parents, like Ocasio-Cortez or Tlaib, doesn’t meet his personal definition of “real Americans.”

    There’s a small mountain of legitimate gripes about AOC’s “squad.” Beside the “snot-nosed punk” traits driving other, more experienced Democrats crazy, Ocasio-Cortez and her allies have received far too little criticism for their theoretical fantasyland policy ideas, in which the United States can replace 88 percent of all of its energy sources in a decade and that in that same time period, all 120 million buildings in America can be either upgraded or torn down and replaced with more energy-efficient construction. They want economic security for those unwilling to work, an eventual ban on air travel, and for the Federal Reserve to loan the federal government $10 trillion.

    For the record, I don't think Trump is a racist. He's a narcissistic bully and a unprincipled, willfully ignorant bullshitter. His tweets simply reflect the turds that happen to have floated to the top of his mental septic tank, not deserving of even the semi-descriptive adjective "racist".


  • So I'm not in specific agreement with this Babylon Bee headline: Trump Distracts From Previous Racist Tweets With New Racist Tweets.

    In what's being called a "4D chess move" worthy of the greatest 4D chess grandmasters in the universe, President Trump was able to distract from some seriously questionable tweets by posting even more questionable tweets, sources confirmed over the weekend.

    "See, when they are fighting about your racist tweets, the winning thing to do is to fire off a few more," Trump told confused White House aides. "They won't know what hit 'em. You broadside 'em. You don't even ask, you just slam out a whole bunch of 'em. It's the greatest strategy. It works every time. Every time."

    Republican strategists who were defending Trump's old racist tweets then had to jump on his new racist tweets. Then, while they were trying to figure out a way to defend them, Trump dropped even newer ones, forcing them to defend a whole host of racist stuff he said.

    "It's kinda exhausting if I'm being honest," said one Republican strategist. "But what else are we going to do? Take a stand for our values? Ha, good one."

    So, for "racist", I'd substitute some other adjective, like "assholish". But otherwise…

    And Republicans taking a stand for their values? I'm afraid that ship has sailed.


  • Jacob Sullum at Reason notes with a straight face: Two Senators With Business Degrees Want the FDA to Tell Doctors They Should Not Treat Chronic Pain With Opioids.

    Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) has a bachelor's degree in business administration. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) has an MBA from Harvard. Yet the two senators seem to think they have the medical expertise to second-guess the judgment of physicians across the United States, not to mention the Food and Drug Administration. A bill they introduced last week, the FDA Opioid Labeling Accuracy Act, instructs the agency to tell prescribers that opioids are "not intended for the treatment of chronic pain."

    Senators, it's not as if the agencies of government are doing a good job accomplishing their goals and serving the citizenry. Maybe you should demonstrate some competence in getting those problems fixed before you move into fields in which you have no demonstrable expertise.


  • I am a devoted listener to the weekly Reason Podcast, it's always insightful and funny. But I wanted to recommend this week's episode, because they took on not only Trump's stupid tweets, but also:

    Peter Suderman's soliloquy on this was incandescently brilliant. Unfortunately, there's no transcript. It's about 9:30 in, though.


  • And (yay) I have entered the "Win a Whiskey with Kirsten" contest. ("Round-trip tickets and one night hotel accommodations included.")

    Yes, of course I entered without donating. The link for that is in the fine print at the bottom of the page.


Last Modified 2024-01-24 6:02 AM EDT