Jun
27
2024

Why I Still Love Twitter

OK, I know I'm not supposed to call it that any more. But these two tweets posts showed up adjacent in my feed yesterday. Both in reaction to the same news, incumbent CongressCritter, and "Squad" member, Jamaal Bowman's defeat in the Democratic primary. "Coincidence", or Elon's AI in action?

First up, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, physics prof at the University Near Here:

And here's Iowahawk, David Burge, who's also expressing thanks:

Both Chanda and Dave are great sources of amusement, albeit for different reasons.

Also of note:

  • All you have to do is trust the FBI to play it straight. And maybe you should! We blogged earlier this week about Trump's claims that FBI's reported crime stats were fake, and the Washington Examiner's report that the data reported by the FBI "mislead about crime".

    Noah Smith rebuts all this, saying Yes, of course crime is way down.

    It’s election season, so the narratives are flying fast and furious. One of the MAGA side’s narratives is that America has become a violent, chaotic, and ungovernable place under Biden, and that Trump will restore order. This is a replay of a narrative they successfully used in 2016, when it was sort of true; in fact, it was the theme of Trump’s convention speech. It’s natural for the MAGA folks to want to re-up this golden oldie. Their story of a world in chaos (thanks, of course, to weak and hapless Democrats) encompasses border security, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and, most importantly, spiraling crime rates.

    But there’s at least one big problem for this narrative: Crime is falling fast in America.

    Smith is a Biden-loving Democrat, so if that's a deal breaker for you, don't bother clicking over. But if you do click over, I think you'll find a pretty fair-minded argument.

    He does (however) tend to overestimate the effect the Guy in the White House has on stuff like violent crime rates. Nobody refrains from a drive-by shooting by thinking, "Gee, I don't think Joe Biden would want me doing this."

  • It's Thug Life, Baby. Jeff Maurer opines about the "protests" exemplified by the recent dustup at a Los Angeles synagogue: A Lot of This “Political Action” Doesn’t Seem Very Political to Me.

    What is “political action”? And what is “being an intergalactic asshole”? I had never thought much about the line between the two. For most of my life, the distinction was self-evident: The Million Man March was politics, and streakers, vandals, and the cat-obsessed stalker who used to meow at Keira Knightley through her letterbox were not. But now, things that seem to be pretty solidly in the second category are being presented as the first. So, I think it’s worth thinking about what political action is and how we might recognize the difference between that and general assholery.

    I’d like to start with Les Miserables. The famous play, movie, and Key & Peele sketch has given people an overly favorable view of mob violence. Les Mis would have us believe that French mobs of the time were comprised of dashing revolutionaries, lovable moppets, and Wolverine dressed as a monochrome Willy Wonka. They’d also like us to think that the mobs all had immaculate teeth and perfect pitch. In reality, French mobs of that era were brutal hordes that literally ripped people apart. They weren’t there to demonstrate, they were there to murder, or possibly to accept concessions in exchange for holding off on the murder for another week or two. And, to be fair, that’s what you needed to do to get Louis XVI’s attention if you were not a clock.

    That Key & Peele sketch is pretty funny.

  • It's the Official State Religion of Massachusetts. Long ago, it used to be Puritanism. Nowadays, it's Progressivism, with baby-killing raised to a sacrament. Joseph Rowley relates the latest: Massachusetts Funds Pro-Abortion Campaign against Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

    Recently, I was watching a YouTube video when an ad butted in. “Whether you need pregnancy care or abortion care, avoid anti-abortion centers,” warned a grave but sympathetic 30-ish female voice. “They may look like medical clinics, but try to limit your options if you’re pregnant. Learn more and find care you can trust.”

    As a lifelong New Englander, I (alas) found nothing unusual about the substance of the ad or its moralistic tone. What was unusual was its attribution. As the ad finished, it was not the logo of Planned Parenthood or another abortion-rights organization that came on the screen, but the seal of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The ad was one of two launched a week ago by Governor Maura Healey as part of a $1 million new campaign against crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).

    Nothing must be allowed to interfere with pro-abortion messaging! Dissent is invalid and must be suppressed!

  • Cold comfort. George Will finds a very small pony in recent news: The only comforting thing about Biden vs. Trump: One of them will lose.

    On Nov. 6, 1860 — Election Day — a Springfield, Ill., lawyer who had been a one-term congressman 11 years prior, and soon would be president, said elections are like “‘big boils’ — they caused a great deal of pain before they came to a head, but after the trouble was over the body was in better health than before.” This nugget is from Erik Larson’s just-published “The Demon of Unrest,” concerning the coming of the Civil War that preserved the body politic.

    The one soothing certainty is that when the boil of this year’s election is lanced, politics will be cleaned of one deeply disapproved candidate. Another, however, will be elected. Many voters think of this year’s choice somewhat the way Henry Adams said many voters thought of the candidates in a previous rematch of presidents (Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland in 1892): “One of them had no friends; the other, only enemies.”

    Biden’s most remarkable achievement as president has been to produce “Trump nostalgia.” Analyst Charlie Cook notes that when Donald Trump left Washington 14 days after the Jan. 6, 2021, debacle, 55 percent of people polled by CNN considered his presidency a failure. Trump is the only president in more than 70 years of modern Gallup polling to not reach 50 percent approval while in office; his presidency is now rated a success by 55 percent.

    But…

  • Could we be saved tonight? Eric Boehm goes full Pollyanna: Why a Disastrous Biden-Trump Debate Could Be the Best Outcome for America.

    What if Thursday night's debate is a complete train wreck? And not in the same way as before. What if the debate doesn't merely descend into uncivil nonsense—which is the bare minimum of what should be expected—and doesn't simply confirm what the Biden-Trump debates in 2020 showed: that these men deserve neither our respect nor our affection?

    No, I mean what if it is actually bad? Democrats have been working hard to counter-program any suggestion that Biden's mental acuity has declined, but the evidence keeps piling up. Polls show that voters are already quite skeptical of reelecting a president who will be 82 years old on Inauguration Day. What if something happens that's undeniable, inescapable evidence that Biden's no longer sharp enough to run the executive branch?

    What if Trump confirms what some Republicans have been whispering in recent months: That he rambles like an elderly, intoxicated uncle, consumed by his spiraling legal problems and no longer in possession of the considerable charm and wit that's always been his best weapon as a politician? It's unlikely Trump could say or do anything at this point that alienates his core supporters, but what if he says something that reminds average Republicans why 10 members of his own party voted to impeach him at the end of his last term?

    Well, unless someone pays me a whole lot of money to watch the debate, I'll probably be watching sitcom reruns instead. I assume someone will tell me who did worse.


Last Modified 2024-06-28 6:02 AM EDT