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Calorie count

One of the claims that’s been repeated endlessly is that we can never know just how effective the Russian intervention in the 2016 elections was, so we shouldn’t concern ourselves about it. This is the conventional wisdom, but it’s false.

For one thing, there’s an entire industry devoted to influencing people and then measuring the results to see if they were cost-effective; it’s called advertising. So while we can’t know with certainty, we can know within error bars.

This article says as much. It reports on a proposal from some academics who want to do the work prove whether Putin’s posse made the difference. We need to do this.

To be clear, this isn’t about determining whether Trump’s presidency is legitimate. It’s not, regardless, because he cheated. When you get caught cheating on a test, you receive a zero. It’s the minimum fair punishment for trying to fake your way to a grade.

You get a zero even if your cheating, had it gone undetected, would not have made the difference between passing and failing, or even any difference at all. So whether the illegal help that Trump’s treason bought from Putin was enough to put him over the top, he’s still just a traitor and not the real president.

Still, we must know so that we can protect ourselves from further attacks, and also to hammer in the nail on his illegitimacy.

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Pineapple upside-down cake

Oh hell no!

Tulsi Gabbard just announced her presidential bid, but she’s completely unacceptable because of her track record of bigotry. It’s 2019: bigotry is the near-exclusive domain of the Republicans.

So, what did this DINO do?

In 2003, she voted against a bill to oblige hospitals to “provide emergency contraception immediately” to survivors of sexual assault, because it did not contain a “conscience clause,” to allow providers with a religious objection to opt out. She supported government surveillance efforts, warning that the “demand for unfettered civil liberties” could make the nation vulnerable to terrorists. And she joined her father’s battle against what she called “homosexual extremists.” In 1998, Mike Gabbard had successfully pushed for an amendment to the Hawaii State Constitution, to permit the legislature to ban same-sex marriage, which it did. Six years later, Tulsi Gabbard led a protest against a bill that would have legalized civil unions for same-sex couples. That same year, in the Hawaii State House, she delivered a long, fierce speech against a proposed resolution meant to target anti-gay bullying in public schools. She objected to the idea of students being taught that homosexuality is “normal and natural,” and worried that passing the resolution would have the effect of “inviting homosexual-advocacy organizations into our schools to promote their agenda to our vulnerable youth.”

The New Yorker, 2017-11-06

Really, there’s not a lot for me to say here. There is no walking back from this, no evolving, no excuses.

Sure, all things being equal, I’d prefer a woman, but not this one. We can do better. I’m keeping an eye on Klobuchar because she has mid-west appeal without being on the wrong side of the culture war.

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An empty plate

I’ll keep this very simple: Trump is a mob boss and this mythical wall is his protection racket.

“Nice country you got there. Would be a shame if someone broke it.”

His MO is to take something away, and then demand payment in order to return it. That’s what he’s doing now with the federal government.

The only way to communicate with him is to speak his own language: power. Start impeaching him on any of the many, many good reasons that exist.

Impeachment is, by design, immune to veto. It cannot be ignored and no temper tantrum or extortion attempt can silence it. It’s how you call the big baby’s bluff.

Essentially, this would dare the Republican politicians to go on record in support of allowing Trump to starve the country. It’s political suicide for them if they stand by their con man.

It’s national suicide to allow Trump to get his way, because it’s not just about a few billion dollars thrown away on a boondoggle. It’s about Trump flexing his power to overcome the checks and balances designed to prevent autocracy.

Letting Trump bully the country ensures a future of bullying, a further drift away from democracy and towards fascism.

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All bread, no meat

When I heard that Trump was going on air during prime time to lie about the desperate need for a border wall or fence or whatever, the anticipation was that he would use the manufactured crisis to declare a state of emergency so as to expand his powers to a proper dictatorial level. This was to be his own personal Reichstadt fire.

It’s almost a let-down that he limited himself to fomenting violence against immigrants with salacious and factually inaccurate stories about the horrors of brown people. By normal standards, this is still horrific, but by the super-low standards of Trump’s new normal, it’s nothing. Clearly, the normalization of corruption and incompetence has continued unabated.

On the one hand, his failure to grab power leaves me with much less to write about. On the other, democracy gets another reprieve. So, on the whole, it’s something of a wash. Stll, instead of something meaty to chew on, all we have are crumbs.

One crumb: Occasio-Cortez appeared on Maddow, sharply contrasting her populist, anti-intellectual approach to politics with the host’s detail-oriented wonkishness. I wasn’t impressed by her performance, and I get the impression that this is true for Maddow as well. AOC is what you get when a low-information voter becomes a politician.

Another crumb: The ongoing revelations about Manafort’s treasonous interaction with Russia — this time, it’s about sharing polling data — combined with the announcement that Rosenstein is leaving soon both point to the Mueller investigation coming to a close. The real story is in the impact of his conclusions, and the worst thing that could happen is nothing.

So, in conclusion, it was a crumby day.

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Want fries with that?

Everyone knows that the truth is good for them, yet they’re reluctant to embrace it wholeheartedly. Sure, they use a bit of truth as a condiment or save it for dessert, but they fill up on pandering, conspiracies, and propaganda. It’s just not healthy for your mind to be so out of touch with reality.

Here, we serve the truth up as the hearty main course; the muscle-building protein surrounded by two layers of caloric carbohydrates. Intellectual honesty is the only thing you’ll ever find on the menu. It can be harsh and even hard to chew, but once you get hooked on the truth, you can never go back to the comforting lies.

Now that this site’s reason for existence has been explained, it’s time for some credit where it’s due. The name of this site comes from an opinion piece about how to handle gaslighting when it comes from the highest office. The flag sandwich is from here, and has been altered only by resizing and clipping.

P.S.

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