Facepalm 2021, Vol. 2: ‘Galactically’ Seems about Right

 

I interrupt your [quiet] Sunday morning with a short message (make sure your volume is up):

An Instapundit summary of “important” but not “very good” news items about the Joe Biden presidency includes this:

JOE BIDEN’S TROJAN HORSE PRESIDENCY:

…Biden’s centrist facade got him in the door, and now the liberal hordes are taking over his administration. On Friday, the White House announced a commission to study the idea of packing the Supreme Court, an idea that would constitute a partisan assault on the judiciary as we know it and erode the rule of law. …

Additional reading on the subject can be found here:

One Person on Biden’s Supreme Court ‘Reform’ Commission Confirms It’s a Complete Joke

…what’s really turning the entire thing into a joke is who is actually on the commission. Estimates put it at about 75-80% left-leaning as far as personalities, and other than four names, the rest appear to be academics…

One of those academics is Laurence Tribe, a certified nutjob…

In short, Tribe is a moron. That he’s on this “reform” commission shows just how big of a joke it actually is. Further, it shows just how unimpressive our academic elites are. …

Note that this 75-80 percent left-leaning body will be constantly touted as bipartisan, a clear distortion and bastardization of the language that one would think might bother those who use words for a living…or at least those who care about truth.

I look forward to additional language-killing moments when Team Biden uses the output of these tools to justify real court-packing as equivalent to what Republicans did under Trump. (Expect more deafening silence from the faux-Right when that happens.)

In related news, I made a pass through American Individualism by Herbert Hoover in my morning reading. I give you this from the introduction by George Nash:

In September 1933 [Hoover] told a close friend: “The impending battle in this country obviously will be between a properly regulated individualism (which I have always expounded as ‘American Individualism’) and sheer socialism. That, directly or indirectly, is likely to be the great political battle for some years to come.” – Page XXV

Off and on over the years since, that battle has been in a direct mode since at least 2006. I suspect we are transitioning rather quickly into the end game now.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

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  1. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Wonder what Facepalm is and of course we recognize the picture – wonder why the black out? Her comment shows a complete ignorance of the reality of politics in America or a deliberate comment because she’s always been in that camp.

    • #1
  2. Addiction Is A Choice Member
    Addiction Is A Choice
    @AddictionIsAChoice

    I think my favorite, so far, is the notion that their idea of court-packing isn’t “court-packing,” it’s “de-politicizing the Supreme Court.”

    • #2
  3. Misthiocracy got drunk and Member
    Misthiocracy got drunk and
    @Misthiocracy

    philo: In related news, I made a pass through American Individualism by Herbert Hoover in my morning reading.

    Aside: American Individualism was published in 1922, so why the heck is it not yet on Gutenberg.org?

    It is available on archive.org, but in a non-proofread state.

    The Hoover Presidential Library sells it for five bucks.

    • #3
  4. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Addiction Is A Choice (View Comment):

    I think my favorite, so far, is the notion that their idea of court-packing isn’t “court-packing,” it’s “de-politicizing the Supreme Court.”

    Yes, I thought it funny that when Trump was filling vacancies Schumer called it packing the court because Trump nominated what he thought were strict constructionists. 

    • #4
  5. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Django (View Comment):

    Addiction Is A Choice (View Comment):

    I think my favorite, so far, is the notion that their idea of court-packing isn’t “court-packing,” it’s “de-politicizing the Supreme Court.”

    Yes, I thought it funny that when Trump was filling vacancies Schumer called it packing the court because Trump nominated what he thought were strict constructionists.

    They’re all phonies and opportunists.

    • #5
  6. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    Django (View Comment):

    Addiction Is A Choice (View Comment):

    I think my favorite, so far, is the notion that their idea of court-packing isn’t “court-packing,” it’s “de-politicizing the Supreme Court.”

    Yes, I thought it funny that when Trump was filling vacancies Schumer called it packing the court because Trump nominated what he thought were strict constructionists.

    From Dictionary.com:

    court packing

    the practice of changing the number or composition of judges on a court, making it more favorable to particular goals or ideologies, and typically involving an increase in the number of seats on the court

    [emphasis added]

    I’ll give you one guess as to whether the emphasized words were on there one year ago. The fact that Trump and the Republicans clearly packed the court in 2020 is no longer disputable.

    I’ve mentioned many times how we are well into the anti-intellectual era in America.  The fluidity of the language is an early tell. (The silence of those who work with those words is another.)

    • #6
  7. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    philo (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Addiction Is A Choice (View Comment):

    I think my favorite, so far, is the notion that their idea of court-packing isn’t “court-packing,” it’s “de-politicizing the Supreme Court.”

    Yes, I thought it funny that when Trump was filling vacancies Schumer called it packing the court because Trump nominated what he thought were strict constructionists.

    From Dictionary.com:

    court packing

    the practice of changing the number or composition of judges on a court, making it more favorable to particular goals or ideologies, and typically involving an increase in the number of seats on the court

    [emphasis added]

    I’ll give you one guess as to whether the emphasized words were on there one year ago. The fact that Trump and the Republicans clearly packed the court in 2020 is no longer disputable.

    I’ve mentioned many times how we are well into the anti-intellectual era in America. The fluidity of the language is an early tell. (The silence of those who work with those words is another.)

    At one time dictionaries defined what the words meant. Today, they document contemporary usage.

    • #7
  8. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment): Wonder what Facepalm is and of course we recognize the picture – wonder why the black out? Her comment shows a complete ignorance of the reality of politics in America or a deliberate comment because she’s always been in that camp.

    DEF: the gesture of placing the palm of one’s hand across the face, as to express embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, etc.

    facepalm-statue | John Knych

    Black out to hide identity…to mask that this an “attack” on another member using their own words. 

    All mostly just done out of boredom during my time off.

    • #8
  9. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    This may have been hashed out elsewhere in my absence but the “views counter” would be more useful if it was programmed to not count those by the post author. (For those with OCD tendencies, the current counter will chalk up 4-6 views just during previewing / proofreading. Believe me, I know.)

    • #9
  10. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    philo (View Comment):

    This may have been hashed out elsewhere in my absence but the “views counter” would be more useful if it was programmed to not count those by the post author. (For those with OCD tendencies, the current counter will chalk up 4-6 views just during previewing / proofreading. Believe me, I know.)

    And then as soon as I hit the comment button on that I saw the error in my first sentence: quite instead of quiet. Wow.

    • #10
  11. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    philo (View Comment):

    philo (View Comment):

    This may have been hashed out elsewhere in my absence but the “views counter” would be more useful if it was programmed to not count those by the post author. (For those with OCD tendencies, the current counter will chalk up 4-6 views just during previewing / proofreading. Believe me, I know.)

    And then as soon as I hit the comment button on that I saw the error in my first sentence: quite instead of quiet. Wow.

    I read it as “quiet” if that helps.

    • #11
  12. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    If the Democrats pack the court, I’ll quit thinking of myself as an American.

    • #12
  13. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    If the Democrats pack the court, I’ll quit thinking of myself as an American.

    Maybe you should quit thinking of THEM as Americans.

    • #13
  14. Skyler Coolidge
    Skyler
    @Skyler

    When the left transform the judiciary who takes liberties with our liberties and grants people rights that the majority of the people disagree with, we all were angry but we followed the laws.  Since Roe v. Wade the people have waited almost 50 years to get sanity returned to the court.  

    But the left doesn’t believe in law or following law.  They are dominated by communists intent on “transforming” the nation to a communist ideal and they have no intention of using the law to get what they want.  

     

    • #14
  15. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Claire has a wealth of observations about France and Europe that are interesting and instructive, regardless of whether or not you agree. If she wishes her opinions about America to be taken seriously, she should leave Paris and spend a year in Deadwood, or Omaha, or Portland, or Ft. Lauderdale. 

    • #15
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Claire has a wealth of observations about France and Europe that are interesting and instructive, regardless of whether or not you agree. If she wishes her opinions about America to be taken seriously, she should leave Paris and spend a year in Deadwood, or Omaha, or Portland, or Ft. Lauderdale.

    If it were up to me, I would only allow her to live in the places most devastated by BLM, Antifa, and other Democrats.  She shouldn’t be able to easily escape the consequences of what she supports.

    • #16
  17. Skyler Coolidge
    Skyler
    @Skyler

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Claire has a wealth of observations about France and Europe that are interesting and instructive, regardless of whether or not you agree. If she wishes her opinions about America to be taken seriously, she should leave Paris and spend a year in Deadwood, or Omaha, or Portland, or Ft. Lauderdale.

    I hadn’t caught on to the fact that the tweet was from Ms. Berlinski (I take it we’re not supposed to say her name, or at least her full name.  Is that a COC violation now?)

    It seems that a significant portion of the original big players on Ricochet have become Never Trumpers.

    With Ms. B. (See?  I can conform somewhat) it seems that her disdain for Trump is based on at least partially a degree of anti-American snobbery that many ex-pats seem to develop.  Or perhaps she always hated the ideals of a large part of America and the Republican Party.

    Pundits are valued because they express opinions.  Her opinions were once admired but have become repellant.  She used to espouse values that I thought were shared, but it seems to me that she prefers opinions that keep her in certain stations of society rather than those that show principles.  I used to think she was interesting.  Now I don’t even like her.  I don’t like unprincipled people, or people who masqueraded as sharing my values.

    C.B. admired Thatcher, but I think Thatcher would have recognized the communist influence in the democrat party and would have been suitably repelled by a man such as Biden.

    • #17
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Skyler (View Comment):
    C.B. admired Thatcher

    I wonder if she would today?  Seems like I read somewhere that CB’s recent writing has turned completely around on Thatcher, too.

    • #18
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