They Can't Get Him
Plus: Milei, Melania, mice, and more...
Trump/Colorado reactions: "For as long as Donald J. Trump has dominated Republican politics, many Democrats have pined for a magical cure-all to rid them of his presence," wrote Reid J. Epstein for The New York Times, in an oddly self-aware piece that still manages to give airtime to an awful lot of clownish #Resistance types. Whether the Mueller investigation, the impeachments, or, now, the Colorado Supreme Court decision to throw him off the ballot, lefties have spent the better part of the last seven years attempting to manifest the end of former President Donald Trump. It has not worked.
Now, a hefty chunk of the mainstream media reaction to the Colorado decision has been…impressively aware of how flimsy the legal logic is, contra my expectations. That hasn't stopped some people from doubling down, though:
BREAKING -- California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis calls on the CA Secretary of State to "explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California's 2024 presidential primary ballot." pic.twitter.com/S8OsJfB4iC
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) December 20, 2023
"Courts in six states have already dismissed parallel efforts to strike Trump from the ballot on 14th Amendment grounds," wrote Intelligencer's Ed Kilgore. "Bids to exclude him are still kicking around courts in 14 other states."
Nobody knows yet whether, when taken up by the Supreme Court, this ruling will be smacked down. But it is at least heartening to see some level of collective awareness that these are not the means by which Trump should lose; a regular old election is the way we tend to handle this, and for good reason.
"I am disturbed about the potential chaos wrought by an imprudent, unconstitutional, and standardless system in which each state gets to adjudicate Section Three disqualification cases on an ad hoc basis," wrote Colorado Supreme Court Justice Carlos Samour Jr. in his dissent. "Surely, this enlargement of state power is antithetical to the framers' intent."
"To deny the voters the chance to elect the candidate of their choice is a Rubicon-crossing event for the judiciary," wrote New York magazine's Jonathan Chait. "It would be seen forever by tens of millions of Americans as a negation of democracy."
Situation dire in Gaza: Aid workers report that nearly all households in Gaza are out of food and water. Roughly 85 percent of the total 2.2 million population has been displaced; of that group, 96 percent report adults skipping meals so kids can eat or eating scavenged meats that they would not normally consume. Some 13 percent report burning garbage to cook, while roughly 15 percent of displaced people cannot heat their food at all, per a World Food Programme study conducted during the first two weeks of December. The percentage of Gazans experiencing "severe hunger" as defined by international aid organizations has risen drastically over the last two or so weeks.
"We categorically reject the despicable and libelous allegations that Israeli is somehow obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza," said Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy on Wednesday. "If they want more food and water to reach Gaza, they should send more food and water to Gaza. And while they're sending more aid, they should condemn Hamas for hijacking aid deliveries and diverting them to its fighters. Their silence is shameful. We will not accept international officials deflecting blame onto us to cover up the fact they're covering up for Hamas."
Israeli success: Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) report that they have found massive networks of Hamas tunnels throughout their ground operation including, yesterday, a "center of power for Hamas' military and political wings," under Palestine Square—in the center of Gaza City—which "was located in the direct vicinity of commercial stores, government buildings, civilian residences, and a designated school for deaf children," per statements from the Israeli military.
Scenes from New York: A wholesome tale of carolers serenading cattle, which became a whole upstate tradition. Merry Christmas!
QUICK HITS
- How sanctions have altered the borderlands between China and Russia.
- Lots of promising Javier Milei actions coming out of Argentina:
Milei just delivered a message where he condemned collectivism (called it by its name) for a few minutes, explained that leftism has failed catastrophically everywhere, said Argentina needs more freedom not controls, and proceeded to name 30 key deregulations— from tourism to…
— agustina vergara cid (@agustinavcid) December 21, 2023
- Claudine Gay is nothing if not committed to the bit. Meanwhile, The New York Times portrayed this as "Harvard finds more instances of 'duplicative language' in president's work," which is, uh, a little more generous than I'd be:
Uh Claudine Gay appears to have copied a couple phrases in her dissertation dedication from someone else's dedication? This takes… effort. https://t.co/SHOVeIsEKh pic.twitter.com/BdXywSwcTE
— Patrick Brennan (@ptbrennan11) December 19, 2023
- "The world is full of creatures that age in ways humans might consider aspirational, including bowhead whales that enjoy a cancer-free life that can span two centuries and jellyfish that respond to stress by becoming polyps again.…Mice are not like that; they're like us," reported Bloomberg in a piece on what lab rats can teach us about our own longevity.
- Is the chatbot Grok…actually good?
- "A federal appeals court on Tuesday issued a temporary order limiting the Biden administration's authority to remove barbed wire erected by Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the state's effort to deter migrants from crossing into the United States," reported The New York Times.
- Nobody knows what exactly this means, or why Trump antagonists are so obsessed with our sweet, long-suffering Slovenian:
A plane with a sign that says "MELANIA KNOWS" flying near Trump's rally site in Waterloo, IA. pic.twitter.com/hsilppWIIR
— Olivia Rinaldi (@olivialarinaldi) December 19, 2023
