Thursday Open Thread

Please feel free to write comments on this post on whatever topic you like! (As usual, please avoid personal insults of each other, vulgarities aimed at each other or at third parties, or other things that are likely to poison the discussion.)

Comments

[ThePublius]

Bloomberg's "quick takes" posted a video yesterday of Biden taking a question from a group of reports on his way to the helicopter on the White House lawn. It is obviously a faked video, a green screen job. For example, you can see Joe's hand sweep in front of the microphones, when if it was real this would be impossible. There are two videos of this, form two different angles, both obvious fakes.

Is this as troubling to anyone else here as it is to me?

Is the media complicit in this, or was this "produced" by the WH?

https://victorygirlsblog.com/is-clown-media-complicit-in-fake-biden-video/

[Brett Bellmore]

Interesting. The video in question is actually shown on ABC News' blue check twitter feed.

ABC Twitter feed of video.

It's obvious fake video, and not even terribly competent.

[Armchair Lawyer]

That's troubling.

[Brett Bellmore]

It was troubling when the media ran fake quotes from Trump, over and over, for four years. Sure, here we've got a recording proving it, but we had multiple witnesses putting their name on the line denying earlier 'quotes', too.

We had Schiff telling the media that witnesses in secret testimony were declaring Trump a Russian agent. Remember that? And the media ran it as straight news, and weren't the least bit upset with Schiff when the hearing transcripts were released and proved he'd been lying to them.

Soldiers paid a visit on a member of Congress to intimidate her in her office a few days ago. Remember the outraged headlines? Neither do I.

Might as well face what's happened: The media spent 4 years auditioning to be government run media in a police state. They got the job they were angling for.

We're not living in a free country anymore, we just haven't tugged on our chains yet.

[Nige]

Four years of running defence fo Trump and blaming the media have left you broken, morally and intellectually.

[Ed Grinberg]

re: "morally broken"
I intend to use the following tag every time the Biden/Harris administration does something particularly vile / illegal / unconstitutional (like locking people up for attending a political rally):

The most moral administration ever!

[Nige]

No dout you will.

[Krayt]

Trump's awfulness is completely separate from disgraceful behaviors to unseat him.

Partisans are too close to either side to see it.

[Don Nico]

Yet, do you deny that this video has been faked or altered as portions are physically impossible?

[Nige]

'as portions are physically impossible?'

Yeah, no.

[grb]

God, but Right-wingers are such CLOWNS!

1. There were multiple independent wittiness to the incident in question.

2. There were multiple video feeds of the incident in question.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/18/youtube-videos/no-biden-didnt-fake-interview-front-green-screen/

Isn't it time for you guys to rejoin the real world?

[Kazinski]

Yet, that video could not have been made as is unaltered. It does raise red flags.

I'm not saying that Biden didn't answer that question as depicted, but they used some video editing software that caused some strange artifacts if so.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Don Nico, in what way physically impossible?

[James Pollock]

He can't visually process what he sees. The ONLY possible cause for that is that there's something wrong with the video.

[Dr. Ed 2]

No, the media lying about the fact that FDR was in a wheelchair was troubling, but FDR still had cognitive functionality.

This is downright scary because it increasingly appears that we have a brain-dead zombie as President which raises the question of who is pulling the strings. And if it is B. Hussain Obama, well there is a reason why we have a 22nd Amendment...

[James Pollock]

"This is downright scary because it increasingly appears that we have a brain-dead zombie as President which raises the question of who is pulling the strings."

no, that guy LOST the election. Pretending he's still President serves no one.

[Dr. Ed 2]

James, read a good neurological textbook sometime -- read up on the difference between ADHD and deficits in cognitive functioning.

They are not the same thing, and the case can actually be made that they are the exact opposite of each other -- i.e. ADHD being data congestion and packet collisions on the neurological network while cognitive functioning deficits is instead a lack of data. (Death is usually caused by the lack of electrical (neurological) signals to control the heart functions.)

While I am *not* saying he is, Trump is "textbook" ADHD, right on down to the three wives and intemperate tweets. Trump is likely to say most anything to anyone -- the exact opposite of Biden's apparent inability to say anything to anyone.

[James Pollock]

I'll concede that you have more experience with neurological deficits, but that experience is probably interfering with your ability to process what they tried to tell you about them.

[M L]

"no, that guy LOST the election"

You should reflect long and hard on your mental illness.

[James Pollock]

Odd that you consider ability to sense reality as "mental illness". How long have you had this problem?

[Kazinski]

If you want to watch a good video, here is Dr. Rand Paul ripping Dr. Fauci face to face:

“You’ve been vaccinated,” Senator Paul pointed out. “And you parade around in two masks for show.”

“No,” Fauci replied.

“You can’t get it again. There is virtually zero percent chance you’ll get it, and yet you are telling people that have had the vaccine, who have immunity, you’re defying everything about immunity by telling people to wear masks who have been vaccinated,” Senator Paul continued. “Instead, you should be saying, ‘There is no science to say we’re going to have a problem from the large number of people we’ve vaccinated.'”

But Senator Paul was not finished.

“You want to get rid of vaccine hesitancy?” he asked. “Tell them to quit wearing their mask after getting the vaccine. You want people to get the vaccine? Give them a reward instead of telling them that the nanny state’s going to be there for three more years, and you gotta wear a mask forever. People don’t want to hear it and there’s no science behind it.”

[StellaLink_the dog]

Clown Rand is just pissed off at Fauci because Fauci, in a previous hearing confrontation, pointed out to the ophthalmologist that you don't get herd immunity from 10 or 15% of the population having been infected. Paul also does not understand that it might be possible for vaccinated people to spread the virus although it seems as though this possibility is being found to be less likely all the time.

Final word on this, if I need someone to examine my eyes, I'd trust Paul over Fauci. As for understanding viral pandemics, I'd listen to just about anybody before Paul. Listening to Paul on pandemics would be like listening to Trump on running an airline or sports league.

[Kazinski]

Using the CDC’s own figures 120 million have been infected, and another 20% have been vaccinated which is 66 million, so it’s somewhere around 50-60% immune right now, which is approaching herd immunity.

But ignoring that just what did Rand say to Fouci that wasn’t true? Mask theatre for people who are immune isn’t going to fly.

I’m getting vaccinated next week, 10 days after that my mask is getting shitcanned, all of them.

[James Pollock]

"Using the CDC’s own figures 120 million have been infected, and another 20% have been vaccinated which is 66 million, so it’s somewhere around 50-60% immune right now, which is approaching herd immunity."

Where did you learn math that taught you that 20% of 120 million is 66 million? Was Dr. Ed your teacher? Come back when you learn how to do percentages.

"But ignoring that just what did Rand say to Fouci that wasn’t true? Mask theatre for people who are immune isn’t going to fly."

You don't wear a mask to keep yourself from getting coronavirus. So being immune to the coronavirus disease has nothing to do with whether you should wear a mask if interacting with other people. Fauci knew this, so he knew that Senator Paul was engaging in "mask theatre" to use your words, while you did not pick up on the stupidity. Say, isn't Senator Paul a medical doctor?

[James Pollock]

Yes, Senator Paul made an ass of himself in that video. The reason why the people in masks are wearing masks is to avoid spreading the virus to other people. Being vaccinated is not known to prevent such transmission, and so even people who have been vaccinated need to wear masks when they are close enough to transmit coronavirus to other people.
Senator Paul was engaging in "theater".

[Moderation4ever]

What the point here? You think the President is just a video image and that he doesn't really exist? The fact is the Joe Biden is real and is the real President. You are spending too much time on conspiracy web sites.

Joe Biden has been in politics for over 40 years. He and we all know that off-the-cuff public speaking is not his strong point never has been. So why should he go there? History tell us that Thomas Jefferson, a man who wrote these great documents for our founding was an awful public speaker and did not engage in it. So let Joe Biden have the same slack.

[Commenter_XY]

The point is, we have a POTUS who has diminished mental capacity. I am not saying that to be cruel, or score some political points. It is obvious: POTUS Biden is cognitively diminished, it shows, and that has profound implications to our national security.

That prime time speech he gave....our allies and enemies saw it, just like I did. What did they see? They saw an elderly gentleman reading in a stilted manner from a teleprompter, who did not look directly into the camera, who slumped over the lecturn multiple times (after the 12 minute mark - see for yourself), and walked with a very slow, deliberate pace when the teleprompter reading was done. It was not quite the old man shuffle down the red carpet, but close.

POTUS Biden has not taken questions in a formal setting for nearly 60 days now. It has been a century since that has happened. The last guy was Woodrow Wilson, post-stroke. Maybe in a bygone era, the media would 'cover' for a POTUS for the sake of the country. Perhaps that is happening here. I hope that truly is the case. The problem is the media has very limited credibility due to their incessant lying, writing false stories, and perceived bias.

What slack needs to be given here. And to whom....POTUS Biden or the MSM?

[Moderation4ever]

Is your suggestion of diminished capacity any different than the suggestion that the former President was mentally ill? The fact is in both cases there was no definitive proof. Everyone's opinion then and now is subjective. Were President Biden to hold a news conference and make a gaff you would see that as proof of a conclusion you already hold. You are doing that now when you watch President Biden, looking for something to confirm an opinion you already hold.

Ask yourself are objective?

The fact is there is nothing to suggest this administration is not functioning well. They are moving through their agenda and they have a disciplined message.

[Brett Bellmore]

"Were President Biden to hold a news conference and make a gaff you would see that as proof of a conclusion you already hold."

That would require him to hold a news conference, now, wouldn't it?

[Armchair Lawyer]

Besides, if Biden just made a gaff, it would be evidence of Biden being Biden. If you had a pretty woman next to him, and he took a break to sniff her hair, it's just Biden.

Now if Biden suddenly just forgot stuff in the middle of the conference, well....

[Dr. Ed 2]

Or took a break to sniff a *man's* hair -- something really out of character.

[Queen Amalthea]

Is it chutzpah for a supporter of Mr. Grab 'Em by the Pussy to bring up something like this? I actually think no, it's another case of the person not knowing quite what should be wrong on this kind of thing in principle but trying to fake it. They know people got mad for some reason about Grab 'Em by the Pussy but aren't sure why, but figure sniffing hair must be equivalent in whatever principle is at issue.

[Dr. Ed 2]

WHOM did he NON-CONSENSUALLY grab by the pussy????

[StellaLink_the dog]

I don't know if he grabbed her by the pussy, but Ms Carroll, among others including his first wife, has accused him of rape. She claims to have the stained dress to prove it. But, Trump is fighting to keep from having to either prove or disprove the origin of the stain.

Lots of other women have credibly accused Trump of lesser sexual assaults some of which include pussy grabbing.

Then you have to consider the rather strange relationship between Trump and Jeffrey Epstein which Trump keeps trying to deny.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I don’t know if he grabbed her by the pussy, but Ms Carroll, among others including his first wife, has accused him of rape.

LOL! An estranged ex-wife and....E. Jean Carroll? The bat shit-crazy woman who said that most people think rape is "sexy", told Anderson Cooper that the alleged "assault" on her was "not sexual", not "rape"...and was tweeting about how much she loved Trump's "The Apprentice" after the alleged incident in the dressing room?

[Kazinski]

Deny what about Epstein? He says they used to be friends, and both had an interest in young, but not too young women.

But it’s not disputed that Trump banned Epstein from Maralago almost 20 years ago, word is Epstein tried to hit on the way underage daughter of another guest and Trump permanently 86’d him.

[James Pollock]

"WHOM did he NON-CONSENSUALLY grab by the pussy????"

He didn't name names when he confessed. But, he's been divorced twice and is known to have paid off people to not talk about their personal experience being near enough to him to have him get grabby. He didn't disclose them all in his campaign finance reports.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I actually think...

If only that was even remotely true.

[StellaLink_the dog]

Oh, there's a zinger for you.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

It's funny because it's true.

[James Pollock]

Your knowledge of "truth" remains as fuzzy as ever.

[Kazinski]

Well now we do have one woman on record, who worked for Biden, that credibly claims Biden grabbed her by the Pussy, in fact penetrated her pussy when he grabbed it.

The only thing we have with Trump is braggadocio.

[Sarcastr0]

? Trump has plenty of people accusing him of sexual assault.

You can find them more or less credible, but you need to do the same with Reade.

[James Pollock]

"The only thing we have with Trump is braggadocio."

...and a known history of payoffs.

[Brian Thomas]

Well Trump only held 1 news conference his whole first year in office, so Biden has time to catch up I'd say.

[Kazinski]

Well actually that’s not true he had 21 press conferences his first year. One solo, 20 joint press conferences. And we know how the joint conferences work, Trump goes out there with say Macron from France, Macron gets one softball, Trump gets 20 gotcha questions.

[James Pollock]

Are you counting the kind where reporters shout over a helicopter, and Trump pretended he didn't hear the questions he couldn't answer.

[NToJ]

Yes, and when he does, next week, you're going to complain about that, too. You are going to enjoy BDS as much as we enjoyed hearing TDS, if you keep this up.

[Don Nico]

indeed it would. Let's say 30 minutes without pre-selected questioners.
Then let people judge for themselves.

[Armchair Lawyer]

I think Trump has many flaws. However, not being seen in person isn't one of them.

There are serious questions about Biden, especially if the media is faking videos now.

[ThePublius]

Are you being objective?

We have a faked video. That's an objective fact. What is your view of that? Why?

[Nige]

You claim to have a faked video.

[ThePublius]

You haven't made a cogent argument or plausible rebuttal in this thread, you just keep contradicting what others say. Have you watched the video? I doubt it. If you had, you would see, clearly, that it is faked.

[Nige]

I have. It's not faked.

[Krayt]

The boom mics should have the same level of clarity as his hands. It should not take long for internet detectives to check this out, and other indicators.

[James Pollock]

The same ones who figured out the moon landing didn't happen on the moon?

[Don Nico]

Sorry, Nige watch his hands and the position of the microphones. Some bits are not physically possible unless he is trying to group the holder of the mike.
Put aside your political prejudices and watch critically.

[Nige]

The mikes are on booms. It's a trick of perspective.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Several analyses that address this issue are available.

I will not provide cites because (1) this site permits but one cite and (2) I believe right-wingers should be encouraged to perform fundamental research -- how are they to learn anything if they do not develop basic research skills?

Spoiler: Breathless conservative conspiracy theorists lose again.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I have. It’s not faked.

You're either blind or the worst liar on this board...or both.

[Nige]

Or it's not fake.

[James Pollock]

Somebody doesn't like competition for being the worst liar on this board. won't stand for it.

[Brian Thomas]

It's not a faked video... The mics are on extendable boom arms and when it looks like his hands go in front of the mics, it's because they actually do. There are other angles that shows him leaning over them to talk to reporters who are trying to keep their distance so are using extendable mic booms.

What's more likely: 1) a massive conspiracy involving multiple major news organizations creating and sharing a fake video with CGI and green screens in order to fake the groundbreaking news that Biden doesn't at the moment have plans to visit the southern border, but they did it so poorly they included a major and obvious editing mistake anyone creating or reviewing the video before release would spot immediately, or 2) it's just a minor optical illusion based on the position of the camera and mics?

[Queen Amalthea]

Love this comment. The marriage of arrogance and stupidity in most of these conspiracy theorists 'a-ha' moments is still amazing after all these years.

[swood1000]

Part of the problem is that the mic booms are out of focus, as being too close, whereas his hands and jacket stay in focus as they travel “in front of” the booms.

[M L]

It's nearly impossible to conclude that the video is genuine from viewing it. But the resulting issues of media complicity are difficult to address.

[James Pollock]

"It’s nearly impossible to conclude that the video is genuine from viewing it."

If you badly enough want it to be fake, then it clearly shows that it is fake. If you don't have that deep yearning, then it doesn't look fake.

[Brian Thomas]

You know objects can be out of focus if they are both too close and too far, right? Or just not the subject of the photo? If you have an iPhone, put it in Portrait mode and see how many things remain in focus behind the subject of your picture.

[Don Nico]

Brian, if you know anything about optics you know that what you are suggesting is not consistent with physics.

[Brian Thomas]

Well I guess my iPhone operates outside the space-time continuum then, because it keeps the subject of my picture in focus despite movement and other objects appearing in front or behind it. I'm sure the video is being digitally manipulated to some extent, it's just the digital manipulation is probably being done natively in the camera to keep Biden in focus rather than completely fabricating a CGIed Biden in front of a green screen at a made-up event to make a fake and inconsequential, non-committal comment.

[M L]

Brian Thomas,

You're not addressing what happens in the video at all.

What you have in the video is X, Y and Z objects, where X is the hand and sleeve, Y is the mic, and Z is the torso. X < Y < Z represents the relative distance of those objects from the camera lens. Yet, X and Z are both in focus while Y is out of focus. And all objects are in the same line of sight.

This remains the case even as the relative distance changes from Y < X < Z to X < Y < Z and back again.

[Stephen Lathrop]

M L, I have been getting paid for photography—in journalism, in design, and in fine art—since the 1970s. What you say is impossible I do all the time, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident if I mismanage use of certain lenses. Google, (and try to understand, it isn't easy), "Scheimpflug principle."

I have nothing to say about the specifics with Biden.

In general, equipment which can create effects like you see in the Biden video is in common use on a variety of cameras. The sometimes counter-intuitive effects which tilt/shift lenses deliver can be challenging to manage, even for professional photographers working from tripods. Recently, it has become increasingly common for reporters and event photographers to attempt tilt/shift effects using handheld cameras, including when making videos. The journalistic advantage is that when you get the technique right you can use a longer lens, but still get the kind of everything-in-focus result which is almost automatic from a point-and-shoot with a wide angle lens. That lets you put more pixels on your subject while still keeping everything in focus. If you make your adjustments wrong, you can get haphazard looking focus, where a plane of focus tilted from foreground to background cuts through a variety of different-height subjects, catching some and missing others.

What you saw on that video looks very much like a result from someone using a handheld camera equipped with a tilt/shift lens, shooting downward from a high angle, and making a commonplace mistake.

If I had to guess, I would guess there is a less-technical explanation for what happened which I don't yet understand. I would look to that possibility first.

But I would also ask whether anyone has identified the photographer, and simply asked him/her what equipment was used. If the camera was equipped to take advantage of the Scheimpflug principle, or if the process used could simulate it digitally, in-camera or in post-processing, then you have a near-certain explanation for what looks anomalous about the Biden video.

[James Pollock]

The most important thing about a conspiracy theory is that you can never just ask the people involved.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

It’s not a faked video… The mics are on extendable boom arms and when it looks like his hands go in front of the mics, it’s because they actually do.

You either never watched the video and are just making stuff up, or your eyesight is extremely poor...or you're just flat-out lying.

[Nige]

Or the video isn't fake and you are all losing the run of yourselves completely.

[Brian Thomas]

Or, option 4, I watched the video, and then watched other videos from other angles, and saw pictures from other angles, and used my brain and reasoning skills.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

and used my brain and reasoning skills.

Both of which are clearly defective.

[James Pollock]

Brain and reasoning skills are meant to be used to advance partisan narrative, not to simply take notice of ordinary run-of-the-mill facts.

[Kazinski]

“ What’s more likely: 1) a massive conspiracy involving multiple major news organizations creating and sharing a fake video”

Well these are the same people that claimed Trump was a Russians asset, cavorting with hookers peeing on hotel beds, Micheal Cohen went to Prague to meet with the Russkis to fix the election, Devin Nunes went to Austria to meet with Ukrainian officials, Carter Page meeting with senior Russian officials, Donald Trump being given advance heads up over Wikileaks disclosures, all of which were proven false.

And now you are going to make an appeal to authority based on media credibility? Bullshit, they pissed their credibility away long ago.

[Sarcastr0]

It's not an appeal to authority, it's an appeal to you would need a massive conspiracy of journalists to keep quiet.

[Kazinski]

A massive conspiracy like the JournoList private google group with 400 liberal journalists that daily discussed what stories and angles to push and what stories to avoid?

[Nige]

LIBERAL JOURNALISTS COMMUNICATNG WITH EACH OTHER THE HECK YOU SAY

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah...you need to check what actually happened there. Hint: what stories to spike did not come up. Nor were 'angles' coordinated.

[James Pollock]

" all of which were proven false."

" Bullshit, they pissed their credibility away long ago."

Speaking of losing credibility...

[Commenter_XY]

To answer your questions directly.

1. Yes. You posit two different questions, though (cognitive decline vs mental illness).
2. POTUS Biden needs to have a press conference (for proof) where he can answer questions extemporaneously.
3. Am I objective? As much as anyone else these days. POTUS Biden made a televised address; I related what I saw. What did you see?

Note, I am speaking only of POTUS Biden, not his administration. Having a POTUS who is cognitively diminished - and I believe that he is based on what we saw - has important implications to this country, and it's security. We should be honest about this.

[NToJ]

There's no reason to think he's cognitively diminished. You thought that when he was speaking publicly at the debates, you were wrong then, you're wrong now. But whatever, you're getting a press release next week, so I assume you'll finally shut up about it.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

There’s no reason to think he’s cognitively diminished.

So long as you never watch/listen to him speaking.

[Commenter_XY]

The man stated yesterday that Kamala was POTUS. So no, I won't be shutting up anytime soon NtoJ. You'll just have to live with the fact that I will continue to call out what is abundantly obvious: Joe Biden is cognitively diminished, and that has national security implications.

I mean, we could discuss 25th amendment remedies, as this is a legal blog.

[Sarcastr0]

How many cogent speeches, debates, and press engagements do you need, Commenter?

Because fastening on to misspeaking makes GWB impaired as well, and certainly makes Obama a freaking genius with his long umms to keep from falling into your trap.

When a narrative is really nice for your side, you should become more skeptical, not less. This is an issue I have as well.

[Commenter_XY]

More than what I am seeing, Sarcastr0, which is nil = How many cogent speeches, debates, and press engagements do you need, Commenter?

POTUS Biden said something during his inaugural speech that I did take to heart (seriously). He said, "Hear me out". So I listened intently. I will continue to do so because he is the POTUS.

We saw what we saw, Sarcastr0 during POTUS Biden's prime time speech. There is no sugarcoating it. It is reality. The concrete behaviors I pointed out did in fact happen. I will continue to call out the fact that a cognitively diminished POTUS Biden is a potential national security for this country. And it doesn't matter how good the team surrounding him is; he is the POTUS. He will make the call, not the team. So cognitive impairment matters.

I'll be watching intently on 3/25 at his press conference. Hopefully you will as well, and we can compare notes.

[Sarcastr0]

Anecdotes are not behaviors. Especially given all the examples

The debates, the inauguration, and countless little speeches and press scrums after have been fine, normal speeches.

You're experiencing textbook confirmation bias. Same as Dems did during GWB.
The cure is to check your baseline. How many total speeches have there been, compared to the speeches you are relying on to determine 'behavior?'

[Sarcastr0]

Heck, the speech at issue here was pretty normal, except some folks are raging hard over camera wonkiness.

[Commenter_XY]

We'll shortly see for ourselves next Thursday. Let's see what happens.

[Sarcastr0]

I heard the same thing about the debates, Commenter.

1) Whether there are no slips of the tongue in a single event is a crap metric, and you know it.
2) I fully expect even if it does go well, the right will snap back to the narrative whenever Biden next misspeaks. Just like happened with the debates.

And that doesn't count the 'secret anti-dementia wonderdrug' crowd on the right.

[James Pollock]

"Having a POTUS who is cognitively diminished – and I believe that he is based on what we saw – has important implications to this country, and it’s security."

Trump was actually tested for cognitive diminishment (person, man, woman, camera, television), and the bar for finding no diminishment turns out to be quite low. On the other hand, you can go back to President Wilson, and see that the country can function with a President who doesn't make public appearances.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Biden calls his second-in-command 'President Harris'

President Biden misspoke in a speech Thursday offering updates on an update on vaccination progress in the U.S., referring to his vice president as "President Harris."

"When President Harris and I took ..." Biden said, before momentarily pausing, "a virtual tour of a vaccination site in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that tour injecting people, giving vax each shot, was like administering a dose of hope."

[James Pollock]

If making a mis-statement proves that someone is unfit for the Presidency, then we haven't had a fit President going back (at least) to Reagan. Of those Presidents, exactly two were impeached and zero convicted for things that they said.

[MatthewSlyfield]

How many Presidents have we had who made misstatements about who the President is?

[Krychek_2]

I very much doubt that we have a POTUS with diminished capacity. However, even if we do, Reagan had Alzheimers for much of his second term, and Trump proved that we can make do without a president at all, so why the sudden concern?

[Jimmy the Dane]

"Reagan had Alzheimers...." is a tired old trope the left just can't seem to overcome. It simply isn't true so stop saying it. If anything, and there is no evidence of this, he might have had early symptoms his last year in office and early symptoms usually go undetected because they are so mild.

If we can't talk about election rigging because it is simply untrue the "Reagan had Alzheimers" trope needs to go in the same bucket.

[Krychek_2]

You're probably right that he didn't actually have Alzheimers; he just acted as if he did. Like the old joke about Alice Roosevelt being told Calvin Coolidge had died and responding, How can they tell?

[Jimmy the Dane]

Reagan was on the older side and survived an assassination attempt. If anything put him on the decline it was that shooting not Alzheimers. If you talk to any of his advisors from the era they will say the pre-shooting Reagan was sharp and smart as whip and something just never came back after the returned. It is rather sad because had he been his "old self" the 80's probably would have turned out much different.

[Krychek_2]

Dude: I was making a joke. I don't think Reagan had Alzheimers, and I don't think Biden is mentally impaired, and I think the actual evidence for one is as good as for the other. I do think Reagan was thoroughly incompetent, and started the budget-busting deficits we've mostly been running since then, but that's another story.

[Jimmy the Dane]

His economic plan largely worked as we are still in the largest period of economic growth any society has ever experienced to this day. Sure there were recessions but they were nothing like their predecessors. Even these blips say growth in some sectors and were more pauses then anything else.

I've seen some economists suggest that the plan worked all too well and we are seeing the unintended and unpredicted consequences of that now. It was a novel idea back in the late 70's and if you had to live through that decade the idea of massive economic growth would have been more than appealing at the time. People forget that stagnant economic growth was a big problem for most of the 20th century. We sort of solved that problem, and might have done it a little too well...

[Krychek_2]

He adopted the thoroughly Keynesian approach of spending yourself rich, or basically living beyond our means. That works for a while.

[De Oppresso Liber]

One of the things that the Trump presidency really opened my eyes to was that Republicans love them some Keynesian deficit spending multipliers. Keynesian economics was frequently cited as the root of all evil around this website during Obama's time. Ron Paul was the leading political figure in opposition to Keynesian policy.

Then Trump gets elected, oversees the largest deployment of Keynesian policy ever, by far, and the same people who were crying about the national debt and Keynesian magic were applauding and talking about the amazing economic growth from Trump's policies.

If you call it for what it is though, they get really upset.

[Brett Bellmore]

"One of the things that the Trump presidency really opened my eyes to was that Republicans love them some Keynesian deficit spending multipliers."

That's the nature of democracy, unfortunately, and one of its characteristic failure modes: Once it's permitted to buy votes with borrowed money, any politician who refuses to do so will be outbid by somebody who's willing to do it.

So eventually everybody running understands that, while you can make noises about fiscal discipline, actually trying to implement it is political suicide. And only people who are lying about balancing budgets can be successful.

The only way out of this is to campaign on taking borrowing off the table for everybody, a balanced budget amendment. But by the time you need a balanced budget amendment, nobody in a position to advance such an amendment has any interest in balanced budgets.

Only a constitutional convention can get past that dynamic, and at this point it's probably too late anyway.

[Krychek_2]

No, Brett, that's the nature of not having democracy. One of the many nasty side effects of minority rule through anti-democratic institutions is that politicians don't have to be accountable to their voters. They know that so long as they have an R or a D after their name, their re-election is safe, so they don't have to worry about what the voters actually want.

I very much doubt that we would have trillion dollar deficits if we actually had accountable government. And that comes from democracy.

[Kazinski]

“He adopted the thoroughly Keynesian approach of spending yourself rich, or basically living beyond our means. That works for a while.”

Dude, read a little history and get yourself an economic textbook or do something to educate yourself. In 1980 (the year Reagan was elected) the inflation rate was 13.8%. Since then it’s averaged 2.87%.

A Keynesian approach would have just amped up inflation higher and would have been a total failure.

What Reagan and Volker did to kill stag-flation and then jumpstart the economy was restrict the money supply, then introduce tax reform The first tax cut took the top rate from 70% to 50%, and the second in ‘86 took it from 50% to 28%.

That’s how Reagan juiced the economy cutting the top tax rate from 70% to 28%.

[James Pollock]

"His economic plan largely worked"

If your definition of working is that money was transferred from the middle class to the upper on a consistent, year-over-year basis. Since I am not in the upper class, I don't consider that to be "working". He also paid off terrorists to improve his political chances, and sold weapons to Iran.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Yes, I noticed that post-shooting Reagan wasn't the same man -- and what isn't said is how much brain damage there was from lack of oxygen -- he did nearly die. Almost certainly would have had he been shot 20 years earlier, maybe even 10 -- there had been dramatic advances in Emergency Medicine in the 1970s, much of it coming out of Vietnam and then pushed by the TV show "Emergency."

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

You’re probably right that he didn’t actually have Alzheimers

Meaning that you lied, or are just parroting bullshit based on your own ignorance.

[James Pollock]

"'Reagan had Alzheimers….' is a tired old trope the left just can’t seem to overcome. "

Isn't it just sad the way they won't let go of things that are true and embrace the false narrative storyline that Jimmy prefers...

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Isn’t it just sad the way they won’t let go of things that are true and embrace the false narrative storyline that Jimmy prefers…

Reagan was not diagnosed with Alzheimer's until 5 years after he left office.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Yes, and Alzheimer's is a disease that typically goes undiagnosed for years.

[Life of Brian]

Alzheimer’s is a disease that typically goes undiagnosed for years.

For someone with the level of medical care POTUS receives? I don't think "typically" works here.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Alzheimer's is difficult to diagnose. At the time of Regan's presidency, the only definitive medical test for Alzheimer's could only be done post mortem, because it required dissection of the brain.

Pre-mortem diagnosis of Alzheimer's was/is done by eliminating all other possible causes of dementia. That takes time.

[Kazinski]

Well maybe we can just all agree that having a President over 75 is a bad idea. Reagan was 77 when he left office, Biden is 78 going into his first year.

Trump will be 77 or 78 if he runs again in 2024 which is enough reason for me to want to see another candidate instead.

[James Pollock]

"Reagan was not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s until 5 years after he left office."

Yeah. Actual Alzheimers used to be a disease that couldn't be accurately determined except during autopsy. But, it has long been known that people with this form of dementia usually have symptoms that start in the patient's mid-60's.

[Armchair Lawyer]

To a large extent, voters voted for Biden as President. Not Kamala Harris. Not a cartel of Democratic advisors. But Biden. Because they trusted his judgement.

There have been serious questions about Biden, his health, and his mental acuity, for quite a while however. The pandemic was somewhat fortunate for Biden, as it allowed him to "duck" much of the public campaigning that a President typically does. It is not typical of Biden to avoid the public as much as he has been. So, that raises many more questions. Is he really "there" and making the decisions that voters entrusted him with?

If Biden is just a "figurehead" by contrast, just doing what "advisors" tell him to do and say, that in many ways is a betrayal of the voting process and the American people. Remember they voted for Biden. Not for a figurehead. And if Biden isn't really there, then....

[Jimmy the Dane]

It is pretty obvious to any reasonable observer that Biden's public appearances are scripted and coached. The whole "now salute" thing on Inauguration Day made it obvious he was wearing an ear piece taking direction. And the "I'll take questions now if that is what I am supposed to do" incident leaves no real question he is merely a figurehead in decline.

[Nige]

Scripted and coached you say? Imagine that, preparing yourself for public appearances. We're going back to the great days of Obama getting roundly criticised for using a teleprompter.

[Jimmy the Dane]

Sure public appearances are scripted to a certain extent, but not to the extent that Biden is clearly being given stage direction.

The DNC created this whole mess. They rode out any serious primary candidate overnight with some combination of bribing and blackmailing before the SC primary. Biden did not have to be the nominee and they could have pressed someone else how had a decent chance of beating Trump. But now they get to lie in the bed they made.

[Nige]

They seem to be doing fine, you're the ones losing your minds. Again.

[James Pollock]

"It is pretty obvious to any reasonable observer that Biden’s public appearances are scripted and coached."

And the important thing to remember is that that never happened before. Not once in our nation's history.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Not like this...

[Life of Brian]

And the important thing to remember is that that never happened before. Not once in our nation’s history.

See, the interesting thing here is that we were supposedly getting an upgrade. Not the least common denominator.

[Nige]

There ahve beens serious questions about Biden's health from people who think the election was rigged and that video is fake, so never mind.

[Armchair Lawyer]

MSNBC:

"“I just wonder,” Scarborough asked after a particularly disastrous Biden debate performance months ago. “Are we afraid to say that a lot of his sentences don’t make sense, that he’s having trouble completing his thoughts?”"

[Nige]

Afraid to say it because they're wrong?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The important point is that the birther-Pizzagate-QAnon-stolen election class of right-wingers has excused itself from any position in reasoned, worthwhile public debates.

That those folks tend to be roundly bigoted -- racists, gay-bashers, xenophobes, White nationalists, misogynists -- strengthens the argument for ignoring them until replacement occurs.

[Don Nico]

Again, an off-point, non-comment in the middle of a thread.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Just how much do you contend competent adults should indulge these 'it's all a big conspiracy with fake videos and Jewish space lasers and stolen elections and a comatose Biden as Kamala's puppet' arguments?

That point seems quite relevant in the context of this particular clingerfest.

[StellaLink_the dog]

I'll just observe that this is a Seinfeldt show comment thread. It's impossible to be off topic in the middle of a thread which is literally (LITERALLY) about nothing.

[James Pollock]

"To a large extent, voters voted for Biden as President. Not Kamala Harris. Not a cartel of Democratic advisors. But Biden. Because they trusted his judgement. "

For whom are you speaking?

[Armchair Lawyer]

Voters

[NToJ]

"To a large extent, voters voted for Biden as President. Not Kamala Harris. Not a cartel of Democratic advisors. But Biden. Because they trusted his judgement."

You don't know this.

[StellaLink_the dog]

Many voted for Biden because he's not Trump just as in 2016 many voted for Trump because he's not Hillary.

[James Pollock]

"To a large extent, voters voted for Biden as President. Not Kamala Harris. Not a cartel of Democratic advisors. But Biden. Because they trusted his judgement. "

Most of us voted for NOT TRUMP!!!, actually.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Assuming diminished capacity, Biden remains a very long step ahead of the nut-cases here who think they are calling him out for dementia. Biden could diminish for 4 years, and then get on a debate stage and whip the likes of these VC commenters attacking him. Come to think of it, he just did that to Trump.

[James Pollock]

Being better at debate than Donald Trump is a very low bar to jump over. An arthritic frog could do it.

[James Pollock]

"The point is, we have a POTUS who has diminished mental capacity"

That didn't bother you when the POTUS in question was a member of your party.

[Commenter_XY]

And the cognitively diminished POTUS you refer to is.....?

You can make a case that Reagan 'post assassination' was not the same man 'pre-assassination'. He clearly was set back, physically. It took a long time for him to recover.

The press conference where he had to talk about TOW missiles to Iran for hostages toward the end of his second term was painful to watch. He was at a loss for words, his reasoning muddled, and I was personally glad we had a two term limit (even though I admired him greatly). The presidency aged him a lot. It was time for him to go.

[James Pollock]

I didn't say a word about Reagan. I was talking about Trump, who was actually tested for mental decline. So there was someone in the inner sphere who could see the signs.

[Dr. Ed 2]

My take on Biden's speech was "high as a kite" and it was the way he walked to the podium that did it for me. He had the stilted walking style of a kid who has taken *way* too much Adderall (and heaven only knows what else) trying to walk past the professor without appearing to be as high as he knows he is.

Poor coordination (e.g. Gerry Ford) is one thing, the key here was that every step appeared to be choreographed.

The man's been walking since the Eisenhower Administration -- walking comes so naturally (to a non-brain-injured person) that we don't choreograph each step when walking down a hallway.

[James Pollock]

Yet he can walk down a ramp. How's your guy doing with that these days?

[Dr. Ed 2]

It's HOW he walked.

Attend a training on drug recolonization and you will see what I mean.

My guy could step sideways, bend over, and pick up a Marine's hat that had blown off in the jetwash -- I doubt that Biden *could*.

[De Oppresso Liber]

...and drinks water with two hands. And doesn't make sense on his best days. Do we have to post the "nuclear" Trump word salad copy-pasta for you?

You are seeing what you want to see, which is the one fundamental thing that divides the cultists from the non-cultists.

Non-cultists largely see the world for what it is, no matter how inconvenient the ramifications are. Trump cultists choose to believe whatever makes them feel good or outraged, then gaslight themselves and everyone else with nonsensical arguments and deliberate ignorance.

[ragebot]

One more time Gerald Ford was an Eagle Scout at 15, he was an all state football player in High School, he was the captain of the UM football team that won a national championship and a consensus All American and first round draft choice of the Detroit Lions.

Say what you want about Ford as a pol but he was the most athletic president in history.

[Dr. Ed 2]

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/christmas-eve-at-the-white-house/2721418

[James Pollock]

"Say what you want about Ford as a pol "

Didn't say anything at all about Ford. But don't let that slow you down.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Actually Ed, Biden has been walking since the Roosevelt administration.

But your comments about old people walking won't make much sense to old people. At times, I walk much less steadily than Biden. Why not? Arthritis in the sacroiliac, hips, knees, feet, and lower back have an effect. Plus which, half my vestibular mechanism got zapped out of existence to take care of a medical problem. If your balance is medically impaired, you choreograph your walk, especially on soft, uneven surface like a lawn.

I don't drink at all, and can pass the medical to maintain a CDL class B, but any cop who watched me take the first few steps out of a car, after driving for an hour or two, would arrest me on the spot. Nobody who meets me thinks I am the least bit demented. I could debate you for instance, and win hands down. Resolved: Dr. Ed is full of crap. The audience would cheer.

[James Pollock]

"Resolved: Dr. Ed is full of crap."

Funny debate. Both of you seem to be arguing the same side of this point.

[ThePublius]

That's a rather pitiful defense of a man who is undoubtedly the first president in history to attempt to deceive the American public with faked media. It's shameful and scandalous. The reason isn't that Biden isn't a good public speaker; not too long ago he was a very talented public speaker, as is evidenced by his numerous plagiarized speeches. He can't face the public now because of his obvious, severe mental decline.

[Moderation4ever]

He was on the news with George Stephanopoulos the other day. He has done town halls and announcements all the time. How many times has he met privately with some American for a private talk, family that lost someone or a person having difficulty. None of those people have come away to say he has diminished capacity.

Again you have a conclusion and your looking for data to support that, not the way it is done.

[James Pollock]

Conservatives firmly believe that if they repeat something enough times, it will become true. That's why they all use the same talking points, which are distributed by radio on a daily basis.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

They believe fairy tales are true. They believe science is optional. They believe in good old days that never existed. They believe education, credentials, and expertise are overrated.

Who cares what else they believe?

[Don Nico]

More pointless nonsense.
The argument about whether the film has been manipulated is abut science, not that you could ever understand that.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Why do you contend my point -- that the people advancing this 'someone faked this video to mask Biden's lack of coherence' are also the dopes who advance or believe a series of stupid, silly things -- is pointless?

Do you believe this video was faked as part of a conspiracy to deprive the public of information concerning Pres. Biden's incompetence? Or do you still have occasional flickers of lucidity competing with your right-wing nuttery?

[Stephen Lathrop]

Don Nico, what science? I hope it's not optics, because your comments show you don't understand that. Is it some other science you think you understand?

[James Pollock]

that's the great part of Conservative science... you don't actually have to know anything to use it.

[Queen Amalthea]

What's interesting is how much conservatives rely on this kind of thing instead of arguing against what a pol they don't like a. said or b. did policy wise. It's all, scandal, conspiracy, subterfuge!!!! Hillary secretly has brain damage, Obama is a secret Muslim, Biden secretly has dementia, etc. Most of the haters of Trump focused on things like 'he's locking up kids' or 'he called the COVID Hong Kong flu' or whatever.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Put yourself in their position.

If you were a movement conservative (and therefore had been getting stomped in the culture war throughout the entirety of your lifetime); recognized that America was becoming less White, less religious, less rural, less intolerant, and less insular daily; knew the backwaters (Republican strongholds) were emptying and continuing to decay; understood that our strongest institutions (education, media, culture, research) were liberal-libertarian entities; observed that our best creative artists (musicians, directors, actors, comedians, etc.) were liberals; and saw that corresponding Republican institutions and artists were the likes of fourth-tier colleges, Fox News, Newsmax, the Discovery Institute, country music, Left Behind movies, Jon Voight, and Scott Baio -- you would be disaffected and desperate, too.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Talk to any member of the clergy -- you say the exact same thing at every funeral, just with someone else's name. You say the same things to the grieving family members. You really don't have to think about what to say because you learned it so very long ago.

[James Pollock]

Talk to anyone Dr. Ed knows-- he says the exact same thing over and over, without understanding anything that's going on. That's because the conspiracy-of-the-day can change to cover whatever reason it is that reality isn't matching his predefined ideological idea of what was supposed to happen.

For entertainment, you can pop holes in it. Remember when he was touting the nonsense that Trump would be President again by March 4th? Trump is as close to that as he was to having a "better-than-Obamacare" health care plan on "Day One". But to the deluded, it's still imminent.

[Nige]

The video being faked and his mental decline are now definitive facts. Apparently. Trump fit you guys like a glove.

[Brett Bellmore]

The video being faked IS a definitive fact. I'm not sure how you can watch it, on ABC's blue check twitter feed, not posted to Youtube by some rando, and deny that. It's not even a good fake!

[Nige]

No. It isn't. You credulous fool.

[ThePublius]

Likewise, I'm sure. Have you watched it? Slow it down to 0.25x and watch his hand pass in front of the mics, an impossibility in a real, 3D world.

[Nige]

Yes. It certainly looks odd. But it's not evidence of fakery, unless you want it to be.

[Brett Bellmore]

Until now I'd thought you were something of a fanatic, but not an idiot.

I confess I was wrong: You're an idiot.

[Nige]

It's not fake, Brett.

[James Pollock]

Consider the possibility that Brett is fake.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Yes. It certainly looks odd. But it’s not evidence of fakery, unless you want it to be.

Video showing something that is physically impossible in the real world isn't fakery? Do you also believe there are dinosaurs living on an island near Costa Rica?

[Nige]

There is an actual name for when you see something that should not be physically possible but which doesn't involve a freaky fake-video conspiracy theory.

[James Pollock]

" Do you also believe there are dinosaurs living on an island near Costa Rica?"

Spielberg found some somewhere to make his movie. And you know they weren't fake because they didn't have feathers, like the real dinosaurs had. Try to avoid the inconsistency, like the wall in the side of the T-Rex paddock that comes and goes as needed to add dramatic tension.

[Brett Bellmore]

Good God. ABC News' blue checked twitter feed, I linked to it above.

Here it is again.

Look at 3-5 seconds. Biden's hand clearly passes in front of a couple of the 'microphones', in a blue screen glitch.

Biden certainly wasn't in front of a crowd of reporters, and he probably wasn't walking on the lawn. (He's in focus, and so is his background!) Who knows how many takes he got for that faked press encounter?

[Nige]

It COULD be a blue screen glitch, or it could be a trick of perspective. I know which I'd check first before making an arse of myself.

[VinniUSMC]

A trick of perspective? Are you for real?

"before making an arse of myself"

Too late.

[Jimmy the Dane]

Libs have no shame so impossible to do that...

[Nige]

Makes more sense than it being faked.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

Makes more sense than it being faked.

Something that is physically impossible makes more sense than something that is trivial to do? I can't even imagine the depths of mental illness you suffer from.

[Nige]

Peter Jackson used the phenomenon to good effect in Lord Of The Rings.

[James Pollock]

"Something that is physically impossible"

Mind explaining why it is you keep insisting that it's impossible for hands to pass in front of microphones?

[Don Nico]

Tricks of perspective must be consistent with the laws of physical optics.
If objects at infinity are in focus. an object in front of one that is out of focus cannot be in focus.
It is difficult to believe that the film has not been manipulated.
There is no obvious reason why it should have been. So we have a bit of a mystery.

[Nige]

When the choice is between an unfathomably motivated fake and an optical illusion it's only a mystery if you want it to be.

[Stephen Lathrop]

If objects at infinity are in focus. an object in front of one that is out of focus cannot be in focus.

Don Nico, you are mistaken. You do not understand potentially relevant optics. What you say cannot happen I can do in a jiffy with any of 6 tilt/shift lenses I own. Working carefully off a tripod, I use that capability creatively in fine art photography. Some journalists use it hastily for another purpose—to give a longer-lens an ability to deliver the kind of everything-in-focus, hand-held ease of use which you get from a point-and-shoot with a wide angle. Doing it that way is a bit mistake-prone, but can still be useful.

Google, "Scheimpflug principle."

[James Pollock]

OMG. It's so fake, starting with the overlords using a fake mask to cover up the fact that the makeup doesn't hide the lizard skin around his mouth when it moves. Watch the skies!

[Queen Amalthea]

The reporters were no doubt actors paid by Soros and then killed by Hillary Clinton. It's obvious.

[swood1000]

How do blue screens even work? How is it that the one boom appears both behind his hand but in front of his jacket?

[Stephen Lathrop]

Scheimpflug principle, maybe.

[James Pollock]

"How do blue screens even work? How is it that the one boom appears both behind his hand but in front of his jacket?"

Hint: That's not how a blue screen works.

[NToJ]

Tan suits!

[Brett Bellmore]

The point here is that the President of the United States has been actively avoiding any unscripted, uncontrolled media encounters, for literally months. If it doesn't allow for a teleprompter, and multiple takes, he just doesn't do it.

And the media just ran with footage manipulated to make it look like he'd broken this long stretch of avoiding unscripted encounters.

You're getting used to having a mentally compromised President, and you're getting used to the media running faked footage to pretend he isn't.

This isn't at all like the media covering for FDR, hiding that he was crippled. It isn't like that, because being crippled didn't make him incompetent for the job, but Biden losing his mental faculties does.

Biden probably isn't functioning as President anymore, if he ever was. He's a figurehead.

Who's actually calling the shots? Shouldn't the media be interested in finding that out, and reporting it?

[James Pollock]

"The point here is that the President of the United States has been actively avoiding any unscripted, uncontrolled media encounters, for literally months."

You know there's a pandemic involving a contagious viral disease, right? The GOP kept running rallies, but the other guys are actually AGAINST spreading the virus, the idealistic fools.

[Don Nico]

James, that is a very poor excuse. Think again.
The interview can be in a large room with all wearing masks.
He does scripted interviews and meetings with many people behind the cameras and lights.

[James Pollock]

"That's a very poor excuse"
Because the facts observed do not match your preferred story? There's that biased reality again!

[Queen Amalthea]

Didn't you admit the other day to giving up the idea that Biden was demented after watching the debates?

I mean, yeah I think it's weird he keeps his press interaction to a minimum. Actually, not so much weird, he's not a very smart man. And a not smart man's handlers should keep him from that, if they don't you get Trump, who embarrassed himself and us regularly when interacting with the press.

[Don Nico]

To be sure Trump embarrassed himself every time his lips moved.

What is more troubling is that Biden already has the Europeans pissed with him for forcing vaccine producers to violate their contracts with EU countries and has managed to drag relations with Russia even lower all withing the first 2 months. He has also been badly ambiguous about nuclear weapons in the Koreas.

Not a good start.

[Armchair Lawyer]

"What the point here?"

This is clearly a fake video, one that has been manipulated. That is troubling....very much so coming from a major media source.

Why was it faked? What's going on?

[Brett Bellmore]

And here's the media gaslighting us about it just having been a trick of perspective.

Anybody who has the slightest grasp of geometry understands that there is no "trick of perspective" that could have caused that.

In fact, if you step through the WaPo video, you can see, at 6 seconds, the exact same glitch. As people point out in Newsweek's 'fact check'.

[Nige]

I definitely looked at it twice, but the second time I saw what must have been going on.

[Brett Bellmore]

What's 'going on' is that it's a faked video.

[Nige]

Oh my God this would be funny but you're an actual grown-up adult person and yet here you are.

[James Pollock]

"you’re an actual grown-up adult person"

Dementia works on actual grown-up adult persons.

[James Pollock]

"Anybody who has the slightest grasp of geometry"

Have you always been unable to do geometry, Brett, or is this a new development?

[Don Nico]

James, it is not about geometry; it is about physical ray optics.

[James Pollock]

Brett said it was about geometry, thus revealing that he isn't very good at geometry.

You say it's about optics, thus revealing that you don't know anything about optics.

And both of you have a poor grasp of reality.

[NToJ]

Even though you're not capable of embarrassment, this is going to be embarrassing for you.

[James Pollock]

they spent the last four years as Trump apologists. the way I'd bet is that "not capable of embarrasment" is a true reading.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Brett, there is a principle of optics which photographers can manage (or mismanage by accident) to create images showing sharp focus in a foreground, soft focus at intermediate distance, and sharp focus again in the background—among many other counter-intuitive possibilities. The distances in question can be great or small. To see how it works, Google Scheimpflug principle.

[Artifex]

What the point here? You think the President is just a video image and that he doesn’t really exist?

What is it with you progressives ? Do you really think that was the point that was being argued or is the actual issue being raised ? This whole building of strawmen thing seems intrinsic to the progressive nature. I have to admit I am curious. Is your argument from general lack of cognitive capacity in which you believe that the Publius doesn't think Biden exists or dishonesty on your part where you actually understand your opponents argument but feel the need to misrepresent rather than make an honest argument ?

Rehashing the point for the mentally deficient, the video that occurred shows something that didn't happen and is in fact is a form of lying. I don't know the genesis of the video, so I am not entirely sure who is lying, but a lie is being told by someone. The fact that such a lie is told with the complicity of the main stream media whether deliberately or via incompetence is a bit disturbing to some folks. For my part, I am disturbed that we have stepped across the line of simply dishonestly framing an argument to the point of dishonestly portraying something that never occurred.

Amusingly, I suspect that the folks least bothered by this are exactly the same folks who were engaging in spittle spraying rants about Trump's lies. As always, anything goes when pushing the narrative right ?

[Brett Bellmore]

The Washington Post has a similarly faked video of the 'press encounter', from a different angle, with the same glitch at six seconds.

The two videos are geometrically contradictory.

So, it's not just one outlet, multiple media outlets are complicit in this, and trying to gaslight us about it not having happened.

[Nige]

Two faked videos with the same glitch. Now we're sucking diesel.

[James Pollock]

No, I'm beginning to believe that the conspiracy theory might be true, and that Joe Biden never landed on the moon.

[Nige]

They'd believe the moon landed on Joe Biden.

[James Pollock]

the space lizards don't want us in space, so they blew up a couple of space shuttles.

[CommentMonkey]

When you say "let Joe Biden have the same slack," do you mean the same slack as Thomas Jefferson? The same Thomas Jefferson about whom it was said that the the most extraordinary collection of talent and human knowledge ever in the White House was when he dined there alone? I'm not sure Biden's literary or political career, entertaining though they have been at times, quite entitle him to the "same slack" as Thomas Jefferson when it comes to questions of mental acuity.

[James Pollock]

" The same Thomas Jefferson about whom it was said that the the most extraordinary collection of talent and human knowledge ever in the White House was when he dined there alone?"

You left out "until Donald Trump", you unAmerican unpatriot Commie leftist.

[Dr. Ed 2]

" The fact is the Joe Biden is real and is the real President."

As was Woodrow Wilson after his stroke, which is part of why we have a 25th Amendment.

FACT: Biden has had at least two past brain bleeds, one of which was nearly fatal. Biden admits that.

FACT: Past brain bleeds indicate a risk for future ones.

FACT: Neurological injury (both brain bleeds and strokes, which are *not* the same thing, although often related) can damage both ability to speak and control motor functions (including walking).

FACT: Loss of fine motor control is often compensated via gross motor control. The classic intoxicated person is an example of this, although the reasons are a bit more complex.

Did you notice Biden's hand (actually arm) gestures during that speech? They were almost identical swinging arc movements, not the wrist and finger movements that people usually make.

And it's one thing to be a lousy public speaker (although he WAS a US Senator for how many years?) and something else to not even really know where you are.

[James Pollock]

FACT: Dr. Ed confuses an ability to Google things for an ability to do meaningful analysis.

[Sarcastr0]

I don’t think it’s at all clear it’s a fake video. It looks wonky but that doesn’t make anything clear.

Do you think all those reporters are in on a coverup?

[Brett Bellmore]

Yes, they're in on the coverup.

Look, ABC and WaPo both ran videos from different angles of the same event, both have the glitch from different directions, and the two videos are geometrically incapable of both being real.

And Newsweek has run a "fact check" claiming that the President's hand never looks like it passes in front of the microphone, while providing a video that clearly shows it doing exactly that. Everybody in the comments to the 'fact check' is pointing out their own video contradicts their fact check.

This is the grossest example of media gaslighting I've ever seen!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

"Yes, they’re in on the coverup."

Distilled to its essence, the Volokh Conspiracy consists of Josh Blackman and Brett Bellmore.

Carry on, clingers.

[James Pollock]

"Look, ABC and WaPo both ran videos from different angles of the same event, both have the glitch from different directions, and the two videos are geometrically incapable of both being real."

And the reason they both inserted the same glitch is because they're secretly on your side and sending you clues.

[David Bremer]

C'mon man. Watch the microphones. That can't be a real video. So the next question is where the video came from. If it was released by the White House itself, there needs to be an explanation.

I'd like to see the media have the same furor over this that they would had a similar video of Trump been released.

[David Bremer]

Did some more digging, and there's a Washington Post video that looks legit. https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/biden-does-not-plan-to-travel-to-border-amid-migrant-surge/2021/03/16/d991feff-9f5b-4644-98c9-5fc3588a3c18_video.html

[Brett Bellmore]

Somebody finally took the two videos and synched them into a combined video, so you can see what is happening.

Combined video.

I'm less certain now that it was faked.

[tkamenick]

I saw the same thing and his hand is still somehow passing in front of different microphones, so I don't see how the combined video shows anything other than a fake.

[James Pollock]

If you desperately WANT it to be fake, it's going to look fake every time.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Telephoto lenses will sometimes do funky things -- a lot of the 9-11 denial is based on what appear (to me) to be an optical illusion created by the lens. Something similar happened with Howard ("Screaming") Dean in Iowa -- the microphone filtered out all of the ambient noise and made it seem that Dean was screaming in a silent room and not amongst a screaming crowd.

But the straight towards the camera walk isn't going to have optical illusions and Biden's stilted and apparently choreographed walk speaks volumes as to him being "high as a kite" -- on *something.*

[StellaLink_the dog]

"But the straight towards the camera walk isn’t going to have optical illusions and Biden’s stilted and apparently choreographed walk speaks volumes as to him being “high as a kite” — on *something.*"

He walks like an old man, no surprise. At least he doesn't walk like a bow-legged slouching penguin who needs to ride in a golf cart in order to join other world leaders engaging in a short walk.

[James Pollock]

You left out the part about bowling through the other world leaders in order to be centered in the camera recording the event.

[Nige]

Back from the edge, Brett.

[Brett Bellmore]

When you respond to evidence, your opinions change as new evidence arrives. That's how rational people operate.

[Nige]

It's a good habit to cultivate.

[Queen Amalthea]

You're not operating like rational people but rather guilible people. They always have *some* piece of evidence for running down a crazy rabbit hole. Rational people engage in the kind of inductive logic mentioned above (well, it looks funny, but am I really to believe that there was this massive coverup or maybe there's another explanation?).

[grb]

Brett Bellmore : When you respond to evidence, your opinions change

And when you're a whack-job who believes insane nonsense (and with panting eagerness, to boot) you get tripped up by facts a lot.

A reminder, Brett : Trump is no longer president. You're no longer ideologically obligated to believe six impossible things before breakfast each day. You should be enjoying that fact as a tired man enjoys a steaming bath. You shouldn't be off looking for new impossible things to believe. What's that? Trump nostalgia?

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Rational people don't jump to the immediate conclusion that all of MSM is in on a grand conspiracy to spread fake footage of Biden.

[arch1]

Bravo. I disagree with pretty much everything you write Brett, but agree with this (because of the nature, not the direction, of your update).

We should all be more willing to admit our mistakes, and less eager to admonish others for doing so.

[Sarcastr0]

Concur with this.

[James Pollock]

"When you respond to evidence, your opinions change as new evidence arrives."

Or, as in this case, when your imagination can no longer push aside what you are seeing, you call that "new evidence". That's rationalization at work.

[Queen Amalthea]

"I’m less certain now that it was faked."

I have learned nothing!

[swood1000]

I’m less certain now that it was faked.

So your proposed explanation now is what?

[James Pollock]

It's still a giant conspiracy by the leftists and the media, but they're not using imaginary video editing any more.

[M L]

The Wapo video and the combined video don't help at all, it seems to me, but just add more visual evidence of some kind of not genuine video.

However, the implications of this are difficult to address. Would somebody at media outlets have to be complicit, or not? And if yes, then are you really positing this? I'm not wading into that.

It comes down to, well, there is a video that by its appearances is definitely altered in some way. But on the other hand, the Washington Post and ABC News would never, ever lie to me. Therefore, somehow, it must not be altered even though it appears so, or it's some unintentional glitch, or it's somehow altered without their knowing.

[swood1000]

Yes. In one frame Biden’s hand not only remains in focus as it travels in front of the out-of-focus grey boom microphone, but at 0:11 of the bifurcated version the hand is in front of the grey microphone on the right side but clearly not in front of it on the left side. It’s going to require an interesting explanation.

[Brett Bellmore]

I'm suspecting the reason the boom microphone looks consistently out of focus is that it has some kind of fake fur cover with very long fibers: It's fuzzy, with no distinct surface.

[StellaLink_the dog]

"It comes down to, well, there is a video that by its appearances is definitely altered in some way."

That statement, by its appearance, is stupidly wrong. What you have is a video which looks odd at first glance. Without knowing exactly how the scene was laid out, the geometry, I suppose, and without knowing the details of the cameras and their locations, it's impossible to say with certainty, just from watching the video, that anything has been altered or faked. It's not impossible that it's faked just as, once again, it's not impossible that the moon is made of green cheese. If you are a person who believes stupid things with little confirming evidence then you are likely to believe that the video " is definitely altered" just as you are likely to believe that the earth is flat, the moon landing was faked, 911 was an inside job pulled off by a small group of people led by Dick Cheney, or somebody, and that Hugo Chavez stole the 2020 election.

[swood1000]

It definitely appears to defy the laws of physics. What explanation can you supply that does not require some alteration or green screen-type technology?

[Nige]

Have none of you people ever heard of optical illusions? The picture of the woman that is also a rabbit is going to blow your minds to pieces.

[StellaLink_the dog]

You people give fatuous crap a bad name.

Draw it out. Find out exactly where the cameras were and where everything in the film was. Figure out the focal lengths etc. Demonstrate that its fake rather than just asserting that it's fake.

We've been through all this impossible physics before. It's impossible for the world to be anything but flat because we see too far. The moon landing was faked because the flag was blowing in the wind. 911 was an inside job because the buildings fell down too fast and fire can't melt steel and cell phones don't work in airplanes and, oh don't forget, nano-thermite in the ceiling tiles. The 2020 election was stolen because Pennsylvania wouldn't allow illegal "poll watchers" to harass people turning in their absentee ballots and that air conditioning truck driver was transporting illegal ballots and many dead people voted in Georgia, though nobody can figure out who they were. And Obama is a secret Muslim born in Kenya. It's all the same stupid shit. You think it's fake? Prove it.

[James Pollock]

"It definitely appears to defy the laws of physics"

Conservatives are known for their strong respect for science and scientists. So if you can't take THEIR word for how physics works, whose can you take?

[M L]

Stella,

No. Let's say that someone showed you this video, with no context or additional information or anything. Maybe as part of a social science experiment in the psychology department. Or as a technical test in the videography department.

They ask you to view the video very closely frame by frame, and then answer whether the video is completely genuine and virginal, or whether it is edited or altered in some way. Anyone who is generally familiar with today's internet, digital video, photoshop etc, would say with a high degree of confidence that this is an altered video. Anything else is just plain stupid.

Only when you introduce the fact that these videos were published by mainstream media outlets -- rather than, say, just a video that some anonymous user posted on 4chan or something -- does any significant doubt come into play. And it is significant. I don't believe Bloomberg, ABC, and WaPo are in on some kind of fake video game here.

[StellaLink_the dog]

"No. Let’s say that someone showed you this video, with no context or additional information or anything. "

I would tell the truth which is that without some analysis it's impossible to say that it's fake.

" Anyone who is generally familiar with today’s internet, digital video, photoshop etc, would say with a high degree of confidence that this is an altered video. Anything else is just plain stupid. "

Yeah, if "anyone" is a gormless gobshite without a lick of sense.

[StellaLink_the dog]

"Only when you introduce the fact that these videos were published by mainstream media outlets "

I think you're missing the game. It's mainl _because_ these videos are published by mainstream outlets rather than by OAN or Alex Jones that the wingnuts believe they are fake.

[Brett Bellmore]

Look, any argument based on the notion that the MSM wouldn't lie to us is a total nonstarter. They've been caught lying too many times.

Now, generally they do their lying media style, accurately quoting somebody telling a lie they like. That way if they get exposed they can always say it was an accurate quote, they just had the bad luck to be quoting a liar. (We're not supposed to notice that they only quote liars saying things they want us to believe.)

Because running with a faked video would be a bit out of character I was initially incredulous.

Then I was directed to the Newsweek "fact check". Which you'd think would have explained camera angles, and boom mike features, and shown how you could see a mike in front at one moment, behind at another, perfectly legitimately.

Instead, it was classic "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes!" gaslighting. They didn't take it seriously enough to provide a persuasive explanation. That infuriated me.

It wasn't until somebody in the comments went to the trouble to construct a combined video that what was happening became clear.

I no longer really think it was a faked video.

You know, the media could have quashed this easily, IF they would get over thinking anybody trusts their naked word anymore. They still think they have the kind of credibility that will cause people to believe them over what they see.

They've got to get over that.

[James Pollock]

"Look, any argument based on the notion that the MSM wouldn’t lie to us is a total nonstarter. They’ve been caught lying too many times."

Another nonstarter is "the MSM said this, therefore it's false."

[James Pollock]

" Anyone who is generally familiar with today’s internet, digital video, photoshop etc, would say with a high degree of confidence that this is an altered video."

Except it's the conspiracy nuts claiming the video is faked, not the people with expertise with digital media.

[swood1000]

Here’s another angle. Maybe the camera has some feature that seems to sharpen skin tones.

[swood1000]

The root of the issue could be that the actual fuzziness of the grey microphone makes it appear unfocused as a result of being closer than it actually is.

[bernard11]

I’m less certain now that it was faked.

Right. So all your ranting and raving turns out to be nonsense. Big fucking surprise.

[The Grand Moff Tarkin]

Looks to me like somebody used some crude video editing to make it look like the mics were closer than they really were.

[James Pollock]

And your expertise in video editing comes from?

[Nige]

If people on the right rush to believe this, all on their own, with no prompting, purely viral, what limit is there on what they can be made to believe? Ok, we've had four years of it, but it was all focused on and around Trump, this is free-form spontaneous organic self-generating crowd-funded conspiracy-mongering at its finest. It's terrifying to watch.

[James Pollock]

It's about being given permission to ignore reality in favor of some deeply wishful thinking. The real surge started when the right-wing media jumped on the "Obama isn't really President, because he's Kenyan" whirligig. The speed with which they pivoted from "Obama's black (Christian) church preaches anti-Americanism" to "that doesn't matter, because he's really a Muslim, anyway" was amusing.
Now if they'd just get to the part where the magic FlavRAid will take them all to meet Jesus, we'd all be better off.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Nige, I'd say the same thing if I saw a college kid walking down a hallway like that.

And the more I think about it, why *don't* we drug test politicians?
We drug test truck drivers because they might kill a few people, while the President could kill a few million...

[Nige]

Oh Gaaaawd spare me the 'president on drugs' stuff I hated it with Trump I hate it now.

[Dr. Ed 2]

You do know that Jack Kennedy was -- don't you?

[StellaLink_the dog]

He's an old man, for Christ's sake. Probably his knees hurt, his hips hurt, his ankles hurt and he's overcompensating trying to look spry. I'm just about to turn 70 and I don't know anybody my age or older who doesn't walk a little funny and the harder these white heads try to walk like they're still 50, the more funny they walk.

Test politicians for drugs? What would we do without politicians? Why don't we test Volokh Conspiracy commenters too. That's where the real danger lies, innit.

[James Pollock]

"the more I think about it, why *don’t* we drug test politicians?"

There's this thing called a Constitution, and it has a Fourth Amendment.

[Queen Amalthea]

I've said this for a while, the right used to be a group of mainstream people worried about government overreach with a conspiracy kook fringe, now it's the other way around.

[Artifex]

At very least, the video has some interesting editing even if not entirely synthetic. Aren't you the guy that lost his shit over Project Veritas speeding up a clip as "dishonest editing" so that you could claim they were unreliable ?

[Brett Bellmore]

Nobody is saying that it's entirely synthetic; If it were a 'deep fake', it would have been internally self-consistent, and a lot harder to spot.

What we're saying is that those reporters weren't in front of Biden when he was speaking.

[Artifex]

Agreed. My point was simply that editing had to have occurred and the narrative types who were slamming Project Veritas seem to have conveniently found a new set of principles.

[Nige]

Or to put it another way, the types who defend Project Veritas are now pushing the idea that this video is fake.

[James Pollock]

It must be nice to live in a reality where facts are so fluid.

[Nige]

Irrelevant. When you can and do say any old thing, facts are irrelevant.

[StellaLink_the dog]

I think we need to play the video backwards and listen for someone saying, "Joe is dead."

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Bingo.

Appeasing and respecting these right-wing yahoos is a waste of time at best, counterproductive at worst. Effect American progress while ignoring them if they behave and punishing them when they don't.

[James Pollock]

Or we can just wait until tomorrow, when the AM radio stations will play a new conspiracy-of-the-day, and they'll all want to talk about THAT one.

[Nige]

But this is nonsensical. If the media were that unbelievably compliant and complicit you woudn't need a fiddly composite fix-up, you could literally just *stage* it.

[M L]

It's undoubtedly a fake video, in the sense that it's not a genuine frame by frame capture of a real perspective of real events.

That doesn't mean the press encounter never happened.

That doesn't mean there is any conspiracy.

That doesn't mean the video isn't largely accurate.

That doesn't even necessarily mean there couldn't be some glitch that caused this unintentionally.

All of these things can be debated and discussed.

But that is not a "real" video.

[Don Nico]

S0,
You were trained as a physicist. How do you explain the optics?
You're saying that it looks "wonky" implies that you are suspicious.

I would not make much of this clip.
I am more troubled by what seems like a poor start in foreign policy.

[Sarcastr0]

Do you take me for an engineer, sir?!

I cannot explain it; that is very far from there not being an explanation other than 'Biden is a fake hologram man.'

Trump's foreign policy has burned so many bridges, I don't know what the issue is.

[Don Nico]

I never heard you say that you had the practical training of an engineer.

Foreign policy:
1) European countries are all angry that Bidet has strong-armed Moderna and Pfizer from meeting their contractual obligations to deliver vaccines.
2) Calling Putin a killer and threatening retaliation has Russian relations worse than when the Orange Clown left.
3) The WH issues at best ambiguous statements aboyt Korea. a) No North Korean nukes, b) no nuke on the Korean penninsula. And has done that on the eve of a Blinken visit.
I'd say that is a poor start worthy of Donald Trump.

[Commenter_XY]

Oh, you can add pissing off Canada on day 2, killing the pipeline. And irritating Mexico a month later by dragging his feet for weeks on deciding vaccine sharing. At least he has not managed to screw up the peace deals with his bungling.

[James Pollock]

The days when you could win a Nobel Peace Prize via the simple method of not being a Republican seem to have passed.

[MoreCurious]

There may be diminished capacity, but it isn't Biden we should be worried about. It's all the commenters who believe this garbage about the green screen and faked video. Newsweek -- by showing shots taken from a different angle at the same time -- has thoroughly debunked this nonsense. You guys were more fun when you were crying about truckloads of counterfeit ballots being unloaded at polling places.

[bernard11]

it isn’t Biden we should be worried about. It’s all the commenters who believe this garbage about the green screen and faked video.

Yep. Talk about "diminished mental capacity." The ones hawking this "fake video" plot by ABC ad WaPo and whoever are way beyond "diminished."

Ridiculous BS.

[Don Nico]

Even if the film was manipulated (rather than faked) there does not seem to be any reasonable rationale for that.
However, a 30 minute open press conference without pre-screened questions would do a lot to silence the diminished capacity talk.

[bernard11]

Why do you think it was "manipulated?" I looked at it and didn't see the problem all the Trumpist loons here are screaming about.

[James Pollock]

"Film"? Did all the clocks roll back to 1981 when I wasn't paying attention. Current media is HDTV.

[M L]

That is really quite something.

You know, the capability is here to do very, very good fake videos. Think of what can be done with "video evidence" of crimes, acts of terrorism, and so on.

I thought about this when the Pentagon in 2019 released photos "proving" that Iran was behind the oil tanker attacks. There's no reason at all to doubt it. But the strength of evidence like this mustn't be presumed.

So, why do we have this obviously fake video, when it's possible to create imperceptibly fake video? There doesn't seem to be any good reason for it. Maybe some people want to sow distrust? Maybe the idea is to normalize a fake, CGI presidency?

Perhaps you could have a boy cried wolf situation, but there is lots of cute little wolf pups that come along, or just a friendly wolf that doesn't do anything. And if you create enough noise then eventually people either think there must be no wolves since nothing happened or that wolves aren't so bad after all.

Or, even if the video had been done well, why the fake video at all? Is the idea just to boost Joe's image by portraying him as a man of action being out and about, rather than a total shut-in dementia patient tightly controlled by his handlers?

I said during the primaries that I would much prefer a Bernie presidency to a Biden presidency, because at least Bernie would actually be a president, rather than a non-entity who just sits as a figurehead while the deep state hums along unseen.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Brett Bellmore has already dropped the 'fake video' outrage. Think about that, M L. You can't even keep up with Brett Bellmore anymore.

Carry on, clingers.

[Sarcastr0]

Jesus, ML, you really are into the tin foil.

How many times did you appeal to incredulity there?

Again, there is other contemporaneous footage *and press were there*

The conspiracy you require encompasses a bunch of independent journalists, and another camera to be lying.

[M L]

As I've said several times, the video artifacts are likely caused by some kind of benign pre- or post-processing, and I don't think there is any conspiracy. But you just ignore what you want. If there was some intentionality to it, why? There doesn't seem to be a good reason, as I explain above. Many people are more inclined to think there is something nefarious (just look at the comments to the Newsweek article), which is why I try to entertain that possibility, and the result is that it seems like a stretch.

[Sarcastr0]

So, why do we have this obviously fake video, when it’s possible to create imperceptibly fake video? There doesn’t seem to be any good reason for it. Maybe some people want to sow distrust? Maybe the idea is to normalize a fake, CGI presidency?

Don't come in playing calm. You're pants-on-head conspiracy crazy. Normalizing a CGI President. Oy.

[James Pollock]

" But you just ignore what you want."

I choose to ignore you, when you write something stupid, unless it goes beyond stupid.

[James Pollock]

"why do we have this obviously fake video, when it’s possible to create imperceptibly fake video? There doesn’t seem to be any good reason for it."

Obviously, the biased left-wing media conspiracy is actually a biased right-wing media conspiracy, and they're intentionally putting mistakes into their deepfakes so you guys will be ready.

Glitch in the Matrix.

[Krychek_2]

In reading this thread about Biden and his alleged mental infirmities, it occurs to me that even if Biden is two sheets to the wind, he is basically for Democrats what Trump was to Republicans in 2016: Keeping the other person out of the White House was so important that it didn't matter who did it.

Republicans were willing to elect a thoroughly incompetent, self absorbed narcissist in 2016 to keep Hillary Clinton from winning. Democrats were willing to elect someone past his "use by" date in 2020 to get rid of Trump. In both cases it was a Flight 93 election: Desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Armchair Lawyer]

I thought both candidates were bad in 2016, for different reasons, and voted for neither.

Trump honestly did much better than I thought he would.

[James Pollock]

"Trump honestly did much better than I thought he would."

Managed to avoid burning down the White House. That was better than expected.

[Don Nico]

I have to agree with your concluding paragraph.

[The Grand Moff Tarkin]

Looks like someone decided to use a filter to make the mics look closer than they really were. I think this is disreputable and dishonest and a bad practice. But it does not make the entire video a "fake."

[M L]

Plausible.

[Sarcastr0]

Joe Biden tripped going up the stairs on AF1.

You're welcome for the free preview of Fox News' programming through the weekend.

[M L]

Ugh. Same stuff as always. Remember the hysteria about Trump ever so slightly tripping down a ramp? Not to mention media hysteria about Melania missing, speculation that Trump abuses his wife, etc.

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, that was dumb as well. But the fact that you can predict what petty thing the right is going to talk about should tell you something.

That other 'hysteria' was not something I recall coming up at all - sounds more like twitter randos your websites of choice choose to amplify for outrage-generation purposes.

[Nige]

The Melania Double thing I honestly couldn't tell if it was a a big joke or serious and I'm not sure which would be more annoying.

[James Pollock]

The Melania coverage I remember involved speculation if she was going to file divorce papers or not.

[apedad]

One of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bumfnms6ovA

[Armchair Lawyer]

Looks like Biden has instituted a media blackout at the Mexico border. Despite his calls for "transparency".

Biden's disaster with illegal immigration is all his own. Trump and the Trump administration had illegal immigration and illegal border crossings firmly in hand at the end of 2019 and early 2020. But now, Biden is floundering....

https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/18/the-biden-administration-is-imposing-a-media-blackout-at-the-border/

[Jimmy the Dane]

Seeing the media is now an arm of the DNC I'm sure they will go along with this 100%. Ask anyone who live in a border state and they will tell you that the illegal situation got worse almost immediately after January 20th. Many people in Arizona are regretting their vote right now...

[James Pollock]

"Trump and the Trump administration had illegal immigration and illegal border crossings firmly in hand at the end of 2019 and early 2020."

The invisible wall was working? Who knew?

[Armchair Lawyer]

Apparently people at the border did. Here's a good read for you. It described how using a variety of policies, and enforcing current law, Trump managed to get the daily flow of illegal immigrants under 1000 a day, which is a notable accomplishment.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/03/how-trump-got-control-of-the-border/

[Bored Lawyer]

What does that link have to do with pineapple?

[Dr. Ed 2]

It will be interesting to see what states can/will do under their (court largely approved) powers to fight the Wuhan Flu -- while Arizona can't enforce *Immigration* laws, can it use its National Guard to enforce a Governor-declared "quarantine" along the border -- the *state's* border?

Subject to both 14th Amendment due process and 8th Amendment rules, can it incarcerate violators of a Governor-imposed quarantine? In other words, not detain illegals but sentence quarantine violators to a punitive jail sentence.

[James Pollock]

Your fantasies are boring.

[James Pollock]

"Looks like Biden has instituted a media blackout at the Mexico border."

Are you unfamiliar with how either media or US government work?

[Syd Henderson]

Evidence that pineapple is the gateway pizza. (Aside: Gateway Pizza would be a great name for a Pizza chain.)

https://rare.us/rare-humor/peeps-on-pizza-peepza/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=agora&utm_term=rchicago&utm_campaign=rchicago&fbclid=IwAR2ds1UvJybGIFF03I1SLVGAgfuPSbUUp1B3fmQWJySq4_YC9QfS3O4pP2I

[Jimmy the Dane]

The DNC really liked "Hawaiian Pizza" from Comet....

[James Pollock]

Did they let you out of the basement?

[Longtobefree]

No, but they let Binden out (maybe: who knows?)

[Jimmy the Dane]

Unless he is making those fake videos from his basement. Now that is "meta"....

[AtR]

Anyone have any comment on Breitbart's scoop from Michigan ruling regarding the secretary of state's violation of the Michigan Administrative Procedures Act (w/r to the Secretary of State changing voting guidelines before the last election):

https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2021/03/16/mi-court-michigan-secretary-of-states-absentee-ballot-order-broke-law-vindicating-trump-claim/

[Jimmy the Dane]

It was clear states were playing fast and loose with election law. That was the whole crux of the PA case. The supreme court there "interpreted" the law and the state constitution to create rules that existed no where in the actual law. This was repeated over and over again in many states. And the record is also full of local jurisdictions failing to run things like signature confirmations or permitting people to "cure" their ballot even though that was not provided for in the law. These things happened all over the place. Even the "elections can never be rigged" crowd don't dispute these happened. Maybe it didn't result in Biden with an illegitimate win, but these things happened all over the place.

[James Pollock]

Yeah. How dare a court find that law originates from a constitution. Such a thing is unprecedented!!!

[Commenter_XY]

Yes. Slowly, over time, this will all come out and get adjudicated. The process will take years, and the entire truth of what happened in 2020 will be documented for future historians.

[Jimmy the Dane]

Yeah the truth is largely going to come out. It will probably be like how we figured out McCarthy was largely right that the federal government was full of planted communists and that his initial accusations (not the bombast that it turned into) was necessary.

I'm sure in 10 years we will look back at the 2020 election and most will say "WTF?!?!?" at exactly what went on and what the left tried to cover up.

[James Pollock]

"Yeah the truth is largely going to come out. It will probably be like how we figured out McCarthy was largely right that the federal government was full of planted communists and that his initial accusations (not the bombast that it turned into) was necessary."

Yeah, it'll probably turn out to be that kind of "truth".

[James Pollock]

"I’m sure in 10 years we will look back at the 2020 election and most will say “WTF?!?!?” at exactly what went on and what the left tried to cover up."

But the right will still be claiming they did NOT attempt to seize control of the government by insurrection in January of 2021. It was peaceful protesters. No wait, it was antifa goons with fake Trump signs.

[Queen Amalthea]

Trump's laughable truth of 'I was ahead at 10 pm on election night but then lost, GREATEST FRAUD EVER!!!'? Lol.

[Josh R]

In a state Biden won by over 150,000 votes, I seriously doubt the new signature matching rules made anywhere near a difference. I strongly suspect the same conclusion will be drawn about any regulation later found to be unlawful.

[James Pollock]

Meanwhile, Trump won in NC, coincidentally after asking his cult to vote multiple times for him.

[RJC]

Thought VC readers might enjoy a lecture video about Nash equilibrium and what it can tell us about the role of the state. So, here is a lecture video about Nash equilibrium and what it can tell us about the role of the state. Hope you enjoy.

https://youtu.be/mTmR9Z3cGLI

[Bored Lawyer]

There is a lot of talk here about Biden's mental state. Some here are of the erroneous view that if he has coherent moments, that proves he is mentally fit. That is not so.

Some years ago, I was before a federal judge who was getting older. She had had a very illustrious career, first as a lawyer and then on the bench. By the time I got to her, she was quite elderly.

On one occassion, we were at a conference, and she had no clue what was happening. This was supposed to be the last conference before the trial, but she thought the case was just starting and we wanted a discovery schedule.

Yet at a later date, she ran a trial and was sharp as a tack.

That is the nature of mental decline. It's not all or nothing. You can be brilliant on Monday, and not know what is going on on Wednesday.

Whether that is Joe Biden remains to be seen. But there are certainly disturbing signs.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"That is the nature of mental decline. It’s not all or nothing. You can be brilliant on Monday, and not know what is going on on Wednesday."

And this doesn't even involve a 3AM phone call on Wednesday morning -- the kind of thing that a President has to deal with.

A judge can call in sick -- a President can't...

[NToJ]

"Some here are of the erroneous view that if he has coherent moments, that proves he is mentally fit. That is not so."

This is a classic conspiracy theory in that all evidence confirming the theory is credited and all evidence disproving the theory is discounted. If we can't rely on coherent moments to prove fitness, how do you make your theory (that Biden is unfit) falsifiable?

[bernard11]

If we can’t rely on coherent moments to prove fitness, how do you make your theory (that Biden is unfit) falsifiable?

Do you really expect B.L. and his ilk to take your question seriously?

We are dealing with cultists here, not rational human beings.

[James Pollock]

"Do you really expect B.L. and his ilk to take your question seriously?"

They thought Trump was capable, so just use the same standards. Person, Woman, Man, Camera, Television.

[James Pollock]

"There is a lot of talk here about Biden’s mental state. Some here are of the erroneous view that if he has coherent moments, that proves he is mentally fit. That is not so."

OK. So what does your lack of coherent moments prove?

[James Pollock]

When they have to start wheeling him around on a hand truck like the R's did for Strom Thurmond in the Senate, we can talk decline.

[Armchair Lawyer]

The President is somewhat more important than a Senator, with certain decisions requiring more immediate responses.

[Longtobefree]

Don't let Chuckles Schumer know that - - - - - - -

[James Pollock]

Or "Scorched Earth" Mitch.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"When they have to start wheeling him around on a hand truck like the R’s did for Strom Thurmond in the Senate, we can talk decline."

While I have many issues with Franklin Roosevelt, the fact that the Ds had to "wheel him around on a hand truck" during all four terms he was in office isn't one of them. And yes, they did have to do this -- somehow getting him onto and off ships as well -- that I'd like to have seen done because the POTUS in a cargo net isn't exactly dignified....

[James Pollock]

In today's lesson, we'll learn the difference between a wheelchair and a hand-truck...

Odd that you chose to pick on Roosevelt, and not Wilson. Probably just stupidity, but why didn't you go after Wilson?

[Diogenes Radar Gun]

From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade. ????????‍????☘️

Irish Reparations Now!

[Nige]

We weren't sold as slaves, we were sold as indentured servants, and if the British were inclined to pay reperations we would certainly be up for a few bob, but they've only just finished paying reperations to slave-owners inconvenienced by the end of slavery, so they'd probably just give it all to the Queen.

[susancol]

Well, since the "consent" to indenture frequently involved duress, AND contracts of indentured servants could be sold (so the servants had to go with the new contract-holder), AND the majority of indentured servants did not live to complete their indenture, I'd say it's near enough to slavery to be called so.

[Nige]

It was horrible and tyrranical, no doubt - but once the period of indenture was up, they could become full citizens. Their children were not indentured.

[Brett Bellmore]

Eh, you're right about the children, but it was quite frequent that indentured servants would be cheated and forced to work beyond their contracted period.

[James Pollock]

Whereas the non-indentured were never cheated and never forced to work.

[Don Nico]

By the psychological damage was done. So reparations now!

[Nige]

Would get a kick out of the UK having to pay reparations for all the Great Famines they caused in various places, at various times. And al the other European Imperialist Bastards.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And this was after the English had screwed the Orangemen -- forcibly deporting them from Scotland to Ireland, which is how they became the "Scotch Irish" -- with a lot of them settling Appalachia.

[James Pollock]

"Irish Reparations Now!"

First they have to give St. Patrick back.

[arch1]

PUZZLE:
Sabrina and her partner threw a dinner party for five other couples. Sabrina, a compulsive counter, noticed that during the introductions, each of the 11 partygoers other than herself happened to shake a different number of hands (while following the usual rules of not shaking their own hand or their partner’s hand, and not shaking anyone’s hand more than once).

How many hands did Sabrina’s partner shake?

[Dr. Ed 2]

If this were in the 1990s, when a "couple" meant "a man an a woman", it would be 10. (She was shaker 0.)

[arch1]

Nope.

[Dr. Ed 2]

YES -- "not shaking their own hand or their partner’s hand"

Written that way, "their partner" is the partner of person who doing the shaking -- i.e. you don't shake your own hand or your partner's hand. To say that you don't shake the hand of the person whose hand you just shook would require the sentence to be written differently, or, better, segregated into a second sentence.

It also makes sense -- she greets Mr. & Mrs. Doe and she shakes both of their hands -- but the Does don't shake each other's hand.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I didn't realize it was possible to not understand the setup of such a simple puzzle, but you set a new bar yet again.

[arch1]

Sorry, I don’t understand your point. I’m likely in a mental rut here so please help me out. The parenthetical was intended to communicate:

If I’m any one of the 11 non-Sabrina partygoers
1) I don’t shake my own hand, and
2) I don’t shake my partner’s hand, and
3) I don’t shake any given person’s hand more than once

Are you saying there’s a reasonable interpretation of my parenthetical which means something different? If so, what’s the difference?

[Josh R]

5.

[arch1]

Correct! Would you care to share your reasoning?

[Josh R]

It can't be 10 or else no one could shake 0 hands. The partner of the person who shakes 10 hands must shake 0 (easy to derive). Then, it can't be 9 or else no one could shake 1 hand, and the partner of the person who shakes 9 hands must shake 1. And so on, until we conclude Sabrina's partner shakes 5 hands and Sabrina does too.

[arch1]

Nice summary. Below are details for those from Show-Me state Missouri (TMI warning for non-Missourians):

Since the “usual rules” imply that no one shook more than 10 hands, we can label the non-Sabrina partygoers 0 through 10 by the number of hands they shook. Now 10’s partner must be 0, because otherwise 10 (who didn’t shake their own hand, or their partner’s hand, or 0’s hand since 0 shook no hands) could have shaken at most 12-3=9 hands. So 10 shook the hands of 1 through 10 (except 10) and Sabrina.

And 9’s partner must be 1, else 9 (who didn’t shake their own hand, or their partner’s hand, or 0’s hand, *or* 1’s hand since we now know that 1 shook 10’s hand) could have shaken at most 12-4=8 hands. So 9 shook the hands of 2-10 (except 9) and Sabrina.

Entirely analogous arguments show that
8’s partner is 2, and 8 shook the hands of 3-10 (except 8) and Sabrina,
7’s partner is 3, and 7 shook the hands of 4-10 (except 7) and Sabrina, and
6’s partner is 4, and 6 shook the hands of 5-10 (except 6) and Sabrina,

which leaves just one possible partner for Sabrina: 5, who shook 5 hands (those of 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10), as did Sabrina.

[arch1]

OK it’s just us Missourians now, right?

So, I just noticed that 3 words in my detailed explanation are incorrect. They don’t affect the answer to the puzzle, or the Josh R – level solution summary, but next time I share this puzzle I’ll have to tweak the wording, because – well, I’m a Missourian.

An imaginary “Go Jayhawks” bumper sticker to anyone who can point out the 3 words before I button this one up.

[arch1]

The erroneous words are the final three. The fix is to tweak the puzzle statement to say that *everyone* (including Sabrina) followed the usual handshaking rules. Absent which Sabrina can shake her own hand or not, which means she could have shaken 5 or 6 (or even more, depending on how one counts) hands.

Which I wouldn't even mention, except that the tweak restores what I see as the crystalline beauty of this puzzle, in which the full 30-handshake network laid out in the detailed explanation is uniquely determined by the subjectively sparse info in the puzzle statement.

[James Pollock]

I find this puzzle setup uncomfortable, because my ex-wife's name is Sabrina.

[Ridgeway]

How about books you read as an adult where you were surprised at how good they really were (partiularly if you thought they were "lowbrow" or "just for kids"):

Here are a couple for me:

Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry)
She (H. Rider Haggard)
Horatio Hornblower series (C.S. Forester)

[Longtobefree]

Where is Lois Lerner when we need her?
https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/17/black-lives-matter-poser-spends-200000-of-donations-on-hotels-guns-and-a-prostitute/

[Dr. Ed 2]

The Barrack O'Biden Administration is going to crumble, but which part of the foundation will go first:

A: The Red State tax lawsuit?
B: Dr. Fauci's Fascism?
C: Illegal immigration?
D: Cold War part deux? (Russia has recalled their ambassador.)
E: BLM's inevitable Spring Offensive?
F: Chauvin being found innocent? (He really is....)
G: The lockdown-caused youth mental health crisis?
H: A stock market crash?
I: His anti-Israel policies?
J: The death of a key member of Congress?

Do not forget how we got US Senator Scott Brown -- Ted Kennedy died and that almost killed Obamacare -- would have but for the loophole of reconciliation. There are a lot of elderly members of Congress whose health isn't all that good -- Pelosi comes to immediate mind but there are a lot of senior citizens there.

I don't know what the anticipated (natural) mortality of 438 people in the demographics of the US Congress -- but we're not talking teenagers here. Throw in a sedate job, along with the good food and alcohol, and it's not really a healthy job, either.

Re-election campaigns often involve flying in weather when commercial flights are grounded -- Ted Kennedy was almost killed in a campaign-related crash in Massachusetts back in the 1960s and it's rumored that Hillary Clinton was in a serious crash in Iran when she was Secretary of State. Clinton's Ron Brown was killed in a crash. Etc...

Statistically speaking, it's been a while since a sitting member of Congress died -- Kennedy being the last.

[rsteinmetz]

There are 535 members of Congress. The death of a Senate Democrat in a red state would have more of an impact than the death of any Representative.

How many Democratic Senators are from states with a Republican governor?

The list below is from before the Georgia runoff election. I've added Georgia but the rest may not be up to date.

Five states have Republican governors and two Democratic U.S. Senators: Arizona, Massachusetts (Warren is 71 and Markey is 74), Maryland (Carden is 77), New Hampshire (Shaheen is 74), Georgia.

Three states have Republican governors and one U.S. Senator from each major party: Montana, Ohio, West Virginia (Manchen is 73).

One state has a Republican governor with Democratic (Lehey is 80) and independent (Bernie is 79)U.S. Senators: Vermont.

Remember that a Representative-elect from Louisiana died after being elected but before he took office - he was 41.

[Dr. Ed 2]

My bad -- 535.

But the problem with the Governor is that some (many) states require a special election. That is how Scott Brown got in -- Deval Patrick (D) was MA governor at the time -- and isn't that what happened in Georgia?

[rsteinmetz]

The rules vary by state. Some stats can appoint an interim member until the next regular election or to fill out the term depending on how much is left. That's how Kelly Loeffler got appointed and why Raphael Warnock has only 2 years to serve before his next election. David Perdue the other Republican defeated has already said he'll run against Warnock.

[James Pollock]

"My bad — 535. "

Your bad -- 538, not 535.

[rsteinmetz]

How do you get to 538 Representatives?

The are a number of Delegates and Commissioners some of whom the Democrats allow to vote but their votes don't count on actual legislation.

[James Pollock]

Their votes don't count = they don't exist? Good news, you just solved the illegal immigration problem!

[BrotherMovesOn]

Do you have a job?

[Queen Amalthea]

Job? I've wondered who dresses and feeds him.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Illegal aliens who are originally from the third ring of Saturn.

🙂

[James Pollock]

couldn't they have done better?

[rsteinmetz]

I probably make more that you. I won my own company.
Sometimes I donate some time to the public square.

[James Pollock]

" I won my own company."

That's how Captain Solo got the Millenium Falcon, too.

[Jimmy the Dane]

I'll go first.

C: Illegal Immigration.

This has the potential to cost the Dems Congress in 2022. I don't think Republican control is inevitable and is, as of right now, only slightly favored. But a mess in the border states is going to be a huge problem for the Dems in 2022. The media can only ignore it and whitewash it for so long. It is pretty bad and that is going to be something that is going to blow up this summer when numbers start to spike.

F: Rodney King, Take 2

The same media snow job can't keep up if there is another round of urban riots this summer. Trump did a lot behind the scenes to keep these to a quiet roar and the "tolerance" for them on the right is non-existent after the treatment the capitol hill people got on Jan 6th. Biden is going to have to go back to the 90's "law and order" Democrat model in order to avoid being painted as some woke assclown liberal. What Harris does though, publicly or privately, will be interesting...

X: Biden's Health

The cover for this is slowly getting blown. I don't think they can keep it together for another six months. The fallout might not be enough for him to resign, but there is no way he can run again. Harris is either going to be running the show as President or de-facto acting president. That is going to get people mad because they didn't vote for her. This is what I think is going to bring Biden down. The other stuff isn't going to help though.

[Nige]

Who did you predict would win in 2020?

[Sarcastr0]

I mean, it's telling it's bad race 1, bad race 2, and a conspiracy at the top of his mind.

This is why it's such a laugh to see people argue racism is over in the affirmative action posts.

[Jimmy the Dane]

That is some good gaslighting there Sarc. Funny how you read "race" into one and 2 but it isn't mentioned anywhere....

[Life of Brian]

He's the dog, as the saying goes.

[Nige]

Don't need to hear the whistle when all the doggies start yapping.

[James Pollock]

" Funny how you read “race” into one and 2 but it isn’t mentioned anywhere"

Funny how elections are called "races" in popular culture, even without Sarc's input on the matter.

[James Pollock]

" That is going to get people mad because they didn’t vote for her."

How do you figure?
We voted for NOT TRUMP!!!. She is, objectively, not Trump.

[Dr. Ed 2]

From UMass Amherst of all places:

"“Decision-making is never easy for the administrators… and I understand that they were under pressure from the townspeople,” Cowell said. “But you cannot take away people’s basic civil rights. You can’t say to people that you don’t have the right to leave your room because you are an undergraduate student at UMass. Especially when there was no state law saying that and there was no town law saying that.”

“It was utterly discriminatory,” she said.

She said the University overstepped its authority in prohibiting students from going to their jobs and from exercising outdoors, a directive which was later revoked by the administration."

https://dailycollegian.com/2021/03/four-professors-challenge-the-covid-19-lockdown-restrictions-at-umass/

[Dr. Ed 2]

UM is quarantining students on the basis of a test with a 26% false positive rate -- WITHOUT retesting them.

[James Pollock]

Should have gone to Duke, instead.
Except...

[Jimmy the Dane]

This is actually just a microcosm of the mentality of modern college administrators. I used to attend risk management conferences that were frequented by this type. Everything they talked about was viewed through one lens - that of risk management. It was odd to have a conversation with someone about something only to realize all they cared about what reducing risk. And it had bizarre applications to when it would come to diversity. Many administrators agreed with it from a political standpoint but would justify their stance as likelihood of student activism disrupting campus, being sued, or being bothered by the race hustlers of the day. Advancing marginalized people who have been historically discriminated against (if you believe that is the ultimate goal of affirmative discrimination) was not even on their radar.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Risk elimination, not risk management. And as to diversity, Kors & Silverglate put it best over 20 years ago in _Shadow University_ when they said that administrators know that the Methodists aren't going to riot.

That's the Faustian choice confronting academic conservatives -- do we continue to enforce discipline on our side, or do we simply do nothing and let the p*ssed-off conservatives riot as well?

There is no intelligent life in the administration building...

[Jimmy the Dane]

In the immortal words of some guy, somewhere, "eh, fuck it..."

[James Pollock]

" I used to attend risk management conferences that were frequented by this type. Everything they talked about was viewed through one lens – that of risk management."

What a revolting shock... to learn the people go to risk management conferences to talk about risk management. You'll never guess what we talk about at information-security conferences...

[Sarcastr0]

Also, properly implemented, a risk management paradigm can be all you need when making policy or strategic decisions.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY

This White, male, movement
conservative blog has operated for
SIX (6) DAYS
without publishing a
vile racial slur and for
692 DAYS
without imposing partisan,
viewpoint-driven censorship
(so far as we are aware).

[Don Nico]

OMG, the broken record skips and repeats again, and again and again, ad infinitum...

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

That record keeps playing because this blog continues to publish a vile racial slur regularly and gratuitously, most recently within the week. You prefer not to have this important point mentioned.

Perhaps you consider why this bothers you.

[VinniUSMC]

This blog has operated for 692 days TOO MANY without banning Artie, again (supposedly). For some reason.

Quit crying, clinger.

[James Pollock]

It's almost as if the proprietor has some kind of ideological reason to support free speech, or something.

[Queen Amalthea]

If you're not a partisan hack, prove it (in writing!). What's the one issue that you think the side you currently vote for gets egregiously wrong and the other side gets right. In a diverse nation like ours with two major parties there must be a big one, unless you take your positions as directed by party (and the saddest thing about that is they change on them every few years!).

I'll go first:

Mandating a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour is terrible.

[M L]

Generally, there is very little difference between the two parties in terms of actual policy results. It's just a distraction, a tribalistic exercise like rooting for sports teams, while the monstrous State continues mostly unperturbed. Everywhere you look, people on both sides are frequently inconsistent, incoherent and unprincipled.

It is actually a deadly cancer upon society as a whole, and the infection spreads and spreads. State and local governments become rotten and dysfunctional as they are dictated by national 2-party politics. Businesses and other institutions are affected, local community churches and other organizations, neighborhoods, even families.

The root cause of it all is the increasing centralization of power over increasingly diverse and massive groups of people and geographic areas. That is the antithesis of self-government.

[M L]

So - 15 dollar minimum wage? I don't care. Sure, why not.

Government taking over health care? Seems like a dumb idea, but whatever.

Ban all guns? Abortion? I have opinions, but they're not as important as this question: Who decides for whom?

Above, I'm speaking of these issues in the abstract. Should a government run health care? Well, which government? China? Your local county or township? What is their jurisdiction? Who controls that government? Whose health care are we talking? How would it work? Our federal government is an atrocity that shouldn't be getting involved in hardly anything, in my view, not to mention that it lacks Constitutional legitimacy to do most things that it does.

[Jimmy the Dane]

The market "minimum wage" at least around me, in metro areas I travel, and where my clients are located, is at least already $15-$16/hour. Many recruiters say you can't find good talent for less than $20/hour. The lowest paid worker I see on any payroll census is probably in the $14-$15/hour range and those are basically interns. Around here Walmart has a giant sign up saying they are hiring at $18/hour with a signing bonus. Got takeout at a drive thru chain and similar sign, $16-19/hour plus signing bonus was right there on the drive thru window.

A nation minimum wage is only going to screw rural businesses (which is probably the liberal design or at least ignorance...) Even then though I was in the middle of nowhere Kansas last year and stores were hiring for $10-12/hour advertised in windows...

As far as high school kids working, I think we should encourage the practice more. Not every kid needs to go to college and some are better off using those years to capture real work experience. Also some just need a "real world" experience before going off to college. Many families around here have their kids working a real full-time job for 2 years before sending them to community college. The experience is invaluable in that they were mediocre students before but are now acing their college level course due to a combination of maturity and appreciation for the education.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Jimmy, I am hesitant about the advertised wages because a lot of places have a two-tier wage system, part time and full time, with only the latter getting that. And two part time employees after every full time employee's job in the ultimate parasitical rat race.

[Jimmy the Dane]

Well a kid in my neighborhood got a job at the local drive thru burger joint and his dad says he is making $16.50/hour. The big "we are hiring" sign in front of the restaurant says starting at $15/hour. The manager told the kid that if any of his friends needed jobs he would get a $250/per person referral bonus as long as they passed their 90 day review. Apparently employers are so desperate for labor all they really need is just someone who can follow simple directions and show up on time. Those are the only two qualifications they want. Probably says more about the current pool of adult workers that would have taken those jobs at slightly lower rates. I'm sure inflated unemployment checks have something to do with it too.

[James Pollock]

" Apparently employers are so desperate for labor all they really need is just someone who can follow simple directions and show up on time. Those are the only two qualifications they want. Probably says more about the current pool of adult workers that would have taken those jobs at slightly lower rates."

Lot of highly-qualified adult employees manning the drive-throughs in your experience. It's almost like the pandemic pushed a lot of people into getting their food supplied by a window in the side of a big chain restaurant, including breakfast and lunch as well as dinner, which makes hiring teenagers who have a school to be at during breakfast and lunch rush impractical for staffing those hours.

[Jimmy the Dane]

This is more regulatory, but could be legislative. I tend to agree the Fair Labor Standards Act needs to be updated and ultimately include more employees classified as "non-exempt". I say this because pushing more employees as "exempt" has not solved a lot of business management problems, but exasperated them. Personally I would use it as a way to push necessary change across larger companies and wouldn't mind the "government is making me do it" pass. Philosophically though I tend to agree that if you are on the lower wage earning bracket, there is something to be said a company shouldn't get to work you more than 40 hours a week without additional compensation. (I would prefer this be done via private contract but you have to recognize there are limitations to the ability of individual employees to negotiate that because of other state regulated employment practices and policies though.)

[Dr. Ed 2]

And I'll disagree -- I think it is a great idea.

Three quite conservative reasons:

1: Working has to pay, after taxes and expenses, more than welfare or there is no way that anyone will ever work.

2: I don't *want* high school kids working. I'd rather have them doing their schoolwork -- and if jobs are scarce but pay well, they will be inclined to do this.

3: Mechanization both increases productivity and reduces costs -- and the jobs making & repairing the machines pay better than the jobs they replace.

[Dr. Ed 2]

NB: $15/hour is.

[M L]

Jobs are infinitely better than government welfare.

[James Pollock]

"Jobs are infinitely better than government welfare."

If (and it's a big if, depending on where you are) there are enough jobs so that everybody who wants one can get one.

Take, for example, the class of people released from prison. If they can't find a job, what would you expect them to do about it?

OK, now how about people who live in places where the housing prices have skyrocketed due to scarcity? If your answer isn't "build more", then WTF? but if it IS "build more", you know that's expensive, no? People who can't afford rent can't afford to build a new home, most likely.

Now, look at people who have medical issues. The kind that keep people from being able to work. Even if they're in hospital for only say, a month, their employer has likely taken action to replace the fellow who was in hospital by the time they can come back to work. So now there's no job to make money to pay rent, much less pay hospital bills. The tendency is to not have much sympathy for such people, until you become one of them.

[Brett Bellmore]

We DO want high school kids working. At least summers, we want them working. Because it gets them used to the idea that they're going to be spending most of their adult lives working.

And we want them to be badly paid, real shit jobs, too. The sort that makes you treasure every dollar, because you go to bed tired to the bone. To convince them that they really want to be qualified for something better!

I picked radishes as a teen, at the farm across the river from our house. Right along side braceros. It was horrible work, at worse than horrible wages.

Did a fantastic job of convincing me that I wanted a desk job when I grew up!

The problem with saying every job should pay a living wage, is that this leaves no room for 'starter' jobs, for people who haven't yet learned any marketable skills, including the crucial skill of showing up when you're supposed to, even if you don't feel like it.

It's demanding that people skip crawling, and go straight to walking. Life isn't like that.

[Nige]

Wait, you want to teach kids that hard physical labour should be both underpaid and despised?

[James Pollock]

"We DO want high school kids working."

Maybe. Used to be, the kids would go find agricultural jobs in the summertime. But there just aren't that many of them any more, and seasonal work in the summertime hasn't expanded to take up the difference. So if the kids are working in the summertime, they're likely doing it in a regular job that they hold onto during the rest of the year, too. Do you want them to have make-work jobs? Jobs that are just created to keep them busy in the summertime? Or do you want them displacing adult workers?

[NToJ]

This is a trick question. If you answer it, you concede that you have a "side". I don't have a side!

[Brett Bellmore]

That's a tough one. It's easy enough for me to think of policy issues where the Republicans are wrong, I run into trouble because the Democrats typically aren't right on them. While there is a long laundry list of issues where the Democrats are horrific, but the Republicans are at least tolerable.

I would be inclined to say pot legalization. (I think every drug should be legalized, but at least it's a tiny start.) While there are 'red' states that have fully legalized pot, none of the 'blue' states have failed to at least partially legalize it, and all of the states where it is still fully illegal are either 'red' or have split legislatures.

So it's hard to argue with the point that Democrats are, operationally, better than Republicans on this one issue.

My problem with the Democrats is that they tend to be horrifyingly awful on issues I think important, like gun control, abortion, freedom of political speech, immigration.

But, yeah, I'll give them pot legalization, for what little that's worth.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

"That’s a tough one. It’s easy enough for me to think of policy issues where the Republicans are wrong, I run into trouble because the Democrats typically aren’t right on them. While there is a long laundry list of issues where the Democrats are horrific, but the Republicans are at least tolerable."

You are going to hate America, increasingly, for the rest of your life.

[Brett Bellmore]

No, I don't expect to hate America, but I do hate what's replacing it. And I expect that to only get worse with time.

It's some consolation knowing that the revolution eats its own, and you'll have a chance to be on the menu, too.

[Don Nico]

Again, the class clown fails to answer the question.

[James Pollock]

Maybe you can get the next one.

[The Grand Moff Tarkin]

Which for me will probably not be very long. Two kinds of chronic pain with lots of emotional pain from all this crap. I have to use powerful pain meds. They don't stop the pain; they just make it slightly less unbearable...for an hour or so. 2 or 3 hours per day of slightly less pain; the rest of the day lots more pain.
Today is a really shitty day. You enjoy laughing at people like me. You win. Enjoy it. I hope I don't wake up tomorrow.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I shall hold a kind thought for you, The Grand Moff Tarkin, and hope that things get better for you.

[Sarcastr0]

That sucks, TGMT.

[Nige]

That's rough.

[James Pollock]

"That’s a tough one. It’s easy enough for me to think of policy issues where the Republicans are wrong, I run into trouble because the Democrats typically aren’t right on them."

The fact that one side is wrong about something on ideological grounds doesn't imply that the other side has to be right. There's plenty of cases where both teams avoid making tough-but-necessary actions because they'd be unpopular in the short term. Tough problems need tough solutions, which can rarely be squeezed onto a bumper sticker for the next election.

[Don Nico]

"Our party is the party of science."

[James Pollock]

Beats the one of anti-science.

[James Pollock]

"If you’re not a partisan hack, prove it (in writing!)."

To the extent that I am a hack, I am an anti-partisan hack. One party offends me more than the other on a consistent basis, but I'm not anti-Republican, I'm anti-stupid. To the extent that those are different, which is often "not very".

[MoreCurious]

I forget: have we received Mexico's check yet? You know, the payment for the half-ass, partial, beautiful wall that Trump promised about a million times to build.

[Jimmy the Dane]

Seeing that the Dems instead of doing their jobs and supporting national border security opted for the "fight Trump" stance for the last four years it isn't a big surprise to me that we don't have a wall and that now illegal immigration is out of hand. The Dems would rather have cheap votes and labor then care about the actual taxpaying citizens of this country.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Don't forget the cheap labor -- Dems want wages DOWN for their McJobs.

[James Pollock]

Which is why the other guys are the ones fighting raising the minimum wage.

[MoreCurious]

Not a bad effort at deflection, Jimmy, but a promise is a promise. Your guy said it so many times that it should be permanently etched onto a monument dedicated to colossal failure. A statue depicting all the weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, perhaps?

[James Pollock]

The wall was going to be a hundred feet tall and invisible, so... check, and check I guess. We certainly spent all the money Mexico sent us.

Here's a math problem. The number of illegal immigrants already in the country is in the millions, quite possibly in the tens of millions. If we wanna kick 'em out, due process says they get a hearing to try to show some aspect of law that allows them to stay. The current number of people authorized to hold deportation hearings allows for around 400,000 people per year to get such a hearing. So, if there are 20,000,000 illegal immigrants currently in the country, and we can throw them out 400,000 per year, we only need 20,000,000/ 400,000 years to empty them all out, even if the big beautiful Mexican wall successfully reduces new arrivals to 0/yr. 50 years. And Republicans historically opposed every effort to actually speed that up. President Obama went to Congress to ask for authority to hire more hearings officers. They didn't even bother to have a meeting to consider the question. Mitch couldn't be bothered. Then, there was the DREAM Act, which would have said "here's a class of people who didn't intentionally violate any laws, who are effectively Americans already. let's make it official. Republicans said no to that, too. IF this problem is ever solved, it will probably be solved with no help from any Republican.
It's not just at the national level, either. The state of Oregon, which has no power to deport anyone, had its legislature decide to issue driver licenses to illegal immigrants who demonstrated an ability to drive, so that they could get insurance which helps literally anyone who is involved in an accident with an illegal immigrant. Nope, the R's were against that. Better they drive illegally, too, I guess.

[James Pollock]

We have the same wall and the same illegal immigration problem we had before we had any Presidents Trump. If he and his party meant to build a wall using our money, they forgot to put it through Congress.

" The Dems would rather have cheap votes and labor then care about the actual taxpaying citizens of this country."

The Dems perhaps know, even if you don't, that illegal immigrants don't get to vote, cheaply or otherwise, and the Republicans claim to represent the owners of businesses... you know, the people who would be interested in cheap labor. Perhaps your complaint is poorly aimed?

[Longtobefree]

Payment upon completion, so Basement Bunker Biden blew it - - - - - -

[James Pollock]

It's done. weren't you paying attention when His Royal Orangeness told you so?

[James Pollock]

" You know, the payment for the half-ass, partial, beautiful wall that Trump promised about a million times to build."

turned out the only way to build that wall was the steal the money from the children of American military families.

[OtisAH]

This isn’t an open thread. This is Rec Time at the “Volokh Center for Incredibly Silly and Ridiculous People.”

[Sarcastr0]

It's rough.

[bernard11]

Ah, if only "silly and ridiculous" were the extent of it.

[The Grand Moff Tarkin]

I am more certain that someone used a filter to make the mics look closer. You can see a slight grey/blue fuzziness around the mics. I see this in filters for foreground and backgrounds.

This is just stupid. As if we don't need more reasons to distrust the press/media. They should not be adding content to make them look more visually interesting.

[James Pollock]

You're providing the details you object to.

[rsteinmetz]

I've become concerned recently about the media reporting on sensitive issues without really explaining the context. Today I read a NYT article about a woman who was apparently hired by Conde Nast and then fired because of some tweets and other things from I think 2011. However all the article says is "racist and homophobic tweets" with little or no explanation of what those tweets said.

In cases of alleged sexual harassment I've seen statements about "unwanted touching" where the nature of the touching is left to the imagination of the reader. "Unwanted touching" could include anything from placing hands on someone shoulder to actual sexual assault. Some of the stuff Joe Biden was accused falls into the category, that is things that some people might find uncomfortable but others might.

Given some of the things people have called racist I think some context is necessary.

Not long ago singer Morgan Wallen who was dropped by his record label for using a racial slur, which I was able to figure out although several articles omitted any clue as to what it was or who it was directed at. One of the articles I found had the odd quotation:

N***a originated as a variant of the infamous racial slur n****r.

Many people might not even be able to transcribe that, although the first word is used by black posters on Twitter all the time.

Meyers Leonard, a basketball player, who is now spending time away from the team apologized for using a racial slur during a video game session.

"While I didn’t know what the word meant at the time, my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong."

After after a brief search I wasn't able to find the slur he used. The videos of the online session had the profanity bleeped out.

Some slurs are well known and almost universally abhorred. There is a second class of words which may be references to certain groups which are not considered as toxic but many people find offensive. I am discovering regularly that some people take exception some word for which I know of no negative association.

[Brett Bellmore]

If they gave you context, you might arrive at a different conclusion than the one they want you arriving at. By feeding you only the information that indicates the 'right' opinion, they can lower that risk.

My hobby horse is the media's increasing tendency to use paraphrases where quotes are available. They'll salt the paraphrase with individual words in quotes, like the actual words the person used are some precious spice that can be used to add flavor, but has to be jealously conserved.

Look, dudes, nobody trusts you to honestly paraphrase what somebody said. Just give us their actual words.

And not just the words you want us to know about, without context: Link to a full transcript, where we can see what they said before and after the words you felt we should know about. And a recording, so we can tell if the transcript is accurate.

Just assume we don't trust you to tell the truth. Because we don't, and shouldn't.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I wouldn't rely on the conclusion that disaffected clingers are a reputable publisher's target audience.

[Brett Bellmore]

Perhaps, but do you approve of being fed paraphrases when you could instead be reading what somebody actually said? I suspect you're not stupid enough to trust the media, either, you just like the fact that they'll lie to advance your causes, not mine.

[James Pollock]

I don't object to substantially-accurate paraphrases.
i don't have your level of paranoia, either.

[Titus PUllo]

Why is the media not covering the heinous hate crime in Rochester NY where two black teenagers doused with gas and burned to death a mentally disabled white man? My old home town and even there the local media is pretending it was a minor event and not a hate crime..where are the protests, the marches, where is Obama with a lecture or MSNBC screaming for justice? Just saying...when the facts don't fit the narrative...well given bolsheviks control the media in America..not suprised.

[James Pollock]

Media covers stories that are rewarded with eyeballs. Stories that don't or won't deliver eyeballs won't get covered. It's not complicated or hard to understand.

[M L]

Yes, financial motivation is why they frame each story in such a way that caters to the demand for their extreme political bias.

[James Pollock]

You didn't get good grades in economics class, did you?

[Dr. Ed 2]

I think the most relevant issue is your reference to the yellow star.

I think the risk to our liberties is far greater than the risk of an vaccinated person -- and you aren't even getting into the far more effective natural immunity issue.

Nor the much greater risk caused by the illegal aliens swarming over the border. If other forms of ID mandated in 1986 didn't prevent them from working here, how would this work either?

Not to mention that something like this could provoke a civil war...

[Commenter_XY]

Could you not have used 'red badge' instead of 'yellow star'?

[James Pollock]

"Implementation of a sustainable vaccine passport system would also require substantial administration. Agreements on passport standards including testing and documentation would have to be made internationally."

Or, you could leave it to the private sector, Mr. let's-get-the-government-involved-in-everything.

[De Oppresso Liber]

But then he wouldn't be able to so cleverly and subtly draw a parallel between a simple precaution against a virus that just killed over half a million Americans, and nazis.

Don't you get it? This guy's a genius. OPEN YOUR EYES SHEEPLE!!!111!!!eleven