Daily Digest |  |
- Impeach Brandon?
- Whoops Whoopi!
- Everton selects all-time legend as new manager
- Smearing the Truckers (II) [Updated]
- Even some on the left have had it with lockdowns
| Posted: 31 Jan 2022 07:38 PM PST (John Hinderaker) The Founders envisaged impeachment as an extraordinary remedy, and for almost all of our history it has remained such. But of the last nine presidents preceding Joe Biden, three have been impeached or imminently threatened with impeachment. The Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice, for no particular reason other than the fact that they controlled the House of Representatives. So it is not out of bounds to ask whether Republicans should impeach Joe Biden if (or when, as all observers seem to agree) they take control of the House in 2023. Rasmussen’s current poll suggests that most Americans have internalized the idea that impeachment is a routine political maneuver.
If you believe those numbers, impeaching Joe Biden is a winner by a 50% to 45% margin. It seems noteworthy that 34% of Democrats are willing to consider impeaching Biden. On the other hand, Rasmussen’s polling found even more respondents in favor of impeaching Biden in the wake of the Afghanistan fiasco. The cross tabs are interesting. Responses to the question about impeaching Joe Biden relate more to party affiliation than to a philosophical approach to impeachment as a constitutional remedy:
Which is consistent with the idea that impeachment has become a purely political act. Viewed in that context, would it be smart for a Republican-controlled House to impeach Biden in 2023? I don’t know, but it is tempting. In legal terms, Biden’s grotesque violation of the Take Care Clause of the Constitution by his illegal opening of the Southern border would, without more, furnish solid ground for impeachment. And Biden has been incompetent or worse on a number of other fronts that would justify his impeachment far more than President Trump’s innocent phone call with the President of Ukraine. In principle, I am not in favor of making impeachment a simply political option, depending mainly on who controls the House. On the other hand, I am also not in favor of unilateral disarmament. The Democrats created this world, so now perhaps they should be made to live in it for a while. The ultimate decision, made by those who control the House in 2023, will inevitably, for better or worse, be political. STEVE adds: I believe classic game theory prescribes that tit-for-tat is the best strategy for making your opponent change their behavior. So by all means the GOP should impeach Biden (the grounds are far better anyway), and should also exact a high cost for Biden’s Supreme Court nominee. After all, Joe Biden is the person most responsible for poisoning the judicial confirmation process, starting with Bork in 1987. Time for payback. Stopping Garland in 2016 was good, but the Kavanaugh matter still needs to be redressed.    |
| Posted: 31 Jan 2022 05:56 PM PST (Steven Hayward) I made a disparaging comment here the other day about how I never watch “The View,” because, based on the 10-second clips I’ve seen from time to time by accident, it seems obvious that if you actually attempt to sit through an entire episode you’ll feel your IQ dropping by the minute. Today “View” stalwart Whoopi Goldberg said “the Holocaust wasn’t about race,” and you can see the other panelists desperately trying to figure out how to go into damage-control mode, before the director, no doubt shouting in the control room “Shut it down! Go to commercial!”, brought up the bumper music quite abruptly and loudly to stop Whoopi’s big whoops! Her thesis would certainly come as news to Hitler. Maybe even to Joe Biden. Whoopi claimed that the Holocaust was about “man’s inhumanity to man,” as though this was a blinding insight never before considered. Reminds me of an old joke: “The problem with capitalism is that it’s man exploiting man. The problem with socialism is just the opposite!” Of course, let’s remember that back in 2009 Whoopi said (also on “The View”) that Roman Polanski’s forced anal penetration of a 14-year-old girl “was not rape-rape.” (Actual quote: “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. It was something else but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.”) Anyway, here it is:
My contribution for the day:
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| Everton selects all-time legend as new manager Posted: 31 Jan 2022 05:55 PM PST (Paul Mirengoff) Everton has hired a new manager. He’s one of England all-time great players — one of its five best this century* — and the all-time leading scorer for a massive Premier League team. But that new manager isn’t Wayne Rooney, Manchester United’s all-time scoring leader, who began and ended his Premier League career with Everton. It’s Frank Lampard, the former Chelsea star. Lampard is Chelsea’s career leader in goals. He scored 147 times for Chelsea and 30 times for his two other EPL clubs (West Ham and Manchester City). Lampard played 106 times for England, scoring 29 goals. All those goals, despite being a midfielder. Rooney scored 183 times for Manchester United. He contributed 25 goals for Everton. In 120 appearances for England, he knocked in 53 goals, making him the all-time leading scorer for England as well as Man U. Lampard has two-plus years of managerial experience. In his first season, he led Derby County of the second tier to the promotion playoffs, where the Rams fell short. In his second, he guided Chelsea to fourth place in the Premier League (and thus a Champions League place) and a spot in the FA Cup final, where the Pensioners lost to Arsenal. However, the following season, Lampard was sacked in January with his team languishing in ninth place. Lampard seems like a pretty good choice for Everton. He has had success managing in the EPL. He commands respect. He’s dynamic and, by all accounts, tactically astute or at least up-to-date. Lampard stands in contrast to Everton’s last two managers, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez, both of whom have won at the highest level, but are old-timers. He’s also English, another departure from the norm. In this century, Sam Allardyce is the only other English manager Everton has had (other than interim bosses), and Big Sam managed us for only half a season during which he was always considered a stop-gap. Lampard better be good right away. We’re sitting in 16th place just 4 points ahead of the drop zone, and injuries are mounting. I’m no longer fully confident that we’re too good to be relegated. Was Everton interested in Rooney as a manager? The answer seems to be yes. Reportedly, the team contacted him about an interview. But despite expressing some initial interest in the job, Rooney declined. He said:
To say that Rooney has a job at Derby is an understatement. He has a massive job — keeping the Rams from being relegated to England’s third tier in the face of a 21 point deduction. I discussed the trials and tribulations of Rooney at Derby County in this post. At the time, Derby had been penalized 12 points for breach of financial regulations. Initially, the deduction — the equivalent of four wins — seemed likely to condemn Derby to the drop. After all, the Rams had barely avoided that fate last season, during which Rooney took over the faltering club during the season, and were unable to strengthen the squad during the summer due to lack of funds. Yet, Rooney had coaxed some pretty results out of his team. Thus, I wrote:
However, I warned, “there are rumors that Derby County may face an additional deduction of points [and] that would almost surely end any dream of remaining in Tier 2.” Soon thereafter, the additional deduction came down — nine more points, bringing the total to 21. But Derby County has chugged along. As I write this, the Rams are seven points from safety. They would already have cleared the relegation zone had the additional points not been deducted. With 18 matches left to play, the chances are fairly good that Derby County will stay up. Rooney is determined to make that happen. Rooney deserves credit for not abandoning the ship. He must have been tempted to seek an EPL job with his boyhood club. It’s possible that he didn’t expect to get the job and therefore thought it best not to throw his hat in the ring. Rooney might have sensed that, with so much at stake, Everton’s management wouldn’t trust the team to someone with no experience as boss of an EPL (or another top European league) team. But the very fact that Rooney stayed at Derby County after two successive point deductions, the first of which he had to hear about on television, speaks well of him. Few would have blamed him for leaving the club. My hope is that Rooney will keep Derby County up this year and that one day he will manage Everton. But only after a good run under his fellow England legend Super Frankie Lampard. * The five, in alphabetical order, are: Steve Gerard, Harry Kane, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, and John Terry. No one else comes close to cracking the list, in my opinion.  |
| Smearing the Truckers (II) [Updated] Posted: 31 Jan 2022 04:35 PM PST (John Hinderaker) The Canadian truckers’ protest has turned into a huge event that has gripped not just the political class, but millions of people across that country. As usual, the politicians who claim most vociferously to represent the people–like Justin Trudeau–are horrified when the people actually speak up. I suppose it was inevitable that leftist politicians would denounce the truckers’ protest as racist, although what race has to do with the issues the truckers (and now millions of supporters) are protesting, I can’t explain. This is what Trudeau had to say:
This is sheer nonsense, a catalog of lying left-wing talking points. One guy showed up with a Confederate flag and was told to go away. No one vandalized statues, contrary to liberals’ claims. Some protesters decorated the statue of Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete and cancer research activist, and then removed the decorations:
No one “dishonor[ed] the memory of our veterans.” A couple of truckers parked their vehicles at a war memorial, and moved them when they were told to do so. Photo at the link. Liberals have also asserted that the truckers are “white supremacists”–these days, who isn’t?–apparently because of this video clip, in which a group of protesters mocks the idea that they are somehow–God knows why–white supremacists:
What didn’t happen, of course, is that not a single building was burned down, unlike the George Floyd protests and Antifa riots generally. No police officer or civilian was assaulted. Thousands of Canadian flags were waved, and not one was burned. Elon Musk (via InstaPundit) points out the absence of any pro-mandate, pro-government counter-protest:
UPDATE: One more thing: A host on the Canadian Broadcasting Company has suggested that the truckers are a Russian plant:
This is way too stupid to deserve any response, but it exemplifies the desperation of the Left in the face of a genuine populist revolt. Someone apparently forgot to tell this guy that the “Russia” narrative collapsed a long time ago. Unless, of course, we are talking about Russian financial support for the West’s environmental, anti-fossil fuel movement, which is well documented, goes back for decades and shores up the Russians’ core geopolitical interests. But somehow, liberals never mention this when they talk about Russia’s nefarious influence on the U.S. and other Western nations. Why? Because their political and financial interests align with Russia’s, and in particular, Vladimir Putin’s.  |
| Even some on the left have had it with lockdowns Posted: 31 Jan 2022 01:03 PM PST (Paul Mirengoff) Yesterday, John wrote about a study (a study of studies, actually) that says lockdowns have had little to no effect in preventing deaths from covid. I remain unpersuaded of this proposition and will probably explain why before too long. However, I agree that extended lockdowns have imposed significant costs that likely exceed any benefits. In addition, it’s clear to me that schools should have reopened for in-person learning no later than August 2020 and that, as a general matter, nearly all lockdown-type restrictions should be eschewed going forward during this pandemic. These views seem to be gaining traction on the left. Today’s Washington Post has a frontpage story about how “public education is facing a crisis of epic proportions” due in large part to school closings and reliance on remote learning. It reports:
The Post may be underestimating the ability of young people to bounce back from adversity, but I agree with its assessment that public schools will have trouble bouncing back (which may not be a bad thing). More evidence of liberal discontent comes from Matthew Yglesias. He writes:
Yglesias advises Joe Biden to “forcefully articulate a pathway for re-normalization,” particularly regarding public schools. Rich Lowry says Biden is very unlikely to follow this advice. Lowry is probably right, but why? There’s a school of thought among conservatives that leftists want to keep various covid restrictions, such as mandatory mask wearing, in place because they love to restrict freedom. It’s possible that this charge is accurate in the case of some leftists, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t explain Biden’s conduct. Think back to July 4 of last year when Biden proudly declared our independence, in effect, from the pandemic. Other things being equal, he would love to see an end to covid restrictions. It would help him considerably. That’s why he said what he did on July 4. The problem is that Biden doesn’t believe that other things are equal. The spike in deaths attributed to the virus hurts him politically — more than ongoing lockdown and mask restrictions imposed by states and localities do. This is especially true because of the way Biden flogged Donald Trump with covid death numbers and because he promised to bring the pandemic to a halt. Biden may or may not think that, in these days of high vaccination rates and a milder variant, covid restrictions reduce covid deaths. He may or may not care. What he fears is that calling for an easing, which he is largely powerless to impose, will damage him politically if covid deaths remain high. I question whether Biden is making the correct political calculation, but I’m confident that his calculation is political, and has nothing to do with wanting to oppress Americans.  |
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