Trump, Scarborough, Lori Klausutis, Jacksonian Jujutsu

Posted: May 26, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, culture, media, News/opinion, politics
Tags: , , , , ,

“For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Luke 6:38

Today at both Twitchy & Powerline the attempt to have the president’s tweets concerning the Lori Klausutis deleted.  Her husband appeal to have it pulled gave the story further legs and now the AP, via the Star Tribune has weighted in:

No one in Klausutis’ family would talk about Trump’s tweets for this article, fearing retaliation by online trolls of the type who went after parents of the Sandy Hook massacre victims. Their grief has been disrupted by conspiracy theories before — not only over the past few years from the White House, but from some liberals who at the time of her death sought to portray then-conservative Republican congressman Scarborough as a potential villain.

“There’s a lot we would love to say, but we can’t,” said Colin Kelly, who was Klausutis’ brother-in-law.

Scarborough, who was 900 miles away in Washington, D.C., on the day Klausutis died, and his co-host and wife, Mika Brzezinski, have both expressed outrage on the air in recent days — saying that Trump’s false accusations were most hurtful to Klausutis’ family. Brzezinski called Trump a “cruel, sick, disgusting person” and said he was using the episode to distract from the pandemic.

emphasis mine

That throw away line in the piece is actually the key to this case. as I brought up last week here:

Does anyone think for one moment that the mainstream media, still angry over the Bush victory and the Clinton Impeachment (that Scarborough voted for) would not have jumped all over this story and made it national news (particularly given Scarborough’s Sept 5th resignation) and a talking point to hit Republicans over? After all here you have a GOP congressman representing one of the most republican districts in his state, A republican who voted for Slick Billy’s impeachment with a dead female intern in his office. It would be a Godsend for the left Would this have not lead on CNN or MSNBC? Would not the New York Times and Washington Post used this as a club asking every GOP member of congress or the cabinet with devastating effect? Would they not when that congressman resigned seven weeks later suggest it was proof that something was up? Would this not be made a campaign issue in the special congressional election with demands that GOP candidate call for a fuller and deeper investigation?

You bet your ass they would!

And remember this was BEFORE he transformed himself into the type of Republican that Democrats like the most, the type willing to attack the GOP.

bold in original

in a long twitter thread that started here: a sample

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

And even on my livestream podcast:

This is the argument to kill this entire thing, but it’s not a argument that anyone on the left wants to make because said argument could concede the media bias that even today they pretend doesn’t exist.

I suspect Joe Scarborough, who certainly doesn’t need this, wishes he could use this point, but instead they are stuck with the “conspiracy theory” card. Powerline notes a tad of irony:

This is an example of the kind of dumb thing I wish President Trump wouldn’t do. I assume there is no reason to think that Joe Scarborough had anything to do with Ms. Klausutis’s death. But isn’t there a larger point here? What has Joe Scarborough done for the last 3 1/2 years but spread “debunked conspiracy theories” about Donald Trump–most notably, but by no means limited to, the Russia hoax–“speculated without evidence” about the Russia hoax, the Ukraine kerfuffle and other matters, and “unleashed a torrent of false allegations, mischaracterizations and baseless rumors” about the president? That sounds like Scarborough’s job description at MSNBC.

And what about the Washington Post? Despite its high and mighty tone in describing the president’s “spread[ing a] debunked conspiracy theory,” hasn’t that been the Post’s own stock in trade for years, when it comes to Donald Trump? Speculating without evidence, spreading conspiracy theories that turn out to be false, and unleashing a torrent of false allegations, mischaracterizations and baseless rumors sums up very well the Post’s coverage of the Donald Trump campaign, and of his presidency since January 2017.

So, while I am critical of tweets like the ones the Post is complaining about, I have a hard time working up a lot of sympathy for Joe Scarborough, and I can’t read the Post’s self-righteous account with anything but derision.

I think this is worthy of critique but “dumb” is not the word here. Trump understands that every cry of “conspiracy theory” by the media, given what we saw over the last three years make the left look ridiculous , even to some who dislike the President, and of course if they speak the obvious truth that I’ve laid out here they confirm all the President has said about them which is even worse for the left.

POTUS can’t lose here that’s why he picked this fight. He is a Jacksonian whose entire philosophy can be summed up by this sentence written nearly twenty years ago by the late great Steven Den Beste one of the greatest bloggers who ever lived

The whole point of Jacksonianism is “You leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone. You play fair with me and I’ll play fair with you. But if you fuck with me, I’ll kill you.”

That’s Trump all over.

Update: Instalanche thanks Ed. If you like this post tune in tomorrow for a post on how Steve Den Bestie back in 2002 accidentally laid out how Trump would govern. Don’t miss our livestream podcast every Friday morning at 9:30 AM EST You can watch the latest edition on Judge Jackson,US foes buying US Universities (the last of the Monday 12:35 AM Edition ones) here.

Update 2: I was reading the comments at Instapundit I was shocked to read at least one person say it was unclear if the media jumped on this at the time or not. While I can’t see how someone would not figure it out from this post let me say explicitally that they did not and again refer to DaTechGuy’s 4th law of Media Outrage which states:

The degree of media exposure of the corruption or illegality committed by any individual or organization under investigation is directly proportional to its distance from the media’s ideology.

If this had happened in 2018 involving NEVERTRUMP Scarborough I could see the MSM ignoring it as they did, but it happened in 2001 involving conservative GOP Scarborough no chance they don’t jump on it if there was any there there.

Update 3: Quick FYI I work 3:30 to Midnight and don’t have a cell so I’m offline during that time and all comments are moderated so I apologize to anyone who had to wait for their comment to be approved.

Update 4: The sequel to this post is titled The Late Steven Den Beste on Trump (Accidentally)

Covid incompetence

Posted: May 26, 2020 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is my nominee for the covid incompetence award.

Although other state leaders have gotten more publicity for their ill-conceived plans, Wolf has been playing nanny to millions of Pennsylvanians, including me.

He and his bureaucrats created an amazingly complicated plan for reopening the state based on red, yellow, and green designations. The unscientific basis is that a county can plan to open or go to yellow status if its covid cases remain at 50 per day for two weeks. If the county still has less than 50 cases, it can reopen. If a country has more than 50 cases, it is red and cannot open.

Wolf couldn’t even remember where the plan came from.

The governor also condemned local officials and businesses as “cowardly” if they move to reopen businesses without state authorization and threatened to withhold federal relief for counties that violate his stay-at-home order.

Moreover, Wolf has told Pennsylvania residents to remain in their shelters and not go to the open beaches in nearby New Jersey. “There are people there who aren’t wearing masks, and you’re putting yourself at risk. I wouldn’t do that, I haven’t done that, and I’m not sure why the governors of Maryland and New Jersey have opened their beaches, but they have,” he said.

But there’s more. Statewide, 3,234 coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, according to the health department. Those deaths represent 66 percent of the state’s coronavirus fatalities.

That means that Wolf has locked down all of Pennsylvania when he needed to do a better job of keeping the older population of the state safe.

Wolf and Health Secretary Rachel Levine, a transsexual pediatrician, decided to get to the bottom of the issue. They forced all such institutions to provide data on what happened. The state got the data all messed up, including naming one evildoer with more than 100 cases. The facility had only seven patients.

Moreover, Levine wasn’t taking any chances with her mother, moving her to a hotel rather than staying in a long-term care facility. Republicans have called for Levine’s resignation.

The GOP has made Wolf the center of its campaign strategy to battle Democrats in the upcoming national election. Even some Democrats—as President Trump did—have called for Wolf to open up the state more quickly. One Democratic lawmaker from suburban Philadelphia wrote a letter saying residents in her district “have not yet seen evidence that your administration recognizes and sympathizes with the added physical, emotional, and financial suffering they are facing as a result of our prolonged stay-at-home conditions.”

I realize that others may find their governor thoroughly lacking in the ability to run a state. But my guy, Tom Wolf, has got to be near the bottom of the class in the country.

Primary Site is Down (No Foreign $ like Universities)

Posted: May 26, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

About 11:30 PM we started to get a bandwidth error on our primary wordpress site.

I’ll be posting here until the site is back up.

Quick note, if you caught my podcast Monday morning you might have noted that I argued that our enemies decided it was cheaper to buy people than weapons.  By an odd coincidence I noticed this piece today:

The Department of Education has discovered at least $6 billion in unreported donations to American universities from adversarial foreign nations, Townhall reported on Friday.

The DoE revealed its updates in a May 19 letter to Congress and a subsequent briefing to several ranking House Republicans who are conducting an investigation into the foreign funding of U.S. educational institutions.

The investigation was spurred by increasing reports of Chinese funding at U.S. educational institutions, including the prevalence of Confucius institutes on U.S. campuses. Confucius institutes are Chinese-government funded centers which ostensibly promote Chinese language and culture, but which U.S. agencies have warned spread propaganda for China’s government.

“Some [Institutions of Higher Education] leaders are starting to acknowledge the threat of foreign academic espionage and have been working with federal law enforcement to address gaps in reporting and transparency,” the letter from the DoE’s Office of the General Counsel reads. “However, the evidence suggests massive investments of foreign money have bred dependency and distorted the decision-making, mission, and values of too many institutions.”

People have always been cheaper to buy then bombs, and they tend to stay bought.

 

 

Dynasty 100 Loss All Futility League Report: East Divisions 5-24

Posted: May 25, 2020 by datechguy in baseball, dynasty baseball, gaming, online gaming, Sable Baseball, Sports
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The latest of a weekly series on the teams in my Online (or in person) Dynasty baseball simulation leagues I run. All are leagues are currently full but if you have an interest in joining the expanded futility league next season or want to be in the waiting list for the great teams league leave a message in comments.

This week we visit the Dynasty All Pathetic 100 loss league consisting only of teams that lost 100 games in a season. As of today most teams have 10 or less games for their season. All starts are current as of 9:30 PM EST Saturday

American League

1973 Chicago White Sox 1st place

When we last left the 1970 White Sox Tampa Bay was nipping at their heels and how it would end was anyone’s guess. Today barring a historic last minute collapse the White Sox look poised to lock up the AL East. 9 1/2 games up with 11 to play.

Heroes: Bill Melton (.268 35 HR 124 RBI ) and Ed Herrmann (..291 37 HR 103 RBI) are contending for the RBI & HR lead respectively. Meanwhile  Tommy John Quest for 20 wins might come up short, but he’s continues to lead the league in innings and remains in the top five in ERA, wins, K’s and avg against.

Zeros:  When last time we looked Sid O’Brien was hitting a bit better than Bobby Knoop and still is .221 to .219 but also like last time his fielding numbers .927 at 3rd and .947 at 2nd aren’t up to grade. If you want to point to a reason why Chicago might clinch this week starter Barry Moore isn’t one of them at 5-9 with a team worst 6.28 ERA over 25 starts.

Wild Cards: The White Sox are the only team in the AL with an ERA under 4 (3.98) and the biggest part of that is the Solid Defense up the middle provided by Luis Aparicio at short, Bobby Knoop at second base and Ken Berry in Center Field.

Coming Attractions: Chicago only needs two wins to clinch but the schedule won’t help much as they play their final three game home series against the west leading 2008 Seattle Mariners and then finish the season on the road visiting the red hot 1973 Texas Rangers 3 three then head for Tampa Bay for a pair against the 2nd Place 2002 Devil Rays before finishing the regular season in Kansas City with three against the 2005 Royals.

Injury Report: The team is all present and accounted for although pitcher Bart Johnson is a tad overworked. However Manager Ingemi has noted that he will be pitching John on three days rest in order to give him the three starts needed for a chance at 20 wins (currently at 17) that might be a risky move with the playoffs coming up.

2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2nd 67-76 10 GB Tragic number 2

Despite some of the biggest producers in the league Tampa Bay finds itself on the cusp of elimination with 11 games to go. Can their big bats pull off a final miracle to give them that chance?

Heroes: The one two punch of Aubrey Huff who leads the majors in Batting, Slugging, OPS and Hits while leading the AL in OBP and HR & RBI’s is complemented by Randy Wynn who leads the majors in runs while settling for 2nd in the AL in batting, Triples, OPS 3rd in Doubles, 4th in hits and 5th in OPS.

Zeros: Unfortunately while Huff and Wynn taketh , pitchers like starters Joe Kennedy (6-12 5.00 ERA .299 Avg against, Tanyon Sturtze (9-9 5.15 ERA 3.03 avg against ) givith away with a lot of help from the bullpen members like Wilson Alverez (5-7 6.96 ERA 1 sv 4 bs ) givith away.

Wild Card: While I specified Alversz under zeros due to the worst ERA on the team the closing staff in general like Steve Kent (3 saves 5 blown) Victor Zambrano (4 saves 4 blown) and particularly Estiban Yan (23 saves 10 blown) contributed to the Rays having the most blown saves in the AL

Coming Attractions: Tampa is the only other AL east team with meaningful games reaming concluding their final road trip with three in Baltimore to face the 2018 Orioles and 3 more in Kansas City vs the 2005 Royals. Then it’s back home to finish the season with a pair against the 1970 White Sox and 3 vs the 1973 Texas Rangers.

Injuries: If Tampa is Eliminated this week it won’t be due to injuries as all are healthy and ready to play

2018 Baltimore Orioles 59-84 3rd 18 GB

In theory the O’s have a shot to catch Tampa Bay to finish 2nd but their main concerning is keeping that half game lead over Detroit to keep from finishing in the basement and trying to miss the 90 loss mark.

Heroes: Johnathan Villar has been a bright spot on the O’s leading the league in SB with a chance to catch Huff for the Runs lead while 3rd in the league in walks and top ten in OBP, OPS & hits. When they managed to get a late lead closer Mychal Glvens has done the job leading the league with 28 saves while blowing only 4

Zeros: Starters David Hess (7.46 ERA .310 avg against) and Bundy Dillan (6-15) 6.34 ERA .311 avg against have a lot to do with where the Orioles are but according to manager Keith D the range or lack there of of outfielders Trey Mancini, Danny Valencia and occasional lapses by Adam Jones when he plays right have a lot to do with the team’s 5.83 ERA.

Wild Cards: Manny Machado came back to the O’s late in the season but he has made an impact hitting .344 and driving 20 in 22 games. Would a full season have done the trick?

Coming attractions: Baltimore will have a lot to do with how things end with 9 games at home first with a chance to eliminate the 2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 3 then 3 vs 1982 Minnesota Twins also dodging elimination then finishing their home season with a pair vs the West leading 2008 Seattle Mariners fighting to keep their lead before traveling to Detroit to take on the 2003 Tigers in three games to decide who will take up the division’s rear.

Injuries: If Baltimore had made it to the playoffs there was a chance that infielder Tim Beckham might have played again this season but as it is Baltimore will have to play spoiler without him.

2003 Detroit Tigers 59-85 4th place 18 1/2 GB

The Tigers are playing for pride and thanks to a late Mets surge prevent themselves from finishing with the worst record in the majors. Can they pass the Orioles to finish 3rd or will they become a byword for futility?

Heroes: Dimitri Young remains one of the most dangerous hitters in the league currently top in in six different offensive categories and in striking distance in batting slugging and OPS. Alex Sanchez 13 Triples leads the league and his .322 avg is good enough for 8th with a chance to go higher.

Zeros: Mike Maroth leads the American league with 18 losses which is not a surprise given his .312 avg against and 6.41 ERA, but Nate Comejo’s 6.53 ERA & .347 avg is worse despite his 11-13 record but even though Gary Knotts 6.18 & .305 avg against his better than both his 3-11 record is a lowlight for the team.

Wild Card: Despite playing in home run friendly Detroit for half their games the Tigers are Dead last in the AL in homers with only 120 so far this season. Meanwhile their team ERA 5.15 is only outdone by the O’s in futility.

Coming Attractions: Detroit will have a lot to do with how the West is won welcoming the 1973 Texas Rangers and the 2008 Seattle Mariners for 3 each at home before their final brief two game road trip to Minnesota vs the 1982 Twins become coming home to face the 2018 Orioles to decide who is the worst team of them all.

Injuries: Everyone is healthy but given their record not sure if that’s good or bad.

National League East

2009 Washington Nationals 96-50 1st Clinched

The Washington Nationals have had the best record in the majors and the only question left is will they get to the 100 win mark. They are the prohibitive favorite for the World Series but in the playoffs anything can happen.

Heroes:Adam Dunn, josh Willingham, Nyler Morgan Christan Guzman & Willie Harris are all leading or in the top 3 of every offensive category except doubles n the mound closer Mike MacDougal has a 1.98 ERA & leads the league in saves (28) only blowing 5.

Zeros: Livan Hernandez has managed to go 5-8 win 30 starts on a 96 win team. I suspect his 6.52 ERA and .323 avg against has something to do with this. Another weak link is reliever Ron Villone who despite his 6-4 record has blown 4 of 6 games with a 5.30 ERA in 65 games.

Wild Cards: How good is this team? Catcher Will Nieves is about the only member of the team not producing big his .258 avg is the team low with only 1 homer and his 49 RBI is the lowest almond any player with more than 200 ab.

Coming attractions: the quest for 100 wins goes on at home with 3 vs the 1998 Florida Marlins and 2 vs the 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates before finishing the regular season in NYC with 3 vs the 1967 Mets

Injury Report: Wil Nieves will miss game one vs the Marlins and Austin Kearns will not be available until the playoffs but the question is will the Nats sit key starters vs letting them compete for batting and slugging titles?

1998 Florida Marlins 80-66 2nd place 16 GB Eliminated

In any other division the Marlins would either be leading or in the thick of things but thanks to the domination of the Nationals they will have to wait for expansion next year for a chance at a playoff spot.

Heroes: Edger Renteria is tied for the league lead in runs (115) & 3rd in SB. CLIFF FLOYD is 3rd in the league in RBI’s (116) & hits (179) and top 10 in batting slugging and OPS and doubles.. One the Mound Livan Hernandez is third in ERA (3.02) and 4th in wins, (14) K’s (170) and inning pitched (217 2/3). In the Pen Matt Mantei is not only 15 of 17 in save chances but 9-4 with a 2.28 ERA out of the pen.

Zeros: If you want to point fingers at how Florida ended up eliminated. Simply look at Andy Larkin (0-8 in 30 games 17 starts ERA 7.13 avg .321) and Ryan Dempster (0-6 10 starts 12.16 ERA .420 avg against. If even five of those 14 losses had been wins. Florida would not be eliminated yet.

Wild Card: Florida as a team is only 1 game over .500 in nine inning games but once you get into extras they are 16-3 the best record by far in the majors and that’s after going 2-3 in their last five games in extra.

Coming Attractions: Florida is playing for pride and stats these days with 3 at Washington vs the 2009 Nationals followed by a quick 2 game final homestand vs the 1967 Mets before heading back on the road Pittsburgh to end their season vs the 2010 Pirates.

Injury Report: Veteran Catcher Gregg Zaun will miss the 1st two against the Nats but will be back to finish the season.

2010 Pittsburgh Pirates 73-73 3rd place 23 GB Eliminated

The Pirates can claim a moral victory. For a ling time they had the worst record in the league and fought back to .500 with 8 games to play. If they were in the west they would only be a game out. Can they finish with a record that would have won the west?

Heroes:Aramas Ramirez is leading the league in RBI’s s (179) and top 10 in batting slugging and OPS and doubles.. Brian Giles is hitt .324 (3rd) with an OBP .435 (2nd) OBS of 1.004 (2nd) slugging .569 (2nd) third in runs (113) triples (11) and walks (105) On the mound Dave Williams 2.80 is currently 2nd s (170) as is his WHIP of 1.01.

Zeros: Mike Fetters leads the NL in blown saves with 8 a 40% failure rate. but with an 8.49 ERA that’s to be expected. At the plate Jack Wilson’s triple crown numbers of .218 3HR 39 RBI’s isn’t scaring anybody.

Wild Cards: Pittsburgh offense is driven by the HR their 148 is third in the majors , their .250 team batting avg is however also 3rd worst in the majors.

Coming Attractions: Pittsburgh’s quest for an over .500 record continues in NY with three vs the 1967 Mets then heads for DC for a pair against the 2009 Nationals before they head home to finish vs the 1998 Florida Marlins.

Injury Report: Armando Rios and Mike Lincoln are both out for the year. Damaso Marte will miss the series vs the Mets but Keith Osik will be available by game 3.

1967 New York Mets 58-88 38 GB Eliminated.

For a good chunk of the season there was a real question if the Mets would loos 100 but now they have an outside chance of NOT finishing with the worst record in the majors? Can they pull one final rabbit out of the hat?

Heroes While :Tommy Davis at 179 hits (2nd) and a .320 avg (4th) and 8th in SB is worth a mention The fact that Tom Seaver has won 20 games for the team with the worst record is the majors (tied for 1st with Randy Johnson is astounding. Seaver is 7th in ERA 2nd in Strikeouts (213) 8th in innings, and 1st in fewest HR per 9 innings (0.49) the ONLY non relief category that anyone is beating Johnson in. If it wasn’t for Randy he would be a shoo in for the NL Cy Young.

Zeros: How poor have Jerry Grote and Jerry Bucheck hit? Tom Seaver has a better avg than both. But if you want to choose a zero Well there’s Don Cardwell (5-14) Jack Fisher (3-20) leading the league in losses and Dennis Bennett (5-11) and of course Ron Taylor with 4 saves in 11 chances.

Wild card: How critical is Seaver? The Mets 4.51 ERA is 7th in the 16 team major leagues. remove Seaver and it becomes 4.80 which would be 11th. But when you hit only 67 home runs last in the majors not to mention last in the majors in doubles hits and RBI’s and last in the NL in walks those 20 wins look even more miraclious.

Coming Attractions: The Mets have three at home vs the 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates before jetting to Florida for their final away series vs the 1998 Marlins before ending the season vs the 2009 Washington Nationals. Can Seaver finish ahead of Johnson in wins?

Injury Report: The entire team is healthy for those final eight games?

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