Links - 5th October 2024 (2 - Left Wing Economics)

Meme - Cloyd Rivers @CloydRivers: "Call me old fashioned, but if you can afford a $60k electric car, you can afford to pay back your student loans. Merica."

Chris Freiman on X - "“Economics isn’t remotely rigorous enough to qualify as scientific.”
“Huh, OK—so what do you think explains rising prices?”
“Greed.”"
Captain Ⓐncapistan on X - "It’s rigorous enough if you use praxeology instead of statistics ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Alec Stapp on X - "Another major infrastructure project is abandoned after ballooning costs — in part due to legal challenges. The groups suing to block the project claimed that the environmental review must have been incomplete because it was finished in 2 years rather than the typical 4+ years🤦🏻‍♂️"
Plans to Build AirTrain to La Guardia Are Officially Scrapped - The New York Times
Clearly, we need even more regulation to protect the public from corporate greed!
The left claim the US isn't left wing enough, but they already have so much left wing dysfunction

Garrett Reuscher on X - "“Everyone gets a plate before anyone gets seconds” but for housing."
Left wing logic - no one can consume more than the minimum number of calories a day as long as some people in the world are still starving

Meme - wanye @wanyeburkett: "If the restaurateur can’t keep the restaurant open without people eating there, then the people who eat there own the restaurant."
Elmo: "But Zoe if your landlord can't afford the property without your rent, then YOU'RE the one providing housing to THEM"
Oddly, another version featuring the same meme but with commentary mentioning Blackrock got blocked

sp6r=underrated on X - "I'm a tenant. Tenant activists do **nothing** for people like me. The average tenant like me pays the rent on time and wants to be able to move into new units when they get a raise. Tenant activists only care about weirdos who never want to move and the most marginal tenants."
wanye on X - "As I keep saying, of course you want some basic rules around thelandlord/ tenant relationship, but the thing about modern tenant activism is that we already have those rules. We spent the 20th century formalizing that relationship, so that the landlord can no longer just pop in, so that the landlord has to send a notice to quit with reasonable time frames, so that the landlord is obligated to adhere to the terms of the lease, so that the landlord must provide a safe environment, so that the landlord has to keep the heat on, and so on and so on. It’s all there. We already have it. All that’s left is to make it easier for people who are not paying their rent to stay in apartments they’re not paying for. That’s what tenant activism amounts to today. How can we help people who are not paying their rent stay in a building they have no right to occupy? That’s tenant activism today."
Tenant activists just hate landlords

Tenant doesn’t pay $41,000 in rent for Toronto condo but owner can’t evict her yet - "Narinder Singh of Brampton, Ont., says he and his wife bought their condo apartment in Etobicoke as an investment for retirement.  “We worked for decades to save, penny by penny, for our old age,” said Singh, who runs a drycleaning business inside a Brampton supermarket.  But since 2020, Singh says the female tenant living in the unit has paid rent only intermittently: he produced a ledger showing Deeqa Rafle owes $41,600 in back rent and $5,249.35 in unpaid utilities...       In 2021, Singh asked Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board for permission to evict Rafle. “The system is so broken,” Singh told Global News, expressing frustration at how difficult it is to remove a tenant who doesn’t pay rent consistently  In 2023, Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube described “excruciating delay” at the Landlord and Tenant Board. In a report, Dube acknowledged his office had received more than 4,000 complaints — largely from landlords — as part of his investigation. Dube issued 61 recommendations aimed at improving the functioning of the board. In May, Global News reported on a Brampton couple owed more than $22,000 by a tenant who refused to make any more payments after he was asked to leave the family’s home when wanted to move back in.  In that case, the tenant and his partner have not made any payments since October 2023.  Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board has not made any decision about eviction, although another hearing is slated for late August.  On Aug. 7, Singh received the news he was hoping for: Landlord and Tenant Board member Tiffany Ticky signed an order compelling Rafle to pay the entire amount she owes for outstanding rent and utilities.  “If the Tenant does not pay the amount required to void this order the Tenant must move out of the rental unit on or before August 18, 2024.”  However, Rafle can still attempt to appeal the decision. Even if she doesn’t, Singh will need to ask the Court Enforcement Office, also known as the Sheriff, to carry out the eviction. That agency is also backlogged. Singh says the experience with renting has left a lasting impression. He says once his tenant has moved out, he’ll likely sell the apartment because he would never rent again.  “I am aware of the housing crisis in the country but if people are here to abuse the law go find your own, I’m not a babysitter, I can’t help you.”"
Left wing logic - most complaints come from landlords because tenants are stupid victims who don't know their rights, and anyway fuck landlords, who deserve to lose their investments

ELI5: The $90 million Batgirl movie tax write-off : r/tax - "Anyone who thinks that businesses write-off things just to get the tax break doesn't know anything about business or taxes."
Left wingers think spending $100 to save $30 on taxes earns a business money and it shows how broken the tax system and capitalism are and that the company earns money by doing this

Do y’all know where the phrase “eat the rich” comes from or do you just repeat it cause you heard it elsewhere? It’s not a bad... – @insanitysscribblings on Tumblr - "Do y’all know where the phrase “eat the rich” comes from or do you just repeat it cause you heard it elsewhere?  It’s not a bad thing, I just saw someone say “we never said who would eat the rich” and realized a lot of y’all might not have heard the full quote  It’s from Rousseau and it’s “When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich"  And, well, there’s a lot of people with nothing to eat…"
Ironically, the poor are more likely to be obese

Crémieux on X - "Ranking the reasons why people seek to coercively redistribute the wealth in two separate studies. The top one predicting support is envy. The top one predicting non-support is being older. Compassion doesn't enter the mix."
PsyArXiv Preprints | Each is to count for one and none for more than one: Predictors of support for economic redistribution
Weird. Left wingers like to keep claiming they're all about compassion, which is why they want to "eat the rich". Clearly such rhetoric shows how compassionate they are, and has nothing to do with envy
More evidence that left wingers just hate the rich. This is also evidence that as people grow older, they are less likely to support left wing economic policies

The Other 98% | Facebook - "If you make $40-70k a year and you're complaining about a tax on high net worth individuals worth $100 million, you might be a massive 🤡"
If you're white and you're complaining about discrimination against black people, you might be a massive 🤡
Clearly some people don't deserve "empathy". And taxing unrealised capital gains will never affect anyone other than the "rich", just like in 1913, US Federal Income Tax was only for those earning above $3,000, so anyone poorer than that with concerns about the tax was a clown

Dr. Eli David on X - ".@JMilei on the absurdity of socialist call for “equality”: “I like to play tennis, and I demand equality when I play against Federer. So let's cut off his arm.” 🤣"

How Argentina's 'chainsaw man' Javier Milei slashed rents by 20pc - "Rents in Argentina have fallen 20pc since President Javier Milei scrapped a “destructive” cap for landlords in December.  Under four-year rent controls, landlords fled the market in their thousands and rents increased 286pc, fuelling an even deeper housing crisis.  Since the legislation was scrapped, rents have fallen and the number of properties that are available for rent has increased significantly, according to industry body the Argentine Real Estate Chamber... The rules, introduced in 2020 by then-president Alberto Fernández, included a mandatory lease term of three years and a limit on rent to an average growth rate of the consumer price index and the wage index. This cap was set by the central bank... Worsening the situation, 45pc of landlords decided to sell their properties in the wake of the announcement significantly reducing the amount of accommodation on offer and further pushing up prices... Rental prices only increased 2.9pc in February, according to Zonaprop. The lowest monthly figure since October 2021.  In mid-January, just weeks after the repeal, the number of homes available had rebounded."
Weird. Left wingers claim that regulating landlords will make them sell houses which will mean housing will become affordable

Rents plummet after Argentina drops rent control - "Many American progressives, including Nevada Democrats, want similar government interventions in the housing market here.  The appeal of rent control is obvious when rents are soaring. Current renters receive a benefit when the government distorts the market to their advantage.  But the downside of rent control is just as obvious if you ask a simple question. What happens next?   The supply of rental homes decreases. Landlords are less likely to rent out properties. With an artificial cap on their returns, investors build fewer homes and apartment complexes. Existing units become homes or condos for sale. Landlords spend less on maintenance and upkeep because they lack a financial incentive to make improvements. Their renters won’t leave because they’re paying below market rates. Rundown apartments and homes lower nearby property values.  When the supply of rental homes drops, prices increase. Thus, rent control ends up doing the opposite of what it promised.  That’s precisely what happened in Argentina. After the government imposed rent control, 45 percent of landlords opted to sell their properties. Others listed them on short-term rental sites. In Buenos Aires, the number of Airbnb properties nearly tripled from 2019 to 2023.   Unsurprisingly, rents soared. In Buenos Aires, the cost for a two-bedroom apartment went from 18,000 pesos a month in 2019 to more than 330,000 pesos in January. If rent had merely kept up with inflation, it would have been 210,000 pesos."

Argentina markets cheer Milei's 'ambitious' zero deficit budget - "Argentina's sovereign bonds and stock index climbed in early trading on Monday, as investors cheered an ambitious 2025 budget plan from libertarian President Javier Milei, that predicts robust growth and sticks to a "zero" fiscal deficit."

Meme - Isabella M. Weber @IsabellaMWeber: "Shock therapy once more doing what shock therapy does. After Milei abolished price controls & slashed government spending, inflation shot up to ~300%. 3.4 million Argentinians pushed into poverty. Poverty rate highest level in two decades. At least 136,000 jobs wiped out."
Readers added context: "Argentina's inflation didn't shoot up to 300% under Milei. Inflation dropped from 25.5% per month in December to 3.9% per month by August. The 300% figure represents the annual rate, which includes the months before Milei took office. Weber's use of this number is misleading."
To think that she's an economist

Meme - "Someone worth 70 million and another worth 3 billion telling you "Don't trust rich people!" *Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey*"

Map of the US states that pays more tax than what they receive from the government, courtesy of CGP grey : r/MapPorn
So now it's wrong to take from the rich to give to the poor, when it helps the left wing agenda

Change my mind: Alcohol sales in convenience stores are a blatant vote bribe to south Asian owners of convenience stores to vote conservative : r/niagara - "He already threw Galen Weston a major win with beer and wine in grocery stores."
"That was Wynne though. Beer started in grocery stores in 2015.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/grocery-beer-1.3365553"
"They don’t want facts they want to be mad at conservatives."

Pretty wild we are soon gonna be able to get a tank of gas and 6-pack : r/Newmarket - "Is it wild? You can do this anywhere in the states and Mexico. If they started selling parts to make a nuclear warhead, I might consider that wild, but a Bud Light? You gotta get out more friend"
Pretty wild we are soon gonna be able to get a tank of gas and 6-pack : r/Newmarket - "My biggest complaint with the LCBO is the control the use to decide what beers/ciders/spirits are available. Years ago you used to be able to get a great selection of British beers and ciders. Slowly but surely they are stopping importing them, now the only British cider they stock is strongbow. And the British beer selection is down to about 20 beers, some seasonal"
"The selection of whiskeys and beer is insulting enough (I can’t even buy a lot of Canadian whiskeys despite being a Canadian living in Canada), but when it comes to their selection of things like gin it’s extremely hard to get a good product, and for mezcal/tequila it’s simply impossible"
"There’s so many great products that we’ll never see in Ontario because there is a single gatekeeper standing at the border shouting “you shall not pass!” While waving its big government stick at the sky."
Left wingers hate choice, so too bad

Meme - Wholesome Comics: Construction Worker: "Do, Do, Do, I'm a builder. Do, Do, Do, I build stuff *Bam bam bam*"
Man with tophat and monocle: "Say, my good man! what are you building for me to exploit?"
Construction Worker: "This" *guillotine*"
When left wingers call something "wholesome", there's a good chance they just mean something that pushes the left wing agenda (a group about "wholesome" memes does this a lot too)

Meme - Big BIrd: "Hi kids, today we're going to learn about WAGE THEFT. Record-breaking profits without any increase in worker wages is called: WAGE THEFT."
So when profits fall and workers' wages don't fall too, is that profit theft?

Meme - "IF I HAD A HICHEL FOR EVERY TIME A RADICAL LEFT E-CELEB THAT HATES CAPITALISM WAS EXPOSED FOR NOT PAYING THEIR EDITORS AND WAS A PSYCHOTIC ABUSER IN PRIVATE, I'D HAVE THREE NICKELS. WHICH ISNT A LOT BUT IT'S WEIRD IT HAPPENED THRICE... AND MORE MONEY THAN THOSE EDITORS GOT PAID *Jim Sterling, Xanderhal, and Hasan Piker*"

“The Meritocracy Trap,” explained - "even the most critical commentary often focuses on the fact that our so-called meritocracy is not quite meritocratic enough; entrance into the ranks of the elite is still rigged in favor of the wealthy and privileged at the expense of the most intelligent and hardest working. This is what we can think of as the aspirational critique of meritocracy. It posits that the problem with our current system isn’t the ideal of meritocracy itself but our collective failure to live up to that ideal. If only we could replace the forces of aristocracy, oligarchy, and corruption with a genuine meritocracy, then we would have a just and equal society. There is also a principled critique of meritocracy, although it is far less common. Principled critics argue that any society where socioeconomic reward is based on the principle of “merit” itself is inherently unjust. For them, the ideal of meritocracy is flawed and must be replaced either by radical egalitarianism or a return to aristocracy... At its core, The Meritocracy Trap is a comprehensive — and rather scathing — critique of the aspirational view. Markovits argues that meritocracy itself is the problem: It produces radical inequality, stifles social mobility, and makes everyone — including the apparent winners — miserable. These are not symptoms of systemic malfunction; they are the products of a system that is working exactly as it is supposed to... Rising inequality is the product of meritocracy itself. At midcentury, the super-rich really were a mix of oligarchs and aristocrats. In the 1950s and ’60s, the richest 1 percent of earners received around three-quarters of their income from capital... A Harvard Business Review survey found that 62 percent of high-earning individuals work over 50 hours a week, more than a third work over 60 hours a week, and one in 10 work over 80 hours a week. According to Markovits, elites today work an average of 12 more hours per week than middle-class workers (the equivalent of 1.5 additional workdays). The rich are also more skilled than ever. Students from the top 1 percent of households overwhelmingly dominate elite colleges and universities, despite the fact that bribery and nepotism are much less the norm. The rich today are no longer an indolent “leisure class” but what Markovits calls a “superordinate” working class: they work harder, longer, and perform more high-skilled work than ever before. As a result, Markovits calculates that three-quarters of elite income now originates from labor rather than inherited capital... Meritocratic inequality works like this: First, elite workers acquire super-skilled jobs, displacing middle-class labor from the center of economic production. Then, those elite workers use their massive incomes to monopolize elite education for their children, ensuring that their offspring are more qualified to dominate high-skilled industries than their middle-class counterparts. The cycle continues, generating what Markovits calls “snowball inequality”: a compounding feedback loop that amplifies economic inequality, dramatically suppresses social mobility, and creates a “time divide” between an elite class whose members work longer and longer (due to a higher demand for their talents) and an increasingly idle middle class (whose work has been made redundant)."
Meritocracy only leads to equality if you assume everyone is equally talented and hardworking. But they are not
Inequality is good if it rewards talent and work - even if you think those who are more productive don't deserve more because they didn't do anything to deserve it (since even if some people perform better, talent and motivation are not willed by the individual but endowed by chance, which is an odd claim since we still have lotteries where pure chance determines the winner), there is a very practical reason for meritocracy: not rewarding talent and hard work means people won't work as much, then good luck funding all the social spending that left wingers keep demanding
The thesis of the book, that the middle class is made redundant, is silly. We've had predictions of economic change leading to mass unemployment for centuries, at least going back to the luddites
Because elites don't want to opt out of the game, no one must be allowed to play
I find it interesting that it's a bad thing to "exploit" your talents and abilities. Presumably the pursuit of mediocrity is better

Matthew Lau: Liberals' productivity 'working group' shows why Canada isn't producing - "The article, which cites Carleton University economics professor Vivek Dehejia, suggests Canada’s crisis-level productivity is rooted in unfavourable economic structures that limit competition and discourage investment, including by means of federal monopolies. “We know the causes of this problem,” Dehejia said. “As for (the government’s) proposed solution to create a working group to investigate it, I find that quite laughable. I actually find it quite sad that they feel the need to create a working group on something that I teach my first-year students.” So there you have it: the federal working group isn’t just a joke, it’s a sad joke. A spokesperson for Anand says the working group will be made up of “public and private sector representatives, academics, and union members,” which makes it even more laughable. Asking civil servants and unions how to increase economic productivity is like asking the Toronto Maple Leafs how to win a playoff series. On the other hand, at least the Leafs have done that once in the past 20 years — which is a higher success rate than the public sector and labour unions have enjoyed in increasing economic productivity. To understand how the Trudeau government flattened Canada’s economic productivity, consider its economic development strategy. The federal working group was announced on August 27. The very next day the government made a series of corporate welfare handouts: $1 million of taxpayers’ money to a frozen-pizza company in Montreal, $98,000 to a rubber manufacturer in Sherbrooke, $95,000 to a tourism association in Nova Scotia, $160,000 to an Indigenous manufacturing network, and about $6 million in interest-free loans to various Saskatchewan businesses, including a software company, steel manufacturer and IT recruiter. The wide diversity of recipients shows there is no activity whose cost the Trudeau government won’t shove onto the backs of taxpayers. Moving on from central planning of economic development, two days after announcing the productivity working group, the Trudeau government turned towards central planning of entrepreneurship. Two cabinet ministers announced that, as part of the government’s $25-million 2SLGBTQI+ Entrepreneurship Program, $8 million would be distributed to various organizations via the 2SLGBTQI+ Ecosystem Fund, of which $5.2 million would go to 17 organizations listed in the announcement. The money would be used to offer programs and resources to support to 2SLGBTQI+ entrepreneurs, “raise awareness of the challenges they face” and “cultivate a more cohesive network of 2SLGBTQI+ entrepreneurs and ecosystem organizations.” Got that? When you have two cabinet ministers giving an average of $300,000 in taxpayer funding to 17 different organizations so they can be part of an “ecosystem” to organize awareness-raising, more-cohesive networks and still more ecosystems based on sexual orientation, this is not an entrepreneurship policy. It is a policy to give away $5.2 million of taxpayers’ money to bureaucrats, activists, consultants, and lobbyists who specialize in writing, reviewing, and approving grants for public funds, and then spending those funds on things that will sound marketable in a government announcement. A hard question that needs to be asked is: how much money will actually reach entrepreneurs after being filtered through governmental and non-profit ecosystems? Any money that does make it to entrepreneurs will have little to do with actual entrepreneurial activity. True, applying for government handouts does require a measure of initiative. But receiving them does not constitute entrepreneurial activity. Besides, the claim that 2SLGBTQI+ entrepreneurs face unfair disadvantages that justify preferential government treatment is one the Trudeau government makes without evidence. And even if were true on average, members of that population able to help themselves to taxpayers’ money through special identity-based government programs are unlikely to be among the disadvantaged. With federal policies like these, low economic productivity in Canada should not be a surprise. What’s needed instead are deep spending cuts, widespread deregulation, and cancellation of large numbers of federal programs. As for the federal working group, it is expected to officially launch in the fall and then deliver its recommendations by next spring. Six months for public-sector officials and unions to tell us why they think economic productivity is so low in Canada? The federal working group on productivity is itself an unintended demonstration of how the Trudeau government is killing productivity."
Clearly, more subsidies and regulation is the answer

Meme - "Flo Crivello @Altimor: "> be europoor
> vote for anti-capitalist policies for 70 yrs
> smugly tout the superiority of your social system which « is the envy of the world »
> refuse to work hard, take 5 weeks off per year
> tax rich people and regulate companies to oblivion
> whydoamericanshavemore.gif"
gon @chinesegon: "can i say something without europoors getting mad"
I want to take everything from Americans
I'm 36 years old and live in Northern Europe, earning €4,200 a month after taxes. After paying €2,200 for rent and utilities, plus my groceries and loan, I’m left with just €600 for the rest of the month. I still don’t own a home, and I haven’t slept in three days—I’m feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. It makes me angry to see the immense wealth in America, with their high TC and billion-dollar businesses. It feels so unfair. We deserve just as much as they do. I want to take everything from Americans for the unfariness that's happening"

Meme - Caroline Farrow @CF_Farrow: "Cranleigh, a Surrey independent school will *only* pass on a 12% VAT raise to parents. They managed to save on the 8% by abolishing all bursaries & free places & stopping free use of facilities to local youth groups, in order to recoup costs of maintenance. Nice one Labour."
Aaron @gastrocritical: "An interesting take. An alternative one... Independent school shamelessly withdraws opportunities for disadvantaged students in order to protect its profits and serve its shareholders."
Caroline Farrow @CF_Farrow: "Most independent schools don't make profits or have shareholders."
Left wingers keep screeching about taxing churches, because they have no idea why churches aren't taxed in the first place

Brad Wilcox on X - "Truly astonishing indictment of our welfare policies fr @AtlantaFed. A single mother in DC can make no gains, financially, as her earnings rise from $11,000 to $65,000 because benefits like food stamps & Medicaid phase in/out as her income rises. Terrible for work/marriage."

Ricky Gervais on Respecting Beliefs

In a Facebook group, someone shared the following meme quoting Ricky Gervais:

"It is nonsense to claim that one should respect all beliefs. Beliefs need to earn respect. Some beliefs are irrational, immoral bollocks. I can respect your right to hold them without respecting the actual beliefs in any way." - Ricky Gervais

OP said that he was talking about leftism, and many left wingers got very upset and claimed that he was only talking about religion.

In reality, Ricky Gervais himself has said that he applies this sentiment to other topics as well:

Ricky Gervais @rickygervais: "Everyone has the right to believe anything they want. And everyone else has the right to believe that those beliefs are fucking ridiculous. Cheers."
Dr. Theologician @contra__culture: ""I love to argue about things that don't exist" Weird."
Ricky Gervais @rickygervais: "You think that statement only applies to religion?"

Of course, one left winger went on to make all sorts of even crazier statements, like that "he despises people punching down on others" and that "conservatives can only think in binary" which is why they "can't seperate [sic] his comedy from who he himself actually is".

Ironically, this left winger shared a screenshot from an article that accuses Gervais of punching down ("To his detractors, including some fellow comics, the 63-year-old is a heretic whose best days passed after The Office ended and who now “punches down” against disadvantaged minorities solely because he’s an attention-seeker"), he got savaged by the TRAs for "anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes" (and since trans people are now considered one of the most marginalised people out there...) and as far back as 2016, The Verge was already claiming he was "consistently punching down".

And again ironically, his former collaborator Robin Ince called him a “pin-up and role model for the alt-Right”. It seems Robin Ince, then, is a conservative who "can only think in binary" (him backing Jeremy Corbyn notwithstanding).

Links - 5th October 2024 (1 - Donald Trump)

Brandon Straka #WalkAway on X - "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. DOJ put me in jail because they said my presence OUTSIDE the Capitol (I never went in) contributed to the whole, and tacitly inspired others to commit criminal acts because of their “guilty by association” argument. BUT DOJ IS NOW ARGUING THAT THEIR PLANTS IN THE CROWD ON J6 ARE IRRELEVANT AND SHOULD NOT BE BROUGHT INTO EVIDENCE BECAUSE EVERYBODY WAS RESPONSIBLE  FOR THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR???"

RazörFist on X - "Mongerator: "Jan 6th was bad. Why didn't you call in the National Guard?"
T-rump: "I tried, but Nancy Pelosi has that power, and she refused."
Mongerator: "Excuse me. The question was about you, not Nancy Pelosi. Next question."
ACTUAL. EXCHANGE."

@Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 on X - "Twitter, under Jack Dorsey, took this video down right after Trump posted it on J6. Nancy Pelosi is on tape saying it's her fault for not accepting Trumps offer of 10K National. Guard Liz Cheney never entered this into evidence, so you know what to do"

🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 on X - "HAPPENING NOW:  In a shocking twist, new documents prove that Donald Trump requested National Guard troops on January 6th, and the Pentagon delayed it and the Biden admin hid it.    This is nothing short of treason.  Every single member of the J6 committee should be tried for treason, along with Milley, Biden, Harris, Pelosi, and anyone else who knew about this.    This is one of the biggest injustices we’ve ever witnessed!  How are they still getting away with this?"
Think for Yourself on X - "Trump has been saying that he asked for 10,000 National Guard Troops and Chris Miller and Mark Milley blocked it. The quotes released show Trump was truthful and Miller and Milley blocked it. President Trump wanted the event to be safe and requested the National Guard.   There was no insurrection on January 6th, only treasonous Generals."

If Liberals didn't have double standards they wouldn't have any at all - "the Sun’s political columnist Brian Lilley says it is time liberals hold themselves accountable when calling for the political rhetoric to be toned down."
A general "everyone" needs to tone down the rhetoric when Trump gets shot, but if someone vaguely connected to the right is violent, it shows how evil and violent and dangerous right wing rhetoric is

Meme - Laurence Tribe @tribelaw: "There is today a true "enemy of the people." His address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
Laurence Tribe @tribelaw: "Calling your political adversaries enemies of the people is a typical first step for tyrants who aim ultimately to silence or exterminate all who resist their rule. We've gotta nip this terrifying move in the bud."

Trump safe after new assassination attempt, suspect arrested - "Law enforcement officials said U.S. Secret Service agents spotted and fired on a gunman in some bushes near the property line who dropped an AK-47-style assault rifle and was arrested after fleeing the scene. The New York Times and Fox News identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii"

Renson Seow | Facebook - "Imagine the wall to wall coverage if there had been even 1, let alone 2 assassination attempts within 2 months against the other side.  The news networks would be going non stop, there'll be articles about "misogyny", laws proposed against guns, articles fawning about "how brave she was", etc.  Against Trump though, it's more like "oh. There was some gunfire and stuff. Let's do the minimal then go report on something else". It was the same with BLM - "mostly peaceful" the media said.  2024 won't change anything if it is not accompanied by a purge and dismantling of the media companies."

Man who appeared intent on killing Trump wrote a book urging Iran to assassinate the ex-president - "The world would be better if it were run by women, he wrote in the book that has links to his website and X account, because “it seems that the totality of the world’s problems revolve around men with massive insecurity and childlike intelligence and behavior.”"
Ironic

Meme - "Trump Supporters 'Highly Likely' to Try to Kill People in 2024: Analyst
BY THOMAS KIKA
Political analyst Brian Klaas warned on Sunday that a small subset of Donald Trump's supporters are "highly likely" to try and kill people ahead of the 2024 presidential election, as the former president's rhetoric continues to become more violent."
Ironic. Of course, the cope is that it's Trump supporters trying to kill him

Ryan Wesley Routh, man detained in apparent assassination attempt on Trump, criticized former president on social media - "A 58-year-old man detained Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Florida is a self-employed affordable housing builder in Hawaii who went on social media to weigh in on politics and current events, at times criticizing the former president.  Ryan Wesley Routh, who authorities suspect was planning to attack the former president as he played a round of golf, posted comments on an X account linked to him referencing the assassination attempt on Trump at a July rally in Pennsylvania.   Routh tagged Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, in separate posts, encouraging them to visit those injured at the rally.  “You and Biden should visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman. Trump will never do anything for them,” he wrote in a post directed at Harris. In an April post on X tagging President Biden’s presidential account, he wrote that Biden’s campaign should be: “called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”...   Routh has contributed more than $100 to ActBlue, which processes donations for Democrats, federal campaign finance records show.  Routh expressed strong support for Ukraine – in dozens of posts on X in 2022, saying he was willing to die in the fight and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”   “I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE…Can I be the example We must win,” Routh said in an X post in March 2022.  Routh then used his personal Facebook account last year to encourage foreigners to fight in the war. He tried to enlist Afghan conscripts in a flurry of posts, beginning in October 2023, presenting himself as an off-the-books liaison for the Ukrainian government.  “Afghan Soldiers- Ukraine is somewhat interested in 3000 soldiers, so I need every soldier that has a passport to send me a copy of their passport to send to Ukraine,” he wrote in one such post, which was published in English and Pashto...  A Hawaiian man who gave Routh a bad review on Facebook told CNN he was unsettled by Routh’s response to the criticism. Saili Levi, owner of a vanilla company, said he had paid Routh $3,800 up front to build a trailer for his business, but when Levi came to Routh’s shop to review his work, it was shoddy.  Levi said when he asked Routh to improve the work via email, Routh ranted at him.   “He just kind of started ranting about, you know, ‘You think because you have money, you’re better than me?’” Levi said, adding that Routh also mentioned having gone to Ukraine to fight against Russia. “I kind of decided maybe I should just let it go for the sake of my family.”  Records from North Carolina, dating back a couple of decades, also show that he had scrapes with the law."
Incendiary rhetoric has consequences

Amit Shah (Parody) on X - "2.5 minutes of Democrats explicitly calling for using political vioIence. They own this."

Western Lensman on X - "Doocy, after KJP AGAIN calls Trump a “threat." "How many more assass*nation attempts on Trump until the President, Vice President, and you pick a different word other than ‘threat?'" “Your question is incredibly dangerous." They’re not going to stop."
Stephen L. Miller on X - "Our violence is speech. Your speech is dangerous."

Nolte: Community Notes Nukes Time Magazine for Saying Alleged Trump Assassin's ‘Ideology Unclear’ - "The serial liars at the disgraced Time Magazine got nuked by Xwitter’s community notes for spreading misinformation about the latest leftist accused of trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump. “The suspect arrested in relation to the shooting at Trump’s golf course in Florida on Sunday has been identified as Ryan Routh,” Time xweeted Monday morning, “a 58-year-old with unclear political ideology, a criminal record, and a history of praising Iran and supporting Ukraine.” Except. Routh’s leftist political ideology is not only NOT unclear, it is blatant, it is splattered all over the Internet, and it is easy to retrieve. Xwitter’s glorious Community Notes wasted no time nuking this naked lie. With the help of two media sources along with FEC records, Community Notes wrote, “Routh recently voted in person during the state’s Democratic Party primary in March 2024. He also donated to ActBlue in 2019, and 2020 (a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates).” Additionally, it looks like the 58-year-old Routh had a Biden-Harris bumper sticker on his vehicle in Hawaii and used social media to spout anti-Trump left-wing talking points like, “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.” He also claimed Trump wants to “make Americans slaves[.]”"

Meme - Rob Reiner @robreiner: "Hard Reality: For our Democracy to survive, two things have to happen. Donald Trump needs to be Convicted for Jan. 6th and there can be no Third Party Candidate."
Collin Rugg @CollinRugg: ""For Democracy to survive we need to imprison the opposition candidate and stop anyone else from running." LOL."

Eric Weinstein on X - "A lot of Kamala supporting skeptics are asking me what I mean by “Donald Trump may not be allowed to become president again” in 2024  I think I am going to use this opportunity to show you why many sceptics, debunkers and educated people who reflexively and derisively target others as conspiracy theorists, are rapidly losing *everyone* smart and independent. Here goes:  I am suggesting that the 2024 election may be “Saved”. I am suggesting that our U.S. democracy may be “Fortified” between now and November. That right now there is a “conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes”. I am suggesting that Americans may be saved from “Russian electoral interference” by an “informal alliance” involving tech “business titans”.  I am suggesting that the possibility of “a vast, cross-partisan campaign” representing an  “an extraordinary shadow effort” hidden, against all odds, from public view by complicict journalists who make sure not to write stories about it and editors who spike any remaining stories that mention it until after the election.   In short I am suggesting that there is right now a massive “conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes”. That “shadow campaigners” are secretly engaged in work that has “touched every aspect of the election” despite the lack of any stories from complicit mainstream news desks.  So what has all this to do with the army of insufferable character-assassins clothed as skeptics who laugh and laugh and laugh at conspiracy theorists?  Well, the conspirators confessed to the above after the 2020 election cycle. That is, it is those actually running cover for conspiracies that most aggressively label and smear those trying to piece together the shadow efforts as “conspiracy theorists”. Imagine a world so perverse where *correctly* labeling an actual conspirator is turned into an act of reputational self destruction even though the conspirators will later confess and brag about the whole thing while taking open victory laps.   Genius no? Diabolical genius, is still genius.   It that sounds far fetched, pathological, improbable, and diabolical to you, welcome to the club. It does to me too. But THAT *IS* WHAT HAPPENED exactly back in 2020.   The conspirators still aren’t really telling the truth. But what they *admit* to while bragging and taking victory laps is jaw dropping all the same.  Don’t believe it? Read the confession:  https://time.com/5936036/secret"

Collin Rugg on X - "NEW: Elton John says Trump's "Rocket Man" nickname for Kim Jong Un was "brilliant" after an interviewer appeared to try to set him up with an opportunity to slam Trump.  The comments came during an interview with Variety.  Question: "You're not a supporter of Trump. He loves your music. How did it feel when he took the lyrics to Rocket Man and used it as a nickname for Kim Jon Un?"  John: "I laughed. I thought it was brilliant. I just thought 'Good on you, Donald.' I'm the rocket man."  "Donald's always been a fan of mine and he has been to my concerts many, many times, so, I mean, I've always been friendly towards him and I, I thank him for his support. I just thought it was hilarious. It made me laugh.""

i/o on X - "What a curse Trump has been for the GOP. As an incumbent he couldn't beat Biden while the ruins were still smoldering from the riots of 2020, his MAGA disciples turned the expected 2022 mid-term "red wave" of easy wins into a parade of embarrassing losses, he's garnered millions of the most low-info and low-IQ supporters in modern history (who in turn have cultivated some of the most retarded conspiracies to have ever landed in American discourse), and he just got clobbered in a debate by a mediocrity.  I wouldn't care if not for the fact that the left now firmly controls every institution that matters (except for SCOTUS), from the media to academia to the prestige corporations to the big-money foundations and so on, and these institutions seem intent on installing a permanent culture of complaint and racial spoils and social media control and censorship and bizarro gender ideas.  And about SCOTUS: This would be the one big silver lining to a Trump victory. Without SCOTUS the fight against wokeness and for meritocracy is almost certainly a losing proposition. A Trump victory means that conservatives have a chance to consolidate their majority and replace their older justices. But despite what seemed like the beginning of a shift in the cultural zeitgeist against wokeness in the fall of 2020, Trump couldn't seize the moment because he's too culturally illiterate and undisciplined and inarticulate and incompetent to do so."

Meme - Kamala's Wins @harris_wins: "BREAKING: New reporting shows that not one Fortune 100 CEO is supporting Donald Trump."
Democratic Party: "we like rich CEOs now?"
Democratic Party: "we like rich CEOs now"
Clearly, when you agree with all large companies, the media, academia and the whole liberal establishment, you are still part of the "Resistance"

Meme - "Democrat logic:
1970's: Dick Cheney is a war criminal!
1980's: Dick Cheney is a war criminal!
1990's: Dick Cheney is a war criminal!
2000's: Dick Cheney is a war criminal!
2010's: Dick Cheney is a war criminal!
2024: DICK CHENEY ENDORSED KAMALA HARRIS EAT IT TRUMP SUPPORTERS!
NPCs (most media companies): "DICK CHENEY IS NOW A GOOD GUY!"

Meme - "Liberals when:
Biden's decision making leads to the deaths of 13 service members *happy flower*
Trump visits the graves of those 13 service members *upset flower*"

Kamala Harris blasts Trump’s ‘crappy Jew’ interview as ex-president repeats antisemitic attacks - "Kamala Harris’s campaign has ripped into Donald Trump’s latest antisemitic statements after he agreed with a right-wing radio host that the vice president’s Jewish husband Doug Emhoff is a “crappy” and “horrible Jew.” Trump has tried to leverage division among Democrats over Israel’s war in Gaza by painting his political rivals as antisemitic, despite his own lengthy history of attacking Jewish Americans and conflating criticism of Israel’s attacks with anti-Jewish prejudice."
Weird. We keep being told that criticising Israel is not anti-Semitic. Yet criticising a Jew on the left is somehow anti-Semitic
The claim that Trump has a "lengthy history of attacking Jewish Americans" was linked to an article which did not mention Trump at all. Strange how it's anti-Semitic to conflate "criticism of Israel’s attacks with anti-Jewish prejudice". The slander is really galling, when you compare what Trump says with what he is alleged to have said - they repeat the "very fine people" lie when that has even been fact-checked by left wing sources

Meme - littleapostate @littleapostate: "I know the left is far too retarded to understand this, but there was a point in recent history where young people jokingly did things that the mentally ill do seriously now"
Mike Sington @MikeSington: "He’s weird. JD Vance poses with three high school girls in a boys restroom as they pretend to use the urinals."
Mike Sington got slaughtered in the replies

Joe Adam George: Canada still hasn't learned from the 9/11 attacks - "During his time as U.S. president, Donald Trump suspended travel to the United States by nationals from countries such as Iran, Venezuela, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, North Korea, Syria, and Yemen. Critics quickly accused him of being racist and anti-Muslim without recognizing that the ban was implemented on the advice of the Departments of State and Homeland Security due to the countries’ poor identity management practices, failure to share information with U.S. officials, and terrorist activity. Moreover, in future iterations of the ban, he removed some of the Muslim-majority countries like Chad and Iraq for falling in line, proving that the ban was not racially or religiously motivated."

Charlie Kirk on X - "Let's understand the sequence of events in towns like Springfield, OH so you can understand why Donald Trump is popular:
1) They closed the factories and shipped the jobs to China and Mexico.
2) They shipped the best young men and women off to fight and die in useless, no-win wars that made D.C. rich.
3) They made the basics of life unaffordable through massive government spending.
4) They filled the communities with opioids and fentanyl.
5) They flooded these communities with thousands of culturally alien foreigners to drive down wages and make their hometowns feel like a different country.
6) They call the victims "racist" if they complain.
Donald Trump is the only lifeline and the only voice these men and women have. And the "elites" wonder why he's more popular than ever and our movement to take back this country is stronger than ever."

America First Legal on X - "🚨BREAKING🚨  Soros-funded org, Color of Change, issued a statement characterizing “Bragg’s prosecution of Trump” as a “fruit of our labor.”   Color for Change President Rashad Robinson visited the White House 16 times and had 4 meetings with Biden and 4 meetings with Kamala."
Interfering with the legal system is good when it pushes the left wing agenda

Long Island Dems file complaint alleging Trump rally amounted to illegal contribution - "In a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, Long Island Democrats are demanding that former President Donald Trump and local Republicans reimburse taxpayers for security provided by local police, arguing that letting taxpayers foot the bill amounts to a large, illegal campaign contribution... Blakeman lashed out over the criticism from Democrats, saying in a statement, “Nassau County provides security and safety to all public figures and public events regardless of party affiliation. I guess Democrat leaders really do want Trump killed but it ain’t happening in Nassau County!""
When you get more and more desperate

Quirky poll that has only been wrong once in 40 years predicts 2024 - "The shop's various locations sell cookies with both candidates' faces on them - as well as a third way 'Cookie Party' option with a smiley face - and keep count in an attempt to predict who wins in November. So far, the store's history could be great news for Donald Trump, who has outsold Kamala Harris cookies by 2,953 to 2,134. It's always important to note potential third-party candidates playing spoiler, as the 'Cookie Party' treat has sold 397 'votes' so far. However, it should be noted that the only time they've gotten it wrong since the 1980s was the last election, when Trump outsold Joe Biden by a wide margin."

Scott Adams on X - "Trump is trying to "steal your democracy" by running for office.  Meanwhile, Democrats are. . .  Importing millions of fake asylum seekers to political battleground states to create one-party Democrat rule.  Pack the Supreme Court to remove it as a separate branch of government.  Remove the filibuster to neuter the minority party.  Censor and jail dissenters as "misinformation."  Control the entire news industry to keep the public uninformed via a mesh network of hoaxes, from Fine People Hoax to the J6 Insurrection Hoax.  Bankrupt and jail independent political voices.  Maintain a voting system that cannot be fully audited, by design.  Fake pollsters support any suspicious vote outcomes.  Take away your most useful firearms.  Weaponize assassins of political opponents via media messaging."

Meme - Jeremy Kauffman 🦔 @jeremykauffman: "My friend's neighbor put his house up for sale, so my friend put up MAGA flags.  He said he's not that pro-Trump, but MAGA repels all the worst people.  My friend is very smart."

Leading Report on X - "BREAKING: Former President Trump is favored to win the popular vote, marking the first time a Republican would win the popular vote since 2004, according to a Quinnipiac University poll."
The left wing cope if he wins the popular vote will be very interesting. But they already call his supporters deplorables, so

JD Vance is ‘Extremely Online’ — and that’s a good thing - "On July 19, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) started an Instagram Live stream with the caption “This messy moment.” Over the course of nearly an hour, she spoke extemporaneously about the drama within the Democratic Party over whether President Biden should remain the nominee. She promised to deliver the “straight truth” about how “s—’s hitting the fan,” and the “chaos” and “enormous peril” if Biden steps aside. The stream reached an audience of millions. It made national headlines. Of course, two days later, it would all be for naught. Biden announced he was quitting the race via a letter posted to his social media accounts... AOC is “Extremely Online,” as they say, but she has made it work because it’s not artificial. That stands in stark contrast to the months-long effort to make Vice President Kamala Harris “brat” — to clunkily attach her to a “cool” movement (based around pop star Charli XCX’s new album) that she would glom onto through artifice and cultural deception. Looking at Harris’s social media output, one doubts that she even knows the password to get into her accounts. It’s all meaningless and hollow — clumsily constructed campaign slogans and low-level social media marketer-speak. It is indistinguishable from what we would get if we asked ChatGPT to do the job. But it’s not surprising — Harris oozes inauthenticity. Witness how she stumbled last week through an overly-produced town hall with Oprah Winfrey, in which she happily took a backseat to the festivities. On the other side of the aisle, former President Donald Trump deserves a plaque in the Twitter Hall of Fame — one of the true champions when it comes to the craft and artistry of posting. He happily veers into the Extremely Online world while firing off missives like “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” which he actually posted on Truth Social, which he owns. This surely makes his advisors, and detractors, cringe. But it’s not far off from the type of content he has enjoyed wading into on social media for decades — like in 2012, when he felt very strongly that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart, his “Twilight” co-star. And then there’s Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who uses social media in a way no American political figure has before. Earlier this month, Vance responded to a brief comment on X about daycare from Hannah Anderson, a Christian writer, by delivering a point-by-point, 350-word policy dissertation in the unlimited-character posting format that Elon Musk brought to the platform. It was nuanced, thoughtful and purely authentic — and unmistakably written by JD himself. As journalist Zaid Jilani noted, “It’s hilarious how JD Vance dropped a whole policy manifesto in a Twitter reply and Kamala Harris can’t describe one policy in this level of detail in a televised interview.” A week later, it would be Jilani who got a lengthy X reply from Vance, about the Extremely Online issue of his and Trump’s claims about Haitian immigrants “eating the pets” in Springfield, Ohio. Vance began his response with “dude, I’ve always liked you, so maybe this should be a longer conversation…” He then laid out his take on how immigration hurts the working class more broadly. It was a fascinating exchange, and one that left Jilani, a longtime liberal who runs “The American Saga” Substack, with a respect for Vance, despite their disagreements. “Vance is very intellectually curious,” Jilani told me. “He reads stuff on the left and the right. He’s very online, and spends a lot of time in that theory and debate space…in a way most lawmakers don’t.”... “It’s refreshing to see somebody who’s involved in government and politics actually be that responsive,” Jilani said about the exchanges, not just with him but with others on X. “He put a lot of thought and effort into allaying someone’s concerns.” Both Vance and AOC are millennials, so, as Jilani notes, they “probably grew up writing social media posts” — unlike the elderly Biden, or Gen Xer Harris. But Vance’s online persona notably matches his in-real-life persona — which only adds to the perception that the online engagements are the “real” JD. Vance has answered questions from more than 100 interviewers in the time since he joined the GOP ticket — and that’s not including a vast number of casual opportunities for constituents to engage with him. Trump may be the “Poster President,” but “Vance has more of a sheen of intellectualism,” Jilani told me. And it’s quite obviously natural to who he is. This is a skillset that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) may have trouble with when he meets Vance on the debate stage on Tuesday. And no matter how it goes when the bright lights are on in the most traditional of political formats, Vance will likely be back on X soon for some more intellectual curiosity and thoughtful combat. Maybe being Extremely Online isn’t such a bad thing — especially when it’s juxtaposed with the stilted emptiness on the opposing ticket."

Links - 4th October 2024 (2 - Harris-Trump Debate)

Thread by @DrewHolden360 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🧵Thread🧵  The media, focused solely on Trump, haven’t seemed interested in fact checking Kamala Harris. And not for lack of opportunity.  So I decided to. Below are some false and misleading statements from last week’s debate.  I could only fit so many. But give it a read. ⤵️
For starters, I think this image typifies how the media treat the two candidates.  Dale’s sentiment here applied broadly to the rest of the media, who had eyes only for Trump. So let’s look at Harris, shall we?
1. She claimed that she was the only one on the debate stage with a plan for the middle class.  That’s the type of claim the media usually says “needs context,” as the Biden-Harris admin has failed the middle class, as even CNN acknowledged.
2. Harris claimed that Trump intends to implement Project 2025, the latest monster-under-the-bed for Democrats.  Beyond overhyping the details of the project itself, what Harris glossed over is that Trump has denounced the project, repeatedly saying he’s got no interest. Surely, fact checkers must’ve been climbing over one another to point out that this connection was bogus, right? That whatever else, Trump had clearly said he isn’t supportive of it?  Well, no. The media mostly ignored the claim, or counterclaimed that really he does support it. If you’re wondering why, I have an idea. Okay, back to the facts.
3. Harris claimed Trump would ban abortion nationwide.  Again, Trump has repeatedly said he won’t do this. He’s even taken heat for being too liberal on the issue from pro-life folks. But Harris keeps repeating it. And the media keeps ignoring it.
4. Harris also said that nowhere in the country are there full-term abortions.  This simply isn’t true. As @MaryMargOlohan explains in a recent piece and thread:
5. Harris said she was tough on immigration, and would hire “1,500 new border patrol agents”  Again, this is one of those claims that, if the political shoe were on the other foot, the press would say “needs context.”  Harris supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings. And Harris led immigration for Biden.  Much as she may deny it, I’ve got the receipts. She presided over the disastrous border policies that led to record crossings.    That those facts aren’t front and center in this conversation elides the point.
Okay, not a fact check, but Harris bragged about the endorsement of Dick Cheney.  Does anyone else think it’s really weird that the Dems are hyped that the guy who lied us into the Iraq war, whom Dems wanted tried for war crimes, supports their candidate?
6. Harris said that Trump would “weaponize” the legal powers of the federal government against his opponents.  Again, this “needs context.” The Biden-Harris admin are doing precisely this to Trump. Isn’t it a touch rich for Harris to try to call it out?
7. Harris claimed (repeatedly) that she had been “very clear” about her position on fracking.  Look at these screenshots, one from 2019, one from 2024, and tell me this is “clear.” I mean, the press have even celebrated how she’s pivoted on this topic!
8. Harris bragged about her and Biden’s investment in clean energy. But is that investment going anywhere?  As I fact checked for Biden’s DNC speech, all that money has led to a grand total of 7 new charging stations, a key climate focus.  Not 7,000. Not 700. Just 7. Nationwide.
9. Harris said “and some died” when describing law enforcement casualties at the Capitol on Jan 6.  Whatever else you think about what happened, law enforcement personal weren’t killed as a result. To imply otherwise is dishonest.
10. Harris repeated the “very fine people on both sides” lie about Charlottesville.  Even Snopes, no right wing rag, has explained that this isn’t real.
11. In a similar vein, Harris accused Trump of saying there’d be a “bloodbath” if he lost the election.  The phrase is pulled, without context, from Trump’s remarks about the auto industry.  To apply it instead to the country is bogus, and maliciously so.
12. Harris claimed that “there is not one member of the…military who is in active duty in a combat zone.”  Even NYT disputed this one. Since they let most of her claims go, I’ll give them the floor:
13. Harris claimed she has a “plan” (again) for bringing down the cost of living.  If so, why hasn’t she implemented it in three years as VP, while her admin has spiked the cost of living with inflation and other failed economic policies?  Lovely time for “context.”
Bonus: I can’t not include the most ridiculous aspect of the debate “fact checking”: claims that Trump was wrong to accuse Harris of supporting trans surgeries for detained illegal immigrants.  Problem was, she did.  H/t @guypbenson for this terribly awkward NYT reflection. And @time produced one of the most cringe-inducing corrections on record (h/t @TimMurtaugh).  Apparently @sbg1 didn’t get the memo from NYT.  And I can’t not include this “needs context” claim from NYT initially, the ‘context’ being that Trump was right, apparently.
Look, I get the protest that Trump isn’t a beacon of truth. But the American people deserve to know whether what his opponent has to say is actually accurate.  In many cases, it isn’t. And it’s impossible to ignore how all of this intersects with the media, who regularly repeat these bogus Harris claims as gospel truth.  That they can’t do their “fact checking” with any integrity says a lot about the mission such work actually serves: furthering Dem interests. As ever, there’s too much here to fit into a thread. Read the full write up at my newsletter, @Holden_Court"

Jack Poso 🇺🇸 on X - "The craziest part of ABC rigging the debate tonight was that less than 2 months ago a crazed leftist tried to blow Trump's head off on live TV and not one question was asked about it"

Pundits said Harris won the debate. Undecided voters weren’t so sure - "In interviews, these undecided voters acknowledged that Harris seemed more presidential than Trump. And they said she laid out a sweeping vision to fix some of the country’s most stubborn problems.  But they also said she did not seem much different from Biden, and they wanted change.  And most of all, what they wanted to hear — and didn’t — was the fine print."

Meme - CrossPolitic @CrossPolitic: "No states have legal late-term abortions?  From ABC News itself in June.   #Debate2024"
"Abortion Access in the United States Post-Dobbs Decision AS OF JUNE 21,2024. Near-total ban. Up to 6 weeks. Up to 12 weeks. Up to 15 weeks. Up to 18 weeks. Up to 20-26 weeks. Up to 3rdtrimester. No restrictions based on gestational duration
SOURCE STATE LAWS, GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE"
"Fact checking" means reality can be whatever left wingers want it to be

Elon Musk on X - "While I don’t think the debate hosts were fair to @realDonaldTrump , @KamalaHarris  exceeded most people’s expectations tonight.  That said, when it comes to getting things done, not just saying nice-sounding words, I strongly believe that Trump will do a far better job.   After all, if Kamala can do great things, why hasn’t she? Biden rarely shows up for work, so she’s basically in charge already.   The question comes down to this: do you want current trends to continue for 4 more years or do you want change?"

Why Harris’ debate remarks about US military in combat zones is misleading - ""And as of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world, first time this century."... Harris’ inclusion of "combat zone" in that statement is misleading and experts said it significantly underplays the broader landscape of active duty military service abroad.  The Internal Revenue Service tracks combat zones for tax purposes. The term generally refers to "hostile areas where (the) military may serve, (including) actual combat areas, direct combat support areas and qualified hazardous duty areas," the IRS said on a webpage last reviewed and updated Aug. 19.  Citing the Defense Department, the IRS said that as of August, recognized combat zones included the Sinai Peninsula, and the Afghanistan, Kosovo and Arabian Peninsula areas.  Melanie Sisson, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank, said some of these combat zone designations, such as the one over Kosovo, are "holdovers" from previous U.S. military operations. But the combat zones do include areas in which U.S. service members are now deployed, she said... As of June, the nonpartisan think tank Council on Foreign Relations said the U.S. had several thousand service members stationed across multiple foreign countries and on ships at sea in the Middle East. Many of these countries are in the currently recognized combat zones listed on the IRS website.  Specifically, the Defense Department and news outlets have reported that there are about 2,500 U.S. service members in Iraq and about 900 in Syria, fighting against Islamic State militants. Additionally, thousands of U.S. service members have been deployed to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war started in October 2023.   There have been multiple instances this year in which U.S. service members have been killed or injured while serving abroad.  In January, three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers were killed and at least 34 others were injured in a drone strike in Jordan. In February, two U.S. Navy SEALs drowned during an Iranian weapons seizure mission. In August, eight U.S. service members were wounded in a drone attack in Syria. That same month, another seven U.S. service members were injured in a raid targeting Islamic State militants.  "It is not accurate to suggest that U.S. service members are not, today, in harm’s way," Sisson said.   Peter Feaver, a Duke University political science professor who specializes in civil-military relations, echoed Sisson, saying many U.S. military personnel are engaged in operations "that put them at serious risk of attack by adversaries."  "For the men and women serving on these and many other missions, not to mention their families and loved ones, this feels very much like serving in a combat zone," Feaver said...   We rate Harris’ statement Mostly False."

Ian Miles Cheong on X - "Kamala Harris is lying about what Trump said at Charlottesville. She repeated the lie about how he said there were "fine people on both sides," cutting off and removing any sort of context to the statement he made. Even Snopes, a far-left publication, agrees with Trump."
Fact checks are only for those who threaten the left wing agenda

Donald Trump: ABC moderator Linsey Davis admits to fact-checking Trump due to concerns raised in CNN debate - " Davis defended her approach, saying that her team had intended to fact-check both candidates. However, she also acknowledged that she and Muir couldn’t catch every incorrect statement “There is a stereotype that I am acutely aware of that I can’t be unbiased,” Davis said, addressing the criticism."
What a coincidence that they couldn't materialise their "intentions"

Kyle Becker on X - "WHOA: CNN just HAMMERED ABC News for its biased presidential debate moderation.
ABC News constantly "fact checked" Trump and let Kamala off the hook for lying and dodging questions.
Even CNN sees the double standard. Wow."

Libs of TikTok on X - "There’s a police report, police call recording, and testimony from residents about Haitains stealing and eating animals in Ohio.  ABC “fact checked” Trump on this and let Kamala get away with the bloodbath hoax, fine people hoax, and lying about police dying on Jan 6, violent crime being down, and not wanting to take away your guns."

Meme - Alex Berenson @AlexBerenson: "A counter POV on Trump's debate performance, which I am starting to think might be at least partly valid - his insanity about eating pets pushed immigration to the top of news in a way it hasn't been for months"
"Every news outlet is talking about Haitian illegals. Anyone thinking that helps Kamala is nuts. Like it's such short sighted thinking. They see a yass queen boss bitch brat summer. The rest of America is alarmed by the number of Haitians. Haiti is also... not a nice place! Some might even call it a shit hole"

ABC whistleblower reportedly files SEC complaint amid Trump-Kamala debate rigging accusations - "the whistleblower alleges that ABC News, owned by Disney, provided Kamala Harris' campaign with the presidential debate questions prior to the September 10, 2024, debate against Donald Trump. The complaint, submitted on September 20, 2024, also accuses Disney and ABC News of colluding with the Harris campaign to influence the 2024 presidential election.  Loomer shared screenshots of two SEC submissions, indicating successful receipt of the complaints. The whistleblower, whose identity remains anonymous, claims to have evidence of these interactions between ABC News and the Harris campaign. The complaint mentions alleged discussions and documents suggesting Disney may have benefited monetarily or in other ways if Harris wins the election. The whistleblower also clarified that they do not support Donald Trump and have never voted for him. They voiced frustration over media bias on both sides of the political spectrum and alleged that the media's actions in this case are intended to sway the election in Harris' favor. The documents shared by Loomer contain personal information, and the whistleblower requested that this information remain confidential for their family's safety.  Shortly after the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, an affidavit from an anonymous ABC News whistleblower surfaced online, alleging close collaboration between the network and Harris' campaign.  Billionaire Bill Ackman reshared the affidavit, tagging Disney CEO Bob Iger, and raised concerns over its credibility, pointing out that certain details, like Harris' smaller podium, were mentioned in the affidavit before becoming public. ABC News, however, denied the claims, stating that Harris was not given any debate questions in advance, rejecting accusations made by right-wing figures, including Trump."

Ian Carroll on X - "As a former liberal-  Everyone already voting democrat just watched Kamala eviscerate Trump.  Everyone voting Trump just watched a three on one with no regard for facts.  State of play hasn’t changed.  Kamala is still the establishment pick backed by the entire neocon establishment.  Trump is still the outsider backed by everyone willing to stand up to the empire.  All I could think the whole time was damn I wish Bobby was on that stage."

@amuse on X - "FACT CHECK: Kamala Harris lied during the debate when she falsely claimed that Goldman Sacks suggested she would be better for the economy, according to the CEO."

Stephen L. Miller on X - "I said the reason for how the moderators behaved in the ABC debate was simply because they were not going to let happen to Kamala Harris, what happened to Joe Biden and here she is admitting it"
Who is Linsey Davis? ABC News anchor on the Trump-Harris debate - Los Angeles Times - "Davis, wearing pink glasses while speaking to The Times over breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, said the decision to attempt to correct the candidates was in response to the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Biden, whose poor performance led to his exit from the race.  “People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis said."

FischerKing on X - "The trouble with voting for Kamala Harris is that she’s fundamentally trivial and will not actually be in charge. Her debate performance beat expectations, but at root it was a series of well-rehearsed 90 second speeches someone else wrote. That is what she would be as POTUS. An actress doing the bidding of whoever is in charge now while Biden hangs out on the beach."

Western Lensman on X - "This clip may be the most egregious example of ABC debate moderators' direct actions/inactions to affect viewers’ perceptions of the information presented at the debate.  There are at least seven instances of this within a two-minute span.  This is not “bias."  It’s much worse.  This is direct, planned interference in the debate outcome. When moderators take on the role of “fact checkers" the inference is that the absence of a “fact check” confers validity to the non-fact-checked information.  When one side is repeatedly “fact checked,” while the other is not, that is a signal to the viewer that one side is not reliable and truthful, while the other side is.  The ABC moderators had their orders, and here you see those orders executed.  In this clip:
1) Trump says Pelosi is responsible for security at the Capitol. True. Muir intervenes on Kamala’s behalf by cutting him off with snarky retort, doesn’t acknowledging the validity of Trump’s statement, and immediately redirects to Kamala to set up her “answer" he knows is coming. This is direct action by Muir to affect the outcome of this exchange.
2) Kamala says she was at the Capitol on J6. She was there in the morning, but left to go to DNC HQ prior to the riot. Critical information is omitted. No fact-check.
3) Kamala says Trump incited a mob to attack the Capitol. False. Trump’s “peacefully and patriotically” comments are ignored. Trump is not charged with inciting violence. No fact check.
4) Kamala says that “some" police officers died on January 6. False. No fact check.
5) Kamala recites the Charlottesville “Fine People” hoax. This has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked. No fact check.
6) Kamala recites the “stand back and stand by” hoax. This is designed to infer that Trump was ordering a “militia” to act on later orders, when he was clearly asking for a cooling of tensions. No fact check.
7) Kamala recites the “bloodbath" hoax. Trump was talking about the automobile industry, not violence. No fact check.
To quote Megyn Kelly on the ABC moderators:  "They did exactly what their bosses wanted.""

AG on X - "Trump's claim is false, but the moderators are completely irresponsible for doing fact-checking against exclusively one side. Harris has made several false claims. It's the job of opponents to do fact-checking, not moderators."
Ryan Saavedra on X - "Went through the debate transcript and counted:
Trump was fact-checked 4 times
Harris was fact-checked 0 times
Muir/Davis pressed Trump 6 times for follow-ups
Muir/Davis pressed Harris 0 times for follow-ups
Trump made ≈14 false statements
Harris made ≈16 false statements"

Meme - The Seattle Times: "Trump falsely claimed during the presidential debate Tuesday that protesters took over a big portion Seattle during the Capitol Hill Organized Protest in 2020.
Fact check: Trump's claim that protesters 'took over a big p... From seattletimes.com"
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "The Seattle Times themselves have reported on the very real incident in June of 2020 where violent protestors forcefully took control of a portion of Seattle's Capitol Hill area that was dubbed CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) or CHOP (Capitol Hill Organized Protest)"

Cynical Publius on X - "OK, obviously the 3-on-1 approach backed Trump into a corner, it made him righteously angry (as we all were) and most MAGAs are upset at how this made him look bad while they propped up Harris. But please consider these questions:
1. For families who are economically struggling, who do you believe those struggling families now believe will speak for them? Trump or Harris?
2. Who will find Harris' smug, eye-rolling, nasty girl act appealing (other than green-haired childless cat ladies on SSRIs who already will vote Harris)? Don't underestimate what a turn-off her mannerism were.
3. America loves an underdog. Who did ABC's over-the-top propaganda make look like an underdog?
4. Who talked about policies to fix America's problems and who was the nasty sorority girl who snarkily mocked somebody she didn't like?
I don't think either candidate "won." I do think, however, that over time the take-aways from this debate will be (1) the media lies and Trump was righteously angry and (2) Harris is a character from that movie "Heathers.""

Clandestine on X - "We are witnessing a fascinating post-debate shift.  The ABC “fact-checks” were not true, which has inversely drawn MORE attention to these topics, aka the Streisand Effect.
-Springfield
-Late term abortion
-Gun confiscation
Public discourse on X has thoroughly debunked ABC’s “fact-checks” and brought video receipts for every single Kamala lie. As time goes on, public perception is falling more in favor of Trump, thanks to the reach and influence of citizen journalists on X, and other social media, circulating the video evidence that disproves Kamala/ABC’s lies from the debate.  This not only proves Kamala and ABC lied, but it’s further confirmation that the MSM are in bed with the DNC, and once again proves Trump was right about the media being corrupt and out to get him. The more the media attack him with such blatant bias, the more it validates Trump’s entire narrative, and discredits the Dems for weaponizing the media against Trump. They just proved a “Deep State” exists, while the entire world was watching.  Initially, I did not think this debate would have much impact on public perception or change the calculus in November, but as I observe the public’s response on social media, I think this performance from ABC woke up more people than I projected.  Normally the moderators are more subtle with their bias, but ABC made it so obvious, that some of the remaining normies are starting to notice. Glitches in the matrix."

Kyle Becker on X - "JUST IN: A former Clinton adviser is calling for a formal internal investigation into ABC News’ rigged presidential debate.  Mark Penn called Thursday for ABC to probe if there was some effort at "rigging the outcome of this debate."  Kamala Harris’ scripted answers calls into question whether she knew the questions in advance. There are unconfirmed reports an ABC News-employed whistleblower is willing to sign an affidavit that the network gave the Harris team advance notice of the questions.  The ABC News moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir “fact-checked” Trump at least five times, while never fact-checking Harris, despite her telling lies and half-truths that have been widely fact-checked as being false.  The debate moderator Linsey Davis had previously boasted on air about literally being Kamala Harris’ sorority sister. Harris is also good friends with  Dana Walden, who is Disney’s co-chairman and oversees ABC News. She is the boss of the debate moderators.  ABC News ran a three-on-one presidential debate and thereby committed election interference.  This is a huge scandal. ABC News must be investigated!"

Meme - "Kamala during debate: We're anybody's guns away."
Kamala 3 days later: Vice President Kamala Harris @VP: "Congress must renew the assault weapons ban."

Time magazine issues correction for calling claim Harris supported funding migrant sex changes 'false' - "Time magazine was forced to correct its coverage of the ABC News Presidential Debate after implying former President Trump’s statement that Vice President Kamala Harris supported free gender-transition treatment for detained migrants was "false."... "The original version of this story mischaracterized as false Donald Trump's statement accusing Kamala Harris of supporting ‘transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison.’ As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris filled out a questionnaire saying she supported taxpayer-funded gender transition treatment for detained immigrants," a correction read. Many other far-left reporters also considered it too absurd to be true, implying Trump made the concept up during the debate.  "’She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens who are in prison’ is the WILDEST thing I've ever heard in any debate. EVER," former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill wrote.  The New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser wrote, "Trump made history last night for sure. Who will ever forget him ranting on stage about immigrants eating people's dogs? Or insisting that the Vice President 'wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in jail'?"  She also mocked the line in her piece about the debate Wednesday.  "His line about how the Vice-President ‘wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison’ was pretty memorable, too. What the hell was he talking about? No one knows, which was, of course, exactly Harris’s point," Glasser wrote.  The Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Senior joked, "’Transgender operations on illegal aliens’ is really unfair to those Americans playing drinking games."  "’Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens who are in prison.’ That’s verbatim," The Insider editor Michael Weiss reported.  The Daily Beast also listed Trump’s quote as one of the "best memes" of the night without mentioning Harris’ past support. CNN brought Harris’ position back into the spotlight Monday night after senior editor Andrew Kaczynski reported to host Erin Burnett about the recently uncovered 2019 ACLU candidate questionnaire featuring Harris' policy position. "It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition. That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates," Harris pledged. She continued, "I support policies ensuring that federal prisoners and detainees are able to obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained. Transition treatment is a medical necessity, and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment." Burnett was stunned by Harris’ answer... She later remarked, "I mean these are things that, you know, it would be hard to think that you would come up with taxpayer-funding gender transitions for detained migrants, and yet, as you say, written and verbally.""

Geiger Capital on X - "This is incredible… CNN’s Erin Burnett literally in shock about what Kamala Harris supported. “Taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained illegal migrants? She actually said she supported that??”"

Debunking Urbanist Delusions

I got inspired to do a fuller debunking of Not Just Bikes' video, I GOT A NEW TRUCK!! (AND A MILLION SUBSCRIBERS!) - YouTube, which I had briefly critiqued last year.

Besides the usual general urbanist myths, he also was talking rubbish about the areas he was filming in:

There's a lot to unpack here, especially because he was lying about what he was filming.

Ignoring the stupid jibes at pickup trucks and conservatives (given that he throws the "fascist" label around willy-nilly and blocks lots of people, you can see what we have here) and just dealing with this claims about the built environment:

1) He claims that if you get your stuff from a quick service restaurant via the drivethru it takes a long time. But usually I find choosing pickup takes longer than using drivethru. And when you order stuff for pickup, they often don't call your number/name, and sometimes they forget your order.

On the other hand, when you are at the drivethru there's active pressure on the service staff to clear you because there're cars behind you, and people get their stuff one by one at the pickup counter, so they need to give you something.

2) He insinuates that you need to use the waiting lot to get your stuff when you go via the drivethru. This rarely happens to me. It happened a bit more during covid but I can't remember the last time it's happened to me.

3) He mocks low property taxes and links them to lousy roads. But a 2013 study found that drivers paid for 70-90% of road costs "through fuel taxes, vehicle registration fees and tolls".

That aside, whenever you hear urbanists/left wingers bitch about how other people are paying too little property tax, note that to make this claim they always look at property tax *rates*. Yet, a low property tax rate doesn't mean you have low property tax, since property tax is paid based on the value of your house. If the property tax rate is low but the value of the house is high, you still end up paying relatively high property tax.

In 2023, Zoocasa released a data compilation of property tax rates, house values and property taxes on average house values for 32 regions in the Greater Toronto Area. Unfortunately, this was a graphic rather than more tractable data, so I had to convert this into a spreadsheet.

When you look at the dollar value of property taxes paid, you can see that the rank of the non-Toronto municipalities for property taxes paid falls and they no longer are the municipalities with the lowest property taxes.

Ironically, the roads in the York region (where he filmed much of this video) are actually better than in Toronto, so he's not even accurate in his claim that suburbs have bad roads. Consistently, the roads consistently voted the worst in Ontario are mostly in Toronto and Hamilton, which are 2 of the 3 densest population centres in the province.

He also deceptively edits the video.

At 5:03 where he complains about roads, he seems to be entering Highway 404 at Highway 7, which is between Richmond Hill and Markham.

But at 5:06, where he complains about being stuck in traffic, he's on the 404 near Finch & Sheppard, he's actually in Toronto itself, not the suburbs.

Then he claims he is "25 minutes to the grocery store, 35 minutes to work". I can't comment on the commute to work, because that would require assumptions about workplaces (but I will note that not everyone works in the downtown of a big city, and one reason people move to small towns is for a shorter commute), but from around where he "lives" (see below), he is only 5 mins from the grocery store (Food Basics).

As an aside, you often hear people bitch that property taxes in Toronto are "too low". But these are the same people who advocate city living because it's more efficient to service cities as more taxpayers share infrastructure. In other words, if property taxes in big, dense cities are "low", that's a feature, not a bug.

4) He makes a stupid remark about sitting on "supple red leather seats" despite traffic being "pretty bad". But given that he praises the Netherlands at the end of the video (and in his other videos) and that he spends most of his time bashing the USA, it is super ironic that the average commute in the Netherlands is 34.5 minutes but 26.7 minutes in the US.

5) Naturally, he alludes to one of urbanists' favourite myths - that induced demand means that expanding roads is pointless since traffic will just increase to fill the road.

In reality, studies which produced this result had poor methodology, since there were no/poor controls (if the roads had not been expanded, traffic would've gotten worse anyway). In reality, studies find the coefficient of induced demand to range from 0 to 0.25, i.e. increasing road capacity by 10% will cause traffic to increase by 0-2.5%.

In other words, expanding roads does indeed improve traffic.

6) He pretends to diss bike lanes, but in reality, bike lanes can worsen congestion. If no one uses a bike lane (on many of the roads he films on, I never see anyone riding a bike), all this congestion is absolutely for nothing, but even if a few cyclists do use them, net welfare is not necessarily higher.

For example, one study found that there was 1 cyclist for every 400 vehicles. So even on a naive calculation, bike lanes taking up more than 0.25% of road space would be a waste. But when you consider that bicycles can be ridden on the open road and don't need a bike lane, bike lanes become even more inefficient (bike lanes can only be used for cycling, whereas a normal road can accommodate both a motorised vehicle and a bicycle).

Ironically, multiple studies find that bike lanes actually reduce cyclist safety, so the cycling lobby's ego is actually harming cyclists.

7) He then goes "home", which he calls "semi-rural".

Yet, the area which serves as his "home" is somewhere around Woodspring Avenue in Newmarket. Newmarket is a town and in 2021, it had a population of 87,942. It is also in the Greater Toronto Area, and the mayor thinks it may be the only 15 minute town in Ontario, or even Canada. As such, calling it "semi-rural" is just fake news.

8) He then makes snide remarks about homeowners' associations (HOAs) and being fined for his front door being the wrong colour. Urbanists like to promote dense living, which is often in high- or medium-rise apartments. However, ironically, the restrictions through bylaws when you live in a condo are usually much stricter than those in a HOA.

9) He then claims he needs to turn rooms of his house into a gym, a bar, a library, a church and mini-golf, because there're none of these nearby. In reality, all of these are near where he's filming. From the intersection of Woodspring Avenue and Ford Wilson Boulevard (where he's at at 7:56), you're 5 mins drive from a gym (GoodLife Fitness Newmarket in York Town Square) or a bar (St. Louis Bar & Grill), 8 mins drive from the Newmarket Public Library, 4 mins drive from a church (Crosslands Church) and 8 mins drive from mini-golf (Cardinal's Northern Adventure Mini Putt).

You are also 19 minutes *walk* away from Upper Canada Mall, which is the 27th largest shopping centre in Canada and the 12th largest in Ontario.

10) Lastly, he makes some comment about his neighbor's leaf blower being loud, which is ironic, because cities are louder than suburban areas, and much louder than rural ones.

Sadly, feel-good myths bashing the suburbs play well to a large crowd, so such videos continue to be popular.