First Looks category archive

Honest to Betsy, you can’t make this stuff up.

Off to drink liberally.

At Above the Law, Joe Patrice decodes de code:

. . . Originalism is brilliant public relations, invoking the visceral sense that “original” means “authentic” to cover a lot of nonsense.

Follow the link for Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, Exhibit D . . . .

Aside:

I would not be surprised if the “originalists” are awaiting breathlessly to re-implement the 3/5ths clause, with all that it entails.

After all, racism is their driving force.

The theme to the BBC radio series of Lord Peter Wimsey murder mysteries.

What can I say? I’m a mystery buff. I’m currently working my through the original Ellery Queens. (I must say, in the early stories, Ellery was rather a supercilious jerk.)

Good news is ipso facto no news.

And, when something goes viral enough, it becomes a pestilence.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

Stanford’s Sam Wineburg and Nadav Ziv point out that the clock is TikToking.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

As Mark Twain once pointed out, “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

A long-time Idaho Republican is less than optimistic about the direction his state party has taken.

Politeness takes practice.

Once again, we see that “responsible gun owner” is an oxymoron.

Kimberley A, Johnson’s interview of Keri Blakinger, particularly the second half, in which Blakinger describes her experiences in prison.

Mark Hermann wonders why the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, both owned by Rupert Murdoch, decided to pirouette about Donald Trump almost simultaneously. A snippet:

So I knew that Trump did nothing to stop the violence during his three hours of silence on January 6. And Mitch McConnell knew it. And Kevin McCarthy knew it. And any sentient human being knew it.

But the editors at the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post somehow didn’t know it?

Why did it take the Journal and the Post 18 months to be shocked — shocked! — to learn that the Capitol Building was ransacked on January 6 and that the president did nothing for three hours to stop it?

Aside:

I suspect it’s to give Murdoch some cover as his primary outlet, Fox News, continues to shamelessly pimp for Trump and Trumpettes in prime time. But I’ve always been a touch on the cynical side.

David discusses the disassociation between Republican talking points and reality, focusing on Florida Senator Rick Scott’s claim that “we need to get Americans back to work” when unemployment is at the lowest level in four decades.

No, not that eagle. This eagle.

Off to drink liberally.

At the Tuscon Daily Star, Paul McCreary sees similarities. A snippet:

(Indiana University basketball coach Bobby–ed.) Knight was often physically and verbally aggressive. His behaviors were praised by many on his side. They considered Knight a hero because he won games. He was a bully, but he was their bully. It is that way with Donald Trump.

(Warning: Short commercial at the end.)

Maurice T. Cunningham looks at the “grass roots’ of the right-wing “Moms for Liberty” and finds that those roots are anything but what they are claimed to be. A snippet:

I pay attention when a new “parents” or “moms” group bursts upon the education/politics scene. I exposed the millions in dark money behind Families for Excellent Schools during a 2016 charter schools ballot question campaign in Massachusetts. New groups like Moms for Liberty are just as transparently Astroturf — a group that claims to be grassroots but is actually artificial turf.

Follow the link for the evidence.