Dr. X's Free Associations

Trump's Former Lawyer: No Reasonable Person Would Believe I Was Truthful

Sidney Powell, the outspoken attorney from Donald Trump's campaign legal team, moved to dismiss Dominion Voting System's defamation lawsuit against her. Powell relentlessly pushed Trump Big Lie, contending that Dominion rigged the election for Biden. Now she wants the defamation suit dismissed because her claims of election riggings were so outlandish "no reasonable person" would believe them.

So is she accusing a large majority of Republican voters of being unreasonable people?

 

Below, Ms. Powell sounds deadly serious when she says:

"We will not be intimidated...We are going to clean this mess up now. President Trump won by a landslide. We are going to prove it. And we are going to reclaim the United States of America for the people who vote for freedom."—Sidney Powell pic.twitter.com/8KCEOGuL7w

— GOP (@GOP) November 19, 2020

And in a filing with The United States Supreme Court, Powell and fellow campaign representatives made the same false claim:

Dominion was one of the principal means by which the 2020 presidential election was stolen by domestic and foreign fraudsters, enabled by the reckless disregard of Respondents in these cases.

So in a SCOTUS filing, Powell made a claim that she now calls so outlandish that no reasonable person would believe it.

Can The Teenage Years Still Be A Time Of Mistakes That Are Forgiven?

Graeme Wood, himself an Asian-American journalist, writes about the Alexi McCammond - Teen Vogue affair:

I suppose a magazine aimed at teens and preteens would strain to acknowledge what every adult knows, which is that the entire point of being a teenager is to make and correct the most mortifying errors of your life. “The sooner you make your first five thousand mistakes,” the artist Kimon Nicolaїdes once wrote, “the sooner you will be able to correct them.” Then, at some vague point when the first digit of your age is no longer a 1, you experience a cleansing bonfire of your sins, and your adult permanent record begins.

If Teen Vogue, even in its current woke incarnation, does not exist to celebrate this period of still-expungeable error, then it may as well be calling for the abolition of the teenage years altogether. Its staff, as well as many of its advertisers, evidently think its readers deserve no bonfire, no sin jubilee, and should be hounded eternally for their dumbest and most bigoted utterances. This suggests an intriguing editorial mix of beauty tips, celebrity news, and vengeance.

"Russian disinformation works because Americans allow it to work"

Anne Applebaum writes about the National Intelligence Council's assessment of foreign threats to the 2020 election. The report particularly emphasizes the success of Russian efforts to undermine the institutional framework of American democracy.

As a result, supplying an edited audiotape or a piece of false evidence to one of the bottom-feeders of the information ecosystem is incredibly easy; after that, others will ensure that it rises up the food chain. Russian disinformation doesn’t succeed thanks to the genius of Russians; it succeeds thanks to the sharp partisanship of Americans. Russian disinformation works because Americans allow it to work—and because those same Americans don’t care anymore about the harm they do to their country.

Large segments of the news ecosystem are eager if unwitting Russian assets because Russian disinformation sensationally comports with their partisan views. But I'd go further to say that large swathes of America have effectively become Russian assets, blinded by partisanship and no longer able to reject even the most thoroughly discredited disinformation seeded by Russian agents and aggressively promoted by fringe agitators in social media as well as the crackpot denizens of right-wing media.

Wearing A Mask While Driving Alone

Wearing a mask when you’re driving alone is like wearing a condom in bed by yourself

— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) March 19, 2021

Some people forget to take their masks off after they get back in their car. I do that sometimes. At other times, I put the mask on before arriving at my destination so I don't forget to put it on before exiting my car which is something I've done a few times.

But the chief reason I might wear a mask while driving alone is that I'm driving between two or three locations and, at each, I'm required to wear a mask. For example, going from the grocer to the pharmacy to the cleaners. Taking off and re-donning the mask between stops risks contamination of the clean side of the mask. If my tasks are relatively quick, rather than use a new mask, I leave it on between stops.

My reasoning might be incomprehensible to someone who would take off a condom after sex, and try to reuse it a second time.

Of course, the real reason Sorbo is posting this is that he's an anti-masker. Any opportunity to ridicule someone wearing a mask is an opportunity he won't pass up. I also suspect that people who are opposed to masking might not even try to figure out why someone is wearing a mask while driving alone in their car.

Reader Photos

Thanks to reader, A Bear.

"Had some nice weather and it coincided with the herring spawn, so I took lots of photos over a couple of days of the commercial herring fishery. The turquoise tint in the water is caused by large schools of male herring releasing their milt (sperm). The females swim into the milt clouds and stick their eggs to the rocks and seaweed where they are fertilized... It is feeling like spring."

A Polite Society Is...

An armed society is a polite society

— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) March 16, 2021

The US has 120 guns in civilian hands per 100 residents.

Japan has less than 1 gun in civilian hands per 300 residents.

Maybe politeness is more of a cultural thing than it is a gun thing.

The only shooting is junkies shooting heroin

Lauren Boebert is a liar, 900th edition.

So, on the House floor, Lauren Boebert just argued against gun background checks by telling a story about a man being beaten to death outside her restaurant in CO. But the story is a lie. The man actually died of a drug overdose: https://t.co/fjIRGZkqDP pic.twitter.com/UZn9swvdlQ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 10, 2021

Shooters Grill, where employees should carry Narcan in instead of Glocks.

Moral Foundations of Politics

Here's a great lecture series by Yale political scientist Ian Shapiro.

One year ago...

February 28, 2020:

Trump: "Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus, you know that right? Coronavirus, they’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say, “How’s President Trump doing?” They go, “Oh, not good, not good.” They have no clue. They don’t have any clue."

Just days before that, Trump revealed to Bob Woodward that the virus was far worse than he was publicly admitting. That's on tape.

Why this matters now:

Several governors are lifting COVID safety restrictions prematurely. I understand that we can argue about the costs and benefits of opening businesses, but it is troubling that they're lifting mask requirements, which seems a reckless, unnecessary move. It is less a sober reflection of current public health circumstances than it is a politically symbolic concession to a lethal tribal rebellion.

If he isn't 100% responsible, Trump bears significant responsibility for fostering a climate of distrust of public health officials and public health precautions. From anti-masking to anti-social distancing, to anti-vaccine attitudes, there can be no doubt that Trump contributed, more than anyone else, to turning a public health matter into a culture war fight.

Now, we've learned that Trump and Melania were vaccinated secretly in January. Why would he do that secretly, at a time when public health officials are trying to persuade the public that mass vaccination is vital?

That's a rhetorical question.

Trump getting vaccinated did not fit right-wing culture war narratives that downplay the virus while fostering rebellion against precautions because it's all a Democratic hoax.

Additional observations from the non-Trumpist right:

An excellent observation by @BillKristol. There are costs/benefits to re-opening the economy. But what's the arguments against wearing *masks* in a pandemic? There is none. It's a lethal form of "virtue signaling." Hence the point about nihilism. https://t.co/Qg7np3S5Xv

— Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner) March 5, 2021

Bill is right. Anti-masking further exposed the darkness in parts of the right. It’s such a small thing to show love of neighbor, but that small thing was and is too much for all too many who claim to be pro-life. https://t.co/uv78PRfSId

— David French (@DavidAFrench) March 5, 2021

And here's an example of the confident foolery Trump's culture war tribalization of public health yields in the midst of public health crisis:

David, you can’t possibly be this stupid, so I presume you are just that much of a virtue-signaling fraud.

The data/science/logic prove that MASKS DO NOT WORK against a virus, & having the government mandate their use is an affront to everything for which this nation once stood.

— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) March 5, 2021

Except they simply don’t work against a virus pic.twitter.com/lzSN2YsNCE

— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) March 5, 2021

We get a few cherry-picked pre-COVID-19 studies with no examination of the details or the limits of the inferences.

A more recent review (January 2021) of research on the efficacy of mask-wearing to prevent transmission of COVID-19 finds that:

The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected respiratory particles in both laboratory and clinical contexts. Public mask wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high.

Read the whole thing here.

The GOP Reduced To Rank Clownery

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson forced Senate clerks to read the rescue bill out loud to an empty chamber until the wee hours of the morning while he played with his phone. The clerks read for 10 hours and 43 minutes from 3:21 pm Thursday until 2:40 am Friday.

What exactly did Ron Johnson accomplish with this stunt, other than fatiguing hardworking Americans who do his grunt work?

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is now the only senator left in the chamber after he forced Senate clerks to read aloud the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill — and he’s not even listening. He’s mostly on his phone.

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) March 4, 2021

Cancel Culture Hypocrisy

After a few books featuring fictional characters were withdrawn from future publication by the author's estate, Republicans cried for days about cancel culture. Now, Trump and his supporters tell Fox News to cancel Karl Rove--a real human being--because he said something that hurt Donald Trump's feelings.

Vaccinated

I received my second Moderna dose on Sunday. I felt lousy on Sunday night and on and off through Monday, but it was well worth the temporary discomfort in exchange for the relative peace of mind. I'll continue to mask in sessions beyond the 7-14 days until achieving maximum immunity while we wait to see how concerns about virus mutations play out. Overall, though, I feel a great deal of relief in knowing that I am going to be well protected from the worst depredations of COVID while also posing little to no further risk to others.

Trump's soon to be revealed health care plan

🚨BREAKING: Sources say Trump to
announce the details of his new
healthcare plan this upcoming
Sunday at CPAC.

— TG (@TG22110) February 26, 2021

This tweet is, of course, a joke.

Beginning in 2016 and continuing right up to the 2020 election, Trump said his better and cheaper health care plan would be announced within weeks. Yet neither he nor his administration ever came up with this miracle plan.

I'd be flabbergasted when Trump supporters say, "name one lie Trump has ever told," if I didn't know the depth of the human capacity to lie to oneself, even with the truth staring one straight in the face.

Trump is a brazen liar who has learned that lying doesn't matter if he assumes the role of Big Daddy in the psyches of those who, through personality organization or circumstance, crave a chest-beating, bellowing father who will save them from enemies, real or imagined.

One of Marjorie Taylor Greene's Suporters And Closest Friends: We were there January 6th. Not Antifa

Claiming that the Capitol attackers were anyone but Trump supporters is ludicrous given the identities of those arrested and the events we saw with our own eyes that day.

Andrew kazczynski and Em Steck:

In fact, Anthony Aguero, a conservative livestreamer, activist and associate of Greene, said on video following the January 6 assault on the Capitol that he had been among those who entered and attacked those who falsely claimed it was done by "Antifa."

"We were all there. It was not Antifa and it was not BLM. It was Trump supporters that did that yesterday. I'm the first to admit it, being one myself," said Aguero in a video posted on January 7.

"I walked amongst all those people," he added, later defending entering the Capitol.

Greene and Aguero have worked closely together over the years on causes such as immigration and the border wall and have attended pro-Trump rallies together. In many since-deleted videos saved by CNN's KFile, Greene repeatedly calls Aguero "amazing" and a "friend." On social media, Aguero has called Greene "one of my closest friends."

"A message was sent," Aguero said in the video streamed live on January 6 while walking away from the Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue following the riot. "These politicians are not going to continue to get away with the abuse as they've been doing. We will continue to press on these individuals."

Addressing the rioters that day, Donald Trump himself said: "You have to go home now...We love you." This isn't something he would say to Antifa.

Clearly, Trump knew that the rioters were his supporters because he called them to DC that day saying "It's going to be wild." They were at his rally. He told them if they didn't "fight like hell," they're "not going to have a country anymore," and he instructed them to walk to the Capitol to "stop the steal." He even lied and told them that he'd be with them.

In a bit of good news, the man who was recorded attacking Capitol police officers with a pipe and attempting to gouge out the eye of an officer has turned himself to authorities.

ARRESTED: Thomas Webster AKA #EyeGouger is a retired NYPD Cop accused of attacking Capitol Police with a pipe and gouging out their eyes. Webster's attorney, James Monroe, declined to comment Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/cwnADdlaqn

— Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) February 23, 2021

The authoritarian epistemology: Everything is true, and nothing is true

Fox News is still dumping disinformation on its viewers.

Tucker Carlson: "We spent all day trying to locate the famous QAnon, which in the end we learned is not even a website. If it's out there, we could not find it" pic.twitter.com/mLESlsxURO

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) February 24, 2021