October 17, 2017

Lawrence Lessig tells us the 5-step procedure for getting Hillary to be President, and none of the steps are "????"

But you probably already know what these steps are. They're just so unlikely that they're obviously not going to happen:
If number 1: If Trump is definitively found to have colluded directly with Russia, he would be forced to resign or be impeached.

If number 2: If Trump is removed, Vice President Mike Pence would become president.

If number 3: If Pence becomes president, he should resign too, given that he benefited from the same help from Mother Russia.

If number 4: If Pence resigns before appointing a vice president, Ryan would become president.

If number 5: If Ryan becomes president, he should do the right thing and choose Clinton for vice president. Then he should resign.
I'm quoting the paraphrasing at Newsweek, by Julia Glum. I don't like the wording at #1, "If Trump is definitively found to have colluded directly with Russia...." That makes it sound as though he's already been found to have colluded with Russia (just not "definitively" or "directly").

And I hate the jocose use of the term "Mother Russia." I know that female personification of the country exists in Russian history — originally in an anti-Bolshevik context...



Glum's use of the phrase feels like some stray sexist taunting — as if Trump and Pence are mama's boys.

Here's the Lessig original, at Medium. It doesn't have the wording that bothers me. Step 1 is:
What if there were a conspiracy?

This “if” has got to be specified very precisely. The question is not whether Trump obstructed justice, or is guilty of tax evasion, or has violated the Emoluments Clause or done any other act justifying impeachment. The “if” here is quite specific: It relates explicitly to the validity of the election. The question I’m asking here is what should happen if Trump conspired with a foreign government to get elected?
Lessig doesn't even say "colluded with." He says "conspired with." Step 1 is a huge "if," and Lessig isn't implying (as I read this) that we're already part of the way toward finding a conspiracy. I'd say that so much time and effort have been put into looking for collusion/conspiracy that we're pretty far along toward saying definitively that there wasn't one.

But I think something else is missing here, something that is key toward establishing points #3 and #5. Was the participation of Russia what caused Hillary Clinton to fall as short as she did in the Electoral College? If only Trump conspired, but Trump won because of his open message to the voters and Hillary Clinton's shortcomings, then we're missing a causation element that would be needed to reject Pence and Ryan and to persuade Ryan that the "right thing" would be to give the presidency to Hillary. Lessig says:
By hypothesis, we’re assuming the office was effectively stolen from the legitimate winner by a criminal and treasonous act of the (previous) leader of Ryan’s own party.
No. Even if we knew that Trump conspired with Russia to get Russia to do some things like spread disinformation in social media, we wouldn't know that without that, Hillary would have won.

I don't think the things Russia is said to have done were enough to shift the Electoral College victory from Hillary to Trump. So, let's say Step 1 is satisfied. Okay: Impeach Trump. But unless you can establish that without that conspiracy, the people would have elected Hillary, you haven't shown why the people aren't entitled to have Pence as their President, and you haven't shown why Ryan would step down and why he would bring in the defeated candidate from the other party.

I know it's hard for Lessig and many others to believe that the people preferred Trump — the man and his policies — to Hillary Clinton — the woman and her policies — but that's what I think happened, and it would be very hard to make me believe that something the Russians did tipped that preference.

Professor Lessig, you need a causation element. 

197 comments:

Sydney said...

That is certainly some crazy there.

madAsHell said...

Law professor hasn't been the same since Althouse retired!

Don't forget to use the Amazon portal!!

gilbar said...

Step 1 underpants
Step 3 PROFIT!

tim in vermont said...

They have moved from denial to bargaining, that's progress!

Professional lady said...

Will the delusion ever cease? It's just really getting tiresome. Just get over it and accept reality.

rhhardin said...

The thing for the constitutional left to worry about is 12 years of Trump.

Nonapod said...

If Ryan becomes president, he should do the right thing and choose Clinton for vice president

When did any Clinton fan ever care about doing the "right thing"? The "right thing" would be for Hillary Clinton to go to jail.

Kevin said...

Professor Lessig, you need a causation element.

And a Valium.

Danno said...

I would advocate that Paul Ryan go with Kid Rock to make Mr. Lessig start convulsing or worse.

PB said...

Lessig, among others, needs clinical help. Fast.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Do you love Hillary, Lessig? Do you want what's best for her? STOP ENCOURAGING THIS NONSENSE. You're contributing to her continued ill mental and emotional health.

Gahrie said...

Professor Lessig, you need a causation element.

The causation is the theft of the presidency from Hillary.

Lyssa said...

I'd like to Mr. Lessig's advice for how to get a million dollars.

Step One: Ask someone who doesn't like you to give you a million dollars.

Step Two: Receive a million dollars from that person.

tcrosse said...

This same process could be used to install anybody at all as President, so why Hillary ? So she can deliver on the influence she peddled ?

Tommy Duncan said...

And then a miracle occurs...

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Professor Lessig, you need intensive psychiatric treatment, in an in-patient setting. a causation element.

FIFY.

Lyssa said...

Actually, Lessig's idea doesn't even involve asking. Step one and done should be "person who actively dislikes you gives you a million dollars."

JAORE said...

"If Ryan becomes president, he should do the right thing and choose Clinton for vice president"

El Predicto sez:
Thousands of feminists would seek lessons on "How to be a sniper in 30 days or less".

rehajm said...

Castro's method had fewer steps. It's really what you want anyways...

pacwest said...

Step 1: Let's get Hillary put where she belongs, in the slammer for life, so we don't have to keep putting up with this idiocy.

Fernandinande said...

"What fits into Mother Russia?"

stevew said...

These people are delusional. No, I think insane is better given they put this in print.

-sw

PJ said...

As long as Lessig is depending on Republican leaders to do "the right thing," why not leave Ryan out of it and depend on Pence to make HRC the VP? Hell, Ryan might feel obliged to appoint Mitt Romney, a former Hitler.

JAORE said...

El Predicto knows the fantasy step 5 includes Ryan resigning.... but you just can't trust those radical righties.

The Vault Dweller said...

Mr. Lessig's appeal to morality might have greater effect had Hillary stepped down during the primary and asked the democrats to put in Bernie Sanders after her illegal mishandling of sensitive government documents and information came to light.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Look, assuming there were Russians in the mix (and I'm coming to believe that there were), they almost certainly weren't there to help Trump; they were there specifically to hurt HRC.

That Lessig assumes that Pence as well as Trump benefited from this is already too far. Pence wasn't colluding/conspiring. He's innocent. Assuming Trump is impeached (which I don't for a moment believe), he's President.

But suppose he steps down. Why is Ryan to give up the Presidency? Why would he?

I agree with Ann. This is even more fantastical a scenario than the 25th Amendment one.

Bob Boyd said...

Professor Lessig, you need a Rest Cure.

"Influential American neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell developed the rest cure in the late 1800s for the treatment of hysteria, neurasthenia and other nervous illnesses.
The rest cure usually lasted six to eight weeks. It involved isolation from friends and family. It also enforced bed rest, and nearly constant feeding on a fatty, milk-based diet. Patients were force-fed if necessary - effectively reduced to the dependency of an infant. Nurses cleaned and fed them, and turned them over in bed. Doctors used massage and electrotherapy to maintain muscle tone. Patients were sometimes prohibited from talking, reading, writing and even sewing.
Mitchell believed the point of the rest cure was physical and moral. It boosted the patient’s weight and increased blood supply. It also removed the patient from a potentially toxic social atmosphere at home. However, the implicit point was the neurologist breaking his patient’s will." -

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I know it's hard for Lessig and many others to believe that the people preferred Trump — the man and his policies — to Hillary Clinton — the woman and her policies

These people are delusional. Why would you even waste your time thinking up such a scenario? As I have said before, the reason that such long odds were being given by the MSM on Trump's chances to win the election by the various MSM outlets was because they just couldn't conceive of living in a universe where Trump was president.

Trump is an affront to the balance of the universe. The arc of history is that Hillary follows Obama and the two of them, an African-American and a woman, usher in a new era of peace and abundance and justice. Oh, and those nasty white men (that don't think correctly) are put in their place!

Freeman Hunt said...

"I'd like to Mr. Lessig's advice for how to get a million dollars.

"Step One: Ask someone who doesn't like you to give you a million dollars.

"Step Two: Receive a million dollars from that person."

Ha!

rehajm said...

The causation is the theft of the presidency from Hillary.

Examining the short and long term psychological effects of prolonged exposure to the lie of her 'inevitability' is worth a dissertation or two.

chickelit said...

Lessig's reasoning -- which seems typical for today's Dem -- gives me confidence that they will actually chose Hillary again in 2020.

Hillary 2020: It's Her Turn More Than Ever

Michael K said...

There is a Russian connection but it's not what he thinks.

Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin's atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

They also obtained an eyewitness account - backed by documents - indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.


The two officials who were conducting the coverup of this investigation are "U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump's deputy attorney general, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now the deputy FBI director under Trump, Justice Department documents show."

Now we know why nothing has come of the investigation. They are still keeping the lid on.

Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered.

Spokesmen for Holder and Clinton did not return calls seeking comment. The Justice Department also didn't comment.


NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

tim in vermont said...

They have moved from denial to bargaining, that's progress!

Nah, they've gone straight into fanfic.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary/Harvey 2020.

Because the toxicity is only temporary.

Ralph L said...

What could Putin have done to sway people's votes that Trump couldn't do on his own?

tim in vermont said...

Look what's happened to Althouse. This is why you are not supposed to fraternize with conservatives! It's catching. I know she will never be a conservative, but then again, neither am I, if Chuck is one. I have wandered off the reservation, over-imbibed from the well of human freedom, and now I sort of think Trump is a way better president than ever I could have hoped.

robother said...

Julia is truly Glum if she's reduced to this kind of wishful thinking to cheer herself up. Is this the same Julia featured in Obama's 2012 campaign ads? She sure seems to have a cartoonish conception of reality.

roesch/voltaire said...

We voted for Trump because of his character which Greg Popovich nicely sums up: “We have a pathological liar in the White House: unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day.” But Hillary is an also ran who should not run again.

RNB said...

"If we had some bread, we could have a ham sandwich, if we had some ham."

Bob Boyd said...

Message from a bottle found in a swamp.

xxx said...

Why isn't anyone talking about the chain of succession (which is a real, codified thing)? Assuming any of this were to happen, why in the world would Hillary have a place in the line?

DavidD said...

Wait. The gnomes are Russian?

I KNEW IT!

zipity said...

Has anyone made sure Larry has no access to sharp objects?

This man in certifiably insane. Call the appropriate authorities.

The only real Russian conspiracy involves Obama and the Clinton's.

Obama and Clinton Russian Conspiracy

traditionalguy said...

After proof that Trump is an insane sexual attacker of women, followed by a United Nations vote for his removal and appointment of Hillary as the new World Viceroy, all they will need then is the US Military's consent to the coup.

No wonder Trump has surrounded himself with 4 Star Generals.

MayBee said...

Why oh why won't Mike Pence do the right thing and appoint Hillary for VP?

tcrosse said...

So one of the building blocks of the Universe is Hillary's sense of personal entitlement, before which all others will fall on their swords. What an idea for a childrens' book.

Bay Area Guy said...

If Don Quixote went to law school, and spent his time wandering thru life on his horse, spouting semi-coherent legal strategems, not in court, but in farmlands and villages across the land - you'd have Lawrence Lessig.

Anthony said...

Why bother analyzing? Liberals have just become plain nucking futs.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Conservatives and leftists really are living in separate universes.

Yesterday I saw a story on Colin Kaepernick's lawsuit on one of the MSM broadcast networks. Their description of the situation (great QB, started a popular protest movement, widespread police brutality) was about as far from the way I perceive the situation as is possible. They won't even acknowledge that large swaths of the population have different views. I wonder if they really are that unaware. That they believe anyone who disagrees with them is a two-toothed troglodyte whose fondest wish is to establish a state where they get to hunt gays and minorities from helicopters using "automatic rounds."

And then there is the interview Hillary gave to the Australian Broadcast Network. The reporters questions show her bias. Trump appealed to misogynistic racist homophobes while colluding with the Russians to steal the election from its rightful winner, Hillary.

Oh well, more Trump.

tim in vermont said...

Nah, they've gone straight into fanfic.

If they have, the whole thing could have come right out of All That Jazzand that Kubler-Ross monologue for bargaining that the comedian did in that movie.

They are through anger, and maybe denial, now they are at bargaining. "Can we talk about this like businessmen?"

Next will come depression, and I suggest we remain kind.

Big Mike said...

The term "Mother Russia" comes from the Russian term for their homeland: "родина." The 'a' at the end is feminine.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Still not tired of the winning.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

" I saw a story on Colin Kaepernick's lawsuit on one of the MSM broadcast networks. Their description of the situation (great QB,....)"

If he was a great QB, he'd have a job.

Big Mike said...

“We have a pathological liar in the White House: unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day.”

No, that's the bullet we dodged when Hillary lost.

deepelemblues said...

Step 6

Hillary resigns as there is undeniable proof that her campaign and the State Department colluded with the government of the Ukraine

Step 7

The new speaker of the House becomes president as Hillary thankfully had no time to name a Vice President

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

If wishes were horses, than beggars would ride.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Step 1 - Hillary belongs in prison.

Bill Peschel said...

Boy, liberals sure know how to spout the Big Lie. Keep repeating it enough, they may get what they want.

In which case, prepare for Step 6: Shots fired at Democratic Party headquarters.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

If he was a great QB, he'd have a job.

Exactly. He was a 2nd string QB with a crappy record. But saying that would harsh the mellow.

Matt Sablan said...

"If number 1: If Trump is definitively found to have colluded directly with Russia, he would be forced to resign or be impeached."

-- Well, true. Also if it turned out he was not really an American, but a Space Man. Or if he ritualistically ate a homeless New Yorker every full moon.

I mean. Lots of reasons someone might be forced to resign or impeached.

buwaya said...

Reminds me of Steinbecks novel, "The Short Reign of Pippin IV", the satire of French politics. The setup for the modern restoration of the French monarchy, to the Carolingian line.

But that was humor.

Worth a read btw.

Rumpletweezer said...

Oil is Russia's life blood. It was obvious going into the election that Trump would throw all forms of energy production and transportation wide open. Does any sane person really think that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton?

Nonapod said...

When you discover that the real world is not what you always believed it to be, your options are either A) to try to accept and adjust to reality B) or to create a delusion with cognitive dissonance, to imagine all sorts of "what if" fantasy scenarios, and to deny reality. I don't know what it says about the human condition that so many people will apparently choose option B.

TestTube said...

If you are going to do all that work to get rid of Trump, then why replace him with Hillary, of all people?

There are plenty of reasonably competent, reasonably qualified Democrats who are also progressive. If you are going to dream about some highly unlikely transfer of power, why not dream about transferring it to one of them?

Its like fantasizing about getting stuck, through a series of extremely improbable events on a deserted island with Harvey Weinstein rather than George Clooney or Brad Pitt.




Rusty said...

See. This is what comes from smelling your own farts and believing it's perfume.

Chuck said...

Every time I hear someone in the liberal elite go off on "Russian collusion," I think the chances of removing Trump from office prior to the end of his term is somewhere beyond unlikely.

As someone who hates Trump and would love for something to end his term in the presidency, and as someone who buys none of the usual liberal elite claptrap, I have to say that the "Russian collusion" thing seems like total bullshit.

I don't think that Manafort is going to be indicted for "Russian collusion." I think Manafort is going to be indicted for much more mundane U.S. statutory violations. Flynn too. Hopefully, Trump too.

jwl said...

"If number 5: If Ryan becomes president, he should do the right thing and choose Clinton for vice president. Then he should resign."

--------

The Hill Oct 17 2017:

Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States ....

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow ....

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/355749-fbi-uncovered-russian-bribery-plot-before-obama-administration

Clayton Hennesey said...

There may be a more mundane explanation for this sort of silliness. In the bottomless content-suck of the Internet, Lessig is only offering his customers the opioid they prefer more than his just typing out "Bab. Bababababab. Babab. Bababab!" instead.

Paul said...

If number 1: If Trump is definitively found to have colluded directly with Russia, he would be forced to resign or be impeached.

If number 2: If Trump is removed, Vice President Mike Pence would become president.

If number 3: If Pence becomes president, he should resign too, given that he benefited from the same help from Mother Russia.

If number 4: If Pence resigns before appointing a vice president, Ryan would become president.

If number 5: If Ryan becomes president, he should do the right thing and choose Clinton for vice president. Then he should resign.



Just so stuck on stupid these liberals... Dream on nutbags.

Big Mike said...

@exiledonmainstreet, Here's what defensive coordinators think of Colin Kaepernick's quarterbacking skills.

For those of you who don't know much about the game of football, all Kaepernick had to do to score a touchdown in this play was (1) look over the defense before taking the snap, (2) notice that the Rams defense has left both of his wide receivers totally uncovered (and I mean that there is no defender close to them, nor even facing them), (3) call an audible or otherwise not complete the handoff, (4) connect with either of the wide open receivers running downfield, and (5) start celebrating the touchdown as soon as the ball leaves his hands.

The man is too stupid to be an NFL quarterback.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I have to say, I underestimated the Left's capacity for crazy. I wasn't surprised when they had a hissy fit after the election and at the Inauguration nor did it amaze me when they put on their pussy hats and threw a mass tantrum. But keeping up the screaming and the delusions after almost a year - sheesh, even toddlers wear themselves out crying when they don't get the toy they want.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

"Bab. Bababababab. Babab. Bababab!"

..Went to a dance, looking for romance..

tim in vermont said...

The cluelessness about statistics kills me too. Just 22K votes in this state, as if demographic groups that go for one candidate or the other are clearly divided on state borders. Upstate New Yorkers have more in common with Ohio than they do NYC for one thing. Trump campaigned a couple of times in Plattsburgh, NY, of all places, while Hillary, famously, never went to Wisconsin. He went wherever people wanted to see him, which, I guess would have been a problem for Hillary, she could never have left Cambridge, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

I look at the national vote and the electoral college this way, each candidates vote kind of like a frog in a mud puddle. Where they win a state is where the frog is showing above water, but parts of it are underwater in other states, hidden by the binary nature of state votes. The frog is not shaped exactly like the borders of the states where the candidate won. Liberals would understand this argument if understanding it benefited them,

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Assuming the prior steps fell in place, why in the world would Ryan choose a pathological liar and unindicted felon like Hillary who is "unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically" to be President"?

Henry said...

Underpants Gnome theories are supposed to have three steps.

Lessig fail.

The Vault Dweller said...

Speaking to the question of whether Russian interference caused Trump to win the election, the only evidence offered so far being that 'Russia' allegedly bought about $100,000 worth of ads on Facebook, Mark Penn wrote an Op-Ed in the WSJ about this evidence. Mark Penn is a Democratic pollster who worked for President Clinton.

https://www.wsj.com/article_email/you-cant-buy-the-presidency-for-100-000-1508104629-lMyQjAxMTE3MDE4NjgxNTY1Wj/

In his Op-Ed he points out the obvious, that it is ludicrous to think a $100,000 ad-buy on social media can sway an election where both campaigns spent over $2 billion combined. The article also points out that of the $100,000 spent, 56% of the ads purchased ran after the election occurred. This doesn't just mean we should question the effectiveness of the 'election interference' but whether these ads were even run with the intent to try and influence the election. It seems far more likely to me that if the ad purchases are indeed linked to Russia proper, that it is more likely than not it is part of some general media campaign to spark controversy in the American populace at large. After all the Soviet Union was started in part because of German meddling in the sentiments of the Russian populace. Why wouldn't Russia today think in similar terms of how to undermine their adversaries?

Kevin said...

As someone who hates Trump and would love for something to end his term in the presidency, and as someone who buys none of the usual liberal elite claptrap, I have to say that the "Russian collusion" thing seems like total bullshit.

When you've lost Chuck...

Kevin said...

On a related note, where is UnknownInga's periodic post about how we're all going to be sorry when the Russia evidence comes to the fore? And if she's capitulated, when did she face the truth and what was it that brought about the change?

Or to borrow the immortal words of Fleetwood Mac:

Well, did Trump make you cry,
Make you break down,
Shatter your illusions of impeachment?
And is it over now?
Do you know how?
Pick up the pieces and go home

Henry said...

Lessig should really cut to a 1 step plan. "Upon reading my article, Trump will feel so guilty and shamed that he will appoint Hillary President for Life."

Hagar said...

A very interesting cartoon. Note that Comrade Stalin was not worthy of inclusion.

CWJ said...

I find the political graphic more interesting. I recognize Lenin as the high priest, and Trotsky as the executioner, but who are the other guys? I don't think I see Stalin among the others. The artist saw Trotsky as Lenin's #2 at the time. But as we know Stalin eventually muscles them all aside. So in a way the cartoon is actually an indirect tribute to Stalin's ruthlessness.

tim in vermont said...

the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States ....

30K emails deleted.... Not all of which were recovered. Hillary burns evidence of meetings with donors to her campaign slush fund, as is testified to by Huma.

http://nypost.com/2016/07/04/huma-abedin-admits-that-clinton-burned-daily-schedules/

Burned evidence of meeting with donors at a time when Putin Cronies had given tens of millions to her "charity" where she rewarded political operatives with high paying cushy jobs.

Was that illegal????

18 U.S.C. § 2071(b) (“Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”

Lock her up! The evidence is all there, but, inexplicably, like in the case of Clinton's rape of Broaddrick, there seems to exist no will to prosecute her!

Kevin said...

Underpants Gnome theories are supposed to have three steps.

Exactly. I know Ann fights the good fight against tag proliferation, but I would put up a strong vote for "Underpants Gnomes" as a category of proposed solutions to problems which are comically laughable on their face.

Matt Sablan said...

I don't even get why any sane person thinks a Republican would appoint Clinton as VP. That would be a slap in the face of the electorate and our Democratic system. She *lost.* If we are proven to have been infiltrated by Russia, the only logical person to randomly appoint president is the one man who years ago said Russia was our #1 Geopolitical foe to much mocking.

That's right.

President Romney.

Henry said...

Funniest line in the article: Lessig, who briefly ran for the Democratic nomination in 2015, adds that Clinton would then appoint Ryan to be veep out of political goodwill.

So he not only gets all the Republicans wrong, he gets HRC wrong as well!

I really think that after all these dominoes fall on four-leaf-clovers, Clinton should appoint Aaron Burr as her VP. He wuz robbed.

John Nowak said...

Did I miss something? Is Trump even being accused of spreading disinformation with the Russians?

Matt Sablan said...

"Was that illegal????"

-- So was willfully destroying documents requested by a subpoena. But, you know, some people don't have to follow the laws.

Matt Sablan said...

"Did I miss something? Is Trump even being accused of spreading disinformation with the Russians?"

-- Much like what I'm rebelling against, when asked what Trump stands actually accused of, in re: Russia, the answer is generally, "What do you got?"

MikeR said...

Lessig is a Harvard professor? Who would replace him if he resigned for being completely nuts?

tim in vermont said...

It says "shall forfeit his office," so Hillary is off the hook!

tim in vermont said...

Gazprom is the largest oil company in the world, by far. Why they would want a "drill baby drill, frack baby frack; and BTW; build the pipelines and ports to compete with Russia in Europe on natural gas" Trump as POTUS, as opposed to kill Keystone, regulate fracking out of existence, etc, etc, Democrat like Hillary, who does his work for him.

Even she admitted in one of her Goldman speeches, that the Russians were behind many organizations that were opposed to pipelines and fracking.

It's gaslighting, they want to subjugate our reason to their power.

tim in vermont said...

She forgot step 6, where Goresuch resigns in shame from the SCOTUS, and all Republican Senators resign en-masse, out of sensitivity to Hillary's putative "feelings."

Michael K said...

"Does any sane person really think that Putin preferred Trump over Clinton?"

We're not talking sanity here.

We're talking Democrats.

Jupiter said...

Harvard Law Professor.

Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

Where are all of the smart liberals to come and kick the shit out of my arguments with "reality based" reason and evidence? Where are you, oh worthy opponents?

If I go to one of your sites, I will be banned within a few hours. As has happened time and time again, despite my almost unfailing politeness.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

If everyone just resigns then Hillary can be President.
If all you Trump voters would just die already then we non Trump voters could have a nice country.
If all you Trump voters would just stop objecting to open immigration and amnesty then we could replace you with people more amenable to our Leftist and/or socialist desires.
If you just sit idly by while we overturn the election when it doesn't go our way and we do everything in our power to restrict your rights and freedoms then everything will be fine.

Blood in the streets, my friend.
There's a part of me, a bad deplorable part, that really hopes they try it.
I think it's like zombie movie escapism, you know? It's appealing in a way because at that point you're not restrained by any rules or mores--you're free to do whatever you want without moral restraint.
I kinda think we'd be pretty close to that territory if these coup-humpers ever got their way. It'd be terrible and possibly nation-ending, sure, but I like to think there'd be a bright spot or two.

tim in vermont said...

The only "proof" that they have the Putin preferred Trump is a judgement that Obama appointees in the intelligence services made, that publicly, at least, does not even mention the number one factor in Russia's GDP, energy. There is no evidence, no intercepted comms, no defector even, nothing but their purblind judgement.

Sebastian said...

While I enjoy a good fisking as much as the next person, strategically I would prefer to give false-flag endorsements. We should encourage these delusions, let progs stew in them, dial up the crazy to 11.

Of course, the swamp still has enough power to turn crazy into damage, what with Mueller-McCabe-Rosenstein doing their thing.

Ralph L said...

The man is too stupid to be an NFL quarterback.

Big Mike, thanks for the laugh. Just love the Jazz Hands receiver at the bottom, who then jumps up and down like Yosemite Sam.

Darrell said...

Putin already owned Hillary. Do you think he conducted those uranium negotiations with recording them? How much again are you asking for, Madame Secretary? Look into your swizzle stick and speak clearly.

Wince said...

Instead of firing Mueller...

If these uranium revelations hold up, why wouldn't Trump use the occasion to grab the high ground by firing Rosenstein and McCabe in a flourish of publicity, thereby undermining Mueller, Clinton, Obama, Holder, Lynch and Comey?

Wouldn't it be the political judo move of all time?

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Obama/Clinton = the best thing to happen to Russia in the last 50 years.

tim in vermont said...

The problem with them mounting a coup, is that most of the grunts who would be expected to shoot fellow Americans to put down the reaction are from the deplorable regions of the country. Even Vermont is full of rednecks outside of the trust fund belt and Burlington. That's where the National Guard comes from, not the blonde dreadlocks heroin addict demographic.

Henry said...

I sure miss that McGovern / Albert presidency.

Here's something interesting:

In 1973, during Albert's second term as Speaker and Nixon's second term as president, Vice President Spiro Agnew was investigated for tax evasion and money laundering for a series of bribes he took while he was Governor of Maryland. Agnew resigned as Vice President and eventually pleaded nolo contendere to the charges. This event put Albert next in line to assume the presidential powers and duties, should that office become vacant.

Under the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Nixon nominated Republican House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford to succeed Agnew as Vice President in October 1973. As the Watergate crisis began to unfold and the impeachment process against Richard Nixon began, it quickly became apparent that if Nixon resigned or was impeached from office before Ford was confirmed by both houses, Albert would become Acting President under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. Albert would have been forced to resign from the office of Speaker as well as the House.

This was the first occasion since the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in which it was possible for a member of one party to assume the presidency after a member of the opposing party vacated the office. As Speaker of the House, Albert presided over the only body with the authority to impeach Nixon and had the ability to prevent any Vice Presidential confirmation vote from taking place in the House. This meant Albert could have theoretically maneuvered to make himself Acting President. However, Albert concluded that, as a Democrat, he had no right to inherit a Presidency that had been won by a Republican ticket in 1972. He later stated that if he had become Acting President by succession that it would be in the national interest to resign immediately after the House and Senate had confirmed a Republican Vice President. The Vice Presidency was vacant for about seven weeks; Ford was confirmed and sworn in as Vice President in December 1973.


(my emphasis)

If only Albert had had Lawrence Lessig at his side. He could have made himself president, appointed McGovern as his Vice President, resigned the presidency and been appointed Vice President in turn.

Chuck said...

MikeR said...
Lessig is a Harvard professor? Who would replace him if he resigned for being completely nuts?

It's so true; when it comes to law profs doing their intellectual jerking off in public, nobody comes close to Lessig. Not Dershowitz, not Tribe, not Jonathan Turley, not adjunct Jeffrey Toobin, not even Catharine MacKinnon, who is close.

Remember that like Pat Paulsen, Al Sharpton and Alf Landon, Professor Lessig ran for president.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/02/larry-lessig-ends-presidential-campaign-citing-unfair-debate-rules/?utm_term=.42ddc46eb17d

Gahrie said...

Why isn't anyone talking about the chain of succession (which is a real, codified thing)? Assuming any of this were to happen, why in the world would Hillary have a place in the line?

The assumption that Paul Ryan would pick her to be his Vice President and that both houses of Congress would approve it.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Ann Althouse said...No. Even if we knew that Trump conspired with Russia to get Russia to do some things like spread disinformation in social media, we wouldn't know that without that, Hillary would have won.

Isn't the counter to that some analogous version of the eggshell skull rule, Professor?

A good candidate would problably have beaten Trump.
We know Trump won and we know Hillary was a bad candidate.
As a bad candidate it's possible some Russian interference hurt Clinton more than it should have/more than it would have hurt a good candidate.
Since she was a bad candidate (had a fragile electoral skull) the alleged tortuous Russian interference hurt her much more than it would have hurt a good candidate, possibly costing her the election.
Hillary's badness doesn't mitigate responsibility for the harm that the alleged Russian interference caused, and while that interference might not have cost a good candidate the election it did cost bad candidate Hillary the election and Trump/Russia must bear full responsibility for causing that loss.

Or have I applied the principle incorrectly?

I know you're (correctly) saying that Lessing hasn't shown that Hillary would have won, but I'm asking if that's even necessary if we use that common legal framework.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Paul Ryan might be a putz, but he'd never pick Hillary. That's laughable.

The key here is John McCain. If John McCain were in a position to select Hillary as VP... well then, now we are talking.
But also, monkeys just flew out of my butt.

tim in vermont said...

The Democrats might have impeached Nixon, but they couldn't have gotten the Republican votes to remove under those circumstances. Better to take the high road.

tim in vermont said...

he key here is John McCain. If John McCain were in a position to select Hillary as VP... well then, now we are talking.

LAUGH OUT LOUD, It's funny because it's true! With that, I have work I should be doing, like closing up this camp.

Matt Sablan said...

Any plan that puts Clinton into the presidency is, in effect, a coup. Which, frankly, should be discouraged.

alan markus said...

2010: Scott Walker elected Governor of Wisconsin. Leftist reaction is to instigate John Doe investigations for campaign law violations with the goal to unseat him.

2012: Leftists instigate a recall. Governor Walker elected again (against his 2010 opponent). Investigations continue.

2014: Scott Walker reelected. Investigations continue, but fizzle out.

2018: Scott Walker up for reelection.

I wondered out aloud yesterday about the whereabouts of commenter Garage Mahal - speculated that he is still looking for that secret router that will finally bring Walker to his knees.

I should be careful ab out mocking him - maybe he succumbed to an injury he suffered while a middle school football star.

robother said...

The most brilliant legal mind of his generation? Just like Noam Chomsky was a genius professor at MIT, and Paul Krugman was a Nobel Laureate economist. Becoming a public intellectual (which always and everywhere entails being Left) sure adds points to your perceived IQ. Don't ask for the hard evidence in terms of, you know, actual accomplishments in your field of endeavor. They're above that.

LYNNDH said...

Sounds like he is in CO getting that Rocky Mountain High.

tim in vermont said...

As a bad candidate it's possible some Russian interference hurt Clinton more than it should have/more than it would have hurt a good candidate.

I have no doubt that the Russians believed that Hillary couldn't lose, I missed the most glorious election night since '94 because I thought the same thing.

Now I really gotta go.

JSF said...

Ann,

Here's a cool song about "mother Russia," by Sisters of Mercy, called "Dominion"

https://youtu.be/-o-6ftmw8CE

"In the heat of the action
In the settled dust
Hold hold and sway
In the meeting of mind
Down in the streets of shame
In the betting of names on gold to rust
In the land of the blind
Be ... King, king, king, king,"

Bay Area Guy said...

On the Russia thing, Has anyone been indicted yet?

Usually, there's a crime, and you try to find out who did it.

Here, nobody know whether a crime has even been committed, and we're 1 year from the election.

Yancey Ward said...

Sometimes insanity doesn't really need to be explained.

Skippy Tisdale said...

These people are nuts.

Darrell said...

Has anyone figured out who Hillary kicked in Britain to cause her to break her toe?

MadisonMan said...

So Lessig writes for The Onion now. This is the best a Harvard Prof can do at fiction? You, a Professor!

Michael K said...

Blogger Bay Area Guy said...
If Lawrence Lessig were the head of NASA:

I have a 3-step plan to send an astronaut to Jupiter!

Step 1- Build a rocket that can fly to Jupiter

Step 2 - Board the ship

Step 3 - Fly to Jupiter


Your algorithm sounds a bit like the A- "essay" written by a UNC athlete for his "African American Studies" class.

On the evening of December Rosa Parks decided that she was going to sit in the white people section on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During this time blacks had to give up there seats to whites when more whites got on the bus. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Her and the bus driver began to talk and the conversation went like this. “Let me have those front seats” said the driver. She didn’t get up and told the driver that she was tired of giving her seat to white people. “I’m going to have you arrested,” said the driver. “You may do that,” Rosa Parks responded. Two white policemen came in and Rosa Parks asked them “why do you all push us around?” The police officer replied and said “I don’t know, but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.

Brilliant. College level work worthy of Professor Lessig.

the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard

Eminently qualified.

Matt Sablan said...

"Here, nobody know whether a crime has even been committed, and we're 1 year from the election."

-- I remember in December/January when people told us that they had proof. That we'd get to see it soon. That we had intercepts and dossiers. Only to later find out the sole dossier that existed was a paid for fabrication with factual errors, and for them to insist there couldn't be any intercepts since no one had tapped any Trump people.

Times: They Change.

JSF said...

And Democrats supporting coups against Republicans in the 21st century, old news:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-lewis/general-pace-you-can-save_b_61785.html

Anonymous said...

@Tommy Duncan Perfect! Thanks.

Bruce Hayden said...

"I think Manafort is going to be indicted for much more mundane U.S. statutory violations. Flynn too. Hopefully, Trump too."

Indict the sitting President? Who would do the indicting? Who do they report to? Work for? What authority would they use to do it? (Hint - DoJ authority to indict, etc is delegated from the President's inherent Executive power (see U.S. Constitution Article III, Section 1, paragraph 1, sentence 1, clause 1)).

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...


Looks like there was collusion with Russia alright:


FBI uncovered Russian bribery plot before Obama administration approved controversial nuclear deal with Moscow
BY JOHN SOLOMON AND ALISON SPANN

Before the Obama administration approved a controversial deal in 2010 giving Moscow control of a large swath of American uranium, the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

They also obtained an eyewitness account -- backed by documents -- indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill.

The racketeering scheme was conducted "with the consent of higher level officials" in Russia...

Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefitting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions."

John Nowak said...

>I have a 3-step plan to send an astronaut to Jupiter!

No, that's actually a workable plan. Needs details, but all that needs to be in the plan.

Matt Sablan said...

"Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefitting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions."

-- Well, isn't that convenient.

Ann Althouse said...

"The causation is the theft of the presidency from Hillary."

And that, folks, is what's called a tautology.

Bruce Hayden said...

I always have thought that Lessing was a tool, at least from the time that he jumped into IP (intellectual property) law, tried to make an impact, and totally beclowned himself. Somehow, we were all supposed to be impressed, since he was from Harvard. Would have been much more impressed if he had read the relevant case law first, and understood the technology. But he hadn't, and didn't, therefore the beclowning.

Anonymous said...

If I were Dean of the Law School I would put Lessig on medical leave until he had had his brain checked thoroughly. Of course the Dean probably agrees with him although he's new, a white guy and constitutional scholar so ther's hope..

Bill Owens said...

Brian Balster @ 947am wins!
As to the subject at hand; how much does Harvard charge to be 'educated' by this man? Whatever it is,
its far too much.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

"Suddenly, the animator suffered a fatal heart attack

Borepatch said...

Can you imagine Lessig (or anyone in that crowd) saying the same about a Democrat? If someone had proposed something like this to Lessig about Bill Clinton in 1998, Lessig would have (rightly) laughed in their face.

So all of this "do the right thing" blather is just bait for suckers. Intellectual Turning test failure.

Gahrie said...

"The causation is the theft of the presidency from Hillary."

And that, folks, is what's called a tautology.


????

Tautology: the saying of the same thing twice in different words


Althouse said: "Professor Lessig, you need a causation element."

And I replied: "The causation is the theft of the presidency from Hillary."

My point being that the only causation that Lessig and the Left needs is the fact that the Deplorables "stole" the election from Hillary, and the fact that she lost is the only evidence/causation that they need.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

If wishes were horses we'd all have a merry Christmas.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Link to the Hill story re: Russian bribery:

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/355749-fbi-uncovered-russian-bribery-plot-before-obama-administration?amp

Hari said...

This is a much likelier scenario than Hillary running against Trump in 2020 and winning.

tcrosse said...

Maybe Lessig could put his vivid imagination to work concocting a five-step process to make Hillary shut up and go the fuck away. A grateful nation awaits.

Michael K said...

"Indict the sitting President? Who would do the indicting? Who do they report to? "

Relax. It's chuck being chuck, who wants to indict the guy he voted for.

Suuuuuure you did, chuck.

Static Ping said...

It's interesting on an intellectual level. It's roughly on par discussing how to make 4 outs in a baseball inning: factually plausible, extremely unlikely, and if it ever did happen no one is going to know what to do.

Making a clone of Trump and transferring Hillary's consciousness to the clone probably makes more sense, other than Hill-Trump would probably die shortly thereafter due to an orange overdose.

Martin said...

Lessig is just as deranged as all the rest of them. This reminds me of the GOP establishment "plans" to hijack the GOP convention in 2016. IOW, utterly insane.

This isn't a plan, it's so crazy it doesn't even deserve to be called "wishful thinking."

btb, Orrin Hatch is President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

It would be interesting if a social psychologist could pick apart why Donald Trump drives otherwise sane people into derangement. We saw some people go nuts about Bill Clinton, more about Bush-43, and some about Obama, but this is really different, and must involve people seeing something in Trump and/or his supporters that deeply threatens their own psychological balance.

Ambrose said...

Why not go crazy and have Ryan appoint Obama as VP before resigning? While Obama is ineligible to be elected, I see no Constitutional prohibition on his becoming President again in this manner. I can only conclude that Lessig must be a racist - or as we say today, a white supremacist.

buwaya said...

"and must involve people seeing something in Trump and/or his supporters that deeply threatens their own psychological balance."

This is true, and as yet is not adequately explained. It is also largely an American affliction. There is no such reflexive reaction abroad. Much of the foreign reaction to Trump is an echo of the universal message put out by the US MSM, which is the almost sole source of information about the US abroad. It is an induced opinion taken directly from the data feed.

rcocean said...

What does "Collude with Russia" mean?

Trump wanted to beat Hillary. If Putin wanted the same thing, how is that "Collusion"?

What if Israel "Colluded" with trump, would that be OK?

What if the UK colluded with Hillary would that be bad?

Qwinn said...

So we'll spend at least much time in the media and every major paper talking about the now documented and proven bribery and corruption of Hillary and Obama as we did talking about the evidence-free non-crime of "collusion", right?

Right?

And Bill and Hillary will now go to trial for treason, right? Not to mention Obama and Holder?

Right?

John Nowak said...

>What does "Collude with Russia" mean?

And having agreed on what it means, is it illegal? Under which law?

mccullough said...

I'm starting to think that turning universities into insane asylums for the professors, administrators, and Grievance Studies majors and grad students is cheaper and more beneficial to society. They wouldn't even notice the difference.

Bill said...

I used to think Lessig was uber-brilliant, with an oversized brain behind that high forehead.

cubanbob said...

As Hitlers go, Trump is rather lazy. Any Hitler worth his salt would have had Hillary, Bill, Barack among others shot at this point. Any half-assed Commie would have done it five minutes after taking power.

While I might be wrong, I believe that any University that had professors teaching the world is flat would lose any federal funding or subsidies. Considering a flat earth is more believable and grounded (pardon the pun) in optical reality than Lessig's position one wonders why the Dept. Of Education hasn't yanked Harvard's government subsidies.



mccullough said...

Lessig is brilliant. But he's also insane

SeanF said...

Gahrie: Althouse said: "Professor Lessig, you need a causation element."

And I replied: "The causation is the theft of the presidency from Hillary."

My point being that the only causation that Lessig and the Left needs is the fact that the Deplorables "stole" the election from Hillary, and the fact that she lost is the only evidence/causation that they need.


Althouse wasn't asking for something that "causes" Trump to be impeached. She was asking for something that "causes" Hillary to lose the election. How - [b]exactly[/b] - did the alleged Russian influence [b]cause[/b] people to vote for Trump instead of Hillary?

Answering the way you did implied that Hillary's loss was what caused Hillary's loss. Hence, a tautology.

vanderleun said...

During my days working at The Electronic Frontier Foundation I met and even admired Lessig. Now he's just some old and feeble ideological whore.

Caligula said...

Their description of the [Kaepernick] situation (great QB, started a popular protest movement, widespread police brutality)" ...

IF Kaepernick were truly a "great QB" he'd get away with it. Or, at least he'd get away with a lot more.

His problem is, he's not. Most organizations will put up with plenty o'crap from someone who truly is a top performer, far more than they'd ever put up with from a lesser performer.

Kaepernick may think he deserves more from the League, but, at his level of performance he's in no position to demand it.

Mike Sylwester said...

This is what happens when a Scientific Progressive is allowed to become the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Matt Sablan said...

From that The Hill story: "The first decision occurred in October 2010, when the State Department and government agencies on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States unanimously approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, giving Moscow control of more than 20 percent of America's uranium supply."

-- I remember when we were told there was nothing suspicious about that decision at all. Well, darn it!

"Then-Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered."

-- That's... so ridiculously an obvious conflict of interest I wonder how it happened.

"The investigation was ultimately supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, an Obama appointee who now serves as President Trump's deputy attorney general, and then-Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now the deputy FBI director under Trump, Justice Department documents show."

-- Both need to go. Sorry. I know Trump has had a lot of churn, but you can't keep incompetents around.

Matt Sablan said...

"he final court case also made no mention of any connection to the influence peddling conversations the FBI undercover informant witnessed about the Russian nuclear officials trying to ingratiate themselves with the Clintons even though agents had gathered documents showing the transmission of millions of dollars from Russia's nuclear industry to an American entity that had provided assistance to Bill Clinton's foundation, sources confirmed to The Hill."

-- Yeah, but you know, Trump colluded with the Russians.

Gospace said...

I would say we need to open up some new federal insane asylums- but that's the liberal/Communist method for dealing with political enemies, declaring them insane when they're not.

Except this is clearly insane...

tcrosse said...

If Lessig's scheme is wishful thinking, so is Althouse's 'Hillary goes away' tag.

Susan said...

All the other players that kneel are still employed so how can the fact that Kapernick took a knee be the reason?

mtrobertslaw said...

How about this: After Trump was elected, Putin, Hillary and Lessig and became leaders of a conspiracy to get Hillary back into the White House where she rightfully belongs. The three of them, together with the KGB, came up an elaborate plan. The end game is to get the political class to believe Putin and Trump agreed to work together to subvert the election so that he cannot lose. Then, once this is successful, Lessig's plan goes into effect.

Michael K said...

I'm starting to think that turning universities into insane asylums for the professors, administrators, and Grievance Studies majors and grad students is cheaper and more beneficial to society.

Yes and send the high school kids to trade school for a few years until the commies died out.

We need more mechanics and machinists.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Caligula said...
Their description of the [Kaepernick] situation (great QB, started a popular protest movement, widespread police brutality)" ...

IF Kaepernick were truly a "great QB" he'd get away with it. Or, at least he'd get away with a lot more.

His problem is, he's not. Most organizations will put up with plenty o'crap from someone who truly is a top performer, far more than they'd ever put up with from a lesser performer."

Exactly, and that has been true for a very long time. The Detroit Tigers put up with a lot of crap from Ty Cobb because he was Ty Cobb. If he had hit .225, he would been sent packing back to Georgia.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

This type of article is supposed to start with

"Straightforward from here:"

Know Your Meme: Straightforward From Here

Michael K said...

Leftist logic. They just don't understand what Trump is about.

It's all about the "uneducated white men" who voted. I have three degrees and all the people I know, with the exception of two of my kids supported him.

One daughter was a Bernie bro but may be starting to figure things out.

The other daughter told me she would not vote for Hillary, which is a vote for Trump, no matter what she did.

Ficta said...

"As Hitlers go, Trump is rather lazy. Any Hitler worth his salt would have had Hillary, Bill, Barack among others shot at this point. Any half-assed Commie would have done it five minutes after taking power. "

Reminds me of a Tom Wolfe anecdote. He is at a 1965 Princeton panel discussion where the imminent fascist crackdown is momentarily expected and Gunter Grass suddenly says:

“For the past hour I have my eyes fixed on the doors here,” he said. “You talk about fascism and police repression. In Germany when I was a student, they come through those doors long ago. Here they must be very slow.”

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...


All the king's horses and all the king's men
couldn't put Hillary together again

Pianoman said...

#3 made me giggle.

#5 made me laugh out loud.

Scott M said...

I had to look up jocose.

jo·cose
jəˈkōs,jōˈkōs/adjective formal
playful or humorous.
"a jocose allusion"

PB said...

Lessig needs medical treatment. Or maybe he got some of that $145 million the Clinton Foundation got from the Russians.

Jay Vogt said...

What is the point of the extra (3 & 4) steps? Pence would just appoint (and have confirmed ) HRC as VP and then resign.

Unnecessarily steppy process.

Drago said...

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/355749-fbi-uncovered-russian-bribery-plot-before-obama-administration

Tells you all you need to know about the lefties and their lifelong republican allies efforts to drive Trump from office.

Jim at said...

Does the stupidity ever stop with leftists?

Ever?

Mr. Groovington said...

Blogger tcrosse said...
Maybe Lessig could put his vivid imagination to work concocting a five-step process to make Hillary shut up and go the fuck away. A grateful nation awaits.
...
But if she went away we wouldn’t have Hillary pile-ons and life would be missing something.

buwaya said...

Hmmm -

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-state-department-reveals-2800-huma-abedin-government-documents-weiners-laptop/

"Judicial Watch revealed today that the U.S. Department of State admits it received 2,800 Huma Abedin work-related documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that were found on her estranged husband Anthony Weiner’s personal laptop."

This is just about a year after discovery of the laptop, etc.
The FBI has worked - slowly, no?

The corruption runs wide and deep, and no doubt includes figures like Lessig, who are implicated with political and politicized organizations.

DanTheMan said...

Step 1: aliens abduct all republicans, most democrats, and all undecideds
Step 2: they come back and get all the Bernie voters
Step 3: all superdelegates get abducted too
Step 4: Warren gets abducted, insists on a first class seat because of previous alien visitation mistreatment of her tribe
Step 5: Hillary wins narrow primary victories against "This page intentionally left blank"
Step 6: Hillary wins the presidency with 150 of the 45 votes cast

gadfly said...

Steve Hayward over at Power Line, refers to Lawrence, the "L" guy, as "Less, Lesser, Lessig. "Yes, you heard that right—a middle-aged Harvard professor already has a biography. No vanity there, I’m sure."

And Michelle Malkin changes the "if" statements:

Too bad the Clinton campaign didn’t try something like that before the election:
If number 1: Hillary doesn’t tell coal country she’s going to put them out of work.
If number 2: Hillary campaigns in Wisconsin.
If number 3: Hillary spends time in swing states instead of schmoozing rich celebs in L.A. and on the Vineyard.
If number 4: Hillary’s campaign doesn’t assume the election is in the bag three months before it takes place.

johns said...

Lessig provides more proof, even though none is needed, that the citizens of this country should not listen to those formerly known as the "elites." Because of Weinstein, Hollywood elites will have no further political impact. Similarly, the elites of the media world have been shown to smother the news rather than report it, so they are no longer believed.
It's pretty amazing that Trump has managed to suck every ounce of credibility from the country's formerly revered elite institutions.
The next election cycle is going to be orders of magnitude different from those of the recent past.

Susan said...

The next election cycle is going to be orders of magnitude different from those of the recent past.

__________

All signs point toward a repeat of them coming at us in the same old way and us beating them in the same old way.

I certainly hope Mrs. Clinton's foot heals so she can dance at the 2021 Inaugural Ball.

I'm sure Melania will let her cut in.

Bay Area Guy said...

If I were a Harvard law student, I'd be taking a knee in Professor Lessig's class, with a defiant fist in the air, to protest his utter stupidity.

David said...

This one was below you, Althouse. Too absurd to waste a word.

Gahrie said...

Answering the way you did implied that Hillary's loss was what caused Hillary's loss. Hence, a tautology.

No..what I stated was that Hillary's loss was caused by the Deplorables stealing it from her.

Big Mike said...

If Hillary had broken her neck instead of her toe, would we be spared this sort of asinine nonsense? Sadly, I doubt it.

Big Mike said...

There would just be a new step inserted between step #4 and step #5: Disinter Hillary's corpse and reanimate it. Note that this step has a higher probability of success than the steps that would precede and follow it.

wildswan said...

1. Trump shows Hillary a map of the US

2. Hillary asks why the map is so wide between the coasts.

3. Trump explains that many states, all with electoral college votes, are between the coasts, "and Hillary," he says, "you came from in there and so did Bill."

4. "Oh, yeah," says Hillary, "I forgot. I guess that's why I lost."

5. "Sorry," Hillary says, "I shouldn't have tried to hide from my mistakes."

wildswan said...

Hillary relied on "data analytics" (whatever that is) and did no polling in the last month. The "data analytics" did not pick up the Trump wave and that is why she was surprised when she lost. Real newspapers and real pundits would long ago have shown why "data analytics" missed the wave. But for some reason reporters and pundits don't want to know why things happen. They prefer the fantasy that Putin was able to motivate the American heartland to turn out in overwhelming numbers by using a message that no one noticed.

Zach said...

I've heard better analysis on sports talk radio.

In fact, do we know the source of this quote? Maybe "Larry from Palo Alto" is waiting for his reply on the air.

Anonymous said...

"Professor Lessig, you need a causation element."

And that, in law professor-ese, is a bitch slap.

Bandit said...

Becuz entitled!

JAORE said...

Yes, Lessig has gone nuts. He has a LOT of company on the left.

But who the heck at Newsweek approved this nonsense?

retired.military said...

I want this professor to make a bet with me. I will bet that this doesn't happen. I will give the professor 100 Trillion to one odds. Think he will take me up on it?


JAL said...

Don't forget this guy (Lessig) was completely in the bag for John Edwards.

Intelligent does not equal smart.

(Though he did stick his toe in the primary water against Hillary and was soundly escorted out of the swimming pool by the DNC, {who were all in the bag for Hillary)and reminded of his place.

Anonymous said...

"This same process could be used to install anybody at all as President, so why Hillary ? So she can deliver on the influence she peddled ?"

I can't help wondering about the REAL truth behind that broken toe of hers. Debt collectors gonna debt!

Unknown said...

If anyone thinks that the constitution can be manipulated like this without an armed revolt in at least half the country they are delusional.

Californio_6th_ gen said...

This is my very scientific explanation of how I am to be crowned King of America while riding on a unicorn:....1). The people demand I be crowned king, 2). - I find a unicorn while out jogging and it becomes my friend and constant companion. ....What? NO! Follow the steps!!!