So says The Editorial Board of The Washington Post, in "The collapse of Democratic lawfare in Michigan/Dismissal of 'fake electors' charges bodes ill for cases in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Georgia."
The wheels of justice turn slowly? I've always heard Justice delayed is justice denied. Those "wheels" are not justice wheels if they turn that slowly. There's every reason to suspect that the slow turning of the wheel is intentional punishment. Torture wheels.
And what about the wheels of editorial opinion? Why has it taken The Washington Post so long to condemn the "fake electors" case? The last paragraph of the editorial gives away the game:
Democrats tried to use prosecutions as an adjunct to their political strategy in the run-up to the 2024 election. That has backfired spectacularly. There are growing signs that Republicans might be attempting the same destructive strategy by selectively pursuing criminal investigations against their opponents. They would deserve the same result.
And what if it hadn't backfired? What if it had worked spectacularly and the Democrats had won the 2024 election? Would The Washington Post be cheering the Democrats' staunch adherence to the "rule of law," it's tenacious pursuit of the principle that no one is above the law?
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72 comments:
Game theory however requires retaliation.
Bravo Hostess, Bravo.
I reject the implied symmetry. There is real evidence Democrats referred to DOJ committed real crimes. It isn’t ‘lawfare’.
The key element to the left’s plan A lawfare strategy was the political rulings from Hawaiian judges would be backstopped by SCOTUS. When that failed plan B was to harass, intimidate and most relevant here, to delay by surviving in the lawless zone between the ruling of Hawaiian judges and the inevitable reversal, overwhelming the opposition with delays until the next election…
What if it had worked spectacularly and the Democrats had won the 2024 election? Would The Washington Post be cheering the Democrats??
of Course they would be!
The PROBLEM with the democrat strategy.. is that it failed.
IF ONLY.. If Only their marksman had aimed better..
or if That Darn Trump hadn't have moved his head
…they WANT the wheels of justice to turn slowly…
Grind exceeding fine is in there.
Wiki says
Ὀψὲ θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, ἀλέουσι δὲ λεπτά.
"The millstones of the gods grind late, but they grind fine."
is about divine vengeance.
The process is the punishment - except when we say it isn't.
This is a subhead of the larger context, which is best defined as Calvinball. The biggest reason? It's fun to persecute your enemies, especially when your team is in charge.
I have no legal training whatsoever, but my belief was that the way to avoid this is to live in a republic governed by the rule of law, not the whims of man. How best then, do we prevent the law from being turned into this sort of multitasker?
…although it might seem like it game theory doesn’t require retaliation. The ultimate goal is cooperation with your opponent. Tit for tat is not eye for an eye…
This morning there's an ALLOW COOKIES button that won't go away that prevents comments from Firefox on Win 10. Still works on Win XP though. Constant development mistakes in the background on blogger.
There is nothing holy about law. God is not going to enforce good behavior in legal procedure. There is no council of neutral philosophers to make everyone play nice. Law is just another venue for conflict, for power struggles, for the old eternal contest of pain.
Thats why game theory requires retaliation.
Apply enough pain and the risk-reward calculation will adjust.
There are strategies such as tit for two tats that still punish but are not retaliatory. Again the goal is cooperation, not vengeance…
Rule of law is designed against power struggles, rather than encouraging them.
You won't regret listening to the greatest podcat ever, Richard Epstein on Rule of Law
Spectacularly to the point and concise.
The saying I always heard was "the wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine."
For Democrats, the law is just another weapon to use against their enemies. They pretend to revere it when it suits their purposes ("No one is above the law"). But when it doesn't (like now), they completely disregard it and passionately urge their followers to actively reject and oppose it. And that includes their pseudo justices on the Supreme Court.
Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Wide Latina are complete jokes. They're like Jasmine Crockett and AOC in robes. What's the difference in their knowledge of the constitution and their level of impartiality?
The rule of law? What is the law? It is whatever the person in the black robe says it is.
rehajm: that's right. Living well is the best revenge. Holding onto anger and hatred is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to suffer and die. Revenge anger hatred resentment has been the Democrats strategy against Trump and look where it's got them. Buwaya Puti is just letting his Al-Andalus heritage of revenge show his true caliphate colors through a Catholic patina.
…that said, there are those who reject the idea tit for tat is ‘optimal’ and I suppose I’m one of them. I’m more it’s the worst except for all others…anyways, there’s some stuff out there that claims the winningest strategy is cooperation until the first tome your opponent defects then punish forever, regardless of your opponents reaction, like a kind of cooperate then Genghis Khan them forever.
I suspect that’s the play Dems had in mind, all except for the cooperate at first part…
"Rule of law is designed against power struggles, rather than encouraging them."
Its a human institution and so is inherently flawed, and so it is by its nature just another venue for power struggles. Behind all sorts of grand words and rituals of course.
"Game theory however requires retaliation."
Thread winner.
Tit for tat is where it's at.
We will do to the left whatever they do to us x10.
And they tried to murder our candidate. Twice.
This does not bode well for Democrat futures.
@rehajm: "There is real evidence Democrats referred to DOJ committed real crimes. It isn’t ‘lawfare’."
This all dates to the Democrat's actions after their major losses in the 2010 election. If you can't get your way through votes, move to the backroom and agency rules. Use the IRS against Republicans, "discover" that the EPA can control every bit of water in the country, and find Russia, Russia, Russia whenever they wanted to spy on US citizens (i.e., Trump). Then, cover up cover up and cover up.
The best defense is a good offense.
Cast your bread upon the waters and in many days it will return.
And as always, the wisdom of Howard Lawrence Carr remains without equal:
"In the halls of Justice, the only justice is in the halls."
Yes, what I’m trying to get at. I think for governing civilization that’s the important element Howard…
If you want to be treated well, in a situation where there is a conflict with significant stakes, you must be feared.
Every institution is human: Man created G_ds in his own image for the powerful to Lord over the masses.
What if it had worked spectacularly and the Democrats had won the 2024 election? Would The Washington Post be cheering the Democrats??
Of course it would. Because Bezos, and the Bezos-ruled WP Editorial Board would be tacking even further to the progressive left.
Most of the lawfare cases are enabled by the media. They don’t present the other side of the cases fairly if at all. They never pose the tough questions to the lawfare aggressors. So the Post et al is complicit in these outcomes.
Our ex-Gov, likely future Senator Roy Cooper was AG during the Duke Lacrosse Hoax. It took me a while to realize he delayed fixing the Nifong problem as long as he could to avoid upsetting the Durham voters that narrowly won him promotion soon after. I'm sure the Duke families appreciated it. The incumbent he beat had been the last Rep. mayor of Charlotte, who'd signed the famous bathroom bill opening battle of WWT to restrain the increasingly crazy and now nationally-exposed Charlotte govt he'd once led.
I'm still perturbed that the Women's NCAA org came out against that--and no one complained.
The fundamental problem is that our lives are clustered round by rules and laws that can be used to punish. Read TheFeloniesa Day
Btw, as an aside, it seems the “Wide Latina” is not so wide anymore. Good for her.
Many of them were dutifully reported here without commentary…
That is Three Felonies a Day byHarvey Silverglate. The system can hamstring anyone.
It is amazing what intelligent, complacent people will tolerate.
The Democrat party is corrupt and evil and they do nothing but lie.
Our esteemed Attorney General here in Michigan, Dana Nessel, continues to bitch about this ruling on TV and elsewhere. She hasn't given up, so this game's not over.
WaPo quoted my first line in response to this story yesterday? Did I get credit or nah?
Since 2020, Democrats have been outraged that anyone is questioning what they did in that election. They seem to believe that, if you get away with it for the three months involved, then it is over and done with. It is a fact -- a historical fact. They won and they won fair-and-square.
What rubbish. Their outrage at those who show evidence of the cheating, and at anyone with the temerity to say Basement Biden didn't get those votes legitimately, is amusing. What it most reveals is just how guilty they are. They hate having to defend their cheating. They are supposed to be able to cheat AND to get off scot-free. And if you don't like it, they'll sue you and try to get your heinie into prison somehow too.
WaPo, though, employs "experts" many of whom are "lawyers" who could have reviewed similar cases and INFORMED the public at the time that "alternate electors" are exactly the way challenges are done under our system. So Althouse's question, "Why has it taken The Washington Post so long to condemn the 'fake electors' case," drives right to the heart of current events in ALL the stories we've discussed here.
The DNC-aligned Media do NOT want to reveal FACTS that are inconvenient to the NARRATIVE. The facts all along were the same, but NOW when it serves their interests they will reveal them. The whole point of Journ-0-list, which never went away, is to keep the public ignorant of facts that contradict their narrative, as they did Rev. Wright during the heyday of that scandal, as they did with Hunter's laptop, Jim's chinese partners, Joe's dementia, the dead Ukrainian refugee, the J6 bomber, the coke in the White House, and on infinitum.
Memory being what it is, I elevated my third line to higher status above, but the statement is there. WaPo copied me:
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Ah the old "illegal electors" case where every lefty on here said it was a crime and every normy pointed out this is the ordinary established process when votes are in dispute. The wheels of justice move so slowly. None of them will come by to own up to it. They will keep defending the indefensible.
So there's no "It's (D)ifferent when we do it" tag?
9/9/25, 11:49 AM
meanwhile..
the NYTs reports:
"Employers Added Nearly a Million Fewer Jobs Than Believed, Data Shows"
..revision of jobs from April 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/business/jobs-revisions-economy-fed.html
Can SOMEONE mention, ONE THING that the Biden admin Actually accomplished? was it ALL lies?
They got Ukraine invaded, so there is that . . . .
I saw that too Mike
Most interesting illustration for this post, Professor!
---- Can SOMEONE mention, ONE THING that the Biden admin Actually accomplished? was it ALL lies?
It most certainly was not all lies. They got even more than the 8-10 million illegal aliens into this country that critics once thought. It was all just a minor policy difference though -- I read it on the innanet -- so nothing to get excited over.
“Can SOMEONE mention, ONE THING that the Biden admin Actually accomplished? was it ALL lies?”
Yes, it was ALL lies. Nothing more and nothing less can be expected from the Democrat Party… the party built on racism, secession, the KKK and Jim Crow.
You don't have to be a hypocrite to write for the WaPoo editorial page--but it helps.
'they didnt forget to steal,' yes there is ukraine, there is the collapse of urban centers, there is the fall of Kabul and the slaughter at Kiryat Alba, if the Continental system was in charge of the US, would it have done anything different
also they settled all claims with Epstein enablers in 2022,
a little reminder,
“‘The millstones of the gods grind late, but they grind fine.’
is about divine vengeance.”
It’s about justice not vengeance.
Shorter version: karma
The problem is that that prominent Democrats, up to and including Obama and Hillary, are in the crosshairs. Clapper is in “Obama made me do it” mode. Who will be next? Trump is President and in a foul humour . The Supreme Court is slapping down their district judges right and left. Their imported voters are going home by the millions. The only tools they have left are the ones that brought them to this sad place. They have nothing else left.
I’ve ordered popcorn by the truckload. Let the fun begin.
Hey! Hazy Dave!
I've always heard, "The teeth of justice grind noisily and it's annoying, especially at night."
What if the new editor of the WaPo really is trying to return the paper to some standard of journalistic integrity? Wouldn't that be an excellent development? I don't even care why - he could be truly committed to the project for principles reasons, or he could've just heard the message from Bezos that their readership was leaking away over the issue of objectivity.
Although they and anyone else trying to retrace steps along the BAMN road they've been on will have their work cut out for them. As we know, trust, once lost, is very hard to regain.
And what if it hadn't backfired? What if it had worked spectacularly …
@Althouse, I argue that lawfare did work spectacularly — against Michael Flynn, for instance. And just the threat of law fare made Jeff Sessions fold like a cheap suit.
Trump defeated the Democrats’ lawfare because (1) as a businessman, it was in his interest to employ good lawyers to make sure everything he did in his business dealings was strictly within the bounds of the law; (2) as a wealthy businessman he could afford the very best lawyers and accountants, both to accomplish point (1) and to defend himself in court against the specious charges of Al Bragg and Letitia James; and (3) a sizable fraction of the American voting population — a majority, in fact — were way past their fed up point with the crappy governance of the Democrats under Biden. Take away any of these three points and Trump would have been a goner.
That "wheels of justice" thing is a variation on Longfellow's line, "Though the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small." A proverb along those lines has been around for centuries. A variation occurs in the first Sherlock Homes book.
Hazy Dave said...
Most interesting illustration for this post, Professor!
It brought to mind the title character in the western movie Nevada Smith, played by Stev McQueen.
A priest showed him a crucifix with the image of Jesus hanging on it. He grimaced and said "That's looks worse than hangin'."
'they doth protest too much' as they did in 2000, 2004 and 2016, in the first up until the planes crashed into the towers, then sometime around the time the levees crested
which the theft from the levee boards in the relevant parishes made much more possible,
the wheels of justice, didn't turn fast enough for the seven men, who killed themselves because of the J6 witchhunt,
You can always default to Obama's version where the "Arc of justice bends toward" something. Not sure what. The guy was kinda full of shit. Full of himself.
of course, he always used it when he got his way, extorting the likes of Justices Kennedy or Roberts,
@rehajm (6:28), if “tit for tat” bothers you then there’s another formulation that starts out “do unto others …” If you were raised as a Christian you would have heard it once or twice in Sunday School.
BTW, I fully agree with your comment at 5:55.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, Trump's 2020 attorney Jim Troupis, who has been criminally indicted for his role in developing an alternative electors slate, will be facing a jury of his peers in Dane County as early as this December.
'the process is the punishment' as mark steyn reminds us,
when mann's lawfare did away with much of his savings and his health, the Court offered him a pittance,
I have no idea who executed criminals as depicted in Althouse’s illustration. “Broken on the wheel”was common in Europe right up to early 19th century. The unfortunate individual would be tied to an old wagon wheel and the executioner would use a large sledge hammer to shatter the large bones in the arms and legs. When there were no bones left to break the executioner would smash the criminal’s skull or hit him hard in the chest to drive shards f ribs and sternum into the heart. Pretty gruesome. The invention of Dr. Guillotine was meant to make execution more humane, at least in France.
…hey, I’ve advocated for tit for tat here on many an occasion but in this instance as I’ve said the ultimate goal is incentive to cooperate…and if vengeance is your want there’s plenty of real crimes to feed into those plodding wheels to fairly convict and punish those who are not above the law, which I’ve been repeatedly told is no one…
…it isn’t necessary or desirable to engage in more lawfare just to satisfy a sweet tooth…
"They seem to believe that, if you get away with it for the three months involved, then it is over and done with."
This is their approach with illegal aliens. Fortunately, Trump has some people working for him (and us) who disagree.
"Democrats tried to use prosecutions as an adjunct to their political strategy" Well, they've done that for years. Ask Tom DeLay, Ted Stevens, Scott Walker. A little late for WaPo to notice, and of course easily forgotten next time. But the lawfare has opened the eyes of many otherwise nice GOPers. No more Bush-Romney turning the other cheek. With party-above-all Dems, we can't have nice things like rule of law. Second best is to fight back.
Now that we have changed the name to the Department of War, can we just rebrand the DOJ the Department of Lawfare? Truth in advertising.
@rebajm (8:33), my judgement is that absolutely nothing other than raw terror could incentivize today’s Democrats to.cooperate with Donald Trump, or any other Republican (except Democrats masquerading as Republicans to get elected in red states).
Unjust lawfare will continue until we reach an equilibrium.
"And what if it hadn't backfired? What if it had worked spectacularly and the Democrats had won the 2024 election? Would The Washington Post be cheering the Democrats' staunch adherence to the "rule of law," it's tenacious pursuit of the principle that no one is above the law?"
She asks rhetorically because we all know the answer to that one, I think.
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