September 14, 2020

"Plague, fire, economic collapse and the daily reminder that we have a president who isn’t qualified to be head of a local block association … Come on, give me some happy headlines."

That's how Gail Collins begins her conversation with Bret Stephens in "Let’s Fret the Night Together/The Biden campaign and the world it’s playing out in are making us all nervous wrecks" (NYT).

Notice what's not on the list: "Plague, fire, economic collapse and [Trump]." Collins doesn't mention the riots! Sometimes a choice not to say a thing makes it more obvious than if you quietly mixed it in on a list.

I'll read the conversation anyway. At least the headline acknowledges anxiety about Biden.

I'll summarize. Stephens seems to interpret Collins's request for good news as a desire for reassurance that Biden will win. Stephens tortures her with the reminder that the polls were wrong in 2016, and his intuition is that Trump will win. He invites her to "tell me I’m wrong." And all she has is "You're wrong."

Pressed for some substance, she says Trump represented change in 2016 and now he doesn't. Stephens points out that Biden is an ancient Washington fixture, like Mondale and Dole.

Collins switches to complaining about the Electoral College — an old topic and something that has absolutely zero to do with the list of things that "are making us all nervous wrecks." It's more of a retreat into a fantasy world. It's like bellyaching that women have the vote. Or musing about the superiority of a "philosopher king."

They fret about the potential for a contested outcome. Wouldn't a big landslide be nice, saving us from a disturbing battle? They talk about the level of landslide needed to make Trump and his supporters stand down. But what will it take to make the Biden side accept a Trump victory? Did they ever accept the 2016 Trump victory? I think not.

Collins and Stephens muse about what it would take for Biden to "turn this into a romp." Stephens observes that the Woodward bombshell fizzled. He utters the sentence, "What works best against Trump is mockery, not moral thunder." As if there's some mockery of Trump left to be mocked. He's survived it all and responded with better mockery. He's probably the best mocker who's ever existed in the history of the United States, that I can tell you.

Collins says she'd like Biden to challenge Trump to a push-up competition again. It would be "an excellent reminder that whenever the president tries to depict Biden as old and doddering, we’re talking about a physically fit 77-year-old whose age is being attacked by an out-of-shape 74-year-old." Hey, Gail, the worry with Biden isn't about physical strength. It's about the brain.

Bret piles on "'Out-of-shape' is putting it delicately." I'm just about to do an image search on Stephens and Collins. Are they fat? Whether they are or not, most Americans are. Body-shaming is out of touch with America. Doesn't mean I didn't do that image search. Here: Collins and Stephens. Why should I read them if they are — or one of them is — not physically fit? Oh, and isn't there something Hitler-y about this demand for physical fitness?

After this, the conversation goes nowhere. They mention the upcoming debates and recommend trying to relax by watching football, going for walks, and having a dog.

171 comments:

danoso said...

As the old quip goes -- "If Biden is the answer it must be a dumb question"

Browndog said...

Notice dems never bring up impeachment?

Rory said...

The leftists have raised hell for four solid years. Let them fret for a while.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Who are these people...Gail Collins and Bret Stephens....and why should we care what they think?

Ryan said...

Relax by watching football? Just more preaching. No thanks.

Temujin said...

Meh. Neither of them know what's going on.

Last week in California, they made it legal to have sex with minors as young as 14. It's against the law to hold church services in California (without following a long list of ridiculous compliance rules created to prevent a service from actually taking place), however it's AOK to hold protests with hundreds or thousands of people shoulder to shoulder, its just fine to allow rioters to tear apart the cities, and it's good to hand out needles and create homeless cities scattered among your productive citizenry. Oh...it's also open season on shooting police.

And along the West Coast, apparently nature setting fires is not enough, so people have apparently jumped in to set numerous fires that have destroyed lives and killed people. No one is yet saying its Antifa, but let's face it- the same people who are bent on destroying society would not stop at the woods, would they?

I suspect none of this actual news has reached New York. Nor will it. So what Gail Collins has to say about anything is trivial at best. Frankly- she's always been trivial at best.

Todd said...

"Plague, fire, economic collapse and the daily reminder that we have a president who isn’t qualified to be head of a local block association … Come on, give me some happy headlines.

How about this one "Hillary, still NOT President!"?

So:
- "Plague", China's fault
- "Fire", CA's/WA's fault
- "economic collapse", to what extent that is, China's fault and every blue state
- "president", huh, two impossible peace initiatives, etc.

But you by you...

whitney said...

I did the image search for you. he is reasonably trim, she has no business body-shaming anyone

Jeff Brokaw said...

This “unqualified” criticism is SO strange ... what exactly are those qualifications? Nobody talks about them, but they’re absolutely certain they exist. And they ramble on and on about it, in public, proudly — it’s a secret TDS code that only they understand.

Okay. Sure.

Confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance all wrapped up in one tidy package. This tells us a lot about them, and nothing about the object of their disdain.

mikee said...

The Democrap operatives known as reporters and journalists have the self-awareness of slugs.
They see things only as vague shadowy blobs of light and dark. They respond positively only to pain. I suggest we pour salt on them, now and for the next four years.

mikee said...

The Democrap operatives known as reporters and journalists have the self-awareness of slugs.
They only respond to pain, and see things only as vague shadowy blobs of light and dark. I suggest we pour salt on them.

Tank said...

Althouse should challenge Collins to a running contest.

Unknown said...

"Notice what's not on the list: "Plague, fire, economic collapse and [Trump]." Collins doesn't mention the riots! Sometimes a choice not to say a thing makes it more obvious than if you quietly mixed it in on a list"

Collins - like all 'journalists' - is not in a court of law. She won't be up for perjury. 'Journalism' is all opinion all the time. Who decides what today's headlines are? They can pick and choose. It's all a choice. It's just another 'propaganda tool' for 'journalists'.

gilbar said...

remember the "anti-establishment" left? what's left of them?
today, President Trump IS the "anti-establishment"
The media is against him
The corporations are against him
The Congress is against him
Everyone, and Everything, are against him....

Except the American People

MadisonMan said...

I also recommend having a dog. But it has to be the right dog.

Bob Boyd said...

relax by watching football, going for walks, and having a dog

Obama had dog.

Paul Snively said...

Relax by watching football, going for walks, and having a dog

In other words, don’t make yourself literally mentally ill by joining the church of politics and the chattering classes.

I didn’t expect actually sound advice from them. But I’m happy to take it where I find it.

stevew said...

Not news and not any new and novel insights into the Trump v Biden election. Thanks for slogging all the way through that.

rhhardin said...

It's more of a retreat into a fantasy world. It's like bellyaching that women have the vote.

Bellyaching about women's vote might eventually have the effect of getting some self-awareness in women about when it's appropriate to think like a woman and when it's not.

Women can think like a man but they just don't like it when they do. They get anxious and upset and retreat to the Women's Workplace Issues Committee.

Thinking like a woman is good for neighborhood issues; it's awful for national issues.

The latter depends on structures being preserved, the former on feelings.

Unknown said...

Ah, it must be sweet to live in such a sweet isolated bubble, trading jokes and quips and observations from Upon High.

AllenS said...

Has anyone ever seen Joe Robinette Biden do a pushup? I am positive that he seems like nothing but a blowhard.

Wince said...

Have Collins bite Trump and Biden with those teeth.

The first to drop dead of blood poisoning loses.

Shouldn't take long.

rhhardin said...

"we have a President who isn't qualified to be head of a local block association"

That's a fiction, not an opinion. It's the world they and their readers choose to live in, just as they pick the novels they read.

News or book, it doesn't matter. It's all enjoyment of fiction. News invites you to live there even while you're not reading.

The trouble is that perverse side effects occur without regard to the narrative, once it's make to structure everybody's world.

AMDG said...

The elephant in the room is Biden’s mental acuity.

Barry Dauphin said...

It must be nice to make NYT money by just printing an inane conversation they had with each other instead of actually writing something.

Gunner said...

Bretbug is gonna be a good lil' resister in public, but in private, he wants those lefties who hate and mock him to feel pain.

Isn't Collins the one who loooooved bringing up Mitt Romney's "dog on the roof" story? Bet she still thinks it was important to do so.

Unknown said...

they are empty vessels

merely fans of some dying tribe

Kevin said...

Trump may not be new but he’s still the outsider in the race.

The media spent four years reminding us.

Kay said...

My SO convinced me to vote this year, so I guess I’m voting. Maybe I’ll flip a coin? Maybe I’ll just leave the president section blank.

Owen said...

These people get paid for a conversation like that? Whoa, sign me up!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Economic collapse? That didn’t work either. America is too strong to be keeled over by a shut down.

tcrosse said...

One may ask how Biden plans to fix the plague, fire, and economic collapse.

MadisonMan said...

Tank, that's perfect. I'm envisioning them both on BloggingHeads (does that even exist anymore) and Althouse saying that with a laugh in her voice.
I almost feel ready to ask people why they are voting for "same as the past 40 years" in DC when they say they're voting for Biden. I really like the "Biden is of the Mondale Dole generation of politicians".

tim in vermont said...

She mentioned the Biden campaign, so mentioning the riots would have been redundant. The campaign is obviously based on creating a national sense of anxiety, it started, as was documented here, right after the last election, when Trump was always shot using the “Dutch angle.” to create a sense of chaos and disorder. They have never wavered from that approach, they have only ramped it up.

tim in vermont said...

"Relax by watching football, going for walks, and having a dog”

It would be great if watching football could get you away from politics. Instead it’s just one more “platform” used to attack America.

Michael K said...

You can almost smell the flop sweat.

holdfast said...

Back when Brett Stephens was at the Wall Street Journal, we would see him on TV weekly. He looked thin and reasonably fit.

tim in vermont said...

I still can’t figure out how Gail Collins got that job. MoDo has serious talent, even if she is a bit bewildered by what is going on. I just don’t see any spark at all in Collins. Krugman has a knack for saying stuff so stupid that it attracts attention, and that’s a talent. Douhat at least tries to have the occasional insight.

Derek Kite said...

This is the strangest election I can remember. Right now the Biden campaign seems to be run by never Trumper neocons. Kamala is already distancing herself from the Biden control center, and once free from any restraint went full anti vaxxer. Trump is doing a tour of events making Biden's inactivity seem very odd.

Pelosi pops up once in a while but ducks down after making an idiot of herself.

The only energy is the rioters in the streets.

I'm expecting Trump to have events in New York State, California. He figures on winning the electoral college and the popular vote.

Biden will lose simply because no one showed up.

My hypothesis is that the house will swing back and forth until the healthcare mess is sorted out. Republicans will take their turn at vigorous ineffectiveness.

Leland said...

After this, the conversation goes nowhere. They mention the upcoming debates and recommend trying to relax by watching football, going for walks, and having a dog.

Comedy gold. That conversation is going nowhere if it discusses debates that nobody wants to have; relaxing during football which is trying to whip up the various concerns bothering this woman, going for walks maybe with a dog is a wonderful thing for those privileged enough to live in area not destroyed by hurricanes, devastated by wildfires, wrecked by protests, patrolled by racist cops, or whatever trigger issue Gail Collins and her ilk wants to conjure up.

narciso said...

likely true.


https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/09/aggressive-attempts-to-discredit-durham-investigation-may-reflect-something-big-is-coming-down/

Ann Althouse said...

Gail Collins is 74, so she actually looks fine for her age. She's just not a good spokesperson for fitness snobbery.

She would, I presume, defend her fitness snobbery by saying that it's not a general view, but specific to Trump because he's insulted Biden's fitness.

Swede said...

Who are these people?

Were they wrong in 2016?

What changed?

Dave Begley said...

'He's probably the best mocker who's ever existed in the history of the United States, that I can tell you.'

Good one, Ann!

Seriously, plague, fire and economic collapse were NOT caused by Trump. He's done his best to fix those things and the Dems stop him.

The American people aren't stupid. Trump wins 40 states.

WisRich said...

Kevin said...
Trump may not be new but he’s still the outsider in the race.

The media spent four years reminding us.

9/14/20, 8:17 AM
--------

Trump could get reelected 10 times and still be considered an outsider compared to Biden.

clint said...

Happy Headlines:
- Peace in the Middle East
- Troops coming home
- Economy rebounding
- Schools reopening -- with no Covid spike
- Vaccine imminent

There are lots of happy headlines to be found, just not ones that help Joe Biden.

Mike Sylwester said...

a President who isn't qualified to be head of a local block association

What an intelligent, informative, insightful political discussion!

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rehajm said...

The left used to have decent success at making these efforts feel so grand and important but now they feel small and petty and irrelevant. Maybe its the carpet bombing- so much bullshit from so many sources with thin credibility it exposes the game. When left leaning swing voters like Ann are quick to pick apart your carefully crafted propaganda, what's the point of continuing the craft, other than self-satisfaction? I guess maybe that's enough...or maybe it will still work.

Women: don't give rhhardin more reasons to wallow in righteousness.

David S said...

If Hillary had won in 2016, these things would all still be happening.

Bruce Hayden said...

Great analysis. As usual.

""Plague, fire, economic collapse and the daily reminder that we have a president who isn’t qualified to be head of a local block association …“

What must be remembered is that this is all orchestrated. The reality is that all are politically contrived, and the result of the failure of the Blue State model. The Dem plan is to throw as much chaos and FUD at the public, in order to make them insecure, and therefore dissatisfied with the current Presidential Administration. This is carried out by their publicity arm, the MSM. It’s all contrived.

The plague itself wasn’t contrived, at least not in this country, or at least directly, though our government and universities do seem to have funded and expedited some of the research that was used, or, probably more likely, went awry. The reality is that Trump did far better at responding to it than any Democrat would, or probably could, have done, with their natural reaction being to throw the bloated bureaucracy at the problem. And Biden would have done worse, for a number of reasons, including his cognitive decline. This time, that bureaucracy was the problem in responding to the pandemic. As is usual with bureaucracies, their natural response to any emergency is to see it as an opportunity to grab more money and power. Positive results are inevitably a secondary, or lower, priority.

We always have fires in the west this time of year. At least in NW NT, fire season has been late and mild, so far. In any case, there are two interrelated problems. First, it is nice living in the woods. So a lot of people have moved there. That makes fighting fires more urgent. Fire fighting gives priority to populated areas. But the other aspect of this is that the Feds and states have been doing fire suppression for better than a century (last big fire here was 1901). That means a century of fuel on the ground in many places. The big conifers in the thick forests around here, and in the Pacific NW, evolved to survive in an environment where brush fires burn through every couple decades, burning the underbrush, but these huge trees survive with their thick bark. And after those fires is when their cones are designed to sprout. But now there is enough fuel on the ground to burn hot enough to set the big trees on fire. And it is these “crown” fires, jumping from tree top to tree top, that are so devastating and hard to control. A fire east of us a couple years ago ran ten miles in one night, jumping to 10x the size by the next morning. But the thing that turned this from a perennial inconvenience to a major danger was the almost total closing of the National Forests to logging a couple decades ago. This was done for ostensibly environmental reasons (mostly driven by environmental wackos living in big cities, and rarely, if ever, visiting the forests that they were condemning to burn), but has been catastrophic in its effect. The fuel on the ground continued to build up, logging roads and other fire breaks became overgrown, and the forests became too thick. And now are burning almost uncontrollably.

The economic collapse, to the extent it has happened, was almost completely the result of overreactions by Dem politicians to the pandemic. The economies of Red States have bounced back. If you are unemployed right now, move to a Red State. Here in NW MT, there are help wanted signs all over the place. Esp for the restaurants. Guy building my garage has been booked out 3 months because he can’t find adequate help. Prudent closures might have helped address the pandemic. But the draconian closures mandated primarily by Dem politicians, are what turned what probably otherwise would have been a short downturn in the economy into a near depression in the Bluer parts of this country.

And with all of their screwups, from fighting the pandemic, to the fires, to the economy, and, yes, even the riots, why, again, should anyone rationally believe that Sundowner Joe Biden in the WH would have done a better job at addressing these issues?

wild chicken said...

" It's like bellyaching that women have the vote."

Boom! Althouse aims and hits rhardin right between the eyes! Lol

tim in vermont said...

"defend her fitness snobbery by saying that it's not a general view, but specific to Trump because he's insulted Biden's fitness.”

Has Trump ever insulted Biden’s physical fitness? I don’t think so, but I do know that the New York Times has zero problems printing casual lies.

Ralph L said...

I still can’t figure out how Gail Collins got that job

Hillary liked her in the 90's, as I recall.

traditionalguy said...

How can she be depressed when so many other Americans love their President so much? What’s wrong with her washed brain ?

Ice Nine said...

The election anxiety of an extreme Never-Trumper and a Trump-deranged NYT Lefty exhilarate me.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

One wonders just what the actual qualifications are that they wish to impose on choices for president. Would any mental acuity at all be beneficial, Gail?

Jim Gust said...

Football is no longer relaxing. Not only have the players injected leftie politics, with the approval of the owners and NFL brass, but the announcers pile on during the game. They interrupt the play by play with an occasional political diatribe.

At least, that what I read. Don't watch football any longer myself. The movie "Concussion" changed my mind about the sport.

Gk1 said...

That is hilariously damning they think Biden's idle boast of doing multiple push ups would be some qualifying event against Trump. What next? Who can eat the most deviled eggs in one sitting? This scrapping of the bottom of the barrel to find something, anything, to recommend Biden over Trump is astounding.

Fernandinande said...

Instead it’s [football] just one more “platform” used to attack America.

The NFL came up with a list of "the names of [BLACK only] victims of police violence and systemic racism [=white people]" to paint on their gaming hats, and they went back to the 1950s in order to come up with 87 people, fewer than the number of BLACKs murdered by other BLACKs in Chicago in one month.

gspencer said...

You want a happy headline?

Try this one, "Biden loses in a landslide"

buwaya said...

It is still odd that the obvious messaging strategy that might have stopped Trump back in the 2015 primaries is still not apparent to his enemies. I noted it repeatedly at the time. I have never seen anything in MSM commentary calling even vaguely for it, or attempting a tentative approach to it.

All they (both Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans) had to do is love-bomb the American volk, steal part, at least, of Trumps issues, and muzzle their more rabid partisans. All that was needed was to call an even partial truce in the organised artificial caste war. All that was needed were words. A lot of words, a lot of lies, really, but how cheap is that?

But no, it was brought to unprecedented sharpness and intensity.

wild chicken said...

Jonathan Chait and all his nutty followers are tweeting that Trump, his "henchmen" and all the GOP! should be prosecuted and imprisoned! for what they've done to America!!

Jesus H....

Fernandinande said...

and [the NFL] went back to the 1950s

BZZZT. The NFL went back to at least 1822 to come up with their list of 87 BLACK victims of white people.

Paul said...

"Plague, fire, economic collapse and the daily reminder that we have a president who isn’t qualified to be head of a local block association … Come on, give me some happy headlines."


Plague............... Thanks to Communist China with help from Pelosi (Democrat).
Fire................. Thanks to Antifa/BLM arsonist.
Economic Collapse.... Thanks to Cuomo, de Blasio, Eric Garcia, and Lightfoot (all Democrats) Rest of USA is doing fine.
and the Riots?....... Thanks to Antifa/BLM with lots of help from the Democrat Mayors of such as Portland & Seattle (both Democrat.)

Seems Trump is not in that list. Bummer.

wendybar said...

WHO is causing the cities to burn down, and the violence?? WHO are telling the police to stand back?? Who released the Chinese virus and lied about it to the world?? Who is keeping states locked down??? If you say Trump, then you are totally uninformed and have no right being a journalist. Maybe you haven't been one for the last 5 years because of your hate and delusion. Time to retire Gail. You suck.

buwaya said...

The characters in the funny papers and the video puppet shows (Collins et al) are one thing.

But they get their strings pulled by higher authorities. Its those much more important and yet faceless ones I wonder about.

mezzrow said...

I confess, I started going through this and got to "why should we care what these people think?" before I got to the end. The only reason I can think of is to see what kind of Freudian slips I can detect in their narrative.

It like when "Kremlinology" was a thing. Who was standing on Lenin's tomb and where?

By the end of the year, I halfway anticipate being in the position of Slim Pickens, when he was saying socially incorrect things about Bexar County Texas while trying to do something technical in nature.

I hope I'm wrong. I better be.

Bilwick said...

"Give me some good news"="Statism! Must have more statism!"

Kevin said...

She would, I presume, defend her fitness snobbery by saying that it's not a general view, but specific to Trump because he's insulted Biden's fitness.

It’s just this Middle East peace and that lying son of a bitch, Trump!

richlb said...

"...and having a dog."

Obama might interpret that the wrong way.

tim in vermont said...

"Hillary liked her in the 90's, as I recall.”

Now that is the first explanation that makes any sense. “The smartest woman in the world” who somehow keeps all of those smarts under a bushel, and instead seems pretty damned pedestrian in every area of her life aside from her world class chutzpah liked a pedestrian columnist because she has a cervix and the NYT, ever seeking to curry favor with the Clintons, indulged her.

Shouting Thomas said...

An interesting quote given that Trump often built the block on which a particular block association meets. The lit crit crowd keeps thinking it’s more important than men who build things. I think the opposite is true.

walter said...

"who isn’t qualified to be head of a local block association"
So much projection. Which one does that REALLY apply to?
Just imagine Joe stumbling through reading the budget lines for ground maintenance.

Kay,
Unless you are in favor of the train O' crazy to be ushered in by a Biden election, you should know what to do.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

A nice dose of nicely timed economic disaster Chi Com-Biden-Hillary Inc. virus with some antifa arson = economic collapse.

but don't blame who is to blame.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

They mention the upcoming debates and recommend trying to relax by watching football, going for walks, and having a dog.

I turned the tv on yesterday, and it happened to by tuned to the Fox entertainment channel. They were getting ready to start a football game. But before that they had to propagandize the audience and try to make Colin Kapernick into a hero. A suppose they are trying to prevent Trump from getting a significant share of the black vote. But I don't think that politicizing all the sports is going to work out well.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

brown dog - Trump was impeached for /biden's actual crimes. they know it.

William said...

The people in really bad shape in their seventies tend to be corpses. That said, Gail Collins, based on that photo, is not in good shape....Trump is overweight, but he seems to have more elan vital than Biden. I have the sense that if there were any photographers with a grudge against Biden, he could be made to appear old and frail. Ditto Nancy Pelosi. Fortunately, you will not soon see such photographs. They're still trying to take an unflattering picture of Ivanka.....I recently saw a long shot of Jerry Nadler walking somewhere. There's a guy in truly ghastly shape, and he's gone his whole life without ever hearing an unkind public comment about his appearance.

narciso said...

the times are easy to fool duranty during the holomodor, matthews who saw the same 12 m 26 fighters go by and thinking it was a larger party, halberstam whose vietcong spy, led to the diem coup,

tim in vermont said...

"All that was needed was to call an even partial truce in the organised artificial caste war. “

This is what a logical group would do, but the Democrat rank and file are addicted to the constant frissons of superiority they get by being bigoted against people unlike them. Why do you think Howard comes here every day. He’s a bigot and he needs his fix, and there are certain beliefs he needs to maintain to keep the feel good juice coming, and he ain’t giving them up just because logic points in another direction.

It’s not just Democrats, but out of respect for Althouse’s blog, I am not going to touch of another go nowhere fusillade of bluster and bullshit from the usual suspects by bringing up stuff that triggers Republicans.

Ultimately though we have a top-bottom against the middle political dynamic right now. And, God help us, the Democrats have invited the neocons into bed with them. We all know the story about helping the poisonous snake cross the river in your canoe.

Michael K said...

But the thing that turned this from a perennial inconvenience to a major danger was the almost total closing of the National Forests to logging a couple decades ago.

Bill Clinton , in one of his "out the door" actions like the coal heist in Utah, banned the logging and the logging roads.

It was all predicted years ago.

Shortly before leaving office in 2001, Clinton limited the ability of the United States Forest Service to thin out a dense thicket of foliage and downed trees on federal land to bring the West into a pristine state, Bob Zybach, an experienced forester with a PhD in environmental science, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The former president’s decision created a ticking time bomb, Zybach argues.

I can remember driving on those logging roads hunting in past years. You had to be alert because the logging trucks were going fast.

All gone now and burning down the forests. Of course the forests owned by Weyerhauser are not burning. Only the national forests are burning.

M Jordan said...

Listening to pundits is like Nebuchadnezzar listening to his sages in Daniel 2. In case you’re unfamiliar, he had a troubling dream and asked his seers to interpret it. So they said, “Tell us the dream.” No dice, says the king. You tell me the dream ... then the interpretation.

Nebu. knew his pundits were full of shit. He knew they could easily spew out “interpretations” of events but never anything proveable. They had no real insight, no real vision, no real anything. That’s today’s punditry. Of course, in the Daniel story, there was one who could both tell the present (the dream) and interpret it: the eponymous Daniel. He could do so because he had the assistance of God.

Stephens and Collins have no such aid. They are fools ... and so are 99% of the talking heads on cable news. Selena Zito, otoh, she has her ear on the ground. God speaks to such souls. She should’ve won the Pulitzer in 2016 for her great observation that Trump’s supporters take him seriously but not literally while his detractors do the opposite.

And Salena Zito sees Trump alive and well in small town Pennsylvania. Sorry about that, Gail.

Breezy said...

Goodness, if she really wanted happy headlines, then why not engage with a full-fledged Trump supporter who would/could give her tons of reasons to be somewhat positive about America's prospects, as well as those of the Middle East. What an old hag she is, sitting so stubbornly in her misery stew.

rcocean said...

Look, Biden is an ABNORMAL candidate. ABNORMAL. We've never, ever, ever, nominated a 78 y/o man to be President. Ever. Reagan at 73 was thought to be too old in 1984. We've NEVER had a candidate in the age of Jet travel, who didn't do press conferences or campaign. We've NEVER (since 1960) had a candidate who REFUSED to take tough questions or give campaign speeches.

Biden's reading his responses from a telepromter. Biden's staying in his basement and making scripted remarks. He's taking softball questions, with pre-planned answers. Its disqualifying. How the hell is Biden going to be President? Is he going to have a TelePrompter when he talks to Putin? Is Biden going to resign after the inaugural and hand it off to President Kamala. And the Democrats DO NOT CARE. They..Do..not..Care.

tim in vermont said...

Sports is now exclusively for liberals. They watch football to have their worldview validated, and to be reassured that they are the superior ones. One might wonder why they need such constant reassurance.

rcocean said...

Calf is your future guys, unless you stop the Democrats. wildfires due to mismanagement, BLM/Antifa killing cops and looting stores, sex with minors OK'd, lock-downs forever with no CV-19 deaths, Illegal aliens and 16 year-olds allowed to vote, rigged electoral systems and ballot harvesting. And no one cares. whatever King Newsome wants, he gets. And all the sheep just go baa, baa, baa.

Its a one-party state, and the Left-wing crazies can do what they wish. that's the USA's future. Maybe Trump will be re-elected and stop it, but who knows?

rcocean said...

The NYT/Wapo/Politico have become Democrat party propaganda machines and stopped being newspapers. They don't even hide it anymore.

Narayanan said...

rhhardin said...
It's more of a retreat into a fantasy world. It's like bellyaching that women have the vote.

Bellyaching about women's vote might eventually have the effect of getting some self-awareness in women about when it's appropriate to think like a woman and when it's not.

Women can think like a man but they just don't like it when they do. They get anxious and upset and retreat to the Women's Workplace Issues Committee.

Thinking like a woman is good for neighborhood issues; it's awful for national issues.

The latter depends on structures being preserved, the former on feelings.
--------------==================
Please explain :
do you consider neighborhood lack structure?
if they have structure - how scaleable? why and why not?

I would say it is more failure of man-thinking in not elucidating this enough.

Going by your reasoning leftism is womanish thinking even though Marx, Hegel, Fichte and Kant were men. (brought to USA via Continentalist allure)

Friendo said...

Fatbody Collins should shut her baked bean-tooth filled pie hole.

gilbar said...

I halfway anticipate being in the position of Slim Pickens...

there certainly would be Worse things in life.
I can think of (at least) one movie that would have sucked without him (and James Earl Jones)

tim in vermont said...

It’s pretty funny that if you search for “American Inventors” on google you don’t get and image of the guy who invented the transistor, which is the basis of our entire modern age and google’s fortune, BTW. But you get a lot of black men. It’s almost like they have created a giant propaganda engine.

The guy who almost single handedly created our modern age with an invention almost on a par with the invention of fire and the wheel has been canceled for his book.

BillieBob Thorton said...

Hiden Biden keeps issuing challenges to (insert physical activity here) to anyone who confronts him on any issue. Has he ever followed through on any?

gilbar said...

David S said...
If Hillary had won in 2016, these things would all still be happening.


If Hillary won in 2016, these things would still be happening, but NONE would make the news
fify!

tim in vermont said...

“Stephens noted that in past centuries, wildfires were far more widespread than they are today, and played a vital role in California’s ecosystem by helping to thin forests, Thomas Frank reported for E&E News.

In the 18th century, for instance, when California was occupied by indigenous communities, wildfires would burn up some 4.5 million acres a year, said Stephens, whereas from 2013 through 2019, wildfires burned an average of just 935,000 acres annually in California.”


This is not even scientifically controversial. Fire activity in recent centuries is easily read in annual layers from ice cores to mud cores. Climate scientists accept this as well established. It just isn’t reported. That’s why I always say it’s not the scientists I have problems with, they are working on as usual, most of them, it’s the press reporting on the scientists that are the real problem.

Narayanan said...

Dave Begley said...
'He's probably the best mocker who's ever existed in the history of the United States, that I can tell you.'

Good one, Ann!

Seriously, plague, fire and economic collapse were NOT caused by Trump. He's done his best to fix those things and the Dems stop him.

The American people aren't stupid. Trump wins 40 states.
----------===============
PLEASE NOTE : Trump never mocks "MURICA' -which is their point after all

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Achilles said...

Blogger David S said...
If Hillary had won in 2016, these things would all still be happening.

No they wouldn’t.

This is a coup against democracy.

Hitler and Stalin didn’t win their elections either. This is all a cliche at this point.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

A reminder from Andy Ngo - Antifa are democrat party brownshirts.

You may not like Trump, but a vote for any democrat is a vote for Antifa.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

A reminder from Andy Ngo - Antifa are democrat party brownshirts.

You may not like Trump, but a vote for any democrat is a vote for Antifa.

Iman said...

Quite the grill on Collins. An actual festering gob!!!

tcrosse said...

Who is driving the Biden bus? Certainly not Joe. Who convinced Amy Klobuchar and Mayor Pete to drop out when they did, and for what consideration? Inquiring minds want to know.

Big Mike said...

Donald Trump may not be qualified to head a local block association, but he has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, for two different accomplishments in two different areas of the world.

tcrosse said...

Who is driving the Biden bus? Certainly not Joe. Who convinced Amy Klobuchar and Mayor Pete to drop out when they did, and for what consideration? Inquiring minds want to know.

Drago said...

From a 2012 Presidential campaign, post second debate analysis, between democrat far left Gail Collins and "republican" also far left David Frum:

David Frum: I still think Romney is a very good debater, but on this night, Obama was extraordinary, especially given the material he has to work with.

Gail Collins: "One of the things I look for in a candidate is rebound capacity. A president is going to screw up. But how good is he at mounting a comeback? On that count, Obama’s performance was stellar. Whoever we elect in November will make mistakes, maybe terrible ones. But will he be befuddled and defensive, or will he figure out what went wrong and fix it?

Tuesday’s debate told me that this is a guy who knows when he’s underachieved. He doesn’t fall into a funk or obsess – he just figures out how to do better. That’s a really good sign, and not just for his campaigning skills. Anybody who’s wondering whether a second term could be better than the first can look at Obama’s performance in the second debate and take heart."

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/binders-keepers/?searchResultPosition=7

Kevin Walsh said...

More interesting would be Collins talking to an actual Trump supporter, but there would be a mutiny.

NCMoss said...

Bret and Gail seriously sound like addicts in denial. Like the AA 12 step program explains, recovery is only possible with rigorous honesty.

Craig said...

This conversation is Idiocracy epitomized.

rehajm said...

The press has dropped, in my view - and I'm talking about the national mainstream media - has dropped any pretense of professional objectivity and are political actors, highly partisan who try to shape what they're reporting to achieve a political purpose

Sally327 said...

I think Joe Biden stole that pushup idea from Jack Palance.

Did he? I don't know, I just think it because I think most everything about Joe Biden is phony or derivative. I wonder what his redeeming virtues might be.

Michael said...

Trump must have a hummingbird’s heart grafted to his ass. He is the definition of energy. Biden would keel over if he followed Trump’s sleep and work schedule. The guy is a freaking dynamo.

And they know it. .

rehajm said...

Democrat media really stepping up that "vote for us or the country burns" narrative. Doesn't sound like the rhetoric of a party confident it has a big lead in the next election.

Carol said...

Oh, Chait's not a lawyer apparently.

No wonder he's so sure of his case against Trump! LOL

mesquito said...

The ruling class doesn’t have much to say these days.

Michael said...

She does not look fine for 74. She looks old for 74.

Jupiter said...

How much do you pay for this scintillating content?

tim maguire said...

Sounds like Brett Stephens is trying hard to appear to be arguing the opposing side without actually dirtying his hands by arguing the opposing side. Gail Collins, as one might guess, is just spouting the same old nonsense. Since she has nothing to say, she doesn't really need to be there. An empty chair will do just fine.

n.n said...

Plague, protests, and press.

wendybar said...

tim in vermont said...
"All that was needed was to call an even partial truce in the organised artificial caste war."

Funny isn't it, how Oprahs new bookclub book is called " "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Isabel Wilkerson. Oprah announced on Tuesday that it was her latest selection for her long-running book club -- and that it was the most important one yet.

If anybody knows about Caste system in the United States it is the 1st black woman billionaire!!! She is treated like and acts like a queen. Bow down to her!!!

cacimbo said...

I don't feel "nervous."

I feel anger that elected officials are not making serious efforts to stop rioters from looting, burning, and killing.I feel disgusted by corona rules that have no basis in "science." But mostly I am just tired of the media war on Trump and journalists claiming to know how we "all" feel.

pacwest said...

Its those much more important and yet faceless ones I wonder about.

Something's going on. Half of Act Blue money is untraceable. China has to want Trump out in the worst way. This is beyond any grass roots from the idiots academia is turning out. Trump is upsetting the gobalism applecart. And the Clintons have shown America is for sale. I'm not saying Illuminati, but...

robother said...

Get a load of Gail Collins, fat-shaming Trump. Based on this dialogue, some young NYT intern should challenge Gail Collins to a push-up contest for her Editorship position.

PM said...

So perfect - NYTers talking to themselves.

rhhardin said...

Please explain :
do you consider neighborhood lack structure?
if they have structure - how scaleable? why and why not?

I would say it is more failure of man-thinking in not elucidating this enough.

Going by your reasoning leftism is womanish thinking even though Marx, Hegel, Fichte and Kant were men. (brought to USA via Continentalist allure)


Neighborhoods work on feelings, not rules. A perverse side effect is dealt with just by doing something different until another perverse side effect turns up. The old problem goes away and is eventually replaced by a new problem, or perhaps that neighbor moves out or dies.

There's nothing special about Hegel, Fichte or Kant - I've read all of Kant out of school for pleasure. They build structures accounting for how stuff works. Marx didn't account for some organizing motivations that turned out to be important, but we into theory enough. They all take satisfaction in structures. Structural satisfaction is the male feeling.

Women use about every other feeling as a primary motivation. Hence the Women's Workplace Issues Committee.

Michael K said...

tim in vermont said...
Sports is now exclusively for liberals. They watch football to have their worldview validated, and to be reassured that they are the superior ones. One might wonder why they need such constant reassurance.


There is a serious irony here. Football was hated by the left as "male aggression" and all the left's antipathy to men. The CTE controversy was building but suddenly the fact that 70% of NFL players are black came to the fore. Soccer is the left's field sport but, for a time, they have adopted the NFL as the black players' chance to feel oppressed. That will not last but the NFL is selling its soul for a moment in the left's approval. The left is not the natural fan base for football, any more than NASCAR is a favorite of the left. I see a few white skill players having second thoughts but it may be too late.

tcrosse said...

When they say Trump isn't qualified what they mean is that he's miscast to play the President on television.

Roger Sweeny said...

I hoped Bret Stephens would begin his response, "Yes, I hate Emmanuel Goldstein, too."

rhhardin said...

The Bollingen Collected Coleridge volume titled Logic is a great but far-out introduction to Kant. Then read Kant once Coleridge has gotten your interest.

Bay Area Guy said...

"Plague, fire, economic collapse and the daily reminder that we have a president who isn’t qualified to be head of a local block association … Come on, give me some happy headlines."

Needs an editor:

"Plague, fire, economic collapse, RIOTS, LOOTING ARSON, MURDERING COPS and the daily reminder that we have a president who WILL KICK OUR BUTTS AGAIN IN NOVEMBER DESPITE WHAT NATE SILVER IS TELLING US. … Come on, give me some happy headlines.

Greg D said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Greg D said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rhhardin said...

Neighborhood rules can come from afar, as when one commenter denounced cutting the grass early one Sunday morning with a scythe. That's a structuralist.

BillieBob Thorton said...

If the fires are the result of global warming why are there no fires across the border in Canada?

buwaya said...

"I don't feel "nervous."
I feel anger that elected officials are not making serious efforts to stop rioters from looting, burning, and killing. "

You should feel nervous. That so many local governments are falling in line in such a uniform way. And so many other institutions also. And that there is no obvious advantage in such gross stupidity, that is so counterproductive in even a Machiavellian sense. So there must be some other common, overwhelming factor not just providing a surreptitious incentive but also some structure of coordination and control.

For everything there isnt just a "what" but a "why".

rhhardin said...

Coleridge's Logic. You can see from the publisher's blurb why it's interesting.

buwaya said...

The MSM Wurlitzer is centrally controlled.

If the people in charge (curious how they are so mysterious these days) wanted to dial down the anti-volk hostility it would have been done overnight, no matter the feelings of the progressive base. And I suspect that such feelings would have largely diffused anyway, as they are reinforced and amplified by the hate-feed from above.

This is normal politics. One adjusts the content of ones lies to reduce the number of your enemies. But the opposite has happened, and there has to be a reason for it.

Todd said...

David S said...

If Hillary had won in 2016, these things would all still be happening.

9/14/20, 8:50 AM


True but then the press would have ignore them or the stories would be structured as "Despite [insert disaster here], Madam President helps a united country cope!". And let us not forget the ever popular "Republicans pounce on Madam President for [insert disaster here] despite country standing behind her!".

The press, all crap all the time.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Narayanan said...
Please explain :
do you consider neighborhood lack structure?
if they have structure - how scaleable? why and why not?


Yes, it is a matter of scale.

You can know everyone in your neighborhood. You can know who's the Beer, who actually gets things done. You can operate on feelings, and not have things go too badly awry.

You can't know everyone in the country. you have to have rules, laws, regulations, structure to deal with things. Because the scale is bigger, and the sums are bigger, corruption and favoritism become a much bigger problem any time you allow people to go outside the rules and structure.

So you have to run things on reason and logic, and tuck the feelings away like little children trying to stay up past their bedtimes.

IOW, with your neighborhood you can be mom. But with your country you must be dad

Skeptical Voter said...

Not to go all snarky on Gail Collins----see my Strangelove arm salute being pulled down--oh what the heck here goes. Her right arm is well developed from lifting a fork, but her pushaway muscles are under developed. Gail you have to push away from the table more. And all that fat is going straight to your head.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"I don't feel "nervous."
I feel anger that elected officials are not making serious efforts to stop rioters from looting, burning, and killing. "


Gee, and I wonder why the officials are not stopping the rioters from Burning, Looting, and Murdering?

Might be something in the initials? Nah!

Bruce Hayden said...

“ Look, Biden is an ABNORMAL candidate. ABNORMAL. We've never, ever, ever, nominated a 78 y/o man to be President. Ever. Reagan at 73 was thought to be too old in 1984. We've NEVER had a candidate in the age of Jet travel, who didn't do press conferences or campaign. We've NEVER (since 1960) had a candidate who REFUSED to take tough questions or give campaign speeches.”

This has bothered me all along. It was obvious by the tie that Biden was coronated last spring as the Dem candidate, that he was mentally incapable of doing the job. And it has only gotten worse since then. I watched several of the Greatest Generation slide through Altheimers, and none seemed to have progressed as quickly. My partner’s father took a decade from the time he was first diagnosed. Not a representative sample, of course.

My assumption all along was that the Dems knew this, but were planning on slipping in a replacement at some point. My expectation was that the best time was maybe around Memorial Day. Definitely before the 4th of July. I couldn’t help worrying that Crooked Hillary was sitting in the wings, biding her time, for her chance to regretfully accept the calling of her party to save them, by taking over from dear old Joe. The summer progressed, he found himself cornered into selecting a blackish female running mate, who turned out to be the execrable Kamela Harris. And now we are a bit over six weeks out from the election, ballots are being printed, even sent out, and Slo Joe Biden is now Sundowner Joe, but nothing else has changed, except the general acceptance that he is completely unfit for the job. This is the emperor’s new clothing, with the MSM leading the cheers for how splendid his new outfit is. That was the point that Anne called out, and these writers, as with almost all of the MSM, carefully dance around. I think that it is too late now to swap him out for a younger, less senile, model.

It bothers me because right now, if Trump loses, we have absolutely no idea who would be running the country. Or, indeed, who is running the endeavor to get Biden’s addled self dragged across the finish line. Crooked Hillary may not have campaigned much with the public, but was working hard in the background raising (illegally of course) what was, then, an epic amount of money. When Trump was doing rallies before thousands, she was meeting, behind the scenes with her super donors. She also had built a decently large campaign organization. Biden seems to have raised Clinton levels of campaign funds, without leaving his basement. Better than a billion dollars appears to have appeared magically in his campaign coffers. Someone is doing this, and no one knows what is going on. Even Trump, I think, or he would have called them out. Is the money coming from the Chinese and big corporate donors, routed through ActBlue? We don’t have a clue. Just as we don’t have a clue as to who would be making the decisions if Biden wins. I would almost think that the Dems just never got around to swapping him out, until it was too late - except for the organization required to raise those massive amounts of campaign funds.

elkh1 said...

Do we have an economic collapse? Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ reached all time highs. Don't feel like an economic collapse to me. OTOH, if you lived in Democratic control states, you would be experiencing the Great Depression. Wonder why.

There are definitely two Americas. Trump's Red America, and Democrats' Blue America. Red America is thriving, Blue America is collapsing.

The attempted riot in blue Austin was put down by the red Texas governor.
The fiery mostly peaceful protests in Kenosha disappeared when the national guards and federal lawmen moved in.

The fires in CA and the west coast were caused by arsonists and incompetent forest management by blue politicians. The riots and lawlessness were encouraged by blue politicians, the plague deaths were partly caused by blue governors' grannies killing policies, the economic collapse is caused by blue governors who would not allow you to buy paints and gardening seeds or go to church or to private gyms or get a hair cut or open your vineyards while his was never closed.

Liberal politicians enjoy their power and privileges so much that they would rather their economies collapsed and people died than to return to normalcy and lose their unaccountable powers.

Sam L. said...

It's from the NYT. I despise, detest, and distrust the NYT. The WaPoo, too!

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

King Jay Inslee claims [note the loaded verb, a staple of the DNC media] that the wildfires are really "Climate fires." No mention of the forest mismanagement of 30-years nor of the mismanagement of the fire fighting - We'll put out no forest fire before it's grown to gigant size!

The western Washington fires are brush fires caused by the extremely dry air and hot winds from eastern Washington. One day of dry weather is enough to prime the brush for fire. One of the fires was caused by a transformer explosion, another by arson.

There was a "Defeat King Inslee" yard sign yesterday at a prime intersection. It was gone this morning. That sign must of really stung the liberals/leftists that they had to remove it.

Marc in Eugene said...

Four hours of Mr Trump and Mr Biden on Joe Rogan's show? I don't doubt that Mr Trump, however incoherently by normal standards, would make it to the end. Mr Biden, who knows.

Jeff said...

Or musing about the superiority of a "philosopher king."
Few of the people doing that musing remember that according to Plato in The Republic, only a horrible injustice can create the just society, by forcing the philosophers to rule when they don't want to. In other words, there can never be a perfectly just society. Ever. Something the social justice warriors were never taught.

Michael K said...

I think that it is too late now to swap him out for a younger, less senile, model.

I have to agree and was sure they would find a way to swap him out a la Torricelli. Too late now. It looks like they might even try to run a debate, with teleprompter of course. Very high risk strategy.

The funding is another mystery. Obama pioneered the unverified credit card donations. This seems to have become SOP. Half the donations come from unknown sources. Do Americans still run our country ?

Paul said...

Meanwhile, literal peace in the Middle East is happening due to Trump - but no, he couldn't run the "block association".

Michael K said...

BillieBob Thorton said...
If the fires are the result of global warming why are there no fires across the border in Canada?


Or on Weyerhauser tree farms.

Shhhhhhh.

Amadeus 48 said...

What's making me a nervous wreck, in order:
1. the riots;
2. the movement to defund the police;
3. BLM (I believe in the nuclear family and I am anti-Marxist);
4. the nonsense taught at major American universities and colleges;
5. the craven behavior of America's largest companies (they need to stand up for capitalism);
6. Gail Collins;
7. Bret Stephens.

Sebastian said...

"Body-shaming is out of touch with America."

But then, they're progs, so anything goes.

The fact that Biden was picked in the first place: anything goes. Standards don't matter. Sanity doesn't matter. Prog Power Matters.

bagoh20 said...

You are destined for disappointment and depression if the world you live in is made up of bullshit you tell yourself, and then you get reality shoved in your face every few days when you open your eyes for just a moment to see if your bullshit panned out. It didn't, and it won't.

bagoh20 said...

You are destined for disappointment and depression if the world you live in is made up of bullshit you tell yourself, and then you get reality shoved in your face every few days when you open your eyes for just a moment to see if your bullshit panned out. It didn't, and it won't.

Leland said...

As for positive news; I found it interesting watching local news media covering HS football with more people in the stands than at the NFL season kickoff game. It is great that communities care more about youth sports than overpaid prima-donnas complaining about lack of equality.

Iman said...

Seemingly untraceable foreign funding of the Slow Joe Biden - Kamalatoe Harris Campaign... I would have less hate in my heart for leftwing Americans if so many of them weren’t lying, thieving, cheating, sniveling weasels.

Bob Boyd said...

If the fires are the result of global warming why are there no fires across the border in Canada?

There are.

Howard said...

Paranoid delusional complex is an equal opportunity disease.

Bob Boyd said...

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to imply I believe the fires are caused by global warmening. I'm just saying there are some fires burning in Canada too.

Mary Beth said...

Gail Collins is 74, so she actually looks fine for her age.

She's chonky.

Joe Smith said...

Has Collins ever seen a dentist?

It looks like she still has 2014's Thanksgiving dinner stuck in those snaggle teeth.

Howard said...

Althouse fitness shaming. Your only real assets are health and vigorousness. It's a shame more people don't realize it. Skinny is the new black.

Drago said...

Howard: "Paranoid delusional complex is an equal opportunity disease."

Tell us more about the hoax dossier.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Try This one... OH your son just died from Fen-Ta-nyl - doo dah, doo dah

Michael K said...

It would be interesting to get buwaya's input on this analysis that says, by Gary Berntsen that Venezuela runs the Spanish government.

Podemos and Spain’s Socialist party now rule Spain, a NATO ally, in a coalition that answers to the Venezuelan narco-trafficking regime. Its banks and companies are loaded with stolen Venezuelan cash. Venezuela’s former intelligence chief Hugo Carvajal, the man who helped stuff the diplomatic pouch with cash and cocaine to create Podemos, is in Spain and the U.S. government is demanding his extradition for drug trafficking. He had been in Spanish custody several months ago and the Spanish have refused to extradite him, claiming he escaped. They are shielding him. The leftist Spanish government is full of liars. Critics of President Trump think he is too hard on our European allies. Think again!

Joe Smith said...

If skinny is the new black, what is being black and skinny?

Jimmie Walker wants to know.

mikee said...

This discussion appears to be very close to acceptance, the final of the five stages of grieving. Here's wishing them success in maintaining their calm through the next four plus years of Trump. I, for one, am looking forward already to Trump's January 2021 State of the Union speech, win or lose this November. I have a bet that he laminates Pelosi's copy before giving it to her this time around.

William said...

Has Trump been attacking Biden on the basis of physical fitness? I know he has questioned his mental acuity and to a lesser degree his physical stamina but those are not exacty the same thing as physical fitness. One can be overweight and be very smart and even have significant stamina. Physical fitness has no great correlation with mental acuity. There is more congruence between stamina and fitness but they are not completely overlapping concepts.

bagoh20 said...

So if I stop my car on a road in the woods, and I throw a lit Maltov cocktail into the grass, then that's global warming? So global warming makes normal people into conscienceless assholes? If that's how it works it really is a serious threat, and it is clearly happening in the Democrat controlled states. If the scientists would have told me that's how it works, I wouldn't have been so skeptical of their fraudulent models which don't seem to mention this mechanism.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Bob Boyd said...
Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to imply I believe the fires are caused by global warmening. I'm just saying there are some fires burning in Canada too.

Of course there are. There should be fires, everywhere there's forest, at a low level, often enough so that they stay at a low level

The question is, are there massive, red/organ skin producing forest fires in Canada?

Michael K said...

The irony is that, if you believe the global warming is occurring, forest management would be even more important.

These people are idiots.

bagoh20 said...

We have the numbers, right? So when did the planet warm, and by how much did it warm which caused the forest fires. It only takes a single degree or so to go from normal to burning? Is that the argument? This is not the first or worst drought in the history of the West, so what caused the earlier ones, and how are we sure the cause this time is not the same as all the times before?

Michael said...

Global warming causes lightening and arson. So let’s whine about GW instead of managing the forests, wait thirty or forty years for windmills and solar panels to do the job.