Matt Iserman

Principal songwriter and instrumentalist for the 101,547th best rock band ever @Phuerthann.

[Matt Iserman @MattIserman]

@bendreyfuss Communism can't work without forcing people at gun point to work the fields. (I recognize that you know this. It just floors me how many people don't.)

[Matt Iserman @MattIserman]

@NateSilver538 Why withdraw? If he stays in, the Ds will support his run. If he wins, well, senators tend to hold the job for life. If he loses then he is no worse off than had he quit.

[Art @ZarkFiles]

The E. Jean Carroll case against President Trump is one of the strangest civil cases in American history. The foundational problem is this: Carroll could not identify when the alleged incident occurred — not even the year with any precision.
That should have killed the case as dead as a skunk on the road right there.
Without a temporal anchor, no defendant — regardless of guilt or innocence — can mount an alibi defense. Trump, who has maintained detailed calendars and staff records for decades, was denied the most basic tool of self-defense: the ability to establish where he was. That is not a technicality. It is a due process violation at the constitutional level.
Then Carroll produced the one piece of physical evidence she claimed corroborated her account — the dress she wore during the alleged incident. It was subsequently established that the dress was designed after the incident could have occurred. The sole corroborating evidence falsified her timeline.
The case proceeded anyway.
The resulting verdict was then weaponized in a defamation suit — where Trump was held liable for denying the allegation, while being procedurally barred from defending against it, because it was already "proven" in another court, regardless how flawed the procedure was. He was punished, in effect, for asserting his own innocence.
Compounding everything: coordinated professional and physical threats so thoroughly intimidated the legal community that attorneys refused these cases regardless of available fees. When you systematically destroy a defendant's ability to retain counsel of choice, you forfeit the right to a legitimate verdict.
An allegation is not evidence. Process without substance is not law. And a verdict produced under these conditions carries no legitimate authority — whatever its formal status.

Not only is it the right move to investigate Carroll, but every other person involved as well. Trump is owed serious damages here, and there may be a few people who belong in prison for their roles in the case.

[Matt Iserman @MattIserman]

@BurtMaclin_FBI Well, if she can still manage to vote then it isn't unreasonable to expect her to stand.

[Eric @breakingbaht]

Im not doing this shit.

When I first left "the left" probably 10 to 15 years ago now, the very first thing I noticed is that the vitriol was *not* the same as when I was on the left.

The right talked shit. I had a boss for years that knew I was a shitlib and he'd make jokes about it, but it was *different* I never got the sense for a moment the dude legitimately hated me, would fire me, etc.

The moment I moved to the right, it was another *world* I would know people *my entire life* would I *immediately* sense would actively *try to hurt me career and socially* if I made them mad disagreeing with me. And it often ended up happening. The level of intrinsic hate is just completely different.

[Katie Pavlich @KatiePavlich]

Well, this story isn’t going to get any coverage in the majority of media. The Southern Poverty Law Center played a major role in organizing the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, which was falsely used as a political knife against Trump for years.

https://t.co/8jmfPmzl1s

[Eric S. Raymond @esrtweet]

Hello, Europeans. The first thing you need to understand about the rant I'm about to utter is that I'm not MAGA, not a Trumpite, but a libertarian who has in the past nevertheless been strongly supportive of US military presence overseas. Because I want the wars that defend this country to be fought in somebody else's country, as far away from me as possible with a nice big ocean in the way.

Also relevant: I have a history of having lived in Europe and traveled there extensively. I was at one time bilingual in English and Spanish, and have been passably fluent in Italian and French as well. I could probably still find my way around London and Rome and central Paris reasonably well. So if you're tempted to tell yourselves that I'm some kind of parochial American hick, abandon that hope.

All that was set-up. So that, when I tell you that almost the entirety of the US electorate, not just Trump supporters, is increasingly fed up with your shit, take me seriously.

We've been cleaning up your messes and keeping the sea lanes open since 1917. And that was for you, not us - we, being very close to resource self-sufficient, don't need that investment so much. We've spent enormous amounts of blood and treasure on keeping you safe. We risked nuclear hellfire on our own cities for nearly 50 years to keep Soviet tanks from rolling through the Fulda Gap.

Even since the Cold War ended, we've subsidized your socialist-playpen welfare states and disastrous immigration policies by taking the need to maintain militaries more effective than a sack of wet farts off the table.

Now we've come looking for help keeping a bunch of rabid Islamic fanatics from getting nuclear weapons that are a clear and present danger to all of you even more than they are to us, and what do we hear?

"Waah! It's another Republican president we don't like, just like the last half dozen of them! So we're going to sulk in a corner, except when we're biting at your ankles with crap like airspace restrictions."

No. No, we're not going to take this anymore. It's not just conservatives who have had enough, it's moderates and people who used to be strong supporters of liberal internationalism.

Our citizen's willingness to pay higher taxes to protect you was upward-bounded by your gratitude. Now that we know your gratitude has effectively gone to zero, so does our willingness.

Don't expect this to change if the Democrats take power here. They are much less liberal-internationalist than Republicans now. While they might make mouth noises that soothe you, their overriding concern is the gaping, insatiable maw of their income transfer programs. They'll sacrifice subsidizing Europe's playpen socialism to feed their domestic version in a heartbeat. And there is no longer any significant Democratic constituency to argue against that.

In truth, three decades after the Cold War ended there is no American constituency at all for the massive subsidies you get. It frankly surprises me they lasted this long, that we were this patient with your cowardice and your bitchy whining.

This moment has been a long time coming. It's not Donald Trump sinking the transatlantic alliance, it is absolutely you.

[Tom Kratman @TKratman]

From Martin Iles, reposted:

Having lived in the USA for nearly two years, I've realised something.

The USA and the remainder of the Western world are no longer aligned.

We all laugh and mock when the Americans say, "Freedom!" because we truly think we're as free as they are.

Wrong. We're not. Not even close. The laws, the mindset, and the behaviour, is totally different in this regard.

Most of all, the governments are totally different. The USA's convictions around core freedoms are on a scale we do not share.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump wins the popular vote, the electoral college, the House, and the Senate... a man who, in every other Western country, is held in open derision, if not contempt.

For these and other reasons, we are not the same.

Yet the West, including Australia, fully expect to rely on the USA for our very survival.

If the world turns bad (which will happen - only a question of time), then the whole West, without America, is toast.

So, you may ask - if we're not very aligned ideologically, then it must be that we bring something to the party militarily?

Well, no... actually... we don't matter that much militarily.

The USA has about 470 ships in its navy, including 11 aircraft carriers, 69 submarines, 75 destroyers... plus 110 new ships in the pipeline.

Australia has about 30, including 3 destroyers, 7 frigates and 7 outdated submarines. The UK does a little better, with about 60.

Meanwhile, the US has over 14,000 military aircraft. A staggering number.

Australia has 252 military aircraft. The UK has 556.

The US army has just shy of 1,000,000 uniformed personnel in its military. Australia has about 45,000.
The USA spends 3.4% ($968 billion) of its GDP on defence. Australia spends 2% ($36.4 billion). The US spends as much as the next 15 largest military-spending countries (including China) combined.

The USA has a fighting culture. The men shoot things (a lot) and hunt things, the veterans get favoured in everything from parking spots to boarding planes. A uniformed young man is thanked in the street a dozen times a day.

"Oh, the Americans and their guns!" we say, in our smug way. Yes, they have a warrior culture. We do not. We don't have to, because we're a leech on theirs.

How many young British men are willing to fight for their country? Now ask the same regarding young American men. The difference is about as wide as it could be.

Militarily, we don't offer squat.

Meanwhile, look at the way Australia works against America's interests by loving on China. China made us rich and we stay close. This is a Marxist regime with expansionist aims.

Again, you have to spend time in the USA to realise just how vast a gulf there is between us on China.

Europe, too. They let China have their way everywhere from Germany to Greenland, all the while importing Islam and sending their own people to court for saying hurty words.

Somehow, we have landed the deal of a lifetime with the USA that says, "when the baddies come, you'll save us ok?" Because we can't save ourselves.

And we live in peace. But we keep gnawing away at freedoms, keep enabling China, and get flabby and disinterested about our military because Uncle Sam's got it.

And, let's be honest, Americans are widely looked down on. To add insult to injury, we don't think that highly of our protectors.

So, the USA is finally saying "enough." I am here, I can tell you what the vibe is, and that's it. Trump is doing what people want in this regard. They're over it.

And we come across all shocked and hard done by. We behave like people with no self-insight at all.

Yes, the global alliance system is all over the place now. From America's perspective, it's about time.

And I must say, though I be a proud Australian, I am forced to agree. Something has to change.

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya explains that once he learned the mainstream media was lying to him, he left the Democrat Party

“You went from being a large Democrat donor to now a very outspoken proponent on the other side of the aisle”

Chamath Palihapitiya “Yeah — This is not about politics for me, it's about the truth. There was a moment where I was basically like everybody else, and pretty brainwashed.

My media diet was very much the same as everybody else's. I read the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I watched a little bit of CNN, a little bit of CNBC, a little bit of MSNBC, a little bit of CBS Economist.

Every now and then you encounter it on a plane and you think you know what's going on, and I had a perception of Donald Trump initially, from the moment he walked down the staircase in Trump Tower to announce.

And then over the course of 6-7 years, I realized that some of those fundamental things that I was told about him were just totally false. And there was enough content online where I was almost afraid, but it started with Charlottesville.

I was almost afraid to look at it because I'm like, I think I was lied to. And then I saw it. I saw what he said, but then I saw the portrayal. I had originally believed that portrayal until I saw the truth.

And then I just started to go down that rabbit hole.

So for me, it was an evolution where I was like, I can't believe I'm being lied to by this group of people whose sole responsibility is to hold truth, to power. The key word there is truth to power, not your perception or your desires. And I just think that that, that, I mean, red-pilled me, I guess in a way”

[Scott Jennings @ScottJenningsKY]

Remember when the national media tried to impeach Justice Alito because his wife hung up George Washington’s flag on their porch?

[Elie Cohen كامل أمين ثابت @ManInDamascus]

Hamas literally livestreamed a pogrom and still ended up with large parts of the world on their side. That isn’t an Israeli PR failure, it’s a failure of the West to be able to distinguish good from evil. This impairment will manifest in ways far more serious to them than this. Israel could have more quickly countered the bullshit but it’s hard to outrun the Brandolini principle.

[Matt Iserman @MattIserman]

@redheadranting https://t.co/ouvnZw3Oc5

[Matt Iserman @MattIserman]

@redheadranting Have you tried Vulfpeck?

[Matt Iserman @MattIserman]

@damintoell @sunnyright Do the kid's parents know?

[Shawn Farash @Shawn_Farash]

Over the last week Liberals have:

- Taken the side of Canada over the United States in Olympic hockey

- Taken the side of illegal aliens over American citizens

- Taken the side of the "Death To America" Iranian Regime over the United States

Remember in November!

[Matt Iserman @MattIserman]

@mreflow Anthropic saying, "you can't use it for these two things" and the gov't saying, "we'll use it for whatever is legal" does not mean the gov't wants to use it for those two things. It means the gov't is saying that Anthropic cannot dictate gov't policy.

[Greg Price @greg_price11]

Craziest part about all of this is that President Trump didn't even demean the women's hockey team. His joke was about how he'd be impeached if he didn't invite them to the White House-- the joke being that liberals go insane over every little thing he does. And they've definitely proved his point.

[Graham Linehan @Glinner]

@PodSaveAmerica Men asking to be let into women's spaces is special treatment, not equal treatment

[End Wokeness @EndWokeness]

Trump says "stand up if you believe that we should protect Americans, above illegals"

Democrats refused to stand

[Gerry Callahan @GerryCallahan]

This is perfect.

ICE agent: “If you cared, you would care about the child who got raped and the person who got murdered by the guy we’re looking for. “

Awful, ugly white lady: “I don’t care.”

The entire insane national debate encapsulated in 20 sec.