Today’s music list:

It’s time for your periodic reminder: free markets solve pretty much everything:

Even the picayune exception you’re about to throw into the conversation?

Yes.  If the market is free enough, and you give it enough time and the fundamentals of the economy are strong enough (we’re talking Argentina, here – a nation that’s been enervated by almost 20 years of near collapse)? 

Yes. That too. 

Carry on.

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Thank you to everyone who Voted as Hard as They Could.  It paid off.  The election was not stolen. 

I have a parenthetical thought that doesn’t pertain to Joe. I don’t want to interrupt the flow, so I’ll hit that at the bottom of the post.

Back to Joe, who has the same question I had the day after the election:

But I still have a lingering question or two.  What happened to those 81 million 2020 Biden voters?  They didn’t go to Trump – he got fewer votes this time than last.  They didn’t stay home – Kamala got as many votes as Hillary.  

Did they ever exist?  Or is this graphic proof of a stolen election after all? 

My first principle is to never assume malice when stupidity and sloth are equally possible. The drop in Trump voters indicates that it’s at least partly the expiration of Covid-era voting rules that allowed people to submit ballots via their DoorDash driver, or by blinking three times during a Zoom meeting.

But that is a lot of disappeared Democrat voters. Which may speak just as well to the “sloth” thing.

OK.  Discuss.

Deferred Parenthetical Thought: And again, pinky swear, isn’t aimed at Joe – I get the point he’s going for (or at least the one he will go for when I’m done interrupting), but could we retire the phrase “Vote Harder?” Smug anarcho libertarians have beaten that one to death.

We get it. You’re splendidly above the muggles and our quaint delusions. 

HBO tells the Wokies to take a breather.

Insert the requisite epilogue: it’s not the end, it’s not even the beginning of the end, it might be the end of the beginning. Or perhaps more recently – the monster in the movie never dies the first time it’s killed.

But maybe the Disney lesson is sinking in?

“Expert on Misinformation” , in a case on “deep fakes”, uses a source that doesn’t exist…

…and might be AI generated:

At the behest of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hancock recently submitted an affidavit supporting new legislation that bans the use of so-called “deep fake” technology to influence an election. The law is being challenged in federal court by a conservative YouTuber and Republican state Rep. Mary Franson of Alexandria for violating First Amendment free speech protections.

Hancock’s expert declaration in support of the deep fake law cites numerous academic works. But several of those sources do not appear to exist, and the lawyers challenging the law say they appear to have been made up by artificial intelligence software like ChatGPT.

For instance, the declaration cites a study titled “The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior,” and says that it was published in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics in 2023. But no study by that name appears in that journal; academic databases don’t have any record of it existing; and the specific journal pages referenced contain two entirely different articles.

“The citation bears the hallmarks of being an artificial intelligence (AI) ‘hallucination,’ suggesting that at least the citation was generated by a large language model like ChatGPT,” attorneys for the plaintiffs write. “Plaintiffs do not know how this hallucination wound up in Hancock’s declaration, but it calls the entire document into question.”

And that’s not all

Separately, libertarian law professor Eugene Volokh found that another citation in Hancock’s declaration, to a study allegedly titled “Deepfakes and the Illusion of Authenticity: Cognitive Processes Behind Misinformation Acceptance,” does not appear to exist.

If the citations were generated by artificial intelligence software, it’s possible that other parts of Hancock’s 12-page declaration were as well. It’s unclear whether the non-existent citations were inserted by Hancock, an assistant, or some other party. Neither Hancock nor the Stanford Social Media Lab replied to repeated requests for comment. Nor did Ellison’s office.

“Bad AI Deep Fake” would explain a lot of Kamala Harris speeches, on the other hand.

Liek this “legal note” – aka “bit of emergency ass-covering from the legal department” – that Sunny Hostin was forced to read on The View lest Matt Gaetz sue them for slander.

The pain was visible.

And glorious. 

And I don’t think they’re done.

Berating voters didn’t work well for Royce White.

And not finishing thoughts didn’t do Giggles a lot of favors (you’ll have to hunker down and get to the “end” of the video to get the reference, and I can’t blame you if you don’t).

But…

…maybe this time it’ll work.

PS:  What is the “Right to be Happy?”

Are Brzezinsky and Scarborough trying to save their jobs?

Or are they trying to belatedly act like “journalists?”

It’s a coin toss as far as I can tell. 

But one things’ for sure – while good deeds might not go unpunished, failing to “denormalize” the “Literal Hitler” certainly won’t:

(Side question: Why is it that everyone who comes to leftist punditry after a career of yapping about grown men chasing balls around fields and courts inevitably such an idiot?)

But there are some – what do I say – “leaks” on the left:

But their purity police never sleep.

Watching today’s Left self-immolate is the perfect Christmas gift

To:  Brian Stelter, CNN
From:  MItch Berg, obstreporous peasant
Re:   Brendan Carr

Mr. Stelter,

You tweeted this about Brendan Carr, President-Elect Trump’s pick to head the FCC:

Just curious – what is it you think Carr is wrong about?

That is all.

…is that not only can you “appropriate” an indigenous culture to your rhetorical ends,  you can agglomerate indigenous cultures together into whatever custom mix you want to make whatever “point” you please.

For example, the term “Latinx”, which purports to consolidate widely disparate cultures (Puerto Rico has little in common with Central America, and less with Argentina and Chile).

Another example:  Er…

…this:

Perhaps the Maori of New Zealand might want to do something to nip this in the bud before white progressive women drag their culture over the shark with them?

Why are Democrats pushing so hard to bring Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia into the union as states?

The answer will become pretty clear in 2032.  People are voting red with their feet.  And Congress and the Electoral College are going to change. 

Texas and Florida appear likely to gain two seats apiece.  The Carolinas, Georgia, Arizona, Utah and Idaho are all contenders for another vote apiece. 

In the meantime, New York and California appear likely to lose 1-2 seats apiece.  Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and West Virginia all appear to be contenders to lose seats.  

A swing of as many as (checking my math) nine electoral votes (and House Seats) from the Democrats to the GOP appears likely. 

The population of Puerto Rico has about the same as Utah, which has six electoral votes (presuming an honest census – which I do not, but for sake of this argument let’s say it is for bow).  DC?  Yep – three electoral votes.  

Kinda explains it all, doesn’t it?

Progressives – in this case, a guy who was telling us Joe Biden was stronger and more with it than Chuck Norris in his prime until two hours before Giggle defenestrated him – are not cool with RFK Junior running the DHHS:

So – RFK Jr. is driving his uncle’s car off the bridge and leaving the NIH and Medicaid to drown slowly?

I can’t be the only one to think that, can I?

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

Biden administration undercounting murders, revising history, setting the stage for a “murder surge” when Trump takes office and murders are honestly reported.

Joe Doakes

 

Let’s not think for a moment that Big Left is giving up after the November 5 landslide.

Governor Walz on Twitter, over the weekend:

Lt. Governor Flanagan, who uses her Native heritage like Walz uses plaid shirts:

That might explain them missing this bit of news:

The shift is striking because a Brookings Institution analysis published after the 2022 midterm elections found Native Americans still “solidly Democratic in their voting preferences.” Looking at data from an African American Research Collaborative poll with a nationally representative sample of Native American voters, the Brookings authors noted that in “House races across the country, Native Americans supported Democratic candidates at 56% relative to 40% of Native Americans who reported voting for Republicans.”

Seventeen counties with majority-Native American populations swung toward President-elect Donald Trump by ten or more percentage points. Just as with black and Hispanic voters, Native Americans had concerns that extended beyond the identity politics and left-wing virtue signaling of Democrats and the Kamala Harris campaign. Nationally, a whopping 65 percent of Native American voters went for Trump.

Apparently “stolen land declarations” aren’t as important as a decent economy and, perhaps, taming of the federal bureaucracy that’s sandbagged so much of Native American society.

Either way, I suspect if any more elections go like this, Prog politicians will stop “celebrating” Native American month, and you’ll start to see Sunny Hostin calling them “Native White Supremacists”.

To:  “Prez”, Dim Little Progressive Social Media Bulb
From:  Mitch Berg, obstreporous peasant who passed Econ 201
Re:  Not The “Own” You Think It Is

“Prez”,

Re your sentiment expressed over the weekend:

I mean, saving more money is good for you – might make you a conservative, eventually, actually.  

And unless you save that money in a coffee can in your closet, it’ll go to a bank, which’ll circulate the money around, further helping those who are participating in the economy to grow things. 

Not sure that’s quite the “own” you think it is. 

Even less so than dumping Twitter to join “BlueSky”, really.

That is all.

OK, so moving to Canada after threatening it over and over again may be a bit much. 

But changing social media platforms (after two years of threatening)?  That’s a little more doable. 

Last week a friend of the blog emailed:

Blue sky app. Looks and works pretty much like X. Their world views are safe there. They speak very freely again which is good humor. Just search your favorite MN media person they are there. No invite needed.

The FotB was referring to BlueSky – which is basically “X” but an echo chamber for the left.

Y’know – Jack Dorsey’s original vision for Twitter, before being foiled by Elon Musk.

And today:

One week on Blue sky and they really have posted nothing revelant. 

Lots of angry libs

I’m missing a party with both the formerly cool but recently genocidal Bob Collins and Kate Knuth?

I may need to take the weekend to grieve. 

A friend of the blog emails:

I am amazed at this council that, when elected, seemed to be highly liberal, rubber-stamping and with very little differences of opinion. And yet, they surprised me in voting 6 against 1 to not immediately restrict drive throughs in Saint Paul.

Some of the comments from council members were actually thoughtful, as if they were listening to and hearing their constituents. They talked about how constituents are questioning if this was the most pressing issue and they agreed. They seemed to understand how this ban could affect jobs in the neighborhood, jobs currently relied upon by their constituents. They even seemed to understand that a business could just start up elsewhere if we make conditions too harsh. 

Only Council President Mitra Jalali seems to be the out of touch person here. She thinks her constituents are bothered by the Taco Bell drive through (as opposed to maybe they don’t walk that area because of the open drug use of the nearby rehab house – Kimball Court). 

There is hope. I know a broken clock can be right twice a day. But, hey, I will take the win.

 

I am equally surprised. I didn’t expect the Council to resist the Highland Park Prog Lifestyle mafia.

Well, everyone but Jalali.  She continues to fail to impress. Which is a fairly evergreen remark.

Some Democrats are reverting to their mean: they lost because the dumb people didn’t support them, and if they somehow were kept out of the process, and voting were reserved for the deserving, things would be different:

So I thought – how about we continue the thought? Let’s impose more, better standards on the electorate!

How about people who take liberty seriously?

If only gun owners were counted: The electoral map would look something like this:

That’d be a pretty serious realignment.

OK – how about the people who risk everything to be the backbone of our economy?

Entrepreneurs: If only people who started business were counted, the totals would go something like this:

Makes sense.

OK – how about the people who actually pay attention to how government works, as opposed to voting for “joy”, “vibes” or to “protect abortion” in states where its already enshrined as a right in the state constitution?

Civics Knowledge: If only people who could pass a test of their civics knowledge:

Note that there wouldn’t be enough qualified voters in the District of Columbia to register a result.

So, among Trump’s current Cabinet nominees:

• I’ve interviewed designated Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth 2-3 times.
• The wife of Doug Burgum (who by some reports has the inside track for Secretary of Energy) is a high school classmate.
• One of my dad’s students in Rugby, ND was an incredibly ambitious young guy named “Donnie” Gaetz.   He won the state debate championship, went on to win the national championship in college, moved to Florida and became a Republican mover and shaker and eventually president of the State Senate, and was a somewhat frequent guest at my parents’ house through the seventies and into the eighties, and who went on to have a son you may have heard of. 

So, Matt Gaetz for AG. 

As happy as I am with all the other nominees, the only upside I can see to this nomination is it’ll get him out of the House, in time for him not to get confirmed…?

He’d be a reliable Trump ally, and he’d likely go at the DOJ with a blowtorch.   Surely we’ve got better people for both jobs?

I’m not the only one with questions.

I’m old enough to remember when “election denial” was the highest of crimes and misdemeanors.  And if you’re much over four years old, so are you.

But (predictably) not as re Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania:

Donald Trump’s stubborn denial of his defeat — his refusal to accept the legitimate election results of 2020 — was bad. January 6 was terrible.

But we saw a similar rejection of election results from Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams two years earlier, and she became a Democratic hero — literally wearing a cape in one photoshoot — and a favorite subject of the Democrats’ celebrity-industrial complex. (And remember, she’s apparently exempt from masking for Covid, while kids sitting right next to her had to stay masked.) She may never become governor of Georgia, but she can always be proud of holding the position of President of United Earth (selected, not elected).

To review, Abrams’s denial of election results was forgivable, Trump’s was the trigger for “the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War,” in Biden’s words, and now Casey’s denial is just a prudent desire to see every vote counted. You don’t have to be Columbo to recognize a suspicious pattern in which a Democratic candidate’s denial of election results is excusable, but a Republican candidate’s denial of election results is a dangerous threat to American governance.

I had a hunch that pendulum was going to swing back, and hard, yet again.

SCENE:  In a conference room at the headquarters of Minnesotans United for All Progressive Causes, a blindingly Scandinavian-looking suite of offices in a pre-war building in Saint Paul.  On one wall, a window looks out on a stunning vista the Mississippi River.  Through the other, rows of cubicles staffed by interns making fund-raising calls, as a couple of college-age boys tear down Kamala Harris posters and throw them in the trash.

In the conference room are:

• Moonbeam BIRKENSTOCK, community engagement manager.  She’s wearing a blue bracelet.
• Inge “Lucky” CARROLL, head meme-buffer.  She sports a new, blue Celtic Thorn tattoo on her wrist.
• Gretel STROMBERG, executive director.  She also has a blue bracelet. 
• Ken MARTIN, Chair of the MN DFL
• Martina ROBBINS, Liaison director for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota.  She’s wearing blue bracelets on each wrist. 
• Chad MANBUNFRONDSON, Democrat National Committee field staffer based in Minneapolis, and current romantic partner of Gretel Stromberg.
• MyLissa SILBERMANN, Reporter for National Public Radio’s Saint Paul bureau, covering the “Fake News” and “Diversity” beats, and no way no how an active participant in regional progressive politics.   Her hair is newly-died blue. 

All look visibly cried-out. 

STROMBERG:   OK.  So, that could have gone better.  But (she says, visibly trying to convince herself), it’s a new day.  Onward and upward.  What do we say?

EVERYONE (grumbling).  We’re not going back.

BIRKENSTOCK (slightly more chipper): Tuuuuurn the page!

(The exhortation is met with grumbles). 

STROMBERG:  OK.   We’re going to get on top of the new plan.  Inge?

CARROLL: Yes.  We’re going to get women to adopt the “Four Bs – it’s a South Korean trend where women swear off dating, sex, marriage and having kids with men”.

BIRKENSTOCK:   I already broke up with my boyfriend.  

STROMBERG:  I actually ditched my partner .

MANBUNFRONDSON:  You what?

STROMBERG: Oh, yeah.  I’m  not going back…

MANBUNFRONDSON:  But…but… (tearing up a bit) Not even if I wear the Schoolgirl outfit?

MARTIN:  (a little perplexed). Hang on, Gretel. Isn’t Chad always an ally?  I mean, he wears an unironic man-bun and ran White Dudes for Harris of Minnesota…

STROMBERG:  The cause is the cause. 

(The women all nod.  Martin looks around, fall silent. MANBUNFRONDSON leaves the room, in tears)

SILBERMANN:  So that means…

CARROLL:  No dating.  No sex.  No marriage.  And noooooo babies.  None.   Complete cut-off. 

STROMBERG:  Sounds like genius.

(Everyone applauds – even Martin, gingerly – except for ROBBINS)

ROBBINS:  Wait.  No sex?

CARROLL:  Yep.  Even for your husband. Sorry. 

ROBBINS:  Oh, that train left the station five years ago.  No, here’s the problem (pulls out iPad, shows it around the table):

ROBBINS: This ingenious plan of yours will leave us broke. Busted. Bupkes.

(Silence around the table, as the murmer of the fundraising and MANBUNFRONDSON’s sobbing filters through the glass wall)

BIRKENSTOCK:  Well, the legislature will appropriate money to make up for it! 

CARROLL: Yeah!  We got the trifecta!  

STROMBERG:  ONE MINNESOTA!

MARTIN:  Uhhhh, kind of a good-news, bad-news situation, here…

SCENE pulls away to the middle of the fundraising floor, to the sound of the womens’ blood-curdling screams. 

And SCENE.

Last night, someone on social media had a slightly different angle on the weekend rally featuring Governor Walz. 

Earlier in his failed VP bid, he said “to some people, “socialism” is just neighborliness“.

And over the weekend, the guy who called over half the nation “Nazis” hopes we can look at each other as neighbors.

So apparently his goal is to come back to Minnesota, take your stuff, and put you in a camp?

Minnesota’s Department of Veterans Affairs sends its regards to all of Minnesota’s veterans…

…of, uh, Soviet-bloc service.

(If you know, you know.  If you don’t, someone will fill you in in the comments).

The highlight of the entire internet this past week has been Justine Bateman – best known as “Mallory Keaton” from “Family Ties”, let’s just say 20 years ago.  

She’s a filmmaker today.   And she’s turning her eye to the parade of leftist rage TikToks that’ve happened since the election. 

Like this one (it’s a short thread – click to read):

The humor is dry enough to make an Englishman put down his tea and say “I say, that is dry humour indeed”. Cold and dry like a great martini when out snowmobiling.

You can see the whole series on X at “#SocialMediaVideoCritiques – but I’ll give you another right here.

One of the more surprising results from election night:  the nation is more…not “conservative”, probably.  More Republican, anyway. 

The New York Times released a “shift map” of election result shifts, by county.

It’s live and interactive here – and it’s an interesting read. Each red arrow is a county where the vote was more Republican than it was in 2020. Note that many of the blue arrows in red states – I’m looking at you, Oliver County North Dakota – are counties where the GOP vote dropped from the 90s into the 80s, for example.

More interesting still – the demographics behind those shifts.

In every category but “people with lots of years in schools”, the anti-Trump reaction of 2020 has more than recouped – in some cases (the urban vote, young people), way way more than recouped.