CSotD: Friday Fallacy Round-up
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Clay Bennett (CTFP) summarizes the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, using the inquisitors’ own phrase that they intend to “connect the dots.”
However, so far, as he notes, the only revelation that has come out of the hearings is that it’s a waste of time, which even their own lead witnesses have confirmed.
There is an old maxim among attorneys that you should never ask a question to which you do not already know the answer, but the chuckleheads on this committee invited testimony from what they assumed were friendly — but apparently unvetted — sources.
Jonathan Turley took his oath and declared “I have previously stated that, while I believe that an impeachment inquiry is warranted, I do not believe that the evidence currently meets the standard of a high crime and misdemeanor needed for an article of impeachment.”
Then their forensic accountant told the committee he’d found no evidence of corruption or wrongdoing.
To be fair, Turley said he still thinks they should continue drilling this dry hole, and the accountant, Bruce Dubinsky, said he was willing to look at more documentation, on the theory that, golly, you never know.
Their approach would do honor to Wilkins Micawber, the shiftless but optimistic scrounger from David Copperfield, who was eternally certain that “something will turn up” and willing to accept support from others until that happy day.
And I say that in appreciation of the fact that Micawber was played in the 1935 movie by WC Fields, who would fit perfectly on this panel.
It’s hard to connect a single dot to anything, but Biden’s enemies have discovered, as Mike Luckovich points out, that his dog continues to nip Secret Service agents.
There may be some substance here, because Commander recently took his eleventh chomp out of somebody, and while these all may be minor flesh wounds, it does suggest that maybe Joe Biden is too soft-hearted and perhaps the ladder of justice is giving Commander a level of impunity not granted to other dogs.
But unless Biden says, “I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me … My dog did not have dental interactions with those Secret Service agents,” they won’t even be able to impeach him for perjury.
If you can’t find real evidence, you can always make it up, but then AOC grabbed the spotlight away from Byron Donalds (R-FL), who had introduced a text message that seemed to indicate Jim Biden was collaborating with his brother Joe on a business deal for Hunter.
As she indicated, and others have confirmed, Donalds trimmed the text message to leave out the fact that Hunter — then deeply in addiction — had asked for help paying his alimony. It was a family matter and had nothing to do with business.
However, as she also noted, the Speech and Debate law means legislators cannot be held liable for falsehoods, fabrications and errors.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Two commentaries on the pending governmental shutdown, both, as it happens, from the Washington Post.
De Adder is correct that the nation is being held hostage, but I doubt that, if we give in to their demands, they will relent.
Telnaes is closer to the central issue, which is that the Freedom Caucus has no particular list of demands and is, rather, focused on torturing Kevin McCarthy, who is also indifferent to the national interest and intent on doing whatever it takes to avoid losing the speakership.
This is why you don’t bargain with blackmailers, extortionists and kidnappers: Regardless of what you agree to, they will always demand something else as well.
Mister, we could use a man like Julius Caesar again.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
It’s hardly surprising that, when the FTC accuses Amazon of being a monopoly, the game Monopoly should spring to more than one cartoonist’s mind, which could readily fall into the rule that, if you thought of it quickly, you aren’t the only one.
But it’s no reason not to give it a shot, if you can differentiate. Hands works a lot of detail into his piece, both in reproducing an Amazon-based game board and in giving his Uncle Pennybags some dialogue.
But Breen went bold by simply combining Uncle Pennybags and the Amazon logo. It’s bold because he had a pretty good chance of someone doing the same thing, but it’s also bold because he recognized that the game is so well known that he didn’t need to do much to it in order to make his point.
As for the substance of the case, I’ve known enough cartoonists who have complained that Amazon forces them to sell their collections under cost that I’ve mostly stopped recommending it as a source for any books I cite.
On the other hand, out here in the sticks Amazon is a practical alternative to long drives to larger cities and high-priced stores.
I’ve ambivalent, but hopeful.
When Ma Bell was broken up, the net result was a lot of smaller companies, so that we still had a good, functioning telephone system without the sense of Lily Tomlin’s Ernestine saying “We’re the phone company. We don’t care. We don’t have to!”
Something like that would be nice.
Speaking of Consumer Issues
Nay offers an alternative to standing in that long line at the Pearly Gates, but if word got down to Earth, we’d have people posting on social media that angels were losing their jobs and it was just too hard to figure out how to get into heaven through that gol-darned new-fangled system.
Maybe the UK is different, but I’ve never seen a store where you didn’t have the option of waiting in line for a cashier. And it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a store that didn’t have signs begging you to come work there. They’re desperate to hire, not laying people off.
But I remember the people who couldn’t figure out how to put gasoline in their cars when self-pump began, and there are still people who can’t deal with ATMs, despite the fact that the young folks aren’t even using those, now that they have banking apps on their phones.
Bottom line is this: Most people prefer self-check.
But a whole lot of people enjoy complaining.
Always have.
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