The (new) Right Coast

Welcome to the emergency Right Coast blog while we try to sort out what happened to the last one

Hello everybody! The reason for this sudden shift is the old Right Coast blog seems to have suffered a peculiar disaster and we're still trying to figure out just what. Was it an attack by the CCP? The trans lobby? Some Trump fanatics? Or just something stupid I did (though I can't imagine what)? In any event, since April 12th, I have been unable to post anything on the RC and not for want of trying. And since I am the only person who suffers the compulsion to post, this is a problem.  I sense it is a problem that may take a while to sort out, since nobody seems to have an idea yet what is causing it. Hence this new old blog. Thank you for your inconvenience, as LWJ and I frequently say to each other. 

While I'm making these monumental changes, I invite your suggestions for new names for the blog. The Right Coast has perhaps some good will (as well as bad) that maybe lost, true, but the name The Right Coast no longer captures what this blog is about, namely the cause of Liberty, in the traditional sense of the word. I'm not a national conservative, or a Christian Nationalist, or a Trump supporter -- I'm at most a "sometimes Trumper." I'm occasionally sympathetic with their causes, but the whole Right-Left thing seems increasingly wrong to the sadly greatest issues of our times. So if you have any bright ideas, please let me know in the comments or at tacsmith at gmail dot com. 

Argentina’s President Javier Milei Loves Being the Skunk at the Garden Party | The Free Press

BW: Can you explain why you think economic libertarianism and anti-wokeism—for lack of a better term—go together? Because for many people here in the States, that’s not a natural pairing.

JM: The way people have been educated has not been for full freedom. The world I’m proposing is a more free world. This is why the culture battle is so important. The culture battle is part of showing the world that for many years, it was mistaken. In fact, what is today politically correct is an abhorrent world because it has loads of socialism. The tendency will always be toward socialism, and that’s the big battle. This is why it is said that the cost of freedom is constant surveillance.

The state exists because humans have failed to live together in peace. And this is why the state government exists. These problems are something that technology could fix. So this is very important because the real world may start to look more like the anarcho-capitalist ideal as technological progress evolves. This is why I’m trying to foster and showcase all technological matters in Argentina, because that will accelerate the progress of freedom. But even economists have not been educated to understand this. 

For now, it seems to be going very well, but what’s quite clear to me is that I will die fighting. I will not surrender.

via www.thefp.com

Viva Milei!

Bari Weiss.

I love that Milei is reviving Argentina, supports Ukraine because it is standing up to Russia and supports Israel, and of course opposes wokism. And of course is a dog lover, and would be a Catholic except for RC's takeover by wokism. I hope he has excellent personal security because he has got to be on many death lists.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei Loves Being the Skunk at the Garden Party | The Free Press

BW: Can you explain why you think economic libertarianism and anti-wokeism—for lack of a better term—go together? Because for many people here in the States, that’s not a natural pairing.

JM: The way people have been educated has not been for full freedom. The world I’m proposing is a more free world. This is why the culture battle is so important. The culture battle is part of showing the world that for many years, it was mistaken. In fact, what is today politically correct is an abhorrent world because it has loads of socialism. The tendency will always be toward socialism, and that’s the big battle. This is why it is said that the cost of freedom is constant surveillance.

The state exists because humans have failed to live together in peace. And this is why the state government exists. These problems are something that technology could fix. So this is very important because the real world may start to look more like the anarcho-capitalist ideal as technological progress evolves. This is why I’m trying to foster and showcase all technological matters in Argentina, because that will accelerate the progress of freedom. But even economists have not been educated to understand this. 

For now, it seems to be going very well, but what’s quite clear to me is that I will die fighting. I will not surrender.

via www.thefp.com

Viva Milei!

Bari Weiss.

I love that Milei is reviving Argentina, supports Ukraine because it is standing up to Russia and supports Israel, and of course opposes wokism. And of course is a dog lover, and would be a Catholic except for RC's takeover by wokism. I hope he has excellent personal security because he has got to be on many death lists.

Two animal cruelty warrants filed against Chiefs' Isaiah Buggs - ESPN

Two misdemeanor warrants have been filed against Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, on charges of cruelty to dogs in the second degree.

According to court documents, the Tuscaloosa Police Department received a report that two dogs were being left on the back porch of a home being rented by Buggs. Officers and animal control found a gray and white pit bull and a black rottweiler on a screened-in back porch with no access to food or water.

Both dogs appeared malnourished and neglected, and the residence appeared to be abandoned. Witnesses told police Buggs had recently moved from the house. Both dogs were seized, and the pit bull eventually was euthanized.

via www.espn.com

At least he doesn't support traditional marriage.

A Manhattan canned hunt: The Trump jury is out but is the case in the bag?

Finally, Merchan is allowing conviction based on a  “general intent” to defraud “any person or entity,” a dangerously vague concept in this novel criminal case. Merchan has largely stuck to the standard jury instructions but this case is anything but standard. With an ambiguous claim of “influencing” an election, a general intent instruction without better definition to this case can be an invitation for bias.

Given the instructions and the errors in this trial, it would seem that an acquittal is almost beyond the realm of possibility. That leaves either a hung jury or a conviction. However, the framing of this case and failure to protect the rights of the defendant have undermined the perceived legitimacy of the proceedings and any possible verdict.

With Trump in a tight cage, Merchan just left it for the jury to deliver the coup de grace. We will see. I remain hopeful that a couple jurors will balk at this manufactured criminal theory. Canned hunts are great for trophies, not so much for trials.

via thehill.com

I feel like there must be a legal equivalent of "This is why we can't have nice things."

Jonathan Turley; RTWT.

The Virtues of Settler Colonialism

A few years ago, law professor Gail Heriot pointed out a problem that some on the Right have been noticing for quite some time: “Title VII Disparate Impact Liability Makes Almost Everything Presumptively Illegal.” She argued that at its core, disparate impact liability is an “incoherent” legal doctrine, because “all job qualifications have a disparate impact” on at least one protected class. Established in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), disparate impact liability grants “astonishing discretion” to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enforce laws against workplace discrimination.

Disparate impact liability is a feature, not a bug, of our present regime. The supposed ubiquity of guilt allows the state total license to pick and choose its criminals. If everyone is guilty, then anyone may be singled out for punishment at any time.

What disparate impact liability is to the field of employment law, left-academia’s indictment of settler colonialism is to the study of history. Just as the EEOC indiscriminately targets employers whose hiring happens to disfavor non-whites, the academy is likewise free to accuse nations of injustice that have displaced—you guessed it—non-whites.

via tomklingenstein.com

Pavlos Papadopoulos.

That's my treasured colleague, Gail Heriot btw.

‘Whatever they can get him for is fine with me’ - Washington Examiner

The trial of former President Donald Trump is heading toward a conclusion. For those who at the beginning thought the case was weak and politically motivated, the presentation of the prosecution’s evidence has made it seem even weaker and more politically motivated. A conviction will not change that.

On the other side, though, some in the anti-Trump world who were originally skeptical about the case’s merits have come to believe that it is actually stronger than they first thought. That was not necessarily because the case is actually stronger but because, as events unfolded, it became clear that the current trial, in which Manhattan Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump committed bookkeeping offenses as part of a conspiracy to corrupt the 2016 presidential election, represents Democrats’ only chance to try Trump, possibly to convict him, and perhaps even to imprison him before the election in November. 

“Not all that long ago, I thought that the trial currently being held … seemed the least serious of the cases against him,” wrote George Conway, the conservative lawyer-turned-Biden megadonor, in the Atlantic earlier this month. “But I feel the need to admit error. The truth is, I’ve come around to the view that People v. Trump is, in at least some ways, the perfect case to put Trump in the dock for the first time, and — I hope, but we’ll see — perhaps prison.”

Why is that? Conway, one of the more aggressive members of the anti-Trump resistance, wrote that he now believes the Manhattan case perfectly exposed what he says are Trump’s myriad lies. But for the resistance, the most salient fact about the Manhattan trial is this: It is happening. It is getting done before the election, which is the most important consideration for Democrats who pray that a Trump conviction could change the dynamics of a presidential race in which Trump leads President Joe Biden.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Byron York.

If they put Trump in jail, it will look really, really bad, for all concerned. I call on all Americans to stop being so pig-headed, drink moderately, go to bed early, stop all this ridiculous greedy nonsense right now. That goes for everybody, Russians too. Right this minute. All right then.

If you think Biden has troubles, just look at Trudeau - POLITICO

OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau is running out of time.

He has trailed in polls by double digits for nearly a year, and the outlook for the once popular prime minister is so grim that some old guard Liberals have been grumbling that maybe he should just step down and give someone else a shot.

To turn it around and win a fourth term, Trudeau has less than 17 months before he must hold an election and face off against an ascendant Conservative Party and its firebrand populist leader, Pierre Poilievre.

Trouble is, nothing he’s tried so far to improve his standing has worked.

via www.politico.com

Cross your fingers.

Israeli Tanks Close In on Central Rafah as Global Uproar Grows - WSJ

Israeli tanks advanced further into Rafah Tuesday, according to witnesses, as the Israeli military said it was expanding operations in the southern Gazan city even amid growing international condemnation.

The tanks passed near the Al-Awda mosque, a central Rafah landmark, Palestinians in the city told The Wall Street Journal. The Israeli military didn’t comment on the specifics of its expansion into Rafah, but Israel’s Army Radio said the military had added a brigade to the five already operating in the city and troops were engaging in close-quarters combat with Hamas.

Israel is trying to thread the needle between pursuing a fight with Hamas in Rafah without further damaging its relationship with the U.S., its closest ally, or derailing fragile relations with the Arab world.

via www.wsj.com

Hack Files: The Truth Is Out There (Just Not in Jen Psaki's Book)

Being an effective White House press secretary involves more than just lying to protect your boss. It also requires a knack for killing time with tedious exposition that conveys as little useful information as possible. Psaki's talents are on full display in Say More. For instance, there's an extended section about the importance of keeping one's audience engaged that is so unengaging—your humble reader tapped out during the part about traditional cuisine in Kyrgyzstan—it's as if the author intended it as a meta example of what not to do.

It's a shame because one presumes Psaki has at least a few interesting stories from her time in the Obama and Biden administrations. There was the time, for example, she went on vacation in August 2021 just as Taliban forces were storming into Kabul. No mention of that. Instead, the author provides a handful of twee anecdotes about the time she didn't recognize Chance the Rapper at a White House state dinner, or the time she accidentally "denied John Kerry was on his yacht during a military coup" when he totally was. (Who among us?)

via freebeacon.com

Andrew Stiles.

C'mon man. This review is just cruel. You're supposed to just shoot the fish in the barrel, not take it out and torture it. Still, it's good fun, if not precisely clean.

Judgment week: How prosecutors will use the ‘other crime’ against Trump - Washington Examiner

Finally, just what do prosecutors have to prove? Colangelo noted that the defense argued there was “a requirement that there be proof that the goal of the conspiracy was to promote the election of a person by unlawful means.” But “the actual commission of the predicate crime does not need to be established beyond a reasonable doubt. … Again, the only proof obligation the people have, which is a high one, is to establish that this defendant had made or caused false entries in the business records of his enterprises, with an intent to defraud and the intent to conceal the commission of another crime. But there is no proof requirement as to the object crime.”

Actually, that’s not a very high proof obligation at all. In the Trump trial, for the bookkeeping misdemeanor to be a felony, it has to be committed with intent to commit or cover up another crime. But if the other crime is the misdemeanor of conspiring to promote election by ‘unlawful means,’ and the unlawful means doesn’t have to be a crime, and prosecutors don’t have to prove it — then prosecutors are seeking to convict Trump of 34 felonies, and jail him for a maximum of 136 years, on very little basis.

And isn’t that what many legal observers have said all along? There’s just not much to the Manhattan prosecution. The penalties sought are way out of line with the offenses alleged. It was brought by a prosecutor, Bragg, who campaigned on a platform of pursuing Trump. It’s flimsy, unfair, and politically motivated. Now that the trial is reaching its climax — the verdict — its injustices are becoming more and more obvious.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Byron York.

I recently read The Blazing World by some smart British boffin or other, a history of the English Civil War and other related hijinks. Good lord. Many, many politically motivated trials, not least of which was that culminating in the compulsory shortening of Charles II. Each outrage reminded me more uncomfortably of our present times than the last, substituting intersectionality for transubstantiation, perhaps.