Special Monday Funbag - Election Eve
Sam Alito's illegal knighthood; NYT's chief pollster admits pollsters changing results to favor GOP; Agent Orange wishes Liz Cheney & journalists be shot; Hugh Hewitt ragequits the Washington Post
Editor’s Note: Family commitments precluded the release of the Friday Funbag, so instead, it’s Monday. Whether this Friday’s comes out or not depends if I’m celebrating our first female president or bracing for the fall of democracy.
Sam Alito was knighted by a French prince, and nobody covered it?
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
That is one of the clearest parts of our Constitution, our foundational legal document which the Supreme Court of the United States is tasked with interpreting in certain cases and instances. Justice Samuel Alito, a justice of that court, who has already shown a remarkable aversion to ethical behavior, accepted a knighthood in the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George, an order of nobility established under the House of Bourbon. The Bourbon Dynasty was the royal family that was deposed during the French Revolution, restored after Napoleon’s fall, and then finally deposed for good during the second French Revolution in 1848. Despite that, they legally hold status in other nations due to the Bourbons having ruled in Spain and Italy. The Italians still recognize the Order, and award medals from it.
I don’t wish to belabor this point, but a Prince from a dynastic order of a foreign nation awarded a title of nobility upon a Supreme Court justice, without the “honorary” exception that the British and French used to award American Allied commanders after World War II for their services. Justice Alito accepted this title in direct contravention of the Constitution he is sworn to uphold. It is blatantly illegal, and his acceptance of and participation in this order demonstrates the utter disdain that Alito has for the application of the law to those on the Court. He may wish to be Cardinal Richelieu, but this is America, and we don’t have Cardinals and royal families making our decisions. He has no business serving on the highest court in our land, and must be removed from it.
Did The New York Times chief pollster said that pollsters are adjusting polls to favor Republicans?
Well, the entire piece is here, but the middle section that I excised above is pretty cut and dried. The pollsters feel like they got it wrong in 2020, which was a black swan event of an entire year, and are overcompensating now by weighting polls in the favor of Republicans, apparently. The Times claims they aren’t doing it themselves, but it’s hard to look at their data and reach that conclusion. Cohn doesn’t even realize how he’s murdering his own credibility by saying “At the same time, the 2016 and 2020 polling misfires shattered many pollsters' confidence in their own methods and data. When their results come in very blue, they don't believe it. And frankly, I share that same feeling: If our final Pennsylvania poll comes in at Harris +7, why would I believe it?”
So if the results come in showing a big Harris lead, it’s disproved, but if it shows Trump up five points, it’s accepted, because “we were wrong in 2020.” Polling based upon past results is extremely limiting, because since 2020, Trump has been convicted of crimes, stolen classified documents, and abortion rights were overturned by the justices he appointed to the Supreme Court. Women are literally dying now from lack of proper OB/GYN care in places where abortion is banned. Women are being charged criminally for miscarriages based on nothing more than the religiously-driven suspicions of police or prosecutors in the area.
I have enough PTSD from 2016 to not get too excited or hopeful, but I truly suspect that there is substantial oversampling for Trump voters now. Women outnumber men amongst registered voters. Women are naming abortion as their top voting issue. Donald Trump doesn’t win that issue. That translates pretty damned directly. Polling needs a major overhaul as an industry.
Trump keeps musing about his opponents being shot. First it was Liz Cheney, now it’s the news media. What gives?
He repeatedly mocked the media and reporters throughout the rally, calling the media "bloodsuckers."
Unlike Donald Trump’s prior handwaving at releasing medical records (concepts of medical records?), he’s put nothing out this time. I suspect he would fail cognitive exams. He couldn’t recognize his own ex-wife during the E. Jean Carroll trial despite repeated attempts by his attorneys to guide him. He rambles consistently, spending hours at most rallies saying many, many words but with very little cohesion. The only thing that’s a constant throughline for him is exacting revenge and ordering violence.
One of the telltale signs of dementia is an increased propensity for aggressive behavior and mood swings. The violent musings that Trump has been uttering have grown increasingly dangerous. His desires eight years ago were restrained to just “knocking the hell out of somebody.” Now, there is no impulse control left. He repeatedly expresses a desire to be a dictator. He says his mass deportation campaign will be very bloody. He talks about having opponents and the media shot, as shown above. He told Benjamin Netanyahu that if he wins, he’ll let Israel do “whatever it has to” in Gaza and the West Bank. He wants to send the military out against anyone who protests him, and jail anyone who criticizes the Supreme Court.
It is a damning indictment of this country that he’s competitive in a presidential race, and we have to think long and hard about how to approach the future with this chilling narrative being true: nearly half of registered voters are accepting of a program that Adolf Hitler himself could have proposed so long as the goods in their lives are cheaper. Worse yet, they think they’re fighting on God’s side. It is a recipe for a bloody civil war on part with that of Cromwell in the 17th century.
Hugh Hewitt quit the Washington Post live on-air. Why should I care?
This one is here just for the sheer schadenfreude. Hewitt is one of the many conservative commentators who denounced Trump until Trump won in 2016, then proceeded to systematically defile themselves for his favor. Hewitt is a smarmy little shithead, and faced with being fact-checked by his colleagues, he threw a tantrum and stormed off, then quit via Twitter. Just like Trump.
The fun starts around the 19-minute mark.
Polls will begin closing 24 hours from now. If you haven’t voted, check where to vote and go do it.