Crime, Death, and Taxes

The free market depends on virtues it rewards but can’t create itself.

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John Eastman was disbarred and may be indicted for the crime of representing Donald Trump. In April he announced that at least two banks with which he had done business were terminating his accounts. His crime? Providing legal advice to Donald Trump in his effort to challenge the integrity of the 2020 election.--Kimball

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Word of Day

Obloquy:
Invective implies vehemence comparable to vituperation but may suggest greater verbal and rhetorical skill; it may also apply especially to a public denunciation, as in "blistering political invective." Obloquy, which comes from the Late Latin ob- (meaning "against") plus loquī (meaning "to speak"), suggests defamation

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Crime, Death, and Taxes

The guy who attacked Pelosi's husband with a hammer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
It could have been more except that Judge Corley said in court that she had taken into account Mr. DePape’s lack of a previous criminal record and his vulnerability to conspiracy theories.

It's probably kind that the judge pulled the punch on the maniac but it should not be confused with justice.

What does she mean, lack of a previous criminal record? He was in the country illegally. His tourist visa expired in 2008. He had been residing in the country illegally for fourteen years. Doesn't that qualify as a crime?

The Times then branched into a strange concept of cause-and-effect that the Times feels made the attack inevitable:

"Mr. DePape reflects the underbelly of American politics: a man driven by online conspiracy theories who seemed to embrace the rhetoric of many right-wing figures, who have used dehumanizing language for years to describe Ms. Pelosi and call her an enemy of the United States."


So, DePape wasn't really viciously attacking anyone as much as completing a part in an evolving chain of Rube Goldberg influences culminating in his attack on Pelosi. This absolves him of personal responsibility.
The devil made him do it.

And ducks the other obvious element: DePape sounds nuts.

The message here is not that benign guys can be influenced by goofy ideas. Or that there are a lot of poorly tied-down cannons out there. That's a gimmie. Look at some of the dominant political and social notions loosed upon the land today. But 300 million people in the culture are complicated. Simplistic answers are worse than unhelpful, they are dangerous. And, often, so are illegal immigrants.