It's Time To Get To Know Joe Manchin

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  • For the past four years, the Republicans have held voting control of the U.S. Senate, but by very narrow margins.

  • Since 2017, the Republicans have had either 51, 52 or 53 seats, out of 100, at various times. That has meant that on any given vote, a handful of Republican defectors would be sufficient to sink whatever initiative was on the table. And thus a very small group of independent-minded Republican Senators — most prominently, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and (until his death in 2018) John McCain of Arizona — held the keys to any Republican plans to get legislation enacted or government officers confirmed.

  • Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats have recently had a remarkably cohesive caucus. Perhaps that is because the Democrats all really believe in the program of the progressive left (possible), or perhaps it is because the potential waverers are cowed by the threat of the cancel mob.

  • However, there is at least one guy in a very unique position. That is Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Suddenly, he looks to be the most important guy in the Senate.

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Incitement To Mob Violence, Acceptable Versus Unacceptable Forms

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Incitement To Mob Violence, Acceptable Versus Unacceptable Forms

  • In case you were wondering, the Manhattan Contrarian hereby condemns mob violence without qualification, and whether coming from the left or right side of the political spectrum.

  • By Friday January 8, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had had her team draw up a new draft article of impeachment against the President. The draft accuses the President of “incitement of insurrection” and “willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States.”

  • In the list below, I have included what I think are the six most concerning statements from Trump’s speech. And then I have mixed in various statements from prominent Democrats and progressives with regard to leftist mob violence. See if you can tell which are which:

  1. “Make the phone calls, send the emails, show up. You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.”

  2. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

  3. “I believe injustice is a threat to the safety of all people. Because once you have a group that is marginalized . . . they have no choice but to riot.”

  4. “We will not let them silence your voices.”

  5. “[W]e’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that.”

  6. “And everyone beware, because they’re [violent protests] not gonna stop….They’re not gonna let up. And they should not. And we should not.”

  7. “We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

  8. “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be. . . .”

  9. “We’re not going to let it happen.”

  10. “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears, because your violence has brought this resistance. We have the right to fight back!”

  11. “Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Answers below the fold.

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China Starts Collecting On Its Investment In The Bidens

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  • You have to hand it to China for one thing — they play a long game.

  • Remember back a few months to October. That’s when the infamous Hunter Biden laptop became public information through the diligent reporting of the New York Post.

  • The biggest revelation on the laptop was the formation in 2017 of a joint venture between Biden family members and a Chinese-government-affiliated energy company called CEFC (10% for “the big guy”). According to emails on the laptop, sums changing hands included at least a $5 million “forgivable non-interest-bearing” loan. There was discussion in the laptop emails about much larger sums also moving from China to the Bidens, but since nobody has ever been able to get a Biden to answer any questions about the subject, the full extent of the payments remains a state secret.

  • But why, you ask, was China paying that kind of money to the Biden family in 2017 — a time when Joe had left office as Vice President, and was just one of many potential candidates for President in 2020?

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Causation Of Climate Change: Was The Medieval Warm Period "Regional"?

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Causation Of Climate Change: Was The Medieval Warm Period "Regional"?

  • Some commenters yesterday noted that the climate establishment has not just completely ignored the threat to their orthodoxy posed by the Medieval Warm Period and other similarly-warm pre-human-emissions eras. Initially, there was recognition that this issue could be important, and there was definitely some attempt to deal with it.

  • However, over time, the accumulation of evidence, particularly as to the existence Medieval Warm Period as a global phenomenon, gradually became overwhelming.

  • So — in the face of evidence that, under the normal precepts of the scientific method, would be deemed to invalidate the hypothesis that only human CO2 emissions could be causing current warming — how can the orthodoxy be kept alive?

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Causation Of Climate Change, And The Scientific Method

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  • Let’s have yet another go at trying to apply the scientific method to the subject of causation of climate change. This is just basic logic, and not that complicated. We can do it.

  • As simple and basic as this is, you will shortly see that the agglomeration of all of the world’s leading “climate scientists” can’t figure it out. They are completely lost and befuddled. Check me and see if I’m wrong.

  • The proposition we are addressing is the one for which you see a constant drumbeat of advocacy. It runs something like, “the climate is changing, and we are the cause.” OK, nobody denies that the climate is changing; but how about the “we are the cause” part? What is the proof?

  • Let’s apply the scientific method.

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Happy New Year, Reality Denial Edition

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  • On the last post a few days ago, several commenters raised the subject of the popular and long-running TV series Law & Order, particularly as to the race of the perpetrators of the crimes. The show purports to be based on actual incidents, and tries to give an impression of basis in reality.

  • On the episodes of that show that I have watched — admittedly not a large sample — the perpetrator of the violent crime has seemed almost always to turn out to be white and, for that matter, rich.

  • But are the show’s producers intentionally skewing the reality of the race of perpetrators of violent crimes? And if so, by a little, or by a lot?

  • I decided to look around to see if I could find some relevant statistics.

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