David French and the Syria Bombing

 

David French (image from article about him on wikipedia) is a political commentator. He writes for National Review among other outlets. He is a lawyer by training and served on active duty in Iraq during Desert Storm as a Judge Advocate.

He is noted for being an anti Trump Conservative.

 

Back on April 12, 2018, he warned that bombing Syria without Congressional Authorization would be imprudent and unconstitutional.  Then President Trump ordered bombing of Syria the next day and the bombing was

carried out on April 14, 2018. This was after a Syrian chemical bomb attack on civilians.

In 2021, he praised President Biden for bombing Syria despite their being no Congressional Authorization. 

 

Personally, I think there is a good case to be made that the 2018 bombing was unconstitutional but similar actions have been carried out by a number of Presidents over the past 50 years, so even if unconstitutional, it is more or less SOP.  

More to the point, is French being hypocritical?  French's only defense here is that he is OK with unconstitutional bombing as long as it is 'prudent' and in that case it deserves 'praise'.  That defense is so implausible that I discount it and judge him a hypocrite.  

Similar 'Trump bombing was wrong but Biden's is fine' has been made by other people. My favorite of this genre was by Amy Siskind (a former Wall Street finance type, now a leftist writer) who said that since Biden didn't issue a mean tweet to go with the bombing, it was OK (I can't link to it since she removed the tweet after it was ridiculed - image is from a screen shot by, SirajAHashm, a critic of Siskind).

 

 French's 2018 tweet is here.

French's 2021 tweet is here.

Hashm's tweet with Siskind's tweet captured is here.

Jamie Raskin 2017 opponent of Congressional Election confirmation is now impeachment manager

 

Jamie Raskin is a US Representative for Maryland's 8th Congressional District. It is one of the most obviously politically drawn, a.k.a., Gerrymandered, districts. I live in MD's 6th Congressional District, just outside the 8th which is also Gerrymandered but less so and new district lines are to be drawn in 2021 so I might be in a new district next year.

Back in 2017, Raskin sought to challenge the Electoral College Vote and the Congressional confirmation of that vote.

Now in 2021, Raskin is one of the managers of the impeachment of former President Trump because, among other things, Trump sought to challenge the Electoral College Vote and the Congressional confirmation of that vote.

Is this hypocrisy?

The difference between the two cases is not qualitative and if that were the only criterion, Raskin would be hypocritical. However the difference between the two cases is massive in a quantitative sense. Raskin's anti Electoral College activity was limited to a few days, lower keyed than Trump's comments and not tweeted to millions of his followers over a period of several weeks.  

So I'll say Raskin is a hypocrite but minimally so.

 

Regarding this issue, information on Raskin in 2017 is here and here.

Pirate Hypocrisy

   

Jamie Goodall is an historian. She authored an op ed in the Washington Post. It was published the Friday before the Superbowl. 

The op ed contains her opinion that that calling the Tampa NFL team the Buccaneers (their logo is the first image) is
bad because,

 "...it takes these murderous thieves who did terrible things — like locking women and children in a burning church — and makes them a symbol of freedom and adventure, erasing their wicked deeds from historical memory. These were men (and women) who willingly participated in murder, torture and the brutal enslavement of Africans and Indigenous peoples...."

The second image is this same Jamie Goodall with a tatoo of a sexy female pirate.  Her pirate is quite friendly compared with the team's logo.

Perhaps she got the tatoo and then changed her mind but didn't get the tatoo removed because it costs a lot and is painful.  Other than that this seems hypocritical to me, although it also seems more idiotic than hypocritical.

 

Op ed in the Washington Post is here.

Article on the subject is here.

Snow Travel Hypocrisy

 I don't get too many hypocrisy related weather posts.

New York City has a major snowstorm going on today (up to 2 feet).

Governor Andrew Cuomo went on TV, radio, etc. and told everybody to stay off the road.

Then he got in his car and drove to New York City.

This would be plain hypocrisy except for, first, the presumption that Cuomo's instructions do not apply to emergencies and second that his presence in New York City constitutes an emergency.  I'm OK on the first point. On the second point, it seems to me a truly ridiculous premise.

However, it is possible Cuomo is so detached from reality that he believes this.

Thus I'll call it probable hypocrisy.

 

Story is here.