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Scott Lemieux

12 Dec, 9 tweets, 3 min read

One thing about all these reactionary critics who think they are upholding the Great Standards of Western Culture is that the are invariably hideously bad writers:

"Getting a Ph.D. is a snap these days, which I know from a few random anecdotes" yes really upholding uncompromising standards of intellectual rigor here. (We are in the midst of a hiring process now and all I can say is LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL)

If you do not remember Joseph Epstein from such arguments as "until 2008 presidents of the United States were chosen strictly on merit, but Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would be affirmative action presidents," I envy you nymag.com/intelligencer/…

"The lesson of the 2016 election is that white men just can't catch a break in America. Now stay tuned for my piece about how Jill Biden is not accomplished enough to use accurate credentials"

That Weekly Standard essay about how Hillary Clinton would be an "affirmative action" president if she had beaten Donald Trump also features Epstein whining that people describe this essay he wrote for Harper's as homophobic: mudcub.com/homophobia/hom…

You can almost understand why someone who had made a good living making the same dumb argument again and again in increasingly bad prose for decades thinks the whole world works the way it does for conservative public intellectuals who get on the right gravy train

You do have to admire him in a way for giving away the show on his phony anti-elitism in the very first graf though

Perfect. Truly the "calling a zero blitz in a Hail Mary situation and then not even rushing all 7" of punditry. Greggggs have to stick together

https://twitter.com/onesarahjones/status/1337826852153520129

LOL yes Epstein is definitely the prose stylist for people who would type the sentence "Epstein is penetrating" unironically

https://twitter.com/onesarahjones/status/1337826852153520129

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Scott Lemieux

@LemieuxLGM

11 Dec

Today's episode of Unanswerable Sotomayor Dissents involves the Supreme Court allowing Bill Barr's execution of Brandon Bernard (who, unlike Barr, has never killed anyone) to proceed supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…

Bernard was 18 when he was with a group of young men who murdered two people. The capital sentence was based on the (ludicrously false) premise that he was a full and equal member of a violent gang:

The prosecution knew that Bernard was in fact at the very bottom of a 13-tier hierarchy at trial:

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Scott Lemieux

@LemieuxLGM

10 Dec

Every single lawyer representing Trump in the post-election litigation should be tossed out of the legal profession lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/12/disbar…

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TX v. PA is a systematic Rule 11 violation, not a lawsuit. Nothing in it even approaches a legal argument, and the statistical non-evidence is the very definition of "not even wrong." lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/12/texas-…

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Scott Lemieux

@LemieuxLGM

10 Dec

Dianne Feinstein led the Democrats during immensely important Supreme Court hearings in the midst of severe cognitive decline: lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/12/losing…

DiFi just flat-out undermined every marginal Dem Senate candidate to massage her own ego by insisting to keep doing a job she was not longer capable of doing newyorker.com/news/news-desk…

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Scott Lemieux

@LemieuxLGM

8 Dec

Selling the idea that helping corporations pave Lake Tahoe for money is a noble enterprise lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/12/sellin…

The idea that taking large amounts of money from a corporation to persuade the Supreme Court to make it harder for employees to sue is actually a noble enterprise no different than representing an indigent criminal defendant is so silly that to state the argument is to refute it

...and yet it’s widely believed among elite legal liberals because…well, do I have to come right flat out and tell you everything?

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Scott Lemieux

@LemieuxLGM

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Mitch McConnell: criminal justice reform is a distraction from doing nothing lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/12/mitch-…

Incidentally, here's a useful example in how to frame an almost entirely party-line vote. This, from the WaPo, is correct: washingtonpost.com/powerpost/hous…

The NYT's framing, conversely, is extremely misleading, especially since you need to read all the way to the 14th graf to discover that the number of Republicans in this "bipartisan" coalition is "5" nytimes.com/2020/12/04/us/…

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Scott Lemieux

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3 Dec

https://twitter.com/LeahLitman/status/1334233793327210507

"Everyone who merits consideration for work in a future Democratic administration, please step forward. No, no, no, just remain right where you are, Mr. Katyal."

https://twitter.com/LeahLitman/status/1334233793327210507

The idea that you have to treat clients chosen by big-time Supreme Court appellate lawyers like they're public defenders is some truly intelligence-insulting stuff, and that goes double when you tell public lies about judicial nominees you hope will favor your unsavory clients

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