#608 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday March 15)
Good morning,
Happy Ides of March! Today, a potpourri…
LOGICAL FALLACIES—CONFLATION, EXAGGERATION, FALSE EQUIVALENCE
As I have stated before, we are plagued by several shibboleths of logical fallacy. These make any reasonable debate on any issue so problematic. These include distraction, exaggeration, conflation, whataboutism, and false equivalence. It is through a confluence of two or more of these fallacies upon which many of the conspiracies and untruths of our age arise.
Take, for instance, the comparisons of the classified documents from President Biden’s possession and the ongoing investigation of the classified documents taken by former President Trump. In Biden’s case, he immediately advised the authorities. Trump, as we know, maintained he didn’t have them, but if he did, he had declassified them merely by “thinking” them unclassified, but otherwise, they were planted. Meanwhile, he and his attorneys ignored subpoenas and then, once turning over documents maintained that they all were delivered. This is untrue. The Trumpists maintain Trump has been pursued by a special prosecutor but not Biden. That’s untrue, as there is a special prosecutor for that as well. These two events are related but dissimilar in all sorts of pertinent ways.
ISRAEL’S JUDICIAL CRISIS
No doubt you are familiar with the attempt by the Netanyahu government to emasculate the Israeli Supreme Court. The press is focused on the ability of the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, to override a Supreme Court ruling by a simple majority. But it’s not just the Knesset’s ability to override the court’s decisions regarding constitutionality. Netanyahu’s proposal also undermines how judges are chosen by altering the makeup of the committee making appointments. Under current law, the Executive and the Judiciary each effectively have a “veto” over appointments. Under the law proposed, only the Legislature will have such power.
Perhaps more insidious it that the Knesset requires only 61 legislators, a mere majority vote, to amend the Basic Laws (which effectively are the constitution of Israel). Israel, like the UK, does not have a written constitution. The Basic Laws are the supreme law. Once these changes are made, the next step is limiting the ability of the Supreme Court to declare laws adopted by the Knesset unconstitutional.
What is amusing is the American far-right’s attempt to conflate what’s happening in Israel with the situation in America. The right claims the left in America wants to weaken the Court’s control in the United States, through the passage of legislation or the “packing” of the Court (never mind that Mitch McConnell and friends already packed the court), while wanting to maintain court control in Israel. This is a classic case of conflating unrelated circumstances. The independence of Israel’s judiciary arguably is more important than it is in the U.S. In the U.S., the Executive and the Legislature are two different branches, and the Legislature has two houses (a bicameral legislature). In a parliamentary system, like the UK and Israel, the legislature and the executive are controlled by the same party, which exercises broad control. So when the Court becomes a supplicant to the other branches, the Court becomes a political branch and the government then controls all three branches of government.
The fundamental lesson to be derived from the Netanyahu government’s attempt to skew the Court and the former Republican majority int he Senate to pack the court is the importance of a judicial system to be insulated, as much as possible, from the control of the political branches.
IT DOESN’T SEEM POSSIBLE, AND YET IT’S TRUE
Alabama Congressman Barry Moore has introduced a bill (cosponsored by Lauren Boebert & George Santos because of course it is) making the AR-15 the "National Gun of America."
The love affair we have with guns…
BASEBALL HISTORY
Bob Gibson was one of the most formidable right-handers in the history of the game. Most fans know of Gibson’s unbelievable 1.12 Earned Run Average in his 1968 MVP season. What people may not recall is that he won seven straight World Series Games (from the 1964, 1967 and 1968 series). He is the only pitcher to finish multiple World Series games, pitching through nine innings. In addition, foreshadowing Shohei Otani’s talents, Gibson was an offensive force as well, hitting a homer in a World Series game and batting over .300 (ahead of other players on the team). He still holds the record for strikeouts in a World Series game, at 17, in the 1968 series.
His catcher with the Cardinals was the great broadcaster Tim McCarver, who recently passed away. McCarver said of Gibson, "Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches when the other team doesn't score any runs."
FINAL THOUGHT
Agree with him or not, Thomas Friedman can certainly turn a phrase. When we discovered that Fox News analysts were feeding the “big lie” and “stolen election” claptrap to the masses who watch their “news” programs, they secretly were commenting to each other how ridiculous and unfounded these claims actually were. And they commented to each other about the incompetence of the Trump lawyers and acolytes who were propounding such claims. To this, Friedman noted:
“We all sort of knew the truth about Fox, but now there can be no doubt: Fox News is to journalism what the Mafia is to capitalism — same basic genre, but a morally corrupt perversion of the real thing.”
Have a great day,
Glenn
From the archives: