Fractal Wrongness – FT#92

24 Jan Fractal Wrongness – FT#92

Show Notes

The Fractal Wrongness Fallacy is committed when someone’s argument is based on logic or premises so wrong that they are wrong at every level from detail to worldview.

Trump

We started out with this clip of Trump misunderstanding both the stock market and the National Debt in one go:

We followed that with this clip of Trump misunderstanding voter ID and just ID in general:

And finally we talked about this amazingly wrong tweet from Don Jr:

It seems Nicki Minaj is the science and not Fauci! https://t.co/OM55acSoKJ pic.twitter.com/u2vT24pvR4

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 19, 2022

Mark’s British Politics Corner

Mark talked about the Fractal Wrongness of ‘Partygate’, with the help of these many clips:

Fallacy in the Wild

In the Fallacy in the Wild we looked at this clip from Independence Day:

Then we discussed Aaron Rodgers’ inability to even do homeopathy right.

And we finished with Terence Howard’s stunningly detailed (and wrong) disregard for basic math.

Fake News

Here are the statements from this week’s Fake News game, which were sent in by listener Kendall Ivory (thanks Kendall!):

1. I think it’s very clear that I’ve done more than any president in the first four years, and really if you think about it, I did more in 47 months than Joe Biden did in 47 years selling pillows and mattresses. Biden slept for 40 years and woke up being the Vice President before dozing back off.
2. I just look at school. I watch, I read. Look at the stuff. Now they want to change, 1492 Columbus discovered America. We grew up, you grew up, we all did. That’s what we learned. Now, they want to make it the 1619 Project. Where did that come from? What does it represent? I don’t even know.
3. It was too early to ask for fraud and to talk about fraud. Rudy said that, because of the fact it was very early with the — because that was obviously at a very, very — that was a long time ago. The things that have found out have more than bore out what people thought and what people felt and what people found.

Click below for the answer

Mark got it wrong this week, and is now back down to 51%

Ron DeSantis is not a logical fallacy

We talked about Florida Man Ron DeSantis’s assault on critical race theory and election integrity.

The stories we really didn’t have time to talk about

• Shockingly, Joe Manchin’s belief that there are 10 Republicans with even the smallest level of integrity proved to be wrong once again this week, with all 50 GOP senators voting against the John R Lewis Freedom to Vote Act, which would guarantee online voter registration in every state, along with 15 days of early voting, a reduction in partisan gerrymandering and protection from harassment for local election officials. Republicans don’t want all those things, of course, because if more people vote, they will lose, so they filibustered the vote. An attempt to amend the filibuster also failed thanks to Senators Manchin and Sinema voting with all 50 Republicans for reasons that are beyond the understanding of anyone except themselves but just might be money related, who knows? Senator Ron Johnson gave an object lesson in what happens when you let anyone vote when he put a poll on his Twitter account asking if the filibuster should be destroyed, with the options “Yes, let the Dems win” and “No, protect the Senate”. Over 180,000 people voted, and 96% of them were in favor of letting the Dems win, apparently. I mean, with that ratio you can understand why they want to suppress the vote. But according to Mitch McConnell, none of it really matters, because voting rights are fine as they are, saying this: “The concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans”. Fucking hell Mitch, you’re saying the quiet part out loud again!
• “Take it with a grain of salt but go do the research okay” so this is a particular kind of salt or salts, electrolytes if you will, cos the anti-covid treatment we’re hearing about from recent non-mask wearing arrestee Christopher Keys is, wouldn’t you know it, yep drink your own urine! “The antidote that we’ve seen now and we have tons and tons of research, and this may destroy my credibility, but god’s given us all we need, we have peer reviewed, published papers on URINE!” Keys insisted, acknowledging however that whilst this latest “study” has been around for 9 months it’s all anecdotal evidence “cos it’s hard to organise a random placebo trial” really? It can’t be due to lack of available material? Or is it that there are fewer volunteers cos they’re tired of swallowing all the bullshit previously peddled by Trump that Keys taking the piss is just too much to stomach! Reassuringly ​​Dr. Anthony Pizon (yes really), Chief of Medical Toxicology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center recommends NOT doing this – like we needed telling – since humans excrete waste and toxins through urine, drinking it can expose one to the chemicals and drugs consumed previously. Keys does say that it’ll work even for those who are vaccinated – is it cos you re-drink your vaccine? no need for a booster? Apparently Keys has been doing it for 23 years and also drinks hydroxy-chloroquine – well you’d kinda need something that strong Chris to combat your breath – I wonder if his nickname is John!
• For just over a year now, a certain group of people has been claiming that what happened last January 6th was not an insurrection. It’s been called a normal tourist visit, a peaceful protest, and, by Ted Cruz, definitely not a terrorist attack, forgive me Tucker I don’t know what I was saying, I’m just a slimy pathetic worm, thank you for correcting me I won’t do it again. Since the mob started getting charged with trespassing and crimes of violence, some have suggested the lack of any insurrection-based charges proves that it wasn’t an insurrection and anyone saying otherwise is a conspiracy theorist libtard. So it’s super fun that Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes and 10 others have now been charged with Seditious Conspiracy.  Presumably the aforementioned insurrection deniers will now admit they were wrong and avoid moving any goalposts.  Rhodes, who looks like a fat white Nick Fury, did not enter the Capitol on the 6th, but allegedly worked with other members of the Oath Keepers militia group to transport weapons and ammo to DC in advance of the definitely spontaneous tourist visit, and planned with them over encrypted communication who would enter the building at which stage, including suggesting they “stock up on ammo” and prepare for “a full on war in the streets”. I’m pretty sure we’ll be covering this group in more detail in a future episode, because according to early reports, one of their plans to keep their communication secure was to write in cursive, which is one step away from saying “anghay ikemay encepay” and thinking you’re totally getting away with it. 
• Okay so you’re kicking back at the desk in the office and someone in a uniform comes in asks you leave now – some kind of emergency in the building, so natch you up and leave concentrating on getting out of there fast, you might leave stuff behind, and not be able to get back in to retrieve it cos of said emergency. So what do you do? Well according to Congressman Jamie Raskin in an interview with Insider, of course you simply ring up the White House on Jan 7th and ask if their lost and found has the treasured maga hat, incriminating phone, bayonet or thunderflash you left on Pelosi’s desk yesterday. Dutifully when asked for your name and address, you hand it over, giving as your excuse when asked about the small matter of trespassing and invading the Capitol by the police officers on the phone, that the President invited you to be there. I’m assuming that the day strategic brains were given out all these insurrectioning terrorists were too busy trawling the 8Chan boards or listening to Trump bleating on to turn up. Trump must of course be delighted to be so absent-mindedly incriminated by people not only dumb enough to leave shit behind but dumberer enough to ask the police to mail it back, presumably in the same jiffy bag as the arrest warrant?   
• If Butthead were a Batman villain, he might look like Congressman Matt Gaetz, but he’d probably be less sleazy. I didn’t read the comic books, but none of the Batman films involve sex trafficking of minors, so I’m going with Gaetz as the worst of those options. It’s been a while since we’ve heard much about the Big Giant Head’s legal woes, but anyone who feels like claiming there’s nothing to see here because he hasn’t been charged with a crime might want to hold off on that argument for a bit. According to CBS, Federal prosecutors granted immunity to Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend in exchange for testimony in front of a Grand Jury and we all know how much ex-girlfriends like to respectfully keep your deepest darkest secrets.  When you add that to the significant amount of assistance Gaetz’s friend Joel Greenberg apparently gave authorities to get his 33 charges knocked down to 6, it’s not looking super great for Gaetz. I’d suggest he get a lawyer, but he’s way ahead of me, since last September it was reported that his legal team includes Marc Fernich, former lawyer of both former alive pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and former head of the NXIVM sex cult Keith Raniere, who is currently serving 120 years for crimes including sex trafficking minors. Let’s hope his lawyer’s track record holds out.
• It’s not all bad news – New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ office subpoenaed Trump last month seeking a deposition as part of the ongoing civil investigation, which is focused on potential fraud related to the valuation of various properties in the Trump Organization’s portfolio. Don Jr. and Ivanka were subpoenaed earlier this month. It turns out that lying about the size of your assets, fellas, will eventually get you into trouble when the real size is revealed. In a motion from James’ office filed on Tuesday it says; “​​The valuations of Mr. Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower since at least 2012 were based on the assertion that the triplex apartment was 30,000 square feet in size,” which was done to obtain favorable tax rates and loans. “However, the actual size of Mr. Trump’s triplex apartment was 10,996 square feet, and documents confirming that fact were signed by Mr. Trump himself in 2012.” The investigators note that “the key thing here is this new information demonstrates that Trump and his family are personally implicated in this fraud.” Hopefully the sound of us gleefully clapping our hands won’t echo too much in Trump’s massive apartment!!
• You could be forgiven for thinking the Supreme Court is too far gone for us to have any hope left that they will make a rational decision this decade. After all, they just ruled against OSHA’s ability to mandate vaccines in the workplace on the grounds that work isn’t the only place you can catch COVID, so why bother protecting people while they’re there. With that in mind, an 8-1 decision on whether Trump can assert executive privilege over hundreds of documents requested by the January 6th committee could just be one more very bad thing. But it’s not! Yes, apart from Clarence Thomas, every Supreme Court justice appears to agree with the Appeals Court finding that former Presidents don’t get to decide what documents a sitting President is allowed to tell the National Archives to produce. As always, as low as that bar is set, it’s just nice to know that there is still a bar.
• In a rather food-based instalment of the decade-long Tory Party psychodrama that is politics in Britain, Boris’ addiction to drinks and finger food at party/work events prompted a so-called Pork Pie Putsch led by the Melton Mowbray MP involving the 2019 intake MPs discussing how to give him the chop. In order to save his bacon Operation Red Meat was launched to appease the gammons on the back benches by throwing the Navy at immigration, the BBC under the bus along with any amount of as yet unnamed junior ministers, in whom he hitherto had pride and full confidence, at the Sue Gray findings, as well as the entire populace, yes that’s all of us, by doing away with every single covid restriction currently in force. Some cheering could be heard from the gravy train on the backbenches amongst the hacking coughs and airborne droplets. Far be it from me to suggest he is putting his own self-preservation ahead of any actual health advice but he is putting self-preservation ahead, above, and beyond anything else that might protect, benefit or nourish anyone other than himself. Meanwhile one of that Blue Wall intake of the 2019 election defected to the Labour Party, Boris blustered that Bury South turned Tory in 2019 for the first time in generations under this Prime Minister (not true), and it took Starmer actually pointing to the actual MP actually sat behind him to remind him that actually Bury South is now a Labour seat under the same Prime Minister. The Scottish Tory Party Leader was described as a weakling for calling for Boris to resign and Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford summed it all up by describing Operation Save Big Dog as Operation Dog’s Dinner, and, finally, Tory MP and former Brexit minister David Davis quoted Cromwell and Boris’ own Churchill biography when telling Boris in a packed House of Commons ‘You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.’ God was unavailable for comment.

That’s all for this week, thanks for listening!