CNN Ratings Hit Historic Low

Posted on | September 22, 2023 | No Comments

An audience so tiny you need a microscope to see it:

Ratings-challenged CNN hit rock bottom in a key viewership demographic last weekend — another sign of the difficulties facing incoming boss Mark Thompson.
The cable news network logged its worst weekend ratings on record in the all important 25- to 54-year-old demo, according to the latest Nielsen data released Tuesday.
CNN — which launched in 1980 and bills itself as “the most trusted name in news” — totaled just 55,000 viewers for its weekend slate of shows that include Sunday political programs “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash,” and “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”
The network’s Sunday primetime lineup, which featured “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper” and “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” drew 43,000 in the demo.
The ratings are the network’s worst since 1991 — the earliest TV data is readily available.
Data prior to 1991 is largely not digitized.
CNN’s overall viewership wasn’t much better.
The network logged 345,000 total viewers, trailing Fox News’ 683,000 and MSNBC’s 424,000.
Fox won the battle in the key demo as well, drawing 75,000 viewers to top MSNBC’s 47,000, which finished behind CNN.
“CNN is a ratings embarrassment,” an industry insider said. “At least with Thompson they will have a direction.”
Thompson, the former New York Times Company CEO, was tapped as CNN’s new chairman and CEO last month by parent Warner Bros. Discovery after the disastrous tenure of Chris Licht.

You might say they’re “on a roll.”

Category: CNN

The Toxic Lives and Influence of AWFLs

Posted on | September 21, 2023 | No Comments

A couple of days ago, the Google algorithm on my phone brought up one of those clickbait headlines — illustrated with a photo of a large-breasted woman — “Famous Celebrities You Won’t Believe Are Still Single.”

Who was that large-breasted woman? I still don’t know, because the way these clickbait articles work, you’re going to have to scroll through two dozen items before you ever get to the “featured” personality, and I stopped scrolling once I saw the name Chelsea Handler.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS BULLS**T?

Is there anyone genuinely surprised by the revelation — “You Won’t Believe”! — that Chelsea Handler is still unmarried at age 48? The woman’s life has always been a toxic dumpster fire of dysfunction, substance abuse and broken relationships. Indeed, her personal problems were the subject of her stand-up comedy routine from the time she entered showbiz in her 20s. In case you have forgotten when Chelsea Handler was actually funny, her humor was basically about (a) here habitual promiscuity and (b) her alcoholism. Her first book was entitled, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands, while her second was entitled Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. Which is to say that, by the time she was sufficiently well-known to be called a celebrity, what was Chelsea Handler was mainly famous for was being a drunken slut.

As the subject of a stand-up routine, this was actually funny, back around 2005 or so, but as a lifestyle . . . Well, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Nor would I recommend Chelsea Handler’s brand of politics, a reflexive liberalism so dumbed-down that it makes Rob Reiner and Michael Moore seem astute by comparison. What Chelsea Handler is (besides a drunken slut) is an AWFL (Affluent White Female Liberal). These women are now the core grassroots constituency of the Democratic Party, the kind of people so insulated from reality they think CNN is objective journalism.

Despite the fact that their own lives are defined by unhappiness and broken relationships, AWFLs nevertheless think themselves fit to decide weighty matters of public policy. Does anyone really need to be lectured on political topics by someone like Chelsea Handler? Is she someone so self-evidently wise and well-informed that there are millions of Americans who turn to her in search of political guidance?

Let me tell you a little story about Chelsea Handler. When she was in her early 30s, and beginning to have some serious show-business success, Chelsea started dating NBC executive Ted Harbert, then the head of the NBC-owned E! Entertainment cable channel. Harbert was recently divorced and 20 years older than Chelsea. This relationship lasted about five years, the longest Chelsea had ever been with anyone, and probably the closest she ever got to being married. After they broke up, Chelsea told a reporter it was because she and Harbert couldn’t separate their show-business work from their personal lives. More recently, however, Chelsea has told a new version of events:

Chelsea Handler realized she had to break up with her ex-boyfriend Ted Harbert after having a threesome with him and her masseuse.
“I was very turned on by this woman,” the comedian told Andy Cohen of the massage therapist during Wednesday’s episode of SiriusXM’s “Andy Radio,” clarifying that she has “slept with a woman” but “hasn’t dated a woman.”
She added, “I ended up hooking up with her several times without the guy.”
“That’s when I knew it was time to break up with the guy,” she said. , , ,
Handler admitted she never told Harbert that she was sleeping with the masseuse on the side, but she called their threesome “fun” and said she would have one again.

Everyone all together now: “Eeehh-YYUKKK!”

See, the thing about Chelsea Handler is, when she made a career of making jokes about her life as a drunken slut, she was young, and kind of good-looking. But she is well past the point where anyone wants to think about her having sex, with men or women or both simultaneously.

Anyway, I hadn’t thought about Chelsea Handler at all for a long time, and the only reason I did was because of that clickbait headline with the picture of a woman with very large breasts. Who was she? I don’t know, but if any of y’all figure it out, please let me know in the comments.

Category: Celebrities, Liberals

Police Officer Survives Shootout

Posted on | September 21, 2023 | No Comments

If you should ever happen to be in Louisville, Kentucky, allow me to offer this advice: Avoid the intersection of S. 40th Street and W. Kentucky Street. As a matter of fact, you might want to avoid being anywhere near that neighborhood. But frankly, you’d do best to stay far, far away from Louisville, a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

Last week, in the wee hours of the morning, Officer Brandon Haley was patrolling the dangerous streets of Louisville when he encountered a vehicle with no lights. He attempted to catch up with the vehicle:

The vehicle was traveling westbound on Kentucky Street and turned south on 40th Street where the vehicle came to rest on the sidewalk. . . . Officer Haley exited his vehicle and advised that two subjects were running. As Officer Haley ran towards the vehicle, several subjects began shooting from a house on the west side of 40th Street. Officer Haley was immediately struck and fell to the ground and returned fire.
While still being shot at, Officer Haley ran to the opposite side of the street where he was met by Officer [Colin] Billotto. As Officer Billotto began assessing Officer Haley’s injuries, the subject or subjects began shooting at officers again. Officer Billotto returned fire and dragged Officer Haley to a safer position.
Officer Billotto immediately began to relay information to responding officers while rendering aid to Officer Haley. Officer Haley was placed in a police car and transported to University Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Numerous officers responded, including LMPD’s Hostage Negotiation Team, as well as SWAT. Over the course of the next several hours, five persons of interest were taken into custody and multiple guns and narcotics were seized at the scene.

Officer Haley survived his wounds. On Wednesday, Louisville police released bodycam video of the shootout, which I can’t embed here because YouTube has classified it as too violent and graphic. While no suspects have yet been charged with shooting Officer Haley, police did make multiple arrests at the scene:

Officers received a search warrant to search the house on South 40th and found various illegal drugs and nine guns — two of which were reported stolen. According to police reports, officers tried to get Dominique Thompson Jr., 27, and Quantez Porter, 28, resisted coming out of the home.
Residents told LMPD a person was hiding in their backyard. Officers found Jemond Groves, 21, hiding and a gun in a pile of brush nearby. After checking the gun, it was determined it was reported stolen.
Thompson is charged with drug trafficking, gun possession by a convicted felon and resisting arrest. Porter’s charges are drug trafficking, gun possession and resisting arrest. Groves is charged with gun possession by a convicted felon and trespassing, since he was found in another yard, and wasn’t asked to come over. A fourth man,Jaquan Ranson, was also arrested [and] faces similar charges.

In other words, while we don’t know who shot the cop, we do know that a search warrant found nine guns, two of them stolen, and two convicted felons. But am I the only one who suspects that a search warrant of any home in that neighborhood would yield similar results? The whole area is crawling with armed felons, and you’d have difficulty finding a law-abiding citizen anywhere within a five-block radius of the intersection of S. 40th Street and W. Kentucky Street. It’s Mos Eisley, in real life.

The last Republican mayor of Louisville left office in 1969.

Category: Crime, Kentucky

In The Mailbox: 09.20.23 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | September 20, 2023 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.
OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: David Kurlan: Washington’s Farewell Address
Twitchy: Roseanne Knocks Self-Righteous George Takei Down A Few Pegs, “He Knows He Screwed Up”, and Appointees To DHS “Intelligence Experts Group” Make Irony Meters Explode
Louder With Crowder: Corporate sellout Howard Stern lashes out at Lauren Boebert for showing too much t*tty. Yes, THAT Howard Stern!, also, Larry David gets in Elon Musk’s face with hissy fit over GOP support: “Do you just want to murder kids?”
Vox Popoli: YouTube Piles On, also, The True Goal of the WereWest

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: Government Jobs Increasing Under Biden, Voter Registration Charities: A Massive, Overlooked Scandal, and Biden Bumbles His Way Through Another UN Speech
American Thinker: Mark Levin’s The Democrat Party Hates America
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Religion and Politics News
Babalu Blog: Biden administration ready to roll out stealth version of Obamapalooza 2.0, offer direct aid to Cuban dictatorship, Video of the Day: Christianity is surging in communist Cuba, and Teen goes from misery and oppression in Cuba to Miss Teen Universe Arizona
BattleSwarm: Japan’s Bigmotor Collapses Because It Was Fraud All The Way Down
Behind The Black: Electron rocket fails during launch, SpaceX sues to get Justice’s discrimination suit thrown out on constitutional grounds, Ingenuity completes 59th flight, a hop setting a new altitude record, The northern interior rim of the largest volcano in the solar system, and The emerging long term ramifications of the Ukraine War
CDR Salamander: Why Engineers Should Not Be Readiness Officers
Da Tech Guy: Tide is our woke laundry detergent, Tent Cities and COVID Vaccines Both Subsidized Profit Centers, DaTechGuy’s Almost Daily Pintastic NE 2023 Posts Quick Clips and the Free Play Room, and Small towns face a serious shortage of cops
Dana Loesch: What Trump Gets Wrong About Abortion Limitation Law & The Problem It Causes For The Right
Don Surber: Biden Needs To Drop Charges Against Trump
First Street Journal: Are the teachers’ unions writing purportedly straight news pieces for The Washington Post?
The Geller Report: WAIT, WHAT? Zelensky Visits Wounded Ukrainian Soldiers in NYC Hospital
Glenn Reynolds: Fetterman Nation
Hogewash: What Do Eagles and Big Cats Have in Common?, I’m Not Making This Up, You Know, and Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Hollywood In Toto: Totally Killer Brings Back the ’80s (Thanks Goodness!)
Legal Insurrection: Student Body President at Florida International U. Says ‘Defending DEI Policies is Top Priority’, Failed Dept. Energy Nominee Appointed to Senior Role in Efficient Energy Office, Nothing To See Here: Hacktivist Media Two-Steps From No Evidence of Biden Wrongdoing To No ‘Direct’ Evidence, and U. Michigan Given $5 Million to Build Global Center for Understanding Climate Change
Nebraska Energy Observer: Even I…
Outkick: Browns Trade For Deshaun Watson Looks Like An All-Time Worst, Patriots Fan Dies After ‘Incident’ At Gillette Stadium, Congressman Rob Gronkowski? Former NFL Star Isn’t Ruling It Out, Season-Ending Nick Chubb Injury Elicits Sympathy And Re-Ignites NFL Running Back Pay Debate, and Olivia Casta Dumps Out New AI Content, Sad Browns & Steelers Fans, Plus John Fetterman’s Hoodie Attire Vs. 1950s Baseball Fans
Power Line: (D., Lower Slobbovia), Abbe is shabby suing IRS, and Comic Relief from the Left
Shark Tank: Salazar Urges State Dept. To Add Sandinistas To Blacklist
Shot In The Dark: Open Letter To Minnetonka
This Ain’t Hell: Temporary NCO promotions going away, PTSD Treatment- MDMA Approval by 2024?, Debris field located in South Carolina in search for F-35, and Props to a good optics company
Transterrestrial Musings: The Teen Transgender Lawsuits
Victory Girls: Is Democrat Money Drying Up?
Volokh Conspiracy: Court Rejects Pseudonymity in Lawsuit Over “Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum”
Watts Up With That: Wrong, Euronews, Fire Ants Are Unlikely to Flourish in Most of Europe
The Federalist: Pro-Lifers Shouldn’t Trust Trump, Alabama’s New ‘Voter Integrity Database’ Shows States Don’t Need Leftist-Linked ERIC To Manage Voter Rolls, Apple Will Curb Your Internet Freedom Until Congress Crushes Its Monopoly, Here’s The Authoritative List Of Lies Joe Biden Has Told As President: 250 And Counting, and Falling Household Income Numbers Show How ‘Bidenflation’ Has Hit Americans’ Wallets
Mark Steyn: Ofcommed Again

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Back To School

Category: Linkagery

The Delusions of Michael Tomasky

Posted on | September 19, 2023 | No Comments

How can anyone be so out of touch with reality as to believe that Joe Biden is a victim of Republican bias in the media?

It’s often asked in my circles: Why isn’t Joe Biden getting more credit for his accomplishments? As with anything, there’s no single reason. Inflation is a factor. His age is as well. Ditto the fact that people aren’t quite yet seeing the infrastructure improvements or the lower prescription drug costs.
There is no one reason. But there is one overwhelming factor in play: the media. Or rather, the two medias. It’s very important that people understand this: We reside in a media environment that promotes — whether it intends to or not — right-wing authoritarian spectacle. At the same time, as a culture, it’s consistently obsessed with who “won the day,” while placing far less value on the fact that the civic and democratic health of the country is nurtured through practices such as deliberation, compromise, and sober governance. The result is bad for Joe Biden. But it’s potentially tragic for democracy. . . .

Let’s pause here to ask a couple of questions: First, what are the “accomplishments” for which Biden is not getting enough credit? And secondly, what “circles” does Michael Tomasky operate in, that he is “often asked” this question? Would we be correct to surmise that the number of Republican voters in Tomasky’s “circles” is at or near zero? Would it also be fair to guess that a lot of people in Tomasky’s “circles” work in academia or media, in such lucrative positions as to be more or less exempt from the economic and social problems that affect most Americans? The fact that Tomasky can toss out a sentence like “Inflation is a factor” — deserving no more than four words in a 2,500 column — is highly suggestive here. Then there is his citation of what he seems to consider two exemplary “accomplishments” of Biden’s tenure, “infrastructure improvements” and “lower prescription drug costs.” Perhaps I’m a victim of the alleged media bias toward “right-wing authoritarian spectacle,” but I’m entirely unfamiliar with these “accomplishments” for which Tomasky says Biden deserves credit.

And isn’t this kind of a straw man anyway? Whatever Biden and Democrats did about prescription drug prices, were Republicans against it? Is the GOP in the pockets of the Big Pharma lobby in a way that Democrats are not? But because I am not currently taking any prescription drugs, I have no direct interest in this issue, and thus have no cause to say “Thank you, Joe Biden.” Maybe others who care more about this issue can enlighten me about the causes of their gratitude.

As for “infrastructure,” when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, they used the word as an elastic label with no meaning beyond, “Whatever liberals want to spend federal money for.” Biden and Pelosi and Schumer talked a lot about “roads and bridges,” the basic meaning of public infrastructure, but the $1.2 trillion bill contained just $110 billion (less than 10% of the total) to “fund roads, bridges, and other projects that most Americans would consider infrastructure.” It was crammed full of stuff that has nothing to do with such basic infrastructure, including billions of dollars in funding for electric vehicles and a $66 billion giveaway to Amtrak. When was the last time you rode an Amtrak train? If you can’t remember, then you’re probably not part of Michael Tomasky’s “circles,” in which liberals are mystified at the public ingratitude for the blessings of Biden’s infrastructure bill. Now, back to Tomasky’s column and the “right-wing authoritarian spectacle” problem:

Mainstream media audiences and newsrooms have shrunk. Consider: In 1990, newspapers reached 63 million readers; in 2020, that number was 24 million. In 2006, newspapers employed about 75,000 people. In 2020, that figure was 31,000. The right-wing media, meanwhile, has grown and grown: Fox, One America, Newsmax, talk radio, Sinclair and all its local TV and radio news operations, and much more.
So the right-wing media today is, I’d argue, at least equal in size to the mainstream media. But here’s the more important point. The right-wing media has more power to set the news agenda than the mainstream media. It’s vital to understand this fact, and why it’s so.
The success of the right-wing media is by and large due to the way they speak in lockstep, with one voice, and the way they push one very partisan agenda. They promote Republicans and conservatives, and they say nothing good ever about Democrats or liberals (exception: people who go off the reservation and willingly foul the Democratic-liberal nest, like Joe Manchin or some liberal academic or talking head who turns right, like Glenn Greenwald). Their guiding ethos is not journalistic but political: to advance one party and creed and work their readers and viewers into a constant state of agitation about the other party and creed. And in a time when the Republican Party project has little to do with policy and everything to do with fomenting culture war, no matter how trivial, the right-wing Wurlitzer is adept at ginning up a good two-minute hate against something that got tweeted or what Mr. Potato Head is wearing that week—and here, the mainstream media, chasing engagement like a child fields for candy, follows the right down into these rabbit holes.
The mainstream media, in contrast, do not speak with one very partisan voice; they speak in many voices — critically, including many non-polemical ones. Their guiding ethos is not political but journalistic. Sure, they’re “liberal,” in two senses. First, their editorial pages typically endorse Democrats. And second, they are culturally liberal, because they are mostly based in big cities and their staffs include lots of LGBTQ people, for example, and precious few evangelical Christians.
But even with all that, the mainstream media do not serve a transparent political agenda in the way the right-media do. When The New York Times or CNN or MSNBC gets a scoop about serious corruption in the Biden administration, they pursue the lead and, if verified, report it. If Fox got such a scoop about Donald Trump … well, it’s conceivable that there’s someone left there who wants to do real journalism and who might pursue it. I wish that person luck, though, in getting it on the air. And even if Fox were forced to report it, they’d quickly find ways to rebut it. . . .

Well, you can read the whole thing, if you need any more reason to shake your head in wonder that anyone could actually believe this stuff.

For the past 20 years or so, I’ve marveled at how obsessed liberals are with “right-wing media.” David Brock collected many millions of dollars to fund Media Matters specifically because, after Republican victories in the 2000 and 2002 election, liberals became convinced that Fox News and conservative talk radio had tilted the media landscape to the right. Speaking of a “transparent political agenda,” what was the goal of Brock’s project other than to smear and demonize anyone associated with “right-wing media,” in an effort to silence these voices? And there have been times, particularly when Tucker Carlson was at Fox News, that you could turn on CNN or MSNBC and watch the talking heads ranting about what those Evil Fox People were doing, as if these complaints were “news.”

Because I’m pretty sure most of you didn’t follow the “read the whole thing” link, I’ll tell you that Tomasky concludes by urging that “in addition to telling the literal, factual truth,” the mainstream media must keep its focus on “the larger truth, that American democracy is under grave threat.” By which he means of course, REPUBLICANS MIGHT WIN THE NEXT ELECTION! This is the root cause of all the hysteria behind Tomasky’s complaints. In what he calls “my circles,” Tomasky is surrounded by fellow Democrats who think that democracy, per se, is entirely dependent on Democrats winning every election.

There is a word for people who believe such things. That word is crazy and, as I’m sure you know by now, Crazy People Are Dangerous.

Category: Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 09.18.23

Posted on | September 19, 2023 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Off to Las Vegas tomorrow for medical appointment and NSSAB meeting. Blogging may be sporadic. Meanwhile, if you can help out Doug Hagin of The DaleyGator, please do.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Implosion Of Hollywood & The Fight For The Culture
Director Blue: Book Review – The Democrat Party Hates America
EBL: Ken Paxton Acquitted: Bush Family Biggest Losers, September was not a good month for Libya and Morocco, One of our…F-35s…is missing, tonight, and National Cheeseburger Day
Twitchy: Lauren Boebert’s Back On The Market, Boys!, Play Stupid Games Win Stupid Prizes, and Krassenstein Posts Video Promoting Sleepy Joe As “Man Of The People” & Steps On Gigantic Rake
Louder With Crowder: Woke pop tart Maren Morris QUITS country music, claims the genre’s current success is just “to own the libs”, Aaron Rodgers wrecks Keith Olbermann’s face, gives perfect five-word response to unhinged attacks, Homeless Camp In Denver Features Pop-Up Bar With Rentable Prostitution Tents, and Handcuffed football fan (in sick overalls) still manages to knock dude the f*** out with a single headbutt
Vox Popoli: China Governs Its Own People, Some Doubts About Natural Rights, The Cancellation of Russell Brand, Two Thoughts About Fame, and The US Will Lose the Next War
Stoic Observations: North Of Nebraska

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: My Farming Season
American Conservative: The Political Assassination of Donald Trump, Beating Brandon, Richard Nixon’s Last Crusade, If Artsakh Falls, and Biden Must Justify This War
American Greatness: FBI Received Information from Second Informant Against Biden, then Shut Him Down, How Biden Will Circle the Wagons, and Schumer Ditches Senate’s Dress Code to Accommodate Fetterman’s Hoodies
American Power: Top Democrats’ Bullishness on Biden 2024 Collides With Voters’ Worries
American Thinker: The Dems’ Big Lie, The Real Threat to Our Democracy, To Market, to Market, and Who is Seth Rich? Who Murdered Him? And What’s The Deep State Hiding?
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Castro dictatorship tries to cover its tracks after they’re caught sending Cubans to Russia to fight in Ukraine, Cuban dictatorship sends slave teachers who can’t speak English to the Bahamas, A highly scandalized Vladimir Putin accuses Pinochet of poisoning Chilean communist poet Pablo Neruda……Le RRRRRRRONCA!, Soldiers from Cuba, Russia, China, Venezuela, and Nicaragua participate in Independence Day parade in Mexico, and Texas AG Ken Paxton should go after Biden, not fellow Republicans
BattleSwarm: Was the Yugo As Bad As Critics Said? Yes, BREAKING: Paxton Acquitted, and More Tech Companies Cancelling San Francisco Conferences
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches another 22 Starlink satellites, China launches military reconnaissance satellite, Russian investigators pin down cause of Luna-25 failure, India’s Aditya-L1 solar telescope initiates some science observations, and Federal government continues to block the return of Varda’s commercial capsule, carrying drugs to treat HIV
Cafe Hayek: James Buchanan Rightly Opposed UCLA’s Hiring of Angela Davis, Market Competition Is a Process of Creativity and Discovery, and More on Angela Davis
CDR Salamander: Future Casting, Predictions, & Some Context On The Age Of Transformation, also, The Indo-Pacific Quad In 2023
Chicago Boyz: Of Springs and Cables, also, Technology, Regulation, Capitalism, and Innovation
Da Tech Guy: AI will only take your job if you’re a crappy journalist, an Admiral or General, or a moron, Larry From Larry’s Music Loft, Five Quick One Liner Reminders Under the Fedora, and DaTechGuy’s (Nearly) Daily Pintastic NE posts: Homebrews and Circuit Meltdown brought to you by North Metro Tech Wakefield MA
Don Surber: The Elite 0.2%
First Street Journal: Democrats really, really hate our constitutional rights! (Part 2), also, The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend
Gates Of Vienna: Comms Failure, Lampedusa is Full Up, and Lampedusa Says: Basta!
The Geller Report: Trump Exposed the Rot and Fraud of the Elites, Biden Regime Instructs Their Media Lapdogs To Suppress Coverage of Charges Against Biden, Biden Wants to Shrink Marine Sanctuary That Protects Endangered Whales to Accommodate Wind Energy Factory Owned By Dem Donor, Texas Republican Attorney General Paxton Acquitted in Vicious Impeachment Ruse, and SHOCKING VIDEOS: Trains, Massive Transports of Thousands of Migrants Shipped to USA, “It’s a Pipeline. It’s All Coordinated. It’s All Controlled”
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, NGC 3156, Don’t Know Much About History, and Messier 15
Hollywood In Toto: Hasan Minhaj’s ‘Victim’ Act, Maren Morris’ Self-Own Says Everything, and Russell Brand’s Career Is Officially Over (…but)
The Lid: This Extremely Important Indicator Is Absolutely Screaming That A Recession Is Coming, Did Country Bear Jamboree Invite A REAL Bear To Disney World?, and Hunter Biden Sues His Daddy’s IRS
Legal Insurrection: Florida State University Cancels ‘Race and Gender’ Course After Only Two Students Enroll, Conservatives Unload on Fetterman Over Senate Dress Code Requirement, “I Only Treat Real Women”, New Student Body President at Baylor University Shrinks Cabinet by 57%, Dove Soap Hires Toxic BLM Activist As ‘Fat Ambassador,’ Calls To ‘Bud Light’ Dove Intensify, and Vanderbilt Prof Thinks Fictional Works About Climate Change Are Too White
Nebraska Energy Observer: Saturday – just for you, Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, and Monday
Outkick: Deion Sanders Made Over $1 Million Since Jay Norvell Called Him Out Over Sunglasses. Coach Prime Should Split The Profits, Tennessee Fan Rushes Florida Field To ‘Lift Fans Spirits’ During Deflating Loss, Gets Three-Year Ban From ‘The Swamp’, Colorado State DB Henry Blackburn, Who Delivered Controversial Hit To Travis Hunter, Reportedly Receiving Death Threats, Shaq Stars In Humorous Police Recruitment Video, Bills Honor Takeo Spikes Then Give Him The Worst Seat In The Stadium Forcing Him To Leave Win Over Raiders Early, and Florida/Tennessee Game Ends In Brawl After Cheap Shot
Power Line: Making the Case For Capital Punishment, Trump Failed the Covid Test, “My Right As a Candidate”, and The Daily Chart: Follow the COVID Money
Shark Tank: Waltz Calls On Biden To Clarify Ukraine Strategy
Shot In The Dark: True Misogyny, also, F5 Tornado Of Vapidity
The Political Hat: In Academia, It Isn’t Corruption If It Is For A Good Cause
This Ain’t Hell: The Pentagon orders more interviews related to the Kabul airport suicide attack, Kansas City resident startled by Army exercise near his neighborhood, Army re-ups exceeding expectations (so bonuses suspended), General Mark Milley says that the military is not woke, US military asks for help to find missing F-35 fighter jet after ‘mishap’ sees pilot eject, and Personality and Psychology Testing for Dummies
Transterrestrial Musings: Rent Control, Newton’s First Law, Water On The Moon, Six Thoughts On Elon Musk, and Trump’s Foolish Gamble
Victory Girls: If Trump Wants To Be “Liked” On Abortion, We Are In Big Trouble, J.D. Vance Has Questions About Ukrainian Trans Propagandist, and F-35 Crash In South Carolina Raises Real Issues About Our Military
Volokh Conspiracy: Why President Trump is an “Officer” who Can be Disqualified From Holding Public Office Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment [Updated]
Watts Up With That: Labour In A Spin Over Green Steel Job Losses, Another Stupid Los Angeles Times Climate Alarmist Propaganda Claim, Clean Energy Dirty Tricks? A $500 Gift Card for Signing Over Your Property Rights, and ‘Biden’s EV mandates are a controlled demolition of the U.S. auto industry’
The Federalist: Democrats’ Double Standard On Judicial Impartiality Is Obvious From Wisconsin To Washington, Trump Is Right. Democrats Support No Limits On Abortion, Ken Paxton Acquitted On All Charges While Austin Swamp Creatures Shriek, Wisconsin Republicans Vote To Oust Top Election Official Following Messy And Chaotic 2020 Election, 5 Wrong Predictions Ruining Democrats’ Plan For 2024, and Leftists’ Open-Border And Defund-Police Policies Have Come Home To Roost
Mark Steyn: No Mercy: David Lean, the Law and Great Expectations, Spirits of the Age, and A Hundred Years of Hank

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

Quashawn, Rashan, and ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ in Polk County

Posted on | September 18, 2023 | No Comments

Say hello to Quashawn Burgess Jr. and, while you’re at it, you can go ahead and say good-bye, because Quashawn joined the choir invisible last week, bleeding out in the driveway of a Florida home:

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called on the public for information after a 15-year-old who may have been a gang member was found shot dead Tuesday morning in a driveway near Winter Haven.
The sheriff said deputies received a 911 call around 2:30 a.m. after a boy was found dead on a driveway on St. Paul Drive.
Judd said one of the witnesses got off of work and was staying with a friend. She pulled into the home’s driveway on St. Paul Drive and called her friend to tell her there was a person lying in the driveway.
Judd identified the 15-year-old as Quashawn Burgess Jr. with permission from his mother to help with the investigation.
His mother went to bed at 10 p.m. with an infant, and Burgess was sitting on the couch. When she woke up at 3 a.m. to tend to the baby, she noticed Burgess was not on the couch and assumed he went to bed, according to Judd.
His mother said he was a good kid, but as he got older he went down the wrong path and began getting into trouble, Judd said. He was on probation for a burglary charge that was reduced to trespassing.
Judd said Burgess was violating his probation because he was supposed to be enrolled in school but wasn’t going. . . .
Burgess had been arrested twice, both since May 2023, Judd said.
“I’d rather them be alive in jail than across the street in the medical examiner’s office, dead like Quashawn is right now,” Judd said.
Judd said the violence is being encouraged by social media.
“They’re listening to this gangster rap, they’re watching these videos, they’re making their own videos,” he said. “It’s cool to do. It’s not cool to die. Death is forever. And cool warms up real quick in the morning. When the beer’s warm, it’s no more fun.”
Judd said it’s time for communities across the state and nation to step up and address the issue.
“They don’t show you the last chapter of the book,” Judd said. “The last chapter, one of you is dead, and the other is life in prison.”

Because he didn’t like going to school, Quashawn probably never read the Lemony Snicket books, A Series of Unfortunate Events. But there is an interesting and somewhat ironic narrative to how he reached that final chapter, bleeding out in a Winter Haven driveway:

Four suspects with criminal histories have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of a teenage gang member in Winter Haven.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the body of 15-year-old Quashawn Burgess, Jr., was discovered deceased around 2:30 a.m. on September 12, in a Winter Haven driveway by a woman who was on her way to spend the night at a friend’s house after work.
Deputies who canvassed the neighborhood say witnesses reported hearing a noise that sounded like a “pop” around 12:30 a.m. but thought it was fireworks.
When deputies notified Burgess’ mother of his death, she told them that she was unaware that he was not home sleeping during the evening hours. She said she saw him on her living room couch at 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 when she went to bed.
Sheriff Grady Judd gives an update after four suspects were arrested in connection with a 15-year-old found dead on a Winter Haven driveway.
When detectives arrived at her house, she went to his bedroom and confirmed he was not there and told them that she did not know when he had left or where he had gone.
According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a series of events that led up to Burgess’ death began when Lilia Gonzalez, who is a convicted felon, contacted Jase Govia, 23, because she wanted to buy a gun. Since she is a convicted felon, she is not legally allowed to purchase a firearm. Govia lives across the street from Gonzalez in what, Sheriff Judd calls a “weed house” he runs with his cousin 34-year-old Pierre Sauveur.
Govia, according to Sheriff Judd, put Gonzalez in touch with 20-year-old Rashan Harris.
“He’s 20 years of age and he’s already got 53 felony charges against him, 25 misdemeanor charges against him and he’s been to jail,” Sheriff Judd shared. “He got one year in jail. So, we take him out of the ability to commit crime for one year and he still has 53 felonies.”
According to PCSO, Gonzalez and Harris met at a Circle K and he sold her a gun for $200 that had been stolen during a Lakeland burglary in which Harris was a suspect.
Later that evening, investigators say Harris called Gonzalez and told her he wanted to sell her more bullets. Though detectives say Gonzalez thought it was a strange request, she gave him her address.
Along the way, Harris picked up Burgess, who Sheriff Judd says wanted to buy marijuana from the “weed house” across the street.
“None of these people work. The 15-year-old is not in school. Every one of them lied about everything,” Sheriff Judd said.
According to Sheriff Judd, Burgess got out of the car and Gonzalez eventually got in the passenger side. Sheriff Judd says Harris and Gonzalez talked about bullets and sex while inside the car.
However, Sheriff Judd shared that while Gonzalez was talking to Harris, she felt like things didn’t seem right. Moments later, detectives say Burgess opened the passenger side door to rob Gonzalez at gunpoint.
According to PCSO, Gonzalez was holding onto her purse, which was strapped across her side body as Burgess is trying to pull her pocketbook off her.
“Apparently, they forgot they sold her this gun,” Sheriff Judd stated. “So, now Lillia pulls the gun out of her pocketbook because she’s being robbed at gunpoint and shoots Quashawn who’s robbing her. Did you hear what I said? You can’t make this stuff up.”
Sheriff Judd said after the shooting, Gonzalez ran into her home and Harris took off, leaving Burgess to die on the driveway.
Sheriff Judd added that Gonzalez fled the area for three days and was taken into custody when she returned.
Gonzalez told deputies that she was being robbed and was defending herself when she shot and killed Burgess.
“At this point in the investigation, she is apparently the victim of a robbery whereby she defended herself and shot the suspect, Quashawn and Rashon confirms that,” Sheriff Judd stated.
However, deputies arrested Gonzalez on several charges including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, dealing in stolen property, tampering with evidence, grand theft of a firearm, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, maintaining residence where controlled substances are illegally kept, possession of paraphernalia.
“When you live by the gun, you die by the gun,” Sheriff Judd stated.
Harris has been charged with second degree murder, attempted armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, dealing in stolen property, grand theft of a firearm, tampering with evidence, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, giving false info to a law enforcement officer during a capital felony investigation, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and violation of probation.
Govia has been charged with maintaining residence where controlled substances are illegally kept, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of marijuana over 20 grams, possession of paraphernalia.
Sauveur has been arrested for maintaining residence where controlled substances are illegally kept, giving false info to a law enforcement officer during a capital felony investigation, possession of marijuana over 20 grams, and possession of paraphernalia.
“These folks have been in prison,” Sheriff Judd explained. “They’ve been in the jail. They all have criminal histories. At the end of the day, we’ve got a 15-year-old kid that’s dead and mom said I’ve got a 15-year-old kid I can’t do anything with him.”

In case you weren’t following all that, Gonzales is a convicted felon, but wanted to buy a gun. So she asked her drug dealer, who hooked her up with Rashan, who had a pistol stolen in a burglary. After selling her this gun for $200, Rashan apparently got the idea of robbing Gonzales — because, hey, if she’s got $200 to buy a gun, probably she’s got a lot more money, right? And so Rashan arranges a meeting, telling Gonzales some kind of story about having more bullets for the gun. Rashan picks up Quashawn, and takes him to meet with Gonzales, so that Quashawn can rob her — but oops! She uses the gun that Rashan sold her to shoot his accomplice Quashawn. It’s just so . . . unfortunate.

Lemony Snicket could not be reached for comment.

Category: Crime, Florida