The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: 04.22.26

Posted on | April 23, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

If I had any brains I would already have been in bed, but I don’t want to fall even further behind on the blogging.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Patrick ‘Tate’ Adamiak Is a Political Prisoner
Director Blue: Meet The A-11 Thunderhog, 
EBL: Dover Sole Meuniere, Logan’s Run at 50, Battle of Mutina, Battle of San Jacinto, and Don’t Mess With The Bull
Twitchy: Hasan Piker Joins NYT To Talk About “Microlooting” As Political Protest, ACLU Whines That DC Curfew Puts Kids At Risk Of Unnecessary Police Encounters, and Talarico Camp Rumored To Be Sitting On Career-Ending Dirt On Both Paxton & Cornyn
Louder With Crowder: Alleged red state court rules that the government can’t make “trans” people be either man or woman on their license, LA residents convicted of insurance fraud, and it somehow involves a bear costume, Woman who Donald Trump destroyed in Election 2024 goes on rant that he’s “incompetent” or something, and Woke woman claims trans people will be sent to concentration camps, asks Pete Buttigieg what he plans to do about it
Vox Popoli: Baby Steps, The Dirty Patriots, Fight the Power, THE FUNAJI SCROLL, and Desperation in Defeat
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Sunday Story, also, Ugh
Upstream Reviews: Torchship, 

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Did China Culminate And N One Noticed?
Dana Loesch: No One Asked For This
Don Surber: Obama is tired of Trump winning

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Category: Uncategorized

VIRGINIA ELECTION RESULTS: Will Voters OK Spanberger’s Gerrymander? UPDATE: Network Declares ‘Yes’ Win

Posted on | April 21, 2026 | No Comments

UPDATE 8:49 p.m. ET: NBC News has just declared that “yes” will win the referendum vote in Virginia. Only 80% of the vote has been counted, but the remaining vote in Fairfax County and Richmond will be enough.

UPDATE 8:39 p.m. ET: Lead for “No” is less than 30,000 votes:

YES …………….. 1,197,131 (49.5%)
NO ……………… 1,219,875 (50.5%)
(76% of the vote counted)

This is starting to look discouraging.

UPDATE 8:14 p.m. ET: “No” continues to hold the lead:

YES …………….. 969,934 (48.0%)
NO ……………… 1,051,768 (52.0%)
(64% of the vote counted)

The margin keeps tightening. Fingers crossed.

UPDATE 7:59 p.m. ET: With more than half the vote counted, “no” is now leading by more than 90,000 votes:

YES …………….. 794,155 (47.2%)
NO ……………… 887,372 (52.8%)
(54% of the vote counted)

The lead is now narrowing, percentage-wise. As more urban vote comes in, expect it to become very close.

UPDATE 7:44 p.m. ET: Even wider lead for “NO”:

YES …………….. 568,383 (45.5%)
NO ……………… 681,792 (54.5%)
(41% of the vote counted)

BTW, it’s nearly 2-to-1 “no” in Louisa County.

UPDATE 7:34 p.m. ET: “NO” is gaining ground:

YES …………….. 424,523 (47.3%)
NO ……………… 473,156 (52.7%)
(30% of the vote counted)

Now leading by more than five points — encouraging.

UPDATE 7:24 p.m. ET: Getting results quick tonight:

YES …………….. 183,280 (49.5%)
NO ……………… 187,151 (50.5%)
(12% of the vote counted)

UPDATE 7:14 p.m. ET: The first numbers are in:

YES …………….. 29,862 (48.1%)
NO ……………… 32,275 (51.9%)
(3% of the vote counted)

You can’t tell anything from these first returns. Be patient.

EXPECT FURTHER UPDATES . . .

 

* * * PREVIOUSLY (6:46 p.m. ET) * * *

 

Polls close at 7 p.m. ET tonight and within hours we will know whether Virginia voters have approved a referendum that would redraw the Commonwealth’s congressional districts from their current alignment (6 Democrats, 5 Republicans) to give the Democrats a likely 10-1 advantage. People who have followed the process whereby this measure got to the ballot have assured me that it is unconstitutional on at least three different points, which would mean a court battle if the “yes” vote wins tonight, but it would be far better if the “no” vote wins — a direct repudiation of this nefarious scheme by Gov. Abigail Spanberger and her Democrat accomplices in the legislature. As regular readers know, I traveled to Louisa County last weekend for a “Vote No” rally:

“It’s unfair, it’s unconstitutional and it’s illegal,” Second District Rep. Jen Kiggans said of the referendum, expressing an opinion shared by many Republicans who have noted what might mildly be termed procedural irregularities in the way the redistricting measure made its way onto the ballot. (See David Catron’s February column, “Redistricting Betrayal in Virginia,” for more about that.) In her speech to the courthouse rally here, Kiggans mentioned the uphill battle she fought in 2022 to win her seat in a competitive coastal district that includes Virginia Beach. Kiggans would almost certainly have no chance to be reelected in this fall’s midterms if the redistricting referendum passes, and the same is true of McGuire, despite the fact that he carried the fifth district by a 15-point margin in 2024.
The map Democrats would inflict on Virginia is a Frankenstein monster, and what it would do to Louisa County is a nightmare horror story. Currently, the fifth district is geographically coherent, covering a wide area west of Richmond down to the North Carolina border. Under the proposed new map, Louisa County would be shoved into the Seventh District, the shape of which resembles a lobster, its head and two claws pointing southwest (Louisa County being the elbow of one claw), and its tail reaching all the way up to touch the Potomac River in Arlington County. From its southernmost point in Powhatan County to Arlington, this mutant district would span more than 130 miles and, with its westward lobster claw, also reaches over into the Shenandoah Valley to slice off parts of Rockingham and Augusta counties. It’s about 100 miles from one claw to the other, but in driving that distance along I-64, a motorist would travel roughly half of it through the proposed new sixth district.

The early vote — they have 45 days of that in Virginia — was reportedly heavier in Republican-leaning areas, and there were reports today of continued high turnout for the final voting today, but that’s anecdotal, and we won’t know the result until they actually count the votes. Spanberger won by a 15-point margin last November, and so the “no” vote has an uphill battle. We shall see what the evening brings.

UPDATE 7:05 p.m. ET: Earlier today, everyone on X was blabbing about projections based on reported turnout in different counties, and that’s a fool’s errand. This is a single-issue referendum — nothing else on the ballot — and it is impossible to estimate results based on the kind of metrics that (might) help predict a regular election. Based strictly on my own observation, it seems to me that the “no” campaign is more energized and motivated. Republicans have a greater incentive to vote against the redistricting than Democrats have to vote for the redistricting, and it’s hard for me to imagine most independents thinking, “Yeah, let’s just ignore the state constitution and redraw the map to give Democrats four more congressional seats.” That’s merely my observation, which doesn’t count for much, but some conservatives on X are just too pessimistic about what is likely to be a very close contest.



 

Category: Election, Virginia

In The Mailbox: 04.21.26 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | April 21, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Yesterday was eaten by snakes – or would have been if the super had brought his.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Relatives of Dead People Don’t Like Self-defense
Director Blue: A Day With Audie Murphy At The Colmar Pocket (1944),
EBL: George Harrison and the Lumberjack Song, Lucrezia Borgia, Shrinking Visceral Fat, Jamaican Me Hungry, and Mae West
Twitchy: DataRepublican Drops Receipts In Bombshell Thread About Why Pete Hegseth Is REALLY Being Targeted, Maury Povich’s Reaction To Joy Reid’s Claim Democrats Play By The Rules Is Hilarious Perfection, and Chris Murphy Smugly Backpedals After Cheering For Iran & Makes Things WORSE
Louder With Crowder: Creepy CA state senator looking to replace Nancy Pelosi is celebrating forcing a restaurant to put a pride flag back up, Obama and Mamdani represent the America you never wanted, Canada & Israel Both Messed Up Bigly This Weekend, Seven months after reports her net worth exploded, Ilhan Omar claims it was an accounting error and she’s actually poor, and Woke city finally cleans up all the needles and garbage, but only while foreigners are in town for the World Cup
Vox Popoli: How Galaxy’s Edge Damaged Disney, The World Inside the World, Amazon Kills Kindle-PC, Still Definitely Not Meth,  and A Millennial’s Observation
Upstream Reviews: Once A Spy
Jim McCoy: The Last Dungeon Crawler
Cedar Sanderson: One Jar Down
Stoic Observations: Progressive Liberals vs. Black Conservatives,

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Latin American Policy With Colin Dueck – On Midrats, also, Looks Like Commerce Raiding Is Back On The Menu
Don Surber: Even electricity is leaving blue states
Elizabeth Nickson: Trump Is A Moderate – What’s Coming Is Far More Conservative,
Racket News: How Big Pharma (Successfully) Targeted Women, 

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Category: Linkagery

IT’S ‘STOP THE LOBSTER’ DAY!

Posted on | April 21, 2026 | No Comments

After I called it “Spanberger’s lobster” last week, many others have taken up that phrase to describe the crustacean-like shape of the district that Democrats would inflict on Virginia if today’s referendum passes.

By now, every true Virginian knows to VOTE NO in today’s referendum (if you haven’t already voted early) and Smitty yesterday weighed in from his perch in the blue part of the Commonwealth.

Every analyst expects the vote to be close. Polls close tonight at 7 p.m., and then we’ll see if the deep-blue precincts in the D.C. suburbs can manufacture enough fake “yes” votes to cancel out the overwhelming “no” from the more rural areas of Virginia like Louisa County.



 

Category: Virginia

VA’s 21Apr Vote: This Dog Don’t Hunt

Posted on | April 20, 2026 | No Comments

by Smitty

Somebody I know who is credentialed in the art of surveying people (pharma, for drug trials) was unimpressed by then quality of the question on the ballot tomorrow in Virginia. After feeding Spanberger’s dirty diaper into Claude:

(Judge Hurley’s injunction)

Much has happened since the 28Feb Fairfax GOP meeting. One speaker offered an estimated 20% turnout. Early voting closed Saturday, and the the pre-election turnout for the redistricting question (1,358,628) indicates that the final turnout might rival the November 2025 gubernatorial (3,433,340).

I have lived in Northern Virginia and supported elections since 2012. I can tell you that the final tally here in Occupied Territory will be ~20+D, because Trump just hasn’t trimmed enough federal workers to help them get their minds right.

Tomorrow is a skirmish on the road to Making America Great Again. The career politicians (as well as bureaucrats and oligarchs who lurk in the shadows behind them) aren’t even trying to package the lies with any validity, per the graphic above.

Somewhere along the line, our republic turned into a Progressive golden shower:

Like I said to the mighty PolitiBunny on X:

Category: Politics, Virginia

‘Several Young Individuals’: At Least Two Dead in North Carolina Mass Shooting UPDATE: Not the Expected Victims

Posted on | April 20, 2026 | No Comments

Euphemisms are amazing, aren’t they? Perhaps you can think of some other phrases that would be more helpful in describing the likely participants in the situation that “escalated” into a mass shooting Monday morning at Leinbach Park in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:

Two people were killed after a mass shooting at a park in North Carolina on Monday morning, according to the [State Bureau of Investigation].
The shooting reportedly happened at Leinbach Park near, but not at, Jefferson Middle School in Winston-Salem on Monday, April 20. The school was placed on a “secure hold” on Monday morning, but that has since been lifted.
Police said the shooting escalated from a planned fight between “two young individuals.” During the brawl, several people “began shooting at each other,” resulting in “multiple victims,” according to officers.
Nearly two hours after the shooting was first reported, the SBI confirmed two people died and that “several” others were shot.
As of this writing, the conditions of those who were shot are unknown, and authorities have not announced any arrests. The Associated Press described the incident as a mass shooting.
Authorities urged the public to avoid the area “for now” and said parents who need to pick up children from nearby Jefferson Middle School may do so.

Are suspects still at large? Not known at this time.

Leinbach Park is in the suburban Mt. Tabor area of Winston-Salem, about three miles southwest of the campus of Wake Forest University. The park is named for the woman who donated the property to the city; her husband was a bank executive, a descendant of one of the earliest Moravian missionaries who first settled the Salem community in the 1760s. While it’s best not to speculate in the aftermath of a mass shooting, I have a pretty strong hunch that the “several young individuals” involved in the gunfire at the park were not Moravian.

UPDATE: Police have announced a press conference for 4 p.m. ET, which will likely give us some answers.

UPDATE 4:30 p.m. ET: During the press conference, police named the two individuals killed — both Hispanic males, ages 16 and 17. Five others were wounded, including three females, but their names were not released. The police chief could not say whether suspects are in custody, but did note that some of the victims may have also been shooters. The investigation continues. No more facts are known now.



 

Category: Crime, North Carolina

Rule Five Sunday: More Hot Girls & Hot Cars

Posted on | April 20, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

This week’s appetizer courtesy of @kbdabear
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

EBL: More Girls With Guns – Revolutionary War, Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Edith Wharton, Cheese Ball Day, The Lucky One, MAGA Strait Of America, Sabrina Carpenter Should Embrace Her Inner Amelia, Jeremiah Johnson, The Testament Of Ann Lee, House of Guinness, and Madame Bovary

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Austin White, Gone Fishin’, Fish Pic Friday – Faith Mary, Tattoo Thursday, MD Has a New Plan for Blue Catfish, Maryland, My Maryland, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Swalwell Slinks Away – Trump Blockades Iran, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Palm Sunday

BACON TIME: Rule Five – Yes, I Will Have A Beer

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

Aspiring Rapper Update

Posted on | April 19, 2026 | No Comments

Jalen Carpenter, a/k/a EbkCap82

“Gee, Stacy, is it really fair to post a picture of the deceased performer brandishing illegal firearms?” Perhaps, but good luck finding any pictures of Jalen Carpenter in which he is not brandishing firearms.

The image above is from the video for EbkCap82’s song “Zombieland 2,” in case you’d like to go enjoy that spectacle of substance abuse and threatened violence. Carpenter’s specialty was what is known as “drill” music, which is basically gang warfare with a beat — the rapper and his companions displaying stacks of cash, waving around Glocks with extended magazines, smoking weed, boasting of their felonies and threatening to murder rival gangsters. You know — urban culture.

So, there was a 911 call about domestic violence that led to an Illinois State Police pursuit on I-57 on the south side of Chicago. By the time troopers caught up with Jalen Carpenter, he was strolling down a sidewalk about two miles away from the Obama Presidential Library:

A man was killed in an Illinois State Police shooting in Woodlawn Wednesday night.
State police said troopers responded to a call for a domestic battery in the 6500 block of South Champlain Ave. just before 11 p.m. Police said the incident started on Interstate 57, and troopers chased the vehicle involved to the city’s Woodlawn neighborhood. When they arrived, they said they found an armed man at the scene.
Police said a struggle ensued and shots were fired at the armed man. He was struck and taken to a local hospital, where he died. On Thursday morning, CBS News Chicago spoke to his father, Stan Carpenter, who identified him as 24-year-old Jalen Carpenter.
But CBS News Chicago was shown surveillance video of the shooting provided by a source. In that video, you can see Carpenter holding a gun and restrained by an officer, when that officer’s partner shoots and kills him.
“He had so many bullets we couldn’t even see the body,” his father said.
The surveillance video shown to CBS News Chicago shows a man in white, who we are told was Carpenter, walking casually and alone down the street moments before the shooting. He appeared to be holding his phone.
An Illinois State Police vehicle then pulls up. Two officers get out, one carrying a flashlight, before a struggle begins.
There is no sound on the video, so you cannot hear if they are having a conversation. As Carpenter turns around, restrained by one of the officers, you can see him holding a gun, though it does not appear that he fired it.
The second officer gets closer, and moments after, they fire their weapons. Witnesses said the gun was fired four or five times.
“He has police officers in his family,” Stan Carpenter said. “We have police in our family and, you know, they killed my son.”
Stan Carpenter returned to the scene of the shooting on Thursday, saying he wants a full investigation into his son’s death.
“He took his last breath in the cold street and died alone,” he said. “I wanna see body cameras. I want—I want—I want to see the evidence.”
Stan Carpenter said his son was a father to a son who is almost 2 years old.
“I’m just, I’m hurt right now. My family is hurt behind this. He was a good kid, worked for Amazon, you know, made some mistakes in his life, and you know, he was, he was doing good, man,” he said.
Jalen Carpenter’s mother said he was the eldest of five children.
CBS News Chicago has reached out to Illinois State Police for more clarity, trying to find out why they engaged Carpenter and why they felt it was necessary to shoot and kill him. Illinois State Police would not tell us anything, saying it’s an active investigation.
At the time of the shooting, Carpenter was out on electronic monitoring for an alleged aggravated assault with a firearm in February. The case had not gone to trial, but court records show he was ordered to turn over his FOID card and weapon.
Police said a gun was recovered at the scene. No officers were injured.
ISP Division of Internal Investigation Special Agents are investigating the shooting. Illinois State Police said they will be turning their evidence over to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

To start with, what part of “drop the weapon” do I need to explain here? When you are approached by police, it’s probably a mistake to be “holding a gun,” but as previously mentioned, Jalen Carpenter was always “holding a gun.” It was his way of life — urban culture.

Secondly, just two months ago, Carpenter was arrested for aggravated assault with a firearm and released “on electronic monitoring,” but was violating the terms of his release by carrying a weapon — which, based on the type of firearms he displayed in his videos, was probably a Glock with a “switch” and a 50-round drum magazine, meaning that he was in effect carrying a machine gun. He was a menace to society and, while we don’t know the details of the domestic violence call that led to him being pursued by state police, perhaps you understand my skepticism toward his father’s claim, “He was a good kid.” Maybe by Chicago standards?

In a recent list of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods, Woodlawn ranked only fifth, and maybe it will drop another place or two now that Jalen Carpenter a/k/a EbkCap82 is no longer on the streets.



 

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update
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