The Other McCain

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

Controlled Opposition: Has AllahPundit Always Been a Democrat Trojan Horse?

Posted on | November 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Controlled Opposition: Has AllahPundit Always Been a Democrat Trojan Horse?

“In the context of journalism, here, we are dealing with a new kind of ‘lead’ — the Symbiotic Trapezoid Quote. The Columbia Journalism Review will never sanction it; at least not until the current editor dies of brain syphilis, and probably not even then.
“What?
“Do we have a libel suit on our hands?
“Probably not, I think, because nobody in his right mind would take a thing like that seriously — and especially not that gang of senile hags who run the Columbia Journalism Review, who have gone to great lengths in every issue during the past year or so to stress, very heavily, that nothing I say should be taken seriously.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing in Washington: The Boys in the Bag,” Rolling Stone, July 4, 1974 (collected in The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time)

The Patriots won Sunday, and it was sloppy as hell, but it was still a win.

Mac Jones was inconsistent, and New England was plagued by mistakes — a key fumble and penalties, including one that nullified a touchdown run by Damien Harris — and yet somehow they managed to defeat the Chargers 27-24. This was a must-win game, and they won it, bringing their record to 4-4 on the season, thus putting themselves in the middle of the AFC playoff chase with nine games to go in the season.

The real keys to Sunday’s win were two interceptions by Adrian Phillips, one of which he turned into a go-ahead touchdown, and outstanding special teams play by Gunner Olszewski, who had four punt returns for 80 yards, helping the Patriots in terms of field position. Finally, there was a 14-play, 54-yard drive in the fourth quarter that chewed up seven minutes before ending in a field goal that put New England ahead 27-17. That kind of clock-consuming, ball-control offense is underappreciated in the era of high-scoring razzle-dazzle football, but it enabled the Patriots to go home with a “W,” and that’s what really counts.

The thing about being a football fan is that, in identifying with a team, you share their fortunes. When I decided to become a Patriots fan — because they drafted Mac Jones from Alabama — Roll Tide! — I didn’t stop to think of the emotional toll that might be involved in this new fandom. When New England started the season 1-3, I was mortified. Being born and raised a ’Bama fan, I’m not accustomed to losing, and since Nick Saban took over in Tuscaloosa, thank God, there hasn’t been much losing. It’s an “off year” for Crimson Tide fans when we don’t win the National Championship, and it’s a disaster if we lose as many as two games in a season. Alabama fans would be burning Saban in effigy if the Tide ever started the season 1-3, so you can imagine how embarrassing it was for Mac Jones (and for me) to begin their season so badly. Yet there were glimmers of hope amid the gloom, and after New England blew out the Jets 54-13, it was possible to see them with a path to the playoffs if — and it seemed like a big “if” — they could beat the Chargers.

Baby, just look at this beautiful Jones-to-Agholor pass:

Critics keep saying Mac Jones has a “weak arm,” and I’m like, what? If you pay attention to that play, you see that Mac is on his own 33-yard line when he throws it, and Nelson Agholor catches it at the Chargers’ 19-yard line — that pass went 48 yards in the air, and notice that Mac was throwing under pressure from the Chargers’ rush. “Weak arm,” my ass.

Sometimes the best way to start a story is with a weird digression. Don’t even bother trying a “lead,” but instead plunge off into something that seemingly has nothing to do with your main topic — “the Symbiotic Trapezoid Quote,” as Thompson called it. My theme here is about teamwork and loyalty, and the inspiration was Ace of Spades ripping into AllahPundit for trying to spin the McAuliffe “tiki boys” stunt:

And it was stupid for the leftwing partisan AllahPundit to attempt to cover for his Palz on the Left and claim that this was just an innocent attempt at street theater which inadvertently turned into a hoax.
Recently AllahPundit claimed the story that Florida now had the lowest covid rates in the country — remember, bloggers at Hot Air “claim” stories on a first-come, first served basis — just so he could attack DeSantis by claiming it was hypocritical that DeSantis did not take the blame for Florida’s higher August covid rates but is taking credit for their lowest-in-the-nation October rates.
AllahPundit somehow doesn’t notice that it’s equally hypocritical for AllahPundit to have spent all August attacking DeSantis for higher Florida covid rates but now refuse to grant him credit for the low October rates.
Or that it is hypocritical of AllahPundit to blow off surging covid rates in the blue states of New England, where they have forced vaccinations and masking and all the wonderful coercions his frightened Karen heart craves.
But this is now typical of the alleged conservative blog Hot Air — it runs the same sort of opinion pieces that you’d find on Salon.
Which isn’t much of a surprise, given that in 2017, Salon named AllahPundit as one of the 25 conservative bloggers worth reading.
Their other picks? Lincoln Project pedophile-enablers Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens, and actual Lincoln Project pedophile John Weaver.
Former “conservative” blogger Jen Rubin, and former “conservative” fundraiser Ana Navarro.
As well as Noted All-Around Conservative Expert Tom Nichols, and Jon Podhoretz and S.E. Cupp.
As well as Noted Cvckshed Resident Bill Kristol, and Noted Bulwark Writer and Alanis Morrissette Lookalike Tim Miller.
Steven Hayes of The Dispatch. And David Frum.

You can read the whole thing. Lately, Ace has been ripping Allah at least once a day, five days a week, and I fondly recall the days — circa 2007 or so — when it seemed like Ace was just kind of nudging around with Allah, like buddies playing the dozens, but more recently it has become apparent to me that Ace really hates Allah’s guts. And why?

Because AllahPundit is not, and really never has been, a team player.

Like football, politics is a team sport. Just turn on CNN sometime, and see them all shaking their media pompoms for Team Democrat. We know what team they’re on, and we want to beat that team. The whole point of conservative journalism is to do a Mark Gastineau-style sack dance on the faces of those dishonest liberal media hacks.

Even if being on Team GOP is inevitably a disappointment — always being forced to swallow some worthless “bipartisan compromise” arranged by Mitch McConnell and/or an army of corporate lobbyists — it’s usually the best we can do, and a damned sight better than the catastrophes that happen whenever Democrats are running the show. Whatever any conservative’s complaints may be about Trump, you can’t fault him for his full-throttle assault on the “fake news” media, and for this is for nothing else he deserved our loyal support.

As Ace ran down that “Salon 25” list, placing AllahPundit in the company of weasels like Tom Nicols and Rick Wilson, it raised the question in my mind: “In what sense was AllahPundit ever a conservative?” In the Charles “Little Green Footballs” Johnson sense, perhaps?

There’s a freaky acid flashback, eh? Months at a time now go by without LGF ever crossing my mind, but now that it has . . .

Oh, the terrible DANGER posed by “racists” cheering for the Braves!

Exactly what has Charles ever done that would qualify him for recognition as a Friend of Indigenous Peoples? That’s the really annoying thing about these people — they think they deserve praise as Humanitarian Philanthropists merely for the act of going on Twitter and calling Republicans “racist,” as if this demonstrated their courage.

CNN’s ratings are in the tank and nobody reads LGF anymore, because this kind of phony Courageous Stand Against Racism stuff is boring.

And as Ace points out, what’s the rationale for Salem Media Group (SMG) to keep publishing the Democrat Trojan Horse that is AllahPundit? How is that justified, from a business perspective? SMG originated as a Christian radio network, but AllahPundit’s an atheist.

Then, on the other hand, when you think about how soi-disant “conservative” Christians like David French have baptized liberalism, so to speak, as a function of their #NeverTrump obsession, I guess AllahPundit’s atheism isn’t really disqualifying. But his #NeverTrump tendency has definitely put him in the same basket as the rest of the “Conservatives for Biden” crowd. Byron York assesses the damage:

He promised to deal with the COVID pandemic, and the pandemic came back with a vengeance. He promised to improve the economy, and growth has slowed, with inflation becoming a critical concern. He promised to restore America’s place in the world and then led a disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He promised to fix President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and instead brought chaos to the border. Of course his job approval rating is going down. How could it not?

You can read the whole thing. My point is that the market doesn’t seem to be demanding whatever it is AllahPundit is supplying.

Closet liberalism, masquerading as “conservative” punditry, may have had an audience once upon a time, but that time is clearly over:

Republican Glenn Youngkin leads over former governor Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia gubernatorial polls one day before the heavily-watched election.
Youngkin shows a two-point lead over McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race poll with likely voters, conducted by Insider Advantage and first reported by FOX5. The poll found that 47 percent will be voting for Youngkin. The poll is bad news for McAuliffe, whom only 45 percent of respondents said they would vote for in tomorrow’s race.
Two percent of the respondents said they would be voting for another candidate, Princess Blanding. Additionally, six percent were “undecided.” . . .
Matt Towry, from Insider Advantage, told FOX5 that his company noticed a “shift” towards Youngkin. He added that this election would have everything to do with getting voters to turn out.
“McAuliffe is a very gifted politician. He knows how to turn out his vote. Youngkin is obviously coming on strong. So, it’s going to be down to the wire,” Towry added.
Regarding the six percent who said they were undecided when asked, Towry noted that “they don’t plan on voting” and “most of the vote is already baked into these numbers.”

Can we trust these polls? Will the Democrats in Virginia come up with one of those ballot-harvesting “miracle” wins with a 3 a.m. truckload of absentee votes to give McAuliffe the margin of victory? We can’t rule it out, and there are probably corpses of Democratic voters in Oakwood Cemetry awaiting their electoral resurrection Tuesday. But we cannot allow this possibility to discourage Republican voters — living, breathing, legal residents of Virginia — from actually voting. Maybe the fix is in, but Virginia Republicans have to vote as if the machinery of Democratic vote fraud weren’t going to nullify their ballots. Keep in mind that Biden beat Trump by 10 points in Virginia, so for this election even to be close is something of a miracle. If Youngkin manages to pull off an upset here, it will send shock waves across the nation. And maybe, just maybe, it will drive a stake through the heart of #NeverTrump.

 

Shove it down their throats and do a sack dance on their faces.

Oh, and the Patriots are a three-point favorite over the Jaguars.




 

Category: Election, Football, Virginia

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