‘Don’t Get Cocky’

Posted on | July 13, 2024 | Comments Off on ‘Don’t Get Cocky’

What’s the first thing you notice when you look at today’s Real Clear Politics average of presidential election polls? What stands out to your eye? For me, it’s that NPR/PBS/Marist poll which, alone among all polls in the last two weeks, shows Joe Biden in the lead. Any average is only as good as the components of the total dividend, and this one number — which is eight points off of four different polls showing Trump +6 — ought to attract careful scrutiny. Here’s their story:

Contest for President Still “Up for Grabs”
Biden +2 Percentage Points Against Trump, Despite Concerns about Biden’s Mental Fitness
With just days to go before the start of the Republican National Convention, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump continue to be closely matched among registered voters in both a head-to-head matchup and a multicandidate field. Biden’s support remains relatively unchanged from last month despite the view of many Americans that he lacks the mental fitness to serve as president. However, Biden outperforms Trump on whether either candidate has the character to be President of the United States, and by more than two to one, Americans are more concerned about a president who lies than they are about someone who is too old to serve. Both candidates remain flawed in the eyes of Americans, and majorities say neither should be on the ballot. Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, and Gretchen Whitmer do not improve the Democrats’ chances against Trump.
Among registered voters nationally including leaners, Biden receives 50% to 48% in the two-way presidential matchup. Two percent are undecided. Biden and Trump were tied (49% to 49%) in last month’s pre-debate NPR/PBS News/Marist survey.

Did you catch that? According to Marist, Biden has actually gained two points since their pre-debate poll. Are they trying to sell us the Brooklyn Bridge or what? It’s not just that their number is out of line with most other polls, but the direction of the trend is backwards. For example, the New York Times/Siena College poll has shown the race going from Trump +1 in April to Trump +4 in June (pre-debate) and now Trump +6 post-debate. Similarly, the Emerson College poll, which had Trump +1 in June (pre-debate) now has Trump +3. Stipulate that a shift in the range of 2 to 4 percentage points may just be margin-of-error statistical “noise,” but that Marist poll still sticks out like a sore thumb.

Here, perhaps, it’s worthwhile to mention that I’ve been reading polls for a long, long time. When I was at the Washington Times, one of my jobs was to update the weekly roundup of polls during election years. This was years before Real Clear Politics had begun its handy aggregation and, indeed, before Google, back in the day when you had to use search engines like Yahoo or Dogpile to find anything on the Internet. So for four consecutive election cycles — 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 — I was the guy grabbing up all these poll numbers from wherever I could find them and compiling them for a weekly graphic, trying to give readers an idea of where things stood. The longer you do that kind of work, the more you notice certain patterns. For example, as September gives way to October, the media will look to the polls and declare that the race is “tightening.”

What they really mean — the underlying truth — is that most polling operations have a built-in slant toward Democrats. During most of the year leading up to the November election, whether it’s a Senate contest or a presidential race, most polls will show Democrat leading by a larger margin than the final election result. The “tightening” of poll numbers in October always involves the Democratic candidate losing ground, as these liberal pollster/propagandists adjust their numbers so that their final poll isn’t preposterously out-of-whack with the official vote totals.

All of which is to say that Democrats have mastered the art of using polls to influence public opinion, rather than to reflect public opinion, which is why you will rarely see polls overestimate the likelihood of Republican victory. (The 2022 midterms were an exception in this regard.) Democrats know that many people see polls as justifying either hope or gloom, and therefore they publish polls that reliably inflate hopes for Democratic victories, trying to create self-fulfilling prophecies.

This brings us back to my suspicious side-eye glance at that Marist poll number. The only way you can judge the value of a pollster in terms of predictive accuracy is to look at their past results. In October 2020, Marist released a poll showing Biden leading by 11 points. The final official popular vote had Biden winning by 4.5 points, which meant that Marist’s poll overstated Biden’s support by 6.5 points. Apply that error rate to the current Marist numbers? Biden’s down by at least 4 points.

Not that I’m blowing sunshine up your skirts, you understand. We have no idea what will occur between now and November, whether Biden will be forced off the ticket, or whether Democrats will be able to manufacture enough fake “votes” to elect their candidate (who may or may not be Biden). Overall, however, I’d rather be playing Trump’s hand than to be playing Biden’s hand right now, and I’m not going to let some dubious polls convince me otherwise. Remain calm. All is well.

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Category: Donald Trump, Election, Joe Biden, Polls

In The Mailbox: 07.12.24

Posted on | July 13, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.12.24

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
If you’re going to be in or near Las Vegas next weekend, Son of Silvercon II will be happening at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas. Come on down!
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Enjoy your weekend!

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Stop Listening To The Voices In Your Head – Or Your Dashboard
EBL: Alec Baldwin’s Manslaughter Trial Dismissed With Prejudice
Twitchy: Molly Jong-Fast The Latest Leftist Entering The Anger Stage Of Grief Over Biden, Unable To Run On His Own Record, Biden Says Project 2025 “Biggest Attack” On Our System Of Government, and Biden Insists In Vaguely Threatening Post That His Campaign Is About “Finishing The Job”
Louder With Crowder: The look on Biden officials’ faces when he praised “Vice President Trump” is amazeballs
Vox Popoli: Biden-bot Malfunction, The Unrepentant Evil of the Boomers, Company, and Booktopia Goes Under
According To Hoyt: As The Fog Clears, Don’t Make It Easy, and Spoiling For A Kicking
Upstream Reviews: Witchy Eye
Stoic Observations: The Based Network

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Peterson GazaGazaGazaHamasHamas
American Conservative: Elon Musk Throws Weight Behind Donald Trump, also, French Interior Minister Ices Mélenchon’s Economic Plans
American Greatness: Bidengate and the Doom Loop, also, Biden’s Dénouement Hurts U.S. Standing
American Thinker: The Fraud Triangle: Why Wouldn’t People Who Kill Babies Also Steal Elections?
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Why Is Biden Hanging On Friday
Babalu Blog: Cuban Americans took to the streets on July 11 protest anniversary in support of the Cuban people, As economy tanks, Cuba tightens thumbscrews on ‘private’ businesses, and They came, they sued, and did not conquer
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For July 12
Behind The Black: SpaceX launch experiences a failure of upper stage, Europa Clipper mission threatened by faulty transistors, China planning an asteroid collision mission similar to DART, FAA is apparently starting a new environmental impact assessment for Boca Chica, Russia arrests three Europeans this week for trespassing at Baikonur spaceport, and Musk Says European Union attempted to blackmail X into censoring tweets
Cafe Hayek: Oren Cass Continues to Misunderstand Both Economic Reality and Economic Theory, also, Disagreement Over Means Does Not Imply Disagreement Over Ends
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Joe Biden the MSM & The Splitting of the Niche
Dana Loesch: Biden’s Big Boy Press Conference,
Don Surber: The original October 7 gives us hope
First Street Journal: A post of mine that will piss off a lot of people
Gates Of Vienna: India’s Muslims and Lessons for the West: Introduction
The Geller Report: Advertising Cartel that Controls 90% of Online Advertising Defunded Conservative News Outlets and platforms
Hollywood In Toto: Why Longlegs Isn’t the Next Silence of the Lambs, also, Sound of Hope Dustup Proves Matthew McConaughey Right
The Lid: Georgia Makes Election Integrity Move that Could Head Off Democrat Cheating
Legal Insurrection: House Democrats and GOP Join Forces to Defend Our Appliances from Biden’s Crazed Energy Department, Meta Planning to Remove Restrictions on Trump Before 2024 Election, Democratic Socialists of America Pulls Endorsement of AOC for Being Insufficiently Anti-Israel, Judge Dismisses Involuntary Manslaughter Case Against Alec Baldwin, Latino Student Group ‘Disaffiliates’ From UW-Madison After School Suspended It for Antisemitism, and Trump Offers to Take Cognitive Test With Biden
Michele Catalano: i am home
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Paul Skenes Named Starting Pitcher In All-Star Game Live On Dan Patrick Show, Caitlin Clark Sets Franchise Record, Indiana Fever Withstands Mercury Comeback Attempt, Serena Williams Uses ESPYs Monologue To Suggest Only White People Like Caitlin Clark, The Summer Of Skenes: It’s Like Fernandomania For Pittsburgh Phenom Off To Historic Rookie Start, Olivia Dunne Had ESPY Viewers On The Edge Of Their Seats, NFL Set To Take On Private Equity Investment, and Golf Influencer Grace Charis Drops Her Own Paige Spiranac Style Slow-Mo Swing Video
Power Line: Living Rent Free in Biden’s Head, The Daily Chart: Non-Working Feds, Meet Israel’s Egoz Boys, and Thoughts from the ammo line
Shark Tank: Salazar Unveils Delta Chat App For Cuban Protesters
Shot In The Dark: Advertent
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday: The Dalai Lama Looks Back
This Ain’t Hell: Occasional Cortex tries to impeach Thomas and Alito, TaH/VG goes to the movies – Snake Eyes, Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever, Supreme Court sides against the power of faceless bureaucrats, Valor Friday, and Navy Sailor attempted to access Joe Biden’s record
Transterrestrial Musings: Propellantless Propulsion, The Latest SpaceX “Scandal”, The Coverup, and The Falcon Failure
Victory Girls: Trans Inmates Are Creating Dangerous Problems In Prisons
Volokh Conspiracy: Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Watts Up With That: U.S. Urban Air Pollution Trends: Fossil Fuel Ecology, ‘You’re Utterly Ignorant’: Ted Cruz Lights Up Climate Protesters Interrupting His Speech, and Miliband Orders Immediate Ban on New North Sea Oil
The Federalist: Lawsuit Alleges Arizona’s ‘Unconstitutional’ Elections Manual Criminalizes Free Speech, Disenfranchises Voters, Former NIH Chief Of Staff Denies Lab Leak Theory Censorship Despite Overwhelming Proof, Biden Mixes Up Vice President Kamala Harris With ‘Vice President Trump’ In Pivotal Speech, Exclusive: 88 Republicans Probe Army For Labeling Pro-Life Organizations As ‘Terrorist Groups’, Transgender Ideology Is Superstition, Not Science, 15 Lies Biden Told During His ‘Big Boy’ Press Conference, and Major Nevada County Pressured To Rubber-Stamp Election After Delaying Certification To Probe ‘Mishaps’
Mark Steyn: Ocean’s Eleventh Hour, Time for Clever Men to Step In, and Two Years On

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In The Mailbox: 07.11.24 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | July 12, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

This is the way.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The System Will Not Protect You From A Violent Stalker
EBL: Biden Having A “Big Boy” Press Conference Today, also, Shelley Duvall, RIP
Twitchy: “Super Bowl For Insane People Who Follow Politics,” Jake Tapper Shares Text From Sad Longtime Biden Advisor And People Are NOT Buying It, and Here’s Blinken, Austin, & Sullivan Reacting To Biden Praising “Vice President Trump” During Presser
Louder With Crowder: Dave Portnoy DESTROYS George Clooney’s sudden realization Biden’s a vegetable, but misses one key point, also, Mick Jagger doesn’t understand why Canadians are booing him for admitting he loves Justin Trudeau
Vox Popoli: Insanity is On the Table, Never Trust Ebooks, The Doability of Mass Deportation, There Are No Studies, and Guess Who’s Back on the Not-Meth?
Toni Airaksinen: Autistic Male Student Clears Name In Court After False Sexual Harassment Allegations
Upstream Reviews: Flight Of Vengeance,

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Republicans Prepare for a Biden Ouster, also, The Future for the Rassemblement National Is Bright
American Greatness: Why Gavin Newsom Must Never Become U.S. President, U.S. House Passes SAVE Act to Prevent Non-Citizens From Voting in Federal Elections–With 198 Dems Voting Against, Report: New York City Hotels Housing Illegal Aliens Receive Over $1 Billion in Taxpayer Funds, Our Brezhnev, Our Pravda, Our Soviet Union, and Of Deranged Wolves and Their Shadows
American Thinker: More Bad News on the Electric Vehicle Front
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News, Animal Magnetism LIVE Ep. 14 – Cell Phone Frustrations, and Animal’s Red Thursday News
Babalu Blog: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops demands Cuba’s removal from terror list while Catholics on the island are persecuted, The extrajudicial killings of Cuba’s communist dictatorship, and Lack of coffins and hearses prevents the dead from being properly buried in Cuba
BattleSwarm: New Orleans Tries To Game Gun Free Zone Law By Declaring Police Station A School, also, Poll: Trump Wallops Every Other Dem Even Worse Than Biden
Behind The Black: Webb finds an exoplanet in the habitable zone with a possible nitrogen/CO2 atmosphere and water ocean, Astroscale’s ADRAS-J test spacecraft continues successfully maneuvers around abandoned rocket upper stage, Radar movie produced of 500-foot-wide asteroid, Starliner return delayed until after ground thruster tests are completed and analyzed, India picks astronauts to train for manned mission to ISS, A ridge that runs right over a Martian mesa, and Iran provided financial support to the pro-Hamas demonstrators
Cafe Hayek: Cartoonland
CDR Salamander: Flank, Front, & The Importance Of Language
Chicago Boyz: The Tar-Baby
Da Tech Guy: And VDH Slams Home My Point, Trump Has Passed The Cognitive Test By Adapting Dems Hardest Hit, Five One Line Thoughts Under the Fedora, If the Republican Party would stop being the stupid party for this election that would be great, and Joe, get tested!
Don Surber: Biden likely stays
First Street Journal: Sometimes you just have to be an a*****e to do things right., Pennsylvanians are incensed that Larry Krasner will not seek the death penalty for a cop killer, and NIMBY! Don’t build your damned solar farm next to my neighborhood!
Gates Of Vienna: Downtime, Marion Maréchal: “France is Ungovernable”, Covid-19: All Lies. All Crime. — Chapter 10, The Fly is Still Buzzing, A Martyr For ISIS-K in Austria, and Chechens vs. Syrians: Who Will Win?
The Geller Report: Gaza and the Truth Famine, also, CNN Cuts 100 Jobs, While CBS News President RESIGNS
Hollywood In Toto: Harsh Reality Check for Red State Movies, Fly Me to the Moon Delivers a Seriously Silly Rom-Com, Jimmy Kimmel Has Some Explaining to Do, Meet Outlaw Comedian Josh Denny, and Breaking Laws Sheds Light on Bizarre Justice System
The Lid: Abortion Mill Operators Planned Parenthood has Become Leader in Transgendring Children
Legal Insurrection: Gov. Abbott (R-TX) Challenges Biden’s Recollection of Hurricane Beryl Disaster Request, My Hot Take: Biden Presser A Big Win For Donald Trump Because Democrat Chaos Continues, Biden Introduces Ukrainian President Zelensky as ‘President Putin’, Student Reportedly Deported from the United Arab Emirates After Shouting ‘Free Palestine’ at Graduation, Israel Names Over 100 UNRWA Employees Doubling as Gaza Terrorists, and Why is the Biden Administration Trying to Shut Down the David Horowitz Freedom Center?
Nebraska Energy Observer: Senility and Lies, Nothing Else Holds Fashion, also, Alone
Outkick: Every House Democrat Voted Against Protecting Women’s Sports And Private Spaces, Angel Reese Continues Record Double-Double Streak Despite Abysmal Shooting In Sky Loss, Paul Skenes Throws Seven No-Hit Innings, Pirates Immediately Blow It, Cincinnati Reds Ace Hunter Greene Strikes Out First 6 Rockies, Fans Are Furious Over Robot Bartenders At MLB All-Star Game, and World’s Sexiest Volleyballer Swims With Sharks, UK Soccer Girl Turns On All Of America & The Real Project 2025
Power Line: The Project 2025 Hoax, Democrats Are Facing the Abyss Inside the Abyss, and How Much Do You Hate the Press?
Shark Tank: Pardoned “Felon” Files Defamation Suit Against Sheriff Candidate
Shot In The Dark: Ruben Rosario, Compare & Contrast, Arsenal Of Theocracy, and Remedy
The Political Hat: Quick Takes – Canada The Killer: One Doctor Kills Hundreds; Organ Harvesting From Non-Terminal Patients; Quebec Doctors Want Your Organs
This Ain’t Hell: Canadian sentenced for US stolen valor, The question returns, and Hamas Pier Final Follies?
Transterrestrial Musings: Ariane 6, Coffee, The Secrets Of Ice, Fusion Energy, and Will They Or Won’t They?
Victory Girls: Project 2025 is Democrats’ RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA for 2024
Volokh Conspiracy: Court Holds Federal Ban on Home-Distilling Exceeds Congress’ Enumerated Powers
Watts Up With That: EPA Chief Insists His Agency Has Not Sent ‘One Dime’ To Hardline Left-Wing Org — But There’s A $50 Million Problem, A Clown Show in Court: The Conviction of Just Stop Oil Protestors, and ‘Goes Beyond the Limits’: Judge Throws Out Blue City’s Climate Case Against Oil Giants
The Federalist: Left-Wing ‘Civil Rights’ Groups Suggest It’s Racist To Keep Foreigners From Registering To Vote, Gay Man Allegedly Dismembered A 14-Year-Old Boy He Met On An LGBT Sex App, House Republicans Fail To Hold Merrick Garland In Contempt Of Congress, Wisconsin GOP Prepares For Return Of Ballot Drop Boxes In November’s Election, Contrary To Media Claims, Inflation Index Shows Americans Still Face Sky-High Prices, Democrats Continue To Spew Lies About The Contents Of Project 2025, and Will Biden Cling To Power In 2024 The Way Democrats Predicted Trump Would In 2020?
Mark Steyn: Scarborough Fair and Balanced, Introducing Imam Sanders, and Live Around the Planet: Who’s Behind The Curtain?

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The ‘Misinformation’ Scam

Posted on | July 11, 2024 | Comments Off on The ‘Misinformation’ Scam

Just yesterday I noted my shock that Jon Stewart (!!!) is now apparently a MAGA extremist, and I guess we’ll have to add Nate Silver’s name to the list, now that he’s admitted that the term “misinformation” has been “hijacked as a cover for partisan bias.” Barely two weeks ago, you were a right-wing conspiracy theorist peddling “misinformation” if you suggested that videos showed Joe Biden in a condition of diminished cognitive capacity. “Cheap fakes!” they shrieked, and their army of allegedly objective “fact-checkers” pushed back against any such suggestion. “The right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem because of, the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on June 17. Ten days later, Biden’s performance during the debate proved who actually has the “credibility problem,” and it ain’t “right-wing critics.” Suddenly, every Democrat and liberal media hack claimed to have discovered — “shocked! shocked!” like Captain Renault in Casablanca — that the “misinformation” was true.

While we wait for our apology — and I expect it to be a long wait — let’s take a moment to ask: How did we get here? When did concern about “misinformation” become a sort of cottage industry, and why?

Remember? It was 2016 and the Hillary Clinton campaign had some narrative problems. There was that thing about her doing State Department business via a secret personal server, which was destroyed in what was clearly an act of obstruction of justice (for which she was never prosecuted), and then there was a leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee confirming what everybody already knew, namely that the fix was in at the DNC to guarantee Hillary the nomination and screw over Bernie Sanders. The need to distract from these scandals helped fuel the Clinton campaign’s operation to smear Donald Trump as engaged in “collusion” with sinister Russian forces. The DNC emails were not a leak, we were told, but rather the result of a Russian hacking operation. And if you pushed back against that claim, you were accused of being a Putin stooge and your Twitter account might get shut down because somebody called you a “bot” or a “troll.”

Then the unthinkable happened — Hillary lost the election — and one of the consequences was that suddenly the fight against “misinformation” was portrayed as a patriotic effort to SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY by preventing Russian “election interference.” By the way, have you ever heard of a guy named Seth Abramson? He’s a guy who pitches himself as an “investigative journalist” while exploiting the paranoia of gullible left-wingers by telling them that EVERYTHING THEY FEAR IS REAL!

Until Wednesday, I’d never paid any attention to Seth Abramson until (via Memeorandum) I got a look at this headline:

We Now Know What Really Happened in Atlanta
Media lied to voters about the cause of President Biden’s subpar debate performance. The lie — described here in full — is unforgivable, and was intended to chill discussion of Trump’s cognitive decline.

Wow. He bought a ticket on the train to Crazytown and rode it all the way. Here is the essence of Abramson’s claim:

At the time major media began harping on President Biden’s alleged cognitive decline, progressive dissatisfaction with the lack of coverage of Donald Trump’s cognitive decline had reached a fever pitch. The only way for major media to resolve the situation in its favor was to turn a one-night situation whose causes and implications it quickly understood to be (respectively) transient and virtually non-existent into a bigger story that would at once plump ratings, virtue-signal even-handedness, and put progressive critics back on their heels.

Do you believe that? Or better yet, can you possibly imagine anyone being dumb enough to believe that? Because I must point out that Seth Abramson is a New York Times bestselling author of such titles as Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America (2018), Proof of Conspiracy: How Trump’s International Collusion Is Threatening American Democracy (2019), Proof of Corruption: Bribery, Impeachment, and Pandemic in the Age of Trump (2020), and Proof of Coup: How the Pentagon Shaped An Insurrection (2022).

And did I mention he used to appear frequently on CNN?

Wikipedia tells us, “Writers at The New Republic and The Atlantic have described Abramson as a conspiracy theorist,” and further directs us to a review of Abramson’s first book (which was compiled from his numerous Twitter threads about the “Russian collusion” claim) by Scottish journalist Harry McGrath:

What it doesn’t do is prove anything despite Abramson’s insistence in the introduction that “Proof of collusion in the Trump-Russia case is in plain sight”. Amassed theories and suggestive juxtapositions notwithstanding, we end up with something closer to the Scottish “not proven” verdict with its unique mix of moral conviction of guilt and inability to conclusively prove the case.

So the guy who claimed to have proven that the “Russia! Russia! Russia!” hoax was true now claims that the media are covering up the “fact” that Donald Trump’s cognitive ability is impaired. You see how the narratives propagated by Hillary Clinton’s campaign have led to a situation in which any claim that reflects badly on Trump is acceptable, even the most obviously counter-factual claims peddled by someone whom liberal journalists call a conspiracy theorist, even while an entire industry has been created to smear any criticism of Biden as “misinformation.”

Glenn Reynolds calls our attention to a lengthy item by Matt Taibbi about the Clemson University “Media Forensics Hub,” which began in 2017 when two faculty members “worked together to uncover and expose more than 3 million tweets by Russian trolls.” Allegedly, I hasten to add. If your account got banned from Twitter because these two guys decided you were a “Russian troll,” far be it from me to accept such defamation at face-value. Given the current situation, when CNN is now running a 24/7 effort to push Biden off the Democratic ticket because of a cognitive impairment which they previously dismissed as “misinformation,” I would urge everyone to be skeptical about any such claims.

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Category: Conspiracy Theories, Donald Trump, Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 07.11.24 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | July 11, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 07.11.24 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

It’s about the duality of man.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Just When You Thought Democrats Couldn’t Get Any Dumber
EBL: MAGA Golf: Trump challenges Biden to Golf Match (and Debate Mulligan)
Twitchy: Joe Biden’s “Big Boy” Press Conference Moved Back An Hour & X Has Thoughts, Look On Daily Show Host’s Face After He Asks Blacks Who They’re Voting For Is Priceless, and Morning Joe Says The Quiet Part About Obama & The Biden Campaign Out Loud
Louder With Crowder: Ben Affleck’s daughter demands Los Angeles mandate masks…in 2024, also, Doocy hammers WH: In a nuclear strike, will the Pentagon call Joe Biden or his caregiver Jill Biden?
Vox Popoli: Naked Clown World, Final Cut, and Those Who Wallow in Evil
Upstream Reviews: The War Revealed
Gab: A Crisis of Faith and Politics
Ammo.com: Concealed Carry Crime Stats 2024
Toni Airaksinen: Conservative Jewish Student Forced Into Hiding After Doxxing

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Oh Noes…Muh NATO
Don Surber: What the Dementia-ocrats fear
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday – Bad Ideas French Coalition

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Jon Stewart: ‘Get on Board or Shut the F*** Up Is Not a Particularly Compelling Pro-Democracy Bumper Sticker’

Posted on | July 10, 2024 | 2 Comments

Question: When did Jon Stewart become a “MAGA extremist”?

Because, you’ll recall, prior to June 27, anyone who so much as suggested that perhaps Joe Biden was less than coherent was denounced as a MAGA extremist, a fascist, an enemy of “Our Democracy,” etc.

Before the June 27 debate, any and all criticism of Biden was viewed as helping Trump, and therefore you were a Nazi who wants to see Rachel Maddow shipped to a concentration camp — no, really, she said that — if you said anything negative about Biden. All critics of Biden were Nazis.

Oh, how quickly they changed their tune! Today, doing my duty as a MAGA extremist, I was watching CNN (so you don’t have to) and every hour was dedicated to emphasizing BIDEN MUST STEP ASIDE!

Yeah, every hour, on the hour, all afternoon, CNN was featuring the BREAKING NEWS that George Clooney (!!!) wants to dump Biden.

Less than two weeks ago, I repeat, this kind of talk was enough to get you labeled a dangerous extremist peddling “misinformation” (and maybe you were a Russian operative on Putin’s payroll, too). Every “mainstream” news organization was promoting the message that “democracy is on the ballot,” and only Joe Biden could save America from the authoritarian dystopia of Trumpism. “Get on board or shut the f*** up” has been the message to all of Biden’s critics for the past three-and-a-half years, but until two weeks ago, Jon Stewart didn’t seem to notice.

How goddamned convenient is this belated discovery?

There’s a guy on X (the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter) who goes by the name Theo Jordan. Is that actually his name or a pseudonym to protect himself from left-wing harassment? I don’t know, but Theo Jordan has been using the term “hatecraft” to describe the rhetoric of the Left in the Age of Trump, Hatecraft is “a wizard-like spellbook of language manipulation and weaponized empathy, emotional abuse propaganda,” he says, “a method of intellectual attack and coercion . . . You can’t speak against it [i.e., the Left’s policy agenda], or it’s ‘hate.'”

"Hatecraft"https://t.co/xM9xRICpPG https://t.co/Pml4RBhMRN pic.twitter.com/J1y7YFTcn9

— Theo Jordan (@Theo_TJ_Jordan) February 4, 2024

We have all witnessed “hatecraft” in action. Whatever the issue — climate change, transgenderism, “Palestine,” etc. — to disagree with the Left is to invite denunciation as a proponent of hate, complicit in “stochastic terrorism” and so forth. To dissent about The Current Thing is to be not merely wrong, but dangerous. What was the pretext, after all, for Taylor Lorenz doxxing Chaya Raichik? Because “LibsOfTikTok” was allegedly responsible for people getting death threats.

Question: Has any right-winger ever gotten death threats, or otherwise been harmed, because of online criticism? Yes, I have been harmed personally — doxxed and targeted for SWATting — and I know that many others could testify to similar harms they’ve suffered. The fact that liberals are intolerant of dissent (and are willing to do anything necessary to silence their opposition) is something that neither Jon Stewart nor any other Democrat ever noticed until, quite recently, they encountered the “get on board or shut the f*** up” response from those defending Biden against fellow Democrats. And now, conveniently, Jon Stewart realizes that this response is hardly a “pro-democracy bumper sticker.”

The boomerang of hypocrisy has circled around to whack Stewart in the back of the head, but not even that can cure Trump Derangement Syndrome. See, the reason Stewart (and George Clooney, and everybody on CNN) is now urgently demanding that Joe Biden step aside is because (a) everybody saw on June 27 that Biden is cognitively dysfunctional, (b) they know Biden will lose to Trump, and therefore (c) BIDEN MUST QUIT TO SAVE DEMOCRACY FROM TRUMP!

Never mind all those primary voters who voted for Biden — Democratic voters are a herd of stupid cattle, obediently doing whatever the media tell them to do, and their votes can be ignored if necessary. That’s not me saying that; I’m just paraphrasing Jon Stewart who, up until June 27, seemed perfectly OK with the stupid cattle nominating an 81-year-old incumbent for another four years. But now Stewart wants to dump Biden — you know, the guy who won all those primaries? — because that’s what is necessary to save democracy, and he doesn’t expect any of the stupid cattle to object to this scheme. Who am I to say that he’s wrong? You’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of Democratic voters.

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Category: Celebrities, Joe Biden, Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 07.09.24

Posted on | July 10, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Doug sent me the wrong link for his current fundraiser. This is the correct link.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Grandpa BUFF knows the gate. Grandpa BUFF is the gate. Grandpa BUFF is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one to Grandpa BUFF.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: It’s Not About Safety – It’s About Control Of The Law-Abiding
EBL: Katie Britt responds to a climate troll, American Fascism, Human Near Extinction Event 900,000 Years Ago, and Darth Brandon Is Staying In The Race
Twitchy: Jon Stewart’s Pretty Decent Rant on Biden’s Mental Wellness, Democrat Neurologist Says Biden Has Parkinson’s, Calls Out The Coverup…On NBC? and Biden’s Intern Asks X To Google “Project 2025” And It Doesn’t Go Well
Louder With Crowder: Lefty rag goes full-fuehrer with this lazy, anti-Trump fascistic fan fiction, also, Jill Biden, Joe’s caregiver, lashes out at a once adoring press
Vox Popoli: Wallowing in Pseudo-Madness, China Puts Troops on the Ground, Farage is Not the Answer, Girls With Guns, Letter to an Archbishop, and Mailvox: Poland Makes a Move
Upstream Reviews: Monster Hunter International

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Let’s Play Pretend
American Conservative: French Elections Could Have Been Worse
American Greatness: Worst of All Worlds…For Democrats, also, Biden Department of Interior Shuts Down Oil, Gas, and Mining Activity in Millions of Acres in Alaska
American Thinker: The Illusion of Hood Life
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Hanging In There News
Babalu Blog: Population of Cuba decreases by 18% in one year, Coach of the Cuban girls national softball team defects in Miami, and Shocking! 24% of Americans think Biden is fit enough to handle threat such as the Cuban missile crisis
BattleSwarm: Beryl Leaves Over 1.7 Million Without Power, also, Spectrum Internet Down Across Texas
Behind The Black: Watch the first launch of Europe’s Ariane-6 rocket, Webb: Hot Jupiter exoplanet has atmosphere with the smell of rotten eggs, Japan dithers about capitalism in space, A jumble of blocks in the middle of a Martian flood lava plain, Europe at last launches Ariane-6, and Columbia University continues to willingly condone anti-semitism among its bloated faculty and staff
Cafe Hayek: Beijing’s Economic Interventions Aren’t Helping China’s Economy, Economic Ignorance Runneth Deep, and Oren Cass Continues to Misconstrue Adam Smith
CDR Salamander: China, Ukraine, & GWOT – The Warping Power Of Dissolution Begat By Lies
Chicago Boyz: Who Are The Commissioners? (rereun, with updates)
Da Tech Guy: Has it Really only Been a week? and other matters Under the Fedora, The DaTechGuy Peace Plan for Ukraine: Sell Russia the Donbas region, A Reminder to Americans, Chicagoan speaking about July 4 weekend: “It’s assassination day…”, and The Patriot Front Give Away, Not a Beer Belly In Sight!
Dana Loesch: The Democrats’ Biden Situation Keeps Getting Worse
Don Surber: NYC discovers trash bins
First Street Journal: A good news update: three #Antisemitic Columbia University deans permanently removed from their jobs
Gates Of Vienna: Our Democracy™: In Counting There is Strength
The Geller Report: Elon Musk Calls To Bring Back Paper Ballots, also, Democrats Fight Bill Requiring Proof of U.S. Citizenship to Vote
Glenn Reynolds: Fly The Plane
Hollywood In Toto: Colbert Says Biden a ‘Great President’ Without a Brain, also, Michael Moore: ‘Trump Was Right’ About This One Thing
The Lid: Calif. Democrats Oppose Bill Making Child Prostitution a Felony Because Gays would be Most Charged for the Crime
Legal Insurrection: Town Admits First Amendment Violation After Firing Librarian Who Endorsed Conservative Candidates Opposed to ‘Inappropriate’ Children’s Books, Iran Helping Promote and Fund Anti-Israel Student Demonstrations, According to U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Colleges Try to Increase Enrollment by Admitting Students Who Didn’t Apply, Pro-Gun Control Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Bodyguard Shoots Man Trying to Steal Car, ‘Felt Like a Funeral’: House Democratic Caucus Meeting Ends Without a Consensus on Biden, and Biased Media Trashes Former Sen. Inhofe When Reporting His Death
Nebraska Energy Observer: Neo reminded me
Outkick: Deep Dive Into Angel Reese Stats Paints Grim Picture Of Sky Rookie’s Skills, The Pittsburgh Pirates Are In Playoff Contention, And Their Owner Doesn’t Seem To Care, The Dodgers Are Running On Fumes, Yankees-Red Sox Ratings Show Value Of Big Name MLB Matchups, Nike Layoffs Continue Massive Downward Trend For Company, and Bebe Rexha & Miranda Lambert Put Fans On Notice, HOA President Ruins A Kid’s Day & Baking Banana Bread In Cars
Power Line: The Muslim Vote Rocks UK Politics, Our Lazy, Degenerate Media, Chapter 12,186, and Trump’s VP: Who Will It Be?
Shark Tank: Steube Discusses Biden’s Campaign As Democrats Scramble After Debate
Shot In The Dark: Glitterati Among The Snowdrifts, also, Comment Neither Needed Nor Provided
STUMP: 2023 Top Causes of Death In The US By age Group (Preliminary)
The Political Hat: Frustration & Violence
This Ain’t Hell: No longer posting content to Facebook
Transterrestrial Musings: “A Good Man”, Wild Wild Space, Now They’re Coming For Our Food, and Biden Has A Weak hand
Victory Girls: Lucien Greaves’ Satanic Temple A “Poison Pill” In Florida Schools
Volokh Conspiracy: The Supreme Court Refuses To Extend Robinson v. California, A Non-Originalist Decision
Watts Up With That: Discovery of 2-million-year-old DNA in Greenland reveals new details about ancient life, also, The WHOI Lye Dumping Experiment: A Reckless Attempt at Climate Mitigation
The Federalist: Sotomayor’s Bodyguard Saved By Second Amendment Self-Defense Right That Justice Rejected, The Case For Congress Subpoenaing Biden’s Medical Records, Dem Donor Who Funded Election Disinfo, Lawfare Is Backing Suit To Silence Election Journalism, Biden’s Idea Of ‘Secure Elections’ Is Letting People Who Might Not Be Citizens Keep Voting, Pigpen Project Puts Boots On The Ground To Expose Nevada’s Dirty Voter Rolls, and What’s Next For The U.K. After Labour Hands Tories Worst Defeat In Nearly 200 Years?
Mark Steyn: Favorite Fourths, Pearls of Ceylon (and Chicago), When Your Lover Has Gone, Always the “Far Right” Bridesmaid, and Who’s in Charge Here?

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‘Get Money,” R.I.P.

Posted on | July 9, 2024 | Comments Off on ‘Get Money,” R.I.P.

Timothy James Jefferson of Dallas began getting tattoos before he was old enough to drive legally, but he was not exactly a stickler for legality. Among the tattoos he got while still a minor — a ninth-grader at Oak Cliff High School — was the word “get” on one arm and the word “money” on the other: “Get money” being a life goal to which he was dedicated and, as previously mentioned, legality was not foremost among his concerns.

Jefferson’s “get money” tattoos were the subject of an appeals court case. Jefferson was charged with the armed robbery of a Foot Locker store in 2009, when he was 19, and at the subsequent trial, testified in his own defense. The prosecution asked for and received permission from the judge to ask Jefferson about his “get money” tattoos. On appeal, Jefferson claimed this was irrelevant and prejudicial, to which the Texas appeals court replied: “LOL! GFY!” (Or words to that effect.)

Jefferson made news last week when he decided to celebrate the Fourth of July by — can you guess? — committing an armed robbery:

A Dallas officer fatally shot a robbery suspect who pointed a gun at police early Thursday in east Oak Cliff, according to officials.
Officers responded about 1 a.m. to a robbery call in the 2900 block of South Lancaster Road and three suspects ran out the back of an illegal game room and jumped a fence to where “covert officers” were, police said.
One of the suspects pointed a gun at the officer, a “struggle” between the two ensued and the officer shot the suspect; according to a news release.
The person who was shot by the officer was identified by the Dallas County medical examiner’s office as 34-year-old Timothy James Jefferson.
Officers rendered first aid before he was taken to the hospital and died from his injuries.
No officers were injured, and the two other suspects who ran from the area were taken into custody.

The police body-camera video was released Monday:

An on-duty Dallas officer in plain clothes fired his handgun ”approximately” four times early Thursday morning at an armed man who allegedly was involved in a robbery of an illegal Oak Cliff game room and who reached for a gun during a struggle, police said.
A surveillance camera on a nearby business captured footage of the brief scuffle between Sr. Cpl. Ruben Martinez and 34-year-old Timothy James Jefferson, who later died from his injuries. Twenty minutes of 911 audio, body-camera footage and surveillance recording were released by police during a news conference Monday. . . .
Police received a 911 call about 1 a.m. from a person who described an ongoing robbery of an illegally operating game room in the 2900 block of South Lancaster Road. An audio recording of the call, played during the news conference, captured multiple people shouting. The caller was hushed while speaking.
“We’re being robbed,” the caller told the dispatcher, according to the recording.
The video then cuts to surveillance footage captured by a camera on a nearby business, showing people, including Jefferson, armed with what appear to be handguns while corralling others into a building. One armed man, whom police did not identify, can be seen pistol-whipping another man, the footage shows.
Responding to the robbery call, Martinez arrives in an unmarked Dodge sedan and parks near the nearby business with the surveillance cameras. Shortly after, a man identified as Jefferson is shown climbing over a fence into the business’ parking lot and sprinting around the corner and toward Martinez, the footage shows.
Jefferson appears to point his hand or raise an object — which police say was a handgun — at Martinez, who is exiting the sedan as Jefferson is running up.
Jefferson raises his arms toward the officer and drops an object, the footage shows. The two get into a brief struggle before several shots are heard and Jefferson collapses. Police say Jefferson reached out to grab the handgun, leading Martinez to shoot him.
[Police Chief Eddie] García said the encounter was so short that Martinez, who was calling on Jefferson to get on the ground, did not have time to put on a ballistic vest equipped with a body-worn camera before the shooting. . . .
Two people — 21-year-old Kyvarian Banks and 20-year-old Dominique Lee Bolin — are facing charges in connection with the alleged robbery of the game room, which García said has since been shut down.
Banks and Lee Bolin were held in Dallas County custody Monday on three counts of aggravated robbery. Banks faces two additional probation violation charges stemming from a previous aggravated robbery and evading arrest detention, records show. . . .
Police seized cash from Banks and located a bag of cash he dropped while running from officers, along with a handgun, García said. Officers found Lee Bolin in the game room parking lot before taking him into custody and seizing a handgun, the chief added.
A fourth person ran from the scene and evaded police Thursday morning. . . .
The manager of the game room, identified by police as 38-year-old Mohammad Ghali, is facing a charge of keeping a gambling place, García said.

“Get money,” get dead. Dallas CBS affiliate KTVT tells us what you already knew: “Garcia adds Jefferson had an extensive criminal history, including prison time for a string of business robberies in 2009.”

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