The Other McCain

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

The Detroit-ification Syndrome

Posted on | July 20, 2024 | Comments Off on The Detroit-ification Syndrome

“‘No American city ever fell as far or as fast as Detroit,’ Julia Vitullo-Martin has observed, and the man who presided over Detroit’s descent into depression and decay was a former radical labor activist named Coleman Young. . . .
“Young was elected mayor of Detroit in 1973, narrowly defeatingthe city’s police chief, John Nichols. . . . The mayor’s reputation for racial hostility hastened ‘white flight’ fromthe city. When he took office in 1974, about half of Detroit’s population was white; indeed, the support of white liberals was crucial to his election. But the steady exodus of whites from the city became a deluge under Young’s mayoralty. Between 1970 and 1980, the white population decreased by 418,000, from 56 percent to 36 percent of the population. During the ’80s, the trend continued, with Detroit’s white population decreasing by anothger 199,000, down to 22 percent by 1990.”
— Donkey Cons, pp. 151-152

Having written thousands of words on this subject — there’s a whole chapter in Donkey Cons about the damage that Democrats have inflicted on urban America — perhaps I mistakenly take it for granted that other people understand this problem as well as I do. But then I look at current trends and realize that white liberals continue to vote for Democrats who pursue the same path of destruction that made Coleman Young infamous.

Permit me to state bluntly what we’re not supposed to say out loud: People who think that white racism is the explanation for every problem afflicting the black community are not merely wrong, but are in fact actively contributing to these problems. Malcolm X remarked during the early 1960s that black people had more to fear from the sympathy of white liberals than from the hostility of Southern segregationists, and white liberals have since proved that warning to be prophetic.

Did you know that there are more than 2,800 vacant properties in Columbus, Ohio? I didn’t know that until just now:

 

The people living on Safford Avenue in the Hilltop neighborhood are fed up with a vacant house on the block and the squatter who keeps breaking into it.
“No matter how many times they came and boarded the house up, he just wouldn’t leave,” said a neighbor named Adrianne.
Anthony Celebrezze, the deputy director of Building and Zoning, said the vacant home came onto Columbus Code Enforcement’s radar after it caught fire in 2023. Celebrezze said it’s not illegal for the home to be vacant, but it must be secured and boarded to code.
“That’s for your own protection because when you’re not around a structure like this, someone’s going to come in and remove the plumbing, the wiring and cause a general mess,” Celebrezze said.
A mess is exactly what neighbors say their experience living next to the home has been.
“We’re tired of it. There’s trash all the time. There’s trash this high inside of the home,” a neighbor said. He declined to share his name.
People have called 911 about the vacant home 29 times between November 2023 and May 2024. They’ve often reported a squatter who keeps returning to the property.
Columbus police have arrested that squatter five times for breaking into the property. 10 Investigates is not naming him because the squatter has been charged with misdemeanors connected to the home.
“We don’t need that disturbance,” a neighbor said. “The firetrucks, the cops. I bet the cops have been over here 20 times. Code Enforcement has been over here 20 times.”
The property is owned by Otis Ray and his sister who inherited it from their parents. Neighbors say they’ve called Ray multiple times for help with no luck. Columbus Code Enforcement officers have been in touch with him, but he hasn’t remedied the violations on the property.
“I have spoken with the owner before and explained to him all of the violations and what needs to be done, but we haven’t had any movement on getting those things addressed,” Columbus Code Enforcement Area 2 Supervisor Cory James said. . . .
The city can take a property owner to environmental court if they do not fix code violations. The city attorney’s office reopened a case against Ray and his sister in court and scheduled a contempt hearing for July 9. That hearing was continued and rescheduled for July 31.
10 Investigates was at the July 9 hearing and spoke with Ray in the courthouse. He declined a formal interview but blamed the squatter for the home’s condition.
“There’s no trouble keeping it up. The squatters, the people – I don’t want to talk. This stuff pisses me off,” he said.
As of Jan. 4, there were more than 2,800 vacant properties in Columbus, according to data collected by Code Enforcement. . . .

You can read the whole thing, but just think about that number for a minute — nearly 3,000 homes are sitting vacant in the capital city of Ohio. Why would there be so many vacant houses? Is it perhaps because nobody who can afford to buy a house wants to live in Columbus? Could this be related to the fact that Franklin County is a Democratic Party stronghold that in 2020 elected Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty to Congress and went for Joe Biden by a nearly 2-to-1 margin?

Malcolm X could not be reached for comment.



 

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Category: Ohio, Racism

FAFO Hall of Fame Nominee

Posted on | July 19, 2024 | Comments Off on FAFO Hall of Fame Nominee

Say good-bye, Gavin

Let me begin this by saying I am against road-rage violence. As someone who frequently finds myself shouting obscenities about the idiocy of fellow motorists — do you people even know what “merge” means? — I understand that it is wrong to engage in retaliation. Brake-checking or cutting someone off in response to another driver’s misconduct is unnecessary, and once you start escalating such a situation, there’s no telling if it might get completely out of control. Better to brush it off, let the other person go, and mind your own business.

Having issued this disclaimer, however, I must confess that sometimes, when I hear about a road-rage incident escalating into deadly violence, I think to myself, “Maybe this isn’t really a bad thing.” Let’s admit that the victim of a fatal road-rage incident is perhaps not an entirely innocent victim. You probably have to be a very bad driver to cause a traffic situation so bad that another driver decides he needs to kill you. So, a bad driver gets killed, and another driver with serious anger-management issues gets sent to prison for murder. Isn’t it possible to see that as a win-win? The bottom line is, you’re subtracting two drivers from the morning-commute traffic jam, and that’s a net benefit to society.

Philosophical objectivity — that’s the way to look at these things, except when these idiots give you the chance to just point and laugh:

Harrowing footage captured an armed man being shot dead in Indianapolis as he yelled at a driver in a suspected road rage incident.
The footage shared on social media allegedly shows the moment Gavin Dasaur, 29, quickly approaches a white Chevy pickup truck on Tuesday evening and attempts to punch the driver while holding what appears to be a handgun.
The driver tries to smack the punch away, with Dasaur shifting the weapon to his left hand as he appears to berate the driver while pointing at them repeatedly with his right hand.
The driver then points their own gun at Dasaur, firing repeatedly as the 29-year-old falls to the ground.
The seven-second video capturing the chaos ends with the person filming the exchange taking cover in their own car.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said the shooting broke out at around 8:15 p.m. near the intersection of South Emerson Avenue and Thompson Road.
Witnesses told police that the shooting occurred over a road rage incident between the Chevy driver and Dasaur, who was driving a black Honda, local WTHR reports.
The driver of the pickup truck was initially detained but later released after investigators found that the driver may have been acting in self-defense.
Cinthya ZaMora, Dasaur’s wife, condemned the shooting as she grieved her husband’s death.
“He was a hardworking man that always went out of his way to help anyone and wanted to give the world to me and his family,” she told the local outlet.
“He did not deserve to die this way. It’s such a tragedy that my husband was murdered in cold blood,” she said, but it remained unclear if she had seen the video of the shooting.

Ma’am, I realize that this is a painful moment for you, but the police seem to disagree about what your husband deserved. However, at least he gave play-by-play announcer Steve Inman a golden opportunity.

The streets of Indianapolis are slightly less crowded now, and I would urge all motorists to heed this valuable lesson.

UPDATE: Steve Inman’s post got deleted, which is a shame, but here’s a slightly less exciting video from the New York Post:

 

UPDATE II: Here’s the Steve Inman video via Rumble:

 



 

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Category: Crime, Indiana

Exit Strategy? Biden Tests Positive for COVID, Retreats to Delaware

Posted on | July 18, 2024 | 3 Comments

Talk about a contrast: While Donald Trump is dodging bullets like an action-movie hero, the elderly resident of the White House contracts the virus that most of us long ago stopped worrying about:

President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, the White House said.
The president, who was delivering speeches in Las Vegas, “is experiencing mild symptoms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Biden “will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time,” Jean-Pierre said.
Biden is vaccinated and boosted, she noted.
“The White House will provide regular updates on the President’s status as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation,” she said.
Biden boarded Air Force One in Las Vegas around 6:30 p.m. ET, the White House pool reported. The president was not wearing a mask as he boarded the plane.
“Good, I feel good,” Biden told reporters in response to shouted questions on the airport tarmac.
Biden’s doctor said that the president came down with a runny nose and a “non-productive cough” on Wednesday afternoon.
“He felt okay for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” the physician said in a statement shared by the White House. . . .
The illness comes as Biden, 81, has come under mounting pressure from his fellow Democrats to withdraw from the presidential race against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
A growing number of Democratic lawmakers, along with top donors and other allies, have urged Biden to step aside after his disastrous debate performance stoked panic about his fitness to campaign.
Biden has repeatedly rejected those calls and defended his physical and mental health.
But in an interview with BET on Tuesday, Biden said that he might reconsider his decision to stay in the race if a “medical condition” emerged.

Ah, yes, and right on cue, the condition has emerged.



 

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Category: Joe Biden

Never Trumper Max Boot’s Ex-CIA Wife Arrested as Illegal Foreign Agent

Posted on | July 18, 2024 | 1 Comment

Sue Mi Terry (left), Max Boot (right)

The best week ever continues to get even better:

Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is accused by federal prosecutors of acting as a secret agent for South Korea.
Terry, whose husband Max Boot regularly falsely accused former President Trump of being a Russian asset, reportedly used her position and access to U.S. officials to provide sensitive information to South Korea in exchange for luxury items and other lavish benefits, according to the indictment, New York Post reported. The allegations state that from Oct. 2013, Terry engaged in activities that compromised her role as an independent foreign policy expert.
Prosecutors claim she disclosed U.S. government secrets and influenced policy decisions to favor South Korea. In return, she allegedly received goods such as a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag and a $2,845 Dolce & Gabbana coat, along with dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants, New York Post stated.
One of the key incidents cited in the indictment involves Terry passing notes from a confidential meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about North Korea to a South Korean intelligence contact immediately after the meeting. Additionally, she reportedly facilitated interactions between South Korean spies and congressional staffers under the guise of social gatherings, the outlet added.
Despite these dealings, Terry never registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department. She was previously warned by the FBI in 2014 about the potential for foreign influence targeting. After being charged with failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiring to act as one, Terry was released on a $500,000 bond, according to the New York Post.

Let’s be clear: South Korea is an ally, not an enemy. But acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, while pretending to be “an independent foreign policy expert”? That’s a felony, and Max Boot’s wife has been doing it for 10 years — “allegedly,” I hasten to add.

So while self-proclaimed super-patriot Max Boot was (falsely) accusing Trump of being Putin’s stooge, Max’s ex-CIA wife was peddling influence to foreigners in exchange for Louis Vuitton bags. Perfect!



 

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Category: South Korea

Adam Schiff Joins Dump-Biden Coup

Posted on | July 17, 2024 | 2 Comments

The best week ever just keeps getting better:

Internal polling must be showing a disaster is coming for the Democrats because Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif) is now publicly urging President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential election. Schiff cites concerns within the Democratic base about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Donald Trump.
Naturally, Schiff praised Biden as “one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history” and claimed, without evidence, that he “made our country better.”
“But our nation is at a crossroads,” he said. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Schiff emphasized that the decision to withdraw from the race rests solely with President Biden. However, he asserted that now is the time for Biden to “pass the torch” and secure his legacy by allowing another Democrat to step forward and confront Trump.
“But make no mistake, whoever our party ends up nominating, or if the nomination remains with the president, I will do everything I can to help them succeed.”
“There is only one singular goal: defeating Donald Trump,” he added. “The stakes are just too high.”
Schiff, a top Democrat in the House who is currently running for the U.S. Senate, told donors during a private meeting on Saturday that he thought that, if Biden is the party’s nominee, he will lose, and likely destroy Democrats’ hopes of holding the Senate and flipping the House.
“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Schiff said. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”

“Conan, what is best in life?” “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of Adam Schiff.”

(Hat-tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)



 

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Category: Joe Biden

In The Mailbox 07.17.24 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | July 17, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Crashed early last night after driving down to Vegas. Woke up at 0400 and here we are. Fortunately the McD’s in the Strat is open 24 hours!
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Sparky Cars Gonna Spark
EBL: Jack Smith Gets The Boot
Twitchy: Corn Pop Is Jealous!, Alex Cole Gets Wrecked For Singularly Bad Hot Take On The RNC, and Ted Cruz Names The Names Of Those Killed By Illegal Immigrants
Louder With Crowder: These two clips illustrate JD Vance will be the one SMOKING Kamala Harris at the VP debate, also, Donald Trump’s first public appearance since Saturday reveals… a changed man?
Vox Popoli:
Upstream Reviews: Push, 
Defending The Wood Perilous: There Shall Also This…Be Told
Stoic Observations: Stoic Bites, 
Postcards From Barsoom: Praying To Absent Gods
L’Ombre de L’Olivier: Trump Makes Jdvances

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: The Generous Gift From The Houthi
Dana Loesch: Tenacious D’s “Apology”, Joe Biden “Turns Down The Temp” With Race-Baiting NAACP Speech,  
Don Surber: You know, for a guy shot in the face, Trump is having a good week
STUMP: RIP Shannen Doherty – U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths, 1999-2023

Amazon Warehouse Deals
It’s Prime Day
Push
New Releases – Patio, Lawn, & Garden
Best Sellers – Patio, Lawn & Garden


 

Category: Linkagery

Dueling Paranoias

Posted on | July 17, 2024 | Comments Off on Dueling Paranoias

Have you ever given any thought to the question, “What causes paranoia?” Like, the pathogenesis of the disease? Because of my long interest in the field of psychology (“Crazy People Are Dangerous”), I have given a lot of thought to this subject and I consider it significant that stimulant drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine can cause paranoia. What do stimulants do? They artificially accelerate your brain, speed up your thinking process, and can help focus your mental attention. Paranoia is a common enough side effect of the abuse of these drugs as to offer a clue about the developmental path of psychotic paranoia among those who aren’t meth addicts or cocaine addicts.

“Boy, you think too much,” my oldest friend D.W. used to say, and it’s true. I have a vivid imagination and obsessive tendencies, as manifested by my habit of “going down a rabbit hole” of online research. Something else — like most paranoiacs, I often see connections that aren’t apparent to others. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with someone sliding off the edge of sanity, you’re familiar with this symptom of paranoia, the tendency to link up entirely coincidental events into an imaginary pattern of malice by the threatening “them.”

Maintaining mental health requires us to be cognizant of our own harmful mental patterns, and find ways to cope with the kind of stressful situations we encounter. So when I go down a rabbit hole of research, it’s important to do this in a self-aware manner, and not get myself sucked into a vortex of craziness. Which brings me to the topic of anti-Trump lunatic Dmitri Mehlhorn, who made headlines over the weekend by suggesting (in an email to “sympathetic journalists”) that Trump had “staged” the assassination attempt. Do you know how many hours I’ve spent researching this guy? Answer: Too many.

One of the things I unearthed in my research into Dmitri Mehlhorn is a memo “originally circulated by Investing in US to several dozen anti-Trump political activists in April 2020,” which could serve as Exhibit A in any court case seeking to prove that Mehlhorn has an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It was with great difficulty that I resisted the urge to fisk the whole thing. However, I mention this not to prove Mehlhorn is a lunatic — no further proof is necessary — but rather as a preamble to explaining what set me off on that snipe hunt yesterday:

FBI, DHS warn of possible
retaliation for attack on Trump

Oh, dear God! Really? The feds think it’s a good idea to warn law enforcement about (hint, hint) “extremists” plotting “retaliation”? And then leak their memo to Politico? Yeah, that’s really going to soothe Republican fears about the “deep state.” Great thinking, guys!

And down the rabbit hole I went:

The FBI is allegedly the best investigative organization in the world and yet, we are told, they have been able to learn nothing at all about what could have motivated a 20-year-old geek to become an assassin.
Do you see why this apparent mystery might arouse suspicion among those who are already deeply distrustful of the FBI? . . .

You can read the rest of that at my Substack — to which, I hasten to add, I’ve recently added a paid-subscriber option, although so far I haven’t put anything behind the paywall, because I’m still learning how to use the platform and am taking it step-by-step for a while.



 

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Category: Conspiracy Theories

GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! Jury Convicts Corrupt Democrat Senator Menendez

Posted on | July 16, 2024 | Comments Off on GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! Jury Convicts Corrupt Democrat Senator Menendez

Perhaps the phrase “corrupt Democrat” is redundant:

The jury in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and two of his business associates, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, found Menendez guilty on all charges after a grueling nine-week complex trial in Manhattan. . . .
Jurors deliberated for three days. . . .
In his five-hour closing argument on Tuesday, federal prosecutor Paul Monteleoni urged jurors to hold the New Jersey Democrat accountable for his alleged misconduct.
“This is a big case,” Monteleoni said. “But it all boils down to a classic case of corruption on a massive scale.”
During the trial, prosecutors used cited emails and text messages from Menendez – as well as FBI testimony – to present evidence they argued shows the senator accepted extravagant gifts from foreign governments. The gifts totaled more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash stuffed throughout Menendez’s New Jersey home.
Menendez was charged by federal prosecutors with 18 counts since he pleaded innocent last year, all relating to a multiyear alleged bribery scheme involving the Egypt and Qatar governments.
In March, an 18-page indictment was wrapped into Menendez’s existing charges already against him and his co-defendants — including his wife, Nadine — for allegedly acting as a foreign agent and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to benefit the Egyptian government through his power and influence as a senator.

New Jersey voters really know how to pick ’em, eh?



 

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Category: Corruption, Democrats, New Jersey, Senate
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