The Other McCain

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

Science Fiction, Gatekeeping, And Why Awards Are Useless

Posted on | June 26, 2023 | 1 Comment

— by Wombat-socho

First, let me give a shoutout to Son of Silvercon‘s Guest of Honor, Maggie Hogarth, who has a new book dropping at the end of July, An Exile Aboard Ship. It’s the start of a new series set in her Peltedverse, which has a lot of cool aliens in it, and if you want some background to this new adventure, you should start with Earthrise, which is available (along with its two sequels) through Kindle Unlimited. Also, one of our other guests, Jon Del Arroz, has the sixth book in his Baron von Monocle steampunk series, The Crystal Conspiracy, out today. It’s been a while since I read For Steam & Country, the first in this series, but it’s good stuff, and I regret not having the time/money to pick up the other four books when they came out. 

And speaking of buying books from authors that don’t hate you, The Big Based Book Sale continues on through tomorrow. 

Pic unrelated.


I saw on the Twitter last night that the execrable John Scalzi has won the LOCUS readers award*, apparently for his recent work of lameness Kaiju Preservation Society, which judging from his earlier work is probably a “transgressive” riff on Pacific Rim, and no, I’m not reading it to find out. Someone posted a couple of embarrassing extracts from the book, which inspired a lot of mockery at Scalzi’s expense.** Anyhow, I grumped about how this was a good example of why nobody should be using awards like that to pick reading material, and this got me into an argument about gatekeeping.

Which, as I noted in this tweet, is silly because unlike gaming, where you can refuse to play with idiots, you can’t do that with SF. Anyone can go down to the library or the B&N, or log onto Amazon, and get them some skiffy. Or they can stream some Star Trek, or The Expanse, or Black Mirror, or Neon Genesis Evangelion…you see where I’m going with this. SF fandom is equally wide open thanks to social media. It’s a lot harder to blackball somebody from the Internet than it was to keep people out of your conventions – and as the old school literary fans found out in the 60s after Star Trek, they’ll just go off and start their own conventions with Fizzbin and Orion slave girls. As a result of this mass influx of fans into the SF ghetto, which I sometimes refer to as the geek victory in the culture war, and the subsequent capture of SF fandom’s organizations by the woketards and other leftists, the awards given by those organizations became warning signs rather than recommendations as to what was good. The fact that (relative to the huge numbers of people who read or otherwise consume SF) most of these awards (except for the Dragon Awards) are handed out by a tiny community of fans makes them even more worthless, because most of these people suffer from a bad case of groupthink and don’t dare express Wrongthink for fear of not being part of the In Crowd any more.  So instead of gatekeeping either science fiction in general or even fandom, I see my role as more of a native guide who’s been wandering around this part of town for 50+ years who advises the new folks not to read that stuff because it’ll make you barf, or at least make you regret spending $15 or three hours on Fuzzy Nation.

Now, on the other hand, there’s Ralts Bloodthorne. The Wordborg is up to ten books in the Behold, Humanity! series, of which I have just finished the tenth, Victory or Death. These are conversions from his long-running series of posts on r/HFY, and in some places duplicate material found in the Tales of the Terran Confederacy series because the shorter series focuses on individuals and their stories while Behold, Humanity! covers the wider war between the Terran Confederacy and its neosapient allies (Telkans, Hamaroosans, Tuknarn, etc.) against the Lanaktallan Unified Council Worlds and the Precursor Autonomous War Machines. Unlike a lot of the current Pink Goo authors, who like to pretend that nothing happened in SF before they were born (and if it did it was all written by Racist Male Wypipo so it doesn’t count), Ralts has clearly read a lot of the classics of SF, thought through the implications of the technologies, and had a lot of fun mixing it all together into a tasty stew of not just combat SF but a look at how humanity itself will adapt and change to technologies developed across 8,000 years of war with occasional brief periods of peace. Highly recommended.

*This says a lot about the kind of people who read LOCUS, who are mostly the kind of people that ante up the money to join Worldcons.
**Tor is paying him an insane amount of money to poop out crappy books, so what does he care?

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Category: Books

Checked and Ready for Boarding

Posted on | June 26, 2023 | 1 Comment

BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Remember the “Shoe Bomber”? In December 2001, would-be terrorist Richard Reid was aboard an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami when he failed in an attempt to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his shoes. Because of this botched terrorist attack, all commercial airline passengers to this day are required to remove their shoes and send them through the X-ray scanners before boarding their flights.

More than 20 years have gone by, and if this safety protocol has apprehended or deterred a single copycat “shoe bomber,” I’m unaware of it, but it keeps TSA busy, on the taxpayer’s dime, inspecting us all just to make sure we aren’t some kind of Al-Qaeda sympathizer.

There’s lots of time to ponder things like that, here at the Firkin and Flyer Pub in Concourse C, as my wife and I await the call for boarding. What I hate most about flying nowadays is the security protocols. I’m old enough to remember when you just went straight to the terminal gate — no waiting line for security — and your family could meet you at the gate when you returned. But now any airline trip requires you calculate not only the drive time to the airport (leaving a margin for possible traffic delays), but also leave yourself a little extra time in case there’s a backup at security. You don’t want to be sprinting to the gate at the last minute for fear of missing your flight, and so the total time required for any trip must be extended to account for such contingencies.

Thank you, Islamic jihadists!

Just popped into this pub to update the blog before our departure, and also to consume my traditional pre-flight beverage, which cost $10.89 and I tipped $2.11 to round it up to $13, but that’s OK, because it’s a tax-deductible business expense. As a journalist, anything you write about counts as “business,” so by telling my readers that the Firkin and Flyer serves a tasty Bloody Mary, I’ve covered myself with the IRS, and I’ve got the receipt to prove it. Meanwhile, I must express my gratitude to Mr. White, a resident of Cook County, Illinois, who was the first reader this morning to contribute via PayPal in support of this expedition to Alaska.

Are you feeling thirsty all of a sudden? You could order Bloody Mary mix from Amazon, but as to the vodka, you’re on your own. Now, it’s about 15 minutes until boarding, so I’ve got to head to my gate. Remember the Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

 

Category: Shoe Leather Fund

North! To Alaska!

Posted on | June 26, 2023 | Comments Off on North! To Alaska!

This afternoon, my wife and I will be flying the friendly skies, first to Dallas for a three-hour layover before heading to Anchorage. I’d told y’all about this trip earlier, when I thought we’d be leaving last week, but I was mistaken about the anticipated travel date.

Our Army son is stationed there with the newly formed 11th Airborne Division, developing America’s arctic warfare capacity. More importantly — at least for me — is that his wife recently gave birth to our newest granddaughter, little Juniper. So we’ll be spending a couple of weeks with little Juniper (and her big sister Eliza, of course).

While looking forward to seeing the kids, I’m dreading the long flights, and then there’s the matter of the time shift. We arrive in Anchorage at 11 p.m. local time, which is 3 a.m. Eastern, and I’m sure I’ll be disoriented by this experience: Working in the wee hours (locally) to get my dayjob work done by morning times on the East Coast, and did I mention it’s “Midnight Sun” season in Alaska? Oh, and there’s also the weather: High temperature tomorrow in Anchorage will be 59°F, with rain, but later in the week, it will get up to a sunny 62°F. Joy, joy . . .

John Wayne would never complain about the weather, of course. So I’ll endure my arctic excursion with stoic resolve, and perhaps I won’t even notice the conditions while I’m out stalking moose and bears with a Bowie knife . . . No, wait, that’s not on the agenda. Grandpa’s too old to be doing the Wilderness Survival thing. However, I did text my son to ask him to find me some kind of tavern or restaurant where I could blog with that “authentic Alaska” vibe — exposed wooden beams, moose head mounted on the wall, etc. He replied, “Every brew pub here, basically.”

We’re talking tax-deductible business expenses, see? Snap a few photos with my phone, post it under an Anchorage dateline, and it’s travel journalism. Save the receipts for the IRS, and no questions asked.

My wife just asked me, “Are you ready?”

“Honey, we don’t leave for another three hours.”

One of the secrets to a successful marriage is balance — I’m carefree and spontaneous; my wife is responsible and conscientious. So when it comes to a trip like this, I leave all the worrying to her. Why should both of us be stressed out? As they say in Alaska, “Hakuna matata.”

OK, that’s not authentic Alaskan culture, but the IRS isn’t going to notice the difference when I show them the receipts for all those meals and, uh, beverages at brew pubs in Anchorage — legitimate business expenses!

“Besides which, your honor” — here I’m imagining my testimony in a federal trial — “my son was serving his country in Alaska, and maintaining the morale of our troops is crucial to America’s combat readiness. So it was in our national interest that Bob and I had the grilled trout dinner and a few beverages. Don’t you love America?”

Just doing my patriotic duty, you see. So as I get ready to roll, I remind you of the Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

 

Category: Alaska, Shoe Leather Fund

Rule 5 Sunday: Tracy Cortez

Posted on | June 26, 2023 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

UFC flyweight fighter Tracy Cortez is a tough gal (10-1) but also a cutie, as Outkick noticed since they’re always on the lookout for cute sports gals. Here’s a pic of Miss Cortez outside the ring – imao, she looks a lot better with her hair down.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Fascism Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, MAGA Double Standards Feat. Merrick Garland, Plague Dance, “I’m Henry The Eighth, I Am”, Jury Duty, Jonna Jinton, Sunrise At Stonehenge, Ann Wilson, Pinup Noir, and June Brides

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Raquel Petit – Keeping Her Nose Clean, Hunter Whistleblower Testimony Revealed, Fish Pic Friday – Ape Reel, Shy, Random Celebrity News, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Gone Fishin’, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Check Out Her Mama, Flotsam and Jetsam on Father’s Day, Palm Sunday, Happy Surfing Day! and $30M for ‘The Big Guy’?

FLAPPR: 100 Alternative Words For Boobs, also, T.I.T.S. For June 23

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts




Category: Rule 5

Who They Think We Are

Posted on | June 25, 2023 | 1 Comment

The editor of Iowa’s Quad Cities Times has apologized for publishing the cartoon above, after being called out on Twitter by Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who lamented the “shameful” cartoon and said: “It’s sad that this is how the MSM views Republicans. I’ve met with grassroots conservatives across America & never *once* experienced the kind of bigotry that I regularly see from the Left.”

Several commentators have described the cartoon as “racist,” but that’s not really the point. Rather, it is the libelous attribution of hateful bigotry to Republicans which is so offensive. What this illustrates is the assumption of liberals that they are morally and intellectually superior to the rest of us, especially in regard to racial issues, but really on every subject imaginable — economic policy, climate change, gay rights, you name it. “Hate” is now defined as disagreeing with liberals.

Thomas Sowell’s 1995 book The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy remains the definitive analysis of the psychology of liberalism, and if you haven’t read it yet, what the hell are you waiting for? There is a tremendous irony, by the way, in my having been branded a “white supremacist” by the SPLC, in that it was Sowell’s book that really opened my eyes to one of the false premises that informs liberal beliefs about race, i.e., that white “racism” is to blame for every ill suffered by black people. Sowell doesn’t address this specifically in The Vision of the Anointed, although he has elsewhere. Rather, one sees the point in Sowell’s criticism of the liberal “anointed” as assuming that their own good intentions are sufficient to justify any policy, from which they derive the belief that the opponents of their policies (the “benighted”) must be motivated by bad intentions. When liberals advocate some policy intended to help the homeless, for example, their rhetoric will seldom address the questions about the efficacy or necessity of the specific policy; rather, liberals will routinely portray themselves as caring about the homeless, while accusing opponents of selfish greed or cruel indifference to the plight of the homeless who, as Sowell observes, function as “mascots” for the liberal crusade.

In this way, the “anointed” liberals transform every policy question into a test of moral virtue, attributing malicious motives to anyone who fails to support the liberal agenda. They are intelligent and educated; you are stupid and ignorant. They are generous; you are greedy. And, as always, liberals conceive of themselves as the enlightened benefactors of oppressed racial minorities, while their opponents are hateful racists. In other words, the disagreement is not about the pros and cons of any particular policy, but rather about giving the anointed another opportunity to display their moral superiority, hence Sowell’s subtitle, “Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy.”

What I deduced from Sowell’s argument is this: It doesn’t really matter what your opinion is about race, in terms of whether any particular policy helps or hurts black people (or Hispanics, etc.). And as Sowell has demonstrated in several of his books, including Discrimination and Disparities, “racism” (however you may define it) is simply insufficient as an explanation for the problems affecting black Americans. Political arguments ought to be about policy, not mere sentiment, and policies ought to be evaluated with the kind of rigorous inquiry that includes examination of alternatives, including the alternative of doing nothing. Liberals are always running around pointing to some kind of “crisis,” insisting that we must do something about whatever problem they’re focused on, and whatever this something may be, it almost always involves more taxation, regulation and/or deficit spending.

Something else: Liberals never acknowledge that the problem they’re calling a “crisis” today may have been caused by the “solutions” they imposed decades earlier to address some previous “crisis.” If you ever feel neglected because you haven’t been called “racist” lately, try pointing out that many (perhaps most) of the problems now afflicting black America may be direct consequences of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Because it is seen as the signal victory of the civil-rights movement, the details of the 1964 bill — the final bill was 18,000 words long — are considered to be beyond criticism. Yet the bill was such a vast expansion of government authority, and subjected so many areas of life to supervision of federal courts, that its potential consequences were nearly infinite in scope.

Sen. Barry Goldwater voted against the 1964 act, specifically citing Title II and Title VII as unconstitutional, and likely to lead to the government mandating racial quotas in employment decisions. Beyond the specific problems with the bill, anyone can see with the benefit of hindsight that 1964 marks a dividing line — a historical fulcrum — in terms of race relations and the situation of black people in urban areas affected by “white flight.” Whether or not any of the opponents of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 predicted every harmful consequence of that legislation is beside the point. Because it represented The Vision of the Anointed — the good intentions of its sponsors — the possibility that the bill in some ways hurt black Americans is never even considered. To suggest that some of the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act need to be repealed or revised is to invite denunciation as a crypto-Nazi, as if you were advocating a return to Jim Crow segregation or worse. Emotion rules the day.

Thus we return to Vivek Ramaswamy and this insulting cartoon for which the Quad Cities Times was forced to apologize. Readers will recall how, at CPAC this year, I praised Ramaswamy as “an outspoken and articulate critic of the religion of ‘Wokeism,’ but more than that . . . an enthusiastic proponent of American exceptionalism.” And I suppose that any conservative who has paid attention to Ramaswamy feels the same way, whether or not they support his presidential campaign. Conservatives still believe America is, and always should be, the land of opportunity, where anyone willing to work hard can have a shot at the American Dream, and we are sick and tired of how Democrats depict America as a wicked oppressor, crammed full of helpless victims.

Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t buying any of this victimhood narrative, and conservatives applaud him for standing up in defense of a pro-America, pro-liberty worldview. Yet liberals evidently think GOP voters would respond to Ramaswamy’s message by shouting, “Get me a Slushee, Apu!”

Because liberals are anointed, and think we are benighted.

There is so much cause for discouragement about America’s future. And yet Vivek Ramaswamy dares to express hope. Were I asked to help write his speeches, I’d encourage him to quote a great American:

“My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor indisposed me to serve them; nor in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or of the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.”

Deo vindice.



 

 

Category: Iowa, Liberals, Racism, Thomas Sowell

FMJRA 2.0 Let It Ride

Posted on | June 25, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Another week of .500 baseball for the Senators; we took two of three from the Hated Yankees in New York and then came home to lose two of three in RFK to the Reds, getting 2b Cookie Rojas crunched for 60 days in the process. So we’ll have to make do with Mike Andrews, who is a latter-day Rogers Hornsby (good hit, no field) only without the obnoxious behavior. Perversely, we’re not getting any kind of home field advantage: between the wipeout against the Angels and this series against the Reds, we’re 1-5 at home. Ah well, it’s a long season.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

“Maybe we should have stayed on the road” – all the Senators, especially 2b Cookie Rojas

Liberals: ‘There Is No Cancel Culture’; Also Liberals: ‘Let’s Cancel This Comic’
The Pirates’ Cove
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum



The Ontological Error of ‘Gun Violence’
The Daley Gator
EBL
357 Magnum

 

FMJRA 2.0: Back To Earth
A View From The Beach
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Natalya Neidhart
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.19.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Detroit: Transgender Woman of Color Murdered During Pride Month
Flappr
EBL

Slap on the Wrist for Hunter Biden
Flappr
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.20.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

As a Commentary on Our Decadent Elite, the Missing Luxury Sub Is Near Perfect
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.21.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

White Privilege or…Biden Privilege?
The Pirate’s Cove
A View From The Beach
EBL

‘Five Passengers Set Sail That Day for a Three-Hour Tour…a Three-Hour Tour’
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.22.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Now That We’re All Dead…
EBL
357 Magnum

Crazy People Are Dangerous
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 06.23.23
EBL
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending June 24:

  1.  EBL (16)
  2.  357 Magnum (11)
  3.  A View From The Beach (10)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

The Big Based Book Sale continues![
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Category: FMJRA Award

Undertakers of Democracy: How the Washington Post Is Deliberately Burying the Hunter Biden Influence Scandal

Posted on | June 24, 2023 | 1 Comment

When I first joined the staff of The Washington Times in 1997, a senior editor explained to me that the difference between how they covered the news and how the hated crosstown rival Washington Post covered the news was very simple: “selection and emphasis.” During more than a decade at the conservative Times, I observed (and was a direct participant in) the process of “selection and emphasis” by which our newsroom distinguished itself as a vital alternative to the dominant liberal media machinery. That experience taught me to focus on something crucial that most people never think much about: “Who decides what the ‘news’ is? How and why are these choices made?”

Every day at The Washington Times, there were two meetings — one shortly before noon, and one about 5 p.m. — where the editors at various desks (national, foreign, metro, sports, etc.) presented their top stories to the editor-in-chief, Wes Pruden or his deputy, acting as surrogate in the boss’s absence. From among these offerings (“touted,” as we said), Pruden would select those stories that would go on the front page, A1, and in what priority. The No. 1 story of the day was usually at the top right position, or “bannered” across the top, and everything else proceeded as a consequence of those choices. If the national desk “touted” a story for the front page that didn’t make the cut, it would be placed on A3, and trust me, the reporters resented such snubs. The difference between a byline on A1 and A3 was night and day in a reporter’s mind, and when they had a story they believed was worthy of the front page, they were deeply hurt when they didn’t make the cut.

HUMAN BEINGS MAKE THESE DECISIONS.

This is my point. The answer to the question of what constitutes “news” — what is worthy of coverage, and which stories are most important — is by no means always self-evident, and it is a mistake to believe that whatever is on the front page of the Washington Post (or leading the hour on CNN) is indisputably more important than other stories, including stories that these organizations ignore altogether. Cable-TV news viewers were subjected to endless hours of “lost submarine” coverage, as if the fate of the crew of the OceanGate Titan was, without question, the most important thing in the world. But what about DeAndre Hopkins?

The reader asks, “DeAndre who?”

All-Pro wide receiver, a/k/a DHop, recently cut by the Arizona Cardinals, now a free agent. Where will he sign? Can the New England Patriots get DHop, or will they be outbid by one of their NFL rivals?

Unless you’re a Patriots fan, you probably think this is trivial nonsense, but speaking on behalf of legions of Patriots fans, let me assure you the DHop drama is infinitely more important than five chumps on a sunken sub. Were I the editor of the Boston Herald, there’s no question which story would get more coverage, especially on the front page.

Like the man said, “selection and emphasis” is what it’s about, especially when it comes to the matter of political bias in journalism. As Professor Reynolds likes to say, most journalists nowadays are merely “Democratic operatives with bylines,” and evidence of that bias is everywhere.

Friday morning, I was browsing headlines at Memeorandum on my phone while having a smoke outside the local convenience store.

“Wow,” I said to myself. “This story’s getting covered in both the Washington Post and the New York Times?” Finally this scandal is breaking through the wall of partisan propaganda, I surmised. For the record, here’s the top of the Washington Post story:

An IRS agent who supervised the investigation into President Biden’s son Hunter told lawmakers that Justice Department officials slowed and stymied the investigation, whittling away the most serious evidence of alleged tax crimes, according to a transcript of his account released Thursday.
The agent, Gary Shapley, offered a detailed and potentially damning account of prosecutors who were either timid or uninterested when it came to examining the financial misdeeds of Hunter Biden, which Shapley said included instances in which the president’s son treated prostitutes and their travel costs as his business expenses.
The agent’s account to the House Ways and Means Committee also directly challenged congressional testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland, in which he said that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss — a holdover from the Trump administration — had full authority to lead the investigation into Hunter Biden and could do whatever he wanted in the case.
A Justice Department spokesman stood by Garland’s previous comments, and the lead Democrat on the House committee said the allegations should not have been released publicly while lawmakers are still vetting them.
The transcript almost certainly will fuel criticism of the Justice Department’s five-year investigation of Hunter Biden, which this week led to a proposed plea agreement on two misdemeanor charges that will probably allow him to avoid jail time. Biden is due in federal court in Wilmington, Del., on July 26 to enter his guilty plea, which must be approved by a judge.
The criminal probe of Biden was given the code name Sportsman, Shapley told lawmakers, and it was “an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.”
His account offers a host of new allegations, including a text message that Biden allegedly sent on July 30, 2017, that invoked his father — at that time a former vice president — as he tried to get a business partner to fulfill some expected promise.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” the younger Biden allegedly told businessman Henry Zhao. “And Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

This is an absolute bombshell, and within 10 days of Hunter sending that text to Zhao, a payment of about $5 million was sent.

What was Hunter selling? What skill or expertise did this crack-addicted loser possess that might be worth $5 million to a Chinese “business partner”? The only thing Hunter Biden had to sell — his only marketable value — was his father’s political influence. Period, end of sentence.

The authenticity of that threatening text message is not disputed. It is clearly the smoking gun of this scandal, and so it was with a sense of eager anticipation that I went back inside the convenience story Friday morning, walked to the newspaper rack, and looked at the front page of the Washington Post. Not on the top of Page A1? Hmmm.

Flipped the paper over to look at the bottom half of the front page and there, in tiny type, in a box at the bottom left of the page:

DAMN YOUR SOULS TO HELL,
YOU MISERABLE LYING BASTARDS!

Probably I muttered a few other obscenities, so offended was I by this blatant malfeasance of editorial authority. After five years of federal investigation, the controversy over the “laptop from hell,” and everything else we’ve seen in this scandal, an IRS whistleblower delivers the smoking gun in testimony to the House Oversight Committee, and you’re going to BURY THE STORY ON PAGE A15? You deserve contempt.



 

 

Category: Corruption, Joe Biden, Media Bias, Scandal

The Wonderful Joys of ‘Progress’

Posted on | June 24, 2023 | Comments Off on The Wonderful Joys of ‘Progress’

“In our day, innovations march with so rapid a stride that they quite take away one’s breath. The fantastical project of yesterday, which was mentioned only to be ridiculed, is to-day the audacious reform, and will be to-morrow the accomplished fact.”
— R.L. Dabney, 1871

The person now known as Stacie Marie Laughton went by the name Barry Charles Laughton, Jr., when he was convicted in 2008 of credit card fraud. At the time, Laughton was living with his wife Lisa in Laconia, N.H. After serving four months of a 12-month sentence, Laughton evidently realized he was actually “she,” and also, a Democrat.

Innovations were indeed marching with a rapid stride, so that by 2012, Laughton had gone from the jailhouse to the statehouse, winning election as a state representative, New Hampshire’s first transgender lawmaker.

A glowing profile at Huffington Post quoted Laughton: “My hope is that now maybe we’ll see more people in the community running, maybe for alderman. . . . I want the community to feel inspired.” Unfortunately for him/“her,” Laughton had forgotten to consult the election laws of the state for which he/“she” proposed to make laws. Under New Hampshire law, a person convicted of a felony must complete their entire sentence (including probation, the payment of restitution, etc.) before being eligible to hold office, and Barry/“Stacie” had not done this. Perhaps he/“she” believed that the change of identity might conceal his/“her” criminal past, but a local newspaper reported the facts, and Laughton was forced to resign before taking office. Less than three years later, Laughton made headlines again — not in a good way:

Stacie Laughton, the state’s first openly transgender legislator, was arrested [March 12, 2015] by Nashua police after saying she is the person responsible for calling in a hoax bomb threat at a local hospital.
Laughton, who was elected to the House of Representatives and then withdrew her candidacy days later, turned herself in . . . on a warrant for the Feb. 27 incident after spending two weeks receiving treatment at a Vermont hospital for bipolar disorder.
Police charged her with a felony count of falsely reporting an explosive.
“I have had a mental illness my whole life, and I guess this was my worst break with it. I was untreated for a long time, and I didn’t have medication,” Laughton told the New Hampshire Union Leader, adding she is very remorseful for her actions.
Laughton said she was not in the right frame of mind when she called in a bomb threat to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center around 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 27. Laughton, who also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, described feelings of extreme impulsivity when she made the phone call.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, and it was totally out of character for me. I have put a lot behind me, and I never thought I would do this in a million years,” she said.
Laughton is expected to be charged with a felony for calling in a fake bomb threat, which prompted a systematic search of the hospital by local authorities and hospital security.
She fully admitted her involvement to police, who opted not to formally charge her until her stay at the Brattleboro Retreat, a mental health and addiction treatment facility in Vermont, was complete. Laughton maintains that she was not under the influence of anything at the time of the incident, says she is cooperating with police and is grateful that they allowed her to seek medical assistance before her arrest. . . .
“I never thought I would see the inside of a police station again,” Laughton said on Thursday before turning herself in. “I am extremely remorseful. I have been crying frequently, and I wish I had never done it.”

So, in addition to being transgender, Laughton is also bipolar and suffers from PTSD. “I have had a mental illness my whole life” — well, can’t all Democrats say the same thing? At any rate, “a judge reduced the charge to a misdemeanor and sentenced her to a six-month suspended jail term,” because Democrats never suffer serious consequences for their crimes. Just ask Hunter Biden. You might think the voters of New Hampshire would have had enough of Laughton, but you would be wrong. Despite the fact that he/“she” is mentally ill and has a criminal record, Laughton was elected to the state legislature again in 2020.

You may be shocked (but probably not) to learn that this was not the end of Laughton’s criminal career. In 2021, while serving in the legislature, Laughton was once again arrested for criminal charges:

State Rep. Stacie Laughton (D-Nashua) was arrested [July 27, 2021] on seven counts of penalty for false information, all misdemeanors. Police accuse Laughton of misuse of the state’s 911 texting system.
“From May 2021 to July 2021, officers from the Nashua Police Department’s Uniform Field Operations Bureau responded to (an apartment on) Elm Street on several occasions due to text messages being sent to the state of New Hampshire E-911 center from a telephone number associated with Laughton,” Capt. Matthew DiFava of the bureau. “On each occasion, it was determined there was no emergency by officers.”
After the seventh incident, police applied for an arrest warrant against Laughton, which was approved.
“This investigation is still ongoing and additional charges are expected,” DiFava added.

Despite this, Laughton was re-elected to the legislature in 2022, but a few weeks after election day, he/“she” was arrested on new charges:

State Rep. Stacie Marie Laughton, 38, was arrested by Nashua police on [Nov. 12, 2022] on a warrant out of Hudson on a violation of stalking order charge. She is being held in the Valley Street Jail in Manchester.
Limited information is available about the case. But Lt. Roger Lamarche, the second shift commander of the Hudson Police Department, confirmed the arrest and charge. Laughton was accused by police of communicating with the victim on social media on Nov. 8.
The protective order was filed against Laughton, who also serves as a city selectman, on July 25.
According to Lamarche, this was not the first time Laughton was arrested on charges for communicating with the victim. She was accused of stalking and harassment in late August and was arrested in early September.

Wouldn’t it appear that Laughton is a habitual offender? And given Laughton’s admission of having “mental illness my whole life,” wouldn’t you think the taxpayers of New Hampshire would be better served by sending Laughton to a state mental hospital, rather than to the state legislature? And now there’s more news about Laughton:

The arrest Thursday of a former state representative from Derry, New Hampshire, is connected to a woman from Hudson who is accused of taking explicit photos of children in her care at a child care facility in Massachusetts, sources told News 9 Investigates.
Sources did not explain the exact connection between Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, and Stacie Laughton, 39, of Derry.
Groves is facing state charges in New Hampshire and federal charges in Massachusetts. She is in preventative detention after she waived her arraignment in Nashua.
Groves is charged in New Hampshire with four counts of possession of child sex abuse images. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts is also charging her with one count of sexual exploitation of children and one count of distribution of child pornography.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Groves worked at Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, where she allegedly used the children’s bathroom breaks to take nude photos of them in a private bathroom and text them to a person she was in a relationship with.
The pictures included four photos of children who appear to be 3 to 5 years old.
Officials said there were more than 2,500 text messages sent between Groves and a former partner talking about transferring the photos.
Groves wasn’t in the New Hampshire courtroom as she waived her arraignment, and the prosecution and defense agreed that she be held without bail. Groves’ parents were in the courtroom in Nashua and said she’s innocent. . . .
Groves is scheduled to be back in court in New Hampshire on Aug 30. She will appear in federal court in Boston on a future date.
Nashua police on Thursday evening announced the arrest of Laughton on four counts of distribution of child sexual abuse images.
Investigators said they spoke to people on Tuesday who indicated Laughton had distributed sexually explicit images of children.
Laughton was arrested on Thursday and was expected to appear in court on Friday for an arraignment.

Documents in the federal case against Groves do not identify Laughton, but you can read between the lines:

An employee of a Tyngsboro day care faces federal child exploitation and pornography charges after she allegedly took nude photos of children at the day care and then shared the images with a person she had previously been in an intimate relationship with. . . .
The alleged photographs were taken between May 2022 and June of this year.
An affidavit filed in federal court by a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security states the investigation began on June 20, when the Nashua Police Department was contacted about a woman who was allegedly showing pornographic images of children to other adults.
According to the affidavit, the woman allegedly disclosed to one adult that she had obtained the images from Groves.
The affidavit states on June 20, the Nashua Police interviewed the woman, who is not identified in the charging documents. The woman confirmed she had formerly been in an intimate relationship with Groves and allegedly admitted that Groves had sent her sexually explicit images of children.
The following morning, police executed a search warrant at Groves’ home in Hudson. At that time, the affidavit states Groves told police that her former intimate partner had requested she take photos of nude children at the day care for her “sexual gratification.”

Wow, this is bad — even by Democrat standards.

Does the community feel “inspired” yet?



 

 

Category: Crime, Democrats, New Hampshire, The Transgender Cult
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