The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 08.10.22

Posted on | August 11, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.10.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Another fine Hopalong Ginsberg production.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Video – Nyctophilia Edition #1105
EBL: Judith Durham & Lamont Dozier RIP, Where the Truth Lies, and It wasn’t Merrick Garland, it was Christopher Wray?
Twitchy: Think The IRS Is Fair & Reasonable? also, The Mar-A-Lago Raid Was Supposed To Be Low-Profile
Louder With Crowder: IRS is hiring some of those 87000 jobs, you just need to be comfortable with firearms and using deadly force, also, Watch as these three teachers demonstrate exactly why you shouldn’t trust your children to the public schools
Vox Popoli: The First Rule of Ticket-Taking, The De-Comicization of DC, and Was Mar-A-Lago a Trap?

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Meaning of the Raid on Mar-a-Lago, The Ugliness of Everything, and A Lament for the Monasteries
American Greatness: Survey: 8 in 10 Americans Believe U.S. has Two-Tiered Justice System, also, What to Expect If the 2024 Election Is Trump vs. Newsom
American Power: The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago ‘Raid’ is About the Capitol Riot, Not the Mishandling of Classified Information, also, End of the Republic
American Thinker: Donald Trump Must Be The 2024 Republican Nominee
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Protests against power blackouts keep spreading throughout Cuba, Monster fire in Cuba still out of control: Fourth oil storage tank explodes, and Cuban apartheid update: No power blackouts or food shortages for tourists
BattleSwarm: Russian Airbase In Crimea Goes Boom, also, Is China Buying Texas Land?
Behind The Black: SpaceX successfully launches 52 more Starlink satellites, UK regulators to investigate Viasat-Inmarsat merger, and Today’s blacklisted American
Cafe Hayek:  “Smart people, smart process”, On the Great Barrington Declaration, and Two Benjamins on Export Restrictions
CDR Salamander: Overspec’d, Overpriced, all Navy: Bob Work on Institutional Addictions, also, Saki’s Lessons for WESTPAC
Chicago Boyz: The End of Debate?, also, Tech
Da Tech Guy:  I Have One Question To All Of you Who Still Insist the Last Election Was on the Up and Up, AARP: A bad deal from a bad group, and Five More Under the Fedora Thoughts on the Raid on Donald Trump’s House
Don Surber: Kane takes on ABC, CBS and NBC — and wins, also, Price of eggs and the FBI
First Street Journal: How can anyone expect government action on the economy to work when so many politicians are economically ignorant?, also, Congratulations to Jim Kenney!
Gates Of Vienna: Buddy, Can You Spare a Euro?, Mask Up, Eat the Bugs, Wear Two Sweaters, and Get Boosted Every Three Months, A Naval Blockade to Keep the Invaders Out of Italy?, and Does Klaboosterbach Have a Screw Loose?
The Geller Report: Jeffrey Epstein’s Lawyer Is The Judge Who Signed Sealed Warrant for Trump Raid, VICTORY! Trump-Endorsed Joe Kent DEFEATS Pro-Impeachment RINO To Advance To November, and Tim Michels Prevails in Battleground Wisconsin’s GOP Gubernatorial Primary Against Pence RINO
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Supernova SN2021afdx, and Well, If 2 + 2 = 5…
Hollywood In Toto:  Rafelson’s Black Widow – An ’80s Thriller for Grown-Ups, Woke USA Today Gives Unfunny Lecture on Modern Comedy, and We Need Beavis and Butt-Head Now More Than Ever
The Lid: Tax Credit for Electric Vehicles Don’t Apply to Most New EVs- Their Fossil Fuel Efficiency Is Overrated
Legal Insurrection: Ex-NY Gov. Cuomo: ‘DOJ Must Immediately Explain the Reason for Its Raid’ of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Something’s Happening Here: Feds Seize Cell Phone Of Trump Ally House Rep Scott Perry Day After Mar-a-Lago Raid, The Left is Now Desperately Trying to Change the Meaning of the Word ‘Raid’, and Pro-Antifa High School Teacher in California Gets Paid to Resign
Michelle Malkin: FBI: Feds Behaving Incorrigibly
Nebraska Energy Observer: Banana Republic
Outkick: Irish Rugby League Bans Transgender Athletes From Competing in Women’s League, Washington State Coach Fired Over Vaccine Mandate Files Wrongful Termination Claim, David Feherty Gets Honest, Says Money And Cancel Culture Pushed Him To Join LIV Golf, and Cam Smith Reportedly Signs With LIV Golf For Over $100 Million, Offers ‘No Comment’ When Asked About It
Power Line: Most Transparent Lie of the Day, Today’s Energy Tutorial, Mayor Frey on Ilhan Omar, and Ben & Jerry’s Forced to Swallow Some of Their Own Fat
Shark Tank: Scott Demands Inquiry Into Red Chinese Influence On The Fed
Shot In The Dark: Victory Celebration, also, Ray Of Hopelessness
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday: A Retrospective of Stupid Tax Policy – Soda taxes, Amazon tax, SALT cap
The Political Hat: Won’t Someone Ride Us Of These Meddlesome Climate Deniers?, also, The White Racial Stain Of Cis-Genderism
This Ain’t Hell: National Guard facing 40,000 member shortage, Ft. Bragg Soldier and “Wife” Convicted of Sham Wedding, and Move Over Ultra-MAGA, Time for Dark Brandon
Transterrestrial Musings: The TWA Whistleblower, Subsidizing Electric Vehicles, and Progress In Boca Chica
Victory Girls: CNN: Burnett Tries To Play “Gotcha” On Mar-a-Lago Raid, also, Biden Redefines Numbers, Claims Zero Inflation
Volokh Conspiracy: Restoring the right to bear arms, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen
Watts Up With That: About the Newly Approved Nuclear Microreactor
Weasel Zippers: Pelosi: “China Is One Of The Freest Societies In The World”, Former Top NY Cop Says The Left May Try To Physically Hurt President Trump Now That Legal Matters Are All But Doomed, and Texas Sends 3 More Buses Full Of Illegals To NYC Days After Mayor Adams Threatens To “Visit Texas”
The Federalist: The 20 Republican Senators Who Voted To Confirm Merrick Garland Owe America An Apology, The White House Is Lying About Democrats’ Middle-Class Auditing Scheme, and 87,000 New IRS Agents Will Join Union That Gives 100% of PAC Funds to Democrats
Mark Steyn: Criminalizing Opposition in a Pseudo-Republic, also, It Takes a Village

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Category: Linkagery

Biden Was Wrong, Kirby Was Right: Albuquerque Muslim Murders Were Not — NOT — Motivated by ‘Hate’

Posted on | August 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Biden Was Wrong, Kirby Was Right: Albuquerque Muslim Murders Were Not — NOT — Motivated by ‘Hate’

My brother Kirby has a keen sense of probability. We were sitting outside our local convenience store having coffee on Sunday, when he started ranting about a story out of New Mexico to which I hadn’t paid attention. Four Muslim men had been murdered in the span of a few days, and President Biden (or, at least, whatever White House staffer is running his Twitter account) issued a statement condemning the “hateful attacks.” Kirby expressed doubt that this was some kind anti-Muslim hate crime. Why? All four victims were from the same mosque, Kirby pointed out, and it seemed to him that this was significant. Well, I said, we’ll wait and see. The killer couldn’t possibly get away with this, I said, because of ubiquitous video surveillance, so it probably wouldn’t be long until they announced an arrest. Oh, did you notice how Biden said he “stands strongly with the Muslim community”? Someone should ask him whether he stands with the Shi’ite Muslims or the Sunni Muslims, because Albuquerque police arrested a suspect Tuesday and — call it a hunch — but I don’t think Syed Muhammad is a MAGA-hat wearing Trump voter:

Police said Tuesday that they were investigating whether a string of murders that have shaken Albuquerque was motivated by a Sunni Muslim father’s anger over his daughter marrying a Shiite Muslim.
Muhammad Syed, 51, has been charged with the murders of two Muslim men in New Mexico’s largest city, and faces possible charges for the murders of two other Muslim men killed in the last nine months.
Authorities said in a press release that “the offender knew the victims to some extent, and an interpersonal conflict may have led to the shootings.”
Ahmad Assed, president of the city’s largest mosque, told The New York Times that authorities informed him the shooter is a Sunni Muslim who may have targeted the victims because he was angry over his daughter marrying a Shiite Muslim.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Albuquerque’s deputy chief, Kyle Hartsock, said police are still investigating the motive behind the slayings, but acknowledged the theory that Syed targeted victims because he was angry over his daughter’s marriage. “We’re not sure if that’s the only motivation,” Hartsock said, adding that they’re “still investigating it.”
The men killed have been identified as Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, Aftab Hussein, 41, and Naeem Hussain, 25.
Syed faces murder charges for the deaths of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, police said Tuesday, and remains the prime suspect in the other two homicides. A gun traced back to two of the homicide scenes was found during a search of Syed’s home, authorities said. . . .
Syed is the only suspect being investigated as of Tuesday, Hartsock said. Authorities are not labeling him a “serial killer” and said that, at this point, they still do not believe the murders were a hate crime.
Syed is a native of Afghanistan who has lived in New Mexico the “last several years,” Hartsock said. He’s been arrested on domestic violence charges three times in recent years, but all the charges were eventually dropped. . . .
As police connected the four murders to a single shooter, authorities released a photo of a silver sedan they believed was driven by the suspect. On Tuesday, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina posted to Twitter just before 1 p.m. local time that the car had been found.
“We tracked down the vehicle believed to be involved in a recent murder of a Muslim man in Albuquerque,” Medina wrote. “The driver was detained and he is our primary suspect for the murders.”
Sherry Shafiq, a friend of Afzaal Hussain, told The Daily Beast he was relieved that the alleged killer was caught. Over the past few days, he said, his community was living in fear while a suspect was on the loose. Some Muslim residents stayed home or kept hyper-vigilant of their surroundings.
“It’s heartbreaking news,” Shafiq said. “It’s one of the community members. It was a possibility that had crossed our minds, but never in my wildest dreams would I imagine someone in the community would do such a heinous crime.”

He “can’t imagine” a Muslim committing “such a heinous crime” because vengeance and honor killings are unheard of in the Islamic community.

Somebody should tell Joe Biden he was wrong. Of course, he’s been so wrong about so many things, this isn’t really surprising.




 

Category: Crime, Islam, Joe Biden, New Mexico

In The Mailbox: 08.10.22 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | August 10, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.10.22 (Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

h/t Hopalong Ginsberg on MeWe

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Don’t Bring A Knife To A Gunfight
EBL: So what were the DOJ and FBI up to today?
Twitchy: “We’re Laughing At You, Not With You,” also, “Transgender State Of Refuge” Bill Advances To California Assembly floor
Louder With Crowder: Kanye sends Pete Davidson into ‘trauma therapy’ for making fun of his Kim Kardashian break-up
Vox Popoli: The Raid on Mar-A-Lago, Indefinite Exercises, and Filthbloods Die Faster
Stoic Observations: Black Class Over Racial Affinity

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Failure in Uvalde Was Societal
American Greatness: Kevin McCarthy Vows Investigation of DOJ after Mar-a-Lago Raid
American Thinker: Joe Manchin May Have Just Cooked His Own Goose
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Believe It When I See It News
Babalu Blog: Cuban oil depot fire intensifies, inferno still out of control
BattleSwarm: Harris County Really Doesn’t Want Vote Audits
Behind The Black: Northrop Grumman partners with Firefly to make Antares entirely U.S. made, Debris from Russian anti-sat test causing numerous near Starlink collisions, and The Democratic Party of thugs and goons
Cafe Hayek: National Conservatives Demand the Economic Equivalent of a Square Circle, In Praise of Liberalism, and Economic Competition Is Not a Tort; Its Costs are Internalized By the Market Process
CDR Salamander: China to the Slot
Chicago Boyz: F*** you. Shut up.
Da Tech Guy: When the Biden White House calls on “experts” to support its agenda, watch your wallet, Report from Louisiana: Random Thoughts in a Transitional Week, and Who needs to teach Kids to read in Lawrence When You Can Teach them About the Evils of Whiteness?
Don Surber: NYT upset that Republicans win, Raid Trump? DeSantis is the next man up, and Even Andrew Cuomo sees the FBI abuse
Gates Of Vienna: Talking to the Elephants, They’ve Got a Ticket to Ride, And They Don’t Care!, Stop Me Before I Fart Again!, and Syrian Mujahideen Arrested in Austria and Spain
The Geller Report: FBI And DOJ Criminalizing Opposition To The Regime Is How The Republic Ends, also, Hopelessness is all the Democrats have left
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Water on the Moon, The Twenty-Four Hour Rule, and Proper Resource Allocation
Hollywood In Toto: Winners, Losers of 2022’s Summer Movies (And 1 Question Mark), Off Limits – A Conservative Assault on Late Night Clapter, and What’s Missing from the James Franco/Fidel Castro Debate
Legal Insurrection: Rhode Island School District Encourages Entire Town to Report Violations of ‘Anti-Racist’ Policy, Gibson’s Bakery Will Have to Wait To Collect, and NYPD Cops Quitting Before They Qualify for Pensions
Nebraska Energy Observer: Part Three of three
Outkick: ESPN Is In Huge Trouble With The Big Ten’s New Media Deal, Russell Wilson’s Hair Mousse Rubs Channing Crowder Wrong Way, Minor League Team Held Seinfeld-Themed ‘Elaine’ Dance Contest, and Serena Williams Announces Pending Retirement
Power Line: A simple desultory philippic
Shark Tank: Fried Accuses DeSantis Of “Defending Donald Trump Instead Of The Rule Of Law”
Shot In The Dark: Due Process, also, I’m Curious
STUMP: Meep and Media: Podcasts and Videos – Sumo, Fraud, and Math, oh my!
The Political Hat: Out: Academic Freedom. In: Academic Liberation By Woke Groupthink
This Ain’t Hell: Military Monkeypox Cases Increase x10!, Medal of Honor awardee Simanek passes on. Only 2 from Korea remain, and Milley resignation letter cited in upcoming book
Transterrestrial Musings: The Manual Transmission
Victory Girls: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Raided By Partisan FBI
Volokh Conspiracy: Removal of Books With “Lascivious Content” from School Libraries Likely Constitutionally Permissible, also, Can Portions of States Secede from Those States?
Watts Up With That: Big Wind/Solar Roll Taxpayers, Landscape
Weasel Zippers: WATCH: Trump Campaign-Style Video After Mar-A-Lago Raid “The Best Is Yet To Come…”, ABC Poll: 69% Of Americans Say Biden’s Economy Is Getting Worse, and WH Accuses Texas Gov. Abbott Of Using Illegal Immigrants As “Political Pawns”
The Federalist: FBI Raid On Trump Confirms The Security State Picks Who Americans Are Allowed To Vote For, LGBT Activism In Sports Is Increasingly Forcing Christians Off The Field, and Public Schools Have No One But Themselves To Blame For Enrollment Drops
Mark Steyn: Motown Mo’ Times, also, The Return of Interest

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Category: Linkagery

The Persecution of Donald Trump

Posted on | August 9, 2022 | Comments Off on The Persecution of Donald Trump

Democrats impeached him twice, but that wasn’t enough:

Former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-A-Lago, was raided by FBI agents, Trump announced in a statement on Monday.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar- A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said. “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”
Trump noted his previous cooperation with law enforcement and called the FBI raid of his home “prosecutorial misconduct.” Trump also said it is an example of “the weaponization of the Justice System who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.” . . .
Eric Trump said on FNC’s Hannity Show tonight, “That’s what this is about today. To have 30 FBI agents, actually, more than that descend on Mar-a-Lago, give absolutely, you know, no notice, go through the gates, start ransacking an office, ransacking a closet. You know, they broke into a safe. He didn’t even have anything in the safe. I mean, give me a break. And this is coming from, what, the national archives? Yet Hunter Biden, he’s did firearms crimes, illegal drugs, you know, shady deals with everybody around the world. By the way, it’s all on his laptop for the whole world to see, in his own writing, in his own words. Where are these FBI agents? Where is everybody? Why is it that the arrows only fly at Donald Trump and his family? Why is it that the political persecution only goes one way in this country?”

Professor William Jacobson is almost certainly correct: “This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown. Don’t take the bait.” Democrats desperately want to turn the November midterms into a referendum on Trump, and this raid is part of that political strategy. Joy Pullman observes: “We’re watching federal agencies use their powers not to catch criminals but to criminalize peaceful political views and actions. We’re witnessing a growing campaign to lock people up for their opposition to the ruling political party, which is not only profoundly un-American but profoundly dangerous societally.” And in the name of “deficit reduction,” Democrats just passed a bill that gives the Internal Revenue Service $80 billion to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. Because nothing reduces inflation like hiring tens of thousands of new government agents to harass taxpayers.

As one Trusted Insider said of Biden, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

You might recognize the source of that quote.




 

Category: Donald Trump

In The Mailbox: 08.08.22

Posted on | August 9, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.08.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Wendell’s cousin Lipton.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: What’s The Carbon Footprint Of An Apartment Fire?
EBL: Lived Because Of Hiroshima, Biggest Loser, and Olivia Newton-John, RIP
Twitchy: “A Disgrace!”, also, THIS Is An Actual Threat To Democracy
Louder With Crowder: Billion-dollar MegaMillions winner gets harsh lesson in taxes, Elon Musk challenges Parag Agrawal to debate about fake Twitter accounts, and Chris Pratt gets last laugh on woke critics of his new show 
Vox Popoli: The Daily Kabuki, Natural Immunity FTW, An Absence of Sanctions, and The Fall of NATO

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Hey Viktor, What Time Is It?, also, The Torn-Apart Land
American Greatness: Nancy Pelosi’s Childlike Diplomacy Mirrors America’s Childlike Posture Toward China, also, Wyoming Voters ‘Upset’ After Liz Cheney’s Campaign Sends Out Absentee Ballot Request Forms To Their Homes
American Power: Despite Climate Bill, Electric Cars Will Remain Out of Reach for Many, also, Unmask Alice Cracks Open Story of Wildly Successful Literary Hoax
American Thinker: Increasing The IRS Annual Budget By Seven Times Doesn’t Add Up, also, The TWA 800 Whistleblower Is Legit
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday (Number 400! Woo!)
Babalu Blog: Hundreds of Cubans stage public protest over power blackouts in Cienfuegos, As anti-government sentiment grows in Cuba, anti-Díaz-Canel graffiti pops up everywhere, Cuban military is recruiting and training squadron leaders for repression of imminent popular uprising, and Cuba fire update: Third oil storage tank collapses, firefighters still missing
BattleSwarm: Top Chinese Chip Executives Arrested, also, Ukraine Export Deal: Too Little, Too Late
Behind The Black: FCC decides to expand its power in space, India’s new SSLV rocket fails on first launch attempt, and Today’s blacklisted American: Doctor jailed for entering Capitol on Jan 6 and expressing opinions
Cafe Hayek: National Conservatives Should Learn Some Economics, More on the Dangers of National Conservatism, and Calling Mark Perry
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, also, China’s Decade to Win with Jim Fanell – on Midrats
Chicago Boyz: Speaking of Resilience and Renewal
Da Tech Guy: We Interrupt My planned Post Today to Second Stacy McCain’s call for people to give Lisa Grass a hand with her Cancer Treatments, The Navy’s poor poker face on manpower, and The Biden/Soros Left Finds the Solution to Illegal Immigration Crisis
Don Surber: To regain trust, ditch the editorial page, NPR, that was the plan, and Civil rights did not flip the South
First Street Journal: Telling the unvarnished truth about #Monkeypox verboten!, also, No sense letting this guy plead down; he obviously likes jail!
Gates Of Vienna: Heap Big Trouble for Those WAYCIST Germans, Nice Non-Work If You Can Get It, Do Not Be One of the Kulaks of the Great Reset!, and China Won’t Be Here for Long
The Geller Report: Jabbed Athletes Die Suddenly, Gestapo-Style FBI ‘Raided and Occupied’ Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort and Home, Broke Into Safe, Parents File ‘Blockbuster Lawsuit’ for ‘Moral Corruption of Children’ Against Virginia’s Loudoun County Schools, and BREAKING: Crowds Arrive at Mar-a-Lago In Support For President Trump After News Broke of FBI’s Raid On Him
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, The Little Gem Nebula, and Science Deniers
Hollywood In Toto: They/Them – Scare-Free Horror Triples Down on Woke, Can Woke Hollywood Survive Biden’s Recession?, and Louis C.K.’s Fourth of July Delivers First-Rate Dysfunction
The Lid: Indianapolis Homeowner Fatally Shoots Intruder: “If You Come and Take It, There’s Consequences”
Legal Insurrection: Debunking Critical Race Theory – The False Claim that “Racism is Ordinary”, Lawyer Marc Elias Shows the Mar-a-Lago Raid is All About Disqualifying Trump in 2024, ADL’s SCOTUS Brief: Harvard’s Discriminatory Admissions Policies OK Because College Meant Well, and This is a provocation. They are trying to get a reaction that allows a further crackdown.
Nebraska Energy Observer: Change is good, The Road to Freedom, and It’s Not About Trump
Outkick: Jon Gruden’s Agent Believes Former Coach’s Emails Being Leaked Was A Hit Job, LA Times Also Ridiculously Tries to Make Brittney Griner Arrest About ‘Equal Pay’ For WNBA Players, Cleveland, Home Of Deshaun Watson, Will Host National Massage Therapists Convention, and Pete Rose Sends Twitter Into Frenzy By Dismissing Statutory Rape Question, Calling A Reporter ‘Babe’ After Standing Ovation
Power Line: The Coming War on Agriculture, What’s Behind the Democrats’ IRS Expansion?, David McCullough, RIP, and Cheney Versus Cheney
Shark Tank: DeSantis Says Trump Raid An Example Of Federal Agencies Being Weaponized, also, Loomer – Illegal Immigration Needs To Be Addressed
Shot In The Dark: Conversations I’d Like To Have, also, Empty
STUMP: Meep Hits the Road and Plays the Oldies: Today – Silly(ish) Mortality Posts!
The Political Hat: Arrested For Doubleplusungood Causing Of Anxiety
This Ain’t Hell: Republican dispute over Afghanistan rescue claimed by State Department, Help is on the way for Russia in Ukraine, NK may deploy 100k troops, Ft. Hood thief gets 18 months jail, 2 years probation for $2.1M theft, and Marine Apologizes for Lying About Military Service
Transterrestrial Musings: Recession Or Not?, About That new study On Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria, and “A Niche Part Of The Market”
Victory Girls: Transgenderism Trend May Be Killing Our Kids, Bernie Rails Against Inflation Reduction Act, Votes For It Anyway, and Biden’s Afghanistan Debacle One Year Later
Volokh Conspiracy: No, 18 U.S.C. § 2071 Cannot Disqualify Trump From The Presidency, also, Three Prosecutors Who Are Investigating Their Political Opponents
Watts Up With That: Sorry, CNN, Great Barrier Reef Is Setting Records, Fearmongering Won’t Work, Pacific Typhoons Defy Climate Experts’ Dire Forecasts…Trending Downward 70 Years!, and “Don’t Pay UK” Green Energy Bill Strike Gathers Momentum
Weasel Zippers: WH Says Busing Illegal Immigrants To Cities Is A “Stunt”, As The World Burns – Biden Taxes Small Businesses And Middle Income People To Pay For Their Own Destruction, 53 Shot In Dem-Run Chicago Over Weekend, and Democrats To Strip Iowa Of Its First In The Nation Primary Slot To Showcase “States With Fewer White Men”
The Federalist: Ron DeSantis Puts ‘Woke Banking’ On Notice That Political Discrimination Won’t Be Tolerated, The FBI And DOJ Criminalizing Opposition To The Regime Is How The Republic Ends, and There Is Nothing Anti-Semitic About Criticizing George Soros
Mark Steyn: Calling Barranca: Howard Hawks and Only Angels Have Wings, For Whom Bell Tolls, and Georgy Girl

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Category: Linkagery

Watching The Herd Stampede

Posted on | August 9, 2022 | Comments Off on Watching The Herd Stampede

— by Wombat-socho


Silicon Valley delenda est.

IRS headquarters in Mordor-on-the-Potomac



This weekend the Senate passed, and Slow Joe signed, the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act”, and today the right side of the blogosphere was full of folks screaming about the part where the IRS will get funding for 87,000 new agents, which certainly seems to fit the complaint memorably issued by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.


I first caught sight of this on Dana Loesch’s Instagram, and left the comment that as far as I was concerned this was no big deal. The IRS’ staffing problems are of long standing, and much of the problem boils down to the fact that very few accountants want to work for one of the most hated agencies of the Federal government when they can earn a lot more money and a lot less enmity signing up with Deloitte, KPMG, or some smaller accounting shop. The IRS was desperate enough to make me an offer this spring (almost a year after I filed an application with them while I was on unemployment last year) and I don’t even have an accounting degree. I do have fifteen years of seasonal experience preparing taxes, especially small business Schedule Cs, and I think that was what led them to make me an offer. Unfortunately for the IRS, the offer was for a position in Ogden, Utah, which is a long way from my current burrow in rural Nevada, and the pay for a GS-5 Step 1 is not much more than I’m earning from disability and my tax season work with H&R Block, so I turned them down. But think on it – they are so desperate for bodies they were seriously considering hiring a 62-year-old semi-retired tax professional who hadn’t held a full-time job sine 2009. Would they be doing that if they could find freshly-minted accounting majors from…anywhere?

Coming at this from a slightly different angle, there was no shortage of people in the comments to Dana’s post harrumphing “Well, they don’t need accountants, they just need activists to harass Republicans!” Yeah, sure, they’ll be issuing the brown shirts and Democrat Party brassards right after these people fill out their Standard Form 86. People need to tighten their tinfoil hats and consider that 1) nothing gets done quickly by the Feds, especially in the hiring process, and 2) the IRS can’t just hire unqualified schmucks to stand around and menace the taxpayers. I would be extremely surprised if the IRS managed to get the job requirements for the new meat done before the end of the calendar year/beginning of tax season, much less hire more than a few hundred agents. By then, assuming everyone on the Right has been out doing the necessary field work, the Red Tsunami should have swept a lot of Democrats out of Congress, and even if McCarthy & O’Connell can’t manage to outright repeal this shameful bill, they should be able to slice here, trim there, and tie up the IRS personnel bureaucrats long enough to keep anywhere near 87,000 agents from getting hired.

Finally, there’s no guarantee the IRS is going to use those agents the way the Democrats want them used. Right now the staffing crunch is so bad that a lot of paper returns filed in 2021 haven’t even been looked at, much less processed, and if they haven’t finished 2021, what do you think their stack of 2022 returns looks like? The IRS very badly wants those returns finished, because every one that doesn’t get done in a timely fashion means that either the IRS owes interest on the refunds or they aren’t collecting the debts owed by people with balances due. I suspect a lot of the 87,000 new chums are going to be handed a desk, a banker’s box full of returns, and told “I don’t want to see your face until these are done. You have until Friday – and don’t forget you’re on six-month probation, rookie.”

So be of good cheer. Maybe some of the crazies on the left want to use these new T-men to be goon squads in the service of the Great Reset, but I don’t think it’s going to work out that way.


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Category: Dana Loesch, Farce

Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Komi Shuuko

Posted on | August 8, 2022 | Comments Off on Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Komi Shuuko

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Komi’s mom has got it going on. This is some fan art of her from her high school days, from r/Komi-san or someplace like it.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.
NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1799, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Relative Power Levels Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: MAGA (Liz) Cheney, Britney Griner,  Dark Winds, You Know It’s Bad When…, Joe Pickett, Carole King, RIP Nichelle Nichols, George Carlin’s American Dream, and Happy Birthday George Jetson!

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Kornelija Slunjski – She’s Got ‘Em and Doesn’t Care if You Know, Fish Pic Friday – Allie Rud, Thursday Tanlines, Salmon in the Bay?, The Wednesday Wetness, Tattoo Tuesday, More Random Celebrity News, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Uhura Signs Off, Biden Gets WuFlu Rebound and Palm Sunday

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

Fantasy & Other Annoyances

Posted on | August 8, 2022 | Comments Off on Fantasy & Other Annoyances

— compiled by Wombat-socho

You can’t please everybody.

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.
As a general rule, I don’t care for fantasy. Far too much of it is derivative elf & dwarf crap, written by people trying to rip off Tolkien for a quick buck while having all the grounding in the other classics of your average D&D player who hasn’t read Appendix N. Feh, I say. Feh! Fortunately, a lot of really good writers have been writing fantasy lately that has nothing to do with Tolkien or (thank God) soft-core porn with werecritters, or “paranormal romance”, as Amazon would have it. One of the more notable such folks is former political blogger Moe Lane,  who has been spinning tales of a post-apocalyptic America in which magic works, and that hasn’t turned out to be a good thing. So far there’s three novels, Frozen Dreams, Tinsel Rain, and Morgan Barod, as well as the collection Tales From The Fermi Resolution. The first two novels are weird variations on your standard noir detective tales, in which our hero, Tom Vargas, the resident Shamus of Cin City (where there are no magicians, just very talented stagehands & cleaning ladies) Closes Cases. Morgan Barod is a wee bit different.  It’s set in the same universe as Vargas’ adventures, but on the other end of the continent in New Jersey…or what used to be New Jersey before everything changed. Barod wakes in a hospital, and very soon his medievalist predilections come in very handy as he has to fight his way past a whole mess of strange critters before reaching safety with the local outpost of the Federal Militia. So begins his journey home to the coast, but this is no post-apocalyptic barbarian we’re talking here – Barod uses his brain and his broadsword in equal measure to take care of problems along the way home, and boy, are there a lot of problems that need sorting. All of these are available on Kindle Unlimited if you want to check and see if these are your cup of tea; I personally enjoy Moe’s sense of humor, so I picked up all four. 

On the other hand, we have Larry Correia’s Servants of War, co-written by Steve Diamond, which is so grimdark it makes Warhammer 40k look like My Little Pony in comparison. Set during a horrific century-long war between the Empire of Kolakolvia (a combination of the worst features of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union) and Almacia (somewhat like Imperial Germany), it follows the former peasant Illarion Glaskov, who gets drafted into the Tsar’s army and sent to join The Wall – a unit of elite soldiers piloting crude mecha made from the parts of broken golems. While everything else seems to be on roughly a World War I tech level, there is magic, and there are gods, horrible unearthly monsters, and strong hints that this isn’t Earth. Not only does Glaskov have to contend with the Almacians trying to kill him, he also has to cope with backstage political skulduggery, commissars alert for wrongthink, and one of the Three Goddesses who has taken a hostile interest in him. Recommended.

I signed up for the Kickstarter to fund the graphic novel version of John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising, which is the only series of zombie novels I have ever liked, and I have to say that Chuck Dixon & company did an great job of translating Under A Graveyard Sky into a decent comic. Hopefully they’ll release an electronic version for folks who missed out on the crowdfunding effort.

Finally, we have Battle Brick Road, by Eric Weathers and Zeb Hatfield, which is a post-apocalyptic high-tech version of The Wizard of Oz. (Weird that there haven’t been more riffs on the classic series.) The Midwest is a dust bowl far worse than the calamitous drought-stricken region in the Depression, and Thea Gale is searching for her scientist father, lost somewhere in it. Her faithful robot TOTO (half air-ball, half Eyebot) at her side, she crashes into Oz – an island of fertility amidst all the desert wasteland. The first three chapters describe Thea’s arrival in Oz and her first steps on the Yellow Brick Road, but this is a much more violent tale than Frank Baum’s children’s tale. There is also a short story, “Meet Me In St. Louis”, whose art is not nearly as good as the first three chapters. So far there are copies available on Eric Weathers’ website, linked above. 

 

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