The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 08.09.23 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | August 9, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Today is the day I get caught up on all this stuff.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Self-Defense Might Be Legal In Canada
EBL: Smith and Wesson, also, Grift Brothers Gabe and Sam Bankman-Fried Wanted to Create a Human Superspecies on Nauru
Twitchy: With Gas Prices Rising, Biden Reminds Us He’s Trying To Stop ALL Drilling, Joaquin Castro Whines About Horror At The Border – Forgets His Party Is In Charge Of The Border, and SecEnergy Granholm’s Well-Timed Stock Trade Gets Fresh Attention
Louder With Crowder: Anheuser-Busch now forced to sell off several brands in wake of Dylan Mulvaney disaster
Vox Popoli: You Are the Bad Guys, Straight Legend, Adios, Bitches, Caesar Didn’t Have That Problem, Oppenheimer and the Manhattan PsyOp, and Delete Zoom

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Fathers, keep your Daughters away from Sport, Judging Others is Good and Just, and Just how bad is the economy?
American Conservative: Make Peace, You Fools!, War by Design, Calvin Coolidge: The Great Refrainer Shows the Way, The Coming Battle: ‘Who Lost Ukraine?’, and Revolutionary State of Mind
American Greatness: Trump Indictment Is a Mockery of Common Sense
American Power: Trump’s Indictment and 2024
American Thinker: A New Day, a New Type of Election Fraud, The Trump Indictment and 2024, and Did Trump Know Election Fraud was a Lie?
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday, also, Animal’s Daily Pizza News
Babalu Blog: Over 300 acts of repression documented in Cuba during the month of July, Reports from Cuba: Lack of fuel forces cars to be pushed to service stations in Havana, and Cuba, Calabria, and more rental doctors: A closer look
Baldilocks: Evolution Of The Black Leader Myth
BattleSwarm: Goines Murder Trial Still Pending, Taibbi: How The Left Lost Its Mind, Houston Medicare Fraud Ring Busted, and China’s Funky Military Gyrocopter
Behind The Black: Boeing delays first manned Starliner flight again, until March of 2024, SpaceX successfully launches another 15 Starlink satellites, Momentus is now selling a version of its orbital tug simply as a service module for satellites, Scientists repeat fusion power experiment that produced more energy than spent, and Real pushback: Judge slams Southwest Airlines for violating settlement terms of free-speech court case
Cafe Hayek: Apples Must Be Compared to Apples, also, (Some of) What ESGers Don’t Understand
CDR Salamander: Pirates Of The Black Sea
Chicago Boyz: I Hate Barbie, also, Book Review: Year of Consent–Rerun with Additional Commentary
Da Tech Guy: Never Forget that any Outrage of Ashley Biden and Hunter’s & Joe’s dealings by Dems…, What Will We Do With the Gift Donald Trump Has Given US?, And So The Selling of the Draft Begins, License Plate Scanners plus AI Tracking Software equals an all powerful police state plus travel restrictions, and My Answer to Ed Kilgore’s Question: Chain of Custody, Open Verifiable Counts
Dana Loesch: Tuesday Evening Thoughts, also, Mike Pence’s New Ad Makes Me Wonder If He Knows How To Pump Gas
Don Surber: Happy Anniversary, Raid On Mar-A-Lago
First Street Journal: Black Democrats in Alabama dump ‘LGBTQ+’ caucus, What the Social Engineering of the 1960s Got Wrong, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”, Our American Revolution began around Boston; now Bostonians are saddled with an authoritarian government that they chose for themselves!, and Are the Lexington Police trying to stifle someone’s #FreedomOfSpeech?
Gates Of Vienna: No Reprieve For Holders of a Forged Vax Pass, An Islamophobic Tranny, Question the COVID Narrative? It’s the Loony Bin For You!, A Well-Integrated Culture-Enriching Rapist, Bottling It Up, and Phoneliness
The Geller Report: Judge Rules That Donald Trump Has ‘Presidential Immunity’ on Rigged Election Assertions, Anti-American US Women’s Soccer Team Loses to Sweden in Earliest Women’s World Cup Exit Ever, CDC Director Laughing About How She Made Policy Decisions During COVID, Democrat Mayor Pleads Guilty to 140 Counts of Child Pornography, Said Pete Buttigieg Was His Mentor, and Pfizer: “Nobody Was Forced to Have a Vaccine”
Hogewash: A Calm Galaxy Cluster, Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, In the Dark, Seen Through A Different Filter, and I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Hollywood In Toto: Joe Rogan Calls U.S. a ‘Banana Republic’ Under Biden, Essential Church Recalls Government’s Assault on Faith, Family, Is Lizzo’s Woke Facade Crumbling in Real Time?, Will Rude Movie Goers Crush the Barbenheimer Rebound?, and Marc Maron’s Barbie Defense Makes No Sense
The Lid: Bud Light Losing Shelf Space: Will Probably Never Recover Sales, Unflappable Donald Trump Crashes Wedding Party Just After Arraignment, Illegals Bringing Tuberculosis, Polio, And Child Sex Trafficking To U.S., and Here We Go Again. Gas Prices Jump In Past Month
Legal Insurrection: Photos Reveal Suspected Cartel Gunman Crossing the Border With Body Armor & Rifles, “Democrat prosecutors are manipulating the Republican primaries”, Poland Beefs Up Border Security, Says Russia and Belarus Pushing New Migrant Wave, Former Minneapolis Police Officer Who Held Back Crowd Sentenced to Nearly Five Years for Death of George Floyd, Self-Described ‘Marxist’ Head of the American Library Association is Surprised by Backlash, and The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Lost and No One Cares
Nebraska Energy Observer: Competence and the Economy, Dennis Prager, Testing 123, and American Integrity
Outkick: Bryce Harper Helps Crying Boy Reunite With Brothers Before Phillies Game, OutKick’s Dan Dakich Bids Farewell To Megan Rapinoe After USWNT Loss, Paige Spiranac, Kay Adams Discuss Twosome, Could Break Internet By Hitting Golf Course Together, SNY’s Gary Cohen Buries Orioles, John Angelos For Suspending Broadcaster Kevin Brown Over On-Air Honest Comments About Team, Bill Simmons Torches Alex Morgan, Gives Spot-On Comparison For Megan Rapinoe After USWNT’s World Cup Exit, and Angel Hernandez Had Another Terrible Day Behind The Plate, Managing To Anger Both The Yankees And Astros
Power Line: Wind Energy: A Doomed Industry, Guest Film Review: “2023: A Barbie Odyssey”, EVs On a Collision Course With Reality, Democrats Are Getting What They Want, and Unlike the Trump indictments, the case against Biden is straightforward
Protein Wisdom Reborn: A Corrective Theory Of Everything
Shark Tank: Luna Continues Fight With Corps Of Engineers Over Pinellas Beaches
Shot In The Dark: Remembering The CFL, As Regular As The Sands Of Time, Hubris, and Things I’d Do If I Had A Time Machine
STUMP: Deaths from Heat and Cold: Deception and Update for U.S. 1999-2022, Gatekeeping in Education and Professions: Actuarial, Legal, and Sumo!, and Building Bridges to STEM Careers
The Political Hat: Neuro-Machine Computer Chips Mean One Thing: Cyborg Catgirls, Woke Privilege: Queer Illegal Aliens Undetainable; Anti-Racist Firefighters; “Gynosexuals” & The Denormalization Of Straight Men, and Firing Line Friday: Resolved: That Women in the Military Should Be Excluded from Combat
This Ain’t Hell: Monday – National Purple Heart Day, New SMA- AI health monitors a Good Idea, Bowe Bergdahl to Face Charges, American warships sent to deal with Russian and Chinese navy ships, Zinnerman – The Hits Just Keep Right on Comin’, and Russian Army finds out, a second time, that regular open formations during hostilities is not a good idea
Transterrestrial Musings: The Remaking Of America, The Atomic Bombs, Industrial Revolution, Virgin Galactic, Today’s Blacklisted American, and Oppenheimer
Victory Girls: Gold Star Families Demand Answers Over Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal, Ritzy Restaurant Refuses Mom With Tattoos, and Middle-aged Lady, Not Gay, Just Boring And Bored
Volokh Conspiracy: How Can Jack Smith Prove That Trump Knew He Lost the Election?, Clearing up Common Misconceptions About the Charges Against Trump, and Hawaii Butterfly Knife Ban Violates Second Amendment
Watts Up With That: Red China Abandons Paris Agreement and Makes Others’ Efforts Even More Futile, John Stossel Interviews Judith Curry: How Climate “Science” Got Hijacked by Alarmists, That’s Why They Call It Death Valley, Costs Beginning to Change the Net Zero Debate in the UK, and ROSS CLARK: This polluting green sham has been mocking taxpayers for years
The Federalist: Nikki Haley Supports Breaking The Law To Make Taxpayers Pay For Soldiers’ Abortions, NBC Spewed Abortion Lies In DeSantis Interview, Then Cut Off His Answer Exposing Them As Bunk, Corporate Press Omits Radical Religious Motivation Behind Fatal Stabbing Of O’Shae Sibley, How Can Mail-In Voting Be ‘Secure’ When Postal Theft Is Rampant?, ‘Bidenomics’ Has Been A Disaster, and Is NPR Trying To Start A Race War?
Mark Steyn: Checkpoint Charlie Hebdo, Unleashing Chaos, Live Around the Planet, and And Then There Were None: Randolph Scott and 7 Men From Now

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Category: Linkagery

CNN: Distract Much?

Posted on | August 9, 2023 | Comments Off on CNN: Distract Much?

The big news Wednesday was that the House Oversight Committee “has tracked $20 million in payments to Biden Inc.” A few of the details via Ace of Spades:

Foreign oligarchs moved millions to Biden-tied firms before meeting Joe Biden, investigators say
House Oversight Committee now has traced more than $20 million in funds from Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Romanians to Biden-tied entities.
Firms tied to the Biden family collected more than $20 million from foreign sources, including big payments from controversial oligarchs who afterwards had private dinners with Joe Biden as vice president, congressional investigators disclosed Wednesday.
In its third memo analyzing bank records, the GOP-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee reported it had found a clear pattern of the Biden family and its partners doing business with Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, Chinese and Romanian figures who had legal and other troubles and then collecting money around the times of gaining access to Joe Biden.
The pattern, the congressional investigators noted, corroborates recent testimony from former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer that the presidential son solicited business from foreigners who were seeking influence, access or protection from a family “brand” that included Joe Biden.
“The Biden family’s and associates’ dealings with foreign nationals from Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine show a pattern of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer courting wealthy oligarchs with political and financial influence but tainted backgrounds,” the new member to lawmakers on the committee stated.
“Thus far, the Committee has identified over $20 million from foreign sources that benefitted the Biden family and their business associates,” it added.

Much more at the link. This is what professional journalists would call Pretty Goddamned Big News — a smoking gun found next to a bloody corpse — and yet CNN is ignoring it in favor of a wall-to-wall coverage of the “apocalyptic” wildfire in Maui: “Climate change among reasons Hawaii fire could have spread so quickly, scientist says.”

Let us not minimize the destruction in Hawaii, which has already killed six people. However, in the grand scheme of things — 20 people have already been shot to death in Chicago this month — this wildfire is not as important as confirmation that Biden was on the take while serving as vice president in the Obama administration. People watching CNN, however, have no inkling about what the House Oversight Committee has found, because nobody at CNN is going to mention this.

There’s a reason why Paw Patrol has higher ratings than CNN.



 

Category: CNN

In The Mailbox: 08.08.23 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | August 8, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 08.08.23 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Finally home.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Our programming department’s motto. #SonOfSilvercon

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: Summarizing The Allegations Of Vote Fraud In The 2020 Presidential Election
357 Magnum: When The Only Safety You Have Is What You Provide For Yourself
EBL: The Right To Bear Butterfly Knives?, William Friedkin, RIP, Atomic Women, SAVED BY HIROSHIMA, and Mike Pence’s New Respect
Twitchy: “The Crack Team Of Degenerate Journos At The NYT”, Racist Texas Teacher Who Openly Bragged About Wanting To Kill White Men Has Been Fired, and Riley Gaines Takes Man Claiming To Be Lesbian Apart For Mansplaining Lesbianism
Louder With Crowder: Roseanne Barr’s BACK, teams with anti-woke company and is bringing new comedy show to Elon Musk’s X, Defiant Jason Aldean surprises restaurant with acoustic performance of anti-woke anthem “Try That in A Small Town”, Three Little Punks Attempt Armed Robbery, Wind Up Eating This Marine’s Fist Instead, Finally! The “not real” airplane freak-out lady has been identified and there’s backstory behind the meltdown, and Elon Musk savages NYT making excuses for a viral song calling for the killing of white people
Vox Popoli: Success is not Real, Comms by Meme, Electric Vehicles and Digital Currencies, One Race, the Canine Race, On Advice from Failure, and A Failure of Leadership
Gab News: Yes, You Can Legislate Morality, Gab Tells Governments Who Demand Censorship To Get Lost, 
Flappr: Torts Illustrated – Danda, The Stick-Wielding Assbeater

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Baldilocks: Unhappy Camper, 
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, The USNR In Ukraine & More, An Unsophisticated Red Chinese Navy? Really?, 
Don Surber: We Should Have Dropped Three Bombs, How Dare Americans Not Cheer For A Team That Hates The Country, 

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Category: Linkagery

Who Is ‘Negasi Zuberi’?

Posted on | August 8, 2023 | Comments Off on Who Is ‘Negasi Zuberi’?

A kidnapping case in Oregon made national headlines last week, after federal officials announced an indictment:

A federal grand jury in Portland returned an indictment today [Wednesday, August 2] charging a Klamath Falls, Oregon, man with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Seattle woman and forcing her into a makeshift cell he constructed in his garage.
Negasi Zuberi, 29, also known as Sakima, Justin Hyche, and Justin Kouassi, has been charged with interstate kidnapping and transporting an individual across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
According to court documents, on July 15, 2023, Zuberi was in Seattle when he is alleged to have posed as a police officer, pointed a taser at an adult woman, placed her in handcuffs, and forced her into the backseat of his vehicle. Zuberi then transported the woman approximately 450 miles back to his home in Klamath Falls, stopping along the way to sexually assault her and cover her face with a sweatshirt.
When Zuberi arrived at his residence, he moved the woman from his vehicle into a makeshift cell he had constructed in his garage. The woman repeatedly banged on the cell door until it broke open and she escaped. She retrieved a handgun from Zuberi’s vehicle, fled his garage, and flagged down a passing motorist who called 911.
The next day, on July 16, 2023, two Nevada State Patrol officers located Zuberi in a retail parking lot in Reno, Nevada. After a short standoff, Zuberi surrendered to law enforcement and was taken into custody.

That press release included this interesting paragraph:

Zuberi has lived in ten different states over the last ten years including California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada, and federal law enforcement has reason to believe he may have victimized additional women.

Because of the unusual and terrifying nature of the case — a woman escaping from a “makeshift cell” — journalists have done a good bit of follow-up reporting on the suspect known as “Negasi Zuberi,” and among the things they’ve learned is that his original name appears to be Justin Hyche. This was the name by which he was known as a student at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama.

Portland’s CBS affiliate KOIN-TV investigated:

KOIN 6 dug into Zuberi’s past and tracked him to Alabama, where his original name was Justin Hyche. It is the name that appears in several records — including a 2016 conviction of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and a 2020 conviction of forcible copulation of a minor in California’s Alameda County. Hyche pleaded no contest in both cases. Doing so meant he no longer faced the requirement to register as a sex offender, which was a stipulation of the original charges in each case.
Records also show a 2018 eviction case in the Bronx, New York under Hyche’s name.
However, reporters also found a protective order and an assault case filed against another one of Zuberi’s aliases, Justin Kouassi, in 2022. Previously, a protective order in 2020 showed a name change request and a DUI charge that all appear under the Kouassi name.
In December 2022, Zuberi’s landlord would file for his eviction using the name Negasi Zuberi, which also appears in several court records leading to his arrest on July 16 in Reno, Nevada.
“The more we look into this case, the more we can become concerned as law enforcement that there may be more that we’re missing,” said Stephanie Shark, the FBI assistant special agent in charge of the case.
Officials are now looking for more potential victims, and say Zuberi has already been linked to at least four sexual assaults in four other states.

So he twice got plea bargains in sexual assault cases involving minors, after which he began using the alias “Justin Kouassi” before switching to “Negasi Zuberi.” He seems to have run a scam by renting houses and then subleasing rooms, telling tenants that he was the actual homeowner:

Before moving to Klamath Falls, a city of some 22,000 people, a few months ago, Zuberi lived in Vancouver, Washington, where court records show the landlord sought to evict him.
Landlord Abishek Kandar said in a text message that Zuberi didn’t pay rent for six months, illegally sublet the home, bred puppies, damaged the property and threatened neighbors.
“He is a horrible person,” Kandar said. “He deserves to be in jail.”

More about his time in Vancouver:

Neighbors also said Zuberi was combative and had a steady stream of young women coming in and out of the Vancouver townhouse.
“Danny,” one of Zuberi’s neighbors, told The Post Zuberi threatened him several times, especially after it was revealed Zuberi was lying to his tenants about owning the rental property.
Once Zuberi was evicted, Danny said he went into the home and was shocked at what he discovered.
“We went through the home with the owner because we wanted to help him since we are in the construction industry, but we found it in absolutely horrible condition,” Danny said.
“There was garbage piled up inside the garage and on the inside of house was blood on the walls. There was a lot of weird stuff in there that he left, like heavy chains on the bed. It smelled horrible.”

Still more:

Since news broke that a man living in Klamath Falls had allegedly kidnapped a woman and kept her in a cinderblock cell in his basement, his former neighbors and roommates in Vancouver have started reflecting on their time living near him.
From harassment orders to threats, neighbors say living next to 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi was a nightmare until he was evicted in May. . . .
Mark, a man who previously lived next door to Zuberi, said he was surprised to see FBI agents at his home Tuesday morning, but wasn’t shocked once he found out who they were investigating.
“I wasn’t surprised, personally. I knew something was gonna go down,” Mark said. “There was always something left to right going on that didn’t feel right.”
The investigation has prompted Mark to replay moments he witnessed during Zuberi’s time in Vancouver – like the time he saw a young woman in shorts locked out of the home in 30-degree weather.
“I’m like, ‘Can take you to a shelter. Do you want me to call the cops?’ She was like, ‘No, don’t call the cops’ – like freaked out,” Mark said. “And I’m like, OK, is there something going on inside the house that we know about?’ She’s like, ‘I can’t tell you guys anything that’s happened.’ Almost like her life was threatened if she did speak.” . . .
Neighbors tell KOIN 6 they were forced to contact authorities several times after a string of incidents. Including aggressive behavior. Mark says he and his roommate even began recording Zuberi to show the landlord.
“When we started going against his way of life, he started getting aggressive. You know, like showing a gun,” Mark said. “He started going on our property and cussing us out.”
Mark said certain details in the case also made sense in hindsight. For instance, investigators say Zuberi had posed as an undercover cop to get the woman into his car in Seattle before she eventually escaped from his basement a day later.
“For him, it was more like, you know, ‘I’m the man, I’m taking charge.’ And so, when I found out about even the whole pretending to be a cop, I’m like, that’s not surprising from him. You know? Because he’s a con artist,” Mark said.
Another resident filed a temporary anti-harassment order against Zuberi for allegedly sending threatening text messages against him and his family. . . .
Mark said he hopes no one was harmed in the time that Zuberi spent living in his neighborhood.
“I hope nothing happened like in that house, like as in anyone living there, or like if he held anyone captive,” he said.

My brother Kirby — who has a pretty good track record about predicting such things — expects Zuberi will turn out to be a serial killer.



 

Category: Crime

Rule 5 Monday: Public Benefactors

Posted on | August 8, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I have previously mentioned in these posts @kbdabear, who regularly posts a fair amount of Rule 5 pics on Twitter along with links to stuff at AOSHQ, but I should also mention @Rule5Texan. This week’s appetizer is from @kbdabear’s Swimsuit Sunday tweets.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule 5 Lousy Mass Shooting Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Charlotte McKinney, TMFINR, Bella Thorne, Les Deplorables, MAGA Martyr, Knock At The Cabin, Swiss Miss Women, and Random Sunday TwitterX Rule 5

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Aarika Wolf, Archers and Hunters and Trump, Oh My!, Fish Pic Friday – Lauren Canty, Thursday Tanlines, Trump Indicted Again, Dems Float ‘Illusion’ of Influence Defense for Biden, The Wednesday Wetness, Tattoo Tuesday, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Some Random Celebrity News, and Palm Sunday

FLAPPR: T.I.T.S. For August 24

thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: On The Road

Posted on | August 6, 2023 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: On The Road

— compiled by Wombat-socho

What with travel and funerals and all that, the Senators were only able to complete one series this week, a homestand against Pete’s Brewers in which we took two out of three games behind Juan Marichal and Joe Coleman. Depending on how things go tomorrow, I’ll be playing my road series against the Angels tomorrow night, hopefully from home but more likely from a hotel room in Las Vegas. Anyhow, those two wins boosted the Senators into second place in the AL West at 30-20, one and a half games behind Oakland and three ahead of Minnesota.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Fly the Curly W flag!

Banana Republic, U.S.A.
The DaleyGator
Flappr
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Mark Lamb for U.S. Senate: The Candidate the Left Fears the Most
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Friday Evening News Dump: Biden ‘Speaks Out’ (But Not Really) About Cokehead Son’s Arkansas Love Child
A View From The Beach
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: SUUUURGE!
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Eri Yoshida
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

The Taylor Lorenz-ing of Journalism
The DaleyGator
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 07.31.23
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

The Trey Lance Mistake
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.02.23 (Field Expedient Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

The Preventable Death of Khaliyah Jones
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.04.23 (Albuquerque Afternoon Abbreviated Edition)
EBL
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum

Top linkers for the week ending August 4:

  1.  EBL (11)
  2.  357 Magnum (9)
  3.  A View From The Beach (8)
  4.  The DaleyGator (5)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: Uncategorized

First Person Plural Pronouns

Posted on | August 5, 2023 | Comments Off on First Person Plural Pronouns

The corruption and decadence of the elite is a topic about which not enough has been written, and if I were to dwell on this topic, I’d have no time to write about anything else. Some people always snipe in the comments when I use the word “elite” to describe our society’s overclass, because they do not consider such people truly superior, as the word “elite” would seem to imply. Yet such are the socioeconomic realities that people enjoy elite status who are inferior — especially in a moral sense — and there is nothing We The People can do about it. The graduates of prestigious universities have access to wealth and influence without regard to their moral character, and so it is that MIT alumnus Sam Bankman-Fried will go unpunished for his crimes:

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) informed a federal judge late Wednesday it did “not intend to proceed” with a campaign finance charge against disgraced FTX founder and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried.
Consultation with the Bahamas on the campaign finance charges in Bankman-Fried’s original extradition document last year were behind the decision as part of an effort to adhere to the legal obligations therein, Forbes reports.
The campaign finance violation charge was among eight counts present in the DOJ’s original indictment—which also includes wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering—in December.

Dianna Deeley has further thoughts on the way the Democratic Party — which now controls the Department of Justice — is protecting Sam Bankman-Fried.

Meanwhile, take note of how David Brooks uses first-person plural pronouns — “we,” “us,” “our,” etc. — in speaking of the decadent elite.



 

Category: Corruption

Everybody Keeps Indicting Trump, Without Regard for Consequences

Posted on | August 5, 2023 | 2 Comments

Having already said what I had to say about the most recent indictment of the former president (“Banana Republic, U.S.A.”), I thought perhaps readers might want to know what liberals are saying about it.

Trump’s surreal arraignment day
in Washington augurs ominous days ahead

That’s the headline on an “analysis” by CNN reporter Stephen Collinson, and this might be the first time I’ve ever seen the verb “augur” used in a headline. “Portend,” maybe, but “augur”? No, can’t recall ever seeing that one, and it might help to know that Collinson is not American. He’s from England, where I suppose schoolboys at posh academies are taught to use references to the ancient Roman practice of augury, but I digress . . .

As former President Donald Trump left Washington after answering charges of trying to subvert democracy, it felt like all the previous trauma and divisions of his eight-year journey into the nation’s psyche were just the start.
America now faces the prospect of an ex-president repeatedly going on trial in an election year in which he’s the Republican front-runner and is promising a new White House term of retribution. He is responding with the same kind of extreme rhetoric that injected fury into his political base and erupted into violence after the last election. Ominous and tense days may be ahead.
Trump spent the afternoon at a federal courthouse within sight of the US Capitol that was ransacked by his supporters on January 6, 2021. He pleaded not guilty in the gravest of the three cases in which he has so far been indicted – on four charges arising from an alleged attempt to halt the “collecting, counting and certifying” of votes after the 2020 election.
Live video of Trump motorcading to an airport and sweeping into yet another city for yet another indictment on his branded jetliner has become part of a sudden new normal. But if the arraignment of a former president seems routine, it’s a measure of the historic chaos Trump has wrought since he bulldozed into politics in 2015.
Wearing his classic dark suit and long red tie, Trump on Thursday rose to his full height in court and slowly and clearly elucidated the words “not guilty” in a hearing in which his fall from president to defendant was underscored when he had to wait silently for the judge to arrive. He was irked, sources familiar with his mindset told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, that the judge referred to him simply as “Mr. Trump,” rather than with the presidential title he still used at his clubs.
The 45th president and special counsel Jack Smith – who has also indicted him for the alleged mishandling of classified documents – shared several glances, before a proceeding that, unlike when he was president, means Trump’s fate is now out of his control.
The entire day was surreal, but given its historic implications – after Trump became the first ex-president formally charged in relation to alleged crimes committed in office – also sad.
Thursday was a day when the country crossed a point of no return. For the first time, the United States formally charged one of its past leaders with trying to subvert its core political system and values.
It was Trump who forced the country over this dangerous threshold. A man whose life’s creed is to never be seen as a loser refused to accept defeat in a democratic election in 2020, then set off on a disastrous course because, as Smith’s indictment put it, “he was determined to stay in power.”
Trump is steering a stormy course to an unknown destination. If he wins back the White House, the already twice-impeached new president could trigger a new constitutional crisis by sweeping away the federal cases against him or even by pardoning himself. Any alternative Republican president could find themselves besieged by demands from Trump supporters for a pardon that, if granted, could overshadow their entire presidency. And if Trump is convicted, and loses a 2024 general election, he risks a long jail term, which would likely become fuel for him to incite his supporters to fresh protest. . . .

Well, enough of that. Notice how Collinson pretends that all of this was Trump’s fault, as if nobody else involved — Attorney General Merrick Garland or Special Counsel Jack Smith — had any choice or discretion in the matter. No, they had to indict Trump. Because Trump “forced the country over this dangerous threshold,” which I suppose is pretty much how the Roundheads explained themselves after they beheaded King Charles I: “We had no choice! He made us do it!” The Roundheads then set up a “Republic” far more tyrannical than anything Charles ever did, much the same as those later regicides in France imposed a tyranny more brutal and repressive than the monarchy of Louis XVI, and likewise the Bolsheviks were infinitely worse than Czar Nicholas.

One might notice a historical pattern here, and then — since we’re speaking of ominous auguries — contemplate America’s future once Our Leaders save us from Trump’s alleged threat to “subvert democracy.”

But these people seem to have no proper sense of history, no more than they have any sense of irony or self-awareness, which explains the latest entry in John Hoge’s “I’m Not Making This Up, You Know” files:

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!



 

Category: CNN
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