The Other McCain

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

How to Get Shot by the Cops

Posted on | June 18, 2022 | Comments Off on How to Get Shot by the Cops

Lawyer for suspect
in deputy involved shooting
in Indian River County wants
unedited body cam video
— WPBF-TV, June 15

This story is a perfect example of how the media undermines law enforcement by giving voice to bogus criticism, especially in cases like this one in Florida, where an armed felon was shot by sheriff’s deputies investigating a string of crimes in the community. Simply because the suspect is black, many in the media seem to believe, he must be a victim of injustice, and the police must be in the wrong. Therefore, the TV cameras seek out the suspect’s family or a “civil rights” activist or, as in this case, the suspect’s lawyer, to condemn the cops, no matter what the circumstances were that led to the shooting. Watching the video of this incident doesn’t give you the necessary knowledge to understand what happened, or why it happened. Once you do understand it, however, it becomes impossible to deny that the person responsible for this 19-year-old suspect getting shot was — wait for it — the 19-year-old suspect.

Say hello to Jamall Frederick. According to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office (IRCSO), the events that led to him getting shot were as follows: Deputies were investigating a homicide that happened Thursday in the Gifford community. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, deputies responded to a report of shots fired a few blocks away. Subsequent investigation (i.e., surveillance camera video) gave them a description of a vehicle suspected of involvement in that incident. The same vehicle was also connected to a number of burglaries, including burglaries of vehicles in which firearms were stolen. Thus, the deputies had reason to believe that the occupants of this vehicle were armed and dangerous. So they began monitoring the area in which the shots fired incident had occurred. About 9 p.m. that evening, deputies spotted the suspect vehicle, and that’s when the incident occurred.

 

As I say, just watching the video doesn’t add much to your knowledge of what happened, because it happened very quickly at night. One of the deputies saw the pistol in the back seat next to Frederick and told him not to reach for it. He grabbed it and ran, and they opened fire, and it’s something of a miracle that Frederick survived the shooting.

Civilians may ask, “Why did they shoot? He was running away.” Yes, but he had a gun in his hand. Are cops just supposed to let an armed fugitive run free in the community? And what are the chances that Frederick would have turned around and shot any deputy who pursued him? There’s no rule that requires cops to let bad guys get the first shot.

Frederick is from Fort Pierce, 18 miles away from the scene of the shooting. The deputies also found another gun in the car and arrested 18-year-old Zbryius Jones of Vero Beach. Both guns were stolen, one from South Vero and the other from Fellsmere. Frederick was a convicted felon on probation, and Jones was also charged with violating probation. Sheriff Eric Flowers said: “These guys are countywide criminals. We will not tolerate known felons endangering our community. Our community expects us to prevent crimes and keep them safe.”

There has been much critical attention directed toward rampant crime in Democrat-controlled cities like Los Angeles, where Soros-sponsored District Attorney George Gascon is being blamed for releasing a felon who shot and killed two police officers. You don’t have problems like that in Indian River County, which has not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1944, and which went 60% for Trump twice.

The media can (and should) help fight crime by discarding the anti-cop bias that treats all critics of the police as inherently legitimate. It is one thing — and a very important thing — to expose genuine abuse or corruption by the police, but it’s a whole ’nother thing to portray cops as racist villains when they’re just doing their job.




 

Category: Crime, Florida

In The Mailbox: 06.17.22

Posted on | June 18, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

“Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.”

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The True Cost Of Lithium Ion Batteries
EBL: Sasha Says Goodbye To Tater, also, Compliment Paige Spiranac, Trigger A Leftist
Twitchy: Colbert Show Crew Arrested For Trespass In House Office Building, also, Taylor Lorenz Gets A Babysitter At The Post
Louder With Crowder: SpaceX Gives Whiny Employees The Boot
Vox Popoli: Summer Book Sale, also, Eurofragility
According To Hoyt: Never Apologize, also, The Arrow Is Plugging The Wound
Monster Hunter Nation: ILOH Has Opinions On The J6 Committee, also, Utah Primaries – Time To Go RINO Hunting
Gab News: A Society That Worships Idols Gets What It Deserves

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: When The Lies Come Home, also, Welcome Back To The 1890s
American Greatness: “Very Catholic” Pelosi Refuses To Condemn Recent Outbreak Of Violence Against Pro-Lifers, also, Gov. Youngkin Updates State Budget To Restore School Choice Program
American Power: Energy Inflation Derails Biden’s Green Agenda, also, Our Civilizational Destruction
American Thinker: The Democrat Party Finds A Scapegoat At The Seaport, also, The Democrat Party’s Dirty Hands
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Tone Policing Friday 
Babalu Blog: In Communist Cuba, The Executions Began After The Guns Were Confiscated, also, Living In Cuba – A Surreal Chronicle Of Post-Pandemic Times
BattleSwarm: Linkswarm For June 17
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, SpaceX Launches Another 53 Starlink Sats, and Ariane-6 Rocket Delayed Again
Cafe Hayek: The Middle Class Then & Now, also, Another Genius Proposal From Sen. Warren
Da Tech Guy: Another Casualty Of The Biden Economy
Don Surber: Left Suddenly Likes Free Speech – For Itself, also, Economy Crumbles, Trump Rises, & NYT Whines
First Street Journal: The Journolism Of The Philadelphia Inquirer
Gates Of Vienna: Nancy Faeser Celebrates The Grey Wolves, What The Netherlands Needs Are More Culture Enrichers! and The COVID Healer
The Geller Report: Muslims Slaughter 55 In Burkina Faso, Rape Dozens Of Women, also, Corrupt DOJ Blocks GOP Attempts To Get Answers On Hunter Biden Investigation 
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, A White Dwarf’s Solar System – Some Disassembly Required, and Quote Of The Day
Hollywood In Toto: Lightyear – To Mediocrity, And Beyond!, also, Is Lightyear Suffering From Controversies Over Tim Allen And A Lesbian Kiss?
The Lid: Skilled Trades, Not College Degrees, Are America’s Economic Future
Legal Insurrection: Leftist Jane’s Revenge Announces “Open Season” On Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers, Soros-Backed Democrat Wins Prosecutor’s Race In Maine, and GWU Drops “Colonials” Nickname
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Warriors Beat Celtics 106-90 In Game Six, Steph Curry Named Finals MVP, Vince McMahon Steps Back From WWE CEO & Chairman Roles Amid Allegations, and ESPN Moves To Dismiss Stage Steele’s Lawsuit, Confirming All of Her Allegations
Power Line: Heading Toward the Abyss, Thoughts From The Ammo Line, and Watergate At 50
Shark Tank: Rep. Daniel Webster’s Health Questioned
Shot In The Dark: Watergate, Parody Is Obsolete, and Divorce American Style
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – World Federalism Today
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, “Triggered” Employees Offered Four Months’ Severance To Quit, and DGB – Under New Management
Transterrestrial Musings: How DeSantis Can Save Higher Education, Lightyear, and “Are You F*****g High?”
Victory Girls: Is John Cornyn About To Shoot Himself & The GOP In The Foot? also, The Beatings Will Continue Until You Obey
Volokh Conspiracy: Qualifying Qualified Immunity, Slippery Slope Arguments In History, and Justice Sotomayor Defends Justice Thomas 
Watts Up With That: Reuters Fails Journalism Test Again, also, Obama Installing 2500-Gallon Propane Backup At Martha’s Vineyard Mansion
Weasel Zippers: Record High Diesel Prices Threaten Everything Else, Watch Biden’s Brain Break In Real Time, and Biden’s Sex-Addicted Daughter Had Inappropriate Showers With Dad
The Federalist: Red China Threatens War Over Taiwan In Starkest Terms Ever, Congress Finds Even More Reasons To Disregard The Bill Of Rights, and WH Aims To Shut Down Ammo Sales While Dems Claim To Engage In Good Faith Talks
Mark Steyn: Live Around The Planet, also, Jasmine In My Mind

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 06.16.22

Posted on | June 17, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.16.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Even 2d girls despise the new Ken.

Related: Oppai Are Saving Japan From Woke Culture [Today’s Ray of Hope]
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Ohio Arms Teachers & The Left Has Kittens
EBL: Molly Bloom & Bloomsday
Twitchy: Glenn Greenwald Gives An Appreciation Of Jen Rubin’s Live Tweeting Of The J6 Show Trial
Louder With Crowder: Doocy Corners First Black Lesbian Press Secretary On Biden’s Latest Inflation Lie, And…Dang, She’s Bad At Her Job
Vox Popoli: He Was Doing So Well, also, Running On Empty

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Server Side Timeout
American Conservative: National Conservatism – A Statement Of Principles
American Greatness: What The J6 Committee Might Have Been, also, Over 2000 Cattle Die From “Heat, Humidity” In Kansas
American Power: Governor Ron DeSantis Celebrates Flag Day, also, GOP Primaries Test Limits Of Trump’s Influence
American Thinker: Who Decided David Hogg Is Newsworthy? also, The GOP Is Preparing To Learn The Wrong Lesson This Year
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Energy Bills News
Babalu Blog: Canada, Your Tourist & Corporate Dollars Fund Human Rights Abuses In Cuba, also, Prolonged Blackouts In Cuba Spark More Anti-Government Graffiti
BattleSwarm: Everyone Hates Soros’ LA DA George Gascon, Including His Own Prosecutors 
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted Americans, Rock Growths On Mars, and SLS Dress Rehearsal Countdown Set For June 20 With Launch Postponed Again
Cafe Hayek: A Textbook Case Of Government Overreach, also, Refining The Argument
CDR Salamander: SECNAV Promotes An Official Religion
Chicago Boyz: “Red Flag” Laws
Da Tech Guy: I’m Old Enough To Remember When Merrick Garland Was Called A “Moderate”, also, Why Is Mitch McConnell Trying To Scuttle The Midterm Red Wave?
Don Surber: The Uselessness Of A Fox News Poll, also, Biden Discovers Sanctions Don’t Work
First Street Journal: The Philadelphia Inquirer & The J6 Show Trial
Gates Of Vienna: Arab Culture-Enrichers Abuse Ukrainian Boys In Sweden, Turkey’s Bizarro World, and Joakim Lamotte Throws In The Towel
The Geller Report: DNC Reschedules Kamala Harris Dinner Over Lack of Ticket Sales, also, WHO To Rename Monkeypox Because “It’s Racist”
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, An X-Ray Speed Trap, and How Can I Afford…
Hollywood In Toto: Could Kyle Rittenhouse Sue Bill Burr? also, Terror On The Prairie Blazes Trail Outside Hollywood, Inc.
The Lid: How Low Can You Joe? also, “That’s Not Science, That’s Conjecture!”
Legal Insurrection: DIE Proposal for Faculty Fails At U. Wash., One Of America’s Most Rich & Powerful Familes Is Behind The Progressive Gender Agenda, and  Nork Defector Terrified Of Leftist Indoctrination Coming From Public Schools
Nebraska Energy Observer: You Should See This
Outkick: The Athletic‘s New Ownership Lays Down The Law – No Politics, Slimeball MLB Commish Increases Pressure On A’s & Rays To Get New Parks, Threatens Moves, and Jabbed & Boosted NBA Commissioner Misses Second Straight Finals Game Due To Coof Protocols
Power Line: Coup’s Next, “My Dinner With Hunter Biden”, and Rolling Blackouts On The Way
Shark Tank: Rep. Mast’s Everglades Bill Becomes Law, also, DeSantis Says State Guard Will Receive Weapons Training
Shot In The Dark: Dysfunctional, Days Of Future Past – Obama’s Fourth Term Edition, and Compare & Contrast
The Political Hat: The Madness Of Rebalancing Society – Worldwide Racial Equity Chief, Women Choosing Not To Work, & Freedom For A Knife-Wielding Robber
This Ain’t Hell: Michigan AG Suggests A Drag Queen In Every School, also, Bloody Week For Navy Leaders
Victory Girls: Lauren Boebert Targeted By Same Group That Nailed Madison Cawthorn, also, Gascon’s Soft On Crime Policies Led To Deaths Of Two Police Officers
Volokh Conspiracy: And Roberts Was His Name-O, also, “Some Individuals Quoted…Appeared To Be Fabricated”
Watts Up With That: Climate Propaganda Award Winners, also, Just When You Thought Biden Couldn’t Get Any Dumber
Weasel Zippers: Is Susan Rice Biden’s Puppet Master?, Nancy Pelosi Thinks We’re Still At War In Iraq, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms Admits She’s Defunding Police
The Federalist: J6 Show Trial Ignores Capitol Security Failures, Focuses On VP Pence, Colonial Williamsburg Destroys Its Reason For Existing, and With Nebraska’s Withdrawal, 25 States Have Now Ditched The NSBA For Targeting Parents
Mark Steyn: Resisting The Digital Handcuffs, also, The Contempt Of Our Rulers – A Case Study

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Category: Linkagery

Report: CNN Planning to Cut Back on Carbohydrates, IYKWIMAITYD

Posted on | June 16, 2022 | 1 Comment

Brace yourself for this shocking news:

CNN’s Brian Stelter, who delights in parroting leftist and Democratic Party narratives on his show “Reliable Sources,” will be out of his job soon, according to a new report. . . .
In May, Chris Licht, who has supposedly emphasized less opinion-oriented reporting, became the new head of CNN. Last Sunday, “Reliable Sources” had its worst-rated episode since September 2019, reaching only 580,000 viewers, the smallest audience since September 15, 2019.
In a memo to employees, Licht wrote, “… too many people have lost trust in the news media. I think we can be a beacon in regaining that trust by being an organization that exemplifies the best characteristics of journalism: fearlessly speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo, questioning group-think, and educating viewers and readers with straightforward facts and insightful commentary, while always being respectful of differing viewpoints.” . . .
In April, the daily version of “Reliable Sources” was dropped by CNN after they pulled the plug on CNN+. . . .
Stelter has displayed his partisanship for years.

That’s putting it rather mildly. Stelter acted like Patient Zero of Trump Derangement Syndrome, begging Michael Avenatti to run for president. Ace of Spades desperately launches his #SaveTheTater campaign:

I’m tryna get some right wing pundits together to start feeding Tater quotes and tips on background.
Like, we can alert Tater when we’re about to say something that is potentially cancellable, so he can be first to try to cancel us. Anything to get him clicks.
We can’t let Tater just fade away. We have to keep this incompetent’s career going despite his utter lack of qualifications or skill at it.
Tater is the straw that stirs the drink of conservative media. What are we, without Tater?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wake up in an “America” where there isn’t a grossly obese effeminate clown compulsively scanning rightwing Twitter feeds with his fat clumsy canoli-frigging fingers, just so he can issue stupid hot-takes and insipid snapbacks with that retard smile that says “Aren’t I clever” and also “I might have made in my pants again.”
We at least need to get him over on YouTube.

Too little, too late, I fear. We were insufficiently appreciative of Tater and, now that he’s about to get axed, we lament our impending loss. If it is indeed true that he will be fired from CNN — say it ain’t so, Tater! — I suppose he’ll go back to doing what he was doing before, but does anyone remember what that was? Because I had to Google it:

After graduating from college in May 2007, Stelter joined The New York Times as a media reporter in July of that year, aged 22.
In November 2013, he became the new host of CNN’s Reliable Sources and also chief media correspondent.

Wow, hired by the New York Times right out of college, and then grabbed up by CNN six years later. What a rapid ascent of the media hierarchy! It’s almost as if he were the beneficiary of some kind of favoritism in the media’s hiring practices. But how could that be? I have been assured that Our Journalism Overlords are exemplars of equity and fairness.

Could it be that I’ve been misled? Perish the thought!




 

Category: CNN

A MIDWEEK BOOK POST APPEARS!

Posted on | June 16, 2022 | Comments Off on A MIDWEEK BOOK POST APPEARS!

— by Wombat-socho

Anya about to punch a kid out.

Usually I do these on the weekend, because the workdays are usually full of other things that need doing, but Hans Schantz is hosting a humongous book sale on behalf of writers who are actually on our side in the Culture War. So stop giving money to people who hate you and instead support authors who are doing something about the culture. Every book listed is 99 cents or free, and there are some big names involved like Larry Correia, David Drake, Tom Kratman, David Weber, and John C. Wright. Also some newer talents like yours truly, whose short story collection The Anti-Dog Tank & Other Stories can be found in the New Additions section of the sale for just 99 cents.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Well, after seeing all kinds of memes about the Forger family, I went and picked up the first three volumes of Spy x Family, and it was well worth it. Loid Forger is a superspy for what’s obviously West Germany, his new bride Yor is an elite assassin, and his daughter Anya can read minds. Of course, Loid doesn’t realize that Anya can read minds or that Yor is an assassin; Yor doesn’t realize she’s married a super spy or that her daughter is psychic – but Anya, of course, knows EVERYTHING. Fortunately, she’s fascinated by spy stuff (her favorite TV show is about spies) and terrified that she’ll be dumped back into the orphanage Loid found her in, so she’s doing her best to make Mom & Dad happy. This is a hilarious blend of family comedy and espionage novel, as if Lucy & Ricky Ricardo were playing he lead roles in the James Bond movies. Highly recommended.  

I’ve been fascinated by the story of the Czech Legion ever since I was a young wargamer and they made a destructive appearance in SPI’s Russian Civil War, but it was hard to find any English-language books about them, as first the Nazis and then the Soviets did their best to memory-hole the history of the men who fought their way literally from one end of Russia to the other just so they could go home – with a brief stop in France to fight the Hun, of course. So when Dreams of a Great Small Nation came out, featuring a lot of source materials never seen before in English, I jumped right on it. Unfortunately, the book spends a lot more time on the politics of Czechoslovakia’s creation and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian & Russian Empires than it does on the actual Anabasis of the Czechs from European Russia through Siberia to Vladivostok, and I lost interest. If unlike me, you’re more interested in the political than the military history, this book may be for you; as for me, I think I’ll just go reread David Drake’s The Forlorn Hope. 

Way back in the day when I was discovering science fiction and reading everything I could get my hands on, I came across Olaf Stapledon’s Last & First Men. This was a thick tome recounting the history of mankind into the far future, and directly inspired many British SF writers as well as Freeman Dyson, who says that Dyson spheres should be more properly referred to as Stapledon spheres…anyway, John C. Wright has gone Stapledon not just one better, but far beyond that with the series that begins with Count To A Trillion. The Eschaton Sequence follows the adventures of Menelaus Montrose, gunslinger & mathematical genius who plays a stupendously outsized role in the future of humanity, pitting himself against his archrival Ximen “Blackie” Del Azarchel and his fellow Hermeticists in an aeons-long battle to determine whether humanity will be free, exist as slaves to the aliens from the Hyades, or be exterminated. I started reading this series years ago when I lived in Virginia, and only recently had the time to follow up on the last three books of the series, which comes to a final, cataclysmic battle between Montrose and Del Azarchel for not just the fate of humanity, but the universe itself in Count To Infinity. Highly recommended.

Remember, your purchases through the Amazon links here and your contributions to my tip jar help me afford the purchase of new (and occasionally used) books to include in these posts. Thanks in advance!

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Category: Books

In The Mailbox: 06.15.22 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | June 15, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.15.22 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1749
357 Magnum: No One Is Coming to Save You – The Lesson of Uvalde
EBL: Republican Mayra Flores Wins Special Election In Texas Democrat Stronghold, also, Joe Biden Drives America’s Economy Into A Recession
Twitchy: Vice – White Nationalists Trying To Reclaim Nature As Safe Space For Racism, also, Pelosi – Drag Queens’ Freedom Of Expression “Is What America Is All About”
Louder With Crowder: Joe Biden Would Rather Not Be Blamed For Gas Prices, But…
Vox Popoli: Fake Patriot Front, Clown World Makes You Stupid, and The March Of Technology
Stoic Observations: Gladwell’s Four Color Crime Drama Matrix

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Just Another Day With Pure Blood In My Veins
American Conservative: Biden Cracks Down On The Gig Economy, also, Unburnable Books & Jokers Not In On The Joke
American Greatness: Elon Musk Says He Voted For Flores, Leaning Toward DeSantis In 2024, also, Can Republicans Save The Middle Class?
American Power: Taylor Lorenz Hypocritically Sneers At Death Threats Received By “Libs Of TikTok”, also, The State Department’s Toxic Equity Agenda
American Thinker: Democrats’ Quest for Gun Control May Harm Blacks Worst Of All, also, Team Of Fools – Biden’s Cabinet Picks Prove He’s Unfit To Lead
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Nearly Half Of Cuba’s National Karate Team Defects In Guatemala, also, Cuban Slave Doctors In Mexico Reportedly Limited To “Making Beds And Conducting Surveys”
BattleSwarm: Republicans Flip Another Texas Hispanic House Seat
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted Americans, ROK Postpones Second Test Launch of Nuri Rocket, and DNA Tests Suggest Kirghizstan Region Was Origin Of The Black Death
Cafe Hayek: Economic Lessons From “This Old House”
Chicago Boyz: Cloward Pivening
Da Tech Guy: Questions About The “Gun Control Deal” So Obvious They Shouldn’t Need To Be Asked, Frank Wills, The Hero Of Watergate, and The GOP Leadership Is Still Playing The Old Game
Don Surber: Worst Timing In The World, also, The Politics Of Kneeling
First Street Journal: Paying Cash For Crime Tips, also, Latina Republican Flips TX-34, NYT Aghast
Gates Of Vienna: Pakistani Culture-Enricher Abuses Ukrainian Refugee Kids, Ukrainian Refugees Disappointed With Their German Hosts, and German TV Circles The Behavioral Sink Drain
The Geller Report: Another Food Processing Plant Goes Up In Flames, also, Republican Maya Flores Beats Democrat In District Held By Democrats For Over 150 Years
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Neptune’s Rings, and COVID Karma
Hollywood In Toto: Michelle Wolf – Anatomy Of Woke Comic Fail, also, Terror On The Prairie Brings The Old-School Western Roaring Back To Life
The Lid: AARP Supposedly Represents Seniors, But Who Do They REALLY Represent?
Legal Insurrection: Biden Recycles “Ultra-MAGA” Scare Tactics Over Social Security. Medicare, & Medicaid, Judge Rules Against Former UNL Lecturer Who Claimed School Violated Her Rights After She Harassed Conservative Student Group, and Biden’s Climate Czarina Wants Big Tech To Censor Climate-Related Debate
Michelle Malkin: What Really Happened To Justin Bieber?
Nebraska Energy Observer: Electric Vehicles & Flags
Outkick: WWE’s Vince MacMahon Under Investigation For Relationship With Former Employee, $3 Million In Hush Money, Even When The Games Matter NBA Finals Ratings Continue To Suck, and Floyd Mayweather Wants To Buy An NBA Team
Power Line: Celebrity Lefty Prof Busted For Plagiarism, How High The Wave? and Quote Of The Day
Shark Tank: Mills Wants Publishers Who Distribute Porn To Kids To Be Criminally Charged
Shot In The Dark: The New Brown Faces Of White Supremacy, Rationalization Du Jour, and Compare & Contrast
The Political Hat: European Parliament Of Madness
This Ain’t Hell: Airmen Cleared In Deaths Of Afghans Who Mobbed C-17 During Kabul Bugout, Biden’s Drink At The Tap Of Stolen Valor, and Female Soldier Yells At Other Soldiers Karen Style
Transterrestrial Musings: Solar Desalination, The Catastrophic DEF Shortage, and Nuclear Reactors
Victory Girls: Yes, Taking Your Kids To Pride Makes You A Bad Parent, also, Jane’s Revenge Plans More Attacks On Pro-Life Centers
Volokh Conspiracy: Supreme Court Decides Major Chevron Case Without Citing Chevron
Watts Up With That: Biden’s Energy Secretary – Buy An EV, Peasant! also, Shell Goes Full BP, Part Trois
Weasel Zippers: Labor Secretary Refuses To Say U.S. Money Shouldn’t Be Funding Red China’s Military, Mayor Eric Adams Not Worried About Losing 1500 NYPD Cops This Year, and Joe Biden Mocks The City Of Detroit
The Federalist: Backlash Against Soros’ Soft-On-Crime DAs Continues, Biden Asks Oil Companies To Lower Prices After Trying To Put Them Out Of Business, and Jack Del Rio Was Right About The George Floyd Riots, And He Paid For It
Mark Steyn: Lessons From A Won War, also, A Sham of A State

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 06.15.22 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | June 15, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.15.22 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Long and tiring day yesterday with lots of errands to run, and I just flat ran out of time to get the blogging done. Here’s the makeup for yesterday.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Constitutional Carry In Ohio
EBL: The Staircase
Twitchy: Washington Free Beacon Busts Biden & Ron Klain For Lying About Domestic Oil Production, also, Peak Tom Nichols Reached
Louder With Crowder: Elon Musk Gets Results, also, Reset The Clock – Biden Has Another Senile Meltdown
Vox Popoli: The Battle Of Ukraine Is Over, The Tragedy Of Suddenly, and Are You Really THAT Stupid?
Gab News: You Have An Enemy That Hates You – Do Not Ever Forget It

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The J6 Protesters Took Aim At The King & Missed
American Conservative: What Happens When The Third Rome Falls?, also, America Is Crippling Small Farmers
American Greatness: WH Says Biden Will Run For Reelection In 2024, also, The J6 Pilot Flopped
American Power: The Good White Man Roster, also, Why Aren’t Dems Dancing For Joy about Sky-High Gas Prices?
American Thinker: It’s Not About The AR-15, also, American Individualism Is Being Extinguished By The New “Elite”
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Alaska Politics News
Babalu Blog: Another Cuban Exile Suing Over Her Portrayal In The Wasp Network, also, Goodbye Chicken – Hello Shark Meat & Apples
BattleSwarm: Red China’s High Speed Rail Network Is A Trillion Dollar Debt Sinkhole, also, Bank Runs In Red China?
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, Ingenuity Successfully Completes 29th Flight On Mars, and Momentus Concedes Vigoride Tug Probably Won’t Be Able To Deploy The Rest Of Its Smallsats
Cafe Hayek: Riding Social Security Off A Cliff, also, COVID Poses No Significant Risks To Children
CDR Salamander: There Must Be Consequences To European Security Freeriding
Da Tech Guy: Thoughts Under The Fedora, Why Nobody In The MSM Should Be Considered Credible, and Report From Louisiana – Our Service Sector Is Anemic
Don Surber: Democrat Leaders Are So Old The Call Boomers “Sonny”, Biden Proves Krugman “Right”, and Democrats Hope Gaytriotism Saves Them
First Street Journal: Pennsylvania Dems Always Double Down On Polices That Have Failed In The Past
Gates Of Vienna: Gypsies vs. Muslims – Who Will Win?, The Bloom Is Off The Ukrainian Rose, and “Wake Up Before It’s Too Late”
The Geller Report: Duval County (Fla.) Hosting Mega Ron DeSantis Boat Rally, also, $863 Million Of Biden’s Stimulus Payments Went To 597,000 Prison Inmates
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, Defects In Red Flag Laws, and A Bit Of ECON 101
Hollywood In Toto: Streisand Effect Supercharges 2000 Mules And What Is A Woman? also, Terror On The Prairie‘s Tyler Fischer Fought The System – And Won
The Lid: Border Patrol Officers Falsely Accused Of Whipping Will Still Face Discipline After Being Cleared
Legal Insurrection: Park Service Renames Yellowstone’s Mount Doane, California Regulations Helped Kill The Golden Pig, and Wholesale Prices Rise Almost 11%
Nebraska Energy Observer: America Rising, also, Waiting
Outkick: Brittney Griner’s Pre-Trial Detention In Russia Extended Again, The Reason Jack Del Rio Was Fined Has Now Changed, and You Won’t Believe What Auburn’s Catcher Said After Reaching Omaha
Power Line: Someone’s Bear Market, Maybe It Was Something We Taxed?, and Democrats Want To Ban Telling The Truth
Shark Tank: Miami-Dade GOP Chair Denounces Proud Boys Accusations
Shot In The Dark: Wrong About Rights, Great Look!, and Lesko Warranty
STUMP: Childhood Mortality Trends, 1999-2021
The Political Hat: Nevada Primary  – End Of Early Voting, also, Happy Flag Day!
This Ain’t Hell: Growing Pressure To Enforce Law Prohibiting Pickets At Justices’ Homes, Fake NBA Star Banned For Life, and Happy Birthday, U.S. Army!
Transterrestrial Musings: Fusion, How Much Would It Cost To Live In Space? and Good News From Boca Chica?
Victory Girls: Is Occasional Cortex Thinking Of Running For President In 2024? also, Twitter Wants To Purge “Libs Of TikTok”
Volokh Conspiracy: Recent Books On The Constitution
Watts Up With That: Biden’s Virtue-Signaling & The Costs Of Climate Policy, also, Australia’s Greenest Voters Plunged Into Darkness
Weasel Zippers: Chevron CEO Says There May Never Be Another Refinery Built In The U.S., Biden Adviser McCarthy – Content Critical Of Green Energy “Transition” Must Be Censored, and Squad Members Say US Will Descend Into Civil War If GOP Wins Midterms
The Federalist: McConnell & Others Who Attack The Second Amendment Can’t Be In GOP Leadership, Twitter Repeatedly Claims “Error” To Disguise Deliberate Censorship Of Conservatives, and Parents Are Profiting From Child Abuse And Fox News Is Helping
Mark Steyn: Over The Rainbow, Happy Birthday To GB News! and Islamic Movie Night!

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The J6 Smear Machine

Posted on | June 15, 2022 | 2 Comments

“A show trial is a mock or make-believe trial in which the guilt of the party is predetermined. The trial is just a form of theater. Lenin called them ‘model trials.’ The aim was not to discover the truth — which was supposedly already known — but to stage a propaganda exhibition.”
— Roger Kimball

What does Kimberly Guilfoyle’s speaking fee have to do with the alleged “threat to democracy” that the House Select Committee claims to be investigating? Nothing, so far as I can tell, and yet there’s the headline in the Washington Post (“Publix heiress paid Kimberly Guilfoyle’s $60,000 speaking fee on Jan. 6”) at the top of Memeorandum. An acquaintance who was subpoenaed by the J6 Committee described their requests for texts and emails as a “fishing expedition,” making broad categorical requests for communications in the apparent hope of finding something useful to embarrass or discredit either the subject of the subpoena or some other target of the investigation. Like the revelation of Guilfoyle’s speaking fee, these “fishing expedition” subpoenas show that the committee isn’t seeking to prove any actual crimes, but rather seeks more generally to smear Republicans. In terms of what happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, this isn’t such a mystery that a congressional investigation is necessary. Most of us (by which I mean, people who pay attention to politics) watched the thing happen live, in real-time, streaming on video and social media. Yet the committee hearings — which so many people have compared to Soviet-era “show trials” — continue to generate headlines as if Benny Thompson and his comrades were actually making newsworthy discoveries.

In true Stalinist fashion, these hearings are utterly one-sided. All of the witnesses appearing live before the committee — e.g., the bloated has-been Chris Stirewalt — have been hand-picked to give testimony reinforcing the foregone conclusion that (a) there was no reason to doubt the result of the 2020 election and therefore (b) the protest against certification of the Electoral College vote was inherently illegitimate, a seditious “insurrection.” There is no cross-examination of these witnesses, no one at the hearings who represents the opposing viewpoint. Most importantly, there is no ranking Republican member of the committee. Nancy Pelosi rejected House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s choices for the committee, instead appointing anti-Trump Republicans of her own choosing, so that the composition of the Select Committee’s membership is a violation of House rules. “Norms, restored.”

At no time during the Select Committee’s proceedings is anyone going to mention why so many Republicans believed (and most GOP voters still believe) that Biden didn’t actually win the election. The election was effectively decided by the results in three states (Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin) with a combined 37 Electoral College votes (EV) in which Biden’s reported margin of victory was less than 1% of the total:

Georgia (16 EV)
Biden ….. 2,473,633 (49.5%)
Trump …. 2,461,854 (49.2%)
Margin …. 11,779 (0.236%)

Arizona (11 EV)
Biden ….. 1,672,143 (49.4%)
Trump …. 1,661,686 (49.1%)
Margin …. 10,457 (0.309%)

Wisconsin (10 EV)
Biden ….. 1,630,866 (49.5%)
Trump …. 1,610,184 (48.8%)
Margin …. 20,682 (0.627%)

Switch those 37 Electoral College votes from Biden to Trump, and the result would have been an Electoral College tie — 269 EVs for each. So about 43,000 votes in three states actually made the difference. It furthermore bears pointing out that Biden’s margin in two other states (Pennsylvania and Nevada) was also rather slender:

Pennsylvania (20 EV)
Biden ….. 3,458,229 (50.1%)
Trump …. 3,377,674 (48.8%)
Margin …. 80,555 (1.165%)

Nevada (6 EV)
Biden ….. 703,486 (50.1%)
Trump …. 669,890 (47.7%)
Margin …. 33,596 (2.391%)

Now, while the numerical margin was larger in Pennsylvania, it was statistically closer, percentage-wise, than Nevada. And in both states, Republicans were suspicious of “shenanigans” in major Democrat-controlled cities. Pennsylvania Republicans pointed to Philadelphia, where Joe Biden got more than 600,000 votes, while Nevada Republicans pointed to Clark County (Las Vegas) where Biden got more than 500,000 votes. As to exactly how such “shenanigans” happened, some of my friends who are obsessed with the topic could lecture you for hours on the details, but the subject bores me to tears, and I’ll just summarize my general impression that this involved “ballot harvesting” of the mail-in ballots which were mandated as an emergency COVID-19 measure. My point is not to argue about such details, but rather to say that it’s not really a far-fetched “conspiracy theory” to suspect that the 2020 election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. Far be it from me to claim it is proven as a fact that Democrats stole the election, but neither am I inclined to argue with anyone who believes it was stolen.

All of this is relevant to the J6 “Stop the Steal” rally which led to the so-called “insurrection” that Nancy Pelosi’s Select Committee claims to be investigating in this show trial. Tens of thousands of Trump supporters showed up for the rally at the Ellipse — peaceably assembling to express their grievances, just as the First Amendment says — in an effort to make it clear to Congress that they didn’t think Biden won the election, and thus hoping to prevent certification of the Electoral College vote. This was not illegal, nor was this protest manufactured by “Trump’s big lie,” as Democrats have insisted. That is to say, there were (and still are) millions of Republican voters who watched the returns on Election Night, gathering the impression that Trump was on the verge of winning re-election, only to wake up the next day and be told that Biden had won, and at that moment became instantly convinced they were the victims of a massive election fraud. They decided this on their own, independently of any claim made by Trump. So a central assumption of the J6 Committee investigation — i.e., that the crowd who gathered for the “Stop the Steal” rally were “manipulated” and “incited” by Trump — is flatly false. Those people didn’t need any incitement from anybody to be mad as hell about the election, and if a few hundred of them got so mad that they broke the law by knocking over police barricades and storming the Capitol — well, they were “mostly peaceful” protesters, eh?

The actual purpose of Nancy Pelosi’s J6 Committee is not to “investigate” what happened during the riot, since we all saw what happened with our own eyes, but rather to scapegoat and smear Republicans as part of the propaganda operation aimed at shifting votes in this fall’s midterm elections. They intend, furthermore, to intimidate anyone who might raise questions about the fairness of future close elections that Democrats win, and beyond that, to promote the impression that any Republicans who complain too much are potential “domestic terrorists.”

In September 1936 [Nikolai] Yezhov replaced [Genrikh] Yagoda as the head of the NKVD. More than any other police chief, Yezhov was prepared to indulge Stalin’s paranoic fantasies by fabricating evidence of ‘counter-revolutionary conspiracies’ and ‘spy rings’ everywhere. He had curried Stalin’s favour by uncovering the Kremlin Affair in 1935.
For several years, Yezhov had promoted the theory that, on Trotsky’s orders from abroad, Zinoviev and Kamenev had been plotting to murder Stalin and other members of the Party leadership, including Kirov. On this basis, Stalin reopened the Kirov investigation. In August 1936, Zinoviev, Kamenev and fourteen other Party leaders were put on trial for treason. All of them were sentenced to death, along with 160 other people arrested in connection with the trial.
This was the first of several ‘show trials’ during 1936-38. Their aim was to expose a coordinated ring of ‘spies’ and ‘terrorists’ organized by former oppositionists. It was not enough to convict and punish them: the aim of the show trials was to prove the existence of these ‘conspiracies’ beyond doubt by having the accused confess their guilt before the Party and the world (unaware of the torture used to extract their confession). In NKVD circles the confession was regarded as the highest form of proof. There was no other evidence.

The larger purpose of the “show trials” was to consolidate Stalin’s power by eliminating potential rivals while, at the same time, creating a justification for more repressive measures by the Communist dictatorship. And this was all helpful as a distraction from the increasingly obvious economic failures of the Soviet experiment. At the same time Zinoviev and other former Bolshevik leaders were being purged and subjected to “show trials,” the collectivization of Soviet agriculture was reaching the 90% level, and far from providing the bountiful harvest the Communists had promised, hunger was widespread. Millions had died in the Ukraine terror famine, and many tens of thousands of peasants had been executed or sentenced to prison labor camps — the population of the gulags was nearly 2 million by 1938.

Publicly punishing “enemies of the revolution” supplied Stalin with ready-made scapegoats for his regime’s failures. If the wheat harvest fell short, or if the meat ration was reduced, the conspiracy of Stalin’s enemies was to blame — hadn’t they confessed to counter-revolutionary actions, after all? A similar propaganda function is served by Pelosi’s J6 show trials. Demonizing the opposition in public spectacles serves not only to distract public attention from the economic failures of the Biden administration, it also serves to discourage dissenters from speaking out, since they can see what kind of punishment the Democrats are willing to mete out to their opponents. Comparing it to The Great Terror may be hyperbolic, but the fact is that Democrats are essentially totalitarian in believing that they deserve a monopoly on political power, and that opposition should be repressed. Their totalitarian beliefs are the inspiration for their totalitarian tactics. Be afraid. Be very afraid.




 

Category: Congress, Democrats
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