The Other McCain

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

Ukraine’s Kharkiv Counter-Offensive Could Threaten Russians in Izyum

Posted on | May 7, 2022 | Comments Off on Ukraine’s Kharkiv Counter-Offensive Could Threaten Russians in Izyum

On the one hand, the past week has been good for Russia in that they seem to have gone the past six days without having another general killed, but on the other hand, the Ukrainians have scored crucial victories around Kharkiv. The invaders have been pushed back north and east of the city, which has endured weeks of shelling from Russian artillery. The Ukrainian push eastward from Kharkiv is especially promising, as they have advanced about 40 miles, all the way to Pechenihy on their left (north) and past the MO3/P07 highway crossroads of Chuhuiv as far as Malynivka on their right (south). While the Russians have retreated behind the Donets east of Pechenihy, with the river as an obstacle to further Ukrainian advances there, the prospect for Ukraine pushing southeast from Malynivka could be crucial. They are now roughly 45 miles from Kupiansk, a crossroads on the supply line of the Russian forces at Izyum, who thus now face a threat to their flank and rear.

You can click that map to enlarge it. Having no information about the forces involved on either side, whether the Russians or Ukrainians have reserves they can throw into this action, etc., it is impossible for me to assess the likelihood of Ukraine making rapid progress toward Kupiansk. Obviously, the Russian commanders can look at a map and see this threat to their supply line as clearly as I can, so you’ve got to figure that shoring up their defenses in that area will be a major priority. Still, even if Russia is able to hold off a Ukrainian threat to Kupiansk, doing so will require a diversion of men and materiel from elsewhere, so that the mere threat has strategic value for Ukraine in terms of the disposition of forces.

The importance of this development is that Izyum represents the northern pincer of Russia’s attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in the east. If Ukraine can force Russia to withdraw from Izyum, this will effectively prevent the Russians from achieving that strategic objective. So over the coming week, pay attention to what’s happening in this theater, which may ultimately decide the outcome of the entire war.




 

Category: Military, Russia, Ukraine

‘A Poor Man’s Mac Jones’? (And Other Thoughts on the Patriots’ Draft Picks)

Posted on | May 7, 2022 | Comments Off on ‘A Poor Man’s Mac Jones’? (And Other Thoughts on the Patriots’ Draft Picks)

Following up on last week’s post (“Belichick’s Strange Choice Confounds Critics Who Don’t Understand 4D Chess”) about the New England Patriots in the NFL Draft, there was a widespread consensus among football commentators that the Patriots had a lousy 2022 draft class overall. Among the choices by Belichick that had pundits scratching their heads this year was choosing Western Kentucky quarterback Bailey Zappe in the fourth round. Why, after taking Mac Jones in the first round last year — and after a rookie season that made clear Jones is the future of the franchise — would Belichick draft another QB this year?

The first take I heard on Zappe was from Evan Lazar who called him “a poor man’s Mac Jones.” At Western Kentucky, Zappe broke every passing record — just incredible numbers — and if he’d have done that at a first-tier football school, he would have been drafted much earlier than the fourth round. A classic dropback QB, like Jones, Zappe is also super-smart, scoring the highest among this year’s quarterback prospects on the Wonderlic IQ test. Given the complexity of New England’s offensive scheme, Zappe’s brainpower will be advantageous if he is to be ready to play as a rookie. The Patriots already have two backup QBs on their roster, veteran Bryan Hoyer and 2019 fourth-round pick Jarrett Stidham. Hoyer, 36, is for all intents and purposes now an assistant coach, acting as mentor to Jones, and Stidham hasn’t lived up to expectations, so the likely scenarios is that Zappe will displace Stidham on the Patriots’ roster.

And then what? There is the possibility, of course, that Zappe could prove to be a quarterback worthy of a starting role, in which case he could provide the Patriots with trade capital. Your team’s starter isn’t getting the job done? Let’s make a deal for, say, that Pro Bowl-caliber linebacker on your roster. Even if the Patriots are certain that Mac Jones is the quarterback of their future, Zappe could add value besides being able to step in if, God forbid, Jones should get hurt. So while I have no problem with the choice of Zappe in the fourth round, I’ve got to admit some of their other choices strike me as questionable.

Two running backs? You’ve already got a tremendous one-two punch with Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson, who combined for over 1,500 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns last season, so why add two running backs? It does not matter, from my perspective, how good these rookies are. Pierre Strong has blazing speed (4.37 in the 40-yard dash) and Kevin Harris was a real workhorse at South Carolina, so it’s nothing against them as individual players, it’s just that I didn’t see this position as a priority for the Patriots. The real need in New England — after they got Strange to fill their opening at offensive guard — was on defense, particularly at cornerback and linebacker.

The Patriots got two quality cornerbacks in the third round (85th pick overall) and fourth round (121st pick). But was there not a single linebacker on the board they liked with the 127th pick (4th round) or 183rd pick (6th round) they used to get Strong and Harris? Let’s grant that they added veteran linebacker Mack Wilson from the Cleveland Browns in an off-season trade, and that New England also has younger players (e.g., Cameron McGrone and Anfernee Jennings) who could step up this year. Still, it looks like the Patriots are about to lose both Jamie Collins and Dont’a Hightower from their linebacker corps in free agency, and many analysts expected them to draft a linebacker in the first round this year. Not to draft any linebackers? It doesn’t make sense.

There was a more general complaint — both among fans and among league analysts — that New England “reached” with its first two draft picks, as Strange wasn’t projected as a first-round pick (some projected him going in the third round) and not many thought wide receiver Tyquan Thornton would go in the second round. However, for a team in need of a deep threat at receiver, the Patriots certainly scored big with Thornton, whose 40-yard dash time was the best of any WR at the NFL combine. And maybe those “reaches” weren’t really reaches at all:

NFL Network’s Mike Giardi suggests Bill Belichick and his staff’s insistence that neither player would’ve lasted much longer on the board might have been well-founded.
“On Cole Strange, I’ve learned, per source, there was a team in the 40s that had their eyes on Strange,” Giardi tweeted. “Would they have traded up had he began Day 2 still on the board? That part is unclear. Strange definitely was getting picked in round 2 regardless.”
Some teams, like the Los Angeles Rams, did homework on Strange as a possible third or fourth-round pick, adding fuel to the fire that the Patriots way over-drafted him.
However, it’s notable that several teams picking in the top 40 — the Vikings, Buccaneers and Seahawks — had Strange in for top-30 prospect visits before the draft.
Interestingly, the Bucs, who took defensive tackle Logan Hall with the 33rd pick, took tackle Luke Goedeke later in the second round. The Vikings, who grabbed safety Lewis Cine just after the Patriots picked Strange and also took cornerback Andrew Booth early in the second round, took offensive guard Ed Ingram later in the second as well.
Take this for what you will: Strange was a more highly graded player on NFL.com than either Goedeke or Ingram. Though we don’t know what the teams’ grades for them are, it’s conceivable the Patriots were right about Strange not lasting long (putting aside the actual value of the pick).
The Thornton pick feels harder to figure out.
Most projections suggested Thornton would still be around on Day 3 of the draft, leading to shock when he was selected ahead of seemingly better receiver prospects on Day 2.
But Giardi’s report casts doubt on that as well.
“And while we’re at it, on the Tyquan Thornton pick, league source believes there was a team lurking on the Baylor WR and perhaps a fear from the Patriots that the Steelers (at 52) were ready to pounce. So they move up 4 spots and get the speed merchant,” he wrote.
One theory: the Steelers, who grabbed Pickens at No. 52 overall, thought another team (including the Patriots) might take the Georgia product instead and had Thornton in mind as a backup option. Whether the Steelers, Colts or Chiefs, who all took receivers shortly after the Patriots got Thornton, would’ve actually taken him over the prospects they got is debatable, though.

If Cole Strange was the best offensive guard in the draft, and the Patriots staff believed other teams might have their eye on him in the second round, taking him in the first round makes sense. Of all the wide receivers in the draft, Thornton was the fastest and New England had the need for that speed. So if there was any chance that Pittsburgh (or some other team) would take Thornton before the Patriots got their third-round pick (85th overall), then drafting Thornton in the second round makes perfect sense. Of course, objectively, I realize that I’m rationalizing here — engaged in a defensive justification of questionable behavior.

Rationalization is a universal trait, not just for football fans. Every prison is full of guys who either claim they were really innocent or else have some story to explain how they would have gotten away with it, had not this, that or the other thing gone wrong. After-the-fact explanations to defend our choices, especially when our choices are criticized or when the consequences are objectively bad, are just how the human mind operates as a default setting. So if you’re a Patriots fan, you tell yourself that Bill Belichick must know what he’s doing, even if all the commentators on ESPN are saying his draft picks were bad this year. In defending the questionable picks, you must have the self-awareness that you’re acting like a “homer,” and that your justifications are not objective, even while you marshal facts and logic to make arguments against critics.

Honestly, it’s like Jen Psaki standing at the lectern in the White House briefing room, saying everything Biden does is just awesome.

Do you see why football is a great hobby for a politics junkie? Hunter S. Thompson always thought so, and I share his belief that being a football fan is kind of a methadone treatment, a substitute for the heroin-like addiction of politics. You need something to focus your mental energies on, some obsession that distracts you from the madness of politics, or else you’ll turn into one of those deranged dingbats who think it’s cool to go protest at a Supreme Court justice’s home.

For most of us, our ability to influence politics is nearly as limited as our ability to persuade Belichick to pick a linebacker in the first round. Our inability to change events — our sense of powerlessness, because the important decisions are being made for us, contrary to our own inclinations or opinions — produces a sense of frustration. This frustration is intensified because we are dreadfully impatient. Inside each of us is a bit of Veruca Salt: “I want it now!” Football season doesn’t start until September, and the election is not until November, and we’re enduring the agony of the off-season — a lot of talk, talk, talk from the pundits on TV, when what we crave is the thrill of victory. Triumph over our foes, complete vindication: “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.”

When my brother Kirby talks about anything — politics, football, the war in Ukraine, whatever — he always annoys me by discussing speculative contingencies: “If X happens, then either Y or Z.” This annoys me, as I say, because there is no way to know if X will happen or not. Will Putin go nuclear in Ukraine? Lots of smart people say it’s a real possibility, even though I can’t imagine such a nightmare scenario. Why even bother discussing it? If it happens, it happens, and all the choices are beyond my control, so what is to be gained by a moot court deliberation of the possible consequences of a madman dictator’s actions?

So let’s talk about football instead, but the same problem arises: Kirby always wants to talk about what Alabama should do — as if Coach Saban were going to heed our advice, which is always, “Run the damn ball!” — but exploring the limitless field of imaginative speculation frustrates me. There’s no point to it, and such discussions intensify my feelings of powerlessness. Ultimately, as fans and spectators, we just have to wait until they kick off and then watch what happens.

National Championship for ’Bama, Mac Jones takes the Patriots to the Super Bowl and Republicans win a landslide in the November midterms. And then we’ll enjoy listening to the lamentations of their women.




 

Category: Football

An Administrative Note

Posted on | May 6, 2022 | Comments Off on An Administrative Note

— by Wombat-socho


Just got home from Las Vegas, and my arms aren’t the only thing that’s tired…so I’m going to bed and will most likely wake up very early Saturday morning to do the last link dump of the week. It was an interesting morning at the dentist and an equally interesting afternoon at the credit union.
There’s a possibility that I may not be attending Balticon over Memorial Day weekend, since they have an absurd COVID policy in place and I’m not interested in putting up with that bullshit. Anyone up for a Smittypalooza Friday or Saturday somewhere in Northern Virginia or Frederick County? What say, honored Elder Sidekick?

Silicon Valley delenda est.




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Category: smittypalooza

“If You Lack a Uterus, You Cannot Speak”

Posted on | May 6, 2022 | Comments Off on “If You Lack a Uterus, You Cannot Speak”

by Smitty

One point I’ve not seen raised as we move toward a possible abortion of Roe/Casey is this pertains to the “If you don’t have a uterus, you cannot speak” argument. Whether one can speak has nothing to do with whether the plumbing is “indoor” or “outdoor”, because this is fundamentally a family, not an individual argument.

This is where the Left (credit where due) has expertly played the individual liberty card as a trump against conservatives. Because we do care about individual liberty. I, for one, am not here to boss anyone around. Bossing people around triggers that “Newton’s 3rd Law of Humans” rebellion. Perhaps you’ve noticed.

But.

Let me address my “team” directly here: if she’s not your wife, you’ve no business trading protein with her. And if God has joined you, let no man (to include you behaving like a boy) put that divine appointment asunder.

Aside: there is only one acceptable “trans” case:

Once a man is married (take your time, this is not a decision to be taken lightly), he needs to stay that way. We all look the same in the dark, and everyone’s feet stink. Don’t let the testosterone lead you to cheapen the sacrament. We can continue to prize our individual liberty as a political matter (I certainly do) but your spiritual growth as a man involves treating your marriage as a spiritual castle, just as your home is your physical castle.

Yet, political Libertarianism is orthogonal to your spiritual oath to the marriage and the ensuing family.

Thus, we are right, correct, and proper when we stomp this “no uterus, no voice” argument into the mud. It is a foul deceit intended to (and quite successful at) cratering our society and reducing us to thralls of a Socialist state controlled by globalists.

Therefore, it is my hope that the Pro Life movement morphs into a Pro Family movement, and we continue to reject the parade of follies that have plagued us since the Summer of Love.
Again, I’m not here to boss anyone around. I understand that there are plenty of people for whom “Form Follows Function” is too complex a concept to grasp, like the truth that a dog has four legs, no matter how we label the tail. Lord, have mercy.

But for those of us men who are not confused about manhood, it is time to step up to the plate, love our families as the Lord has loved us, and rebuild a collapsed culture.

Category: Abortion

Aspiring Rapper Update: Misdemeanor Charges for Homeless Lunatic in L.A.

Posted on | May 6, 2022 | Comments Off on Aspiring Rapper Update: Misdemeanor Charges for Homeless Lunatic in L.A.

Say hello to Isaiah Lee,23, a homeless man and “aspiring rapper” who jumped onstage and attacked comedian Dave Chappelle during a performance this week at the Hollywood Bowl:

The brother of the man arrested for the onstage assault of Dave Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl says he’s stunned by the incident — and he wants people to know his younger sibling has struggled with mental health issues and being unhoused.
Police say Isaiah Lee, 23, stormed the stage Tuesday night at the Netflix Is a Joke festival and tackled the comedian before security intervened. Lee had a replica gun that could eject a knife blade in his possession when he was arrested and later booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, authorities allege.
Lee’s brother Aaron Lee tells Rolling Stone that Isaiah has been in and out of shelters in Hollywood, California, for much of the last decade and has lots of friends in the transgender community. Still, Aaron doesn’t believe his brother would “lash out” as an act of activism against Chappelle, who recently drew ire from the LGBTQ community for jokes about trans people.
“I don’t have anything negative to say about Isaiah. He’s a performing artist who tries to stay as positive as possible. He does have a history of mental health issues. He does take medicine. Maybe he missed out on taking his prescription. But he’s not the type to just lash out. I don’t understand,” Aaron, 31, says.
The younger Lee has rapped under the name Noname Trapper and posted a song online two years ago titled “Dave Chappell.” His brother says Isaiah only picked that title to get search engine hits. Aaron says he never heard his brother express any ill will toward the comedian.
“That song wasn’t even about Dave Chappelle. It’s just that Dave Chappelle has a world-recognized name. People are searching Dave Chappelle all the time, so he hoped it would help him get more attention, more attraction, so people could find it,” Aaron says. “He doesn’t have any type of animosity toward him that I know about.”
Aaron says he hasn’t seen his brother recently and thought he was staying with another family member, “getting better.”
“He does take psych medicine, and that probably was a factor. And then maybe something triggered him acting like that. I don’t know,” he says. “He’s not the type of person to attack you for no reason. But if he’s not on his medication, and if he feels everyone is against him, maybe that’s it.”
As for speculation that the assault caught on video may have been tied to Chappelle’s controversial comments about the transgender community, Aaron was unsure. “He does have a connection with the transgender community,” Aaron tells Rolling Stone. “He used to stay at a shelter that helps transgender people. He’s been homeless since 11. He came out to California [from New York] after our grandmother died, and basically was in the streets getting help from different programs in Hollywood, like My Friend’s Place. He went to a lot of different organizations out there that help transgender people. Yeah, it could have definitely been a factor, but I really don’t know.”

You will perhaps not be surprised to learn that, because this happened in George Gascón’s district, the attacker will not be charged with a felony. Basically nothing is a felony in L.A. anymore, except voting Republican.

Dave Chappelle never missed a beat:

Making light of a scary situation. After an audience member recently attacked Dave Chappelle on stage, the comedian claimed that a few of his celebrity friends broke the man’s arm — but the quip was just part of his routine.
“I felt good my friends broke his arm. I felt good,” the Chappelle’s Show alum, 48, said at the afterparty for the “Netflix Is A Joke” event on Tuesday, May 3, per an audio recording obtained by TMZ. He also quipped — in addition to his claims that Jamie Foxx and Busta Rhymes assisted with beating up the attacker — “How bad does a [N-word] have to be that Jon Stewart would stomp him?”

That there’s funny, I don’t care who you are.




 

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update, California, Celebrities

In The Mailbox: 05.05.22

Posted on | May 6, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.05.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

May the Fourth be with you…and a fifth as well?

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Why Are Guns So Prevalent In U.S. Culture?
A View From The Beach: From The Cheap Seats – How Does The Russo-Ukrainian War End?
EBL: Democrats Plot Their Fundraising Grift
Twitchy: Ruth Sent Us Claims They Didn’t Post Conservative Justices’ Home Addresses – Just Dropped Map Pins There
Louder With Crowder: Elon Musk Won’t Back Down – Keeps Firing Back At Soros & Clinton-Backed Groups Trying To Stop Twitter Sale
Vox Popoli: U.S. Targeting Russian Generals

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Roe v. Wade Is Irrelevant
American Conservative: Mourning In America – Life After Roe
American Greatness: 2000 Mules Documentary Provides Compelling Evidence That 2020 Election Was Stolen
American Thinker: Overturning Roe v. Wade – Will Democrats Instigate Another George Floyd Summer? also, The Real Black Swan Of 2020 – The Assault On Small Business
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Leaky News
Babalu Blog: Some Embargo! Cuba Buys 84,000 Tons Of Chicken From The U.S., But Most Cubans Won’t See Any, also, Cuban Dictatorship Imposes Totalitarian Measures To Shorten Food Lines
BattleSwarm: Reminder – Texas Constitutional Amendment Vote Saturday
Behind The Black: Pushback – Computer Repairman Who Exposed Hunter Biden’s Laptop Sues Media For Slander, Endurance Undocks From ISS For Splashdown Tonight, and Boeing Moving HQ From Chicago To DC
Cafe Hayek: Quotation Of The Day
CDR Salamander: Diversity Thursday
Chicago Boyz: The Invasion Of Safe Spaces
Da Tech Guy: The Democrats LOVE Horse Drugs – When They’re Used To Kill People, also, Roe v. Wade Should Have Been Overturned Decades Ago
Don Surber: Why Trump Backed Vance, also, PolitiFact Finds DeSantis Was Right, Drops Attack
First Street Journal: NYT Thinks Overturning Roe Isn’t Conservative, also, Hot Take – SCOTUS Is A Tool Of Tyrants
Gates Of Vienna: Girls Will Be Boys & Boys Will Be Girls, also, Orban Must Die! And Pope Francis Too!
The Geller Report: Fla. Textbook Publishers Surrender To DeSantis, Scrub Woke Propaganda, also, Durham Wins Fight To Get Some Hillary & Fusion GPS Documents
Hogewash: Sonification – The Perseus Galaxy Black Hole, also, The Lens Of Experience
Hollywood In Toto: What Top Gun: Maverick Can’t Replicate, also, Can Doctor Strange Conjure Up A “Normal” Box Office Summer?
The Lid: Has The Fed Already Lost The War On Inflation?
Legal Insurrection: Schiff – “Codifying Roe Isn’t Enough, We Must Expand The Court”, Abortion Activists Vandalize Boulder Catholic Church For The Second Time In Seven Months, and What If There Is No Majority To Overturn Roe?
Nebraska Energy Observer: Winning
Outkick: Katie Nolan Blames “Misogyny” For People Not Liking Her As Baseball Analyst, Magic Johnson Joins Group Bidding For Broncos, and What Should The Nationals Do With Juan Soto?
Power Line: Fauxcahontas Is Faux Angry, They’ve Come For Lincoln, and Did Glee Lead To Glum?
Shark Tank: Broward School Board Cancels Citizen For Speaking Out Against CRT, Transgender Books
Shot In The Dark: Russian Debt Repayments, Black & White & Reds All Over, and , Let Me Spell This Out
This Ain’t Hell: WW2 Nurse Celebrates Her 100th Birthday By Skydiving For The First Time
Transterrestrial Musings: A New Space Organization, also, Fake News
Victory Girls: Democrats Receive Deliveries Daily
Volokh Conspiracy: Is It Libel To Lay Out Facts About A Law Clerk’s Writings & Associations And Say She’s A Likely Leaker?
Watts Up With That: Rural America v. Big Wind, also, Vail Mountain Completes Longest Season On Record With Snow To Spare
Weasel Zippers: Mayorkas Says He Was Unaware Of DGB Chief’s Weird Videos, also, Stocks Sink As Stagflation Fears Grow
The Federalist: Meet The Shady Left-Wing Group Targeting SCOTUS Justices & Their Families, Quacks Like “Rachel” Levine Want Control Of Your Children, and Biden Hires Harvey Weinstein Apologist As New WHCA
Mark Steyn: Ministers Of Misinformation, also, An Unreported Scandal

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Category: Linkagery

Who Is Charlie Warzel and Why Do I Feel This Urge to Give Him a Brutal Fisking?

Posted on | May 5, 2022 | Comments Off on Who Is Charlie Warzel and Why Do I Feel This Urge to Give Him a Brutal Fisking?

Honestly, this was a rabbit hole I never intended to go down. Like, why should I spend more than an hour scrolling through Google search results to try to assemble a biographical sketch of an obscure journalist? But today I glanced at Memeorandum and spotted this headline:

Why Are the Right Such Sore Winners?
Even when they win, they still play victim.

My first thought was, “What? Somebody’s trying to out-do Amanda Duarte in the ‘Worst Hot Take’ competition?” You see this is Charlie Warzel’s spin on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that’s caused such an uproar this week that Justice Samuel Alito had to cancel a scheduled appearance at a judicial conference because of death threats.

The obtuseness of Warzel’s spin, we’ll get to in a minute, but first, exactly who is this guy? He is from the suburbs of Philadelphia. In fact, I think Warzel and Jack Posobiec grew up in the same town in Montgomery County, which is kind of weird if you think about it. Like, what are the odds that two people so diametrically opposed would both be from the same suburb of Philly? At any rate, while Posobiec was attending a Catholic school, Warzel attended an elite prep school founded by Quakers. Annual tuition at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr is about $43,000, which strikes me as lunacy. Warzel’s parents paid $160,000+ just for his high school education? My efforts to locate the source of the Warzel family fortune failed, so I don’t know if one Charlie’s ancestors was an Astor, a Fisk or some other 19th-century robber baron, but you’ve got to figure his folks must be loaded to send their kid to such a posh prep school, and his choice of college also screams “Trust Fund Baby.”

Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., is one of those pricey little sub-Ivy liberal arts schools where rich parents send their kids whose SATs weren’t quite good enough for Princeton or Dartmouth. Admission is somewhat selective (18% of applicants are admitted), but only the scions of wealthy families would bother applying, because the annual cost of attending Hamilton is $75,200 including room and board. So having spent more than $40,000 a year to send young Charlie to The Shipley School, the Warzels then spent roughly $300,000 for their boy to get his diploma from Hamilton. Privilege, with a capital “P.”

Damn, I’ll never understand rich liberals. If I had that kind of money, my politics would be somewhere to the right of Pinochet, and yet America’s affluent elite are apparently so burdened with guilt it’s a wonder they haven’t committed mass suicide and willed their fortunes to UNICEF.

Liberalism is like a fashion statement for the wealthy. Think of Lenny Bernstein throwing a soiree for the Panthers at his swanky Upper East Side penthouse. One imagines that not only the Warzel family, but everyone they know in the Montgomery County suburbs of Philly would be scandalized if Charlie had grown up to be a Trump voter.

“It’s simply not done,” they’d scold him. “We didn’t pay to send you to those schools so you could embarrass us like this.”

But Charlie made ’em proud, landing “an internship at NBC News, where he assisted in the production of Meet the Press with David Gregory, ultimately leading to stints with MSNBC’s Morning Joe—co-hosted by Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist—and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.” A couple years after graduation from Hamilton, Warzel joined Buzzfeed where he was a “senior writer” for six years before scoring a gig at the New York Times, not to mention a book deal, and then joined The Atlantic. Somewhere along the way, he relocated to Missoula, Montana, which I suppose is easy to do if your job is writing about stuff on the Internet and you’re a descendant of Jay Gould or the Rockefellers or whatever. But I digress . . .

Charlie Warzel is plenty miffed at Republicans:

I want to take a moment and share a few observations about the GOP reaction to the leaked draft opinion of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade (with the obvious caveat that scope of the decision could still change before it becomes public next month).
I’d like to be very clear up front: The reaction to this opinion and the political jockeying is a second-order story compared to the actual, dire consequences for real people once states begin to criminalize abortion (and this is, in fact, the reason why the right is obsessing over it). And yet this reaction is important to understand as a tool in the broader right-wing culture war. What we’ve seen over the last day or so is a tried-and-true example of their sore-winners complex. . . .

(Notice he begins with the first-person singular “I,” which my teachers taught me to avoid, but perhaps the instructors at The Shipley School taught Charlie otherwise. At any rate, Charlie doesn’t want to talk about the Supreme Court’s decision, nor about the unprecedented leaking of a draft opinion, but rather “the GOP reaction,” which he insists his readers must “understand as a tool in the broader right-wing culture war.” By the way, to any journalism students who might happen to be reading this, permit me to advise avoiding trite phrases like “tried-and-true.”)

It is absolutely no secret that ending Roe has been the right’s political project for decades. As the writer Lyz Lenz said on Monday, “It’s always been the plan. And it’s never been a secret. The plan has been shouted at rallies. Held up on signs. It’s been plotted and spoken of and written about over and over.” The leaked opinion is that plan coming to fruition—the success of a long game of often-shameless political maneuvering. Republican reaction to the leak was, of course, faux outrage. . . .

(True, opposition to abortion — and specifically overturning Roe v. Wade — has been on the conservative agenda “for decades,” in quite the same way that imposing same-sex marriage nationwide was on the liberal agenda “for decades” before the Obergefell decision. However, the leaking of a draft opinion, weeks ahead of when the Supreme Court was expected to issue its ruling on the Mississippi case, was self-evidently calculated to bring pressure on the justices, an attempt to use protest mobs to intimidate the court. It is not unusual for there to be rumors of which way the Supreme Court is leaning on a decision, but this business of leaking a draft opinion is unprecedented, as far as I’m aware. Whatever you say about Republican reaction, their outrage about this leak is certainly not “faux.”)

But the focus on the leak over the substance is telling.
First, it is an act of deflection geared toward minimizing the sweeping and radical nature of this ruling. Not only is a majority of the American public in support of abortion rights and against the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but, as my colleague Adam Serwer argued, “in the U.S., the rights of many marginalized groups are tied to the legal precedents established in the fight for abortion rights. This opinion, if adopted, provides a path to nullifying those rights one by one.” . . .

(Wow, way to line up those dominoes and tip them all over at once. After declaring the draft opinion to be of a “sweeping and radical nature” — hint, not really — Warzel invites his reader to go flying down the slippery slope as all “the rights of many marginalized groups” are wiped out in the blink of an eye. Some of us, who would be to the right of Pinochet if we could afford it, might wish it were so, except that a careful reading of Alito’s draft discloses no such radicalism. All the ruling would do is to return us to the pre-Roe situation, in which laws regulating abortion were decided by state legislatures. The Burger court had no business arrogating to itself the authority to void the laws of 49 states, which is what Roe did, and if it took nearly 50 years to end that usurpation of authority, that’s only because the liberals were so firmly entrenched in the judiciary that even many Republicans didn’t know how they could ever be uprooted. So while we might, in our Pinochet-loving fantasies, dream of the oppression to be inflicted on “marginalized groups” as a consequence of Alito’s ruling, no such result is likely, no matter what that hysterical idiot Adam Serwer says.)

It is in the best interest of the right to obfuscate and downplay the monumental implications of such a ruling — especially until it is officially enshrined by the court. And the best way to do that is by ginning up a political scandal. Leak obsession and speculation happens to be a favorite topic in the political press especially — this is a media story, but it is also a story about power struggles inside a famously opaque institution.
It is, in other words, a story that mainstream news organizations find impossible to resist covering and prioritizing. . . .

(Speaking of obfuscation, notice how easily Warzel slides over that phrase “until it is officially enshrined by the court,” which would seem to be a tacit admission that the purpose of the leak was to prevent such an enshrinement. Such an admission, however, would give away the game — i.e., the outrage over the leak is legitimate, if such was the leaker’s intent — and so Warzel doesn’t want his readers to think too much about this attempt to apply external pressure on the court, but rather to focus on the nefarious tactics of Republicans.)

Second, the sore-winners tactic is also an example of the sheer relentlessness of the far-right’s culture warring. Political wins are celebrated internally, but externally each victory is treated as an opportunity to double down on a victimization narrative and politics of grievance. . . .

(Projection much, Charlie? The entire stock in trade of the liberal movement is about victimhood — everybody’s “oppressed” and deprived of their “rights,” and the only way to remedy this is to vote Democrat! The liberal narrative features a rotating cast of “marginalized” victims — one week, it’s criminals shot by cops, the next week, it’s college graduates who can’t pay back their student loans — and if you want to talk about “sheer relentlessness,” nobody could hope to exceed the LGBTQ movement in inventing new grievances. Anyway, after a lot of blah, blah, blah about Orange Man Bad, Warzel finally reaches his conclusion.)

The sore-winner complex highlights a fundamental asymmetry between the style of culture warring employed by the left and right. The right’s vision is ahistorical and logically confused, but more importantly, it is relentless. There is no appeasing this type of politics. It is a politics that will manage to use its victories to stoke additional fears inside its voters. For the media, there is no amount of evenhanded or both-sides coverage that will get the right to back down from calling the press illegitimate, biased, and corrupt. For non-Republican politicians, there is no amount of bipartisan language or good faith attempts at dialogue or engagement that will inspire bipartisanship, compromise, and a desire for majority rule. For the right, even in victory, there is only grievance and fear. 

What this prep-school alumnus is actually telling us is that conservatives have learned to play the same game that Democrats have been playing forever. Whose vision is “ahistorical,” Mr. Warzel? You seem to have forgotten all the fear-stoking and grievance-mongering that Democrats have done over the years. How about this one?

“Romney wants to — he said in the first hundred days
he’s going to let the big banks once again
write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street!
They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”

Really? You forgot that one? You know who the “y’all” Biden was referencing during that 2012 campaign speech in Virginia? As if Mitt Romney, of all people, was some kind of closet segregationist? Oh, spare me your lectures about “faux outrage” and imaginary “grievance,” Mr. Wurzel. What really bothers you is that, in the post-Trump era, some Republicans have finally wised up to the way Democrats have been playing this game, and are now playing it even better. Speaking of this leaked draft, by the way, it’s had the unexpected effect of causing some Democrats to declare their enthusiasm for late-term abortion, a stance which isn’t likely to play well in swing states like Ohio. Hit it, J.D.!

Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark. Reckon Democrats can kiss their Senate majority good-bye and it’s only a matter of time before the Republican regime is dropping liberals out of helicopters.

Augusto Pinochet could not be reached for comment.




 

Category: Abortion, Liberals, Supreme Court

In The Mailbox: 05.04.22 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | May 5, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.04.22 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Yep.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1707
357 Magnum: How Is That Bail Reform Working Out?
EBL: Trannies Gone Wild – Dave Chappelle Attacked On Stage, also, Biden & The Slaughter Of The Innocents
Twitchy: Rand Paul Beats SecDHS Mayorkas With The “Disinformation” Truth Hammer For Several Minutes
Louder With Crowder: Bill Gates Stutters & Squirms When Called Out For Epstein Friendship
Vox Popoli: We Don’t KNOW, also, The Decreasing Utility Of Email

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The War For Globalism In Ukraine
American Greatness: Fighting The Cathedral, also, The Case Against The Border Wall Is Crumbling
American Power: Inside The New Right, also, Do We Need A Capitalist Civil War?
American Thinker: Normalizing Perversion, also, Why The Democrats Can Expect To Lose A Lot Of Elections
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Champion Wrestler, Olympic Medalist Defects In Mexico, also, Pope Blames NATO For Invasion Of Ukraine, Refuses (Again) To Denounce Tyrants
BattleSwarm: Roe v. Wade Overturned – The “No Earthquake” Scenario, also, Former Abbott Aide Now Soros Lobbyist
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, Fish & Wildlife Documents Reveal Their Objections To SpaceX Boca Chica Site, and Biden’s NASA Administrator Slams Cost-Plus Contracts He Endorsed As Senator
Cafe Hayek: On Keeping Concepts Clear
CDR Salamander: Lessons Never Learned, Accountability Never Achieved
Chicago Boyz: The Dictatorship Of Theory
Da Tech Guy: Social Justice Warriors & The Academy, also, The Cost Of A Stolen Election In Two Biscuits
Don Surber: Trump Triumphs, Woke Disney Has Been A Loser Stock For Five Years, and Lefties Blame RBG For Roe Reversal
First Street Journal: Hold Them Accountable! also, CDC Still Pimping Masks On Public Transportation 
Gates Of Vienna: Red Dragon, Dead Dragon, The Green Nuclear War Machine, and The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back
The Geller Report: Trump Sweep – All 22 Trump-Endorsed Candidates Win In Indiana & Ohio, also, Repairman Who Revealed Hunter Biden’s Laptop Sues CNN, Daily Beast, Politico, & Rep. Schiff For Defamation
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, In Re Stare Decisis, and Sonification – Eta Carinae
Hollywood In Toto: Can Meg Ryan Revive The Rom-Com? also, Dave Chappelle Attacked On Stage – What Happens Next?
The Lid: Think Gas Prices Are Too High? Just Wait
Legal Insurrection: Sen. Manchin Questions Need For Expanding EV Tax Credit, UC Considers Ending Letter Grade System Due To “Bias & Inequities”, and Media Matters Threatens Advertiser Boycott Of Twitter
Michelle Malkin: Aborti-Mania – The Perfectly Planned Meltdown
Nebraska Energy Observer: SCOTUS Leak – What’s The Fuss?
Outkick: NFL Mad At Lions for Not Spending More Time On #2 Pick, Kurt Warner Sacks Ryan Tannehill For Refusing To Mentor Malik Willis, and J.J. Reddick Gets Emotional When Chris Russo Tells Draymond Green To “Shut Up & Play”
Power Line: Sellout to Red China In Progress, also, Forget Star Wars, How About Chart Wars?
Shark Tank: Fla. Education Dept. Removes Woke Material From Textbooks
Shot In The Dark: Will The Real Donald Trump Please Stand Up? also, The IRGC & Mahdism
STUMP:
The Political Hat: Fight, But For What? also, Pronoun Gender Madness – Woke Irish, Punishing “Misgendering”, and Suspended For Asserting There Are Two Genders
This Ain’t Hell: Army Officer Convicted At First Known COVID Court-Martial
Transterrestrial Musings: Tik Tok, Take Them To The Cleaners, and Who Needs The Blood Of The Young
Victory Girls: Gutfeld Calls Occasional Cortex “An Entitled Sponge”
Volokh Conspiracy: Should The FCC Block Elon Musk From Buying Twitter?
Watts Up With That: A Stake Through The Heartland, also, Samantha Power & The Green New Famine
Weasel Zippers: MIT Study Finds The Jab Causes Heart Attacks, also, LA Abortion Protest Goes Exactly As You’d Think
The Federalist: Five Ways Democrat Policies Work To Destroy Childrens’ Lives, After Ivermectin Freakout, Left Now Pushes Actual Horse Meds For DIY Abortions, and Vincent College Reacts Hysterically To Hillsdale Prof’s Presentation On “Racial Hysteria”
Mark Steyn: COVID & Chaos

Amazon Warehouse Deals




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