The Other McCain

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

The Weird Logic of COVID-19 Panic

Posted on | April 20, 2022 | Comments Off on The Weird Logic of COVID-19 Panic

Tuesday afternoon, Nate Silver was trending on Twitter because so many liberals were trying to “dunk” on his take about the end of the mask mandate for air travel (after a federal judge in Florida ruled that the CDC doesn’t have authority to impose such a restriction). The fact that so many people were in panic mode about the end of the mask mandate — more than two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — is highly illustrative of the “maximum restriction” mentality that liberals have displayed about this virus. Start with a simple question: Does wearing a mask protect you from COVID-19?

If the answer is “yes,” and you are protected by your mask, then why does it matter whether or not other people are also wearing masks? If you think other people must also be compelled to wear masks — because their mask protects you from their germs, supposedly — then doesn’t that imply that your mask is ineffective? But if your mask isn’t working to protect you, then why do you think their mask is necessary, since you apparently don’t think masks really provide a barrier to germs?

We could have a long discussion about the efficacy of masks — do they reduce the spread of airborne viruses by 10% or 20% or whatever? — but the real bottom line is that people who act as if masks will protect them from COVID-19 don’t really seem to believe masks work that way, or else they would be content to protect themselves and not worry about whether other people are also wearing masks. And we could say much the same thing about COVID-19 vaccine mandates: If you think the vaccine will protect you, why does it matter whether other people are also vaccinated?

The fact that the arguments for mandates are so easily exposed as illogical — the people in panic mode can’t really justify their panic — tells you that the real motivations are emotional in nature, reflecting a dictatorial mentality that seeks to impose conformity to rules on others.

On the one hand, I suppose, the explanation could be that there’s just a greater tendency toward hypochondria among liberals, irrational fear of disease being somehow correlated with belief in Keynesian economics or whatever. But on the other hand, I think the more likely explanation is that many liberals are control freaks who obtain sadistic pleasure by dictating rules that other people are required to follow. This is the true heart of contemporary liberalism, I would argue — they just like bossing other people around, and their weird enthusiasm for mask mandates and vaccine mandates are simply manifestations of that general tendency.

The backlash against Nate Silver — a credentialed progressive in good standing, last time I checked — reflects this mentality. Liberals expect everybody on “their” side (including everyone in the media) to sing in unison from the same hymn book, and any dissent must be shouted down. Do you see what I mean about the sadistic nature of this control-freak mindset, and the way that imposing conformity is fundamental to the appeal of liberal politics? Independent thought is anathema to them, and the idea of people just living their own lives without being forced to comply with rules (on masks, or vaccines, or pronouns) infuriates them.




 

Category: Liberals

Ain’t I Done Told You?

Posted on | April 19, 2022 | Comments Off on Ain’t I Done Told You?

Headline from my April 3 post:

Taylor Lorenz Is a Dangerous Sociopath

As I explained more than two weeks ago, when Lorenz was boohooing on MSNBC about being a victim of “harassment,” her behavior pattern resembled DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), whereby wrongdoers faced with consequences for their actions try to depict themselves as the real victims. Psychologist Jennifer Freyd coined the term DARVO to describe a common tactic of sex offenders, although this pattern is certainly not exclusive to such offenders.

Now the world is shocked that Taylor Lorenz has once again engaged in the very behavior of which she claimed to be a victim, i.e., harassment:

The Washington Post ran a hit piece Tuesday morning exposing the identity of the woman behind a popular Twitter account that re-publishes videos of radical leftists doing insane things.
Which, apparently for WaPo and their “technology reporter,” Taylor Lorenz, was a bridge too far.
Lorenz penned an article doxxing the “LibsOfTikTok” account owner (despite the left’s supposed stance against online harassment and targeting – unless, of course, its against a conservative), even going so far as to show up to the private homes of the woman’s relatives to interrogate them for her piece. The article that the outlet then posted originally linked to the creator’s real estate license, which includes her license number, her business’ address, and her employer’s name and license number, making her the target of more than just online harassment and possibly putting her in physical danger.

Lorenz literally went to the homes of relatives of the “LibsOfTikTok” account owner as part of this doxxing-as-“journalism” exercise.

Taylor Lorenz is a disgrace. No honest person would defend her, nor would any reputable news organization employ her. But she works at the Washington Post, which is neither honest nor reputable.




 

Category: Media Bias

Expect More Riots This Summer

Posted on | April 18, 2022 | Comments Off on Expect More Riots This Summer

Democrats know they’re facing disaster in this fall’s midterm elections, and so we can expect “mostly peaceful protests” to return this summer. An early preview:

A group of protesters marched through the streets of northeast Portland Saturday, damaging some buildings, bus shelters, and lighting a dumpster on fire at the Portland Police Bureau’s north precinct.
Based on social media posts, the group first gathered at North Portland’s Peninsula Park Saturday night in protest of the police killing of Patrick Lyoya in Michigan.
According to police, some members of the group vandalized a coffee shop, two banks, and three bus shelters on Northeast MLK Jr. Boulevard.
The group eventually arrived at the PPB North Precinct on MLK Jr. Boulevard at Killingsworth Street, where police said “one or more suspects” set a dumpster on fire in the parking garage.
Officers unsuccessfully tried to put out the dumpster fire with fire extinguishers, and Portland Fire & Rescue was ultimately called to douse the flames.
“No arrests were immediately made, but the investigation is continuing,” Portland Police said.

The first and most obvious question is, why are they protesting in Portland, Oregon, about an incident in Grand Rapids, Michigan? But the same question could have been asked about the nationwide protests about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In such cases, it seems, the decision of which cases of alleged police brutality demand protests is determined by (a) whether the incident is getting heavy coverage on CNN, and (b) whether Ben Crump is on the case:

The family of Patrick Lyoya, the man shot in the back of the head by a Grand Rapids Police Officer earlier this month, held a press conference Thursday afternoon alongside civil rights attorney Ben Crump and attorney Ven Johnson.
Family members, Crump, and Johnson are all speaking just one day after Grand Rapids authorities released graphic video that showed the 26-year-old man being shot in the head after a traffic stop.

CNN functions as a publicity agency for Ben Crump’s lucrative practice of pursuing wrongful death cases against police departments. Most people have paid little attention to the economic incentives of this particular “civil rights” racket, i.e., the cops kill a suspect, the family “demands justice,” Crump shows up to incite a riot and files a lawsuit, then the Democrat-controlled city government — knowing that it can’t hope to win such a case, given the demographics of the local jury pool — agrees to a multi-million-dollar settlement, with Crump taking a huge chunk of that taxpayer-funded payout, and then moving on to the next blood-soaked opportunity for a “civil right” bonanza. Everybody in this familiar kabuki pageant has a carefully scripted role, and if you’ve paid close attention to recent iterations of this saga, there are never any real surprises in the story, including the criminal record of the Heroic Civil Rights Martyr whose death is the opening act of the pageant.

Excuse my extreme cynicism about all this, but I’m particularly sick and tired of the role played by the media in such stories. The profession of journalism is being degraded by reporters and editors who demonstrate a lack of basic common sense about law enforcement.

While I am reluctant to engage in a point-by-point analysis of the Patrick Lyoya shooting, you can click here and watch the video to understand my specific complaint about how this story is being covered.

The officer pulls over a sedan driven by Lyoya, who exits the vehicle. The officer says, get back in the car. Lyoya disobeys the officer’s command (becoming “non-compliant,” as they say in the law-enforcement community) and acts confused about why the officer pulled him over. The cop says, “The plate doesn’t belong on this car.”

In other words, the license tag was issued for a different vehicle and someone (perhaps Lyoya) has put it on this car that he’s driving. As I say, to cover this story fairly requires a bit of common sense about law enforcement. A situation like this — a car with a mismatched license plate — is a major red flag. Is the car stolen? Or is the driver a fugitive who switched the plates in an attempt to avoid apprehension? Whatever the explanation might be, this is a situation requiring investigation, because of the likelihood that switching the plates was done to conceal criminal activity. In other words, this is not “just a traffic stop.”

Next, when the officer asks to see his license, Lyoya says it’s in the car. “Get it for me,” says the cop (1:12). Lyoya then opens the door to the car and says something to the passenger, Then Lyoya closes the door of the car (1:39) and tries to walk away. “No, no, no,” says the cop, and decides it’s time to put handcuffs on Lyoya, who breaks free and starts running (1:46). You see how quickly this has happened — 30 seconds earlier, the officer was waiting for Lyoya to get his license out of the car, and now he’s engaged in a foot pursuit with an unknown suspect.

Again — common sense. At this point, the cop has no idea who this guy is, because he hasn’t provided any identification. For all the cop knows, he could be chasing a serial killer or a drug kingpin. Because the media are focused on the “civil rights” narrative (black suspect killed by a white cop), there is an evident lack of journalistic curiosity about the circumstances here: Why were the plates switched on the car? Whose car was it? And why was Patrick Lyoya so desperate to avoid being identified? Because it is obvious, to anyone with a common sense understanding of law enforcement, that Lyoya was thinking about making a run for it from the moment he saw the blue lights in his rear-view mirror. Were there outstanding warrants for Lyoya’s arrest? Was he on probation or parole, and afraid that being caught driving without a license would lead to him being sent to prison?

There must be something in the background to explain Lyoya’s behavior, but good luck finding that explanation in the mainstream media. According to one blogger, “Mr. Lyoya had a criminal record that includes a conviction for a violent crime against a pregnant woman, an arrest for theft of a vehicle that was dismissed, and a DUI.” While I can’t confirm any of that, common sense suggests that Lyoya must have had some previous trouble with the law, because why else would he act the way he did? It was Lyoya’s behavior that led to the fatal shooting, which happened while he and the officer were engaged in a physical struggle over the officer’s taser. If all you know is what you get from the media, this makes no sense, as it is implied that the officer just should have let Lyoya run away. It was “just a traffic stop,” right?

Anyway, the media is obviously trying to incite riots over this incident, and we can expect this pattern to continue all the way to November.




 

Category: Crime, Michigan

Rule 5 Sunday: All Sydney, All The Time!

Posted on | April 18, 2022 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: All Sydney, All The Time!

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Sydney certainly seems to be a popular name among models, doesn’t it? Say hello to Sydney Maler, actress and model.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1687, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Education Bubble Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: MAGA Easters & Passovers Were Better, All Old Knives, Tokyo Vice, Julie London, HALO, and John Denver. 

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Hillary Swank, Fish Pic Friday – Mara Fitness, Carry On Wayward Son, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Biden Still Sinking, Groomers Still Grooming, Elon Musk Refuses to be Tied Down by Twitter, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Is The Internet Making People Crazy? and Palm Sunday

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Visit Amazon’s Intimate Apparel Shop
Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts




Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Not Long Before The End

Posted on | April 17, 2022 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Not Long Before The End

 – compiled by Wombat-socho

Well, if you waited until now to get your taxes, done, you’re almost out of luck; your chances of finding a tax professional willing to handle your stuff tomorrow are slim and none. I put in something like 120 hours over the last couple of weeks, and have another ten-hour day to look forward to tomorrow before coming back to my hotel, collapsing, and sleeping the sleep of the just until 1100 Tuesday, when I’ll get up, get breakfast at Peg’s, pillage the local Sam’s Club, and motor on home to Tonopah. Where I plan on doing absolutely nothing for the next week but mongling links, eating, sleeping, and vegging out in my recliner.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Best Ranger: Surviving Day One
EBL

Guess Who Went Viral at Best Ranger?
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: My Name Is Ruin
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Sydney Melman
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Niles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
357 Magnum
EBL

Racial Paranoia in Post-Obama America
357 Magnum
EBL

Aspiring Rapper Update: ‘Slowkey Fred’ Busted for Philly Gun Trafficking Ring
First Street Journal
American Free News Network
357 Magnum
EBL

Brooklyn Shooting: Suspect in Custody
EBL

‘A Pretty Face Can Hide an Evil Mind’
357 Magnum
EBL

The Action and the Reaction
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

BLM: It Was Always a Scam
The Pirate’s Cove
EBL

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: FMJRA Award

R.I.P., Another Russian General

Posted on | April 17, 2022 | Comments Off on R.I.P., Another Russian General

Ukraine is becoming a graveyard for Russia’s military leaders:

Another Russian general was killed while fighting in Ukraine, the mayor of St. Petersburg announced in a statement on Saturday.
Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of Russia’s 8th Army, was killed in combat earlier this week, the country’s second-largest city said in a sympathy statement.
St. Petersburg Mayor Alexander Beglov attended the funeral, held at the city’s historic Serafimovskoe Cemetery on Saturday, the statement said.
“Today we say goodbye to a real hero,” Beglov said.
“Vladimir Petrovich Frolov died a heroic death in battle with Ukrainian nationalists. He sacrificed his life so that children, women and old people in Donbas would no longer hear bomb explosions. So that they stop waiting for death and, leaving home, say goodbye as if it were the last time.”
Frolov is the latest of several of Russia’s top military brass who have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine 50 days ago.

The official count so far is seven Russian generals killed during the war, while 33 colonels or lieutenant-colonels have been killed. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defense ministry claims that Russia has already lost around 20,000 soldiers, nearly 800 tanks and 2,000 armored personnel carriers.

The only proper description of such losses is catastrophic. We’re told Russia’s army is “regrouping” in preparation for a renewed offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine, but the losses they have already suffered must be crippling their efforts; if this trend continues much longer, the Russian army will be ground into mincemeat in a matter of weeks.




 

Category: Russia, Ukraine

Ukraine Update

Posted on | April 16, 2022 | Comments Off on Ukraine Update

Since the Russian invaders retreated from the vicinity of Kyiv, the war in Ukraine has receded in the headlines, even while the Russians are reportedly regrouping for new offensives in the east and south of Ukraine. Anyone looking at the map can see that Ukrainian forces west of Luhansk are in danger of encirclement from Russian advances, and the strategic question is how best to prevent that, while also preventing Russian forces from advancing westward toward Odessa.

First and most obviously, a Ukrainian counteroffensive eastward from Kharkiv would break the northern pincer of the Russian encirclement, and certainly we should expect to hear of major combat in that area during the next few days. Secondly, I would argue that Ukraine should make a counteroffensive southward in the area west of Donetsk. Looking over a map, I’d say such a movement should be based in Pavlohrad and drive south toward the port city of Berdyans’k on the Sea of Azov. Knowing nothing of the terrain or tactical situation in the area, of course, in making this suggestion I can only speculate on the prospects for success of such a counteroffensive. Yet it is obvious that Ukraine cannot win by remaining on the tactical defensive, and must shift to offensive offensive operations somewhere, so that the question is, where? If some of the forces that had been engaged in the defense of Kyiv can be shifted to the south, using Dnipro and Pavlohrad as their bases of operation, a push south toward the Sea of Azov certainly offers the potential to disrupt whatever further Russian offensives may be in preparation. Find a weak point somewhere and drive an assault column through that point, while sending infiltration teams to strike at the Russian supply lines.

While such a Ukraine counteroffensive is unlikely to drive all the way to Berdyans’k, the real point is to force the Russians to fight to defend their current positions, and to maintain their supply lines, thus preventing them from being able to mount further advances at their leisure.

So much, then, for what I think should happen. Now let’s get the BBC’s bullet-point summary of what actually is happening:

  • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and 12 other politicians are barred from entering Russia over their “hostile” stance on the conflict
  • The UN records 1,982 civilian deaths since the start of the war, but warns the figure is an underestimate
  • One person was been killed and several wounded in missile strikes that hit Ukraine’s capital Kyiv earlier today, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says
  • Russia warns of “unpredictable consequences” if the Western nations continue to supply weapons to Ukraine
  • US officials say two Ukrainian Neptune Missiles hit the Russian Moskva warship and there were Russian casualties when the ship sank. Russia says a fire onboard caused the sinking

Notice that none of this “news” about the war in Ukraine gives us any idea of how the battle is going at the front lines. From the very start of this conflict, this has been a persistent deficiency in coverage of the war, and one must search very hard to find any useful tactical reports about the fighting. CNN has this:

Russia has intensified attacks in several locations in eastern Ukraine including Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk, according to Ukrainian military and regional officials. Russian forces appear to be striking areas of all three regions ahead of a planned ground offensive. Civilians have been urged to leave the regions. . . .
The Mykolaiv and Kherson regions in southern Ukraine have been under heavy shelling on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said in a statement.

So you can at least look at a map, find those locations, and get a general sense of where combat is happening. CNN also has this:

There is growing concern about the need to get more ammunition — and in particular artillery ammunition — to Ukrainian forces more rapidly as heavy ground combat against Russian units is expected to unfold in the coming days, according to a US official.
While the United States is shipping 18 155mm towed howitzers and 40,000 artillery rounds to Ukraine as part of the new security assistance announced by President Joe Biden’s administration this week, even that amount could be expended within several days, raising the prospect of Ukraine forces running out of ammunition, the official said.
During some of the heavy earlier fighting, Ukrainian forces fired up to thousands of artillery rounds in a given day, the official noted.
Going forward, the US believes the likely Russia strategy is to move weapons and troops into eastern Ukraine from their current positions just north, and then encircle and cut off Ukraine forces that are there, the official said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are conducting daily phone calls with counterparts in the region to encourage them to ship more weapons and supplies to Ukraine as soon as possible.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon hosted the CEOs of the military’s eight largest prime contractors to figure out how to arm Ukraine faster.
The roundtable discussion, led by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, focused on the Pentagon’s objectives to keep supplying Ukraine with arms while also being able to maintain the readiness of US forces and support the defense of allies.

Democrats suddenly discover that the Military-Industrial Complex is necessary to the defense of democracies? Well, that’s a silver lining to the otherwise dark cloud of Ukraine’s fight for survival. My Dad worked 37 years at Lockheed-Georgia in Marietta, mostly on the C-130 flight line, so I always had a direct personal interest in America’s defense industry. The really great thing about defense manufacturing is, those are all good-paying union jobs — Dad was in the Machinists union — and you might think Democrats would see the value of supporting a strong defense, simply in terms of blue-collar jobs, but the left-wing hippie peaceniks have long since taken over the party. Quite conveniently, in terms of domestic politics, the demand for artillery ammunition in Ukraine will mean more work at the General Dynamics plant in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton. No doubt they’ll be adding overtime and hiring more workers in Scranton now, and the same will be true at many other munition manufacturers across the country, including the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in the suburbs of Des Moines, where they make warheads for Javelin and Stinger missiles.

The Military-Industrial Complex will be ramping up production, and probably few of the newly hired workers will pause to consider the irony that they have Vladimir Putin to thank for their good fortune.




 

Category: Military, Russia, Ukraine

BLM: It Was Always a Scam

Posted on | April 15, 2022 | Comments Off on BLM: It Was Always a Scam

There is a certain type of affluent white liberal who will pay anything to absolve themselves of their sense of racial guilt, and never has there been a more perfect scheme to separate such fools from their money than the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s very hard for me to begrudge Patrisse Cullors and her BLM co-conspirators their ill-gotten gains, because is it really wrong to rip off rich white liberals? If ever anyone deserved to be swindled, it’s them — the Barbra Streisand/Jane Fonda types, the Hollywood/Manhattan nexus of wealth and cultural influence.

Even while I wholeheartedly endorse this swindle, however, it would be a nice bonus if the BLM swindlers also ended up in federal prison:

Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the domestic terrorist group Black Lives Matter, said disclosing finances is “deeply unsafe” and “triggering.”
Yeah, well, if I started a so-called charity and used the millions and millions of dollars that poured in from left-wing suckers to purchase a $5.8 million Los Angeles mansion, I might also be grasping at those same desperate straws.
What triggers this shameless grifter is the words “form 1990,” which is the form used by the IRS that requires charities to reveal their financial activities.
“It is such a trip now to hear the term ‘990,’” Cullors said.”I’m, like, ugh. It’s, like, triggering.” “I actually did not know what 990s were before all of this happened,” she continued.
“This doesn’t seem safe for us, this 990 structure — this nonprofit system structure,” Cullors said. “This is, like, deeply unsafe. This is being literally weaponized against us, against the people we work with.”
According to the Washington Examiner, Cullors says she’s “been approached by countless activists who are worried that they too will soon field requests from reporters demanding copies of their 990 forms[.]”
These idiots thought they could raise million in charity and do whatever they wanted with the money? That’s hilarious.
Here’s my favorite Cullors quote:

People’s morale in an organization is so important. But if their organization and the people in it are being attacked and scrutinized at everything they do, that leads to deep burnout. [T]hat leads to deep, like, resistance and trauma. . . .

I’m sure Al Capone felt traumatized when the IRS started looking through his taxes.
I’m sure Bernie Madoff felt traumatized when the SEC arrived with a warrant.
I’m sure John Wayne Gacy felt traumatized when the police started digging up his crawlspace.

In short, Black Lives Matter was a criminal enterprise from the start. As William Jacobson has repeatedly pointed out, the entire movement originated in a lie, i.e., the false “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative surrounding the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown had committed a robbery — caught on video — and when Officer Darren Wilson tried to arrest him, Brown violently resisted arrest, trying to grab the policeman’s gun. A grand jury cleared Wilson of wrongdoing and even the Obama Justice Department was forced to admit the shooting was justified. The facts made no difference, however, to the BLM activists who incited a riot that caused $4.6 million in damages.

What was the “social justice” benefit of burning down O’Reilly Auto Parts or Hunan Chop Suey? How were the dozens of small businesses (many of them minority owned) burned by the mob complicit in whatever grievance motivated this senseless destruction? What logic was there to any of the criminal acts incited by BLM’s hateful rhetoric?

That such a destructive “movement” should be granted 501(c) status as a tax-exempt charity is an insult to taxpayers, and was anyone really surprised that BLM turned out to be a gigantic swindle?

We all remember how Lois Lerner’s IRS persecuted Tea Party activists. Can we expect the feds to do anything to punish the BLM scammers?




 

Category: Crime
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