The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 12.24.21

Posted on | December 25, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.24.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Since tomorrow is Christmas, deadlines for the usual weekend posts are extended to noon on Boxing Day (Sunday). I hope all of your Christmases are merry and full of good cheer. Mt. 1:18-25.

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Merry Christmas from the Neko Cafe…somewhere/somewhen…

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Good Guys 3 Bad Guys 0
EBL: George Washington Wishes You A Merry Christmas
Twitchy: “F*** Off, You Public Sector Parasite,” also, “Nicely Done, President Klain!”
Vox Popoli: Why Russia Will Win, Neocons Might Get Their War, and No. A Thousand Times, No. 
According To Hoyt: The Lies Of The Twentieth Century, also, Lavish
Monster Hunter Nation: WriterDojo S1E18 – A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
Gab News: On The Miracle Of Christ’s Birth

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Christmas In The Desert
American Conservative: The Wisconsin Purchase
American Greatness: Lump Of Coal Awards 2021 – January 6 Edition, also, Christ, COVID, & The Spirit Of Fear
American Thinker: What Do We Do With The FBI Now?
Animal Magnetism: Merry Christmas Eve!
Babalu Blog: After 7/11 Protests, A Christmas Of Brutal Repression In Cuba, also, Things You Only See In Miami
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For December 24
Behind The Black: Red China launches Two Milsats With Long March 7A, also, The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir – Psalm 34
Cafe Hayek: Freedom & Good Health Aren’t The Same
CDR Salamander: Today’s Front Line In Ukraine In The First Person
Da Tech Guy: Christian Thoughts Under The Fedora
Don Surber: Judge Calls Vax Mandate A Ruse, also, Left Denies There’s A Shoplifting Boom
First Street Journal: Brandon Makes Holders Of Student Loans Mad
Gates Of Vienna: What Corona Crisis? Close The Hospitals! also, Allahu Akbar! Vehicular Jihad In Marseille
The Geller Report: Illinois Poised To Divest From Unilever Amid Ben & Jerry’s Boycott Fallout, Hispanics’ Rightward March, and It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – In Israel
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, Christmas Eve 1968, and Blognet
Hollywood In Toto: Why Louis C.K. Doesn’t Deserve Permanent Cancellation, and Here’s The Best Reason To Watch Sing 2
The Lid: Did The Durham Investigation Give Patriots A Subtle Christmas Gift…Of Hope?
Legal Insurrection: Elementary School Bans “Jingle Bells”, SDSU Dean Complains About “Stench” Of Conservative Agenda, and Judge Finds NYT Improperly Obtained Project Veritas Attorney-Client Communications
Nebraska Energy Observer: A Christmas Story, also, Christmas Eve Amongst Friends
Outkick: USF Wins Gasparilla Bowl In Tampa 29-17 Over Florida Gators, Hawaii Bowl Canceled By Corona-chan, and ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, And Mrs. Saban Was Big Mad At Old St. Nick
Power Line: Thoughts From The Ammo Line, Merrick Garland’s Jailbreak, and Kamala Agonistes
Shark Tank: Miami-Dade Mayor Avoids Question About Removing Regeneron Data
Shot In The Dark: A Quick Christmas Announcement
STUMP: COVID Quickies
The Political Hat: The Twelve Posts Of Christmas 2021, Day 12
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, A Different Kind Of Valor Friday, and LTC Sheller Is No Longer A Marine
Transterrestrial Musings: Dave Barry
Victory Girls: Christmas Of Swing Honors WWII Veterans
Volokh Conspiracy: Feddie Night Festivus – Blackman Vs. Everybody!
Weasel Zippers: Biden Tries To Explain What DARPA Means, Fails Miserably, Despite Months-Long Concerns By Public Health Officials, Bad Orange Woman Defends Biden’s Testing Inaction, and Inflation Under Biden Fastest Growing In 40 Years
The Federalist: How Advent Teaches Us, Amidst Sorrow, To Rejoice, also, What Happened When I Decided To Get My Tree From The Mountains On Christmas Eve
Mark Steyn: Christmas Eve Lessons & Carols

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Gosh, How Can I Get Readers to Pay Attention to the NFL’s COVID-19 Policy?

Posted on | December 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Gosh, How Can I Get Readers to Pay Attention to the NFL’s COVID-19 Policy?

Rachel Bush is an outspoken critic of the NFL’s COVID-19 policy. Perhaps you’ve never heard of her, and I had no idea who she was until this morning, when I started researching the upcoming game this Sunday between the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills. In their earlier meeting — the Dec. 6 “wind tunnel” Monday Night Football game at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium — the Patriots only threw three passes in a 14-10 victory over the Bills. The outcome of Sunday’s rematch will almost certainly decide the AFC East title, so I’ve been reading all the pregame coverage, including the news that Buffalo wide receiver Cole Beasley has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the game Sunday.

This led to some controversy, because Beasley is an outspoken anti-vaxxer and, because he’s unvaccinated, NFL rules require him to be regularly tested for the virus. So he got back a positive test, even though he was having only mild symptoms. Meanwhile, one of Beasley’s teammates, Bills offensive guard Jon Feliciano, had to go to the emergency room with a COVID-19 case, even though Feliciano is vaccinated. This prompted Beasley to write on Instagram: “Just to be clear Covid is not keeping me out of this game. The rules are. Vaxxed players are playing with Covid every week now because they don’t test.”

Which brings us back to outspoken critic Rachel Bush.

Do I have your attention now? Read more

Ironic Justice: Two Anti-Police Lawmakers Get Carjacked

Posted on | December 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Ironic Justice: Two Anti-Police Lawmakers Get Carjacked

Kimberly Lightford (left), Mary Scanlon (right)

This may cause me to re-think my opposition to carjacking:

Two Democrats who supported police reform in Philadelphia and Chicago were both carjacked at gunpoint within 24 hours of each other.
Illinois state Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) was targeted in suburban Chicago on Tuesday night, while Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) was carjacked Wednesday afternoon after an event in South Philadelphia.
Lightford was driving with her husband, Eric McKennie, in Broadview at about 9:45 p.m. when three masked suspects in a Durango SUV hijacked the couple’s black Mercedes.
Police said “multiple gunshots” were fired during the incident but Lightford and her husband weren’t physically hurt.
The suspects fled in the Mercedes and Durango, according to police. . . .

The reason “multiple gunshots” were fired is because Lightford’s husband has a concealed carry permit and opened fire on these, uh, troubled youth, but was unable to stop them from stealing the Mercedes.

Her ordeal came hours before Scanlon, a fellow Democrat, was carjacked at gunpoint in a separate incident as she returned to her blue Acura MDX at about 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Scanlon was targeted in South Philly by two men in a dark SUV who demanded she hand over her keys, police said.
Her personal cellphone, government-issued phone and purse were inside her car when the carjackers took off.
Scanlon’s spokesperson said she was “physically unharmed” following the ordeal.
Her car was found in neighboring Delaware with five suspects inside just hours later, according to police.

The Biden DOJ, which has been ignoring (or perhaps encouraging) the year-long violent crime wave in America, sprang into action once the criminals targeted a Democratic congresswoman:

United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Josiah Brown, 19, of Wilmington, DE, was arrested and charged by Criminal Complaint on charges of carjacking and carrying and using a firearm during a crime of violence in connection with an armed carjacking that occurred in Franklin D. Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. The defendant made his initial appearance in federal magistrate court in Philadelphia this afternoon and is currently detained.
According to the Complaint, while the victim and an associate were speaking near the victim’s parked vehicle, an SUV pulled up alongside them and blocked them in. One suspect got out of the SUV, pointed a gun at the victim and demanded the keys to the victim’s vehicle and at the same time, a second suspect also got out of the SUV. The victim complied, and then both suspects got into the victim’s car and drove away. A third suspect driving the SUV then fled following the victim’s car.
Investigators determined that the victim’s vehicle contained equipment to track and locate it, which they did later that day in Wilmington, and then in New Castle, Delaware. When multiple individuals approached the parked vehicle in the parking lot of the Christiana Fashion Center in New Castle, law enforcement detained five people, including the defendant who was in possession of the keys to the victim’s vehicle.
“The investigation into this incident is in its very initial stages, and we are continuing to investigate and evaluate charging decisions,” said U.S. Attorney Williams. “Armed carjacking is a serious federal crime. There have been a rash of violent crimes like this recently, and while there were national security implications to this particular incident, we are always working collaboratively with our local partners to evaluate if cases should be taken federally. Working together means more resources, more tools, more intelligence. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you pick up a gun and use it to commit a crime, together, we will come after you. And we are very good at what we do.”

In point of fact, however, if armed carjacking is a “serious federal crime,” when was the last time the feds got involved in such a case? Just two weeks ago, Philadelphia police said the city has seen an 80% increase in carjackings this year, and what had United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams done in response? Nothing, until a Democratic congresswoman got carjacked in — sweet irony! — FDR Park.

Seriously, go look through the press release archive at the U.S. Attorney’s web site and tell me if you find a case where they previously prosecuted a carjacking. I went back as far as April and didn’t find one, so if the Biden DOJ was making it a priority to “come after” carjackers before this week, they weren’t very successful at it. But then again, success really hasn’t been a hallmark of the Biden administration, has it?

Did you notice that the perp was from Biden’s home state of Delaware? As Paul Mirengoff notes at Powerline, 19-year-old Josiah Brown of Wilmington had pending charges in multiple states, and had been released from custody as recently as August. There is no doubt that, like many other Delaware residents, Brown is a menace to society:

Authorities in Chester County issued an arrest warrant for Brown in March 2021 after his fingerprints matched those identified by police in a string of vehicle break-ins in Kennett Square in late 2020, police said.
Ten days after that warrant was issued, Brown was picked up by sheriffs deputies in Cecil County, Md., after they responded to reports of car thefts and gunshots. The officers later discovered Brown and six juveniles, at least two of whom were also from Wilmington, inside a vehicle that had been reported stolen in New Jersey.
Police said the vehicle appeared to have been recently struck by gunfire, and two teenage girls inside were suffering from gunshot wounds. They were both hospitalized.
Brown, meanwhile, was arrested on the outstanding warrant from Chester County. He was later released on bail and had been scheduled to stand trial earlier this month on charges including receiving stolen property and theft from a motor vehicle. But the case was delayed, according to court records, which did not provide a reason for the postponement. The case is still listed as active.

Wanted on warrants, driving around in a stolen vehicle, with two teenage passengers who had been wounded in a shootout with persons unknown — a regular “honor student,” this Josiah Brown. If the cops had shot him, we’d be seeing his eighth-grade graduation photo on CNN while Ben Crump and the grieving family demanded #JusticeForJosiah.

Perhaps readers will not be surprised to learn that Democrat Rep. Mary Scanlon has learned nothing from this experience:

Scanlon said during a virtual news conference that the episode was frightening, particularly because the gunmen appeared so young when they got out of their SUV.
“I was scared that someone would do something even more stupid than trying to steal a car,” Scanlon said.
Still, she was grateful that no one — including other residents or families using the park — was injured. And she said President Joe Biden was among the many who had since called to wish her well. She and Biden also discussed “common sense gun safety measures,” she said, such as enhanced background checks and potential regulations for ghost guns. . . .
Court documents say that Brown admitted pointing a real but unloaded gun at Scanlon to intimidate her. Following his confession, the documents say, Brown wrote Scanlon an apology letter.
Scanlon said she hadn’t seen the letter, but added: “If this is the person who held me up yesterday, they did a very stupid thing, and if their letter of apology is genuine, then it sounds like they can learn from their mistakes.”

How stupid can you be? Well, if you’re a Philadelphia Democrat, perhaps there’s no limit to your stupidity, but Scanlon’s remarks display an astonishing ignorance of who criminals are, and why and how they do the things they do. To anyone with common sense (a category that excludes Pennsylvania Democrats, of course) Josiah Brown’s record indicates that he is a psychopath with no regard for the lives or property of others.

Where is their any evidence that Josiah Brown can “learn from [his] mistakes”? Just a few months ago, he got caught driving a stolen car with two bleeding teenagers inside — just another “very stupid thing” he did, according to Pennsylvania Democrat Mary Scanlon — but that didn’t lead him to repent and renounce his criminal ways. And what’s this noise about “common-sense gun safety measures”? Where is the evidence that any gun law advocated by Scanlon or Biden would stop a career criminal like Josiah Brown, who has never met a law he wouldn’t violate?

No one expects logic from a Pennsylvania Democrat, however, so Mary Scanlon’s misguided sympathy for criminal psychopath Josiah Brown will not get any pushback from the media, just the same as the media won’t bother asking why Chicago Democrat Kimberly Lightford, who supports strict gun control laws, is OK with her husband carrying a pistol.

As I say, however, this situation might prompt me to reconsider my opinion about carjacking. While I have always advocated that carjacking should be treated as very serious crime, to be punished by long prison sentences, I could perhaps be persuaded toward a more lenient attitude, if it were only Democrats getting carjacked. Like, if some young thug carjacked Ayanna Pressley or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez . . .

Well, that would be a “very stupid mistake,” as Mary Scanlon says, but there’s no need to add to the mass incarceration problem.




 

In The Mailbox: 12.23.21

Posted on | December 24, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.23.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Santa (Artoria Pendragon) Alter, first of her line.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Now That’s What You Call Ironic
EBL: Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
Twitchy: Police Seize Electronics & Hard Drives From Jake Tapper’s Alleged Pedo Producer, also, “Deplatform White Parents”
Louder With Crowder: After Eliminating Cash Bail In Illinois, State Senator Carjacked By Armed Attackers
Vox Popoli: Married To The Devil’s Own, How To Manipulate The NPCs, and The Anti-Globalist Alliance

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Walther Family’s Christmas Staycation
American Greatness: Dog Tag Manufacturers Sue Pentagon Over Ban On Religiously-Themed Items
American Thinker: Is COVID Now Becoming A Pandemic Of the Vaxxed? also, Three “What Ifs” We’re Not Supposed To Ask
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Road To Serfdom News
Babalu Blog: Canada’s Support Of Cuba Is Propping Up A Repressive Regime, also, Biden’s Approval Among Hispanics Takes A Nose Dive
BattleSwarm: What 12th Man?
Behind The Black: Pushback Against Blacklists, Local Judge Blocks Camden Spaceport, and A Detailed Review Of SLS’ Present Launch Status
Cafe Hayek: Quotation Of The Day
Da Tech Guy: NFL COVID, Baseball’s Stupidity, & Other Matters Under The Fedora, also, Here’s to Everyone Not Letting Fear/Government Nonsense Interfere With Their Christmas
Don Surber: She’s Right, They Don’t Treat Kamala Like A Male VP, also, Putin To Biden – No Vax Mandate
First Street Journal: Occasional Cortex & NY Dems Unhappy Over “Peaker” Power Plants
Fred On Everything:
Gates Of Vienna: Meanwhile Back At The Cultural Enrichment Of Austria, The FDP Protests The Mandatory Jab – Sort Of, and The UN Pays Protection Money To The Taliban
The Geller Report: In Dramatic Reversal, Aussie PM Rejects Mandates & Lockdowns, also, 4,000 American Immigrants Moved To Israel In 2021 – Largest Number Since 1973
Hogewash: Rogue Planets, Their Democratic Republic, and Don’t Give Up Your Day Job
Hollywood In Toto: Matrix Resurrections Can’t Even Top Lackluster Reloaded, Revolutions, also, HiT’s Worst Movies Of 2021
The Lid: American Politicians Can Learn From The Book Of Exodus
Legal Insurrection: Sleepy Joe Caves To The Squad, Extends Pause On Student Loan Payments, Antisemitism A Problem Among College Diversity Administrators, and Evidence Shows Liberal Narrative About No CRT In Schools Is False
Nebraska Energy Observer: Out Of The Mouths Of Babes
Outkick: Former Teammate On LeBron James – “He Ruined Basketball”, Random College Football Bowls Crush The NBA In Ratings, and The Man Who Will Be King
Power Line: Biden In Brief, Kim Potter Convicted, and A Special Session
Shark Tank: Democratic Lawmaker Falsely Accuses Gov. DeSantis Of Discouraging Vaccines
Shot In The Dark: ADHD, Wrong Solution, Wrong Problem, and Take Five
The Political Hat: The Twelve Posts Of Christmas, Day 11
This Ain’t Hell: US Army Now Has New Vax That Works Against All COVID Variants, Researchers Say, Another Bit Of History Erased, and USS Connecticut‘s Bittersweet Homecoming
Transterrestrial Musings: Space Solar Power, also, Fighting Wokeness From Within
Victory Girls: States Ban Abortion Pill RX Via Telehealth, also, Christmas Battles, Truces, & Bob Hope
Volokh Conspiracy: Garland’s Choice – Should He Indict Donald Trump For Inciting An Insurrection?
Weasel Zippers: CAIR Official Who Put Jewish Groups On Enemies List Says She’s The Victim Of “Zionist Onslaught”, Goes On Sabbatical, also, Despite Not Being Religion, Satanic Temple Allowed To Install Satanic Scene At Illinois State Capitol
The Federalist: Joe Manchin Just Defused Build Back Bankrupt’s Inflation Bomb. 2021’s Top 10 Family Films, Biopics, & Movies You Might Have Missed, and My Toxic Masculine Life With The DudeWiper 1000
Mark Steyn: Sunday School In Drag, also, Peking Ducked

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In The Mailbox: 12.22.21

Posted on | December 23, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.22.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Mash Kyrielight dressed down for Christmas.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1574
357 Magnum: Definitely A Failure Of The Victim Selection Process
EBL: Hunting Mammoths & Your Ancient Ancestors, also, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers Under Pressure To Fire Waukesha D.A. John Chisholm
Twitchy: More Craziness From “Bishop” Swan, also, “Straight Out Of North Korea”
Louder With Crowder: White House Claims Biden (Who Coughed His Way Through A Press Conference) Is “Asymptomatic” And “Feeling Great”
Vox Popoli: Remember The Maine!, Woe To Those Who Call Evil Good, and No Heat For You
Gab News: Remembering The Reason For Christmas

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Railroading The Quacks
American Conservative: Washington Prepares To Fail In Ukraine, also, Choosing Wonder Over Wokeness
American Greatness: Fauci Urges Americans To Shun Unvaxxed Family Members At Christmas
American Power: Surging American Demand Ripples Through The Global Economy
American Thinker: Is Hillary Suggesting Civil War?
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Over 400 Fleeing Cubans Intercepted At Sea & Returned Since October, also, Administration Freezes Non-Humanitarian, Non-Commercial Aid To Cuba & Nicaragua
BattleSwarm: Brokeback Boondoggle Busted
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, Japan’s H-2A Rocket Launches Comsat, and The Barren, Rocky Terrain In The Mountains Of Gale Crater
Cafe Hayek: Still Speculating On The Silence
CDR Salamander: What Kind Of War Does Russia Want To Fight?
Da Tech Guy: Claudius The God, Italians, & Hispanic Voters
Don Surber: Manchin Gave You Forty Terrible Judges, Does Jamaal Bowman Care About Me? and Time For Biden To Be DeSantis
First Street Journal: 36, also, As Evidence Mounts That The Jab Doesn’t Stop The Spread, Some Want To Double Down On Jab Mandates
Fred On Everything: Thoughts On Two Verdicts
Gates Of Vienna: Vax Fatigue Strikes Israel, I Warned You Grandma – Now You’re For It! and Austria’s Recruiting For The Corona Stasi
The Geller Report: UK Team Including Former Pfizer VP Files Suit Against Gates, Fauci & Others For Crimes Against Humanity At The ICC, also, DC Librarian Who Made Kids Reenact Holocaust Is Failed Dem Candidate, Convicted Fraudster, & Animal Abuser
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, You’re On One Of The Pixels In This Image, and Testing 1, 2, 3…
Hollywood In Toto: Trial Of Kyle Convicts Media Of Gaslighting 101, The King’s Man Forgets Its Own Franchise, and American Underdog Co-Directors Shares The “Trust Fall” Behind Kurt Warner Biopic
The Lid: Poll Reveals A Huge Majority Of Americans Don’t Trust Big Tech With Their Data
Legal Insurrection: Pharmacy School Org Adds Commitment to Diversity & Anti-Racism To Pharmacists Oath, also, Loyola Marymount Student Allegedly Penalized For Referring To God As “He” In Assignment
Nebraska Energy Observer: Christmas Mix
Outkick: Terrell Owens – There’s Not One White Coach Who Can Recruit Like Deion Sanders, Texas A&M Forced Out Of Gator Bowl By Ridiculous COVID Rule, and Former Patriot Tells Mac Jones To “Keep Your Mouth Shut”
Power Line: The Collins Crock – WSJ Edition, Vaccination & The Contemptible Dr. Fauci, and Biden Doesn’t Follow The Science, He Cherry Picks It
Shark Tank: Death Row Inmate Proposal Sparks Opposition
Shot In The Dark: Acceptable, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlefolk, and So This Is Christmas
The Political Hat: The Twelve Posts Of Christmas (Day 10)
This Ain’t Hell: Pentagon Outlaws Online Thoughtcrime, Please Put Complaints In The Dropbox, and Woke Military Leadership
Transterrestrial Musings: Joe Manchin, Michael Flynn, and Why Falcon Succeeded
Victory Girls: Greatest Generation Gets Cancelled BY WaPo, Virginia Tech
Volokh Conspiracy: Pantsless Couponer Loses Right Of Publicity Lawsuit
Weasel Zippers: Census – U.S. Experiences slowest Population Growth Since Founding, also, Durham Is Coming For HIllary
The Federalist: Spiderman – No Way Home Is A Welcome Change From Preachy Superhero Films, also, This Season, Don’t Allow Liberals To Make You Miserable
Mark Steyn: The Dog Collars That Didn’t Bark

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Joe Biden, Blamer-in-Chief

Posted on | December 22, 2021 | Comments Off on Joe Biden, Blamer-in-Chief

The important point of His Fraudulency’s Tuesday speech was that he, Joe Biden, is not responsible for anything. Nothing is his fault, ever. Instead, everything that has gone wrong since January 20 is because of you bad people who refused to get vaccinated:

If you are not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned. You’re at a high risk of getting sick. And if you get sick, you’re likely to spread it to others, including friends and family. And the unvaccinated have a significantly higher risk of ending up in a hospital or even dying.
Almost everyone who has died from COVID-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated. . . .
Look, the unvaccinated are responsible for their own choices. But those choices have been fueled by dangerous misinformation on cable TV and social media.
You know, these companies and personalities are making money by peddling lies and allowing misinformation that can kill their own customers and their own supporters.
It’s wrong, it’s immoral, and I call on the purveyors of these lies and misinformation to stop it. Stop it now. . . .
If you’re fully vaccinated, and especially if you got your booster shot, you are highly protected. And if you’re unvaccinated, you’re at higher risk of getting severely ill from COVID-19, getting hospitalized, and even dying.
So, the best thing to do is get fully vaccinated and get your booster shot.

Well, I’m vaccinated, but I haven’t gotten a booster shot for the simple reason that I don’t need a booster, at least not yet. What happened with the late-summer surge of infections — the Delta variant wave — was that people who had gotten their shots early in the year had passed the six-month window of effectiveness. But I didn’t get vaccinated until August/September, so I’m OK through February or March.

At the same time, however, I am beginning to suspect that what’s really going on here is that the vaccine manufacturers made so many doses they exceeded the demand, and so they’ve enlisted the Biden administration to promote the idea of “boosters” as a way of unloading excess inventory (and making extra profit). And I realize that in voicing this suspicion, I may be joining the ranks of purveyors of “misinformation,” in the eyes of those who believe everything Joe Biden says, but my suspicion about this “booster” business — i.e., a racket to pad the pockets of Big Pharma — has been growing for a while because, frankly, the only reason I got vaccinated in the first place was because I got tired of being cited as a statistic and threatened with sanctions.

The demonized category of “the unvaccinated” is being employed in Democrat/media rhetoric as a scapegoat and, while I’ve never been an anti-vaxxer of any sort, by late summer I could see where this rhetoric was leading. So rather than being cited as a statistic — another unvaccinated white male Republican! — I was like, “Screw you.” And in another couple of months, if the pandemic is still raging, I reckon I’ll get my booster, too. Nobody can point the finger at me as the scapegoat infecting friends and family. At the same time, however, I’m dubious about the Emergency Health Crisis mode of rhetoric about COVID-19 that has accompanied the arrival of the Omicron variant.

After 20 months of this constant crisis-mongering, I think I’m probably not the only one who’s thinking, well, if it hasn’t killed me yet, it’s probably never going to kill me. Pandemic fatigue, so to speak.

Don’t tell me about The Science. This is really about The Politics, and more specifically The Politics of Blame, because Democrats are trying to distract the public from the catastrophic failure that is the Biden presidency. So they wrote this speech, with its veiled allusion to Fox News (“dangerous misinformation on cable TV”), leaving me to wonder what specific “misinformation” Biden’s speechwriters had in mind. I haven’t been watching Fox News regularly in recent weeks, but if there was some specific misinformation Joe wanted to call out, why didn’t he name names? Tucker Carlson? Sean Hannity? Laura Ingraham? Who was it spreading this “dangerous misinformation”?

No, there’s just this vague accusation, without details, so that the Democratic voters listening to Joe’s speech can imagine that Fox News is 24/7 vaccine “misinformation,” in quite the same way that they imagine who the “unvaccinated” are — it’s those Evil Right-wing Republicans!

Saboteurs! Wreckers! Kulaks!

Totalitarian hate propaganda, is what this is. Commissar Joe is going to protect workers from those evil unvaccinated kulaks:

Last week, the federal court reinstated my administration’s vaccination-or-test — the vaccination-or-test rule for businesses with more than 100 employees.
The rule requires employers with 100 or more employees to protect their workers who are on site and indoors with a requirement that they be vaccinated or tested each week or go home.
These rules are going to keep workers safe.

See? He’s keeping you safe, workers! Commissar Joe is going to hunt down those unvaccinated people and punish them, to keep you safe.

All these people who have not been vaccinated, you have an obligation to yourselves, to your family, and, quite frankly — I know I’ll get criticized for this — to your country.
Get vaccinated now. It’s free. It’s convenient. I promise you, it saves lives. And I, honest to God, believe it’s your patriotic duty.
Another question folks are asking is: What can you do to make yourself and your family feel safer and be safer? The answer is simple: Get your booster shot. Wear a mask.

It’s your obligation, your patriotic duty to obey Commissar Joe.

Get your booster — it’s “free,” because Pfizer’s got unlimuited access to U.S. taxpayer dollars — and wear your mask, because The Science.

What bothers me most about this is the fact that tens of millions of Americans actually believe all this stuff Biden keeps saying. Despite all the “breakthrough” cases, despite the apparently endless parade of new variants, despite the obvious fact that the survival rate for COVID-19 is somewhere near 99%, and despite the fact that nearly all the most vulnerable people (i.e., the elderly) have been obedient to every command of the Pandemic Police, the administration and its media allies won’t abandon their project of endlessly hectoring the rest of us to do our “patriotic duty,” as if we are too stupid to tie our own shoelaces without their instructions. And yet there are still these millions of people who listen to these insulting lectures and say, “Yeah! You tell ’em, Joe!”

Some people just have low self-esteem, I reckon. But as for me, the day has not yet arrived in which I need lectures about morality from Joe Biden, and I don’t think that day will arrive anytime soon.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!




 

In The Mailbox: 12.21.21

Posted on | December 22, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.21.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Consort Yu getting dressed up to discover Christmas with Xiang Yu.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Breakdown Of Order In Chicago
EBL: Asshats Of The Day, also, Scrooge Was A Woke Progressive
Twitchy: “Are You Really This Stupid?”, also, Glenn Greenwald Reacts To Retired Generals Writing “Borderline Fascist” Op-Ed
Louder With Crowder: Kyle Rittenhouse – “Media Accountability Is Coming”, also, Henry Winkler Wants The Lincoln Project To Attack Joe Manchin
Vox Popoli: Hospitals As Hit Men, CIPS+SPFS, and Sauron’s Mouth Speaks

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: “Hugging It Out” With Russia
American Greatness: Trump To Hold Press Conference On 1/6 To Discuss “Rigged” 2020 Elections, also, Pentagon Issues New Guidance On “Extremist Behavior” In The Ranks
American Thinker: Three Retired Generals Loudly Demand Military Coup In 2024, also, The Role Of Churches During COVID
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Enough Is Enough News
Babalu Blog: Where Is Cuba Headed?
Baldilocks: Expecting The Good
BattleSwarm: Ron DeSantis Unloads On Critical Race Theory
Behind The Black: Pushback Against Blacklists, SpaceX Launches Cargo Dragon To ISS Using New First Stage, and FAA Approves Application For Launchpad In Camden, GA
Cafe Hayek: Phil Magness On Collins’ & Fauci’s Assault On Science, also, Compared To Lockdowns
CDR Salamander: Germany’s Coming Cold, Expensive & Dangerous Experiment
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Don Surber: Manchin Shows Biden’s Dangerous, Monkeys Kill Puppies – Libs Side With Monkeys, and Democrats Blame Inflation On Stores, Not Government Policies
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Fred On Everything: Another Bright Idea From The Yankee Capital, also, Tales About an LGBTQ Legal Landmark & Other DC Porn
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The Geller Report: DeSantis Says No, also, The Lancet Skewers “Pandemic Of The Unvaxxed” Narrative As Noxious Propaganda
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Just A Thought, and His Lips Will be Moving
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The Lid: Meaner Than Any Of Trump’s “Mean Tweets” 
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Michelle Malkin: Say His Name – Lee Keltner
Nebraska Energy Observer: Deck The Halls, also, Tis The Season!
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Power Line: Big Grocery? Seriously?, The Collins Crock, and Inside The Democrats’ Circular Firing Squad
Shark Tank: DeSantis Accused Of Promoting “State-Sponsored” Attacks On Women In Politics
Shot In The Dark: The Wrong Side Of “Right”, I Needed A Cool Symbol, and Loss Of Focus
STUMP: I Come To Bury Build Back Better, And To Dance On Its Grave
The Political Hat: Twelve Posts Of Christmas (Day 9)
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Volokh Conspiracy: Things Get Worse At The University Of Illinois In Chicago 
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The Federalist: Democrats Prepare To Dump Joe Biden Now That He’s Served His Purpose, Can The U.S. Military Still Protect Americans?, and New Videos Capture Pennsylvania Officials Hiding Evidence Of Alleged Election Fraud
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Joe Manchin Wrecks ‘Build Back Better,’ Ruins Christmas for Democrats

Posted on | December 21, 2021 | Comments Off on Joe Manchin Wrecks ‘Build Back Better,’ Ruins Christmas for Democrats

Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) are wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth in impotent fury at the West Virginia senator who refused to let them join in any reindeer games:

The White House accused Sen. Joe Manchin III of a double-cross on President Biden’s mammoth social welfare and climate change legislation.
In a fiery statement, White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki rebuked the West Virginia Democrat for making an “inexplicable reversal” days after pledging support for the $1.75 trillion social welfare bill.
“On Tuesday of this week, Senator Manchin came to the White House and submitted — to the president, in person, directly — a written outline for a Build Back Better bill that was the same size and scope as the President’s framework, and covered many of the same priorities,” Ms. Psaki said. “While that framework was missing key priorities, we believed it could lead to a compromise acceptable to all.”
The statement was released to the public shortly after Mr. Manchin told “Fox News Sunday” he had struggled for months over whether to support the bill but ultimately could not.
“I’ve always said this, but if I can’t go home and explain to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it,” said Mr. Manchin. “And I cannot vote to continue this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there … This is a no.” . . .
“Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework ‘in good faith,’” Ms. Psaki said. “If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate.”

Oh, he breached his “commitments,” did he? What about Joe Biden’s “commitments”? Wasn’t the basic thrust of his election campaign that he was a moderate? And yet Biden has (or rather, his handlers have) spent most of the past year attempting to ram through a radical policy agenda dictated by the AOC/Bernie Sanders wing of the party.

Like spoiled children denied a treat, Democrats are now stomping their feet and screeching uncontrollably as they vent their rage at Manchin.

AOC is as ignorant of geography and demographics as is she is of everything else, and it apparently has not occurred to her that whatever the relative size of their constituencies, she and Joe Manchin represent very different kinds of people with very different interests. Like, how many bisexual cat ladies are there in West Virginia, compared to NY-14? And I’m pretty sure there are very few coal miners in the Bronx.

And then there was this pleasant celebrity emission:

Unlike AOC, at least Bette Midler got some facts right: The population of Brooklyn (2.6 million) is larger than West Virginia, but does anyone really believe there is less illiteracy, poverty and drug addiction in Brooklyn than in West Virginia? Last time I checked, Bette Midler had sold her $50 million Fifth Avenue penthouse and was living in bucolic Dutchess County, so I don’t why she’s choosing Brooklyn as her reference point, except that a lot of liberals live there. She later apologized for insulting West Virginians, but not for hating Manchin, who has become a Trump-like scapegoat figure in the minds of liberals who can’t seem to understand why they couldn’t ram their $2 trillion scam through the Senate. Political failure always leads to this kind of hunt for scapegoats; whenever Republicans lose an election, the party establishment starts lashing out at “evangelicals” and other right-wing “extremists” whom they blame for the defeat. Democrats never blame their own “extremists,” however, because that would be racist. So instead Democrats now explain their failure by turning Manchin into a demonized representative of all those STUPID REDNECK HILLBILLIES they hate so much.

Merry Freaking Christmas, losers.




 

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