The Other McCain

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

FMJRA 2.0: Rogers Hornsby Was Right About That, Anyway

Posted on | December 18, 2022 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Rogers Hornsby Was Right About That, Anyway

— compiled by Wombat-socho

People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. – Rogers Hornsby

Well, it’s all over for this year. My Senators finished 61-101, nine games worse than the historical team, but then Ted’s boys didn’t have to cope with the Giants, Reds and Pirates. We were 2-20 against those National League squads, and I think we would have fared better if we’d only had to play the American League teams. None of my starters had a winning record; Jim Kaat came closest at 11-13, while in the bullpen Jim Bouton was 6-1-1 and Moe Drabowsky 5-8-21 with ten blown saves. As for my hitters, acquiring Steve Garvey and Willie Mays in trades helped a little, but in the end we only scored 582 runs while allowing 836, and you can’t win ballgames like that. I guess I can console myself that I wasn’t the worst team in the league – Montreal finished 57-102.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Our long national nightmare is over…until spring ’71.

Crazy People Are Dangerous (and Keep Getting Shot by Cops in Detroit)
357 Magnum
EBL

#TwitterGate Update: Shadowbanning Is Real, and Vijaya Gadde Lied About It
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

The Other Podcast
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Mental Door
A View From The Beach
EBL

Florida ‘Predator’ Charged With Murder After Girl Dies From Fentanyl Overdose
357 Magnum
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Mrs. Verlander Goes To New York
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL

The ‘Misinformation’ Crisis
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.12.22
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.13.22
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
EBL

Fire Matt Patricia?
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.15.22 (Afternoon Edition)
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 12.15.22 (Evening Edition)
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Late Night With In The Mailbox: 12.16.22
Proof Positive
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Top linkers for the week ending December 17:

  1.  EBL (14)
  2.  357 Magnum (10)
  3.  A View From The Beach (9)
  4.  Proof Positive (5)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Last-Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Posted on | December 17, 2022 | Comments Off on Last-Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

Click the link to order your T-shirt now, commemorating one of the worst terrorist attacks in American history. We all remember that fateful Christmas Eve in 1988, when the nation was gripped by fear as notorious international terrorist Hans Gruber (who was German, you know, despite speaking with a distinctly British accent) and his gang held dozens of hostages inside LA’s famous Nakatomi Plaza. Those of us who watched it still remember the feeling of shock — it was so incredible that we couldn’t believe it was actually happening — followed by the sense of relief and gratitude as we learned that the hostages (most of them, anyway) had been rescued by the heroic New York City Police Lt. John McClane (who, by an amazing coincidence, happened to be visiting his estranged wife Holly, a Nakatomi executive who was attending the party).

This is why, every year during the holiday season, patriotic Americans have been showing the documentary film Die Hard to our children, so that the memory of this night of heroism — when McClane, with the courageous help of LAPD Sgt. Al Powell, showed us all the true meaning of Christmas — will never be forgotten.

During our family’s annual commemoration of that historic night, one of the younger children — now including our grandkids — is sure to ask, “Grandpa, did it really happen that way?”

To which I answer, “Of course. And reindeer can fly, you know.”

Shop our Amazon links, and have a “yippee-ki-yay” Christmas.

NEVER FORGET 12/24



 

Category: Christmas

Propaganda, ‘Misinformation’ and Other Lessons From Communist History

Posted on | December 17, 2022 | 3 Comments

“Marxism criticizes the achievements of all those who think otherwise by representing them as the venal servants of the bourgeoisie. Marx and Engels never tried to refute their opponents with argument. They insulted, ridiculed, derided, slandered, and traduced them, and in the use of these methods their followers are not less expert. Their polemic is directed never against the argument of the opponent, but always against his person.”
— Ludwig von Mises, 1922

Everything you need to know about the motives and methods of the 21st-century Left can be learned from studying 20th-century Communism. What Mises said about Marx and Engels, and the ad hominem quality of their rhetoric — slander and insults, rather than actual arguments — was even more true of Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, et al. Having once seized power, the Bolsheviks immediately proceeded to suppress all potential rivals. Within a month, they established the Cheka (predecessor of the NKVD and, later, the KGB) and appointed Felix Dzerzhinsky as its leader. Eight months later, the Red Terror began in earnest, and within a matter of weeks, the Bolsheviks had summarily executed more victims than were sentenced to death in the entire preceding century by the Tzarist regime.

Lenin had a habit of sending telegrams urging more executions — round up 100 kulaks and hang them in public, to “make an example of these people” — and such state-sponsored mass murder was committed without any semblance of justice. No trials, no evidence, no witnesses, no testimony — just round up some “class enemies” and kill them, for the sake of intimidating the survivors. The Bolshevik regime was baptized in the blood of innocents, with the executions averaging 500 a week for four years, from 1918 to 1922. After the German socialist Karl Kautsky published a pamphlet criticizing the unprecedented and systematic brutality of the Bolsheviks, Trotsky replied with a polemic, Communism and Terrorism (Anti-Kautsky), justifying the Red Terror as a necessity:

Intimidation is a powerful weapon of policy, both internationally and internally. War, like revolution, is founded upon intimidation. A victorious war, generally speaking, destroys only an insignificant part of the conquered army, intimidating the remainder and breaking their will. The revolution works in the same way: it kills individuals, and intimidates thousands.

This was published in 1920, about midway through the Red Terror, and certainly Trotsky at that time could not have believed that the deadly instruments of revolutionary terrorism would one day be turned against him, as he was finally murdered by one of Stalin’s agents. But such is the logic of radicalism which, unable to refute its critics, instead resorts to slander and which ultimately must resort to mass murder as “a powerful weapon of policy.” And nothing has really changed in the Left’s methods, despite the collapse of the Soviet Union. American Democrats now support the arrest and incarceration of their enemies for daring to protest an election that the protesters believed to have been stolen and, in a remarkable feat of rhetorical jiu-jitsu, it is the protesters who are accused of being enemies of Our Democracy, rather than the officials who demand such prosecutions (and who advocate censorship of any criticism). We have not yet reached the point of telegrams to the secret police demanding public hangings of kulaks, but be patient.

All of that is preamble to David Strom’s take on “prebunking”:

The other day I wrote a piece about how the Left can’t argue anymore. My thesis was pretty simple: because they have owned the cultural means of production so long they have lost the need for or ability to argue things logically.
I still believe that. Having rarely been exposed to a conservative argument that [they] haven’t been able to dismiss merely through repeated ridicule the Left pretty much only engages in ad hominem attacks. Even very smart prominent Lefties . . . seem incapable of doing much more than insulting their opponents any more. It all boils down to Bad Orange Man or MAGA simps. . . .
But I ran into a slightly different perspective on the matter while cruising Twitter, and I think it deserves consideration: sometimes, at least, the person throwing out an absurd take isn’t actually hoping to convince you of anything. They are, rather, trying to discredit the source and do nothing more. The ad hominem attack is the only point — to destroy the credibility of their opponent, without actually convincing you of any particular argument.

Sic semper hoc — nothing has changed in the century since Mises succinctly described the rhetorical methods of Marx and Engels. You can study the history of “McCarthyism” (where the most prominent public enemy of Communism was defamed and destroyed, in order to prevent further exposure of Communist infiltration) and see where these methods have been practiced in the past. The example chosen by Strom, in which Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D., falsely accuses Elon Musk of promoting “QAnon” conspiracy theories, is typical of such methods. Because Musk has ended the Left’s control of Twitter (thus threatening their power to suppress opposition), he is an enemy who must be destroyed, and any slander will do, no matter how implausible it may be.

The claim by the Left that their opponents traffic in “misinformation” and conspiracy theories is, as Strom says, part of their effort “to destroy the credibility of their opponents,” no different than Trotsky’s attack on the socialist Karl Kautsky who, because he criticized the Red Terror, was denounced as an “enemy of the proletariat.” Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it, and is anyone really surprised that our education system — controlled by Democrats — doesn’t teach anything useful about the bloody history of Communism?

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)



 

Category: History

Late Night With In The Mailbox: 12.16.22

Posted on | December 17, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts, also, maybe, a book post.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

…and now, a little chillwave.

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Ronna McDaniels Squandering Money at the RNC, Giant Berlin Aquarium Bursts, and Don’t Cry For Me John Boehner
Twitchy: Elon Musk Trolls The Press On Freedom Of Speech, Tucker Carlson Roasts Adam Kinzinger For Fury Over Catturd Meme, and Super “Patriot” Ex-LTC Vindman DEMANDS Elon Musk Explain Himself
Louder With Crowder:  Elon Musk hops on Spaces, informs whiny woke journalists they aren’t special and the rules apply to them too, also, Elon Musk lays out his reasons for suspending alleged ‘journalists’ from Twitter
Vox Popoli:  Free Speech Was Always Fake, also, We Don’t KNOW It Was the Vaxx
According To Hoyt: A Forgotten Sale And An HR Complaint, Comfort and Safety, and Hurty Speech
Monster Hunter Nation: WriterDojo S3 E22: Titles (& Why We Suck At Them)
Stoic Observations: The Subway Bike Story
Gab News: Musk Is In Over His Head

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Cathedral Turns Torquemada On Elon Musk, also, Congress Wages Total War on America’s Interests
American Greatness: First-Ever Emmy Awards for Children Heavily Pushes LGBT Content, also, Senate Votes Against Measure to Reinstate Troops Kicked Out over COVID Vaccines
American Thinker: Creative Historical Interpretations Are Not History, also, What the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ Really Respects
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Climate Cult Friday
Babalu Blog: Cuban dictatorship thanks the U.S. for $2 million in aid with no strings attached, Cuban priest speaks out, condemns the lack of religious freedom in Cuba, New study claims small number of Cuban natives survived Spain’s genocidal massacres, and Surprise! Havana Cuba wins major prize: ‘Slowest Internet on Planet Earth’
Baldilocks: Why Firefly Got Shot Down
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For December 16, 2022
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches oceanography satellite, Ingenuity completes 36th flight; preps for its 37th, Astronomers determine that two super-Earths are not as rocky as previously believed, and The edge of the Martian south pole ice cap
Cafe Hayek: How ‘Nature’ Has Fallen, also, Daniele Struppa on the ‘Degrowth’ Paper
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: If It Wasn’t For Double Standards
Don Surber: “You’re not special because you’re a journalist.”, also, 249 years ago, the Boston Tea Party begat a revolution
First Street Journal: Killadelphia, also, I take no joy in seeing Washington Post employees getting laid off
Gates Of Vienna: Solipsism in the 21st Century, Get Vaxed or Get Brain Damage!, and And Unto Us a Vax is Given
The Geller Report: Twitter Suspends Reporters from CNN, NYT, WaPo for ‘Doxxing’ Musk’s Family, also, Hear Freedom Ring! Pamela Geller is Back on Twitter
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, The Wheel of Karma, Yelling, “Theatre!” at a Crowded Fire, and I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Hollywood In Toto: Dozed and Confused Shares Laughs, Hope and a Classic Roger Ebert Story, Right-leaning Private American gets canceled by Kickstarter, Daily Kos, and Kirk Cameron Mulls Lawsuits Against Drag Queen-Friendly Libraries
The Lid: Happy Birthday Bill of Rights, also, Majority of Democrats Are Saying ‘No’ to Biden 2024
Legal Insurrection: STEM Is DEI-ing, How to Fight Critical Race Theory Legally and Successfully, Five Left-Wing Activists Arrested for Domestic Terrorism in Georgia, #TwitterFiles Part Six: “Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary”, and Yeshiva University Must Recognize LGBTQ Club, Appeals Court Rules
Nebraska Energy Observer: Twitter, Free Speech, and the Wonder of the Internet
Outkick: Fan Denies Threatening Draymond Green, Says Police Back Him Up, Miami Redhawks Honor Mike Leach With Pirate-Inspired Decal During Bahamas Bowl, SMU Surprised To See All The Wives Of BYU Players At Bowl Game: ‘That’s Different’, Trent Dilfer Spends Day 1 On Job Showing UAB Cheerleader His Super Bowl Ring At Bahamas Bowl, and Aaron Rodgers’ Alleged Girlfriend, Blu of Earth, Is Stuck In Peru & It Might Be Over Between These Two
Power Line: A Twitter Files footnote, An Updated Lexicon, and Elon Agonistes [Updated]
Shark Tank: Rep. Byron Donalds Calls Out Murder Turtle For Omnibus Spending Compromise
Shot In The Dark: It Seems Appropriate, also, The Real Authoritarians Debate Part I – Defining The Terms
The Political Hat: 12 Posts of Christmas, 2022 (Day 4)
This Ain’t Hell: U.S. Army to train 500 Ukrainian troops a month in Germany starting in January 2023, CDC removes pro-gun findings under pressure from Gun Control groups, ‘Survivor’ Winner’s Class Act, Russian troll strikes Valor Guardians!, and Valor Friday
Transterrestrial Musings: California’s “Assault Weapons” Ban, Try, Try Again, Silicon-Valley Fraudsters, Ron DeSantis, and Brian Binnie
Victory Girls: Twitter Is Just The Tip Of The Big Tech Leviathan
Volokh Conspiracy: An Assessment of the Oral Argument in 303 Creative
Watts Up With That: Elevated Living Standards Contradict Climate Doomsayers, also, Claim: Computer Models Predict a Third of Vertebrates will Die by 2100
Weasel Zippers: Biden: U.S. Taxpayers To Pay South Africa $8 Billion To Shut Down Their Coal Power Plants, Providence To Fix Racism With $10 Million Payout For Slavery Reparations, Special K Claims The Trump Administration “Completely Gutted” The Immigration System, and Iran Halts Funding For Palestinian Terror Groups… Joe Biden, Not So Much
The Federalist: No, It’s Not ‘Fair-Minded’ To Defend ‘Journalists’ Who Use Twitter To Dox Their Political Enemies, Fight ‘Zuckbucks’ With Laws, Not Lawsuits, Is HBO’s White Lotus A Reactionary Masterpiece?, EXCLUSIVE: West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore Joins Calls For BlackRock CEO Larry Fink To Resign, and Leftists Call Free Speech ‘Violence’ To Mute Critics Of Barbaric Transgender Surgeries For Kids
Mark Steyn: You Gotta Have Heart!

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Category: Linkagery

Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning

Posted on | December 16, 2022 | Comments Off on Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning

Aaron Rupar was among several left-wing journalists whose Twitter accounts got suspended Thursday for promoting the “doxxing” of Elon Musk’s private jet. Having been permanently suspended myself — for nothing — all I can say is, “Gosh, it’s terrible what’s happening to you.”

When I say I was suspended “for nothing,” what I mean is that the reason given — “participating in targeted abuse” — provided no explanation specific enough that it could be challenged, and this rule had been concocted just a few months prior to my February 2016 suspension. It seems that the “targeted abuse” rule was intended to shield various SJWs who, by their obnoxious behavior, had attracted swarms of Twitter critics (e.g., “A Tattoo-Covered, Mentally Ill Ex-Stripper Whose Real Name Is Chelsea Van Valkenburg”). Certainly some of these people suffered what could fairly be called “abuse,” but the accusation of “participating” in such abuse is broad enough to implicate lots of people through guilt-by-association. So if someone with tens of thousands of followers (as I had on my @rsmccain account) happens to RT something about such a target, he can be accused of “participating,” even if (a) the message he retweeted wasn’t abusive and (b) he himself had otherwise scarcely paid any attention to the person claiming to be a victim of abuse.

Because the “Trust & Safety” crew at Twitter was apparently 100% left-wing, it was always conservatives who had to fear banishment for Thought Crimes, and now that Elon Musk has started cleaning house, the Left is claiming victimhood because not only have they lost the power to silence their enemies, they themselves are now at risk of being silenced for engaging in abusive behavior that they’ve become accustomed to dishing out, but never taking. Aaron Rupar was among those leftists who celebrated the banning of their opponents, and it is thus impossible for me to stop gloating that the shoe is now on the other foot.

Many others share my sentiments, obviously.



 

Category: Liberals, Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 12.15.22 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | December 16, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.
OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Binance – Prosecuting Us Would Be Bad For Business
EBL: It is a good thing that Thom Tillis is a failure, also, Trump Thursday Trading Tank
Twitchy: Cue Lefty Meltdown While People Guess Why Aaron Rupar Got B&, also, Insane Has-Been Sports Guy, Other Leftists Also Get The Boot From Twitter
Louder With Crowder: I am leaving The Blaze (Mug Club Forever)
Vox Popoli: When Jordan Took the Ticket, Creepy Creeps Creeping Creepily, and Bad News, Equalitarians
Gab News: Welcome To The New Rome

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Air Raids On and Off the Field, also, Trump Emigrates To Clown World
American Greatness: Two Antithetical Billionaires, DeSantis Launches Full-Throttle Accountability Investigations into COVID Vaccines, and Exclusive: GOP-Controlled House Judiciary Committee Plans to Hold Numerous Hearings Examining FBI Whistleblower Disclosures
American Thinker: Arizona 2022 Midterm Elections and Election Fraud – Ballot Harvesting, also, Biden’s New Authoritarians Prioritize Gender Transition over Religious Liberty
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Elder Abuse News
Babalu Blog: RSF 2022 press freedoms report lists Cuba dead last in Latin America, Sen. Marco Rubio calls on FCC to deny Cuba an undersea internet cable connection to the U.S., and Cuba Thaw 2.0: Biden admin making ‘discrete progress’ in talks with Cuba’s dictatorship
BattleSwarm: Texas Nurse Practitioner Sues VA Over Being Forced To Support Abortions
Behind The Black: Soyuz manned capsule docked to ISS is apparently leaking something, Red China launches classified remote sensing satellite, France orders Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Russian channels, and Today’s blacklisted American: Conservative students and pro-speech law firm slandered and threatened at University of Kansas
Cafe Hayek: Communicating Economics, also, A Sure Cure for “Eco-Anxiety”
CDR Salamander: Meeting the Demand Signal
Da Tech Guy: Five Quick Thoughts Under the Fedora, also, Four fundamental constitutional truths most Americans are no longer aware of
Don Surber:  Facing layoffs, WaPo staffers go nuts, also, Trump was right about TikTok
First Street Journal: #Climapocracy! Pete Buttigieg wants us all to reduce our carbon emissions, but he takes a jet every 3½ days, also, More public school failure in Kentucky
Gates Of Vienna: Our Transhuman Future, Culture-Enriching World Cup Riots in the Netherlands (And France), and The Windmills of my Mind
The Geller Report: Zelenskyy’s Wife Drops $40,000 in Christmas Shopping Spree in Paris
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Io in IR, and “On Track,” But Where To?
Hollywood In Toto: Oz Spinoff Gale Speaks Directly to Horror Fans, also, Chelsea Handler Denies Cancel Culture Exists. Tell it to Tom Papa
The Lid: Rampant Retail Theft In Big Box Stores Forcing Raised Prices And Closing Locations
Legal Insurrection: Red China Quickly Accelerates from ‘Zero Covid’ to Having Numerous COVID Cases, Special K Blames Trump for Border Crisis, Claims Biden is Securing the Border, Energy Dept. has Given Over $10 Million to Green Energy Company Connected to Red Chinese ‘State-Owned Entity’, and Ben & Jerry’s Ends Its Dispute With Unilever Over Ice Cream Brand Sales In Israel
Nebraska Energy Observer: Luke 12:2 – 3
Outkick: Richard Sherman Tries To Kick Seattle Radio Host Off His Own Show, Refuses To Answer Question, Frustration And Jealousy Boils Amongst Top College Basketball Programs As Late NIL Payments, Unkept Promises Stack Up, Lawsuit Names Aqib Talib Concerning Murder Of Youth Football Coach, Claims Ex-NFL Player Started Fight That Led To Death, Brock Purdy Proves Nick Saban Wrong After Calling Out Alabama Coach For Not Knowing Who He Was During Recruiting Visit, Tampa Bay Rays Acquire Minor League Pitcher Who Is Legally Blind At 20/300 Vision, and Ohio State Reportedly Getting Outbid For Recruits By A Huge Margin
Power Line: The Daily Chart: Charge Ahead?, Anatomy of a Fraud, and Notes on the Twitter Files, cont’d
Shark Tank: Mills Seeks To Criminalize Inappropriate Education Material
Shot In The Dark: Evolution, also, Circling The Drain
STUMP: Mortality with Meep: Ranking the States by COVID age-adjusted death rates
The Political Hat: 12 Posts of Christmas, 2022 (Day 3)
This Ain’t Hell: Man Convicted in Shooting Death of Navy Midshipman’s Mother, Ukraine secures release of US military veteran in prisoner swap with Russia, Still looking for a last minute XMas gift? We have you covered!, and Police officers repeatedly punch a U.S. Army veteran during traffic stop
Transterrestrial Musings: Eugene Volokh, The Orbital Debris Problem, Two Antithetical Billionaires, and The Fifth Estate
Victory Girls: Does Trump Really Want The Presidency Again?
Volokh Conspiracy: Today in Supreme Court History: December 15, 1791
Watts Up With That: Holy C^%@, Authoritarian Evil of ESG Emerges at Texas Hearing, also, Green Germany Haemorrhaging €1.5 Billion per DAY to Keep the Lights On
Weasel Zippers: Biden Offers Africa $55 Billion For America’s “Original Sin”, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) Says He’s “Hopeful” Biden Will Run In 2024 As 70% Of Americans Say He Shouldn’t, Detroit Beclowns Itself, and COVID Origins Tied To China’s Bioweapons Program
The Federalist: Why The Redefinition Of The Word ‘Woman’ Matters, 7 Easy Things You Can Do To Keep Christ At The Center Of Your Christmas, Social Media Is Making You A Worse Person, and U.S. Intelligence Agencies Are Keeping Key Information About Covid Origins From Congress
Mark Steyn: Exporting Knowledge, Nursing Diversity, and Live Around the Planet: Friday December 16th

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 12.15.22 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | December 15, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.15.22 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #1931
357 Magnum: Math Is Hard, But It Is NOT This Hard
EBL: Poser Pete’s Public Paid For Plane, Mike Leach, RIP, and Has FTX’s Caroline Ellison flipped on Democrat Megadonor Sam Bankman Fried?
Twitchy: Taylor Lorenz Tries Denying Her Very Very Privileged Background, Gets Rekt By Own Tweets
Louder With Crowder: Elon Musk confirms “prosecute Fauci” was a preview of new information he’ll be releasing
Vox Popoli: Subversion and Perversion, Why Russia Will Defeat Clown World, Amazon Doubles Down, and Of All The Words
Stoic Observations: The Senegalese Suicide

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Latest Australian False Flag
American Conservative: You’ll Own Nothing, and Hate It, also, You Were Right About Twitter
American Greatness: The Wasteland of Leftist Compassion, also, Sam Brinton Released on $15,000 Bond After Judge Warns Him to ‘Stay Out of Trouble’
American Thinker: Election-Fraud Corruption Is Deeper than Anyone Can Imagine
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: How to defend yourself from the Cubans: Alvarez Guedes on the strength of Coño
BattleSwarm: Tilt-Rotor, Take Two
Behind The Black: Rwanda and Nigeria to sign Artemis Accords, The first launch of Red China’s Zhuque-2 rocket ends in failure, Space Force and ROK set up joint office to monitor Norks, and Today’s blacklisted American: Book touting Judeo-Christian values blacklisted from libraries
Da Tech Guy: The Kindest Word I Can Use is “Coward”, also, The Great Christian Paradox
Don Surber: Is Occasional Cortex headed for an Oscar?, also, Groomer is the word of the year
First Street Journal: Killadelphia, also, Bidenflation
The Geller Report: Execrable Republican Mitch McConnell Blames Trump For His Own Failures and Treachery, also, Judge Orders Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs to Appear at Emergency Court Hearing Over Election Lawsuit
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Zooming in on the Galactic Center, and WaPo Announces Layoffs Are Coming
Hollywood In Toto: Avatar: The Way of Water Offers Subversive Defense of Nuclear Family
The Lid: Gov. Ron DeSantis Asks Grand Jury to Probe Wrongdoing Over COVID Vax, also, Russia Now Executing Its Own Soldiers For…
Legal Insurrection: Ex-DOE Pervo Sam Brinton Appears in Las Vegas Court, The Battle for RNC Chair is Getting Tricky for Ronna McDaniel, Kansas Universities Might Scrap College Algebra Requirement Since 1 Out of 3 Students Fail It the First Time, Florida Cop Overdosed on Fentanyl After Exposure During Traffic Stop, and GOP Rep. Nancy Mace Confronts Trans Activist With Her Own Dangerous Rhetoric
Nebraska Energy Observer: Snow in the Smoke
Outkick: Tom Brady Being Sued By Patriots Fan Who Poured Life Savings Into FTX, Tennessee WR Jalin Hyatt Opts Out Of Orange Bowl After Signing NIL Deal With Hyatt Hotels To Help With Team’s Travel Expenses, Top Transfer QB Snubs Louisville For Return To G5 Level After Signing New NIL Deal, Exemplifies Modern Era Of College Football, Mississippi State Drops Emotional Mike Leach Tribute Video, and ‘Conspiracy’: Charles Barkley Torches The Lakers
Power Line: The Daily Chart: The Health Care Admin Blob, Not liking it, and Will Anyone Pay a Price for Suppressing Freedom of Speech?
Shark Tank: Florida Citrus Grower Takes $23 Million hit From Hurricane Ian
Shot In The Dark: Waiting On “Wilson Derangement”, Body Count, and Inevitable
The Political Hat: 12 Posts of Christmas, 2022 (Day 2)
This Ain’t Hell: Hump Day Shorts – Brinton, Doggy Mask, Relieved commanders, Fallujah, Indictment unsealed on Marine veteran accused of training Chinese military pilots, and Americans Charged in Russia Arms Ring
Transterrestrial Musings: Biden’s Return To Normalcy, Medieval Feudalism, and Avatar, The Way Of Water
Victory Girls: Media Now Begging Biden To Not Die On Them
Volokh Conspiracy: Did the Fourteenth Amendment Alter the Meaning of the Second Amendment?
Watts Up With That: Virginia Agrees to Compensate Fishing Industry for Damage from Offshore Wind, also, More Climate Misinformation and Factual Errors in the Seattle Times. Should You Care?
Weasel Zippers: Norwegian Lesbian Artist Faces Criminal Charges For Saying Men Cannot Be Lesbians, Hollywood Lib: Biden “Most Successful” President In Last 60 Years, Not A Parody: Study Links Skipping The Covid Vaccine To Traffic Accidents, and Biden Delivers Gibberish Even As He Reads From A Giant Teleprompter
The Federalist: Democrats Court Their Newest Voting Bloc: High Schoolers, South Dakota State University Hosted A ‘Kid-Friendly’ Drag Show And Gov. Kristi Noem Is Doing Nothing About It, Ruth Marcus Is The Reason Brett Kavanaugh Would Probably Rather Not Mingle Outside ‘Friendly’ Circles, and Did Ohio Just Elect The Next Ilhan Omar?
Mark Steyn: Changing the Channel, also, A Mock Turtle on the Stuart River

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Category: Linkagery

Fire Matt Patricia?

Posted on | December 14, 2022 | 1 Comment

The New England Patriots beat the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football, a victory that moves the Patriots into the 7th spot in the playoff scenario. At 7-6 with four games left to play, right now they’d be the third wild card in the AFC, thanks to their tiebreakers against the Jets and Chargers (both also 7-6). It’s been a rough season for New England fans, primarily because the Patriots offense has been a flaming dumpster fire of ineptitude and inconsistency. The blame for this has been focused largely on assistant coach Matt Patricia, whom head coach Bill Belichick assigned the duties of offensive play-caller, even though Patricia had no previous background that would qualify him for this job.

How bad has the offense been for New England this season? So bad that, last week, Boston sportswriter Greg Bedard was hearing from his sources that Belichick’s job could be on the line in the Monday game — beat the Cardinals, or else it’s retirement time. The good news is, the Patriots won. The bad news is, the offense still sucks. And while the fans and sports talk-radio personalities in the football-crazed Boston market have mainly pointed the finger of blame at Patricia, many of them have also noticed that the responsibility ultimately rests on Belichick’s shoulders. It was Belichick’s choice, after longtime Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left to take the head coaching job with the Raiders, to hire Patricia, a former assistant for New England who failed as head coach during a three-season stint with the Detroit Lions. So if Patricia can’t get the job done running the offense, it’s Bill’s fault for hiring him.

Despite Monday’s victory, the heat is still on. To make it to the playoffs, the Patriots will have to win at least two, and probably three, of their remaining four games — Sunday on the road against the Raiders, Christmas Eve at home against the Cincinnati Bengals (9-4 and the defending AFC champions), New Year’s Day at home against the Miami Dolphins (8-5), and Jan. 8 in Buffalo against the 10-3 AFC East-leading Bills. They’re facing Murderer’s Row, really. In their last four games against the Dolphins, the Patriots are 0-4. In their last six games against the Bills, the Patriots are 1-5. So even if New England can survive against the Raiders and pull some kind of miracle upset against the Bengals, they’ll still be facing an uphill battle in their two final games against AFC East rivals. And have I mentioned their offense sucks?

New England’s rudimentary offense has been a chore to watch all season and the regression of sophomore quarterback Mac Jones is concerning. We recently said Bill Belichick’s experiment with Patricia as a play-caller has been a predictable failure, and it’s a take shared by many who cover the Patriots.
But the criticism has ramped up in recent weeks with the Patriots’ teetering on the edge of playoff contention. Fueled by in- and post-game outbursts by players — and comments from the likes of Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph — the calls for Patricia to lose his job never have been louder. And Monday night’s 27-13 road win over the Arizona Cardinals likely won’t change anything.

Exactly. Mac was the best rookie QB in the league last season, and he’s shown occasional flashes of excellence this year, despite missing three games with an ankle injury, but overall the Patriots offense has had a distinct fragrance of manure, to put it as politely as possible.

Monday night’s game illustrated the problem pretty well, If you just look at the statistics, Mac had a pretty good game — completing 24 of 35 passes (69%), marred by just one interception that wasn’t his fault (his arm got hit by a Cardinals defender while he was throwing) — and he made a few excellent throws, twice hitting tight end Hunter Henry on seam route for big gains, and overall made 13 first downs passing. But it was the defense that really won the game for New England, recording six sacks and adding an interception and a “scoop-and-score” fumble recovery for a touchdown. On the offensive side, the play-calling was . . . well, here’s Evan Lazar’s take:

It’s a work-in-progress, to put it charitably. Because of problems with their offensive line, New England has to do something to keep Mac from getting buried by blitzers, and part of the answer that Patricia has apparently found is to run a lot of screen passes. So if the opponents get too aggressive in rushing the passer, the screen pass takes advantage of that aggressiveness. And while these plays gained an average less than five yards per attempt Monday, they helped keep the Cardinals defense off-balance. And future Patriots opponents, watching the film of this game, will have to take this into account, so it may yield dividends going forward. But it’s WEEK FOURTEEN, people! Your offense shouldn’t be operating at a training-camp level this late in the season.

Oh, the agonies of being an NFL fan! Your team’s in playoff contention, and you find yourself not only rooting for your team to win, but also cheering for their potential rivals to lose. Like, it’s important to me this coming Sunday that the Lions beat the Jets and the Titans beat the Chargers. But then there are other games — Dolphins vs. Bills and Browns vs. Ravens — where I’m not certain which outcome would help the Patriots more. The main thing, of course, is that the Patriots beat the Raiders. Just win this one game, and then New England will be 8-6 with three games to go. And even if you say there’s a near-zero chance that the Patriots will win any of those last three games, miracles still happen in the NFL, and it’s at least theoretically possible that New England could win them all, to finish 11-6. For that matter, the Bills might lose all four of their remaining games, to finish 10-7, so that the Patriots still have a shot at the AFC East title — in theory, at least: “Never say never.”

Speaking of miracles, have you heard about Marcus Jones? A diminutive 5-foot-8 defensive back, Jones was drafted in the third round by the Patriots this year and was mainly expected to play on special teams his rookie season, but then the defense suffered some injuries, and the offense needed some help, too, so Marcus (to distinguish him from the three other players named Jones on the New England roster) has become dang-near the proverbial “60-Minute Man.” On defense, Marcus was in for 67 plays (89% of defensive snaps), recording seven solo tackles, two pass break-ups and an interception, and he also appeared on offense as a receiver for eight plays (14% of offensive snaps), catching one pass for 12 yards, not to mention special teams, where he returned two kickoffs and a punt for a combined 54 yards. The rookie made NFL history:

There are glimmers of light amid the pervading gloom. Even if the offense sucks, there is still room to hope. Just beat the Raiders.

And yeah, of course, eventually, fire Matt Patricia.



 

Category: Football
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