“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. … I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 6, 1944
The U.S. forces in Operation Overlord did not keep a day-by-day casualty count — which would have been an impossible task, given the circumstances — but research indicates “there were about 1,465 American deaths, 3,184 wounded, [and] 1,928 missing” on D-Day itself. Most of the combat deaths occurred on Omaha Beach, where the Americans had the misfortune of encountering part of the German 352nd Infantry Division, which had several well-sited machine-gun emplacements on high ground that put the beach under a deadly crossfire that pinned down the first two waves of troops that landed.
Because of the rough seas, many troops on Omaha came ashore hundreds of yards from their intended objectives. Many landing craft were swamped in the choppy surf, and the majority of the amphibious tanks assigned to Omaha sank before reaching the beach. Of the nine infantry companies in the first wave, only one (Company L, 16th Regimental Combat Team, 1st Division) landed in such a way as to enable the whole company “to operate as a unit. All the other companies were, at best, disorganized, mostly leaderless and pinned down . . . with no hope of carrying out their assault missions.” The first wave hit the beach shortly after 6 a.m., and at 7 a.m., the second wave came ashore:
The survivors of the first wave were unable to provide effective covering fire, and in places the fresh landing troops suffered casualty rates as high as those of the first wave. Failure to clear paths through the beach obstacles also added to the difficulties of the second wave. In addition, the incoming tide was beginning to hide the remaining obstacles, causing high attrition among the landing craft before they had reached the shore. As in the initial landings, difficult navigation caused disruptive mislandings, scattering the infantry and separating vital headquarters elements from their units.
For nearly an hour, which must have seemed an eternity for the GIs pinned down on Omaha, there was little progress. Finally, about 7:50 a.m., led by 29th Division assistant commander Brig. Gen. Norman “Dutch” Cota, the Americans made their first breakthrough. About 8:15, Col. George Taylor of the 16th Regimental Combat Team landed and famously declared: “Two kinds of people are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die — now let’s get the hell out of here!” Taylor organized the survivors and led them inland, and by 9:30, after more than three hours of fighting, Omaha had been secured.
Welcome once again to that recurring feature of the blog where I have to explain who a “celebrity” is, because this status has been extended to people who aren’t actually famous in the sense that word celebrity once designated. With so many shows on so many cable-TV channels (to say nothing of social media “influencers”) we seem to be approaching that moment once prophesied by Andy Warhol: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” The woman known as “Jacky Oh” (real Jacklyn Smith) at some point appeared on the hiphop comedy sketch show Wild ‘n Out, which originally aired on MTV but is now on VH1.
Probably not many of my readers have ever watched this show, as most of them are old enough to remember when MTV actually played music videos, which is ancient history to the 21st-century audience who know who Jacky Oh is. At any rate, it was while appearing on Wild ‘n Out in 2015 that Jacky Oh hooked up with Atlanta-based comedian John Whitfield, a/k/a “DC Young Fly,” who has over 1 million YouTube subscribers. The couple had three children, the youngest born last July.
Because I know my readership, I have researched the question I’m sure many of you are asking and, no, Jacky Oh isn’t one of those wannabe “cultural appropriators.” In interviews, she has explained that she’s only half-white, and growing up in Oakland, California, always identified more with her black father’s side of the family, which I’m sure Senator Bilbo would have expected (and perhaps even endorsed). However, we are not here to discuss the controversial opinions of long-dead Mississippi politicians, but rather to report the death of a 21st-century “celebrity”:
MTV star Jacky Oh had planned to have a “mommy makeover” surgery before her sudden death.
The former Wild N Out girl posed in a hospital gown with Dr Zachary Okhah as she boasted about her plans to go under the knife following the birth of her son Prince who was born last year.
“Getting ready for my mommy makeover with Dr Zach!! Stay tuned to my YouTube for the full reveal!” she wrote in her Instagram caption.
A mommy makeover typically includes any combination of a tummy tuck, breast augmentation, liposuction, and vaginal rejuvenation surgery. . . .
Without going into the details of such “rejuvenation,” what’s up with the apparently widespread belief that eternal youth can be (and should be) obtained through unnecessary surgical intervention? Isn’t there something vaguely creepy about this fetishization of youthfulness? Like, do we want middle-aged women running around boasting about having teenage vaginas? But anyway, now Jacky Oh’s dead:
Jacky Oh, born Jacklyn Smith, was staying at the Homewood Suites by Hilton Miami Downtown/Brickell where she was found unresponsive on the evening of May 31, according to a Miami Police Department incident report obtained by The Times. Police were dispatched and she was transported to Mercy Hospital where, despite resuscitation efforts, she was pronounced dead shortly before midnight. The case is still under investigation.
Late Wild ‘N’Out star Jacky Oh’s plastic surgeon Dr. Zach faced previous complaints from patients over alleged botched procedures, according to a new report.
Oh died this week at age 32, a BET Media Group spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE, and her cause of death has not been made public. Since then, Page Six and other outlets report that the TV star visited Zach — real name Zachary Okhah — for a “mommy makeover” before her sudden death, as she reportedly updated fans about it in a since-deleted Instagram post.
And now, the outlet reports that the PH-1 Miami surgeon had sued multiple former patients over online reviews of his procedures in the past.
Okhah’s business PH-1 Miami did not immediately to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
According to a screenshot obtained by Hollywood Unlocked, Oh posed alongside the surgeon in a photo and teased a makeover before her death, asking fans to “stay tuned to my YouTube for the full reveal.”
In the days since, Page Six reports thay Okhah previous filed lawsuits against other clients, such as Leila Penn, who he reportedly sued for more than $30,000 in July 2021.
Penn, the publication reports, alleged that the surgeon “mutilated” her in a RealSelf review — claims that Okhah allegedly called “false.” He reportedly accused his former patient of “directly engaging with” prospective clients and encouraging them to go elsewhere, but dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice in December 2021.
Additionally, Okhah filed a lawsuit in September 2021 against Kyla Neirenburg for claiming that he doesn’t have “happy patients,” Page Six reports. She claimed his reviews on Google were “fake” and “written by their own staff or friends,” and Okhah filed a suit for $30,000, per the outlet He reportedly also had the suit dismissed without prejudice in December 2021.
Hate to keep using Latin phrases, but if a woman’s pursuit of “rejuvenation” results in her being “mutilated,” well, caveat emptor.
Far be it from me to risk a libel suit by suggesting that the late Jacky Oh died because “Doctor Zach” botched her surgery and, while dead people can’t sue for libel, I have no intent to blame Jacky for her own death, because de mortuis nihil nisi bonum, but there I go with the Latin phrases again. Pending the outcome of the investigation in Miami, we don’t know who is to blame for Jacky Oh’s untimely death. And neither Andy Warhol nor Senator Bilbo could be reached for comment.
The Understatement of the Year competition just got tougher thanks to Meghan Griffin, who offered the quote above in a statement to police after an April incident at a QFC grocery story in Redmond, Washington, where her husband was found in a state of paranoia with “visible white powder on his lips” and carrying a loaded pistol. Did I forget to mention that both of the Griffins were employed as elementary school principals?
High on cocaine with a loaded gun – that’s what Redmond police say they saw when they confronted a local elementary school principal at a QFC.
The incident has now led to two elementary school principals in the Northshore School District – husband and wife, Michael and Meghan Griffin – to be placed on administrative leave.
Michael Griffin is the principal at Sunrise Elementary, while Meghan Griffin is the principal at Moorlands Elementary.
“It gives me goosebumps to kind of think that this stuff is happening,” said Aaron Gazes, a parent of a seven-year-old at Moorlands. “You have people looking up to you, it hurts bad. Because we’re down here and we’re trusting you. But the trust is just shot,” he said.
The district’s action is in response to the QFC incident that happened on April 30th.
Police documents say Mr. Griffin was “in a paranoid state likely under the influence of cocaine”. A responding corporal said Griffin had “dilated pupils”, and “visible white powder on his lips”, and was making “delusional statements.”
Griffin also “took his pistol to QFC chambered and unsecured in his front sweatshirt pocket”.
Documents say his eyes were darting around the parking lot, that Griffin at one point yelled at a stranger before his wife intervened, pointed to “uninvolved people,” and “believed his wife was in danger possibly being trafficked”. The police narrative also said Griffin had two bags filled with valuables and documents from his home that he tried to give to the Corporal to hold.
Police say Griffin was involuntarily taken to the hospital.
The district says it put Griffin on leave May 9th after learning about the incident.
Then on May 30, the district also placed his wife, Meghan Griffin, on leave. The principal at Moorlands Elementary sent out a letter to families, saying it did so because the district “became aware of statements made by Principal Meghan Griffin in a police report.”
The district doesn’t specify the content, but KIRO7 obtained the handwritten statement Meghan Griffin gave to Redmond police.
She wrote in her opening line, “Our recreational drug use began about a year ago while on vacation. It increased recently.” She went on to detail her husband’s worsening paranoia.
“Michael and I went to see our primary care doctor on March 22, 2023. The doctor told us we needed to stop the use of cocaine and that at the next check-up, the doctor would do a full workup to check for anything else that could be causing the delusions,” Meghan Griffin wrote.
Gazes says as a parent, he hopes the Northshore School District will learn from the experience.
“I leave my kid, and I trust he’s safe for the whole day. Right now I don’t,” Gazes said. “One school is enough. Two schools? I don’t want to believe something is broken within the district. I want to think it’s a one-off and someone just made a mistake and they will do whatever it takes to make right,” he said.
He’s appalled that students were under the Griffins’ leadership, while trouble — apparently involving drugs and firearms — was unfolding behind the scenes.
“If you have a problem, get help. That’s it. Until then, you cannot be around kids,” Gazes said.
Redmond police said no criminal charges were filed, but officers did apply for an Extreme Risk Protection Order, and now Griffin’s firearms are in police custody.
“The Redmond Police Department fears that Griffin’s paranoia will only continue to increase and could cause him to end up in an altercation with an uninvolved party.
Moreover, ‘Griffin’s mental state and access to firearms are made even more concerning as he is the principal at a local elementary school,” court documents said.
The school district said it can’t comment further on the incident because it’s a personnel matter, but said it will “continue investigating and take appropriate action.”
The school district can’t comment, but I can. More than a month before police found Michael Griffin ranting delusionally at the local grocery store, they went to their doctor because he was already suffering with delusional beliefs caused by his cocaine habit. Here’s a question: How much cocaine does it take to induce paranoid psychosis? And how could two public school employees afford such an expensive addiction?
A cocaine habit is not cheap, and you’ve got to be doing it pretty heavily — like, the Eagles on tour in 1977 — to reach the point where you’re in a grocery store parking lot babbling paranoid gibberish with a pistol in your pocket. How were the Griffins able to do this much coke while functioning as elementary school principals and nobody even noticed?
Why are you not following @kbdabear on the Twitters? HAVE YOU THE BRAINWORMS? The man is a public benefactor, regularly posting dozens of pics in obeisance to Rule 5, and you spuds can’t be bothered to drop by and give his posts one measly like. Shame, I say! Shame! Still, you deserve an appetizer for this double-scoop Sunday, and here’s a couple of lovely ladies from his Swimsuit Sunday tweets.
By way of belated explanation, last week’s Rule 5 Sunday was preempted by an awesome dinner at Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, well-known in Baltimore for their awesome seafood and world-wide for sticking it to PETA. (They have a “People Eating Tasty Animals” shirt for sale.) Vast quantities of excellent aquatic protein were consumed, and after I got back to the hotel I went straight to bed and passed out. Worth it. Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.
Well, the long agony of the draft is over, and play begins Tuesday. I’m thinking with this lineup I should do fine, especially in a division that includes Pete’s Mariners (oops, Brewers), the Oakland A’s, and expansion teams in Boston & Minneapolis.
C: Duke Sims/Dick Billings
1b: Mike “Super Jew” Epstein
2b: Cookie Rojas/Mike Andrews
ss: Ed Brinkman
3b: Ken McMullen/Toby Harrah
rf: Del Unser/Jeff Burroughs
cf: Willie Mays
lf: Rick Reichardt/Larry Biitner Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.
The beer is cold, the hot dogs hot – let’s go, Senators!
Before getting into the issue addressed by the headline, would you mind if I tell you a bit of a personal story? Because I was a witness to the birth of the so-called “Alt-Right” circa 2007, and was directly acquainted with many of the personalities involved. When I had first come to Washington, D.C., a decade earlier, I was very much aligned more with the paleoconservatives than with the neocons, owing to the way I’d entered the conservative movement while working as a journalist in north Georgia. I joined the staff of The Washington Times, in the fall of 1997, about two years after the paleocon intellectual Sam Francis had been fired from the paper’s editorial page in what was widely perceived as a purge instigated by the neocons. Whether that perception is accurate is something of a question; Pruden fired Francis for insubordination, not ideological heterodoxy, and Pruden himself was about as “far right” as anyone might wish. Nevertheless, the firing of Francis reminded many observers of prior conflicts in the longstanding paleocon/neocon split, including the Mel Bradford/NEH controversy of 1981.
After his firing from the Times, Sam became an “unperson” as far as the paper was concerned, but I regularly saw him at various events that I covered around D.C., including the biennial American Renaissance (AR) conferences. Once, when some liberal writer sought to “expose” me as a racist, one of the accusations was that I was the only journalist to have covered four consecutive AR conferences (1998-2004), to which my reply might have been, “So? What’s your point?” Plenty of liberals also covered those conferences, and the only difference is that my coverage didn’t use the alarmist “OMG! RAAAAACISTS!” tone that characterized liberal journalists’ coverage. Jared Taylor was demonized for giving people a forum to discuss Things You’re Not Supposed to Talk About, and if some of those involved in these discussions held opinions that would frighten most people — well, it comes with the terrority.
My idea generally is that all the really interesting action in politics occurs on the fringe, which is where radical ideas begin before making their way into the mainstream, and this is true on both left and right. If you study Hunter S. Thompson’s career, for example, he never gave a damn about the Tweedleedee-vs.-Tweedledum arguments in D.C. that consume so much of the journalistic oxygen in America. No, Thompson was always poking around the fringes — biker gangs in Oakland, Chicano radicalism in L.A., drug culture and then a no-chance antiwar candidate named George McGovern in the 1972 Democratic presidential primaries.
At any rate, to cut to the chase, by 2007 I had made the acquaintance of Marcus Epstein, who was putting together a panel discussion about the Duke lacrosse team rape hoax, and I was invited to speak about the topic in terms of media bias in the coverage of the controversy. Presenting the campus perspective on the controversy was a Duke graduate student named Richard Spencer, who became the notorious poster boy of the “alt right” about 10 years later. Another “alt right” activist I got to know about the same time was a campus organizer for the Leadership Institute named Kevin DeAnna. Think about what was happening in 2007.
The war in Iraq was becoming a catastrophe (just as many palecons had predicted it would be), and the sentiment on college campuses was very much anti-Bush and antiwar. These young men in their 20s didn’t want to shoulder the obligation of defending Bush’s unpopular policies, with which they disagreed, and were sick and tired of the whole post-9/11 Global War on Terror mindset. Democrats had just taken back Congress in the 2006 midterms, and meanwhile the GOP establishment was lining up behind Sen. John McCain as their chosen standard-bearer for the 2008 presidential election. What would later become the “alt right” was, at that time, organizing to back Sen. Ron Paul’s Republican primary campaign, and I distinctly remember the night in late 2007 when I accompanied an intern to cover a Ron Paul event in Arlington. Looking around the crowd in that packed room, I not only recognized many of my libertarian friends — whom I knew from attending Reason magazine happy hour parties — but also quite a few faces I recognized from covering American Renaissance conferences. There was a strange convergence going on, and you could arguably trace a direct line from that Ron Paul event in late 2007 to the rise of Trump eight years later.
All of this I relate in order to demonstrate my direct familiarity with how coalitions fracture and reconstitute themselves in our two-party system, as preamble to dicussing this headline:
That’s the liberal writer Freddie deBoer (hat-tip: Instapundit) complaining that his fellow liberals won’t allow him to name the problem he’s talking about, whether it’s called “woke” or “identity politics” or “political correctness” or “critical race theory.” His comrades insist that any name for this “social justice” obsession must be some kind of racist “dogwhistle,” and Freddie seems to be reaching the end of his rope.
This is exactly what Hayek was addressing in The Road to Serfdom and, in another way, what Eric Hoffer was talking about in The True Believer. Economic liberty cannot be separated from other types of liberty, including freedom of speech, so that advocates of a government-controlled economy must eventually demand government control of everything (to summarize briefly one of Hayek’s major points). And radical causes, which Hoffer called “mass movements,” always attract certain personality types, who bring with them characteristic problems, including the intellectual bullying and demand for conformity about which deBoer is now complaining. Sic semper hoc.
Is it possible that Freddie’s discontents might lead him to abandon the Left altogether? Well, he wouldn’t be the first to follow such a path. Lots of those who were Communists in the 1930s became anti-Communists in the 1940s, notable among them Whittaker Chambers. The conservative movement has recently benefited from the departure of the #NeverTrump crowd — is anyone on the right saddened by the exit of, e.g., Rick Wilson? — and if Freddie deBoer is sick and tired of being bossed around by intellectual midgets like Adam Serwer, certainly I’d be happy to extend him an invitation to switch his allegiances. A fed-up ex-lefty would be as welcome an addition as the departure of the #NeverTrump crew was a welcome subtraction to the movement.
You can call me “The Paleocon Whisperer.” Back around the time I was consorting with Richard Spencer and Kevin DeAnna, I received an email from a graduate student in political philosophy who applauded my success in defying the SPLC Thought Police. “Say nothing to anyone about this,” I wrote in reply. “Keep your opinions to yourself. Stay under the radar. Don’t wreck your career by being too obvious.”
There are stealth paleocons out there, you see. The young man who enthusiastically emailed me some 15 years ago is now an eminently respectable person, associated with a prestigious organization which of course I won’t name, but trust me when I say that not every “alt right” person is known as such. Screw the SPLC. Deo Vindice.
When the only tool you’ve got is a hammer, it is said, every problem looks like a nail. When you’re a Democrat, every problem looks like an opportunity for government regulation:
Advocates took a stand against gun violence Friday at the Chester County Courthouse. Cease Fire PA wore orange as they held a rally to kick off Gun Violence Awareness Month.
Survivors and gun control advocates came together to honor those lost and pushing for the state legislature to pass more comprehensive gun safety measures.
Many hospitals in Philadelphia feel like a war zone with so many gunshot victims. The team at Jefferson’s Einstein Medical Center is working hard to save lives in the hospital and the community.
“I didn’t know if I was ever going to walk again,” said Thomas Hunter.
Hunter was temporarily paralyzed after being shot in the abdomen three years ago. “It can happen to anybody,” he said.
Knowing the agony of gun violence, the 26-year-old now works at Jefferson’s Einstein Medical Center, helping other victims and their families.
“I meet them where they’re at. I instill them with hope, resiliency and empowerment,” Hunter said.
Einstein’s trauma center is ground zero for gun carnage. Hundreds of victims end up there and it’s taking an emotional toll on the staff.
“Every single shift, they feel that burden of the constant gun violence in our city,” said Sarah Misuro, who is a nurse. “It weighs very heavily on you – everybody.”
Orange flowers are planted in front of the hospital for Gun Violence Awareness Day and people are being encouraged to wear orange to honor victims and their families.
“Our healthcare team struggles with this every day,” said Juanita Way, with Jefferson Einstein Medical Center.
Desperate to do something, the team at Einstein sold t-shirts and raised $10,000 to buy gun locks that they’re giving away in the hospital.
“We aren’t making a dent in it, so we gotta figure out something to do,” Way said.
Way, along with Einstein’s gun violence prevention task force, thinks the gun locks can help protect children and reduce accidental shootings, as well as make gun owners more responsible.
Has Ms. Way taken a close look at the kind of “gun owners” who are actually perpetrating the violence in Philadelphia? Has she examined the statistics or analyzed the various cases that make headlines in the city that has been dubbed “Killadelphia”? Grant that the city’s homicide rate is not as high as Memphis, St. Louis, Baltimore or New Orleans, but it’s high enough to be in the deadly category of Worse Than Chicago.
But the people who are committing the shootings in Philadelphia are not going to be deterred by any “gun safety measures” that the Pennsylvania legislature might conceivably pass, and they certainly aren’t going to become “responsible” by giving them free gun locks.
Crime is a people problem, and the only way to deal with it is to (a) identify the criminals and (b) put them in prison.
What has gone wrong in “Killadelphia,” as in so many other American cities, is that Democrats have elected a “progressive” district attorney, Larry Krasner, who doesn’t want to put criminals in prison. As a result, you have convicted felons running amok in a climate of lawlessness where criminals do not fear the police. This problem cannot be solved by passing new laws, when the existing laws are not being enforced.
Car theft? Against the law. Assault? Against the law. Narcotics trafficking? Against the law. Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon? Against the law. Each of these laws present an opportunity to put criminals behind bars, where they can no longer endanger the public and yet, because Democrats in Philadelphia elected Larry Krasner as their D.A., the criminals who commit such felonies are being turned loose in the name of “social justice,” with the deadly results bemoaned by the kind of liberal idiots who think they can stop criminals by selling T-shirts and giving away free gun locks. A couple of years ago, I dubbed Philadelphia “Carjack City, U.S.A.” This was related to a case in which a convicted felon named Stanley Cochran went on a rampage that ended after he shot a 19-year-old woman in the head while he was trying to steal her car. The important question was, why was Cochran not behind bars? Why was he turned loose? And the simplest answer is, “social justice.”
The carjacking problem in Philadelphia hasn’t gone away. Instead, it’s gotten worse — more than 1,300 last year, a rate of more than three carjackings per day in the city — and Krasner’s response? He announced the formation of a new “task force” to deal with the cases.
How about this, Larry? PUT CRIMINALS IN PRISON.
Never hear that at “Gun Violence Awareness” rallies, I bet.
