The Other McCain

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

Another Loser With a ‘Manifesto’

Posted on | August 29, 2022 | 1 Comment

Say hello to Ethan Miller, 20, of Bend, Oregon, and while you’re at it, go ahead and say good-bye, because he died of a self-inflicted gunshot after shooting up a Safeway supermarket Sunday. He shot four people, two of whom died, after posting a 56-page “manifesto.” Miller ranted about “the government, COVID lockdowns, technology, and women, [and] said in the rambling, oddly punctuated screed that he had an insatiable compulsion to kill”:

“I can’t wait to just send a Bullet into someone’s Brain,” Miller wrote in the first entry, on July 29. “This is going to be the Bloodiest and Most Gruesome Massacre in the History of Massacres! I want Blood, Guts, Brain Matter, and Pieces of Skull & Flesh to Paint the Walls and Floors. Then I wanna End my Life Here in the Most Violent Way Possible. By Eating the Barrel of My Shotgun then Blowing my Head Off & Evacuating my Brain with Buckshot.”

Two dead and two wounded? Definitely not “the Bloodiest and Most Gruesome Massacre in the History of Massacres,” and I’m sure we’ll get an explanation from police for why Miller’s massacre plan was even worse than his prose style. It appears he originally planned to attack a local high school on Sept. 8, but became impatient and attacked the Safeway instead. He was an unpopular creep in high school:

Akela Haverlandt, 21, lived a few houses away from Miller and attended Mountainview High with him. She graduated in 2019, a year before Miller did, but the two had a number of classes together, she said in a phone interview from Florida, where she now resides.
“He would get in tons and tons of fights at school,” Haverlandt told The Daily Beast on Monday. “I think he had this sort of rage. I mean, he was just super aggressive.”
Miller “wasn’t really liked” by others, and didn’t have very many friends, according to Haverlandt.
“People thought he was weird, or rude, or just creepy toward the girls,” she said. “… He would always message me and my friends saying, like, you’re so pretty… Kind of like a weird type of harassment situation. And he would message us and bother the shit out of us.”
One of Miller’s few friends at Mountainview High was a varsity athlete that Haverlandt dated for three years, she said. The former jock, Keenan Harpole, was arrested and charged in April with murder in the shooting death of a 19-year-old woman at Portland State University, where he was matriculating.
When Haverlandt first read Miller’s manifesto on Sunday, which has now been taken offline, she said she found it so disturbing she couldn’t sleep all night. Still, Haverlandt said it came as little surprise that Miller, of all people, would be IDed as the shooter.
“To read [it] was super crazy, but also like, ‘Wow, makes sense,’” she continued. “I wouldn’t think of anybody else in my grade or in that school that… would do that. He was so recognized for being violent, and constantly fighting with kids, and just causing problems.”

There was “little surprise” he was the shooter, because he was “recognized for being violent,” and yet nobody warned anybody.




 

Category: Crime, Oregon

NFL Pre-Season Injury Report

Posted on | August 29, 2022 | Comments Off on NFL Pre-Season Injury Report

Rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr.

Professional football is a hard-hitting sport, and every NFL team has suffered its share of pre-season injuries this year. The Carolina Panthers lost quarterback Sam Darnold to an ankle injury in Friday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots rookie wide receiver Tyquan Thornton suffered a broken collarbone, the Los Angeles Rams lost their top draft pick, offensive lineman Logan Bruss, to a serious knee injury, and the Washington Commanders will start the season without rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr., because of gunshot wounds:

Washington Commanders rookie running back Brian Robinson Jr. says his “surgery went well” after he was shot Sunday in Washington, DC, in what police say may have been an attempted robbery or carjacking.
Robinson shared the news in a brief message on his Instagram stories on Monday, writing, “Thanks for the prayers! God is Great!”
Robinson suffered two gunshot wounds to his lower extremities and was taken to a local hospital, Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Dustin Sternbeck said. The shooting happened in the 1000 block of H Street NE, police said. Two suspects fled the scene and officers recovered a firearm nearby, Sternbeck said.

Robinson was a workhorse for the Alabama Crimson Tide last season, rushing for 1,343 yards on 271 carries and adding 296 yards as a receiver, totaling 16 touchdowns. In the championship playoff semifinals against Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl, Robinson racked up 204 yards rushing, winning the game MVP trophy. He was apparently going to eat Sunday afternoon at Crab Boss, near world-famous Ben’s Chili Bowl on H Street, when he was accosted by two not-very-bright teenagers. Advice for young hoodlums: If you’re going to rob somebody, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound professional athlete might not be the easiest target:

“What has been reported to us is that [the suspects] may be between 15 and 17 years of age,” [Police Chief Robert] Contee said.
Robinson, 23, had just exited a location in the 1000 block of H Street NE at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday when the two armed teens approached him and tried to rob him, the police chief said.
“Our victim in this case began to struggle with one of the suspects, was able to actually wrestle a firearm away from one of the suspects, and he was shot twice by the second suspect,” he said. . . .
The teens ran from the area — a busy strip with several restaurants — and jumped into a car, which Contee said had been stolen two days earlier. D.C. police believe they found that car in Prince George’s County, in cooperation with county police.
The teens had tried to take Robinson’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, police said Sunday. The white luxury vehicle could be seen still parked on H Street later Sunday.

Brian Robinson worked hard to make it to the NFL, and if some punks think they’re going to steal his $90,000 sports car without a fight, they’ve got another think coming. But it’s a helluva sad day when an NFL player goes on injured reserve because of gunshot wounds.




 

Category: Crime, Football

Have We Reached Peak ‘Woke’ Yet?

Posted on | August 29, 2022 | 1 Comment

Sydney Sweeney is a young actress with enormous . . . talent. She has 14 million Instagram followers and is best known for her starring role on the HBO series Euphoria, for which she recently won an Emmy award.

Miss Sweeney was raised in rural Idaho in a religious family, and when her mother recently celebrated her 60th birthday, the party had a “hoedown” theme, with guests dressing in cowboy garb. But some fans, who also follow Miss Sweeney’s brother Instagram account, noticed that (a) Miss Sweeney’s father was wearing a pro-police “blue line” flag T-shirt and (b) some guests were wearing red “MAGA” style hats. The hats actually said, “Make 60 Great Again,” an obvious reference to her mother’s birthday, but what ensued was a big social-media firestorm, with left-wing political activists endeavoring to “cancel” Miss Sweeney because of her family’s apparent Republican sympathies.

Can we please stop this deranged “woke” witch-hunt mentality, in which we are expected to be outraged that white people in Idaho are voting Republican? I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen any Idaho poll numbers lately, but unless the mob wants to “cancel” two-thirds of the population of Idaho, they need to shut up. Is it really so shocking that people who live in rural America generally have beliefs and attitudes that don’t match the preferences of urbanites? Please, forget about politics long enough to focus on Sydney Sweeney’s enormous . . . talent.




 

Category: Celebrities, Rule 5

Rule 5 Sunday: Raquel Welch

Posted on | August 29, 2022 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Couldn’t find any decent pics of Raquel Welch (nee Tejada) as a weather girl in LA. so here’s the next best thing, a publicity photo of her from the Hammer film One Million Years B.C.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Mmmm, deerskin.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1820, Hot Pick of the Late Night, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Man Test Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon. 

EBL: MAGA Redaction, Krakatoa, Emily Carey, Gabrielle Drake, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Rock & Roll High School, Louise Perry, Darya Drugina, and House Of The Dragon.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: TV Turns Tatania Maslany Green, Fish Pic Friday – Anne Marie Down Under, Biden Announces Jubilee, Thursday Tanlines, Some Wednesday Wetness, York Bans Car Washing, Tattoo Tuesday, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Gone Fishin’ and Palm Sunday

Thanks to everyone for all the bodacious links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals

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




Category: Rule 5

What Time Is It?

Posted on | August 28, 2022 | Comments Off on What Time Is It?

Not long ago, I mentioned how Ace of Spades has for a while been referring to certain Republicans as believing it’s still 2003, i.e., they’re stuck in the obsolete politics of Bushism, incapable of dealing with the current reality. Ace makes the same point in referring to those who know What Time It Is, i.e., fully conscious of the current political reality.

Politico has an interview with Vanderbilt University history professor Nicole Hemmer, author of a new book called Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s. It should go without saying — because she is employed in academia — that Hemmer is a left-winger who vehemently hates all Republicans, but from the interview it seems that she at least notices some important points about the history she covers:

One of the biggest factors contributing to the fragility of Reaganism was the end of the Cold War. I think in some ways we’ve forgotten how much Reagan was a Cold War president and that the conditions of the Cold War shaped his rhetoric, shaped the policies that he preferred, and really were necessary for the kind of conservatism that he championed. When the Cold War ends, it loosens not just the motivation for conservatives to get involved internationally, but also the motivation for them to champion democracy, which they hold on to a little more lightly after Reagan leaves office.
There’s also a massive shift in terms of domestic politics. It had been a goal of conservatives for so long to capture the presidency, and then they had captured it [in 1980], and they didn’t get everything they wanted. They knew that was partly because they hadn’t won control of Congress at that point for something like 40 years. So there is a real refocusing on congressional politics, not just in opposition to Bill Clinton but in opposition to George H.W. Bush as well.

This is something that I think most conservatives simply haven’t factored into their understanding of Reagan, and the meaning of Reagan’s legacy. Nothing mattered to Reagan more than defeating Communism, which had been the focus of his politics ever since the late 1940s when, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he found himself targeted by Communists who had taken over other film-industry unions. As president, Reagan was willing to compromise on domestic policy if it helped him increase his ability to confront the Soviets. This was why, for example, Reagan was willing to sign the 1986 amnesty bill, a necessary compromise that has been completely misunderstood by some Republicans. Cold War anti-Communism was the “glue” that held the Reagan coalition together and, without the existential threat of an aggressive nuclear-armed Soviet Union, the conservative movement lost focus after 1990. A lot of the Cold War hawks just weren’t down for the fight over domestic issues that came to the forefront of politics in the 1990s. For them, the 9/11 attacks were a godsend, putting international geopolitics back in the center of public policy, but the subsequent failure of the Global War on Terror — the unpopularity of fighting an endless “insurgency” in Iraq — left them embarrassed, though unrepentant.

But why bring up Liz Cheney at this point, eh? The larger point is that times change and politics change, and that nostalgia for the Good Old Days is not helpful as a guide to organizing one’s public policy priorities in the here and now. We must know What Time It Is, or else be defeated because of our obsolete goals and tactics. Meanwhile, in the Politico interview with Hemmer, I smiled when I read this part:

“Middle American radicals” is a term that was popularized by Sam Francis, who — spoiler alert — becomes a pretty out-and-out white nationalist by the 1990s, and who was an adviser to the Buchanan campaign. The idea was that there were these people in middle America — today, we often call it “the flyover states” — who were generally white, generally Christian of some stripe, and who had been radicalized by the politics of the second half of the 20th century. There was a sense that they were under threat, that they were no longer the dominant demographic, that they were losing power and losing control of politics. But now they were finally rearing up and fighting back.
It’s a lot like the Silent Majority that Richard Nixon talks about, but Richard Nixon’s Silent Majority was supposed to be the opposite of radical. They were supposed to be the reactionaries who were holding the center during a period of change and upheaval in the United States. The idea behind these Middle American Radicals was that no, actually, these are the people who want to radically remake American politics. Sam Francis, and later Pat Buchanan, really tapped into those folks.

Guys, I knew Sam Francis. Literally had beers with the guy, and have often thought that, on the night of the 2016 election, I could hear ghostly laughter coming from the general direction of the cemetery in Chattanooga where Sam Francis is buried. Somewhere in my bookshelves, there’s an autographed copy of Revolution From the Middle which, in hindsight, was either a roadmap for, or a prophecy of, the Trump revolution. Of course never in a million years could Sam Francis (who died in 2005) have imagined that Donald Trump would have been the man to inspire those “Middle American radicals” he talked about; that was Andrew Breitbart’s doing, when he arranged to have Trump speak at CPAC 2011. So that makes two visionary architects of the Trump revolution that I had beers with, literally. All successful political movements begin on the radical fringe, inspired by “extremists.” When Sam Adams started stirring up trouble in Boston? “Extremist”!

While nostalgia for the politics of yesteryear is generally misguided, nevertheless history offers inspiring examples of leaders who emerged in moments of crisis, men who knew What Time It Is and didn’t mind being called “extremists” for speaking the unpopular truth. Deo Vindice.




 

Category: History

FMJRA 2.0: Countdown To Looking Glass

Posted on | August 28, 2022 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Countdown To Looking Glass

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Another frustrating week with the Kansas City A’sSenators, as we lost both games against Oakland and three games at Atlanta. The only good thing was that none of the games were blowouts, which gives me some faint hope that we can beat the Yankees in at least one game on Tuesday.
I haven’t downloaded any of the Conelcast podcasts in a while, but if you enjoy electronic music you could do a lot worse than either checking out the podcasts or buying one of his older albums off Bandcamp.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.

Rule 5 Sunday: Yanet Garcia
Animal Magnetism
The DaleyGator
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL

Louise Perry Gets It
Nebraska Energy Observer
Okrahead
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

Julie Jaman, Mayor David Faber and the Transgender War Against Women
The Mad Irishman
The Pirate’s Cove
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Igneous
The DaleyGator
A View From The Beach
EBL

Professors of Politics
Okrahead
EBL

Killadelphia Update: Nearly 100 Shots Fired in Rec Center Drive-By Shooting
The First Street Journal
The DaleyGator
EBL

Ex-NFL Player’s Brother Charged With Fatal Shooting of Youth Football Coach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.22.22
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

Joe Biden Has Not Condemned This Atlanta ‘Hate Crime,’ For Some Reason 
Okrahead
The DaleyGator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.23.22
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 08.24.22
Proof Positive
EBL
357 Magnum

Biden’s Illegal Boondoggle Giveaway
The DaleyGator
EBL

Suspect Charged for Hit-and-Run That Killed Three Outside Chicago Gay Bar
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.25.22
A View From The Beach
EBL
Proof Positive
357 Magnum

Politics and Friendship
EBL

In The Mailbox: 08.26.22
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Top linkers for the week ending August 27:

  1.  EBL (16)
  2.  (tied) 357 Magnum, A View From The Beach, and Proof Positive (6)
  3.  The DaleyGator (5)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: Linkagery

Affidavit, Laugh-idavit

Posted on | August 27, 2022 | 1 Comment

This “Rick Roll” joke by Jim Jordan’s staff, and the similar jest by my friend John Hoge, is really no laughing matter. The private home of the former President of the United States was raided by the FBI under the pretext of . . . well, what, exactly? It’s like what Gertrude Stein said of Oakland, “There’s no ‘there’ there.” Such an unprecedented action as the Mar-a-Lago raid, one might think, would only be undertaken with clear evidence of wrongdoing, but what this seems to be about is that some librarian at the National Archives in February complained about Trump possessing documents that the librarian wanted. Six months later, the raid happened, the idea being that Trump had “classified” or “top secret” material, so that the national security was imperiled. But if it was such a five-alarm emergency, why did they wait six months to do the raid?

Trump’s lawyers have pointed out that the affidavit raises more questions than it answers. Everything about this raid stinks of political motivation, and Margot Cleveland is probably pretty close to the target in saying that this was just a “get Trump” fishing expedition.




 

Category: Donald Trump

Why Do Democrats Hate Women?

Posted on | August 27, 2022 | Comments Off on Why Do Democrats Hate Women?

Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried

Florida Democrats had a chance to nominate a “progressive” woman for governor, but instead of Nikki Fried, they chose Charlie Crist — and it wasn’t even close. Crist won by almost a 25-point margin, 59.7% to 35.3% for Fried. Of course, it goes without saying that I loathe Nikki Fried, but I’m a Republican, so I’ve got an excuse. The big question is, why do Democratic voters in Florida hate Nikki Fried so much that they’d prefer that desiccated fossil Charlie Crist? Meanwhile, in New York . . .

Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney

Democratic primary voters had a chance to send Carolyn Maloney back to Congress in the 12th District, but instead they chose Jerry Nadler and, again, it wasn’t even close. Nadler beat Maloney by more than 30 points, 55% to 24%, with another 19% voting for Suraj Patel, so that between them, the two male candidates, Nadler and Patel, ran up a 3-to-1 margin over the lone woman, Maloney. Again, as in the case of Nikki Fried, I loathe Carolyn Maloney, a dangerous dingbat who is committed to depriving Americans of their Second Amendment rights. But I’m a Republican, so I’ve got an excuse. What needs to be explained is this evidence of blatant woman-hating from New York Democrats.

By the way, this collision of two incumbent Democrats in 12th District was the result of New York losing one House seat due to the 2020 census, in which the state came up a mere 89 people short of enough to avoid losing a seat. When you consider the thousands of elderly New Yorkers who died as a result of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s misguided COVID-19 policy, this was a self-inflicted wound by Democrats. When you think about it, Carolyn Maloney was Cuomo’s last victim. Meanwhile . . .

Sean Patrick Maloney and Alessandra Biaggi

In the suburban 17th District of New York, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chairman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney defeated “progressive” challenger Alessandra Biaggi and it wasn’t even close. Maloney stomped her by a 2-to-1 margin. A state senator, Biaggi was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the UAW and other left-wing groups and yet Maloney, sitting on that big pile of DCCC cash, defeated her without breaking a sweat. Why? Because Democrats hate women!

It’s battered women’s syndrome — they keep going back to the abuser, thinking he’ll change his ways if they just love him enough.




 

Category: Democrats
« go back — keep looking »