The Other McCain

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

Unspeakable Atrocities in Ukraine

Posted on | April 6, 2022 | Comments Off on Unspeakable Atrocities in Ukraine

In the days immediately after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, I was desperately seeking information on the tactical situation near Kyiv, but it was impossible to gather anything useful from the news accounts. Most journalists seem to know nothing about military tactics or strategy, and so the reports we were getting were mostly useless, if what you were trying to figure out was whether the Russians were succeeding in their (obvious) goal of encircling and capturing Ukraine’s capital.

The fight for control of the air field at Hostomel was clearly urgent. If Russian paratroopers could secure that as a base to fly in reinforcements, Kyiv was almost certainly doomed. By Saturday morning, Feb. 26, it was apparent that Kyiv was still hanging on, even while the fighting raged around the airport at Hostomel, about 15 miles away. What I didn’t know at the time — because the reporting from Ukraine was so foggy — was that Russian mechanized columns were driving southward, from Borodyanka through Makariv, to cut the main E40 highway about 25 miles west of Kyiv. From there, the Russians could either turn east, toward the capital, or else continue pushing south to strike the P04 highway at Yasnohorodka. About midway between Makariv and Yasnohorodka sits the village of Motyzhyn. There is nothing at all “strategic” about Motyzhyn, a village of about 1,000 people, except that it sits on a road, known locally as Vulytsya Shevchenka (Shevchenko’s Street), that connects the E40 highway to the P04 highway. If the Russians coming down from Makariv were aiming to encircle Kyiv, or if the Ukrainian defenders had blocked the E40 to prevent the invaders from advancing on the city from the west, then this route down Vulytsya Shevchenka through Motyzhyn would be an obvious way to go.

All of that is preamble to this terrible story:

MOTYZHYN, Ukraine—Mayor Olha Sukhenko took care of her village like a family for more than a decade, locals say, sprucing up public buildings, organizing concerts and settling disputes.
When the Russian army withdrew last week after a monthlong occupation, her neighbors found Ms. Sukhenko’s lifeless body in a shallow grave, her hands bound. Her husband and son lay next to her, dead.
Olha, Ihor and Oleksandr Sukhenko are but three of the faces of the brutal aftermath of Russia’s occupation that Ukrainian officials and villagers say left civilians dead on the street and buried under thin layers of dirt before fierce resistance drove them out.
The 50-year-old mayor held together her central Ukrainian village, cut off and near the fighting at the front. She delivered food and medicine. And she helped the resistance, part of an undercover effort to send Russian troop positions and movements to her country’s military, Ukrainian officials and others involved say.
“She was the best person until her last minute,” said Mykola Kurach, the head of the village’s volunteer defense forces who led the reconnaissance effort.
Residents say the Russian aggression against locals surged as the Russians came under attacks from Ukrainian artillery and ambush teams. The Russians shot two women while hunting for Ukrainian agents, they say. The body of another man, a security guard from the local cottage compound, was found dumped down a well. . . .
The war came quickly to Motyzhyn, a village of some 1,000 people just off the main highway about 25 miles west of Kyiv. On Feb. 27, three days after Russia invaded, more than 100 Russian army vehicles swept through the quiet, single-lane streets.
“There are foreign bastards in our village,” Ms. Sukhenko posted on her Facebook page on the day they arrived. “Take care. Don’t leave your homes. Keep calm.”
The Russians set up a headquarters at a farm on the northeast edge of the village, digging trenches in the nearby forest where locals hunt for wild mushrooms. . . .
The Russians had dug in on the edge of town in the forest with a network of trenches. . . .
“They were planning to be here for some time,” said Ivan Rudyak, the commander of the territorial-defense unit in a nearby village who is in charge of restoring order in Motyzhyn.
But the assault on Kyiv wasn’t going well. An initial lightning thrust had been repelled. Ukrainian forces had blown bridges and were preventing them from crossing. Attempts to surround the city were proving difficult. One attempt by Russian armored vehicles to break south of Motyzhyn failed, with at least one tank destroyed. Ukrainian artillery shelled Russian positions in the forest on the edge of Motyzhyn.
On March 18, a Ukrainian ambush team sneaked into the village and destroyed a Russian armored vehicle and truck with antitank weapons. The Russians responded with fury. The next day, they launched what they called a clearance operation through the village in search of Ukrainian agents. . . .

You can read the rest of that. It would appear, based on this account, that Motyzhyn was perhaps the southernmost advance of the Russian force that came south out of Belarus via Borodyanka. The atrocities inflicted on the villagers at Motyzhyn seem to have been typical of the brutality that Russian troops practiced everywhere in Ukraine.

Now, let me ask: If you were Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would you be willing to cede anything in negotiations with the Russians who had done this to your people? Or would you rally your people to fight until there was not a single invader left alive to return to Russia? Whatever the cost, cut off their retreat, surround them and kill every one of them — no quarter.

By God, I know that’s what I’d do. The Russian invaders in Ukraine have effectively signed their own death warrants, as far as I’m concerned.

PREVIOUSLY:




 

Category: Russia, Ukraine

In The Mailbox: 04.05.22

Posted on | April 6, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 04.05.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Do You Really Expect Criminals To Obey The Honor System?
EBL: Red Dawn, also, Support Amber Athey & Denounce The Cowards At WMAL/Cumulus Media!
Twitchy: Mitt Romney Was Against Judge Jackson Before He Was For Her, also, PuffHo Writer Trying To Raise Her Kids As Gay Explains “Heterosexual Grooming”
Louder With Crowder: Chris Rufo Puts Disney On Blast – Drops List of Disney Employees Arrested For Child Molesting & Child Pr0n
Vox Popoli: Grindset To Nowhere, also, East Europe Rejects Globohomo
Stoic Observations: Gemini, GenX, Or White?
Urban Scoop: Generation “C”

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: How To Vote In The Australian Election
American Conservative: Can Elon Musk Save Free Speech Online?
American Greatness: Renewable Energy – An Abundant Source Of Self-Deception
American Power: Your Priority Is The Emotional Comfort Of Powerful Elites
American Thinker: Democrats Have Painted Themselves Into A Corner
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Young Cubans Who Protested On July 11 Will Undergo Brainwashing At Special “Schools Of Conduct”
BattleSwarm: Is The Army Finally Ready To Pull The Trigger On 6.8mm TVCM? also, Is Russia’s Military Running Out Of Equipment & Spare Parts?
Behind The Black: NASA Aborts Fueling In SLS Dress Rehearsal Countdown, also, Pushback – Elon Musk, Offended By Twitter Censorship, Becomes Its Largest Stockholder
Cafe Hayek: Bad Medicine, also, Bogart/Wilder Celebrate Market Entrepreneurship
CDR Salamander: War, Pestilence, & Famine – The World’s Logistics Falters
Chicago Boyz: Shannon Love
Da Tech Guy: A Silly Line From Moscow, also, Military Recruiting Cracks Are Showing
Don Surber: Putin Shuts Off Germany’s Gas – And Economy, also, Bureaucratic BIllionaires
First Street Journal: Lou Anna Red Corn Lets Another Killer Off Easy
Gates Of Vienna: Culture-Enriching Gang Rape In Linz, also, Fjordman – A Convergence Of Catastrophes
The Geller Report: Orban Wins In Hungary Despite Massive Pressure From Soros, also, Judge Jackson Chose Leniency Even In Cases Of Baby Torture
Hogewash: Earendel And Gravity Lensing, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, and The Variable Stars Of Messier 72
Hollywood In Toto: Did Jon Stewart Sandbag Andrew Sullivan? also, See For Me Shares Bold Approach To Exhausted Genre
The Lid: Is Putin Dying Of Cancer?
Legal Insurrection: California Ethnic Studies Requirement Relies On Questionable Studies & Distorted Data, Point Park U Closing Office Of Equity & Inclusion, and Lincoln College In Illinois Closing Its Doors After 157 Years
Michelle Malkin: Beware The “Paper Shortage” Election Ruse
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations
Outkick: Kansas Completes Biggest Comeback In National Title Game History, Beats UNC 72-69 After Trailing By 16, The Love Connection, and Clay Travis Rips Shannon Sharpe – Crazy To Say You’d Rather Have $20 Gas Than Trump In Office
Power Line: Sunday Morning Coming Down, Understanding The Progressive Mind, and Koonin Suffers Romps
Shark Tank: Demings Accused Of Contributing To The Border Crisis
Shot In The Dark: A Thousand Sullas, also, Don’t Say Logic, Knowledge, Or Boundaries
STUMP: Alcohol-Related Deaths Part II
The Political Hat: Yes, There IS A Gay Agenda
This Ain’t Hell: A Sample Of Life In The Russian Military, also, White Supremacy In The Military
Transterrestrial Musings: The Return Of The Third Horseman, also, Stop Counting “Cases”
Victory Girls: Slapping Pedos On The Wrist For Years, also, Russia Retreats As Putin-Zelensky Meeting May Finally Happen
Volokh Conspiracy: Military Federalism & State Sovereign Immunity
Watts Up With That: The New Pause Lengthens -Now Seven Years, Six Months
Weasel Zippers: Disney Heiress – We Will Destroy You For Coming After Us, also, Biden “Deeply Proud Of The Work” Jill Did “As Vice President”
The Federalist: Here’s Some Of The Garbage Democrats Funded As COVID Relief, also, The Left Unmasks Its Desire To Destroy Families & The Nation With Sexual Chaos
Mark Steyn: Comedy Vs. Democracy – Elaine May & A New Leaf, also, Culture Of Death

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Category: Linkagery

Probably Not a Trump Voter

Posted on | April 5, 2022 | Comments Off on Probably Not a Trump Voter

Sunday night, the rapper Tyler “the Creator” Okonma performed a concert in downtown Sacramento at the Golden 1 Center arena. Some hours after that concert ended, about 2 a.m., gunfire erupted outside a bar two blocks from the arena. More than 100 rounds were fired, leaving 12 wounded and six people shot dead:

  • Johntaya Alexander, 21
  • Melinda Davis, 57
  • Sergio Harris, 38
  • Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32
  • Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21
  • DeVazia Turner, 29

Democrats immediately demanded new gun control laws:

Oh,the scourge of “gun violence” requires “meaningful legislation”? How about enforcing the laws we’ve already got? And by “enforcing the laws,” I mean putting people in prison when they break the law.

Say hello to 26-year-old Dandrae Martin:

California authorities on Monday night announced the arrest of an individual in relation to Sacramento’s mass shooting downtown in the early hours of Sunday which left six dead and 12 injured after no less than 100 gunshots were fired following a brawl at a local nightclub.
Dandrae Martin, 26, was arrested on charges of assault and illegal firearm possession. He is being characterized by police as a ‘related suspect.’
The man was being held with no bail and was scheduled to appear in court, Tuesday ABC10 reported.
Martin whose social media profile also described him as a rapper, was also discovered to have an outstanding warrant for domestic violence in Riverside County.

Add another one to the “Aspiring Rapper Update” files, and of course, the shooter should have already been behind bars:

Martin was freed from an Arizona prison in 2020 after serving just over 1 1/2 years for violating probation in separate cases involving a felony conviction for aggravated assault in 2016 and a conviction on a marijuana charge in 2018.
He was also wanted on a misdemeanor warrant by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California. The Sheriff’s Department said the charges stemmed from a 2015 arrest by the Blythe Police Department but no other information was immediately available.

So, a violent felony conviction six years ago — when Martin was 20 — and then violating probation two years later, but still he served less than two years behind bars. More on that warrant in Riverside County:

Riverside County court records show that Martin had a previous domestic violence arrest in 2014. John Hall, spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office, said the case was out of Blythe court.
According to Hall, Martin pled guilty to one misdemeanor count in October 2014 and was sentenced to 30 days in custody and 36 months of summary probation. Martin subsequently violated two terms of probation (the community service requirement and the 52-week class requirement) and a $5,000 bench warrant was issued by the court in October 2015.
Hall confirmed that the warrant has remained active since then, meaning he’s been wanted in Riverside County for 7 years.

The Democrats who run California don’t believe in arresting criminals, see? So nobody in California bothered to pursue extradition against Dandrae Martin when he was arrested and imprisoned in Arizona, and when he turned up in California again? Oh, it’s not like the police could do a stop-and-frisk, ask to see some ID or anything like that — it’s racist to ask for ID, according to Democrats — and so this probation-violating felon was allowed to stroll around free as a bird in California. Then he gets himself involved in a headline-making atrocity, and suddenly Democrats are demanding “meaningful legislation” — more laws, because they won’t enforce the laws we’ve already got. Democrats are the pro-crime party, plain and simple, and if you elect Democrats (which is what they’ve been doing in California) you will always get more crime.

Another suspect was arrested Tuesday:

A second suspect has now been identified in this incident. 27-year-old Smiley Martin was located at the scene with serious injuries from gunfire and was transported to an area hospital for treatment. Smiley Martin was quickly identified as a person of interest and has remained under the supervision of an officer at the hospital while his treatment continues. Based on information developed during this investigation, Smiley Martin was taken into custody by Sacramento Police Department detectives on April 5, 2022.
Once Smiley Martin’s medical care has been completed and he is determined to be fit for incarceration, he will be booked at the Sacramento County Main Jail for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun.
Smiley Martin is the brother of Dandrae Martin.

Yep. Dandrae Martin’s older brother is also a “prohibited person” (i.e., convicted felon) who isn’t allowed by law to own any firearms and yet was in possession of an illegal machine gun. Because, as I say, California is run by Democrats and Democrats are pro-crime. In California, criminals can violate the law all they want, and get turned loose. Democrats are in charge and the laws don’t really mean anything because criminals never go to prison. Go to San Francisco and you can see dope dealers peddling heroin, cocaine and fentanyl on the city streets without fear of arrest. Laws? Police? Nobody cares. It’s California, and nothing is really illegal, because Democrats are in charge.

There were multiple shooters in Sacramento, and police say it’s a “complex” investigation with lots of video to analyze. The motive is unknown and more suspects may be arrested, but I’ll offer police this helpful tip: Probably none of the shooters were Trump voters, IYKWIMAITYD.




 

Category: Aspiring Rapper Update, California

In The Mailbox: 04.04.22

Posted on | April 5, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 04.04.22

POST NOT FOUND

Category: Linkagery

Rule 5 Monday: The Best Rack In Hollywood?

Posted on | April 5, 2022 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Monday: The Best Rack In Hollywood?

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Well, that’s what Sydney Sweeney’s grandparents think, anyway. Pretty sure I’ve seen better on other women who are not the Euphoria star, but whatever.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

NINETY MILES FROM TYRANNY: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1673, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Dying Giants Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: MAGA DeSantis, April Fools Day, June Marlowe, Vanessa Williams, Pachinko, Free Guy, Oscars, Belfast, Nightmare Alley, and Drive My Car.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Vanessa Lachey, MD Issues New Striped Bass Regs, Fish Pic Friday – Annie Nagel, Who Says There’s No Point in Tattoos?, FEC Fines Clinton Campaign, DNC Over Russiagate, Some Thursday Tanlines, The Slap Seen Round the World . . ., The Wednesday Wetness, Suit Seeks to Legalize Swimming with Dolphins, Tuesday Tattoos, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Palm Sunday.

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Shop Sex & Sensuality Gifts




Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Shifting Through the Lens

Posted on | April 4, 2022 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Shifting Through the Lens

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Sorry about the extreme lateness of this post, but it’s been a rough weekend here in the Biggest Little City In The World. My Senators finished the season on the road 60-66, getting swept by the Indians at the Mistake By The Lake before going to Baltimore and taking two out of three from the Birds. We would have swept them, too, if it weren’t for that Lolich kid. Now to get ready for the 1970 season, where there will be three expansion teams (California, Houston, and Philadelphia, maybe?) and possibly one of you could be the fourth one!
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Rule 5 Sunday: Mariah Carey
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

‘Alexa, What Is an Ideologue?’
A View From The Beach
EBL

Podcasting World War III
EBL

Ukraine: Combat Reported at Borodyanka
357 Magnum
EBL

Aspiring Rapper Update: ‘Baby Cino’ Gets Out of Jail, Immediately Gets Shot Dead
357 Magnum
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Burn Witch Burn
A View From The Beach
EBL

Why Is ‘Russian Disinformation’ More Trustworthy Than the Liberal Media?
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.28.22
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

Ukraine: Irpin Mayor Says Town Is ‘Liberated,’ Others Say … Eh, Maybe
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.29.22
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

“OK, Groomer”: Democrats Go All-In on Promoting LGBTQ to Young Children
Bacon Time
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.30.22
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

Florida Man Shot to Death After Attacking Cops at His Niece’s Wedding Reception
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 04.01.22
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 04.01.22 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL

Top linkers for the week ending April 1:

  1.  EBL (15)
  2.  (tied) A View From The Beach & 357 Magnum (9)
  3.  Proof Positive (6)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: FMJRA Award

Taylor Lorenz Is a Dangerous Sociopath

Posted on | April 3, 2022 | Comments Off on Taylor Lorenz Is a Dangerous Sociopath

Remember the acronym DARVO? It stands for “Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender,” a pattern of behavior first described by psychologist Jennifer Freyd particularly dealing with sex offenders whose response to being apprehended for their crimes followed this script: First, to deny the accusation, then to attack the person confronting them with charges of wrongdoing and then to portray themselves as the real victim in an unjust conspiracy against themselves. The cops, the district attorney, the judge — everybody’s out to get them, see? And they’re completely innocent! The accusations are false, the accusers are liars, and as to a motive for why everybody would just make this stuff up, well, his ex-wife wants more child support, the sheriff wants to get reelected, etc.

At the heart of the DARVO response is the sociopath’s arrogant belief in his own ability to deceive others, which is accompanied by a tendency toward self-pity and blame-shifting. The sociopath is irresponsible, refusing to acknowledge that the negative consequences of his harmful behavior are valid and just. In his egocentric worldview, anything bad that happens to him is always wrong, no matter how clear it is that he is to blame for these bad outcomes. Having had the misfortune of dealing with a notorious sociopath, I could go down a long list of examples of this DARVO behavioral tendency. Sociopaths are selfish, dishonest and cruel, taking pleasure in inflicting harm on others, but when they are confronted with evidence of their wrongdoing, suddenly they adopt the role of the victim, and expect others to view them sympathetically. Which brings us to the case of Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz.

Notice the shrewd political spin here. You might think (if you believed Taylor Lorenz) that all the “online harassment” directed at her is the result of “right wing smear campaigns.” Clearly, what she is trying to do is to rally Team Progressive to her defense, without anyone pausing to ask why it is that so many people hate Taylor Lorenz. After all, about 90% of what she does is covering teenagers on TikTok and other social-media “influencers” the way People magazine covers Hollywood celebrities.

The ‘Journalistic Tattletale’ Racket

How is it that the queen of TikTok gossip came to this ridiculous pose of being the victim of “right wing” harassment? The answer involves Glenn Greenwald who, whatever you say about his current populist tendencies, is certainly not “right wing” in any meaningful sense of the word. There was a time, less than 10 years ago, when I would have been happy to see the U.S. government apprehend Greenwald and send him to federal prison, considering his enthusiastic support of Bradley Manning and other such renegade anti-American leakers, hackers, etc. The strange evolutions of political discourse have had the effect of putting Greenwald on “my” side — especially as an adversary of the “Deep State” and Silicon Valley oligarchy — but that doesn’t make him an apostle of Burke and Kirk, let alone Calvin and Knox. However, politics is a team sport, and we should be grateful to everyone willing to help “our” side, so I will refrain from any criticism of Glenn Greenwald, but my point here is that he is definitely not “right wing.” At any rate, in February 2021, Greenwald called out Taylor Lorenz for her role as “journalistic tattletale” after she “falsely and very publicly accused Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen of having used the ‘slur’ word ‘retarded’ during a discussion about the Reddit/GameStop uprising.” Lorenz was cited as one example of what Greenwald identified as a current media trend:

Just as the NSA is obsessed with ensuring there be no place on earth where humans can communicate free of their spying eyes and ears, these journalistic hall monitors cannot abide the idea that there can be any place on the internet where people are free to speak in ways they do not approve. Like some creepy informant for a state security apparatus, they spend their days trolling the depths of chat rooms and 4Chan bulletin boards and sub-Reddit threads and private communications apps to find anyone — influential or obscure — who is saying something they believe should be forbidden, and then use the corporate megaphones they did not build and could not have built but have been handed in order to silence and destroy anyone who dissents from the orthodoxies of their corporate managers or challenges their information hegemony.
Oliver Darcy has built his CNN career by sitting around with Brian Stelter petulantly pointing to people breaking the rules on social media and demanding tech executives make the rule-breakers disappear. The little crew of tattletale millennials assembled by NBC — who refer to their twerpy work with the self-glorifying title of “working in the disinformation space”: as intrepid and hazardous as exposing corruption by repressive regimes or reporting from war zones — spend their dreary days scrolling through 4Chan boards to expose the offensive memes and bad words used by transgressive adolescents; they then pat themselves on the back for confronting dangerous power centers, even when it is nothing more trivial and bullying than doxxing the identities of powerless, obscure citizens.

Do you see why it is not “right wing” to be concerned about this? The idea that it is a proper and necessary role for journalists to act as snoops and snitches, eavesdropping on other people’s private conversations to see if they’re using politically incorrect slang, is 180-degrees opposite of what I was taught as a journalism student. It’s the kind of behavior that led to Trump calling the media “the enemy of the people.”

If Andreessen used a “slur” in talking about Reddit, so what? It is a fact that a popular slogan of the sub-Reddit that fought the GameStop battle is “Long live the retard revolution!” Were there any mentally impaired people listening in on the conversation who might have been offended by Andreessen’s use of this “slur”? Was anyone actually harmed by this?

As it turned out, however, it actually wasn’t Andreessen who used this word in the discussion on the Clubhouse app:

Numerous Clubhouse participants, including Kmele Foster, immediately documented that Lorenz had lied. The moderator of the discussion, Nait Jones, said that “Marc never used that word.” What actually happened was that Felicia Horowitz, a different participant in the discussion, had “explained that the Redditors call themselves ‘retard revolution’” and that was the only mention of that word.
Rather than apologizing and retracting, Lorenz thanked Jones for “clarifying,” and then emphasized how hurtful it is to use that word. She deleted the original tweet without comment, and then — with the smear fully realized — locked her account.

What did I tell you about sociopaths? Selfish, dishonest and cruel.

Having sought to inflict reputational damage on Marc Andreessen, and then being called out for this attempted libel, Taylor Lorenz dishonestly tried to pretend otherwise, then sought to hide her wrongdoing and protect herself from consequences by locking down her Twitter account.

If you read the entirety of Greenwald’s Feb. 7, 2021, Substack article — and you definitely should — you’ll see that he was calling attention to this incident as an example of a pattern of behavior by young journalists: Instead of taking on what Greenwald calls “real power centers,” instead they engage in what he calls “this penny-ante, trivial bullshit — tattling, hall monitoring, speech policing.” Indeed, the Thought Police are everywhere, and many of them pretend to be doing “journalism.”

Criticism = ‘Harasssment’

What must it be like, living in an egocentric universe where everything revolves around the personal drama of Taylor Lorenz? She basically threw an online pity party with herself as guest of honor, inviting everyone to feel sorry for her plight as a victim of misogynistic right-wing harassment. After all, Tucker Carlson had mentioned her!

“You see this attitude everywhere all of a sudden, the most powerful people claiming to be powerless. Taylor Lorenz, for example, writes for The New York Times. She’s at the very top of journalism’s repulsive little food chain. Lorenz is far younger than prominent New York Times reporters used to be. She’s also much less talented. You’d think Taylor Lorenz would be grateful for the remarkable good luck that she’s had. But no, she’s not. Just this morning, she tweeted this quote for International Women’s Day: ‘Please consider supporting women enduring online harassment. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the harassment and smear campaign I’ve had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life.’ Hmm. Destroyed her life? Really? By most people’s standards, Taylor Lorenz would seem to have a pretty good life, one of the best lives in the country, in fact. Lots of people are suffering right now, but no one’s suffering quite as much as Taylor Lorenz is suffering. People have criticized her opinions on the Internet and it destroyed her life.”
— Tucker Carlson, March 9, 2021

This 175-word reference to Taylor Lorenz was part of a much longer opening monologue to Carlson’s program, inspired by the Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Carlson went from point to point — beginning with these whiny British royals, proceeding to Hillary Clinton, and so on — to highlight the trend of wealthy and powerful people claiming to be oppressed victims of injustice.

As might have been predicted, however, the journalism community went bonkers, declaring that Carlson had “attacked” Lorenz. Where does it come from, this belief that no journalist should ever be criticized? Who wrote this rule book, with its secret codicil, “Taylor Lorenz can say anything she wants on Twitter, and nobody is allowed to criticize her”?

Weird, I’ve been a journalist since 1986, and nobody ever told me I was exempt from criticism. Maybe that secret codicil doesn’t apply to me or maybe what we’re witnessing here is something else I’ve noticed about sociopaths, namely their uncanny ability to recruit enablers to assist them in their wicked schemes. The sociopath is a natural-born con man and, as P.T. Barnum said, there’s a sucker born every minute. Sociopaths have a sort of radar that allows them to spot gullible people who can be easily manipulated, and once ensnared by the con man’s deception, these suckers never seem to get wise to the game. So it is with all of Taylor Lorenz’s fangirls and fanboys in journalism, who seem to have fallen hook, line and sinker for her self-dramatizing victimhood narrative.

Since she was “attacked” last year by Carlson, Taylor Lorenz has gone from the New York Times to the Washington Post, but she’s still peddling the same journalistic product, and still claiming that people saying mean things on Twitter have destroyed her life. MSNBC last week featured her on a segment in which she claimed to have “severe PTSD”:

PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) first came to public attention in reference to Vietnam combat veterans. If we are to believe Taylor Lorenz, people saying mean things about her on Twitter is exactly like getting ambushed by the Vietcong, dodging mortar shells and machine-gun fire in the jungle, watching your buddies bleed to death.

Mean tweets are the siege of Khe Sanh in the Tet Offensive, in terms of the psychological trauma inflicted on survivors like Taylor Lorenz.

Or so we are expected to believe, by the media enablers eager to help Taylor Lorenz keep running this victimhood scam that’s become her stock in trade. Glenn Greenwald is having none of that:

It is almost impossible to envision a single individual in whom power, privilege and elite prerogative reside more abundantly than Taylor Lorenz. Using the metrics of elite liberal culture, the word “privilege” was practically invented for her: a rich straight white woman from a wealthy family raised in Greenwich, Connecticut and educated in actual Swiss boarding schools who now writes about people’s lives, often casually destroying those lives, on the front pages of the most powerful East Coast newspapers on the planet. And yet, in the eyes of her fellow media and political elites, there is virtually no person more victimized, more deserving of your sympathy and attention, more vulnerable, marginalized and abused than she.
That is because . . . Taylor Lorenz must sometimes hear criticisms of her work and her views. Virtually alone among journalists . . . Lorenz hears criticisms of her work, sometimes in the form of very angry and even profane or threatening tweets from anonymous people online. This not only means that she deserves your sympathy and concern but, more importantly, that you should heap scorn and recrimination on those who criticize her work because they are responsible for the trauma she endures. Most of all, you must never criticize her publicly for fear of what you might unleash against her. . . .
The NBC segment has to be watched in its entirety to be believed. Though the emotional performances are moving and spectacular — no denying that — it is important not to let your tears drown out the actual point they are making. It is a quite sinister and insidious lesson they are preaching. When powerful media elites receive mean and abusive tweets from anonymous and random people on Twitter, it is not the fault of those sending those tweets but rather the fault of anyone criticizing their work and their journalism. The only moral conclusion is clear: one should refrain from criticizing employees of media corporations lest one be responsible for unleashing traumatizing abuse at them.

This demand for protection — the idea that Taylor Lorenz is a victim of injustice — can only be understood as part of a DARVO response. Nowhere in all the mainstream media’s coverage of the so-called “harassment” directed at Lorenz does one ever find any useful description of what she has done over the years to attract criticism of her work. Her original claim to fame (or, at least, the first time anyone on the “right wing” paid attention to her) was when Lorenz doxxed the teenage daughters of conservative blogger Pamela Geller. Considering that Geller has long been a target of Islamic terrorists — two ISIS gunmen tried to kill her in Texas in 2015, the same year another Muslim was shot by police after threatening to behead her — what was the point of doxxing Geller’s teenage daughters? Are we just supposed to ignore this in the context of Taylor Lorenz claiming to be a traumatized victim?

But her media enablers don’t even acknowledge Lorenz’s malicious history, and instead expect their audience to nod sympathetically as Lorenz boohoos on camera about how she’s suffering from PTSD, just like your uncle who spent five years as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton. The possibility that Taylor Lorenz is a bad person — well, this never occurs to anybody in the liberal media, the same way none of them ever questioned the veracity of the Steele Dossier, or doubted Michael Avenatti’s honesty.

There’s a sucker born every minute and nowadays most of them are working in the media. They get angry with anyone who points this out.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!




 

Category: Media Bias

Russian Invaders Retreat From Kyiv

Posted on | April 2, 2022 | Comments Off on Russian Invaders Retreat From Kyiv

The key town of Borodyanka, 45 miles northwest of Kyiv, is now back in Ukrainian hands, after Russian forces retreated from the areas west of Ukraine’s capital, including Bucha:

Dead civilians still lay scattered over the streets of the Ukrainian country town of Bucha on Saturday, three days after the invading Russian army pulled back from its abortive advance on Kyiv to the southeast.
The smell of explosives still hung in the cold, dank air, mingling with the stench of death.
Sixty-six-year-old Vasily, who gave no surname, looked at the sprawled remains of more than a dozen civilians dotted along the road outside his house, his face disfigured with grief.
Residents said they had been killed by the Russian troops during their month-long occupation. . . .
Local officials gave Reuters reporters access to the area, and a policeman led the way through streets now patrolled by Ukrainian tanks to the road where the bodies lay.
It was not clear why they had not yet been buried.
Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said more than 300 residents of the town had been killed, and a mass grave at one church ground was still open, with hands and feet poking through the red clay heaped on top.
Several streets were strewn with the mangled wrecks of burned-out Russian tanks and armoured vehicles. Unexploded rockets lay on the road and, in one spot, an unexploded mortar shell poked out of the tarmac.
A column of Ukrainian tanks patrolled, flying blue and yellow national flags. One resident who had survived the ordeal hugged a soldier, and gave the military battle-cry: “Glory to Ukraine, glory to the heroes!”

It remains to be seen whether Russia can or will regroup and make another attempt to capture Kyiv, although this seems unlikely. Their first onslaught was made with the advantage of surprise, including an airborne assault at the Hostomel airfield, and yet failed. Putin’s commanders underestimated the ferocity of Ukrainian resistance, and the Russian invaders experienced logistical failures that made their further advance impossible. For now, at least, the scene of fighting will shift to the east and south, while the citizens in and around Kyiv begin the work of rebuilding what the Russians destroyed.

John Hoge, Dianna Deeley and I will discuss the war in Ukraine and other topics tonight at 7 p.m. ET on The Other Podcast.




 

Category: Ukraine
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