The Other McCain

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

Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | March 12, 2022 | Comments Off on Crazy People Are Dangerous

There are no mugshots of William Michael Stephens, 39, but there is surveillance video of the dangerous lunatic’s final suicidal episode, in which he rammed his pickup truck into a federal building in downtown Seattle and emerged firing a rifle before being felled by police gunfire. Given the location, I thought when this incident was first reported March 5 that it might be some kind of radical terrorism, Seattle having been the scene of a lot of Antifa protests and such. But instead, it turns out, Stephens was just a garden-variety kook who had descended into paranoia in the weeks leading up to his death:

Before he crashed his pickup into a federal building in downtown Seattle, before he fired a rifle seemingly at random, before he was fatally shot by Seattle police officers, William Michael Stephens scrawled in permanent marker all over his garage door about how there was a plot to kill him.
Stephens, of Bellevue, was moving toward officers with a rifle when he was shot and killed, according to body-worn camera footage released by Seattle police Tuesday. But in recent weeks, Bellevue police and others who knew him had become alarmed by his spiraling mental health crisis, court records show.
He was identified Tuesday as William Michael Stephens, 39, by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, which determined he died from multiple gunshot wounds. . . .

(You don’t need a coroner’s report to figure out the cause of death when somebody’s full of bullet holes.)

Stephens’ mental health appeared to deteriorate significantly in the last several months, to the extent that five days before he was killed, a Bellevue police officer filed a petition seeking an extreme risk protection order that would have barred Stephens from buying or possessing firearms, court records show.

(That’s nice — his mental health “appeared to deteriorate”? As if there were some doubt? You’re afraid to jump to conclusions?)

In recent weeks, Bellevue police and social workers, along with Stephens’ former attorney and psychiatrist, were gravely concerned by his deteriorating mental state, but were unable to stop him from driving to downtown Seattle on Saturday night and instigating an armed confrontation with police.

(Liberals always tell us that hiring more “social workers” is the solution to problems like this. You might actually believe this, unless you knew any sociology majors in college, in which case you know that there is no problem to which those people are the solution.)

Stephens appeared to believe he was being threatened by the Brazilian mafia, his ex-wife and his ex-pastor, and that evidence of their conspiracy was contained in social media posts, according to the ERPO [extreme risk protection order] petition filed in King County Superior Court on Feb. 28.
A court commissioner signed a temporary ERPO order that same day, but a police officer who attempted to serve Stephens with the court order on March 1, was apparently unable to locate him, the records show.
Police had been called to Stephens’ Bellevue house at least twice in the preceding months, once in January and again Feb. 15.
Both times he tried to explain to officers about a plot to kill him, according to police reports.
On Jan. 29, officers wrote, they tried to offer mental health services, but Stephens refused, insisting his case needed to be taken to the FBI. He never threatened others, they wrote, and did not meet the criteria for involuntary commitment.

(Guy’s nutty as a fruitcake, sure, but he doesn’t “meet the criteria,” because you have a constitutional right to be crazy.)

On Feb. 15, Stephens again called police to his house. Again, he said he did not want to harm himself or others and declined offers of mental health care.
Police referred his case to Bellevue Fire CARES, a city service where staff members, including social workers, seek to help people with needs that may not merit a 911 call or a fire or police response.

(Again, “social workers” prove to be utterly useless.)

Staff at CARES, or Citizen Advocates for Referral and Education Services, called Stephens two days later but got a full voicemail. Three days after that, they visited his home but he wasn’t there.
Two days before Bellevue police asked for the protection order, Stephens’ former psychiatrist, in a witness statement, wrote that he believed Stephens’ behavior was “of grave concern.”
His concerns, the psychiatrist wrote, were for both Stephens and for his ex-wife.
“Mr. Stephens is suffering a very serious Delusion and rapid mental health decompensation and deterioration,” the psychiatrist wrote. “I have treated individuals over the course of 44 years with behaviors such as this which may have the potential to manifest in violence. I believe that Mr. Stephen’s condition is very dangerous.”

(“In short, your honor, Mr. Stephens is daft, demented, wacko, bonkers, a few fries shot of a Happy Meal, which is to say, he’s crazy.”)

At his five-bedroom home on a quiet Bellevue cul-de-sac, Stephens scrawled words and sentences in black and blue permanent marker across the garage and front door. It’s unclear whether Stephens had a specific mental health diagnosis, but the words and phrases suggest the person who wrote them was struggling with paranoia.

(He wasn’t “struggling with paranoia.” He had dived head-first into deep end of the paranoia pool and was swimming in it.)

“I need protective custody,” one says.
“3 Red Lights = compromised Home.”
“Flash one Headlight for signaling.”
“Bellevue Police scared of truth only believe mafia.”
Several of the messages appear to threaten Stephens’ ex-wife. Stephens was arrested for fourth-degree assault domestic violence in 2020.
The ERPO petition for the protection order says Bellevue police believed Stephens “poses a significant danger in the near future” of injuring himself or others if he has a firearm. Stephens has had recent contacts with police, in the last month, the order says, and “appears to be in a declining mental state.”
It says he had recently obtained a concealed pistol license and tried to purchase a gun at Wade’s Gun Shop in Bellevue earlier in February.
Wade’s declined to sell him a gun, the petition says, “after he expressed concerns about a mafia plot to kill him.” . . .
One of Stephens’ neighbors, who asked not to be named to protect his privacy, said he noticed a change in his friend about four months ago when he said Stephens began dating a woman online who lives in Brazil.
Stephens began to believe he was in danger, the neighbor said. He closed down his landscaping business, sold most of his possessions and began sleeping in the attic and the crawl space, the neighbor said. His Facebook page is peppered with incoherent posts about a cult, murder plots and the mafia.
“Really quickly he became super paranoid,” the neighbor said. “He kept asking people what to do, ‘who do I go to, there’s watchers all over the place.’”

Indeed, the “watchers” are everywhere. We’re all under constant surveillance. If you’re reading this on your laptop, probably Microsoft or Apple or Google have a complete list of every website you’ve ever visited, and if you’re reading this on your smartphone, “the watchers” have got your location via GPS. Considering the way technology has made us all vulnerable to surveillance, being paranoid isn’t necessarily the same as being crazy. But what are the “watchers” going to do with all this personal data they’ve acquired about us? Even if we stipulate their malevolent intent — Facebook is obviously a satanic conspiracy — we are somewhat protected by the general incompetence of the authorities.

The case of William Michael Stephens illustrates this. He believed the “watchers” were out to get him, but even while everybody was trying to get him shipped off to the looney bin, he was still free to wander around all over the place, and it wasn’t until he went berserk with a rifle in downtown Seattle that the cops were finally forced to shoot him.

Crazy People Are Dangerous.




 

Category: Crime, Washington State

In The Mailbox: 03.10.22 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | March 11, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.10.22 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
McG’s Tally Book: I Smell A Ratski
EBL: Schroedinger’s Juicy Smollett, also, Ukrainian Tank Girls
Twitchy: “Making Your Kids Queer Since 2020”, also, “I AM NOT SUICIDAL”
Louder With Crowder: Dan Crenshaw Destroys Biden’s Energy Spin In Three Minutes
Vox Popoli: Karl Says It’s Over, We Don’t Know It’s The Vaxx, and Facebook’s Two-Minute Hate
Gab News: YouTube Censors Ukraine Documentary, Watch It Here

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Washington’s Hypocrisy In Yemen
American Greatness: The Green Immoralists, also, Ivan McMuffin Rides Again!
American Power: Tone-Deaf Biden Administration Responds To High Gas Prices With Electric Car Push, also, Biden Democrats Say Americans Should Suffer Astronomical Gas Prices For The Sake Of Ukraine
American Thinker: Three Reasons Trump Shouldn’t Run For President In 2024
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily 1914 News
Babalu Blog: Another Top Baseball Prospect Escapes Communist Cuba, also, “Selling Out Venezuelans For A Few Barrels Of Oil”
BattleSwarm: $1.5 TRILLION In Spending For A Bill Nobody Has Read
Behind The Black: Blue Origin Expands Its Alabama Rocket Engine Factory, Today’s Blacklisted American, also, The Actual State Of The Ukraine War
Cafe Hayek: Quotation Of The Day
CDR Salamander: A Full Hour On The War In Ukraine With Bill Roggio
Chicago Boyz: The Hashtag War, also, Deliberate Disempowerment
Da Tech Guy: An Obvious Question Nobody Is Asking About The Hong Kong COVID Data, also, Biden’s Policies, Not 9000 Unused Drilling Permits, Are Responsible For Skyrocketing Gas Prices
Don Surber: NYT Calls For Censorship, also, The Friend (Zelensky) Of Your Enemy (The Media) Ain’t Your Friend
First Street Journal: The Optimates Just Don’t Understand How The Plebes Live! also, The Fruits Of “Lia” Thomas’ Labors
Gates Of Vienna: Jumping The Fence At Melilla
The Geller Report: Russia Tells U.S. “We Have Found Your Bioweapons”, also, Sen. Hagerty (R-TN) Says Congress Must Have Say In Iran Nuke Deal
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, I’m So Old, and I’ll Just Leave This Right Here
Hollywood In Toto: Adam Project Puts Focus Where It Belongs, also, Why American Psycho Is Suddenly An Important Film
The Lid: The $1.5 Trillion, 2,741-Page Spending Bill – Dems’ Dark Of Night Politics
Legal Insurrection: Parents Are Fighting A Racialized “Equity Audit” In N. Kingstown, RI, And So Far We’re Winning, also, “The Memo Has Gone Out” – It’s Putin’s Price Hike
Nebraska Energy Observer: How The Pieces Fit
Outkick: Tiger Woods’ Daughter Delivers Emotional Intro Of Her Father Into Golf Hall Of Fame, Tyler Hansbrough Likens Coach K To Larry David, and LeBron James Had A Ben Simmons Moment With The Game Tied
Power Line: A Moment Of Peak Stupidity, Oil – Don’t Look Now, But…, and Matthew Rosenberg Keeps Talking
Shark Tank: Donalds Tangles With Gallego Over Energy Crisis, also, State Sen. Taddeo Compares “Stop Woke” Bill To Holocaust
Shot In The Dark: Appeal To Ridicule, also, For The Children
STUMP: Drug Overdoses, Part 1 – High-Level Trends 1999-2000
The Political Hat: Hating Whites – Promoting White Suicides, Promoting White Dehumanization, & Promoting Inferior Pay For Whites
This Ain’t Hell: The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks, also, Kamala’s Moment?
Transterrestrial Musings: Chairman Beyer, also, Basque Cuisine In The American West
Victory Girls: Lies, Lies, & Gaslighting Over The So-Called “Don’t Say Gay” Bill
Volokh Conspiracy: More On Offering Asylum To Russian Soldiers Who Surrender To Ukraine
Watts Up With That: Is It 9,000 Leases Or 9,000 Permits Oil Companies Are Allegedly Sitting On?
Weasel Zippers: Prehistoric Vampire Squid Named For Biden, Pelosi – “So Much Has Been Accomplished” By Joe Biden “For Environmental Justice”, and Harris Cracks Joke, Bursts Into Laughter After Ukrainian Refugee Question
The Federalist: J6 Committee Seeks To Criminalize GOP Fundraising, Today’s Left Projects Its Mental Disorders Onto The Right, and Studies Cited To Support Gender-Bending Kids Are Mostly Junk Science
Mark Steyn: Just Another Conspiracy Theory, Decriminalizing Sun On Your Face, and Looking For The Off-Ramp

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Category: Linkagery

Judge Sentences Jussie Smollett to Jail; Hate Hoaxer Freaks Out Completely

Posted on | March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Judge Sentences Jussie Smollett to Jail; Hate Hoaxer Freaks Out Completely

The word for this is histrionics:

Hate crime hoaxer and disgraced actor Jussie Smollett has been sentenced on Thursday to 150 days in Cook County jail, 30 months of probation, pay a restitution of $120,106, and a fine of $25,000.
The actor repeatedly shouted, “I am innocent, and I am not suicidal,” as he was hauled off to jail.
“You’re just a charlatan, pretending to be a victim of a hate crime,” Judge Linn said to Smollett. “Your very name has become an adverb for ‘lying.’”
“Your performance on the witness stand can only be described as pure perjury,” the judge added. “You are now a permanently convicted felon.”
“There is nothing that I can do here today that will come close to the damage you’ve already done to your own life,” Judge Linn said before delivering the sentencing. “You turned your life upside down by your misconduct and shenanigans.”
Judge Linn added that Smollett’s “hypocrisy is astounding,” given that the actor has taken a keen interest in social justice issues for many years, yet staged a hate crime against himself, because he “really craved attention.”
“I believe that you did damage to real hate crime victims,” the judge said to Smollett.
“The officer asked you a simple question. And then you start to lie and haven’t stopped lying since,” the judge said. “You’ve been lying and lying and lying about this case, and that’s why you’re here today.” . . .
During the trial, prosecutors showcased how Smollett had gone through extraordinary lengths in January 2019 to stage a hate crime against himself, in which he hired and paid Nigerian brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo to carry out the attack.
Smollett had claimed he was physically attacked by two men wearing MAGA hats who put a rope around his neck, poured bleach on him, and shouted racial and homophobic slurs at him, before eventually yelling, “This is MAGA country!” — referring to former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
The brothers later testified that Smollett gave them money to buy the rope they turned into a noose to put around his neck, and the ski masks to hide their faces.

Remember, every Democrat vouched for Jussie in 2019:




 

Category: Crime

‘A Difficult Midterm’

Posted on | March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on ‘A Difficult Midterm’

Nice understatement from Politico:

Just after 10 p.m. Wednesday night, the House passed the $1.5 trillion omnibus bill, the first step toward averting a government shutdown and enacting Democratic spending priorities after more than 400 days operating under Trump-era budgets extended via continuing resolutions.
But the party’s joy of the occasion was short-lived, as Democratic infighting quickly gobbled up the headlines and forced a daylong delay of the bill’s consideration. . . .
Pelosi’s frustration with the situation was palpable.
“Let’s grow up about this, OK?” she steamed in her press conference Wednesday. “We’re in a legislative process. We have a deadline for keeping the government open. We have a lively negotiation. It has to be bipartisan. … You need 60 votes in the Senate.”
And . . . the issue has set the Democrats’ retreat off to a rocky start at a time when they should be unifying before a difficult midterm. “This retreat is cursed,” Pocan said.

Democrats are completely fucked this November, and everybody knows it, which is why so many Democrats in Congress are retiring.

To say it’s going to be “a difficult midterm” for Democrats is sort of like saying the 7th Cavalry had a “difficult” day at Little Bighorn.

Guess how Democrats in Florida are going to do this fall?

One of the weirder scenes in our recent politics took place this week in the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee. Three Democratic state senators linked arms and did a sort of semi-dance down a hallway singing an impromptu song, “Gay, gay, gay! My daughter’s gay! Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay!” (They had apparently gotten the idea from a Saturday Night Live skit.)
Florida Senate Democrats were so proud of the moment that they posted a video on Twitter with the message: “We’ve got one thing to say to our GOP colleagues — GAY!”

What was that about? The video was another step in state Democrats’ (very successful) campaign to label a Republican-sponsored bill, H.B. 1557, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Democrats claim the bill, which passed the Senate on Monday, would ban the very mention of homosexuality in Florida schools.

They are sheep headed to the slaughter, dead men walking.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!




 

Category: Democrats

In The Mailbox: 03.10.22 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.10.22 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #1651
EBL: Team Brandon Trying Hard To Start World War III
Twitchy: Bad Orange Woman Spins Hard After Peter Doocy Asks If They’re Going To Blame Everything On Putin Until The Midterms
Louder With Crowder: Joe Rogan Says Wokeness Has Murdered Comedy Films
Vox Popoli: U.S. Admits Ukraine Biolabs, Truth Is The First Casualty, and Underestimating The Enemy
Stoic Observations: Afrobets Revisited

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Cracks Are Showing
American Greatness: Saudi Arabia & UAE Refuse To Pump More Oil, Refuse Biden’s Calls
American Power: This Is Much Worse Than Obama’s Iran Deal
American Thinker: Kamala Harris Proves The Peter Principle
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Marco Rubio Questions Administration Official On Secret Dealings With Venezuela’s Dictator
BattleSwarm: Unfolding Voting Debacle In Harris County Results In Resignation, Lawsuits
Behind The Black: SpaceX Successfully Completes 10th Launch In 2022, Voters Nix Camden Spaceport Project, and Today’s Blacklisted American
Cafe Hayek: “Help” That Hurts
CDR Salamander: How Do You Punch A Ship In The Mouth?
Da Tech Guy: How About We Establish Some “No Loot Zones” & “No Shoot Zones” Here In The U.S. Before We Move To “No Fly Zones” In Ukraine?,  I Think We’re Being Played On Ukraine, and Walking From God, Major League Stupidity, & Other Thoughts Under The Fedora
Don Surber: Biden, Destroyer Of NATO, also, Adjusted For Inflation, There Is No Inflation
First Street Journal: Killadelphia, The Cause Of Death Was Stupidity, and The Philadelphia Inquirer Tries To Get A Cop Killed
Gates Of Vienna: Report From Donetsk, also, But Why?
The Geller Report: Florida Becomes First State To Recommend Against Jab For Healthy Kids, also, America-Funded Bioweapon Labs In Ukraine?
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Hot Spots On A Hot Star, and Pseudolinguistics
Hollywood In Toto: Ryan Long’s White Immigrant Shows The Power Of Free Will Comedy, also, Joe Rogan – “Wokeness Killed The Comedy Movie”
The Lid: It’s The Energy, Stupid!
Legal Insurrection: Physicist Challenges “DIE” Dogmas, Extinct Invertebrate Named For Joe Biden, and “Woke” Liberals Prove Point Of UVA Student’s Op-Ed
Michelle Malkin: Torpedo The Traitorous America Competes Act
Nebraska Energy Observer: Lupus Tenebrosus – Chapter 19
Outkick: Instagram Golf Model Paige Spiranac Reveals Divorce, Now A Free Agent, Colts Send QB Carson Wentz To Washington, and Joe Flacco Back To The Jets?
Power Line: The Madness Of Slow Joe, Iran Edition (6), and Is The NYT Finally Catching On?
Shark Tank: Controversial Immigration Bill Heads To DeSantis’ Desk
Shot In The Dark: What’s Ukrainian For Motti? also, Solidarity 
The Political Hat: Woke Genocide – “To Abolish Whiteness Is To Abolish White People”
This Ain’t Hell: Russian Invaders Up-Armoring Their Trucks With Wood, Retired Col.-Gen. Ivashov’s Warning To Putin Before The Invasion, and Polish MiGs Going To Ukraine? Who Knows?
Transterrestrial Musings: The Nightmare Of 1914, also, The Endurance
Victory Girls: MSNBC Says High Gas Prices Are Our Fault
Volokh Conspiracy: “Free Speech & The War In Ukraine”
Watts Up With That: Japan Sees No Winter Warming In Decades, also, “Electric Truck Hydropower” – Real Breakthrough Or Sokal Hoax?
Weasel Zippers: Poll – Majority Of Democrats Would Flee U.S. If Invaded, Energy Secretary Blames Putin For High Gas Prices, and Biden Advisor Claims Increasing U.S. Production Wouldn’t Affect Oil Prices
The Federalist: Media Narrative About Biden’s NATO Leadership Predictably Imploding, Joe Biden Doesn’t Want Your Gas To Be $4/Gallon – He Wants It More Expensive, and How Pre-War Expectations Shape War
Mark Steyn: Celebrating Diversity, also, Looking For A Saudi Shrink

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Category: Linkagery

Ukraine Smashes Tank Column Near Kyiv, Kills Commander of Russian Regiment

Posted on | March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Ukraine Smashes Tank Column Near Kyiv, Kills Commander of Russian Regiment

Brovary is a suburb of Kyiv on the east side of the Dnieper River. A column of Russian tanks rolled into the town Wednesday, apparently seeking a way into Kyiv not blocked as the Ukrainian capital’s western approaches have been blocked. But the attempt to reach Kyiv proved deadly, as the Russians were ambushed in an attack that reportedly killed Col. Andrei Zakharov, commander of the 6th Regiment:

Drone footage shows a Russian tank column coming under fire on the outskirts of Kyiv.
A Russian tank commander was killed in the attack in the town of Brovary, the Ukrainian military claimed.
The footage, taken from a Ukrainian drone, shows three Russian tanks in the village of Skybyn before they are joined from the north by at least 20 Russian vehicles, including tanks and a TOS-1A, the thermobaric missile launcher system Russia recently confirmed it had used in Ukraine.
The vehicles turn and stop on the north side of the village before artillery shells and rockets begin to explode around them.
The closely grouped tanks appear to be thrown into disarray by the attack, eventually turning to retreat from the town.
A [British] military expert, Air Marshal Philip Osborn, said the grouping of the vehicles suggests they did not anticipate an attack.
“In regards to grouping, you would only group in that way if you felt relatively secure from attack,” he told Sky News. “This video proves that was a misjudgement.”
Intercepted radio communication in audio released alongside the video says they have been “ambushed” as multiple strikes hit the column. . . .
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said the Russian forces “suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment” and the tank column was forced to retreat and go on the defensive.
Footage taken in the aftermath of the ambush shows burning Russian vehicles on the road.

The video is some of the best “war porn” we’ve seen yet:

It appears that the Ukrainians hit the lead tank in the Russian column, then hit the last tank in the column, and were beginning to take out the tanks in between when the entire column made a hasty U-turn and headed back east. Some are saying the Ukrainians were using artillery, while others share my opinion that Javelin antitank missiles did the most damage, but regardless of what weapons the Ukrainians used, the Russian tactics were an invitation to disaster. You’re just going roll a dozen tanks down the middle of main street in broad daylight and think the enemy’s not going to be watching you? Clearly, the Ukrainians had planned this ambush well — they had picked this spot as a good trap, with “channelizing” features, and had it zeroed in with their artillery — and the surveillance drone was part of that plan. No doubt video of this ambush will serve as morale-boosting propaganda for the Ukrainians, showing their success in beating back the Russian invaders.

Russia’s losses in Ukraine continue to escalate:

he invading army has suffered “very, very significant casualties,” a U.S. official told CBS News on Wednesday, putting the U.S. estimate at between 5,000 and 6,000 Russian troops killed in action. That’s comparable to losses in World War II battles, the U.S. official said. It’s also, as Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich notes, “more than the number of Americans killed during the Iraq War.”
The U.S. estimate is about halfway between the 500 Russian casualties Moscow claims and the 12,000 Russian deaths claimed by Ukraine. The U.S. intelligence estimate also puts Ukraine’s casualties at 2,000 to 4,000 killed troops plus hundreds or thousands of slain civilians. 
Ukrainian forces continue to destroy a stalled 40-mile-long Russian military convoy north of Kyiv, and the “unexpected effectiveness” of Ukraine’s air defenses has curtailed Russian air activity, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said early Thursday, in its latest public intelligence assessment. . . .
“Putin truly believed people would greet (Russians) with flowers. Instead, they were met with Molotov cocktails,” Ukrainian diplomat Volodomyr Shalkivskyi said at Australia’s National Press Club on Thursday. “Russian soldiers going into Ukraine did not have extra ammo or food in their packs. They did however have a parade uniform for a Russian victory parade through Kyiv,” he added. “You cannot win a war against a free people determined to fight for their freedom. There is no way we will give up.”

Why should Ukraine give up now? They’re winning. If Russia has suffered 5,000 troops killed in action, that’s about 330 a day on average. That may not seem like much, considering that Russian invasion force is more than 100,000 troops, but when you factor in the addition troops wounded and captured — probably at least twice the KIA number — this brings Russia’s total manpower losses to somewhere around 15,000. This is not a trivial degradation of an army’s fighting capacity, and you must add into this calculus the losses of equipment that Russia has sustained, not only in terms of vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainians, but also the vehicles that have broken down or gotten stuck in the mud.

Every day the war goes on, Russian losses will only increase, and while the invaders are also inflicting losses on the Ukrainian defenders, those losses don’t do as much to degrade Ukraine’s ability to keep up the fight. No matter how many losses they’ve taken, the defenders can still hunker down and wait for their chance to strike in ambushes like the one that wrecked that Russian column at Brovary. How many Russian troops will die trying to make that town safe enough for the invaders to continue their advance on Kyiv? Even if it is defended by only a few dozen Ukrainians (well armed with Javelins and mortars), Brovary could remain an obstacle for weeks. And this doesn’t even consider the possibility that the Ukrainians might counterattack, striking the rear of the Russian invasion force and cutting their supply routes.

Guess who doesn’t think Ukraine can win? Our “experts”:

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Fox Business Tonight,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) reacted to the Biden administration’s rejection of Poland’s plan to transfer MiGs to Ukraine by stating that the U.S. is supplying Ukraine like they’re going to lose, the decision to send the jets should be left to Poland and Ukraine instead of D.C. bureaucrats, and it’s a good thing Zelensky hasn’t been to U.S. intelligence briefings because the intelligence community has “repeatedly said he has no chance” of winning.
Issa said, “[F]ortunately, President Zelensky doesn’t go to our classified briefings that have repeatedly said he has no chance, he will not survive, and he will crumble quickly. The problem, of course, is that we’re still resupplying him like he’s going to fail, instead of resupplying him like he’s going to stop this terrible dictator from taking a country by force.”

Our “intelligence community” really isn’t very intelligent.




 

Category: Russia, Ukraine

Sweet Payday for Jeff Zucker

Posted on | March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Sweet Payday for Jeff Zucker

You remember when the malignant dwarf Jeff Zucker was forced out at CNN last month because he was shtupping the last-place network’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer Allison Gollust?

And do you also remember when Gollust, whose main job qualification as a network executive was being Jeff Zucker’s girlfriend, later exited CNN blabbering nonsense about “journalistic integrity”?

Guess what it cost CNN to get rid of these two lovebirds?

Former CNN President Jeff Zucker allegedly reached a multimillion-dollar exit deal with parent company WarnerMedia prior to resigning in February.
According to people familiar with the situation, Zucker was owed $5 million from his 2021 bonus, The Wall Street Journal reported. The agreement was finalized before Zucker announced his resignation when it was revealed he was involved in an extra-marital, consensual relationship with Chief Marketing Officer Allison Gollust. . . .
Deadline reported Tuesday that Zucker had received a $10 million, one-time payment upon leaving the company, citing their own sources. Zucker will receive the payment in the approximately seven to 10 days. Gollust also received $1 million after she left the organization, Deadline continued.

Imagine paying out $11 million to be done with these people, whose tenure at CNN basically wrecked the network, both in terms of ratings and its reputation. But I’m probably just jealous I didn’t wangle a sweet deal like that. Heck, I could have ruined CNN for half that price.




 

Category: CNN

‘Baltimore-Area Women’

Posted on | March 9, 2022 | Comments Off on ‘Baltimore-Area Women’

Headline:

4 Baltimore-area women
charged with stealing thousands of dollars
of merchandise in Rehoboth Beach

As a descriptor, “Baltimore-area women” is perhaps a suitable synonym for Democratic voters, but let’s learn more:

Four Baltimore-area women have been charged with stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise from Tanger Outlets in Rehoboth Beach.
Delaware State Police said they arrested Antonia Risby, 26, of Baltimore; Adaja Cozart, 24, of Middle River; Jasmin Burgess, 21, of Gwynn Oak; and Cemone Massenberg, 25, of Baltimore.
Police pulled over the black Infiniti sedan they were in, at about 2:41 p.m. March 5, in the parking lot of Bayside Outlets. The sedan’s rear license plate was covered with paper.
The suspects were found to have shoplifting tools, and numerous empty shopping bags from various stores were found in the car.

From another account of the same incident:

Investigators say Risby is connected with three other shoplifting incidents at Gap Outlet Store, Victoria Secrets Outlet Store, and Under Armour Factory Store in the Tanger Outlets. Investigators say she stole more than $11,000 worth of merchandise in those cases.
All four women face several felony-level shoplifting charges, including shoplifting over $1,500 and possession of shoplifting tools.

If your shoplifting spree reaches “felony-level,” you might be a Baltimore-area woman. Notice that I’ve quoted two different stories about the same case. That’s because, after seeing one story and wishing to find more details, I decided to Google “Baltimore women shoplifting” and oh, my goodness! It’s the mother lode of crime news!

Four women allegedly stole
$5,600 worth of merchandise
from DSW, Old Navy in Abingdon

Four women from Baltimore have been charged in Harford County with stealing more than $5,600 worth of merchandise from DSW and Old Navy stores in Abingdon.
Sonnova Winchester, 41, Lattie Dower, 48, Shanay Jackson, 27, and Sade Johnson, 26, and are each charged with two counts of theft from $1,500 to less than $25,000 after they were allegedly caught putting merchandise into bags and walking out of the stores without paying for them, according to charging documents.
Winchester has been charged with similar thefts in the last few months: last week in Anne Arundel County and in June in Harford County.
Harford County Sheriff’s deputies were called to DSW shoe store in the Constant Friendship shopping center Tuesday afternoon by store employees, who said they had video of four people putting items in their DSW bags as they tried on various pairs of shoes. . . .
As the deputy was looking at the video, a separate call was dispatched for a theft involving four women at the Old Navy store across the street, in the Boulevard of Box Hill shopping center, according to charging documents. The description of those women matched those in the DSW theft.

 

5 Baltimore women charged
with stealing over $2.7K
from Lancaster Kohl’s, Bon-Ton

Police charged five Baltimore women with conspiring to steal over $2,700 worth of collective merchandise from two clothing stores at a Lancaster mall.
Whitney Muse, 23, Trashell Davis, 18, Kyra Miller, 24, Tyjae Smith, 18, and Lakyah Green, 24, were each arraigned Tuesday on two counts of retail theft, two counts of criminal conspiracy and a single count of possessing an instrument of a crime.
Police responded to Park City Center for a report of retail theft in progress at 6:48 p.m. Monday, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
At least one of the women was seen taking merchandise from Kohl’s, concealing one or more items in a bag from H&M clothing store and leaving the store without paying, police said.
Police located one of the suspects during a vehicle stop about an hour later and found three H&M bags filled with clothing.
Most of the items still had anti-theft devices attached, police said.
An investigation determined $1,654.98 worth of merchandise was stolen from Kohl’s and $1,115.88 worth of items was taken from Bon-Ton at Park City Center.
All five women were placed in Lancaster County Prison: Miller, Davis and Smith on $50,000 bail, and Muse and Green on $40,000 bail, according to court records.

It would probably be unfair to stereotype the female population of an entire city based on a handful of incidents. On the other hand, many would be tempted to say of Baltimore what Obi Wan Kenobi said of Mos Eisley: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”




 

Category: Crime, Maryland
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