The Other McCain

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

Mass Murder in Fordyce, Arkansas

Posted on | June 22, 2024 | 1 Comment

Accused gunman Travis Posey

As soon as this shooting made the news on Friday, I immediately said what every Alabama fan said: “Bear Bryant’s hometown!”

Fordyce, in rural Dallas County, Arkansas, gave to the world the son of cotton farmers who went on to become the winningest football coach of his era, and the local high school football stadium is named in honor of Paul Bryant, who earned his famous nickname as a 13-year-old when he accepted a dare to wrestle a bear at a carnival. Like much of the heartland of America, rural Arkansas has experienced a “hollowing out” in recent decades; Dallas County’s population has declined by about a third in the past 25 years, and barely 6,000 people live there now.

It was terrible what happened there Friday:

Three people were killed and at least 11 others — including two police officers — were wounded in a mass shooting at a grocery store in Arkansas Friday morning.
The suspect — identified by the Ouachita County Sheriff’s Office as Travis Posey, 44 — was shot by law enforcement and is now in custody.
Posey, a trucker, was previously arrested in 2011 for possessing a handgun at the gates of a New York military base near the Canadian border.
Eleven civilians were shot– three of them fatally — at the Mad Butcher in Fordyce, Mike Hagar, the Secretary of Arkansas Dept. of Public Safety and the Director of the Arkansas State Police said at a press conference. . . .
A motive was unclear as of Friday afternoon. . . .
“I am thankful to law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives. My prayers are with the victims and all those impacted by this horrific incident,” Gov. Huckabee Sanders posted online ahead of the afternoon presser.
Posey, a truck driver from New Edinburg, Ark., was arrested in New York in 2011 for possessing a handgun at the Fort Drum military base in Watertown, about 30 miles from the Canadian border, a local outlet wrote at the time.
He was charged with 4th-degree criminal possession of a weapon but pleaded down to disorderly conduct in the town of LeRay Court. Police confiscated the gun and he paid a fine of $200.
Arkansas State Police said late Friday that Posey was being charged with three counts of capital murder with additional charges pending.

As my brother has said, “Crazy doesn’t need a motive.”



 

Shop Electronics at Amazon

Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials

Shop Amazon Basics

Office & School Supplies

Category: Arkansas, Crime

In The Mailbox: 06.21.24

Posted on | June 21, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Weaponization Of The DOJ Continues Under Biden
EBL: Summer Time, Donald Sutherland RIP, and Jocelyn Nungaray RIP – 12 Year Old Girl from Texas Raped and Murdered by Illegals From Venezuela
Twitchy: The Award For Best Comedic Response To Protest Punks Goes To Jake Tapper’s Kids, Sean Davis Has A Compelling Argument To Support The Notion of A SCOTUS Leak, and James Woods Puts The Administration On Blast For Its New Comms Director
Louder With Crowder: Kevin Costner finally makes official what “Yellowstone” fans were dreading to hear, also, DEI college course encourages students to live like bugs in order to understand marginalized groups
Vox Popoli: Mad, Bad, and Dead, also, Expect Surprises
According To Hoyt: Two Sides Of A Lie, Before You Run, and The Noble Bubbleheads
Monster Hunter Nation: Catalyst – the end of Steve Diamond’s Jack Bishop trilogy

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Poll Shows Farage Set to Win Seat in Landslide, also, Washington Post Newsroom Revolt Dissuades Named Editor from Taking Job
American Greatness: Study Shows Nearly Half of Electric Vehicle Owners Want to Return to Normal Cars, How California’s Paradise Become our Purgatory, and Peace Through Strength: The Stark Contrast Between Trump and Biden
American Thinker: ‘No Tax On Tips’ Reveals the Chasm Between Left and Right
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Government Waste Friday, also, Animal Magnetism LIVE Ep. 12 – Grandma’s Irises
Babalu Blog: Cuban professor describes her violent detention: ‘Cuba is a police state’, Political humor under a regime with no sense of humor, and Without fuel or electricity, Cubans turn to cooking with wood inside and outside their homes
Baldilocks: The Grudges
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm for June 21
Behind The Black: Japan’s space agency reveals it was hacked in 2023, New debris from another Dragon service module discovered in North Carolina, SpaceX announces a mini-version of Starlink designed for backpackers, Spanish high altitude balloon company releases artwork of its proposed passenger capsule, Family whose home was damaged by NASA battery ejected from ISS files claim, and Emerson College in Boston leads the way in supporting Hamas and losing enrollment
Cafe Hayek: If Weather Is Climate
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Chicago Boyz: Grand Canyon, also, It Was Funnier In a Movie
Da Tech Guy: By This Time Next Week the Issue of Joe Biden Will be Decided
Dana Loesch: SCOTUS Upholds Ban On Firearms Subject To Domestic Violence Protection Orders
Don Surber: Garter Snake Mitt speaks
Gates Of Vienna: Summertime Sexual Emergencies in Austria
The Geller Report: BIDEN FAIL: China and the Philippines Inch Closer to Conflict in the South China Sea
Hollywood In Toto: Why Sydney Sweeney’s ‘Barbarella’ Could Rock Hollywood
The Lid: Illinois Bleeding Tax Payers Dry with $100K+ Salaries, Education Waste, and More
Legal Insurrection: Manhattan DA Drops Most Charges Against People Who Took Over Columbia U. Building and Allegedly Held Custodians Hostage, Biden Freeze Videos: Democrats Fear the Public Will Believe Their Own Eyes, Not Media Lies, Democrat Congressional Staffer Goes Viral After Thanking Biden for ‘Canceling’ His Student Debt, ‘I Would Do it Again’: Utah Troon Admits Murdering His Parents, Illegal Aliens Arrested for Rapes, Murders of Maryland Mom, NYC and Houston Teens Shouldn’t Have Been in the U.S., and Oakland Leaders, Voters Demand Answers After FBI Raids Mayor Thao’s House
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Move Over Caitlin Clark, The College World Series Is The Hottest Ticket This Summer As Vols And Aggies Battle, Roger Goodell Says NFL Will Continue To Push LGBTQ Outreach Because ‘Diversity Makes Us Better’, Arizona Coyotes May Not Be Able To Build A New Stadium In Phoenix, Texas A&M Baseball Can Win 1st National Championship In Major Sport Since 1939 In Football, Jaylen Brown Takes Shot At Stephen A. Smith With Parade Outfit, and Heidi Klum Does A Topless Wing Eating Contest, NFL Reporter Melanie Collins Ready For Summer & Chipotle Brawl
Power Line: Is anti-Zionism anti-Semitism? Ten German Bombers, Why Netanyahu called out Biden, and Thoughts from the ammo line
Shark Tank: DeSantis Announces Massive GDP Growth In Florida – Double National Rate
Shot In The Dark: It’s Transit Memorial Day, also, Filed Under “Things That Don’t Happen In Texas, Wyoming, Or The Dakotas”
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday: A Murder Case
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, Illinois law maker wants to criminalize flying the American flag upside down, School apologizes for calling ISIS a terrorist group, and You damn conservatives!
Transterrestrial Musings: Totalitarianism, California’s Paradise, Nifty Fifty, The Trouble WIth (Many) Teachers, The Pro-Hamas Universities, and The Stanford Internet Observatory
Victory Girls: Democrats Want Palestinian Refugees In The United States
Volokh Conspiracy: The Sixteenth Amendment did not “Overrule” Pollock
Watts Up With That: BBC Pushes U.S. Heatwave Story but Buries ‘Junuary’ Winter Storm Story, Highway Funds Illegally used for Floating Wind Factories, and Larry Fink at WEF destroys net zero due to AI power demands
The Federalist: It’s Past Time For American Jews To Abandon The Democrat Party, DHS Group Called Being ‘Religious’ An ‘Indicator’ Of Domestic Terrorism, True Tolerance Demands An End To The Persecution Of Jack Phillips, Supreme Court’s Immigration Rebuke Suggests Biden’s Border Order Is Unconstitutional, It Could Soon Be Illegal For California Teachers To Tell Parents About Kids’ Trans Confusion, Biden’s Push For Ukraine To Join NATO Is More About Dollars Than ‘Democracy’, and Yes, Democrats Have Made Milwaukee A ‘Horrible’ City

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Catalyst
Kelly’s Heroes
The Dirty Dozen
M*A*S*H
Buffy The Vampire Slayer


 

Category: Linkagery

Another #NeverTrump Embarrassment: ‘Lewd and Lascivious Behavior’

Posted on | June 21, 2024 | 2 Comments

“The people who drafted McMullin to be the ‘Never Trump’ independent candidate are some of the Republican establishment’s most well-known operatives: Bill Kristol, John Kingston, Joel Searby, Rick Wilson. McMullin is an unknown congressional staffer who worked for the CIA, including 10 years undercover, and has no political experience whatsoever.”
— Washington Post, Aug. 22, 2016

You may have forgotten — or possibly never noticed — the “independent” presidential candidacy of Evan McMullin in 2016. For a while, McMullin was the darling of the #NeverTrump types (Kristol, David French, et al.), who tried to hype him up as a viable candidate. The campaign (with former GOP operative Mindy Finn as McMullin’s VP running mate) was a sad joke, which managed to get barely 730,00 votes (less than one-half of one percent of the total) and failed to achieve its only real goal, i.e., to take votes away from Donald Trump and thereby elect Hillary Clinton.

Did I mention — because it seems relevant — that the McMullin campaign cheated its employees and vendors to the tune of $669,330.95?

The “chief strategist” of that debacle was Joel Searby who, going from one grift to another, in 2022 became political director of the short-lived “Renew America Movement,” which subsequently merged into the Forward Party (founded by 2020 Democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang), but Searby’s Forward Party grift didn’t last long, and by August 2023, he had moved onto his next grift: “Newberry Education First,” which is (or at least was) an effort to convert three public schools in Alachua County, Florida, into charter schools.

Meanwhile, however, Searby kept busy in other ways:

An Alachua County judge ordered a Newberry Education First board member to be held without bond at a first appearance hearing Friday morning.
Joel Searby, 43, was booked into the Alachua County Jail on Thursday on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior, communication to lure a minor, communication to travel to meet a minor, and using a communication device to commit a felony. According to the arrest report, he solicited sex from an underage boy on Snapchat.
Searby was one of the people leading the charge to attempt to convert Newberry public schools into charter schools.
The arrest report from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office transcribes a conversation that started on Wednesday between Searby and the victim on the messaging app Snapchat. In the message chain, Searby asked the 15-year-old if he has ever had a crush on an older man and then describes a sexual encounter he had as a teen with an adult man.
Searby sent the boy multiple photos of himself with his face obscured, including a photo of his hand in his pants. He then invited the boy to visit his home the next morning, secretly.
He suggested the victim should sneak out and go to Searby’s guest house. He would send the boy a text asking him to go over to help with yard work as an excuse for his parents.
“Evidence is pretty damning, and it’s scary for me as a parent,” shared parent Brandy Oldman.
On Thursday morning, law enforcement took over the boy’s account and continued the conversation with Searby. He confirmed the meet-up for “yard work” and a detective pretending to be the victim asked if they would be “jerking off” or something more.
Searby replied to the victim’s account, “I would like to do more but we can take it one step at a time and if I start doing anything you don’t want to do we can stop. I’ll walk you through it.”
Detectives then executed a search warrant at Searby’s home on Southwest 170th Street and he was taken into custody. Searby invoked his right to remain silent. He was booked into the Alachua County Jail and his bond has yet to be set.

“Allegedly,” I hasten to add, although I suspect Searby will be too busy trying to stay out of prison to be filing lawsuits against a blogger who forgot to use “allegedly” about these felony charges.

Probably the best-case scenario for Searby is that he can get a plea deal that lets him off with probation before November so he can then organize the “Convicted Sex Offenders for Biden 2024 Super PAC.”



 

Shop Electronics at Amazon

Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials

Shop Amazon Basics

Office & School Supplies

Category: Crime, Florida

In The Mailbox: 06.20.24

Posted on | June 21, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Ireland for the Irish

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Don’t Bring A Screwdriver To A Gunfight
EBL: Thanks Joe Biden, Summer Starts Now, and Oh Crap, It’s almost Midsommar!
Twitchy: Senator John Kennedy Shames Judicial Nominee For Finding “A Lot Of Good” In Child Molester, James O’Keefe Exposes Disney VP Saying The Company “Will Never Hire A White Male”, and Wisconsin Supremes Get Very Creative With Definition Of “Sidewalk”
Louder With Crowder: Man who drove on street that a Pride mural was painted on stands by his actions: “I Have No Regrets”
Vox Popoli: Veniunt, Infamaverunt, Mortui Sunt, Do Not Fear the Good, and The Excommunication of a Bishop
Upstream Reviews: League of Angels, also, Lost Planet Homicide
Stoic Observations: The Texas Stock Exchange

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Rishi Sunak on Track to Lose His Seat, also, France’s ‘New Popular Front’ Faces Extremism Woes
American Greatness: Pistol Packing Pedagogues, also, How California’s Paradise Become our Purgatory
American Thinker: The West’s War on Critical Thinking
Animal Magnetism: First Day of Summer, also, Animal’s Red Thursday News
Babalu Blog: Less than 1% of the homes needed to address Cuba’s housing shortage have been built, Nicaragua’s socialist dictator now targeting protestant churches, and Number of Cuban women murdered by their partners continues to increase, along with other types of violence
BattleSwarm: Oakland Residents Celebrate Juneteenth By Shooting At Each Other
Behind The Black: German rocket startup Isar raises another €65 million in investment capital, Blue Origin signs deal to fly Nigerian on New Shepard suborbital flight, Update on SpaceX activities leading to the next Superheavy/Starship orbital test flight, Rocket Lab launches five smallsats for French commercial constellation, SpaceX launches commercial geosynchronous satellite for SES, and The intellectual dishonesty of Democrats proven once again
Cafe Hayek: The Accounting Misleads, also, China, Slavery, and Trade
CDR Salamander: Submarine Industrial Wishcasting In A Time Dominated By Happy Talk
Da Tech Guy: Investigating Voter Fraud now illegal in Michigan and other matters Under the Fedora, also, Big Government makes it impossible to have fun at a famous lake
Don Surber: NYC sees Trump was right
Gates Of Vienna: Speaking Turkish is Your Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card, A Culture-Enriching Gang Rape by 13-Year-Olds in Courbevoie, and Honor Killing in Worms
The Geller Report: Democrats Suddenly Change 70 Year-Old Election Law to Block Investigation of Election Fraud, House GOP Moves to Reverse J6 Committee Subpoena Against Trump Advisors, and These are the Two Terrorists who DESECRATED, Spray Painted the 5,000 Year Old Stonehenge Monument
Hollywood In Toto: Why We All Slept on Wanderlust, Armie Hammer and the Rise of Cannibal Culture, How O’Keefe & Film Threat Exposed Disney’s DEI Agenda, and Bikeriders Nails Gang Subculture, Fuzzy Moral Compass
The Lid: Biden Spent Billions to Bring WiFi to Rural Areas – In 3 Years Not One Person Connected
Legal Insurrection: Progressive Oakland Mayor Faces Recall in November With District Attorney, New York Rep. Bowman Tries to Erase His Anti-Israel Past on Colbert Show, CBS News Beclowns Itself by Using ‘Wrong Version’ of Biden Video That Made Him Look Even Worse, Mexican Cartel ‘Travel Agencies’ Selling $15,000 Packages to Illegal Aliens for Help to Cross Border, Emerson College Laying Off Staff Amid Enrollment Decline Following Anti-Israel Protests, and Why is the DOJ Prosecuting a Whistleblower Who Exposed the Truth About Trans Medical Practices on Children?
Nebraska Energy Observer: Read
Outkick: Caitlin Clark Gets All The WNBA Attention As Indiana Fever Continues Drastic Improvement, ESPN Reportedly Offers Massive Deal To Stephen A. Smith, Still Short of Network Star’s Demand, Willie Mays Tributes Pour In At Rickwood Field MLB Ceremony, Wimbledon, French Open Champ Carlos Alcaraz Gets $200 Million Nike Deal, Includes His Own Logo, National Anthem Singer At Pirates Game Changes Lyrics, Sparks Debate About Political Agenda, and Kristin Cavallari Enjoys The View From Her Hot Tub, Juneteenth WNBA Shirt Stirs The Pot & Belichick’s Boat
Power Line: Glad to be unhappy, Here’s the Latest Cheap Fake, and Charges Against Columbia Rioters Dismissed
Shark Tank: Rep. Fine Calls For Jill Biden’s Arrest On Elder Abuse Charges
Shot In The Dark: A Little Unfair, also, Back To The Future
STUMP: Gordon Ramsay Shows The Dangers Of Bike Riding & The Importance Of Helmets
The Political Hat: Quick Takes – Enemies Not So Far Abroad: Russia In The Americas; Putin And Kim; Axis Of The Devils
This Ain’t Hell: AF General on trial this week, Hamas Pier, and Donald Sutherland passes, age 88
Transterrestrial Musings: Illegitimate Committee, Mike Rowe, “Young Democrats Like Me”, Boeing’s Latest Starliner Woes, and Israel And Space
Victory Girls: Democrat Staffer Gloats About Taxpayers Paying His Student Loan
Volokh Conspiracy: Professors Lacked First Amendment Right to Post Flyers Calling Colleague and Student Group Racist
Watts Up With That: Great Travel Reset: Britons who travel abroad more than once a year would face punitive ‘frequent flyer’ levies under Green Party proposals, Tomorrow is #ShowYourStripes Day – But we have the real one, and Wealthy Liberals Barrel Ahead with Plans to Block the Sun
The Federalist: ‘Pride’ Parades Are Nothing But Massive Humiliation Rituals, Every Pro-Life State Enacted Support For Pregnant Women And Families Post-Dobbs, Illinois Reporters Use Tragic Child Abuse Case To Dishonestly Smear Homeschool Families, Feminism Killed The Female-Led Action Movie, Election Integrity Groups Urge North Carolina To Pass Citizens-Only Voting Amendment, Pope Francis’ Feel-Good Gospel Fans The Flame Of Radical Gender Ideology, and Press Panics Over Public’s Ability To See Through Activist Narratives
Mark Steyn: Ninth Lives and Eleventh Hours, also, Three’s a Trend

Amazon Warehouse Deals
League of Angels
Lost Planet Homicide
Best Sellers – Health & Household
Best Sellers – Medical Supplies & Equipment
Today’s Deals



  

Category: Linkagery

‘We Need to Do More for Mental Health,’ Says Woman Who Lived With Convict Whose Face Was Covered in Tattoos

Posted on | June 20, 2024 | 1 Comment

Say hello to Lemar Brandon Qualls and, while you’re at it, go ahead and say good-bye, because the late Mr. Qualls got thoroughly ventilated by Indianapolis police last month. The photo above was taken in January 2023 by prison officials in Michigan, about two months before Mr. Qualls was released after serving more than six years on a methamphetamine charge. His conviction on that charge was part of a 2016 plea bargain:

With sentencing guidelines of five-to-23 months, Hillsdale County Circuit Judge Michael R. Smith found numerous reasons to exceed the guidelines including Qualls’ extensive criminal past in Michigan and Indiana.
Qualls currently has an outstanding warrant out of Steuben County where he is wanted for a probation violation.
“You have never completed probation successfully,” Judge Smith said. “You sir need discipline, reformation and guidance.”
Imposing sentencing, Judge Smith ordered Qualls to serve three-to-10 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections with credit for 56 days served.
Pursuant to the plea bargain, charges of operating/maintaining a drug lab, possession of marijuana and felon in possession of a firearm were dismissed.

“Felon in possession of a firearm” is a very serious crime. Having that charge dismissed — and being allowed to plead guilty to simple possession of meth when, in fact, he was manufacturing meth — was quite a generous concession by the prosecutors, but it seems that the judge did not believe leniency toward Mr. Qualls was warranted, considering the “extensive” nature of his prior criminal history.

Mr. Qualls came to my attention because of my habit of watching the Police Activity channel on YouTube, which features video captured by police bodycams, dashcams, and surveillance cameras, usually made public because of an officer-involved shooting (OIS) incident.

Police body cameras were introduced with the idea of providing more “transparency” and “accountability” in the wake of claims about “systemic racism” made by self-proclaimed “social justice” activists. Watching a lot of Police Activity videos is a surefire cure for any illusions you might have had on this subject. In fact, most of the time, the title of the video is sufficient to make you say, “Of course.” For example, the video of Mr. Qualls’ fatal encounter is titled, “Indianapolis Police Shoot Man Who Pointed Gun at an Officer.” Of course! What else did you expect them to do? Point a gun at a cop, guess what happens next?

That video begins with recordings of 911 calls. The first caller says, “There’s a guy outside the facility waving a gun at people, saying that he’s a felon, and claiming that he will shoot people.” The second caller says, “There is an intruder. He’s a black male with tatoos, about probably five-eight, and he has a gun. He has put it in front of my face, and he clanked it up against a metal bar to let me know that it’s real. He is currently on my porch trying to, like, solicit electronics for sale, but he’s kind of, like, babbling all crazy stuff.” Yeah, that’s going to elicit a swift response.

Next we see doorbell camera footage. Mr. Qualls is sitting on the front porch with a pistol in his right hand, talking to himself: “You’re fine. You know me. I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t what I think it is. If I’m wrong, tell me, please.” The cop — Officer Ivan Flick — aims his gun: “Hands up! Hands up!” The caption on the video freeze-frame provided by the police department is rather succinct: “Mr. Qualls raised gun and pointed it at Officer Flick.” Say good-bye, Mr. Qualls.

The video was just released today, but the shooting happened May 2, at which time WXIN-TV interviewed a “friend” of the deceased felon, who explained that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) was very familiar with Mr. Qualls:

Erin Ireland lived with Qualls. She said IMPD and MCAT, which stands for Mobile Crisis Assistance Teams, had been called to their home several times this year.
Police reports show Qualls had been arrested three times since January for domestic incidents, but despite repeated arrests and trips to the hospital, Erin said Qualls never got the treatment he needed.
“The police have been over here so many times I bet the officer who shot him knew him,” said Ireland. . . .
Erin just wishes there were more resources to assist people with mental health issues.
“We need to do more for mental health. People aren’t bad people just because they’re sick. I wish there was a way to get them help because it’s been like impossible,” said Ireland.

Frankly, ma’am, I’m concerned about your mental health. Because where I come from, cohabiting with a convicted felon fresh out of prison . . . Well, some people might call that crazy. And how many times does your, uh, “friend” have to get arrested for domestic violence before you decide maybe he’s a bad person? Don’t even get me started on the face tattoo thing, but it seems to me that there is an inability (or unwillingness) to exercise proper judgment involved in this situation.

Nobody has even raised the question of how Mr. Qualls, a convicted felon, got hold of the .45 semiautomatic he was wielding before he got shot by the cops. Nor could I find any explanation of why, despite his criminal history, Mr. Qualls kept getting turned loose after being arrested in “domestic incidents.” My suspicion is that it’s because his “friend,” Ms. Ireland, refused to press charges for assault, which might have resulted in a return trip to prison for Mr. Qualls. Instead, he ends up roaming the street, babbling gibberish and waving a pistol around until he gets ventilated by the IMPD, because Crazy People Are Dangerous.



 

Shop Electronics at Amazon

Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials

Shop Amazon Basics

Office & School Supplies

Category: Crime, Indiana

The Star Treatment

Posted on | June 20, 2024 | Comments Off on The Star Treatment

Arrival of the international celebrities.

My wife and our youngest daughter, Reagan, returned from Argentina last night. Reagan said that after the plane landed, she removed her sweater and fixed her hair because she knew — from previous experience — that as soon as they emerged from the gate at baggage claim I would be snapping photos. “Paparazzi Dad” is nothing if not predictable.

This goes back to a Basic Journalism Trick that I learned during the earliest years of my newspaper career, working for small-town weeklies: Treat the people you cover as if they were famous celebrities. During four years as sports editor for the Calhoun (Ga.) Times, I elevated this technique to an art form. So far as our readers were aware, Timmy Starr was the greatest basketball player since Michael Jordan. You’ve never heard of Timmy Starr, of course, but when he was playing for the Bulldogs of Fairmount High School, he was a local sensation in Gordon County, and the coverage I provided his exploits was as effusive as Tiger Beat covering a Bay City Rollers concert tour. (Although you’d have to be old enough to qualify for Social Security to get that reference.)

My inspiration for that totally non-objective approach to journalism was, of course, Hunter S. Thompson’s pro wrestling hype of “Kazika the Mad Jap” during his early career as a local sports writer in Florida.

When you’re doing entry-level work in the newspaper business, you need to play some kind of mind games with yourself to maintain your morale, to convince yourself that the work you’re doing makes a difference, somehow, to somebody. You’re getting paid to do this job and, even if the subjects of your coverage are obscure and of interest only to a handful of locals, those people are your readers — the customers who are ultimately paying your bills — and you have to find a way of motivating yourself to provide excellence. If you can’t do that, you’re never going to get ahead in the news business and, having started my career on the very bottom rung of the industry, I was fiercely determined to get ahead.

Having developed this strategy at the outset of my career, and having proved its value through experience, I never forgot it. When you get to the point where you’re part of the journalistic scrum covering a major national story — e.g., a presidential campaign — you must find some way to set yourself apart from the mob. Instead of letting other people decide what’s important, learn to rely on your own judgment, follow your own lead. You decide what angle to cover, and then cover the hell out of it.

So the Big Story last night was the wife and daughter of Influential Journalist Robert Stacy McCain returning from their Triumphant Tour of Argentina, and I got the world-exclusive scoop on that story.

Today’s Big Story? The Influential Journalist is taking his beautiful wife and lovely daughter out to dinner and — EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS! — the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

Shop Electronics at Amazon

Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials

Shop Amazon Basics

Office & School Supplies

Category: Celebrities, Family, R.S. McCain School of Journalism

In The Mailbox: 06.19.24

Posted on | June 20, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.19.24

— compiled by Wombat-socho

The Summer Based Books Sale Is Here!

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Cheap fakes, deep fakes, whatever

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Willie Mays, RIP
Twitchy: Stop Oil Trust Fund Dweeb Reveals Himself, Mt. St. Helens Is “Recharging” & Throws Some Shade At Mt. Rainier As Possible Eruption Looms, and CBS News Explains Why “Wrong Version Of A Video” Was Removed From Biden “Cheap Fake” Hackery
Louder With Crowder: Dingbat Joy Behar claims Trump will have “The View” taken off the air, effectively endorses him for president
Vox Popoli: RIP Willie Mays, The Next Library Serial, and How Clown World Lost the Plot

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Misery of Team Building
American Conservative: Azov Leader Admits to Ukrainian Use of ‘Blocking Detachments’
American Greatness: What Trump and His People Need to Know About January 6, also, Resolution Declaring J6 Committee Illegitimate Awaits Action
American Thinker: No Different than the Democrats: A Review of The Empire of Eunuchs
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News, also, Animal Magnetism LIVE Ep. 12 – Politics and Vehicles
Babalu Blog: Cuban State Security arrests and beats two professors on their way to a peaceful protest in Havana, The hidden face of hunger in communist Cuba, and Uber shows up in Havana to transport Ukraine-bound mercenaries
BattleSwarm: Adobe Update: Uncle Fed Sues
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites, Scientists release first image from Hubble in one-gyro mode, Slovenia becomes 23rd member nation of the European Space Agency, Astronomers see a quiet galaxy become active for the first time, and Pro-Hamas lefty arrested for several arson attacks on UC-Berkeley campus
Cafe Hayek: Of Course U.S. Government-Imposed Tariffs Are Taxes on Americans, also, On Tariffs and Constant Returns to Scale
CDR Salamander: The National Guard Forgets Itself
Chicago Boyz: Abuse of Authority, continued
Da Tech Guy: Trump Takes a Page from the Tip O’Neil Playbook
Don Surber: That’s A Shame Month
First Street Journal: Philly advocates for prostitutes want the johns arrested, but not the hookers
Gates Of Vienna: A Multicultural Shangri-La, Presidential Senility – An Italian Perspective, Covid-19: All Lies. All Crime. — Chapter 6, Antifa vs. the AfD, Barbarians Inside the Gates of Metz, and Gaslighting the Grevesmühleners
The Geller Report: Netanyahu Asserts US is “Withholding Essential Weapons and Ammunitions to Israel” that Israel Paid For
Hollywood In Toto: Gaslighting 101: Kimmel Spins Biden’s Frozen Fundraising Moment, How Democrats and Hollywood Abandoned Working Class, ‘The View’s’ Anti-Trump Hysteria, Explained, and How Nicolas Cage Nearly Capsized His Career
The Lid: Woke Airline Pilot Union Says Stop Saying ‘Cockpit’ and ‘Manpower’ Because They’re Not ‘Inclusive’ Enough
Legal Insurrection: DEA Uncovers Drug Money Laundering Scheme Between Chinese Organized Crime, Sinaloa Cartel, “the only real tolerated form of antisemitism is anti-Zionism”, Cal State LA President: Students Who Took Over Building No Longer Welcome on Campus, Zero Progress Made On Biden’s $42.5 Billion Rural High Speed Internet Project, Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to Teach Public Policy at U. Michigan This Fall, and  Chemicals From East Palestine Train Derailment Reached 16 States
Nebraska Energy Observer: The Way We Were and Will Be Again
Outkick: Tennessee Will Play For National Championship At College World Series, Still Getting Pounded: Mystics Player Hacks Caitlin Clark, Fever Star Cries ‘Foul’, Rising WNBA Star Cameron Brink Out For Year With ACL Injury, On The Night Willie Mays Passed Away, It Was Fitting That Baseball Was Being Played At Rickwood Field, Bill Belichick Scored His 24-Year-Old Girlfriend With The Ultimate Pickup Line, and Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson Nailed By Pitch As Yankees Seek Revenge For Aaron Judge Injury
Power Line: From the quiver to the glee, Willie Mays, RIP, and A Cultural Stereotype Comes to Life
Protein Wisdom Reborn:
Shark Tank: Gaetz & Massie Introduce Bill Removing Tips From Taxable Income
Shot In The Dark: Seed Corn, If You Build It They Will Come, and  Pre-Emptive
This Ain’t Hell: Yet another Biden non-biologist, Army Vet Willy Mays dead at 93, and Natl Guard Chief says NG troops defending border is a waste of time
Transterrestrial Musings: J. D. Vance, A Question From Bill Maher, Joe Biden, We’re All Soviets Now, Antony Blinken, and The Fauci Covid Conspiracy
Victory Girls: Just Stop Oil Desecrates Stonehenge
Volokh Conspiracy: “Indian National” Extradited “in Connection with Foiled Plot to Assassinate U.S. Citizen” for Citizen’s Sikh Separatist Advocacy
Watts Up With That: Con Edison Launches Campaign To Deflect Blame For The Coming Energy Disaster, Senate Passes Major Pro-Nuclear Bill, Sends To Biden’s Desk, and Climate Activists Are Wrong About Which Energy Source Reduces Air Pollution
The Federalist: Google’s Censorship Machine Targets PragerU — Again, Scientist Who Pushed To Discredit Lab Leak Theory Received Millions In NIH Grants, Democrat Fixer Marc Elias’ Firm Steps In To Stop ‘Disastrous Election System’ Fix, Biden’s Meddling DOJ Targets Alabama’s Ban On Ballot Trafficking, Dallas School District Wants Parents Sent To The Principal’s Office When Their Kids Are Naughty, Bizarre NYT Op-Ed Says It ‘May Not Be Enough’ For Supreme Court To Decide Cases, Dems Claim They Aren’t Importing An Electorate, But These 5 Examples Indicate Otherwise, and San Francisco’s London Breed Thinks The Mayor’s Top Job Is Naming Drag Queens
Mark Steyn: Live Around the Planet – Nine Lives, also, Pride Before the Fall

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Best Sellers – Grocery & Gourmet Food
Best Sellers – Health & Household
New Releases



   

Category: Linkagery

The Warning From Sweden

Posted on | June 19, 2024 | 3 Comments

Sweden has a population of about 10.5 million, or about the same as the state of North Carolina. Twenty years ago, you had to seek out “far right” sources (which, of course, I did) to learn anything about the problems caused by immigration in Sweden. Many of the atrocity tales came from the city of Malmö which, for some reason, was a magnet for Third World immigration and Malmö became notorious as a “no-go zone” ruled by violent foreign gangs. After the surge of migrants circa 2015, however, a taboo topic that was once relegated to obscure right-wing blogs has recently become the subject of mainstream journalism:

“Everyone feels at risk,” declared Charlie Duxbury of the neo-liberal POLITICO website [in October 2023], as he reported that a fourth bombing had occurred in his area of Stockholm since the start of the year. In total, there have been at least 134 bombings across Sweden in 2023, compared to 90 for the entirety of last year. Meanwhile, there have been 289 shootings since the start of the year, following 391 in 2022. . . .
The scale of immigration to the country, which soared in the wake of the 2015 European Migrant Crisis, has meant that now at least one-fifth of Sweden’s population are foreigners.

After a string of bombings this February, Breitbart reported:

Since the police began keeping such statistics in 2018, there have been at least 650 recorded bombings in Sweden.

In terms of gun violence, Sweden has become the Chicago of Europe, so to speak: “Twenty years ago, crimes involving firearms were almost non-existent [in Sweden]. Yet in 2022 the gun murder rate in capital Stockholm was around 25 times higher than in London.” How much has migration transformed Sweden? Among its vastly expanded foreign population, Sweden in 2022 had about 150,000 immigrants from just three African countries — Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia:

“People from Somalia made up the largest group of foreign-born citizens from Africa living in Sweden in 2022, with nearly 70,000 people. Eritreans and Ethiopians made up the second and third largest group, respectively, meaning that a high number of the foreign-born born population from African countries come from the Horn of Africa. This is a region characterized by famines, terrorism, and authoritarian rule over the past decades, resulting in a high number of refugees.”

This is to say nothing at all of the many thousands from Sudan (8,372), Nigeria (8,272), Congo (6,684), Gambia (5,940), Uganda (5,781), Kenya (5,419), etc., and never mind the Turks, Iranians, Afghans, etc.

The political impact has been profound, as Stefan Hedlund, a professor at Sweden’s Uppsala University, wrote in February:

There was a time when Sweden was looked upon by American liberals as an inspirational example of the Scandinavian welfare state. . . .
Present-day Sweden carries the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of gangland killings in Europe. It boasts the lowest average age of serious offenders, with children in their low teens being arrested for murder. Increasing segments of suburbs are officially classified as “especially vulnerable areas,” where it is “hard, bordering on impossible” for the police to operate. In layman’s terms, these are no-go zones, where local clans rule and where first responders will not enter without flak jackets and police escort.
An early warning was provided in 2017 when United States President Donald Trump made a quip about rioting in Sweden: “You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this!” Who indeed? At the time, such comments were met with disdain and ridicule. Today, it is not so funny anymore.
Sweden has transitioned from being a model of inspiration to becoming a warning example. As gangland violence is spreading across borders, its Scandinavian neighbors experience growing fears of ending up in what is known in Denmark as the “Swedish condition.”
Defying an old taboo, the Swedish government has called on the military to assist the police. . . .
While the deterioration in physical security is causing Swedish nationals with entrepreneurial skills to leave the country, it is also becoming increasingly difficult for industry to recruit high-level talent from abroad. These problems are amplified by a deterioration in the quality of education that has resulted from increasing ethnic disorder and outright violence in schools. . . .
The main cause of the crisis is a combination of an open-door migration policy with no accompanying policy to help the newcomers integrate. The consequence has been the emergence of neighborhoods where almost all residents are immigrants, where unemployment rates are very high and where the children of immigrants go to schools where no other children, often not even teachers, are proficient in Swedish. This has served as an incubator for crime, as gangs take over where society fails. . . .
Out of a population of 10.61 million in 2022, a total of 2.14 million were registered as foreign-born, more than double the number in 2000. That comes to just over 20 percent. If a broader definition is used, to include those who are born in Sweden with two foreign-born parents, the number rises to 26 percent. . . .
The reason why the problem has been allowed to get out of control is that so many representatives of the media and of the political establishment have for so long been cocooned in naive views of criminal dangers, leading to extremely lax legislation and enforcement, and of dangerous strains of Islamism, leading to a profound inability to scale up defenses against the current wave of radicalization. Those chickens are now coming home to roost. . . .

Sweden’s once left-wing government is now controlled by a center-right coalition with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats party, which got 20.5% of the vote in the 2022 parliamentary elections. In order to appease (and possibly co-opt) the Sweden Democrats, the governing coalition has begun taking measures to crack down on crime and discourage further immigration, to the dismay of Sweden’s elite.

“The Sweden as we know it is dying,” Karlstad University Professor Tobias Hübinette said last year, lamenting the evaporation of his country’s left-wing policy traditions, and blaming Swedes for seeking to avoid the dangerous foreigners: “Sweden is perhaps more segregated than any other country in Europe. In cities like Göteborg, Malmo and Stockholm, everybody sees it: the white Swedish population does not live in the same area as the immigrants.” Segregation in Sweden?

Theodore Bilbo could not be reached for comment.



 

Shop Electronics at Amazon

Save on Groceries and Everyday Essentials

Shop Amazon Basics

Office & School Supplies

Category: Crime, Immigration, Racism, Sweden
« go back — keep looking »