The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 10.25.21

Posted on | October 25, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 10.25.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Lot of folks sent in stuff over the weekend. Enjoy.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Even the kids are getting into the act.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Bacon Time: Do You Trust Google?
McG’s Tally Book: Autumn Greetings
Red Pilled Jew: Concealed Data – My BS Meter Pegs Out
357 Magnum: Can You Gaslight An Entire State About A Politician?
EBL: The Chosen
Twitchy: “You Will Not Summon Me”, also, LCPS Rapist The Latest Victim Of Obama’s “Phony, Trumped-Up Culture Wars”
Louder With Crowder: Mission Statement – THIS Is Why We #FightLikeHell
Vox Popoli: Be Vigilant, Never Laugh At God, and Now It’s Their Turn
Stoic Observations: The Will To Be Persuaded & The Rationality Of Violent Conflict

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Sunday Musings
American Conservative: The Admirals Who Killed The West, also, Taiwan Is Not About China
American Greatness: The Face Of American Despotism, also, Ground Zero Of Woke
American Thinker: The Often-Overlooked Facts About COVID-19, also, The Teachers’ Union’s Fumbled Play
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: The Broken Supply Chain That Has Always Affected Socialists, Independent Journalist’s Daughter Arrested & Raped By Castro’s Police, and Pope Francis Washes His Hands Of The Cuban People & Their Suffering
BattleSwarm: Joe Rogan & Michael Shellenberger Discuss When & Why San Francisco Turned Into A Shithole
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, Layered Glaciers In Mars’ Glacier Country, and Arianespace, Chicom Launches This Weekend
Cafe Hayek: Some “Historians” Do “History”, On Civilized Disagreement & Argument, and The Abuse & Misuse Of Science “Is Gross To Watch”
CDR Salamander: Red China’s Dangerous Decade – On Midrats, also, I’ll Take Sub Killing For 500
Da Tech Guy: Gen. Don Bolduc, GOP Candidate For Senate From NH, Go See Dune – In The Theater, and Nine Months That Shook The World – A List of Biden’s Failures
Don Surber: Firing Heroes Over The Jab Mandate, Speaking To Biden In A Language He Understands, and Democrats Retreat In The War On Parents
First Street Journal: The Cannibalism Of The Left, also, Two Capitol Kerflufflers Sentenced
Gates Of Vienna: The Not-So-Magic Bus, Austria Makes Life Difficult For The Unvaxxed, and Vexed Docs Nix The Vax
The Geller Report: WaPo Forced To Admit They Lied About “Let’s Go Brandon” Chant, Kerry Promises To Create Auto Jobs As Part Of Green New Deal – IN MEXICO, and ABSOLUTE CORRUPTION – Big Pharma Companies With Jabs Licensed For Emergency Use All Employ Former FDA Commissioners
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Smog On Saturn, and Following The Science
Hollywood In Toto: Mass Is Simple, Spare, & Spellbinding, also, Why Something Wicked This Way Comes Deserves A Reboot
The Lid: SCOTUS Makes The Right Call On Qualified Immunity, also, Brooklyn Bridge Shut Down By First Responders’ Anti-Jab Protest
Legal Insurrection: Administration Admits There’s A Lot More Stranded Americans In Afghanistan, GOP Calls For Investigation & Firing Of Fauci After His Lies About Gain-Of-Function Research Exposed, and Parents Group Launches Database To Track “Equity” Consultants In The “Woke-Industrial Complex” 
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations Sunday Special, also, Random Observations
Outkick: Tennessee Won’t Be Intimidated By The Past As They Play Alabama, Ole Miss Returns LSU To Its Lost Season 34-17 On Eli Manning Day, and You Can Make $75 By Enduring The Pain Of “The Wendy Williams Show”
Power Line: Soros-Backed Virginia Prosecutor Loses Again, Facebook’s Political Maelstrom Exposed, and Sowell Vs. Obama
Shark Tank: Stephanie Murphy Introduces Bipartisan “No Clearance For Domestic Terrorists” Act
Shot In The Dark: They’re Always Loaded, Poetic Justice, and When He’s Right…
STUMP: Videos – Talking Actuaries & Data, The Poisoner’s Handbook, & An Update To Public Pension Projections
The Political Hat: Mandatory Pronouns In North Dakota
This Ain’t Hell: Stupid People Of The Week, Three More Return, and Nobody Saw This Coming? Really?
Transterrestrial Musings: Alec Baldwin’s Accident, Treating Type II Diabetes, and The Public School System
Victory Girls: It’s The Economy, Stupid, also, Obama Calls School Issues “Phony Trumped-Up Culture Wars”
Volokh Conspiracy: Anthony Downs, RIP, also, Americans Should Be Free To Express Their Opinions About Admirals
Weasel Zippers: WZ QUARTERLY DONATION DRIVE, Biden Has $500K Security Fence Built Around His Beach House After Shutting Down Border Wall Construction, and “Tell Biden We’re Coming!”
The Federalist: Columbia Law Prof Explains Why Public Schools Are Tearing America Apart, How Virginia Democrats Are Working To Make Elections Sloppy Again, and Biden Gave NSBA President Plum Political Appointment Two Days After She Penned Bogus “Domestic Terrorism” Letter
Mark Steyn: Goldfinger, Farewell My Lovely, Common Law & Common Sense

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Category: Linkagery

Can the Patriots Make the Playoffs?

Posted on | October 25, 2021 | Comments Off on Can the Patriots Make the Playoffs?

In case you missed Sunday’s game, Mac Jones and the New England Patriots destroyed the New York Jets 54-13. The rookie quarterback from Alabama — Roll Tide! — was 24 for 36 for 307 yards passing, with two touchdowns, while running back Damien Harris — also Roll Tide! — racked up 106 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 14 carries.

Sunday’s victory brought New England’s record to 3-4 on the season and, given the evidence that the rebuilt Patriots are finally getting their act together, everybody has started asking if it’s possible that Coach Bill Belichick’s team can make it to the playoffs. And the obvious answer is, absolutely yes. The five AFC teams with the best records so far — Tennessee Titan, the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, the Las Vegas Raiders, the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers — have each lost two games. The Patriots are currently second in the AFC East behind Buffalo (4-2). Seven teams in each conference (4 division winners plus 3 wild cards) make the playoffs. So there are two ways that the Patriots could make it to the playoffs, first by winning the AFC East division title, finishing ahead of the Bills, and second by qualifying for one of the three wild card spots. There are currently two AFC teams with six losses (Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans) and two with five loses (the Jets and the Jacksonville Jaguars), so the Patriots are ahead of those four teams in terms of the competition for a potential wild card playoff berth. There are three other teams (the Indianapolis Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos) that equal the Patriots with four losses. And then there are two other teams (the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers) that have only three losses.

At this point, the Patriots are in the third tier, with the Colts, Chiefs and Broncos, in terms of the playoff competition, behind the five first-tier teams, and just one game behind the second tier. If the Patriots could win their game Sunday against the Chargers, improving to 4-4, they would definitely be in the hunt, particularly when you consider that also on Sunday, the Browns play the Steelers (both second-tier) and the first-tier Titans play the third-tier Colts. So one of the second-tier teams will have a fourth loss on its record, and unless the Colts pull a shocking upset against the Titans, they’ll be knocked out of the third tier. Grant that the Patriots will be the underdog playing on the road against the 4-2 Chargers, an upset is not impossible. Dan Orlovsky sees a chance:

 

If the Patriots were to go on a four-game winning streak — which is certainly possible, if not likely — they would be 7-4 going into a Thanksgiving weekend home game against the Titans. OK, I don’t think New England can stop Derrick Henry (Roll Tide again), but even if they lose that one, taking a 7-5 record into December, I still think their playoff chances would be good. But first, they simply must beat the Chargers — next Sunday is going to be make-or-break for the Patriots’ season. Meanwhile, enjoy Damien Harris — Roll Tide!

 




 

Category: Football

Rule 5 Sunday: Queen Victoria Eugenie Of Spain

Posted on | October 25, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Queen Victoria Eugenie Of Spain

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.
Being royalty isn’t always a fairy tale life, but with the exception of the very unfortunate Romanovs, few royals had it harder than the Queen Consort of Spain, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, granddaughter of England’s Queen Victoria and first cousin to King George V. As the wife of King Alfonso XIII, she converted to Catholicism, but her reign began badly with an attempted assassination, and became worse when her son the Infante Alfonso proved to have inherited hemophilia from her. Estranged from the King, who embarrassed her with numerous affairs, she devoted herself to hospital work, education, service to the poor, and the reorganization of the Spanish Red Cross, for which she was decorated by the Pope (the first time an English princess had been so honored since the reign of Queen Mary I) and honored by having a number of landmarks in Madrid and San Sebastian named for her. Things got worse in 1931 when the royal family left the country after the municipal elections ushered in the Second Spanish Republic; Alfonso XIII hoped to avoid a civil war between his supporters and the Republicans. She remained in exile for the rest of her life, except for a brief return in 1968 for the baptism of her great-grandson the Infante Felipe, who would become king after the abdication of his father, King Juan Carlos. She died in Lausanne, Switzerland on April 15, 1969, 38 years to the day after going into exile, and her remains were eventually reburied in the Escorial outside Madrid next to her husband’s grave. This is a picture of her taken early in her reign.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1512, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns. 

Animal Magnetism: Rule 5 Useless UN News, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: MAGA- Baldwin Karma & Jetpack Joe, Thank God It’s Friday, Dune 2021, Guns Don’t Kill People, Alec Baldwin Kills People, Counter-Protester’s Sign Is Triggering, I Am The Monarch Of The Sea, Tchaikovsky, Acapulco, and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

A View From The Beach: Jessica Chastain Demands ‘Equity’ in Nudity, Virginia Striper Recruitment Holding Up, Fish Pic Friday – Darlene Grattet, MD Increases Bribe for Farmers to Protect Streams, Election 2020: Manchin to Bail from Democrats?, Tattoo Thursday, Gone Fishing, The Wednesday Wetness, Latin Moon, MD Sets First Fish Consumption Advisory for PFAS, The Annual Maryland Striped Bass YOY Index is In, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Lesko Brandon!, Palm Sunday and When You Hear Hoofbeats . . .

And to wrap up, Brian Noggle brings us Julie Newmar as a guest star in a couple of Route 66 episodes. 

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

‘Ain’t Going Back to Jail’

Posted on | October 24, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘Ain’t Going Back to Jail’

Say hello to Christian Redwine and, while you’re at it, you can also say good-bye, because he got shot dead by a police officer in 2016.

Although he was only 17, Redwine already had an extensive criminal record in November 2016 when he decided to steal a car and go joyriding with two friends. Redwine “had a lengthy juvenile record, including an 18-month sentence in a youth development campus,” a federal judge wrote in a recent court ruling related to the case. “He had also recently been charged as an adult with first-degree burglary, spent two months in jail, and been released on bond less than a week before the shooting.”

Maybe releasing criminals from jail is a bad idea, but on the other hand, keeping them in jail is expensive, compared to the cost of buying 21 rounds of pistol ammunition for a police officer, who can thereby guarantee that the hoodlum won’t steal any more cars.

Since the #BlackLivesMatter riots last year, I’ve done a lot of blogging about crime and law enforcement, mainly in an effort to counterbalance the anti-police narrative whereby activists magically transform criminals into victims of injustice. Because most of the cases I’ve highlighted involve black suspects, it may seem racist — “RAAAAACIST!” — to defend police against charges of “excessive force,” so I am grateful for those occasions when white criminals get themselves shot by cops. This gives me the opportunity to point out that I have no sympathy for criminals of any race — I am pro-police even when cops are killing white people.

Certainly, Christian Redwine deserved to be shot, as did the two other teenagers who were his passengers that night in November 2016.

Hunter Tillis (left); Hannah Wuenschel (right)

Redwine had just gotten out of jail, and was back home in Columbus, Georgia, with his grandmother, who had raised him. His grandmother’s live-in boyfriend had a small business selling used cars, which he kept parked at the house. Redwine’s 19-year-old cousin, Hunter Tillis, came over and the two of them began a two-day drug binge of over-the-counter cold medication, Xanax, marijuana and cocaine. Redwine’s girlfriend was at the house babysitting for the infant child of 19-year-old Hannah Wuenschel, but then there was an argument, and the girlfriend left with Wuenschel’s baby. So when Wuenschel arrived, the grandmother drove them to the girlfriend’s house “where Wuenschel got her son and brought him back to [the grandmother’s] house. She put the child to bed and smoked marijuana with Tillis and Redwine.” About 11 p.m., Redwine’s grandmother and her boyfriend went to sleep, and then Redwine got the keys to a Pontiac G-6 belonging to the grandmother’s boyfriend. Redwine had no driver’s license and no permission to take the car, but he took it, with Tillis and Wuenschel along for the ride.

The teenagers then apparently broke into two cars, stealing jewelry, a purse and other items. About 3:30 a.m., 911 got a call from the grandmother’s boyfriend, reporting the Pontiac stolen and identifying the three teenagers, saying he wanted them arrested:

The teens were on Gentian Boulevard when Redwine stopped at a shopping plaza, turned off his headlights, and tried to call his girlfriend.
He’d chosen an area rife with business break-ins. At 4:25 a.m., police Capt. Bill Turner, driving an unmarked Chevrolet Impala, saw the Pontiac and followed when Redwine pulled away.
Tillis told Redwine police were behind him. When Redwine confirmed an officer was tailing him, he raced away to the neighborhood around Hardaway High School, speeding so recklessly he had to use the emergency brake to turn.
The 911 center informed officers the Pontiac was reported stolen.
Tillis and Wuenschel later said Redwine was desperate to escape because he’d just been released from jail and swore he would not go back.
Redwine led police down Talbotton Road to Veterans Parkway and briefly lost them near Ashley Station Apartments. He stopped there and told Tillis and Wuenschel to get out if they wanted. Both refused, and police soon were back on Redwine’s tail as he headed into downtown toward the 13th Street Bridge to Phenix City.
[Columbus Police Officer Allan] Brown was at the Public Safety Center on 10th Street when he heard the chase was close by. He joined it, and was the lead police car when Redwine crossed into Alabama, speeding up to 98 mph as he headed west to U.S. 280 and turned back toward Columbus on the J.R. Allen Parkway.
The Pontiac hit 107 mph before Redwine abruptly exited onto Riverchase Drive and ran off the road into bushes in a front yard, with Brown right behind him.

Did I mention that Redwine’s cousin, Hunter Tillis, also had a criminal record, including charges of arson and burglary? Probably neither one of them should have been out on the street, but there they were, flying down the road at over 100 mph, with a teen mom in the front passenger seat, and multiple cop cars in their rearview mirror. They’d crossed the Chattahoochee River into Alabama, then doubled back, exited the freeway and ran off the road. Officer Brown pulled his car up behind and to the right of the Pontiac, which seemed to be stuck on the side of the road. Inside the Pontiac, Redwine told Tillis, “I ain’t going back to jail”:

Brown thought the Pontiac was wrecked and the driver would run away, so he quickly got out, anticipating a foot chase.
Brown drew his .45-caliber semi-automatic. Redwine looked at Wuenschel and said, “It’s them or me,” though she pleaded with him to give up.
“Nah, f—k that,” Redwine said. “You can either jump out or stay the f—k in the car.”
He shifted to reverse. Brown said he saw the white reverse lights come on, and believing Redwine would run him over, started shooting, firing 11 shots in three seconds as the Pontiac passed by.
Having emptied the gun, he put in a fresh clip.
Two of the first shots killed Redwine as the Pontiac backed across the road. Brown said he was blinded by the headlights, and believed the driver would try to run him over again. He fired 10 more shots, leaving Redwine with multiple wounds. Wuenschel was wounded in the first barrage, and Tillis was hit in the second. Both were hospitalized and arrested upon their release.

Twenty-one shots, dead car thief. I score that a “win” for the good guys.

 

You watch the dashcam video, and you’ve got to say that reloading the weapon and firing an extra 10 shots seems . . . excessive. If any Georgia cop had done that to a black teenager, Ben Crump would have been on CNN 24/7, and the looting and arson would have gone on for days. However, because the dead car thief was white, nobody outside the Columbus area has ever even heard of Christian Redwine.

A grand jury cleared Officer Brown of wrongdoing, but there was a civil lawsuit and last month a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Officer Brown, so he’s now in the clear, legally. The court ruling could be considered a precedent, establishing that cops have the right to shoot white car thieves. But I’m not a lawyer, and maybe I’m misinterpreting it.

Americans should be grateful to Christian Redwine, who boasted, “I ain’t going back to jail.” No, son, you’re going to hell. Bon voyage.




 

Category: Crime, Georgia

FMJRA 2.0: Floating Sequence

Posted on | October 24, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Floating Sequence

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Split my two-game series with the Braves this week, so at least I broke the losing streak. Also, a Kate Upton Rule 5 post placing third? Is it a sign of the End Times?
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

‘Containergeddon’: California Emissions Law Caused the Supply Chain Crisis
First Street Journal
Dark Brightness
The Locker Room
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Democrats Desperate in Virginia
Gregor Mendel Blog
Headline of the Day
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Kate Upton
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL
Proof Positive

Walmart Workers = ‘White Privilege’?
EBL
357 Magnum

A Letter of Introduction
EBL
357 Magnum

JAPANESE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS IN TROUBLE!
EBL

Joe Biden’s Supply Chain Disaster
Bacon Time
EBL
A View From The Beach

FMJRA 2.0: Neuronengesang
A View From The Beach
EBL

‘Social Justice’ as Fashion Accessory
Animal Magnetism
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.19.21 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 10.19.21 (Evening Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

McAuliffe Campaign Implosion Continues
EBL
357 Magnum

The Buckhead Lamborghini Murder
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.20.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Just Say No
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.21.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Violence Against Women Update
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

UPDATE: Union Crew Walked Off Alec Baldwin Film Set Before Fatal Shooting
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Why Terry McAuliffe Is Losing
EBL
Proof Positive

In The Mailbox: 10.22.21
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum
Proof Positive

Top linkers for the week ending October 22:

  1.  EBL (20)
  2.  357 Magnum (14)
  3.  A View From The Beach (12)
  4.  Proof Positive (7)

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Category: FMJRA Award

“And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good – need we anyone to tell us these things?”

Posted on | October 23, 2021 | Comments Off on “And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good – need we anyone to tell us these things?”

— by Wombat-socho

Well, yes, Socrates, in this decadent and depraved age we do indeed need people to point out what is good, because Our Moral SuperiorsTM have spent the last couple of decades trying to sell us polished turds masquerading as good literature. This is especially evident in science fiction, where the once-prestigious Hugo Awards have been reduced to nothing more than a feeble marketing device for Tor Books’ parade of Pink Goo writers. Nobody with any sense relies on the Hugos as a guide to what is good in SF, any more than anyone thinks the Oscars are a good guide on where to spend your movie money. This brings us around to this regrettable article by Major General Mick Ryan and Duke postgrad student Nathan Finney, which is chock-full of Hugo & Nebula Award winners and horribly short on actual combat SF writers. Tl;dr: John Scalzi and N.K. Jemisin get twelve mentions on this list, while David Drake, Gordy Dickson (who pretty much invented the subgenre, ffs), David Weber, and Robert Heinlein get five – and Heinlein gets mentioned not for Starship Troopers, which was the direct inspiration for two of the books that are on the list, but for Stranger In A Strange Land.

Now, I will grant you that Ryan and Finney are not confining themselves to combat SF but are more broadly concerned with using SF as a tool to get officers to think, but do Jesus, this is an awful list of generally awful books. The whole point of combat SF, as Gordy Dickson and others have often said, is to show the effects of war on the people fighting the war and the societies involved. So why drag in a bunch of SF books (for example, The Left Hand Of Darkness and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?) that have nothing to do with war? The commenters on Instapundit’s post have ripped on the heinous omissions from the list, and I will mention some of their suggestions, but let’s just burn the list to the ground, save some of the useful stones from the foundation, and compile our own list of useful and edifying (mostly military) SF. 

In The Beginning
We’ll keep Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, even though it’s an expy of Gibbon’s much longer Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, because it’s a (sorry) foundational part of the whole SF genre and does a decent job of covering the economic, political, and social changes that change the Foundation from a bunch of scholars off in the middle of nowhere into a galactic power. It also introduces the notion of psychohistory. Dickson’s Tactics of Mistake also stays; it is chronologically the first of what came to be called the Dorsai books, though it was published long after The Genetic General, because it shows how Cletus Grahame started the Dorsai mercenaries down the road to becoming super-soldiers. Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War also stays; Joe meant it as a Vietnam vet’s bitter rebuttal of Uncle Bob’s Starship Troopers and was genuinely surprised that Heinlein actually liked it. I didn’t care for H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, myself, but the Big Idea of humanity nearly helpless before the invading aliens was one that stuck, along with the notion of aliens invading because they wanted our stuff. Another building block of the SF field. In place of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, let’s go with The Man In The High Castle; the latter is one of the great alternate-history novels and quite possibly PKD’s best book, even if he let the I Ching tell him where the plot was going. Finally, it would be silly to omit the anthology that really created the idea of combat SF and made it a subgenre of its own: Combat SF, edited by Gordy Dickson and unfortunately out of print, but the paperback is well worth having, since there’s some excellent writing by authors ranging from Poul Anderson to Gene Wolfe. 

Because it doesn’t fit neatly into the list of basic books or the categories to follow, the There Will Be War anthologies edited by Jerry Pournelle & John F. Carr get their own separate paragraph. These include some of the legendary stories of the field and some excellent tales from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s along with a lot of late Cold War history, and articles on what became the Strategic Defense Initiative. The final volume, published in 2015 by Castalia House, deals with more contemporary issues but still upholds the standard set by the earlier volumes in terms of fiction. 

This is already getting lengthy, and I’m going to break the rest of it up into two parts: combat SF on planetary surfaces, and combat SF in space.

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Category: Books, Military

‘Jetpack Joe’ and the CNN Town Hall

Posted on | October 23, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘Jetpack Joe’ and the CNN Town Hall

There were many weird moments during this week’s CNN town hall event with Joe Biden in Baltimore, but the one that attracted universal comment was the “Jetpack Joe” episode. CNN host Anderson Cooper was asking Biden about inflation, which took about 20 seconds, during which time Biden stood with his fists clenched and his elbows locked at a 90-degree angle, as if piloting an imaginary jetpack, causing the hashtag #JetpackJoe to trend on Twitter. Others compared Biden’s posture to the Beavis & Butthead character Cornholio: “TP for my bunghole!”

It was pointed out in real time that this clenched-fist posture is symptomatic of Alzheimer’s, but even if you didn’t know that, you could see how Biden was struggling to concentrate on the (prescreened) questions as he attempted to remember his (scripted) answers.

You might be wondering why Team Biden would risk exposing the elderly dementia patient to such ridicule, but this limited exposure — let’s face it, any bright seventh-grader could field those softball questions from Anderson Cooper — is part of the overall “Hiding Biden” strategy.

They did the same thing during their 2020 basement campaign. If your frail and feeble-minded septuagenarian candidate lacks the stamina and presence of mind to handle a full public schedule, part of the secret of successfully shielding him from scrutiny is to have him do occasional appearances in controlled environments, e.g., a 20-minute speech at a labor union convention: “See? He’s not hiding — he’s right here, reading aloud the script we prepared for him.”

It has been 100 days since Biden held a press conference (July 15) and this staged CNN event with Anderson Cooper was an obvious attempt to postpone any such high-risk engagement, by providing the public a simulacrum of spontaneous response to issue-related questions. If you tuned into CNN on Friday, you would have seen them using a few short clips from this town hall as the basis for “news” reporting, while completely ignoring the numerous awkward moments when Biden babbled like an idiot. The CNN event served the propaganda purpose for which it was intended, and was therefore a “win” for Team Biden.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention this — the audience for Biden’s CNN town hall was about 1.2 million viewers, less than half the size of the audience that was watching Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

It is difficult to quantify the diminution of CNN’s influence, now that their hourly primetime audience is often less than 1 million viewers. But here’s a telling comparison: Joe Rogan‘s podcast has 144 million subscribers, and about 7 million daily listeners.




 

Category: CNN, Joe Biden

In The Mailbox: 10.22.21

Posted on | October 22, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 10.22.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual deadlines for the usual weekend posts. Also, after reading this piece from an Aussie general that Instapundit linked, I have Thoughts. Unkind ones. I’ll post them sometime this weekend.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Komi enters neko mode

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Oregon Forbids Police From Enforcing The Law
EBL: Dune 2021
Twitchy: THEY KNEW. THEY ALL KNEW.
Louder With Crowder: YouTube bans Rapper’s “Let’s Go Brandon” Song, Claims It’s “Misinformation”
Vox Popoli: Ban Fake Guns In Hollywood, also, A Flaming Techwreck
According To Hoyt: Game Over, Man! Game Over! also, HIPAA Vs. ADA
Monster Hunter Nation: Lost Planet Homicide – Free Audiobook for Audible Members!

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Friday Hawt Chicks & Links – We’re Back, Baby
American Greatness: LA Shrink Says COVID Policies Aren’t About Health, They’re About Control, also, Emails Confirm NSBA Coordinated With White House On “Domestic Terrorism” Letter
American Thinker: Cruel & Unusual Pain Treatment, also, Decoding The Heinous Philadelphia Train Rape
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Useless UN News
Babalu Blog: Despite The Dictatorship’s Threats, Cuban Activists Moving Ahead With 11/15 Protests, also, Las Tunas Join Peaceful November Protests In Cuba
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For October 22
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, Curiosity’s New Mountain Views, and Today’s Blacklisted American [Encore College Edition]
Cafe Hayek: Peter Robinson Talks With Jay Bhattacharya, also, Exploring EconTalk – Thomas Sowell (2008)
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: When I Saw “Ukrainian Who Grew Up In The Former Soviet Union”…
Don Surber: DC DEMANDS A WAR IN (Spins Wheel) HAITI! also, The Woman Alec Baldwin Killed
First Street Journal: The Witnesses Who Sat There & Did Nothing Should Be Publicly Named & Shamed
Gates Of Vienna: The Death Knell of Sweden, Wolfgang’s Farewell, and Bringing Them All Back Home
The Geller Report: Putin Warns That Wokeness Is Destroying The West, also, Man Who Brutally Raped Woman On Philly Train Is Illegal Immigrant – Not Deported Despite History Of Sex Crimes
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Flying By Mercury, and A Letter & A Memorandum
Hollywood In Toto: Variety & AP Brazenly Lie About Netflix Protest, also, Dune Delivers…At Long Last
The Lid: How You Can Help Destroy The New Green Deal With Six Little Words
Legal Insurrection: NSBA – “We Regret & Apologize For The Letter”, also, New Language Guide At UNR Advises Students Not To Use “Native Nevadan”
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Ex-NBA Broadcaster Suing For Wrongful Termination Over “All Lives Matter” Tweet, also,  Enes Kanter’s Red China Opposition Could Create Another Mess For NBA
Power Line: Thoughts From The Ammo Line, Enes Kanter Speaks Truth To Chicom Power, and Alec Baldwin’s Accident
Shark Tank: Elvira Salazar Slams Pelosi’s “Outrageous Abuse Of Power”
Shot In The Dark: Priorities, Lies Corrected While You Wait, and Of Platforms & Campaigns
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – The Energy Crisis & The Economy
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, VA Medical Record Overhaul Could Be Complete In 2028, also, USS Bonhomme Richard Fallout
Transterrestrial Musings: The Mess In LA & Long Beach Harbors, also, Jab Mandates For Cops
Victory Girls: Sleepy Joe’s CNN Town Hall In Baltimore Bombs
Volokh Conspiracy: The Firearms Policy Coalition Targets S.B. 8
Weasel Zippers: Despite No Presser In 98 Days & No Interview In 68 Days, Biden Flack Insists “He Takes Questions All The Time”, also, “The Meaning Of Fully Vaccinated Could Change Over Time”
The Federalist: NBA’s Jonathan Isaac – Standing For The Anthem Was About Conviction, also, AG Garland’s Message To Concerned Parents Is Clear – Shut Up Or Else
Mark Steyn: We Have Met The Enemy Part XXV, also, The Suspicion Of Chambers Secreted

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