The Other McCain

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

Deep Dark Depression, Excessive Misery

Posted on | January 30, 2021 | Comments Off on Deep Dark Depression, Excessive Misery

— compiled by Wombat-socho

These last few months have been largely taken up with getting ready for tax season, but now that the season is underway and I’m spending several nights a week in Las Vegas between shifts in the tax mines, I’m finding more time to read. Also, Amazon seems to have killed off the Prime Lending Library in favor of folding everyone into the Kindle Unlimited program, and I feel the need to take advantage of that.
Song of the Day
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

What with the election of the Potted Plant of the United States (PPOTUS) and his many Chicom connections, I had to stop reading Divided We Fall, because it was just getting too damned dark for me in the current circumstances. Not all of the stories are grim tales of struggle against a panopticon state whose tentacles control every aspect of life in a future socialist America, but enough of them were to make me decide to save the book for better times.

In contrast to the preceding anthology, the struggle for freedom hasn’t been decided yet in Fortress Doctrine, the fifth of Peter Nealen’s Maelstrom Rising books. Pivoting back to the home front from the European theater action in Strategic Assets, the Triarii and local militia are trying to hold the Texas border against the cartels and possibly the Mexican Army, while Washington wrings its hands and los chales exploit their connections with the cartels and politicians willing to look the other way for a fistful of renminbi. Nealen is getting better with each book; like Tom Clancy before him, he’s able to keep the action rolling on the tactical level while keeping you in tune with the bigger picture. Highly recommended. 

On a more cheerful note, the Keith Laumer Super Pack from the Positronic Super Pack series is a good combination of Laumer’s Retief stories, some non-Retief stories such as “It Could Be Anything”, “Cocoon”, and “End As A Hero”, the early Bolo story “Night of the Trolls, and two complete novels: Worlds Of The Imperium and A Trace of Memory. Quite a deal for just $1.99, especially since it includes what may be the best Retief story, “Diplomat At Arms”. 

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Category: Books

In The Mailbox: 01.29.21 (STONKS EDITION)

Posted on | January 30, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.29.21 (STONKS EDITION)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual deadlines for the usual weekend posts. Going to get the much-promised and seldom-seen Book Post done Saturday, and Rule Five Sunday’s going to be early because I don’t want to try and pound it out after a three-hour drive down to Las Vegas. 
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Just about everybody’s attitude toward the $GME kerfluffle.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Scientists Can Be Boneheaded Fools
EBL: Trading Places, also, Cicely Tyson, RIP
Twitchy: BUSTED! Video Shows It Was Cori Bush’s Staff Who Started The Mask Altercation With Marjorie Taylor Greene
Louder With Crowder: Did Nancy Pelosi Buy Stock To Profit Off Biden’s EOs? also, Dave Portnoy Unloads On Robinhood, Hedge Funds
Stoic Observations: Babes In The Woods
Vox Popoli: Burning Wall Street, also, Breaking Robinhood
According To Hoyt: When They Come For You, also, The Poison Pill Of The $15 Minimum Wage
Monster Hunter Nation: January Update Post, also, College Doesn’t Have To Be Stupid, But They Like It That Way

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: A Global Economy – Your Participation Must Be Approved
American Conservative:
American Greatness: Poll Says Majority Of Republicans Want New Trump Party, also, Conservative Activists Protest At $BBBY For Dropping MyPillow Products
American Thinker: Off To A Bad START – Putin Schools Biden With One Phone Call, also, What To Do Now?
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five More Civil War Friday
Babalu Blog: Dissident Female Artists Arrested By Cuban State Security Were Raped
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For January 29
Beyond The Black: Today’s Blacklisted Americans, also, Biden’s DOJ Investigating SpaceX For Refusing To Hire Foreigners
Cafe Hayek: A Rare Unbiased Report On COVID & The Lockdowns
CDR Salamander: Competing In The Competition Phase
Da Tech Guy: The #Unexpectedly Chronicles – An Actual AZ Maverick, A Phony WV One, And More, also, DaTechGuy Off DaRadio Spontaneous Livestream
Don Surber: Turning DC Into The Forbidden City, also, The GameStop Uprising Goes Global
First Street Journal: Chicago Thinks It’s The Murder Capital. Philly Says “Hold My Beer!”
The Geller Report: Biden To Sign EOs Expanding Obamacare, International Funding For Abortion, also, Biden’s Order Halting Drilling On Federal Lands Kills 58,000 Jobs
Hogewash: This Can’t Be Seen From Earth, also, Our Betters & Vogons
Hollywood In Toto: Supernova Lets Firth, Tucci Shine Anew
The Lid: Unity? Pelosi Calls GOP Reps “The Enemy Within”
Legal Insurrection: Joe Biden’s Presidency Is Already Worse Than Imagined, also, Tweet Taunting Andrew Cuomo Using Maxine Waters’ Words Infuriates NY Democrats
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Friday Observations
Power Line: Let Them Eat Solar Panels, also, The Persecution Of Michael Ellis, Part Two
Shark Tank: Matt Gaetz Rallies Massive Wyoming Crowd Against Liz Cheney
Shot In The Dark: A Barrel With No Bottom. Ever.
The Political Hat: The Digital Gatekeepers & The Quandary Of Online Speech
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, also, Terrorists At GITMO Are Getting COVID Vaccine Before You
Transterrestrial Musings: Big Sur
Victory Girls: Robinhood App Exposes Hedge Funds, Commits Suicide
Volokh Conspiracy: California Law Limiting Private Employers’ Restrictions On Employee Speech
Weasel Zippers: WTF Is Going On In DC? The Fortifications Are Getting Bigger Now, also, Biden Walks Off When Asked About The Sacrifices He’s Forcing On Americans
The Federalist: SecTreas Yellen Won’t Recuse From GameStop Despite Getting Almost $1 Million From Citadel Hedge Fund, also, Critics Who Called Trump Authoritarian Are Silent On Biden’s Executive Order Spree
Mark Steyn: Penn State’s Institutional Wickedness, also, Game Stopped

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 01.28.01

Posted on | January 29, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.28.01

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Song of the Day (via Megyn Fox @PJ Media)
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: That Should Put An End To Carjacking
EBL: Cloris Leachman, RIP, also, Holocaust Remembrance Day 
Twitchy: Occasional Cortex Flips Out Even More After Ted Cruz Calmly Replies To Her Accusing Him Of Trying To Have Her Murdered  (As if the Zodiac Killer would have to “try”.)
Louder With Crowder: Man Breaks Down After Losing His Job Thanks To Joe Biden
Vox Popoli: The Tiger Approaches, also, Never Trust A Ticket-Taker

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Time For Senator J.D. Vance?
American Greatness: Biden’s DHS Claims (Without Evidence) Ongoing Threat From “Domestic Extremists”, also, San Francisco To Remove Washington & Lincoln From School Names
American Power: “How Is That Not Rigging The Game?”
American Thinker: Biden’s LGBT Agenda – What’s Next, Pedophilia? also, CDC/NFL Publish Revealing WuFlu Paper
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Social Media News
Babalu Blog: Jose Marti, Cuba’s Apostle
BattleSwarm: The Great Game Stop Short Squeeze, also, Corrupt Establishment Moves To Screw Retail Investors & Bail Out Hedge Funds
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted Americans, also, FAA Bureaucrats Block SpaceX Starship Flight
Cafe Hayek: Boris Johnson Didn’t Want To Hear Theresa May’s Criticism Of His Lockdown Policy
CDR Salamander: Is Sweden Going To Lap Us Again?
Da Tech Guy: The #Unexpectedly Chronicles – Stock Manipulation Is Fine Unless Done By The Wrong People, also, This Scene From The Final Hunger Games Movie Sums Up The Capitol Hill Riot
Don Surber: Biden’s Normal Is Abnormal
The Geller Report: More Than Half Of Joe Biden’s Twitter Followers Are Fake, Just Created In January, also, John F. Kerry* Says “Let Them Make Solar Panels”
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day, also, In Re Game Stop
Hollywood In Toto: New Poll Spells Doom For Theaters, also, How Little Things Squanders Its Oscar-Winning Cast
The Lid: Tulsi Gabbard Slams Brennan, Schiff, & Big Tech As “More Dangerous” Than Capitol Attackers
Legal Insurrection: DOJ Arrest Reports For Capitol Riot Focus On Facebook, YouTube, & Twitter, Barely Mention Parler, also, John Kerry Says Fired Pipeline Workers Should Learn To Make Solar Panels
Nebraska Energy Observer: History, Its And Ours
Power Line: Deep Meaning Of Equity, also, Can You Be Fired For Being Conservative?
Shark Tank: Rep. Deutch Calls For GOP Congresswoman To Be Silenced, Deplatformed, also, Rep. Donalds Comes Out Swinging In Defense Of GA Congresswoman’s Freedom Of Speech
Shot In The Dark: Government By Platitude
STUMP: Mortality With Meep – Total Excess 2020 Mortality By Race & Ethnicity
The Political Hat: Genderbending – Sexless Birth Certificates, Transgender Brainwashing, & SCOTUS
This Ain’t Hell: Pentagon Orders The Military To Fight Climate Change, also, Keyboard Warriors – Let The Purge Begin
Transterrestrial Musings: SN9, also, More Money Down The Drain
Victory Girls: Climate Change Arrogance
Volokh Conspiracy: Impeaching Officers While They’re In Office, Trying Them After They Leave
Weasel Zippers: Congress Trying To Require Licensing To Purchase Arms, Ammunition, also, Watch Hedge Fund Billionaire Lose His Shit Over Reddit On CNBC
The Federalist: Grandma-Killer Andrew Cuomo Undercounted COVID Nursing Home Deaths, also, After Vetting 25,000 Guardsmen, No Extremists Were Found
Mark Steyn: War Without End (Home Front Edition), also, Quadruply Masked

*”Who, by the way, served in Vietnam.” – R. Limbaugh

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Category: Linkagery

GameStop: The Best Story EVER!

Posted on | January 28, 2021 | Comments Off on GameStop: The Best Story EVER!

Oh, my! Oh, my! What a storm of hilarious schadenfreude has overtaken the stock market this week! The hero of this saga is a guy with a Reddit account called “DeepF**kingValue” who, in September 2019, accumulated $53,000 in stock in the retail chain GameStop.

From any objective analysis, this was the Stupidest Investment Ever, because GameStop’s business model — selling physical copies of videogames and equipment in brick-and-mortar stores, mostly at shopping malls — is doomed in the online digital era. And yet . . .

“DeepF**kingValue” had a hunch that GameStop was drastically undervalued when it was selling as low as 30 cents per share. His argument was that the retailer was shifting to online sales, competing with Amazon, while cutting costs by closing many of its brick-and-mortar stores. So he kept buying, and the share price kept going up, and as “DeepF**kingValue” shared his story on the Reddit channel WallStreetBets, a cult following developed. By December, with GameStop selling at $4 a share, “DeepF**kingValue” was a legit millionaire.

God Bless America, land that I love!

You can imagine every agent in Hollywood trying to get their client the lead role of “DeepF**kingValue” in The GameStop Story, a yet-to-be-made movie that will win every Academy Award. And the brilliant plot twist, the Second Act turn, is when actual corporate guys started to notice what was happening with this Reddit-driven phenomenon. Ryan Cohen, CEO of the online pet-supply business Chewy-dot-com, ploughed $82 million into GameStop at an average price around $9 a share (as much as 30 times what “DeepF**kingValue” had paid for his shares in 2019), which got Cohen a seat on GameStop’s board. Meanwhile, the Reddit crew on WallStreetBets discerned that hedge funds, which considered GameStop a sure loser, had gone short on the company, i.e., investing money on the proposition that its share price would go down.

Billions. B-I-L-L-I-O-N-S — these hedge fund wizards were so sure that GameStop was overpriced that they shorted the stock to the tune of something like $13 billion. And they got screwed. Bad.

Prison gang rape is the only metaphor that comes to mind for how badly the hedge funds got screwed on their GameStop shorts. How bad was it? So bad that NASDAQ intervened, so bad that Discord shut down the WallStreetBets chat channel, so bad that the Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating the Reddit crew.

The “creative destruction” of capitalism can be a beautiful thing to watch, and if I were asked to write the script for The GameStop Story, the closing scene would be when “DeepF**kingValue” (played by Seth Rogen with a neckbeard) drives up to Mar-a-Lago in his gull-wing Lamborghini, with a Swedish supermodel named Elsa in the passenger seat.

Donald Trump comes out to greet him, personally.

Not kidding here. Liberals are actually claiming that “Trumpism” is what has caused the GameStop bonanza. The hedge funds got screwed over by “white supremacists,” some liberals are arguing on Twitter.

What does this claim imply? It implies that any challenge to the status quo is illegitimate, that it’s “hate speech” or “terrorism” any time you do something or say something that disrupts the ordinary process by which rich people get richer and powerful people exercise power.

Yeah, tell me again how Biden won that election with 81 million votes. Meanwhile, my college-age son decided to drop $50 into Nokia (another stock the Reddit crew is pumping) and I doubt he’ll be driving a Lamborghini next year, but who knows, in the Land of Liberty?

God bless America, my home sweet home!

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! The Professor observes:

The way the establishment works is, they win, you lose. Then they say well, that’s just the rules, better luck next time! Then if you actually have better luck next time, they change the rules. Then they tell you the rules are the price we pay for civilization.

“Analysis: True.” Heh.




 

Category: Economics

In The Mailbox: 01.27.21 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | January 28, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.27.21 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ugh. I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #1245
357 Magnum: Do You Expect Social Justice Warriors to Worry About FACTS?
EBL: Impeachment MAGA Erection, also, DOUBLE SECRET MASK PROTECTIONS
Twitchy: Man Charged With Election Interference For 2016 Disinformation Memes, But THIS Video Is Still Up
Louder With Crowder: Chicago Teachers Union Won’t Teach, Explains Why Through Interpretive Dance
Vox Popoli: Gamers 1, Bankers 0, also, The Secret Of The Elites

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Game Stop Shock – Burning Down The House
American Conservative: Why National Greatness Matters
American Greatness: To Hell With Unity, also, Biden Regime Embraces “Great Reset” Plan To Destroy Capitalism
American Thinker: Buyer’s Remorse? Let’s Blame The Press
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News, also, China Virus
Babalu Blog: Cuban Regime Caving To Striking Coal Workers’ Demands?
BattleSwarm: Nancy Pelosi, Inside Trader, also, Biden – Stop All Deportations! Federal Judge – Not So Fast
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American – Evangelist Franklin Graham, also, Space Force Ends Development Contracts With Blue Origin & Northrop Grumman
Cafe Hayek: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Borrowed Lunch
CDR Salamander: Elon Musk Vs. The U.S. Navy
Da Tech Guy: Biden Bought The Election With Questionable Campaign Money, also, An Army Of Telosian Slaves
Don Surber: Megyn Kelly, Trump Supporter? also, Impeachment Helped The Donald
First Street Journal: The Editors Of The Philadelphia Inquirer Blame The Puppet, Not The Puppet Master
The Geller Report: Beijing Biden Signs EO Banning The Phrase “Chinese Virus”, also, Democrats Introduce Bill To Make DC The 51st State
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, A Science Experiment
Hollywood In Toto: Ted Cruz Exposes Seth Rogen & Hollywood As Part Of Blacklist 2.0, also, Veteran Film Scribe Fears Democrats Are Crushing Free Speech
The Lid: Biden Campaign Reportedly Took In A Record $145 Million In Dark Money
Legal Insurrection: Schumer Wants Biden To Declare “Climate Emergency”, also, Twitter Permab& My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell’s Personal Account
Nebraska Energy Observer: Terms Of Service & Shrugging
Power Line: The Hell With The Hall of Fame, also, They Don’t Embarrass Easy
Shark Tank: State Rep Eskamani (D-Orlando) Files Bill To End Orlando Tax Break
Shot In The Dark: The Strib – Preparing The Narrative Battlefield
STUMP: Mortality With Meep
The Political Hat: The Anti-Aryan Guard
This Ain’t Hell: Navy SEAL Gets 10 Years For His Part In Green Beret’s Death, also, Tanks For The Memories
Transterrestrial Musings: End Run, also, The Revolution
Victory Girls: President Eisenhower Predicted Our Current Situation
Volokh Conspiracy: The First National Injunction Against The Biden Administration
Weasel Zippers: Red China Rolls Out Anal Swab Test For Corona-chan, also, Watch – Joe Biden (Completely Out to Lunch) Puts His Pen Away Then Forgets What He’s Doing
The Federalist: Rand Paul’s Cage Match With George Stephanopoulos Is A Model Everyone On The Right Should Follow, also, Susan Rice Abandoned Me During A Gunfight In Benghazi – She’ll Abandon You On Guns
Mark Steyn: Sleeping The Big Twitter Sleep, also, Cardboard Cops

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In The Mailbox: 01.27.21 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | January 27, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.27.21 (Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

“Late to bed, and early to rise/Makes a man grumpy and red in the eyes.” – Robert Heinlein
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Affordable Bail, Take Two
EBL: The Stand – A Review
Twitchy: Need A Tissue? NASDAQ CEO Responds To The Reddit/GameStop Trading Boom
Louder With Crowder: Tulsi Gabbard Describes Big Tech In Two Words – Domestic Enemies
Vox Popoli: Everything Is Totally Normal, also, Google Doubles Down
Stoic Observations: A Social Short Squeeze

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: “Multiracial Whiteness” Is The Latest Leftist Branding Iron
American Power: They Can’t All Be “Extremists”
American Thinker: The Attempt To Install A One-Party Oligarchy Is Destined To Fail
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Committee For State Security News
Babalu Blog: Cuban Priests Defy Communist Party & The Vatican, Urge Cubans To “Break The Chains” Of Socialism
BattleSwarm: Joe Biden Vs. American Oil Industry Jobs
Behind The Black: Boeing & NASA Move Up Launch Date For Second Unmanned Starliner Flight, also, New Democrat Head of House Subcommittee Says He Supports Artemis
Cafe Hayek: Economics, Economists, Big Data, & Big Questions
CDR Salamander: Know Capabilities, Not Names
Da Tech Guy: The Trump Cadaver Synod, also, Report From Louisiana – In Person School Is Better
Don Surber: Time Is On Trump’s Side
First Street Journal: Are There No Mirrors In The Biden Administration?
The Geller Report: Democrat Chicoms Move To Ban Trump Supporters From Federal Jobs Or Joining The Military, also, Judge Says State Order Allowing Ballots Without Postmarks Was Illegal
Hogewash: Someone Self-Identifies, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
Hollywood In Toto: How Chicago Father Addresses What Hollywood Won’t, also, MLK/FBI Doesn’t Avoid The Icon’s Flaws
The Lid: As Predicted, Blue States Relax COVID Restrictions Now That Trump Is Gone
Legal Insurrection: CA Gov Newsom Cancels State’s COVID Stay At Home Orders – Unexpectedly! also, Keystone XL Pipeline Workers Speak Out About Lost Jobs After Biden’s Cancellation Of The Project
Michelle Malkin: The Matter of Tori Rose Smith’s Life
Nebraska Energy Observer: Eye Roll
Power Line: Portents Of The Biden Regency, also, Variants & Variations
Shark Tank: Nikki Fried Praises Biden’s Job Creation Edict After He Kills Off 11,000 Oil Industry Jobs
Shot In The Dark: I Don’t Want To Speak Too Soon
The Political Hat: Stop Critical Race Theory
This Ain’t Hell: Biden Signs EO Extending Trump’s Delay Of VA Debt Collections, also, Tit For Tat
Transterrestrial Musings: “Journalists” Mobilize Against Free Speech
Victory Girls: Article Of Impeachment Has Freedom Of Speech Issues
Volokh Conspiracy: Is SCOTUS Done With Emergency COVID Free Exercise Litigation?
Weasel Zippers: Biden In October 2020 – “You Can’t Legislate Through Executive Orders ‘Unless You’re A Dictator'”, also, Washington Teachers Union President Says Opening Schools Is “White Supremacy” And Suicide Concern “White Privilege”
The Federalist: Biden’s First Two Major Gifts To Russia, also, How To Stop Using Google Search On Your Computer & Phone
Mark Steyn: Try, Try Again

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 01.25.21

Posted on | January 26, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.25.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I don’t know what went wrong with this so that it didn’t post last night, but better late than never.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: I’m Shocked To Discover A Politician Would Lie
EBL: Outside The Wire – A Review, also, Sen. Rand Paul Takes On Democrat Op George Stephanopoulos
Twitchy: Newsweek Stealth Edits Piece On Female Rangers To Line Up With Salon‘s Smear Of Sen. Tom Cotton
Louder With Crowder: Video Shows Pro-Abortion Activists Storming Catholic Church
Vox Popoli: Biden Voters Reconsider Biden, also, Fake It ‘Til They Take It
Stoic Observations: Jedi & Sith

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Benefits Of Prayer
American Conservative: Waiting For Our Salazar
American Greatness: The River Of Forgetfulness, also, NM Voters Already Regretting Votes For Biden After He Signs Oil & Gas Restrictions
American Power: AZ GOP Censures Doug Ducey, Jeff Flake, & Cindy McCain; Narrowly Reelects Kelli Ward As State party Chair
American Thinker: Right On Schedule, Corona-Chan Pivots For Biden, also, You Know There Was Industrial-Scale Election Fraud. What Can Be Done?
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday 
Babalu Blog: Cuban Priests Pen Open Letter Calling On Cubans To Live In Truth And Freedom, also, Price Gouging In Socialist Cuba
BattleSwarm: Important Safety Tip – Don’t But Cheap Chicom Body Armor, also, The Trump White House List of President Trump’s Accomplishments
Behind The Black: Falcon 9 Successfully Places 143 Satellites In Orbit, also, Today’s Blacklisted American
Cafe Hayek: Should Corporations Put “Social Responsibility” Before Shareholder Profits? also, Economic Nationalism Marches On
CDR Salamander: Facing The Third Decade Of The 21st Century
Da Tech Guy: Stop Defending Donald Trump, also, The Long March
Don Surber: Governors Pull The Plug On Biden’s Show Of Force, also, Liberals Suffer Trump Withdrawal
First Street Journal: Tulsi Gabbard Is Very Much A Leftist, But The Left Hates Her Anyway
Fred On Everything: Dijjywan – Dijjydo Or Dijjydon’t?
The Geller Report: Biden Rescinds Trump EO Banning Chicom Involvement In US Power Grid, also, Anti-Trump BLM Leader Group Helped Storm Capitol
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, Impeachment 2 – Electric Boogaloo
Hollywood In Toto: Why The First Mission Impossible Movie Matters Even More Now, also, Confirmed – Fallon’s Anti-Trump Pose Crushed His Ratings
The Lid: Joe Biden, The Job-Killing President
Legal Insurrection: Former Trump Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Running For Arkansas Governor, also, Chief Justice Roberts Won’t Be Presiding Over Trump “Impeachment” Trial
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations, also, Rowan’s Way – 8 Clouds
Power Line: A Guardsman At The Capitol, also, How To Stop Big Tech Censorship
Shark Tank: DeSantis Fires Back At Biden Flack Psaki’s COVID-Related “Political Talking Point”
Shot In The Dark: The Old School, also, Open Letter To “A Wide Swath Of Liberal & Progressive Organizations”
STUMP: Mortality With Meep
The Political Hat: Multiracial Whiteness
This Ain’t Hell: Top Enlisted Soldier At Ft. Hood Cleared, Reinstated, also, Of The Tab & The Scroll
Transterrestrial Musings: Biden’s Culture War Blitzkrieg, also, Canceling The Cancelers
Victory Girls: Women Erased By Biden Executive Order, also, Mitch McConnell Shivved Us All In The Back
Volokh Conspiracy: Update On New Hampshire v. Massachusetts, also, Pretrial Release Condition – “Can’t Speak About The Capitol Protest” or “Matters Related To The United States Government”
Weasel Zippers: WaPo Fact Checker Says They Won’t Count Biden’s Lies, also, Amazon Insists Workers Voting To Unionize Should Only Be Able To Vote In Person Since Mail-In Votes Are Susceptible To Fraud
The Federalist: Biden Freezes Trump Order Lowering Insulin & EpiPen Prices, also, No Wonder Biden Cancelled The 1776 Commission
Mark Steyn: The King Of Comedy, also, Down Under

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Manufacturing an Atrocity Narrative: How BLM Distorts the Reality of Crime

Posted on | January 26, 2021 | Comments Off on Manufacturing an Atrocity Narrative: How BLM Distorts the Reality of Crime

That is a police mugshot of Najee Rechelle McGilbray. She was 18 years old in December 2014 when she was charged with Fleeing or Eluding Police Officer, 3rd Degree, in Battle Creek, Michigan. This offense is a Class E felony, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. However, after being sentenced in April 2015, Najee McGilbray served less than a year behind bars, and was released in December 2015.

Why am I telling you about this? Well, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve gotten into the habit of watching police dashcam and bodycam videos on YouTube as a way of relaxing and forgetting about all the political craziness that would otherwise drive me out of my mind. Monday night, I watched a video of a December 2017 police chase that ended in a crash:

 

That was in Battle Creek, Michigan, and the driver being pursued by the cop was none other than — you guessed it — Najee McGilbray:

Police from two departments are continuing their investigation in Sunday’s fatal police pursuit.
Najee R. McGilbray, 22, of Battle Creek died when she lost control of her car on Golden Avenue near Raymond Road in Emmett Township as she was fleeing from Battle Creek police.
“At first look it appears everything was according to policy and procedure,” Battle Creek Police Chief Jim Blocker said Monday.
McGilbray died at the scene of the 3:34 a.m. crash, according to Lt. Ken Cunningham of the Emmett Township Department of Public Safety. He said the woman’s 2008 Saturn Vue left the south side of Golden Avenue at the top of a hill and crest of a curve and struck two trees. One of the trees fell on the wrecked car.
Blocker said Officer Gregory Gammons was parked near Capital Avenue Southwest and Christy Road on the south side of the city when the SUV passed his position and was traveling northbound on Capital Avenue.
He began to pursue the car and reported it was back and forth in the lane, crossing the center line and the fog line on the right side of the roadway. Gammons activated his lights and siren and the car stopped near Golden Avenue but before Gammons could leave his patrol car the driver turned on the right turn signal and fled again on Golden Avenue, Blocker said.
The car failed to stop at the intersections of Riverside Drive and after crossing into Emmett Township also failed to stop at 6 ½ Mile Road and Beadle Lake Road before traveling east in the westbound lanes of a portion of Golden, which is divided.
Gammons reported speeds of 80 to 90 miles per hour.
“She was way ahead and advancing on him,” Blocker said, after reviewing a video from Gammons’ patrol car. He estimated the officer was as much as a half mile behind the SUV and said no other vehicles were involved in the pursuit.
Gammons was reporting road and traffic conditions.
“It fits with our policy,” Blocker said. “We ask officers about the environment and road conditions and if it was congested and are you putting people at risk. The conditions were right that the chase was safe. There was no call to terminate the chase.”
Gammons was the first at the scene of the crash and found a small fire under the hood which he extinguished and then was unable to find a pulse on McGilbray.
He called for Lifecare Ambulance and Emmett Township Public Safety Officers.
Cunningham said portions of the fallen tree had to be cut before emergency responders could open the car, which was destroyed in the crash.
Investigators are awaiting results of an autopsy and trying to determine if the car was equipped with a Crash Data Recorder which may have recorded the speed of the vehicle just before the crash.
Police said McGilbray had a suspended license.

What the police did not say was that McGilbray had a prior record for the exact same crime — fleeing/eluding — three years earlier.

Go watch that video again. It’s 3:30 in the morning, and it seems fair to guess that McGilbray had been out partying somewhere. Given how she was weaving all over the road, she was probably drunk. With a prior record and a suspended license, she was almost certainly driving under the influence when Officer Gammons turned on his blue lights.

This is a very common scenario in police pursuits. I’ve watched dozens of them on YouTube in the past couple of months and, based on this extensive research, I know that there is a certain predictability in the answer to the obvious question, “Why do they run?” Having a suspended license is one common answer. Most of the time, the fleeing driver is, like McGilbray, someone with a prior criminal record who fears that being busted for a traffic offense will violate their probation and send them back to prison. In many cases, the police pursuit involves someone driving a stolen car, or someone with drugs and/or guns in the car. In other cases, the driver is wanted on an active arrest warrant.

My point is, fleeing/eluding is not usually about a mere traffic violation. Almost always, there is some more serious underlying crime involved, and guess who knows this? Cops, that’s who.

There are patterns to criminal behavior, and an experienced cop knows that if he blue-lights somebody and they take off, he’s probably dealing with somebody who’s already got criminal record. That’s why, if you watch enough of these videos, you become accustomed to the “felony stop” procedure when the chase finally comes to an end. The officer who initiates the pursuit will call for back-up, and usually there are at least three or four squad cars on the scene at the end of the pursuit. All the cops exit their vehicles with guns drawn, and the command is shouted at the suspect: “Show me your hands!” It’s a tense moment, because the police have reason to suspect they may be dealing with an armed felon.

Anyway, after watching video of this police chase in Battle Creek, I did a Google search and located the information about Najee McGilbray’s prior incident of felony fleeing/eluding. There also was a story about McGilbray’s family reacting to her death:

Battle Creek police said Najee’s death could have been avoided if she’d just stopped for the officer. The McGilbray family also has questions.
[Her mother] said, “It’s really hindsight and it’s too late to say ‘would of, should of, could of,’ but I don’t know it just seems like it was all unnecessary. To me, there was a better way to handle it. I feel like she was scared.”

Oh, “there was a better way to handle it”? Like what? When your daughter took off at 90 mph, weaving all over the road at 3:30 in the morning, what do you think the cop should have done?

This absurd belief that there must be “a better way to handle it” any time police are involved in an unfortunate incident is just a way for people to excuse the criminal conduct that caused the incident. The officer in this case did nothing wrong, and yet the family of the fleeing felon try to absolve her of responsibility by implying that the cop somehow mishandled the situation. This attitude is unrealistic and impractical. Sometimes bad things happen for no reason, but if you go through life with the belief that you are never responsible for your own behavior, bad things are likely to happen to you, and you are the reason.

Well, I was Googling for more information about Najee McGilbray when I found her name on a list of victims of “police killing”:

The structural nature of this state-sanctioned killing of Black people is underscored by the refusal of official sources to even collect and publish this information.
Since the year 2000 nearly 5,000 identified Black men, women and children have been killed in fatal encounters with police across the United States. . . .
Fatal Encounters, a volunteer-maintained national database of people killed during interactions with police, documents at least 4,896 Black people killed since 2000. . . . For too long the facts have been hidden and the names of those killed have been silenced. Even the publicly created databases are incomplete, the numbers of Black lives stolen is still greater than the names that have been collected. . . .
We stand against the racialized economic violence that disproportionately impacts Black and Brown communities resulting in eviction, homelessness, systematic discrimination, educational exclusion and severe health disparities. We call for an end to police murder of Black people and the removal of police from the public schools.

There follows a list of names including Najee McGilbray who, by the abracadabra of radical rhetoric, is transformed into a martyr.

This is a perfect example of how the Atrocity Narrative operates: Create a category, add numbers, cite the most egregious cases, and pretend that you have documented a pervasive social problem.

The level of cynicism involved in this propaganda is astonishing. I never would have known that this dubious list of victims of “state-sanctioned killing” existed, had I not been doing background research on a person whose name was included on the list. But when Black Lives Matter activists start chanting “Say Their Names,” I suppose, Najee McGilbray’s name is one of those. You have seen the video yourself, dear reader — was she a victim of racist “state-sanctioned killing”?

Was this just a coincidence? Or is it the case, as I suspect, that a great many of the names on this list of “fatal encounters” are people whose criminal behavior was the direct cause of their deaths?

OK, so I just grabbed a name off the list — Corey Antonio Boykin Jr. — and Googled: Boykin was armed, and was the suspect in a robbery in which the victim was pistol-whipped and bounded and gagged with duct tape. The police bodycam video is too shaky to offer much insight beyond that, but it wasn’t like Boykin was an innocent lamb.

So I grabbed another name off the list — Deztanee Cobb — and Googled it, and discovered that this was someone involved in an incident that I’d written about just a few months ago:

Cortavion Tyriques Shemerlee Murphy was 15 years old and behind the wheel of a stolen Dodge Charger traveling about 115 mph when he crashed into a tree, killing himself and four passengers, all minors.
The crash that killed Murphy and his passengers — two 15-year-old boys, Jaquarius Hegler and Marshawn Williams, and two girls, Elexus Hillsman, 16,and Deztanee Cobb, 17 — happened around 12:45 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. Shortly before the crash, the Dodge Charger had blown past a police car in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The cop had at first tried to pursue the Dodge, but gave up, telling the dispatcher: “Yeah, I’m going to have to terminate it. It’s well over 100 mph.” The officer continued traveling east on Main Street at normal speed and, about a mile later, came across the site of the flaming wreckage.

How are racist police to blame for that one? Never mind. My point is that, if you start researching every name on that list, you’d find a lot of cases that don’t look anything like “state-sanctioned killing.” You ram a stolen car into a tree at 115 mph, don’t blame “systemic racism” for your death.

Do you see the distortion involved in BLM propaganda? There are certainly cases when trigger-happy cops shoot the wrong person, and we can examine the extent to which racial prejudice might be involved, on a case-by-case basis. But BLM activists are wildly exaggerating the number of such incidents in order to justify their “activism,” which is funded by tax-exempt foundations and which (not coincidentally) is part of campaign efforts by Democrats to “energize” black voters at election time.




 

Category: Crime
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