The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 11.10.20

Posted on | November 10, 2020 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

I heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he’s depressed. Life seems harsh, and cruel. Says he feels all alone in threatening world. Doctor says: “Treatment is simple. The great clown – Pagliacci – is in town. Go see him. That should pick you up.” Man bursts into tears. “But doctor,” he says “I am Pagliacci.” Good joke. Everybody laugh.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Improvised & Craft-Built Firearms
EBL: The Plot Against The President, also, “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”
Twitchy: Ted Cruz Points Out Miraculous Change In CNN COVID Reporting After Calling The Race For Biden And Jake Tapper Can’t Deal
Louder With Crowder: Hear Kayleigh McEnany’s Full Statement Without Being Cut Off By Fox News, also,  Murder Turtle Tells Democrats Where To Stick “Lecture On Civility” As Trump Challenges Results
Vox Popoli: The Attack On Benford’s Law, also, Out Of The Frying Pan
Stoic Observations: The Black Sierra Club

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Requested Guidance For A Young Man
American Conservative: Biden Can Start To Heal America By Exercising Foreign Policy Restraint
American Greatness: On Electoral Fraud In 2020, also, The Voter Fraud Scheme Called #MaidenGate
American Power: “I Don’t Know Why I’m Convinced I Get Mick Jagger, But…”
American Thinker: What Would George Patton Do?
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Election Shenanigans News
Babalu Blog: No Medication In Socialist Cuba For Children Suffering From Scabies, also, Cuban-American Musical Group That Recorded The “Trump Song” Receiving Death Threats
BattleSwarm: Three Cheers For Drug Legalization
Cafe Hayek: Quotation Of The Day
CDR Salamander: The Best Joint Programs Are Not Joint Programs
Da Tech Guy: Twitter & Facebook Hate Conservatives – Hello Parler! also, Twitter/Left Censorship A Sure Sign You’re Hitting The Target
Don Surber: Sit Down, Mrs. Obama, also, What’s Up With Parler?
First Street Journal: Oh, Please Let It Be True! also, Karens Gotta Karen!
The Geller Report: Tens Of Thousands Of PA Ballots Arrived Before They Were Sent, Says Researcher, also, Republicans Flip Nine House Seats In California
Hogewash: M14, also, A Reminder To A Certain (Allegedly) Practicing Catholic
Hollywood In Toto: Amazon Ignores Black Conservatives, also, Fatman Is The Christmas Coal To Cap 2020
JustOneMinute: Tom Brady, What??
The Lid: Sworn Affidavits From Michigan, Nevada Detail Voter Fraud, also, Happy 245th Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps!
Legal Insurrection: Sen. Tillis (R-NC) Wins Re-Election As Cunningham Concedes, also, Tucker Carlson Accuses Big Tech Of “Worst Form Of Election Tampering”
Power Line: Massive Election Corruption Documented In Michigan, also, Jennifer Rubin & The Neo-Leninists
Shark Tank: Marco Rubio To Run For Third Term Next Year
Shot In The Dark: As Assigned
The Political Hat: The Gaia Cult vs. Florida
This Ain’t Hell: Veterans & Gold Star Families Given Free Access To National Parks, Other Federal Properties, also, Happy Birthday, Devil Dogs!
Victory Girls: Media Demand Conformity Amid Confusion
Volokh Conspiracy: Thoughts On Today’s Oral Arguments In California v. Texas (The Obamacare Severability Case)
Weasel Zippers: PR Election Officials Have Found 174 Boxes Of Uncounted Ballots, also, Biden’s COVID Adviser In March – Wearing Masks & Gloves “Largely Nonsense”
The Federalist: I Was In Philadelphia Watching Fraud Happen, also, Totalitarian Left Promises Punishment & Purges For Trump Voters
Mark Steyn: The Best Is Yet To Come, also, Election Day Plus Seven

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Category: Linkagery

‘Chris, We Haven’t Called Texas Yet’

Posted on | November 10, 2020 | 3 Comments

Millions of Republicans have stopped watching Fox News after the Election Night debacle in which the network’s “Decision Desk” (i.e., a Democrat named Aaron Mishkin) called Arizona for Joe Biden at a time when they were still claiming that Ohio and Texas were “too close to call.”

When the “Decision Desk” called Arizona for Biden, it shocked Bill Hemmer and Brett Baier. The results at the time showed Biden with about a 200,000-vote lead in Arizona, but as Baier said in an on-air discussion with Chris Stirewalt, it was known that the counties had begun by reporting their early-vote totals (which favored Democrats) and that the Election Day voting (which favored Republicans) had just begun to be reported. Furthermore, at the time, Fox still hadn’t called Ohio for Trump. He won the state by an eight-point margin (more than 450,000 votes) and 94% of the results had already been reported in Ohio, yet it was “too close to call” at the time Fox called Arizona for Biden. And, exactly as Baier pointed out to Stirewalt, the Trump vote in Arizona continued increasing, so that the numbers this morning have Biden with only a 15,000-vote margin, about 4/10ths of a percentage point, with many challenges left to resolve. Despite this, Stirewalt stared dumbly into the camera and defended the “Decision Desk”:

“Ohio is close. Obviously we see the president has
an advantage and he’s had an advantage in polling
in Ohio, in the same way he has in Iowa
for the closing stretch of the election.
I would point out, pre-election polls in this cycle
have so far turned out to be really, really good.”

No, sir, that was false.

Polling errors were catastrophic in size, so enormous as to discredit public opinion polling quite generally. The Real Clear Politics average of Ohio polls was 7 points off; Quinnipiac’s final Ohio poll had Biden +4 — a 12-point error. Similarly, the RCP average of Texas polls was nearly 5 points off; the Dallas Morning News poll had Biden leading by 3 points; he lost by 5.8, with Trump winning by nearly 650,000 votes.

These errors were so large that they could not be explained as mere incompetence; they were part of a political psyops campaign. And, we must now admit, Fox News was part of the same campaign.

Brett Baier: “But Chris, we haven’t called Texas yet. Why haven’t we called Texas?”
Chris Stirewalt: “Because it’s too close to call.”

No honest person could say that. Chris Stirewalt is not an honest person. The margin in Arizona is barely 15,000 votes, but the Fox News “Decision Desk” could call that a win for Biden, whereas Texas — where the margin was more than 40 times larger — was “too close to call.”

Chris Stirewalt stacked his credibility into a large pile on Election Night, doused it in gasoline, and tossed a match at it. Any news organization that would employ Chris Stirewalt is not trustworthy. Ace of Spades has some further thoughts on why Fox News committed suicide.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!




 

 

Category: Election, Fox News, Media Bias

In The Mailbox: 11.09.20

Posted on | November 10, 2020 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 11.09.20

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

No compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon!

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Geniuses In Charge Of Illinois Finances
Stoic Observations: A Solitary Mind
EBL: Alex Trebek, RIP, also, Save The Senate – Loeffler & Perdue
Twitchy: Jennifer Rubin Tries To Play Monday-Morning QB With Election Results, Hurts Herself Trying To Slam-Dunk
Louder With Crowder: Occasional Cortex Might Quit Politics After 2020 Election Results
Vox Popoli: Fake News Proclaims Fake President, also, This Is What Voter Fraud Looks Like
Monster Hunter Nation: The 2020 Election – Fuckery Is Afoot, also, Election 2020 – The More Fuckery Update

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Stick A Fork In The USA
American Conservative: Stop Saying This Is A Coup (No. -WS), also, No Surrender – At Least Not Yet
American Greatness: Went To Bed In America, Woke Up In A Banana Republic, also, New Lawsuit In MI Alleges “Massive Fraud” In Vote Counting, Calls For New Election In Wayne County
American Power: Maggie Haberman Is Quitting The Trump Beat, also, What Socialism? Occasional Cortex Walks Back Radical Agenda After Democrats’ Epic Shellacking On Election Day
American Thinker: American Coup Victims Will Not Go Quietly, also, Milwaukee Officials Have Some Explaining To Do
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Cuba’s Communists Thrilled By Biden’s (Apparent) Election, also, The Question About Cubans That Has Puzzled The Democrats & The Left For Decades
BattleSwarm: Texas Charges Social Worker With 134 Felony Voter Fraud Counts, also, Election Fraud Update
Cafe Hayek: Agreeing & Disagreeing With Tyler Cowen About COVID-19
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday, also, A Midrats Post-Election Melee
Da Tech Guy: A Dim Glow In The Dark, also, To Twitter – NUTS!
Don Surber: Shove Unity Where The Sun Don’t Shine, also, Trump’s Plan To Defeat The Cheats
First Street Journal: Let’s Face Facts – Biden Won, But It Isn’t The End Of The World, also, Blaming The Libertarian Party
The Geller Report: Fox News Ratings Crash, Network Ends The Week In Third Place, also, Captured In Real Time – The Moment In Virginia When 169,000 Votes Disappear Off The State Totals
Hogewash: Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
Hollywood In Toto: We Owe Affleck’s Daredevil An Apology, also, Twitter Boots Bannon, But Griffin Reposting Trump’s Severed Head Is Okay
JustOneMinute: The Center Holds!
The Lid: #FOXEXIT Movement Builds As Network Has Become Anti-Trump, also, Kristallnacht
Legal Insurrection: Lindsey Graham – “Do Not Concede, Mr. President. Fight Hard.” also, Mexico’s President Won’t Congratulate Biden Yet
Power Line: Unite Behind Joe Biden? You Must Be Joking, also, How About A Special Counsel?
Shark Tank: Mucarsel-Powell Blames Rubio, Anti-Socialist Messaging For Election Day Defeat
Shot In The Dark: Your Lying Eyes, also, Just In Case
STUMP: Mortality With Meep
The Political Hat: Crying Wolf Over Fraud, also, Woke Doctrine Of Equity Coming To DOJ
This Ain’t Hell: Different Spanks, also, Esper Out As SecDef
Victory Girls: Support Trump? You’ll Go On The List, also, Zeke Emanuel Tapped For Biden’s COVID Panel Since Kevorkian Unavailable
Volokh Conspiracy: Does Biden Have A Mandate? Should It Matter? also, State Legislatures Should Stay Out Of The Presidential Contest
Weasel Zippers: RCP Marks Pennsylvania As “Undecided”, also, Biden Now Doing The Very Thing General Flynn Was Prosecuted For
The Federalist: Media Lies About Pfizer’s Partnership With Administration’s Operation Warp Speed, also, America Won’t Trust Elections Until The Voter Fraud Is Investigated
Mark Steyn: High & Low, also, Election Day Plus Six

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Category: Linkagery

The Enemies of Happiness

Posted on | November 9, 2020 | Comments Off on The Enemies of Happiness

Professor Reynolds remarks: “My daughter has already noticed that the folks in her circle who are most into ‘activism’ of various sorts are mostly the ones whose careers and lives seem to be going the worst.” And this is certainly not a coincidence. Political “activism,” as promoted by the Left, is entirely destructive in its goals. An eternal war against an unacceptable status quo appeals to malcontents and misfits.

We can contrast the pursuit of “activism” with the practice of statesmanship. The goal of the statesman — Winston Churchill being an eminent historic example — is to strengthen the nation, to preserve peace and enhance economic prosperity. It should be obvious that prosperity is necessary to peace, and vice-versa; economic resources are necessary to national defense, a strong defense deters aggression, and therefore a wealthy nation is less vulnerable to attack. If we think back to the Reagan era, we see that the vast expansion of the economy helped create the military strength that in turn caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. And the 1980s, not coincidentally, were one of the happiest decades in American history, when a feeling of optimism prevailed.

All this is anathema to the “activist,” whose goals are subversive or revolutionary in nature. In times of peace, the “activist” constantly seeks to provoke social conflict; in times of war, the “activist” becomes a cheerleader for defeat, supporting America’s enemies.

Recall that in our Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers named “the pursuit of happiness” among man’s God-given rights. Attempting to make your life better — to acquire those things necessary to your happiness — is a worthwhile endeavor. You get up in the morning and go to work, in hope that your day’s labor will earn enough not merely to pay the bills and fend off starvation, but also provide a sufficient surplus that you may improve your condition. Now a gray-bearded grandfather, I think back to when I first moved to Calhoun, Georgia, to take a job as a newspaper sports editor, and could pack all my worldly possessions in the back of my 1984 Chevette. While I haven’t gotten rich, I’ve managed to improve my situation a bit since 1987, and in general, my children are better off than I was at their age. Certainly, I have no cause to complain about the amount of happiness I’ve attained, and cannot understand the “activist” attitude that disdains “the pursuit of happiness” as an unworthy or, perhaps, impossible endeavor.

Oh, the system is depriving you of your rights, yells the activist. You are a victim of oppression and, also (says the activist, assuming the role of doomsday prophet) the entire world is going to become uninhabitable because capitalist greed causes climate change!

“Activism” is organized misery, and the fact that the Democratic Party is now controlled by such people is an ill omen.




 

 

Category: Liberals

Articles Mentioning Benford’s Law Are Reportedly Banned on Facebook

Posted on | November 9, 2020 | 3 Comments

Benford’s Law is a principle of statistics relating to the frequency with which various digits occur in random samples. It has been used in accounting as a means of detecting fraudulent bookkeeping, because people will enter fake numbers in a non-random pattern. Benford’s Law has also been used to detect vote fraud, where false tallies in precincts will follow the same principle. An article at the site GNews alleges that Benford’s Law proves cheating occurred in urban areas that went heavily for Biden. Is this true? I don’t know.

There are several reasons to suspect shenanigans in this election, but you’re supposedly a fringe kook for noticing anomalies, and social media sites are reportedly censoring mention of Benford’s Law.

The president is not going to quit without a fight:

President Trump is planning to hold campaign-style rallies at which he will reveal obituaries of Americans who supposedly voted in the 2020 presidential election despite being deceased, a campaign official confirms to The Post.
The group of rallies, first reported Sunday by Axios, will be focused on highlighting the Trump campaign’s legal effort to win back a lost election by highlighting specific examples of voter fraud.
The obituaries specifically are meant to act as evidence that President-elect Biden won the election by what the Trump team has repeatedly referred to as “illegal” votes.
While specific locations and dates have not yet been announced, the Trump team is focusing their efforts on the must-win swing states: Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania, although other states could be included, a campaign official told the Post. . . .
On Sunday, Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said he intends to file up to 10 lawsuits alleging election fraud.
Speaking to Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” the former NYC mayor argued that, “At this point, it would be wrong for him to concede.”
“There is strong evidence that this was an election that in at least three or four states, and possible 10, it was stolen. In other words, it was based on false votes. Now, you can’t let an election go into history without challenging that,” he continued.

Byron York notes that the media people who now tell us it is wrong to challenge election results are the same ones who spent four years telling us that Russian “meddling” rendered the 2016 election invalid.




 

 

Category: Donald Trump, Election

68 Shots: ‘That’s All the Bullets We Had, or We Would Have Shot Him More’

Posted on | November 9, 2020 | Comments Off on 68 Shots: ‘That’s All the Bullets We Had, or We Would Have Shot Him More’

Angilo Freeland, a/k/a “Dread,” was a native of the Caribbean island of Antigua, and how he ended up in Florida is not entirely clear. Freeland was something of a mysterious figure, an enforcer for an international drug trafficking ring, and investigators believe he had killed at least 15 people in his role as a “paid assassin.” His criminal career ended after Freeland made the mistake of killing a Polk County deputy in 2006.

If you know anything at all about Florida, you should know this: Do not commit crime in Polk County, where Grady Judd has been the sheriff for the past 15 years. Judd is a career law-enforcement officer who went to work for the sheriff’s department as a teenager. By the time he was 27, he had attained the rank of captain, and was supervising 44 employees, all of whom were older than him. Judd is a sort of Florida celebrity, known for his “tell-it-like-it-is” press conferences. The Polk County Sheriff’s Department has solved 100% of its homicide cases since 2012, and anyone who thinks they’re going to get away with a crime there had better think again. The citizens of Polk County are just as tough as their sheriff who, by the way, has been unopposed in his past two reelections.

Last month, a criminal named Christopher Hendrix, who had served seven years in prison on an attempted murder charge (plea-bargained down to aggravated battery), decided to go on a rampage in Polk County. He tried to carjack a woman at a convenience store while she was pumping gas, but the lady turned the tables, dousing Hendrix with gasoline, and he decided to try his luck elsewhere. Next, he tried to carjack a van, but the van owner had a concealed-carry permit, and Hendrix found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol. This caused Hendrix to flee the convenience store, and he was later arrested on I-4.

During his press conference, Sheriff Judd praised the citizens who resisted Hendrix: “But you know what is really cool about Polk County? We fight back. We fight back against criminals. We carry concealed firearms and heck, the lady that didn’t have a concealed firearm used a gas hose, which worked just remarkably well.” Sheriff Judd said: “This violent, convicted felon was bound and determined to forcibly steal a car this morning, but our citizens said, not today.” And he went further:

“I guarantee you, when you start trying to carjack somebody’s car at the gas station, you’re subject toget shot. And shot a lot.”
An unidentified reporter responded, “You don’t think that’s a dangerous message you’re putting out?” Judd replied, “The message is, you don’t have to have a firearm. You don’t have to have a knife to be a dangerous individual. And if you come to this county, and if you use extreme violence, to try to carjack somebody from their car, if you get shot that’s on you. You can protect yourself and your property.”

 

You see what I mean about Polk County? This is a place where folks take public safety seriously, and criminals should avoid going there.

But maybe someone forgot to warn Christopher Hendrix. They didn’t tell him what happened to Angilo “Dread” Freeland in 2006. Freeland shot two deputies, killing one and wounded another, and also killed the deputy’s K-9. Sheriff Judd sent his SWAT team after Freeland. They fired 110 shots, and hit him with 68 bullets. A reporter asked the sheriff why the suspect was shot so many times, to which Sheriff Judd replied: “That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more.”




 

 

Category: Crime, Florida

Rule 5 Sunday: Carla Gugino

Posted on | November 9, 2020 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

The events of this past week have been reminding me of the end of the Watchmen movie, with Rorschach defiantly snarling “No compromise! Not even in the face of Armageddon!” We aren’t here for politics, though, so let me instead present Carla Gugino, who played the original Silk Spectre in the Watchmen, but to me is more appealing as Lucille, Marv’s parole officer in Sin City, from which this still is taken.

Marv’s parole officer and Hartigan’s lawyer.

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1162, and Girls With Guns.

Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Election Recap Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Satyagraha, Rhodelinda, Sean Connery RIP, Orfeo Ed Eurydice, Idomeneo, Semiramide, La Forza Del Destino, Lauren Boebert, Romeo Et Juliette, Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg, and MAGA.

A View From The Beach: Faking it With Meg Ryan, Fish Pic Friday – Kay Beaudin, Tattoo Thursday, Some Wednesday Wetness, Truckin’ Into Tuesday, Maryland Extends Sook Season, Your Monday Motivator, CCA Recommendations for 2021 Striped Bass Season, Palm Sunday, RIP: Sean Connery and Oh, And Happy Halloween!

Proof Positive’s Vintage Babe is Ann-Margret, Bacon Time has Paradise by the Dashboard Light, and Red Pilled Jew has Women in Costumes and Medical Women.

Thanks to everyone for the luscious linkagery!

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Category: Rule 5

Whatever Happened to … ?

Posted on | November 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Whatever Happened to … ?

. . . Jonah Goldberg, for example.

Most days now, I don’t even realize he exists, unless Ace goes off on him, and then I’m like, “Oh, he’s still around?”

One of the things we have gained from the Trump era is the knowledge that some people were never really on our side. They were conservatism’s fair-weather friends, and when the going got tough, they jumped over to the other side. Because “principles”! Well, damn you, sir, and damn your “principles,” whatever they may be. We don’t really care.

Some of the #NeverTrump crowd were people who never mattered anyway. Who had ever heard of the “expert” Tom Nichols before 2016? He was an obscurity before Trump came along, and being anti-Trump gave him a certain amount of relevance for a while. If we are now going to be compelled to endure four years of Biden-Harris, we can at least comfort ourselves with the knowledge that Tom Nichols will henceforth cease to be relevant, not that he was ever actually relevant. He was pseudo-relevant for a while, but now? Sayonara, Tom.

Our gain from this is immeasurable, and their loss is complete.

If the Republican Establishment is under the illusion that they can go back to business as usual, they are due for a disillusionment.

The 71 million Americans who voted to re-elect President Trump are not all hard-core America First populists. Most of them are just regular Republicans, the same people who pulled the lever for Mitt Romney in 2012, and will vote for whoever the GOP nominates in 2024.

What will make a difference, however, is that the #NeverTrump crowd has discredited themselves. They have permanently forfeited their influence with the Republican grassroots. Three years from now, when the GOP primary field is taking shape, no Republican voter is going to be seeking advice from the likes of Rick Wilson or Jennifer Rubin.

By the way — I mention this because it’s important — there were some conservatives who weren’t all-in for Trump in 2016 who nevertheless later realized that the #NeverTrump movement was over, and they came around quickly, doing yeoman’s work in the Russian “collusion” struggle, the Brett Kavanaugh nomination fight, and so on down the line. There shall be no penalty to those people. We absolve them of them of their previous errors, whereas those who stayed on the #NeverTrump bus all the way to 2020 have forever discredited themselves.

As my co-blogger Smitty pointed out yesterday, Trump will not just go away quietly next January, if Biden is inaugurated. Who do you think is going to be the featured speaker at CPAC next year? Maybe you should ask Matt Schlapp that question. I think I can guess the answer.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is all about “archiving these Trump sycophants” as proof of their “complicity,” as if Democrats have plans to punish dissenters, but we’re not paranoid, are we?




 

 

Category: Election
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