The Other McCain

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

Oscar Winner Decides to ‘Recognize and Honor the Sex Worker Community’

Posted on | March 4, 2025 | Comments Off on Oscar Winner Decides to ‘Recognize and Honor the Sex Worker Community’

Because I haven’t watched the annual Oscar ceremony in years — and I suspect few of my readers watch it, either — this bit of Hollywood news was somewhat confusing to me. Who is Mikey Madison and what did she do in the movie Anora to merit the Best Actress award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? Wikipedia:

Mikaela Madison Rosberg (born March 25, 1999), known professionally as Mikey Madison, is an American actress. She began her career acting in short films and received recognition for her role as a sullen teenager in the FX comedy series Better Things (2016–2022). Madison then played Susan Atkins in Quentin Tarantino’s comedy-drama film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and Amber Freeman in the horror film Scream (2022).
Madison gained wider recognition for playing the titular role of a sex worker in Sean Baker’s film Anora (2024), winning the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Actress.

OK, so she was in a Tarantino flick, which is rather an impressive credential to have acquired at such a young age. But what is this movie Anora? This is from Wikipedia’s plot summary:

Anora “Ani” Mikheeva is a 23-year-old stripper living in Brighton Beach, a Russian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. Her boss introduces her to Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov, the young son of the Russian oligarch Nikolai Zakharov, who requests someone fluent in Russian. Although Vanya is in the United States to study, he spends most of his time partying and playing video games in his family’s Brooklyn mansion.
Vanya hires Ani for several encounters and pays her $15,000 to stay with him for a week. During a trip to Las Vegas, he impulsively proposes. Despite her skepticism, Ani agrees, and they elope at a wedding chapel. She quits her job and moves into Vanya’s mansion. When news of the marriage reaches Russia, Vanya’s mother Galina orders his Armenian godfather Toros to find them and arrange an annulment while she and Nikolai fly to the U.S.
Toros sends his henchmen, Garnik and Igor, to the house. They inform Vanya that his parents are taking him back to Russia and enrage Ani by calling her a prostitute and suggesting that Vanya only married her to obtain a green card. . . .

Much drama ensues. Made for a modest budget of $6 million, the movie has grossed $40 million, so at least it was profitable. However, there’s no way Mikey Madison would have gotten the Best Actress award had it not been for the controversy that destroyed the Oscar hopes of transgender Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón. That was amazing, wasn’t it? Transgenderism is nowadays the most fashionable cause célèbre in Hollywood, and the Oscar committee would have been delighted to give the Best Actress award to Gascón, but unfortunately for the “actress” formerly known as Carlos, he/“she” had once said some rude (if arguably true) things about Muslims on social media, and when this was discovered, it was “cancel” time for the Spanish tranny. This is how the young star of Anora got her Oscar, which then gave her the opportunity to express solidarity with “the sex worker community”:

“I just want to recognize and honor the sex worker community. . . . I will continue to support and be an ally. All of the incredible people, the women that I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community, has been one of the highlights of this incredible experience.”

[ Church Lady voice ] Well, isn’t that special?

Because the representative of the transgender community got caught dissing the Muslim community, it’s a win for the sex worker community.

And just by the way, if you’re going to “recognize and honor” all the “incredible” women from “the sex worker community” — it was such a “privilege” just to meet them! — why not extend this gratitude to others involved in the vital business of sex work? Why not give a shout-out to the pimps and johns, and the strip club bouncers? How about being more specific about the “incredible” people and the work they do in the “community”? The strippers, the call girls, the street walkers, the meth-addicted truck-stop “lot lizards”? Go ahead and be inclusive — give a shout-out to the gigolos, the rentboys, the tranny hookers. Let’s not forget the OnlyFans girls and the legions of loyal simps who pay them money.

All this on prime-time TV. I’m sure the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are proud of themselves.



 

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Category: Hollywood

Rule 5 Sunday: Denim on the Beach

Posted on | March 3, 2025 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Denim on the Beach

— compiled by Wombat-socho

This week’s appetizer thanks to kbdabear’s Saturday Night Sideboob post.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five White House Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Captain America, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Friday Night Bush, The Heavy Water War, Pompeii’s Secret Cult, Gene Hackman RIP, Michelle Trachtenberg RIP, Visions Of The Future|Retro Future AI, The Bride/La Sposa, The Charleston, Bob Dobbs Discovers Johnny Cash, Claudia Gusmano, The Love Witch, Roberta Flack, Polytechnique, The Loneliest Planet, and Un Beau Soleil Interieur.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Keilah Kang Killian, Fish Pic Friday – Anne Marie, Thursday Tanlines, Taking Out the Bay Trash, The Wednesday Wetness, No. 7 Road, RIP: Roberta Flack, D.C. Issues Fish Consumption Advisories over PFAS, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Who Gives a Hoot? and Palm Sunday 

BACON TIME: Rule 5 Redheads

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Ain’t I Done Told Y’all? Democrats Pushed Zelenskyy to Sabotage White House Deal

Posted on | March 2, 2025 | Comments Off on Ain’t I Done Told Y’all? Democrats Pushed Zelenskyy to Sabotage White House Deal

Note the time and date on that, please — shortly after 5 p.m. ET on Friday, I shared my suspicion that the real reason why that White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned into a s***show was that Zelenskyy had been encouraged by Democrats to “pull that stunt,” and now my hunch has been validated:

Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the president was offering, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy’s office posted on X at 11:15 a.m. Friday.
He attached a picture of Zelensky at a conference table, with Murphy seated on the opposite side.
Forty minutes later, Zelensky arrived at the White House, where Trump met his car, smiled, shook his hand and walked him into the Oval Office.
The meeting, as the world now knows, quickly went off the rails and ended with Trump angrily ejecting the arrogant ingrate from the White House.
The earlier meeting with Dems undercuts wild claims that Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance staged an ambush. In fact, it was Zelensky who came with an ulterior motive.
The purpose of the meeting was to sign the mineral agreement he and Trump representatives had negotiated. He had twice refused to sign it after promising to, and thanks to Murphy, we now know he had no intention of signing it Friday.

An old saying, often cited by Hillary Clinton: “If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, the one thing you know is, it didn’t crawl up there by itself.” This meeting with Zelenskyy turning into a catastrophe was not a coincidence, you see. The whole thing was a setup by Democrats. In his column Michael Goodwin of the New York Post points out that this mineral deal — the whole purpose of the White House meeting was for Zelenskyy to sign the treaty — was something that Zelenskyy himself had suggested, and it was also Zelenskyy who insisted on a White House setting for the occasion. Democrats were behind the whole thing, see?

Well, let them own the consequences now. Also let me say this clearly: Fuck Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the horse he rode in on.



 

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Category: Democrats, Donald Trump, Ukraine

FMJRA 2.0: A Rare Winning Week

Posted on | March 2, 2025 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: A Rare Winning Week

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Confinement VI ended sooner than I thought it would, with Mike Williamson, most of his family, and a large number of C6 members going off to the range this afternoon, so I’m getting caught up on blogging.
Since both of the Senators’ opponents last week were on autopilot, I managed to get the series against the Angels and Daytraders (Mets) wrapped up before leaving for Confinement. We lost two of three against the Angels, with only Spaceman Lee getting a win with a 4-0 shutout, but then we went to Shea Stadium and swept the Daytraders 12-4, 5-3, and 2-1, with Spaceman Lee notching his team-leading eighth win, Joe Coleman and Carl Morton getting their fifth wins, and the bullpen picking up saves for Charlie Hough & Bob Johnson (their third, in both cases). We’ll be facing the Yankees on Tuesday after I get home and the Twins on Friday, both series at home in RFK.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

4-2! Woo!

Joy Reid Is Out at MSNBC
The Daley Gator
First Street Journal
American Free News Network
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum





FMJRA 2.0: Aspiring to Mediocrity
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: Demure, Relaxed, & In Her Lane
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
EBL

Career Advice for Young Men
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 02.25.25 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 02.26.25 (Afternoon Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 02.27.25 (Afternoon Edition)
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Zelenskyy Gets Pimp-Slapped on Live TV by Trump in White House Meeting UPDATE: Lindsey Graham Blames Zelenskyy for ‘Complete, Utter Disaster’
The Daley Gator
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 02.28.25
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Top linkers for the week ending February 28:

  1.  EBL (9)
  2.  357 Magnum & A View From The Beach (8)

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

Zelenskyy Self-Destructed, So Why Are Media Acting Like Trump Is to Blame?

Posted on | March 2, 2025 | Comments Off on Zelenskyy Self-Destructed, So Why Are Media Acting Like Trump Is to Blame?

The deal was all settled. On Thursday, the basic terms of a mineral-rights treaty had been agreed upon, and Friday’s Oval Office meeting was supposed to be a formality — a handshake, a meet-and-greet with the media. For some reason, however, Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided he should start an argument in front of the cameras. It has been pointed out that the meeting ran for about 50 minutes, and was uneventful until about the last 10 minutes. The fireworks started after Vice President J.D. Vance pointed out the difference between Biden and Trump:

Vance: “For four years, the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is, maybe, engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing.”
Zelenskyy: “Can I ask you?”
Vance: “Sure. Yeah.”
Zelenskyy: “OK. So he (Putin) occupied it, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of east and Crimea. So he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years — I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was (Barack) Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now, President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. You know what the –”
Trump: “2015?”
Zelenskyy: “2014.”
Trump: “Oh, 2014? I was not here.”

What the hell is going on here? Why has Zelenskyy decided that now is a good time to deliver this history lecture? The word “impertinent” comes to mind. He is talking out of turn, presuming that his hosts are ignorant.

In fact, Zelenskyy’s interruption — his little lecture about Putin seizing Crimea in 2014 — merely serves to illustrate Vance’s point about the failure of “the pathway of Joe Biden.” When Putin grabbed Crimea, there was a lot of tough talk from Obama and Biden, but they weren’t actually willing to risk anything over it. So when Biden returns to the White House in 2021, and then makes a catastrophic error in Afghanistan, it’s a signal of weakness that encourages Putin to invade the rest of Ukraine.

What has happened since then is that the United States has poured more than $180 billion — that’s BILLION, with a “B” — into Ukraine, and the strategic situation after three years is basically a stalemale. How many more hundreds of billions of dollars does Zelenskyy expect us to spend to keep this going? If we’re already spending a billion dollars a week just to maintain a bloody stalemate, is there any estimate of what an actual Ukrainian victory might cost? Like, if we spent twice as much money for six months, would that be sufficient to enable Ukraine to drive the Russians back across the border? Or is it the case that, however much money we give Zelenskyy, it will never be enough for Ukraine to win?

Zelenskyy seems to believe that he is entitled to more than he’s already gotten, without regard to the actual military results and with no feasible prospect of a better result in the near future. But y’all didn’t come here for a geopolitical realism lecture — readers have their own opinions about the Ukraine situation, and aren’t going to be influenced much by my ranting like this — so instead let’s get back to what happened after Zelenskyy interrupted Vance at the White House:

Zelenskyy: “Yes, but during 2014 ’til 2022, the situation is the same, that people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation. And we signed with him, me, like, you, president, in 2019, I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, (French President Emmanuel) Macron and (former German Chancellor Angela) Merkel. We signed ceasefire. Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go … But after that, he broke the ceasefire, he killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”
Vance: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

Game. Set. Match. J.D. Vance has here summarized the essence of what’s gone wrong with Ukraine’s war effort the past couple of years — their “manpower problems.” In April 2023 (“Pentagon Leak Confirms Ukraine Suffering Shortage of Trained Manpower”) I tried to call attention to this problem, and I further pointed out in February 2024:

Even if we could give Ukraine all the weapons they need, the manpower shortage would still make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to mount an effective counter-offensive against Russia.
Merely throwing money at Ukraine’s problems won’t fix the problems. One consequence of the Russian invasion has been the discovery that the United States and its allies lack the capacity to manufacture enough artillery ammunition and other supplies in sufficient quantities quickly enough to meet an emergency demand. It doesn’t matter how many billions of dollars Congress votes to spend, we’re still not going to be able to put enough equipment into Ukraine to make complete victory over Russia a reality this year, or next year, or the year after that.

For the past year or two, some people have been living in a delusion about this situation. Ukraine’s manpower problem was apparent as early as spring 2023. One would think that the Russian invasion might have stirred such a surge of patriotism among young Ukrainians that they easily could have gotten 200,000 healthy young volunteers in the first few weeks of the war. Allow a full year for these raw recruits to get trained and equipped and organized into military units, and by spring 2023, Ukraine should have been ready to launch a major counter-offensive.

The year 2023 came and went without any such offensive, and it was not until August of this year that Ukraine made a minor incursion into Russian territory that did nothing to alter the larger strategic situation — stalemate on every front, with no end in sight. So now let’s get back to that White House transcript from Friday:

Vance: Do you disagree that you’ve had problems, bringing people into your military?”
Zelenskyy: “We have problems –”
Vance: “And do you think that is respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”

You can read the rest. My point is that it’s J.D. Vance making these arguments, not Trump, and the reason Vance went off like that is because Zelenskyy tried to use this Oval Office photo-op to embarrass the Trump administration. The way the media are spinning it, however, is that somehow Trump blew up this meeting, instead of Zelenskyy.

Much more at Instapundit, where Professor Reynolds suggests “Zelensky knew exactly what he was doing, and picked this fight on purpose,” pandering to anti-Trump sentiment in the European Union. If true, this would be the height of folly; the big problem with NATO is that Our European Allies don’t really have much in the way of military power; as allies, they’re practically worthless. How many divisions of armor or paratroopers can be deployed by France, Germany, Belgium, etc.? Even if the Europeans did want to go to war (which they certainly do not), they don’t scare anybody. Let Zelenskyy go back to Brussels and bask in the admiration of the Europeans. That will do nothing to help Ukraine.



 

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Category: Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Media Bias, Ukraine

In The Mailbox: 02.28.25

Posted on | February 28, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 02.28.25

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts, even if I am at Confinement with Instapundit and a passel of excellent SF & fantasy writers.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Guns, Fun, and Preconceptions
EBL: Michelle Trachtenberg, RIP, Gene Hackman, RIP, Zelensky Conference Turns Into ? Show, Lindsey Graham: Zelensky has destroyed the relationship between Ukraine and the United States, and Pompeii had a secret cult for ‘raving, intoxicated women’?
Twitchy: Twitter Schools Susan Glasser – Nothing Tops Bill & Monica’s Oval Office Cigar Masterclass, Trump & Vance Might NOT Be Swayed By Zelensky Doubling Down In Fox Interview, and Kentucky Tranny Shot & Charged After Ramming Car With Kids Inside During Road Rage Incident
Louder With Crowder: High School wanted to have a no-Whites-allowed field trip, but it turns out that’s illegal, Leftists are planning an “economic blackout” to tank the Trump economy and here’s how, Joy Behar slanders Elon Musk as “pro-apartheid,” but an attorney must have gotten to her during the commercial break, NY Governor blames Trump for NYC’s egg prices skyrocketing, manages to forget why SHE is to blame, and State Democrats Want To Put Vending Machines Containing Condoms In Kindergarten Schools [Not the Babylon Bee]
Vox Popoli: You Don’t Have the Cards, Microsoft Shutting Down Skype, Germans Never Learn, America First Investment Policy, and The Total Irrelevance of 80’s Conservatism
According To Hoyt: The Spirit of the Age, The Far View, Don’t Fall For It, and Vampires and Mirrors
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Throwback Thursday
Cedar Sanderson: Threads of Empire, also, It’s Alive!
Gab: The Algorithms of Anxiety
Robert Brumbelow: Georgia’s Insurance & Vehicle Registration Scandal, also, Treatment-Resistant Depression
Upstream Reviews: After The Sky
Stoic Observations: Trillion Dollar Scale
Jim McCoy: Mystic Empire
Toni Airaksinen: Meet The University Nurse Who Refuses To Treat “Vermin, Dogs” (Jews)

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Baldilocks: Low Maintenance Girl
CDR Salamander: The PLAN War College vs. Our Naval War College, also, Fullbore Friday
Dana Loesch: Trump Hands Zelensky A Presidential Beatdown
Don Surber: Report the news already
Glenn Reynolds: Reining In District Courts

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Category: Linkagery

Zelenskyy Gets Pimp-Slapped on Live TV by Trump in White House Meeting UPDATE: Lindsey Graham Blames Zelenskyy for ‘Complete, Utter Disaster’

Posted on | February 28, 2025 | Comments Off on Zelenskyy Gets Pimp-Slapped on Live TV by Trump in White House Meeting UPDATE: Lindsey Graham Blames Zelenskyy for ‘Complete, Utter Disaster’

“Pimp-slapped,” metaphorically speaking, of course. This event has astonished the world. When it happened, my office TV was tuned to Fox News, but I immediately switched over to MSNBC to see how they were reacting and . . . Well, it would be wrong to say it’s driven them crazy, as they’ve been non compos mentis for years, but whatever else the MSNBC crowd was obsessed over before, they’ve suddenly forgotten it and will be 24/7 on this story until further notice. The big question, really, is why Trump decided to chew out the president of Ukraine in public.

My first thought was, well, a big slice of Trump’s hard-core supporters hate Zelenskyy and don’t like the way he’s been hailed as a latter-day Winston Churchill for the past three years. So, inasmuch as what Trump did was a performance, it would be applauded by that segment of Trump’s basis. But as I contemplated it a bit longer, it occurred to me that the intended audience might be Our European Allies — i.e., the deadbeats who haven’t been paying their share for NATO, and who think American taxpayers should have no higher priority than pouring billions of dollars into Ukraine. In this analysis, Trump slapped around Zelenskyy to send a message to the Europeans: “Free ride’s over, guys. Y’all want to save Ukraine, do it on your own dime.” But that’s just my guess.

Maybe Trump just lost his temper, but I think there must have been some kind of four-dimensional chess strategy involved, and I reckon the foreign policy specialists will figure it out evenutally. In the meantime, we can just sit back and watch liberals’ heads explode.

See, this is why we voted for Trump. Would we be getting this kind of quality entertainment from Kamala Harris? I don’t think so.

UPDATE: Thanks to Evil Blogger Lady for this:

Lindsey Graham, who is very pro-Ukraine, puts the blame for this “disaster” squarely on Zelenskyy, and says he should resign.



 

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Category: Donald Trump, Ukraine

In The Mailbox: 02.27.25 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | February 27, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 02.27.25 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

I have made my holy journey, and (once again) become a Secret Man.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: Top 20 FBI Fun Facts – Comey Edition
357 Magnum: The 1993 Bombing of the World Trade Center
EBL: The Bride | La sposa, Volkswagen Song, The Heimatdamisch : Highway to Hell, and Jake Tapper Has No Shame
Twitchy: NSA Insider Spills All The Transactivist Tea And It’s Even Creepier Than You Thought, Justine Bateman’s Response To Gov. Hairgel’s New Podcast Is Brutal Perfection, and Scott Jennings Asks CNN Panel For Examples of Trump “Shredding The Constitution” And They Have Nothing
Louder With Crowder: Maine House Democrat Majority Censures GOP Rep. After She Speaks Out Against Males In Female Sports, Are Lauren Boebert and Kid Rock a hot item?, and An anti-ICE coalition is organizing to sabotage Donald Trump’s immigration reforms
Vox Popoli: Appearances vs Reality, Batting 1.000, A Drink with a Coconut, and RIP Dawn
Bugscuffle Gazette: Random Thoughts From Rita
Cedar Sanderson: Spring’s Merry Step

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Iffy Cold War Nuclear Theory Is Only Worse Now
Dana Loesch: Activist Judges – A Look At Judge John Bates
Don Surber: Mocking Woke Speech
STUMP: RIP Michelle Trachtenberg – Some Stats On Liver Disease Mortality

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Category: Linkagery
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