The Other McCain

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

A Work In Progress

Posted on | November 17, 2019 | 1 Comment

— by Wombat-socho

I want to start by thanking all the people who responded to Stacy’s post last week and sent badly needed cash, either to my PayPal account or to the GoFundMe. Now that the stress of the eviction and moving is done, I’m in transitional housing north of downtown Las Vegas, and I’m finally done with the course of Cipro my wound care nurse put me on, I’m feeling a lot better, and ready to get back in the blogging saddle. It’s been a very difficult couple of weeks, and there’s no question that your kind words and prayers helped as much as the donations.

The VA came through for me and got me into the previously mentioned transitional housing, which those of you who have served in the military would immediately recognize as a civilian version of a transit barracks – someplace to stay while the organization running it works with you to find someplace more permanent, and on finding income streams to support you. In my case, that means sorting out the problem with Social Security that’s holding up my SSDI, starting the paperwork to claim VA disability pay, and ditto for a small VA pension, which I am entitled to as a side effect of being poor & qualified for SSDI.

Unfortunately, none of those are going to show up soon, and tax season doesn’t start until January, and even though I don’t have to pay rent any more, I still have bills to pay. If you can afford to hit the tip jar or donate to the GoFundMe, it would be very much appreciated; if not, please consider buying stuff through the Amazon links on my posts. Again, heartfelt thanks to all of you in the commentariat who have been kind enough to do so already.

Amazon Warehouse Deals




Category: Uncategorized

Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

Posted on | November 15, 2019 | Comments Off on Friday Fiction: 100 Word Challenge

by Smitty

I loved you, Earl
Though but a girl
Until that fateful day
When hatred came
With gun of blame
And took your life away

Oh how we dreamed
In innocence
Those nights under the stars
Of shoes and ships
Of global trips
How adventure would be ours

Now years have passed
Since day your last
And again I here take breath
With heart a lump
As tears I dump
Where then you met your death

Lord rest your soul
As on I roll
And may He grant resolve
To emulate
Yours of that date
A life laid down in love

—
via Darleen

Category: Friday Fiction

Politics Is About Getting The Last Word

Posted on | November 15, 2019 | 3 Comments

by Smitty


A couple of books ago Coulter wrote “Demonic”, which pointed to Gustav Le Bon’s “The Crowd”. That book seems to inform much about how the Left is trying to unwind our liberty.

Among his points was not only that the populace is a big piece of meat, only capable of holding one crudely-drawn thought at a time; but that, as a result, the crowd lives in the present tense. There is no collective memory. Whatever the latest flap is in the news cycle is what matters. Who really remembers that Epstein didn’t kill himself?

Hence the myopic rush to “control the news cycle”. Whoever gets to scrawl the refrigerator art in crayon for the crowd controls the Holy Narrative. So the theory goes. Until Al Gore begat the internet, and suddenly the crowd had some means of collective recollection. This also explains why Google is so keen on controlling how that collective recollection is managed in terms of searchability.

Which brings us to impeachment.

One point no one seems to be making about the ‘Historic’ Impeachment fracas is that it’s one side of the Deep State coin since BHO “fundamentally transform[ed] the United States of America”:

We have the DoJ investigation(s) on the one hand, and the Ukrainapalooza circus on the other. The latter resembles a cabal of un-elected homo bureaucratus specimens trying to replace our Constitutional procedure for choosing leaders with something “managed”, what amounts to (if you consider Russiagate and the Kavanaugh flaps as connected episodes) a four-year-long collective Democrat fart.

Aside: the last 20 years, since Al Gore came within a dangling chad of succeeding Bubba Love Muffin as POTUS, seems a complement to our system’s general robustness. Lurch couldn’t win in 2004, but #OccupiedResoluteDesk did in 2008. Not to get cocky, but the fact that there remained a shred of a chance that Trump could win in 2016 is both a complement and a chance to dodge the bullet of human history. We are not required to collapse into some authoritarian hell a la Venezuela or China, though we remain in danger of such. All we have to do is continue to have Democrats in power.

Which is why they the Democrats are so furiously trying to flog a dead horse down to glue and use it to stick something, anything to Trump. With their Deep State shenanigans about to be laid bare by the DoJ, there has to be a rebuttal.

I hope that Trump and others are good diarists, so that we can eventually read memoirs of what was afoot in these weird times. Whoever is advising Trump (if anyone) to hold his peace while the Democrats beclown themselves is both a genius and a master of patience. In letting the DoJ reports transform into a Sword of Damocles. The Democrats have to keep saying something while the pages and details and grand juries keep grinding on.

But we understand that, while no saint, there really isn’t any substantial, actionable, impeachable basis to attack Trump. Ever since Trump University never amounted to anything during the 2016 campaign, DJT has seemed the Teflon Don. I am told that his skirt chasing and potty mouth in the past render it some sort of moral failing if I don’t join the #Resistance. (yawn)

The most substantial argument the #NeverTrump weenies have is that hero worship is a genuinely bad thing. Fair Point. But is it worth being bossed around by the aforementioned un-elected pencil necks who natter on about being Experts? Hardly.

And so natter on the Deep State does. An aspect of Le Bon’s theory, presaging the Postmodernism that followed him by a few decades, is that the content of the crude drawings held before the crowd doesn’t matter: those in control can create a narrative on the fly and make it stick, if it’s in monosyllables and repeated endlessly. Orange Man Bad.

But the Narrative is a highly tactical tool in the Information Age. There are enough outlets beyond the control of the Deep State which can connect the dots in ways that stymie efforts to set the narrative and control the news cycle.

Trump’s strategy seems to be to let the Deep State bloviators exhaust themselves. How many nameless whistle-blowers having fourth-hand evidence of a phone call that triggered their irritable bowel syndrome can we endure before somebody’s AI engine correlates and exposes the actual whistle-blower, Mr. Wickles?

After all that, the IG reports. These are the arguments. The judges are the voters, and the case is tried at the ballot box. For God and your liberty’s sake, don’t let the Democrats prevail.

Category: Uncategorized

The ‘Historic’ Impeachment

Posted on | November 13, 2019 | 1 Comment

 

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

Readers will excuse the lack of blogging the past couple of days, but I got trapped in a research vortex that chewed up countless hours but has yet to yield an actual story. Also, Alabama lost to LSU, and recovering from that trauma involved a 7 Stages of Grief cycle, but I digress . . .

The morning Drudge headline stack:

SCHIFF: Impeachable Offenses Include 'Bribery'...
Dems' lead lawyer known for prosecuting mobsters, swindlers ...
Republican senator: All comes down to motive...
Trump Considered Firing Intel Inspector General...
In private speech, Bolton says some of President's policy decisions guided by personal interest...
Napolitano emerges as top critic...
FACEBOOK Sued for Censoring Posts Naming Whistleblower...
Death Threats Increase...
Aides counseling Trump not to fire Mulvaney...
Senate trial to last 6 WEEKS?

What to make of all this? It’s all a giant pile of bat guano craziness. Our Constitution grants the President nearly unlimited authority to conduct diplomacy, which was what President Trump was doing on that call to the newly-elected president of Ukraine. Somehow — and I swear, I can’t fathom it — Democrats have convinced themselves that urging President Zelensky to take a look into Hunter Biden’s Burisma hustle, etc., amounted to “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Because no further psychiatric damage was possible after the Tide lost Saturday, I decided to switch the TV in my bunker office over to CNN. Yes, lets attempt that Gonzo voodoo channeling of the Ghost of Impeachments Past to try to understand exactly how in the Hell they’re rationalizing this delusion.

“McCain’s lost it,” the readers will mutter in the comments. “He finally pushed it too close to The Edge and freaked out.”

No, ma’am. Your concern is appreciated, but despite three-days of binge-watch CNN’s round-the-clock Impeachment Wank-a-Thon, I’m still clinging to reality. Certainly, suspicions of that bipolar hypomanic “high” are justified, but I’m OK. Honest. No need for Thorazine yet.

Students of psychology are aware, of course, that one of the symptoms of a full-blown manic episode is a certain . . . impulsive approach to financial matters. If the tip jar hitters wanted to provide some therapy — rattle, rattle, rattle — I might drive down to D.C. and if my coverage of The Historic Impeachment involved an all-night binge at the $2 poker table, that might be for the best. Much better than watching the CNN personalities express their orgasmic pleasure in The Great Trump-Hunt. If hating Don Lemon is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

As I type this, Wolf Blitzer is anchoring the morning coverage with the sort of urgency and gravitas you’d expect if viewers were watching a live telecast of the first manned mission to Mars. I’ve had too much coffee already today, and might not be able to sleep until Thursday. But did I mention that Christmas shopping season at Amazon means that readers can buy all the decorations and gifts they want and, because we are an Amazon Associates program, I get a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Guess what gift I’ll be giving my kids for Christmas? Ho! Ho! Ho!


 

Category: Congress, Fear. Loathing., Scandal, Ukraine

Rally for the Wombat!

Posted on | November 10, 2019 | 7 Comments

If our regular readers are wondering why there has been no FMJRA or Rule 5 Sunday this week, it’s because our beloved Wombat has been experiencing health problems that have also turned into a housing problem. It’s a situation a lot like what my brother went through, with the bureaucratic hassles creating a very difficult situation.

Kevin has a Go Fund Me account where you can contribute, and you can also contribute to his PayPal:

https://www.paypal.me/ktrainor59

I hit Kevin’s tip jar yesterday, and whatever readers can give him — $5, $10, $20, whatever — will be deeply appreciated.

Having one crisis after another with my family and friends has been emotionally exhausting, not to mention Alabama losing to LSU Saturday. But I won’t speak of that. It’s too traumatic.

 

Category: Blogging

Why Wasn’t Ibraheem Yazeed in Jail?

Posted on | November 9, 2019 | Comments Off on Why Wasn’t Ibraheem Yazeed in Jail?

Aniah Blanchard (front center) with her family.

“The warrant affidavit for [Ibraheem] Yazeed says blood discovered in the passenger’s side of [Aniah Blanchard’s] car was indicative of someone suffering a life threatening injury.”

Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that this beautiful 19-year-old girl will be found alive, and the suspect will likely face murder charges:

The abduction of Alabama college student Aniah Blanchard outside an Auburn convenience store was witnessed, according to new court records made public Friday.
Charging documents against 29-year-old Ibraheem Yazeed said he was witnessed “forcing Blanchard into a vehicle against her will and then leaving with her in the vehicle. Blanchard has not been located at this time.”
Yazeed, formally charged Thursday with first-degree kidnapping, was taken into custody late Thursday night by U.S. Marshals in Pensacola. It was through that arrest that the affidavit in the kidnapping case became available. . . .
According to the affidavit by Auburn police Det. Josh Mixon, Blanchard was last seen by a family member the evening of Oct. 23 at a residence in the 1000 block of Alan Avenue in Auburn. The Southern Union College student from Homewood was officially reported missing Thursday, Oct. 24. She last communicated with a friend late on the night of Oct. 23. Police said her vehicle was seen in the early-morning hours of Oct. 24 along South College Street.
Police recovered the teen’s black 2017 Honda CRV from an apartment complex on the 6100 block of Boardwalk Boulevard in Montgomery around 6:15 p.m. the following evening, which was Friday. A citizen reported the vehicle to police.
Auburn police Capt. Lorenza Dorsey said Blanchard’s vehicle had been damaged sometime between the last time it was seen in Auburn and Friday night. The charging document obtained Friday said that blood evidence was discovered in the passenger’s compartment of the vehicle and was “indicative of someone suffering a life-threatening injury.”
The evidence was submitted to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and confirmed to be that of Blanchard. Video evidence from the convenience store at 1599 South College Street placed both Blanchard and Yazeed at the store during the same time. “This was the last time she was seen,” Mixon wrote. A witness later identified Yazeed as the individual he saw forcing Blanchard into a vehicle against her will. . . .
Yazeed was already awaiting trial in an unrelated kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder in Montgomery that left a 77-year-old man “near death.”
Auburn Police Chief Paul Register said there’s a strong possibility at least one other person was involved in Blanchard’s disappearance and more arrests are expected.

As I mentioned in an update last night (“Police Arrest Ibraheem Yazeed, 29, in Disappearance of Aniah Blanchard, 19”), the suspect has a lengthy criminal record — apparently his entire adult life has been devoted to perpetrating crime — and yet, for some reason, Yazeed managed to get bonded out after being arrested for a savage crime that nearly killed an old man. What is happening in Alabama’s criminal justice system that would result in such a dangerous person being turned loose on the streets? I don’t know, but I suspect it might have something to do with The Bail Project, a Soros-funded operation I wrote about in April: “‘No One Could Have Predicted This Tragedy’ (But It Was Predictable).”

If what I suspect is true, here we have a young woman of color being victimized by a serial offender because turning violent criminals loose is what a bunch of idiot liberals consider “social justice.” People should be angry, and there needs to be some serious reporting on this. More violence against women that feminists won’t notice, for some reason.


 

Category: Alabama, Violence Against Women

flesmiH lliK t’ndiD nietspE

Posted on | November 8, 2019 | Comments Off on flesmiH lliK t’ndiD nietspE

by Smitty

Category: Uncategorized

Police Arrest Ibraheem Yazeed, 29, in Disappearance of Aniah Blanchard, 19

Posted on | November 8, 2019 | Comments Off on Police Arrest Ibraheem Yazeed, 29, in Disappearance of Aniah Blanchard, 19

Probably the suspect was resisting arrest, or something.

Far be it from me to imagine that a fugitive apprehended in the kidnapping of a teenager might have been intentionally injured by the cops who caught him, because accidents happen. (Nudge, nudge.) All things considered, Ibraheem Yazeed should count himself lucky that one of the police officers didn’t accidently fire a pistol into his face five or six times. But let’s go to the unbiased news coverage:

A man wanted in connection with the disappearance of UFC fighter Walt Harris’ 19-year-old stepdaughter was arrested in Florida late Thursday night, just one day after police released video surveillance showing him in the same location where the victim was last seen.
Ibraheem Yazeed, 29, was booked into the Escambia County Jail Friday at around 2:38 a.m. after U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement tracked him down to an area near Highway I-10 and Pine Forest Rd. in Pensacola where he was said to be hiding in a brushy area, dressed all in black, WEAR-tv reported.
Yazeed was arrested on an out-of-state-fugitive charge and is being held without bond, according to inmate records.
It’s likely that he is awaiting extradition to Alabama, where a warrant was issued Thursday for his arrest on the charge of kidnapping in the first degree in the disappearance of Aniah Blanchard.
Auburn Police said in a news release that Blanchard disappeared on Oct. 23 after she was last seen on video surveillance inside a convenience store on South College Street. Her 2017 Honda CR-V was then observed heading southbound on the same street. Investigators say she was last heard from after speaking to a friend just before midnight.
She was reported missing by her family the following day.
On Oct. 25, her vehicle was found significantly damaged and abandoned at an apartment complex in Montgomery. Several days later police announced that the investigation turned criminal after evidence collected from the car signaled that Blanchard “was harmed and is considered to be a victim of foul play.” . . .
Auburn police said that Yazeed was out on bond for kidnapping and attempted murder charges during the time of Blanchard’s disappearance.

Holy freaking crap! This guy had already been charged with two serious felonies in a different case, but somehow got bailed out and then, according to police, he kidnapped this beautiful 19-year-old girl who is probably dead somewhere. My guess is that the injury Yazeed sustained while being apprehended in Florida is nothing compared to the injury that this girl’s father — a professional fighter — would like to inflict.

UPDATE: This guy has an extensive criminal record:

He first appeared to run afoul of the law in April 2011 when he was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery. Yazeed, and three other unnamed co-defendants, robbed two men at gunpoint of about $2,700 in cash, two wallets, a $50 money order and a cellphone at the Good Night Inn on West South Boulevard, according to court records.
Those cases were ultimately dismissed by a grand jury.
In January 2012, Yazeed allegedly rammed a vehicle into a Montgomery police officer’s patrol car in an attempt to kill two officers as they exited the vehicle at a Chevron gas station on East South Boulevard.
Those cases were also dismissed by a grand jury, according to court records.
In September 2013, Yazeed was charged with possession of a pistol without a permit and first-degree possession of marijuana. According to the arrest affidavits, Yazeed was found “hanging over the entrance gate” to the Blount Mansion on Taylor Road. The officer then conducted a search of his vehicle after smelling marijuana and discovered a bag of the substance under the driver’s seat along with a pistol.
About two weeks after that interaction with law enforcement, an officer attempted a traffic stop on a vehicle Yazeed was driving, according to court records. He failed to stop, hopping a grassy median to get to another parking lot before jumping out of the still moving vehicle and fleeing to a wooded area. The officer caught him a short time later.
Police found about 3 grams of crack cocaine in the area Yazeed was apprehended. A search of the vehicle revealed 16 grams of marijuana and rolling papers. He was subsequently charged with attempting to elude, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of crack cocaine and second-degree possession of marijuana.
Yazeed was indicted on all the September 2013 charges, and he pleaded guilty to them in 2015.
In January 2016, former Circuit Judge William Shashy sentenced Yazeed to serve 30 days in the county jail on the misdemeanor pistol permit charge, and 13 months on the felony drug charge. The sentence for the drug charge, however, was suspended and he was ordered to 6 months probation, according to court records.
Months later, Yazeed was sentenced on the remaining charges. A judge ruled he’d serve 13 months, though that too was suspended.
Three days after his sentencing, Yazeed was charged with trafficking spice, but the case was ultimately dismissed by a grand jury.
Yazeed then left the city and was arrested by Cass County sheriff’s deputies in Missouri on a warrant from Johnson County, Kansas, in July 2017. He was charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement official, aggravated assault, fleeing a law enforcement official and first-degree possession of marijuana. Online court records do not detail the events that led to those charges.
Yazeed remained in the Johnson County Jail until his trial in February 2018. He was found guilty of fleeing a law enforcement official and possession of marijuana but found not guilty of the aggravated assault and battery charges.
A judge in March 2018 sentenced Yazeed to serve 16 months in jail. He was released from the Johnson County Jail six days later, earning credit for the approximately eight months he waited in jail for a resolution to the cases.
Less than a year later, Yazeed was back in the Montgomery County Jail accused of entering a SureStay Hotel on Eastern Boulevard armed with a handgun in January and holding two men against their will with Nicky Terrell Gains and Jessie Dale Ford.
According to court records, the trio beat one victim “until he was unconscious, unresponsive, severely injured and near death.” The other victim was also beaten and injured, according to records.
Before fleeing the scene, the three took a Rolex watch, rifle, handguns, wallets, credit and debit cards, clothing and cash from both the victims.
Yazeed and Ford were captured when Macon County deputies made contact with a vehicle driving erratically down the interstate. Inside the vehicle was a severely beaten 77-year-old man who has been assaulted, robbed and abducted from his vehicle in Montgomery, investigators with the State Bureau of Investigations.
Yazeed was ultimately charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree robbery, attempted murder and first-degree possession of marijuana. He was freed on a combined $295,000 bond, set by a magistrate when the warrants were initially signed, the day after his arrest in February.

Can someone explain to me how this one-man crime wave — the perpetual perpetrator, the eternal offender — was able to raise bail money? I mean, if one of my children had spent the past decade engaged in violent felonies and sundry lesser offenses, I’d be like, “F–k no, I ain’t bailing you out again.” And yet Yazeed gets sprung on a $250,000 bond?

My brother has suggested Yazeed’s bond must have been posted by some kind of 501(c)3 tax-exempt group. Apparently, it’s now “charity” to spring career felons from jail, so as not to infringe their right to terrorize the law-abiding citizenry. If there is such a 501(c)3 doing this, I’d be willing to bet that it’s funded by George Soros.


 

Category: Alabama, Violence Against Women
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