The Other McCain

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

Dow Jones Gains Nearly 3,000 Points After Trump Deports Gay Makeup Artist

Posted on | April 9, 2025 | Comments Off on Dow Jones Gains Nearly 3,000 Points After Trump Deports Gay Makeup Artist

Look, I’m not one of these All-Purpose Expert types who hangs around on social media all day pretending to know everything about whatever’s the big Democratic Party talking point at the current moment. Today’s economic “expert” was, just a few weeks ago, an “expert” on national security, and last October was an “expert” on election polling. Go back to 2014, and their area of expertise was the “campus rape epidemic,” but then in 2016, they suddenly acquired authoritative knowledge of Russian “election interference.” In 2020, they became experts on viral epidemiology before turning their attention to “systemic racism.”

So I don’t claim to know why the stock market suddenly boomed upward this afternoon, and I’m not sure the media does, either:

The stock market mounted one of its biggest rallies in history after President Donald Trump announced a pause in some of his “reciprocal” tariffs on the globe, causing a market that has been under extreme pressure for the past week to explode higher.
The S&P 500 skyrocketed 9.52% to settle at 5,456.90 for its biggest one-day gain since 2008. For the broad market index, it was the third-biggest gain in post-WWII history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2,962.86 points, or 7.87%, to close at 40,608.45 for its biggest percentage advance since March 2020. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 12.16% to end at 17,124.97, notching its largest one-day jump since January 2001 and second-best day ever.
About 30 billion shares traded hands, making it the heaviest volume day on Wall Street in history, according to records that go back 18 years.
“I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately,” Trump posted on his Truth Social. Trump, in the same post, said he was raising the tariff on China higher again to 125%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later clarified that all countries except China would return to the 10% baseline tariff rate, down from the higher rates that previously shocked the markets, as negotiations take place.

OK, so the “experts” are telling us that this has something to do with tariff policy, and maybe they’re right. On the other hand . . .

A gay makeup artist who arrived in the US last year in search of asylum has been flown to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Andry José Hernández Romero was one of 238 Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration on 15 March, reports CBS News.
The news follows a deal brokered between President Trump and El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele allowing the US to send deportees to the central American’s country maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT, located in Tecoluca.
“Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared. One day he was there, and the next day we’re supposed to have court, and he wasn’t brought to court,” Lindsay Toczylowski, Hernandez Romero’s lawyer, told CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“It’s horrifying to see someone who we’ve met and know as a sweet, funny artist, in the most horrible conditions I could imagine.”
Lawyers and family members for the deportees say they have had no contact with the prisoners since they were deported. However, TIME photojournalist Philip Holsinger, who has been reporting from the ground at CECOT, has reportedly described hearing one young man say, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist,” as he cried out for his mother, was slapped and had his head shaved.
Hernandez Romero’s crown tattoos are the only evidence US immigration officials have given in court to accuse him of being part of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang Trump is campaigning to eradicate. . . .
Meanwhile Hernández’s mother, Alexis Dolores Romero de Hernández, has been quoted by The Guardian as saying: “Everyone has these crowns, many people. But that doesn’t mean they’re involved in the Tren de Aragua … He’s never had problems with the law.”
She furthermore added: “Let my son go. Review his case file. He is not a gang member.”

Oh, don’t worry, the “sweet, funny artist” should be very popular among his fellow inmates in the Salvadoran maximum-security prison.

Every Democrat in Congress will run for reelection next year promising to protect the rights of gay Venezuelan makeup artists. Why, I can hear Jasmine Crockett now, saying she’s “done picking cotton” — and done doing her own makeup, too! But what about the rights of gay American makeup artists, huh? When you start importing gay makeup artists from Third World countries, it drives down the wages of native-born gay makeup artists. Or at least, that’s what some “experts” tell me.

Correlation is not causation, except when it is, but I’m not claiming to be an expert on cosmetic artistry or economics, either. All I know is that (a) Andry José Hernández Romero is now in a Salvadoran maximum security prison and (b) things look a lot better for the 401(k) balance.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc, as experts in Latin would say.

In completely unrelated news, Britney Spears is still crazy.



 

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Category: Donald Trump, Economics, Immigration

In The Mailbox: 04.09.25 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | April 9, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 04.09.25 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: What Happens After You Defund the Police?
EBL: Lawrence…Lawrence of Arabia, also, How are the markets today?
Twitchy: Navy Admiral Refuses To Hang Trump & Hegseth Portraits, Gets Fired, She Must Have A Colt Following, and Straight Fire Thread Shows How Trump Exposed Politicians & Pundits
Louder With Crowder: CNN forced to admit Donald Trump is a “soaring eagle” delivering on his promises to Americans in “historic fashion”, Democrat leader Jasmine Crockett DEMANDS more illegal immigration because, quote, “we done picking cotton”, Teen athlete gives emotional testimony over trans student replacing her, being told her protest was like wearing a swastika, Scott Jennings calls out CNN’s hypocrisy on the economy, reminds them of Biden’s recession, and Meta engineer ADMITS company abuses H-1B Visa to favor foreign applicants over Americans
Vox Popoli: Recognizing Churchianity, Disinformation on US Tariffs, The Last Librarian, The Ultra-Rich Condemn Robin Hood, and 104 and Counting
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Speed Warping
Jim McCoy: Toil & Trouble
Gab: The Case For Bringing Back American Grit

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: G7’s Looks To Sea
Dana Loesch: RUMOR MILL – Is A Hot-Tempered Florida RINO Targeting A Charitable Organization?
Don Surber: Media uses an Army bash to bash Trump
Matt Taibbi: Timeline – A Recent History of Tariffs, also, Take The NPR “That’s Not Funny!” Challenge
STUMP: RIP Val Kilmer – Revisiting “How Young Is So Young To Die?”

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In The Mailbox: 04.07.25

Posted on | April 8, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 04.07.25

— compiled by Wombat-socho

mood
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

“Truth is, kid…the game was rigged from the start.” – Benny, Fallout: New Vegas

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Stand and Deliver – A Movie You Probably Haven’t Seen, also Another Wrong-House SWAT Raid
Director Blue: When Lisa Met Pete
EBL: MAGA : Markets Continue To React To Trump Tariffs, Winsome Sears for Governor of Virginia, Bohemian Roberts with Norm Eisen, Interesting things you might not have known about Olivia Newton John, and The First Dire Wolf Howl in Over 10,000 Years?
Twitchy: An Assassination Culture Is Developing On The Far Left, Dollar Store Obama Claims MAGA Extremists Are Starving Tots For Tax Cuts , and Bill Maher & Andrew Cuomo Say The Quiet Part Out Loud About Jasmine Crockett – Cue The Screeching
Louder With Crowder: Two men shatter glass ceiling, make it to finals of WOMEN’S billiards tournament, Lunatics protested in American cities against Donald Trump and Elon Musk and here’s who funded them, JD Vance goes beast mode on Democrats who care more about illegal aliens than they do their American victims, California legislature axes two bills aimed at protecting women’s sports in spite of Trump’s executive order, and Pro-life journalists gets viciously assaulted by pro-abortion activist enraged over a basic question
Vox Popoli: Globalization is Over, Unthinkable Evacuations, It Was Roger All Along, I Did Warn Them, and The Seventh Librarian
L’Ombre de L’Olivier: Ackshualllly Tariffs May Work
Upstream Reviews: The Big Sheep, 
Draw & Talk Comics: Something I Need To Open Up About
Defending The Wood Perilous: Part One – We Live In a Fairytale
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Ugh. Monday. 

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Ukraine and Gaza Bring Shame to America
American Greatness: The Poverty of the Criticism of Trump’s Agenda, Supreme Court Rules Trump May Use 1798 Law to Deport Illegal Alien Gang Members, DOGE Reports 2.1 Million Social Security Numbers Were Issued to Illegals in 2024–and Many of Those People Voted, Actions v. Words, and Trump Trolls California’s Democrat Senators During Dodgers White House Visit
American Thinker: We Didn’t Start the Trade War—We’ve Just Finally Joined It, The Fruits of Trump’s Audacious Policies, Trump’s Tariff Play – The Art of the Economic Reset, The Least Dangerous Branch No More, and The Hill of Lies
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
BattleSwarm: Tank Cannon Vs. Head, Two Big Booms, and Are Trump’s Tariffs Working?
Behind The Black: Space Force awards SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin $13.7 billion in launch contracts, SpaceX launches another 28 Starlink satellites, Soil bacterium from Earth can both make and repair bricks made from Moon-materials, The mighty scale of Mars’ geology, and British MP proposes his government’s vast bureaucratic skills be given the power to regulate all space
Cafe Hayek: Freer Trade Would Satisfy Neither Trump Nor the NatCons, also, And Yet Another Open Letter to Oren Cass
Chicago Boyz: Tariffs and the Industrial Distribution World, also, James “20%” Carville
Da Tech Guy: Fan AI Fiction: Hogan’s Heroes in “The Desert Rats Great Escape” , also, It’s Amazing What You Can do if You Don’t Give a Damn What Your Enemies Think
Don Surber: Stay the course on tariffs
First Street Journal: The death of the Lexington Herald-Leader, also, That thing that never happens has happened again
Gates Of Vienna: Everybody Must Get Stoned, Welcome to Sharia City, Texas, Appomattox: Lest We Forget, Overthrowing Ludwig the Last, and The Wonderful Smell of a Burning Koran
The Geller Report: Introducing Hamid Patel, Britain’s New Education Boss, Enemy Within: Bombshell Study Reveals ‘Assassination Culture’, China’s Stock Market Sees Worst Crash, Largest One-Day Decline Since 1997, Massive Ramadan Terror Attack in Jerusalem Foiled, and CNBC FAKE NEWS HEADLINE Sends Markets Soaring Then Spiraling 1000s In Just Minutes
Hollywood In Toto: SNL Mocks Elon Musk But Not Democrats Torching Teslas, Neil Young – Poster Child for Free Speech Hypocrisy, Pro-Jewish Documentaries Wake Sleeping Culture, The Spirituality of White Lotus, or Why [Censored] Had to Die, and Indie in Name Only?
The Lid: Despite Media’s Attack on Tariffs Trump’s Approval Rating Rises, also, The Meaning of Aliyah: A Journey Toward Freedom and Responsibility
Legal Insurrection: U.S. Military Opposition to the Trump Administration A Matter of Concern, Missouri AG Threatens to Seize China-Owned Assets to Enforce $24B Judgment for Covid Pandemic, Five International Students at UMass Have Their Visas Revoked, SCOTUS Vacates Judge Boasberg’s TROs As To Tren de Aragua Under Alien Enemies Act, and D.C. Appeals Court Blocks Trump From Firing NLRB, MSPB Employees
Nebraska Energy Observer: Did you know about this?
Outkick: Caitlin Clark Effect Still Being Felt, As UConn’s Final Four Title Game Ratings Show, Florida Gators Overcome More Than Just Expectations To Win National Championship, Stephen A. Smith Running For President Is More Real Than It Sounds , HS Girl Gives Powerful Testimony About Being Replaced By Transgender Athlete, and Paige Spiranac Dusts Off Her Tiny Green Jacket, Nancy Mace Debuts A Crop Top & Tiffani Amber Has A Stalker
Power Line: Margin Call, Goodbye to Venezuelan Gang Members For Now, and Hands Off What?
Shark Tank: DeSantis Labels FL House “Obstructionists” In Latest Infighting
Shot In The Dark: Outbreak of Reason, also, Missing The Forest For The Dust
The Political Hat: Blog Downtime
This Ain’t Hell: Congressional Democrats demand answers regarding book bans at service academies, Spirits on the Footprint of Freedom, Navy vet passes on, Bloated University staff contributed to tuition changing to $93,064, and Don’t want Chinese on US Posts?
Transterrestrial Musings: Jurassic Park, Here We Come, Thoughts On The Current Market Chaos, and Britain Is Lurching Toward A Civil War
Victory Girls: Savannah Craven Assaulted—Because Facts Hurt Feelings, also, The Left Is Finally Telling the Truth: They Justify Violence
Watts Up With That: Court Delivers Massive Blow to Famed Climate Scientist Who Sued Critics, Climate Change Driving California’s Golden Road to Decline, The Hill Misleads – Trump’s Energy Policy Won’t Damage the Climate and Will Advance American Interests, Ecologists Question Renewable Energy Sprawl, and Fresh Evidence Emerges That Global Vegetation Growth Reaches New Highs Due to Increased CO2 Fertilisation
The Federalist: SURVEY: 55% Of Self-Identified Leftists Say Killing Trump Is Justifiable , 5 Dems Who Voted For Election Security Reform Won’t Say If They’ll Support The SAVE Act Again, 3 Pennsylvania Officials Plead Guilty To Election Fraud – And 2 Are Still In Office, Why Transhumanists Like Elon Musk Can Never Be Conservative, and If Congress Doesn’t Step In, Rogue Judges Will Trans The Military
Mark Steyn: April in Paris (Naked), also, Mack the Knife

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Hitler, the Nobel Prize and ‘Grease’

Posted on | April 7, 2025 | Comments Off on Hitler, the Nobel Prize and ‘Grease’

Truth is stranger than fiction, it is proverbially said, and such is the course of history that events and people can be connected in ways that you never imagined. Certainly I never dreamed that the hit musical Grease could be connected to a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and a World War II military intelligence officer, until yesterday I fell down one of those research rabbit-holes into which I’m so prone to stumble.

In 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany, and Jews were purged from German universities. Among the victims of this purge was a physics professor at the University of Göttingen whose students had included a young fellow named Robert Oppenheimer — maybe you’ve heard of him. Among the professor’s assistants at Göttingen were such important physicists as Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller. The professor had been recommended for the 1928 Nobel Prize by Albert Einstein, but instead the honor went to one of his colleagues. When Hitler came to power and the professor was purged from the university, he emigrated to England, teaching first at Cambridge University before eventually taking a faculty position at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Max Born

After relocating to the United Kingdom, Professor Max Born published Atomic Physics, which quickly became the standard textbook in the field. He retired at age 70 in 1952, and two years later — through the efforts of his peers and former students including Fermi — Max Born was finally awarded the Nobel Prize for his “fundamental research in Quantum Mechanics.” In retirement, he returned to his native Germany, where he died at age 87 in 1970. But that’s just half the story . . .

In 1935, the son of a school teacher from Cardiff, Wales, got his bachelor’s degree from Cambridge University, with honors in German and French. The young scholar’s name was Brinley, and his fluency in German soon made him very valuable to his country. When World War II broke out in 1939, Brinley joined the Royal Air Force, and was assigned to military intelligence (MI5). Among his duties was gathering information from captured German prisoners. He reportedly worked on the top-secret “Enigma” decryption project and was the officer who took Nazi henchman Rudolf Hess into custody. After the war, Brinley taught high school in Cambridge until 1954, when he moved to Australia, becoming a university dean and later a host of radio and TV programs.

Brinley Newton-John

Well, I said his name was Brinley, but I didn’t tell you that his surname was Newton-John, because that would have spoiled the surprise. You see, in 1937, Brinley “Brin” Newton-John married a girl named Irene Born, whom he had met when her father Max Born was teaching at Cambridge. In 1948, Brinley and Irene’s youngest daughter Olivia was born.

Irene Born and Brinley Newton-John, circa 1935

In her autobiography, Olivia Newton-John wrote:

“My parents might have never met at Cambridge University if my mum didn’t have such a keen ear for beautiful music. . . . One day, she heard a man singing in a deep baritone voice and she couldn’t take another step. She actually followed the voice. Mum always said she fell in love with the voice before she ever saw him. . . . Mum was brunette, classically beautiful , and carried herself in a most elegant way. Dad was six-foot-three, fair-haired, with movie-star good looks and that beautiful aristocratic voice. Need I say more? What a beautiful couple.”

Until I stumbled down this rabbit hole, I never would have guessed that Olivia Newton-John was half-Jewish, much less that her maternal grandfather was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. That her father was MI5 during World War II and played a role in capturing Rudolf Hess — well, this is the whipped cream and cherry on the top.

Olivia Newton-John as Sandy in ‘Grease.’

So how did I end up down this rabbit hole? Blame the dadgum YouTube algorithm. Lying down for a Sunday afternoon nap, I was watching police videos — my usual bedtime habit — and was scrolling through when I saw a short video about Olivia Newton-John and clicked on it. The soundtrack of the clip was “Let Me Be There,” her 1973 top 10 hit that earned her a country music Grammy award. What I loved most about that song was the bass vocal harmony, and after watching that short video, I wanted to find out who had sang that part, so I did a Google search for the answer (Mike Sammes), but in checking Olivia Newton-John’s Wikipedia biography, I was startled to learn about her grandfather.

Wait, did I say “startled”? What I meant to say was, I got chills, they’re multiplying, and I’m losing control . . .

 



 

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Category: History, Movies, Music

Rule 5 Sunday: Eva Sinclair

Posted on | April 7, 2025 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Eva Sinclair

— compiled by Wombat-socho

I do believe we have @kbdabear on X to thank for this luscious latex-clad babe.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Queen of Word Salads Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Top Secret!, “Tutti Frutti”, How Silly Can You Get, The Saint, Planet of the Apes, MAGA – Liberation Day, Val Kilmer RIP, Rossa Matilda Richter, Plane, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Mobland, and Captain Horatio Hornblower

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Ka Ty, Maryland, My Maryland, Fish Pic Friday – Stephanie Hutcheson, Tattoo Thursday, Crab Season Open, The Wednesday Wetness, Southern Maryland Mammoth Found, Tuesday Tanlines, Chicks at the Wheel, So Looking Forward to Trump’s Third Term, The Monday Morning Stimulus, The Woman Behind Trump Steps Forward and Palm Sunday

BACON TIME: Rule Five – A Trip To Hooterville

 

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Category: Rule 5

In The Mailbox: 04.06.25

Posted on | April 6, 2025 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 04.06.25

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Going to try and get a jump on things to avoid the Monday pileup.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Stock Markets React To Trump Tariffs, The Doors, Judge Paula Xinis Finds Out She Has No Authority, and A Complete Unknown
Twitchy: J.K. Rowling Roasts International Asexual Awareness Day, We Aren’t Doing This Again, and Oklahoma Softball Coach Scoffs At Reporter’s Question About Riley Gaines
Louder With Crowder: Police catch liberal woman vandalizing a Tesla, and the Police Chief claims SHE’S the real victim in all this, Kamala Harris tosses the word salad about “FEAR,” but she’s no FDR, and 2028 Dem frontrunner AOC lacks courage to answer reporter when asked if her rhetoric is to blame for anti-Elon violence
Vox Popoli: The Problem of Popularity, It’s Not a Theory, Saving Democracy, The Zelaznyan Ceiling, and The NFL Attacks Divisions
Cedar Sanderson: The Five Finger Rule
Upstream Reviews: Crossing Over, April New Releases, 
The Bugscuffle Gazette: The Rules of Stupid, In Defense Of Free-Range Childhoods
Stoic Observations: The Curzon Problem
Bacon Time: Winter Is Over
Postcards From Barsoom: Your Questions Answered

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
STUMP: The Week In Meep
This Ain’t Hell: WWII Bletchley vet dies, also, Air Force bucks Trump admin order regarding preferred pronouns in email signatures
Watts Up With That: Oil & Gas Turning Poor Countries Into Economic Miracles, Wake up call for UK energy planners, and The Left’s Localvore Betrayal: Tariffs Expose Climate Hypocrisy
Mark Steyn: Requiem for a Louse: Tony Curtis in Sweet Smell of Success

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Category: Linkagery

FMJRA 2.0: The Royals, With Cheese

Posted on | April 6, 2025 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: The Royals, With Cheese

— compiled by Wombat-socho

The Epic Indie Sale is on!
We took two out of three from the Pirates on Monday (our only loss was to Gaylord Perry, who served up greaseballs to everybody), and got home from Las Vegas Friday just in time to get wiped out in a two-game set by Kansas City, which meant we were 2-3 for the week. I guess it could have been worse; we could have played three games against the Royals and gotten swept. Next up are Pete’s Brewers on Tuesday.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.
baseball

FMJRA 2.0: A Short Week
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Sunday Night Loungewear
Daybreak Bulletin
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 04.01.25 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

UPDATE: Liberal Wins in Wisconsin After GOP Wins Two Florida Special Elections
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 04.02.25
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

‘A Dumpster Fire of Lies’: Netflix Series Race-Swaps British Crime Trend, Journalists Treat It Like a Documentary
Instapundit
The Daley Gator
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 04.03.25 (Morning Edition)
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 04.04.25
357 Magnum
EBL
A View From The Beach

Thanks to everyone for all the links. 

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Texas Murder: An Exclamation Point on My Argument About ‘Adolescence’

Posted on | April 5, 2025 | Comments Off on Texas Murder: An Exclamation Point on My Argument About ‘Adolescence’

Matt Walsh’s Daily Wire article is “members only,” so in case you’ve been hiding under a rock — or getting your news from the mainstream media — I’ll summarize what happened in Frisco, Texas, this week: A high school junior, Austin Metcalf, was stabbed to death Wednesday morning at a track meet by a senior from another high school, Karmelo Anthony. It was raining Wednesday morning. The various teams at the track meet each had set up awnings in the bleacher area around the stadium so that their athletes could get out of the rain (or, had the weather changed, to be sheltered from the sun). For reasons that have yet to be explained, Anthony, who attended Centennial High School, decided to get under the awning of the team from Memorial High School, which Metcalf attended. Members of the Memorial team objected to Anthony’s uninvited presence in their area, and Metcalf was trying to enforce the eviction:

One witness told an officer that they were sitting with Metcalf under their school’s tent during a track meet at the stadium when someone they didn’t know, identified as Anthony, came over to them.
The witness said Metcalf told Anthony to leave the tent when Anthony grabbed his bag, opened it, reached inside and said, “touch me and see what happens.” The police document said no one thought Anthony had a weapon.
One witness said Metcalf touched Anthony, and another said Metcalf grabbed Anthony.
Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest before running away, according to police.

“Touch me and see what happens.”

That’s probably evidence of what a lawyer would call premeditation.

Austin Metcalf was stabbed right in the heart. He was white, his killer was black. We can easily imagine what the media coverage would be like if the races of killer and victim were reversed. Immediately, it would be assumed that racism — “RAAAAACISM!” — was the motive, and there would be a thousand op-ed commentaries about the lessons to be learned from this shocking hate crime. As it is, however, the possibility of this being a crime inspired by racial hatred isn’t getting any media attention.

Now consider this in light of the recent media buzz around the Netflix series Adolescence. My Thursday post (“‘A Dumpster Fire of Lies’: Netflix Series Race-Swaps British Crime Trend, Journalists Treat It Like a Documentary”) got a lot of interesting comments, so let me add a coda.

As a conservative journalist, one point I try to keep in mind is that, if it weren’t for liberal bias in the media, there would be no need for conservative journalism. If the media — including both news and entertainment media — were providing a balanced and objective view of reality, then my work of pointing out the media’s lies, distortions and omissions would be unnecessary. This point is often missed when people get angry over media coverage of sensitive issues like race, sexuality, crime, immigration, etc. Unless we are mindful of what we’re doing, conservative journalists are at risk of being mistaken for ax-grinders.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying, I plead not guilty.

Whatever liberals want to accuse me of, whatever labels they want to slap on me — “far-right extremist” or whatever — they are missing the point. It does not matter what my opinions may be on any particular policy issue, or how my opinions might be categorized, what actually matters are the failures of media institutions. In the particular example of Adolescence, we can say that Netflix has failed by producing a misleading depiction of youth violence and that the news media have failed in their coverage and commentary about this phenomenally popular series.

We may predict with absolute certainty, based on prior history, the next phase of the media campaign around Adolescence. Critics of the series will be labeled “far-right,” etc., for pointing out the vast gulf separating (a) the reality of youth violence in England and (b) the way youth violence is depicted in the Netflix series. The media are treating Adolescence as if it were documentary, and thereby encouraging officials to base public policy on the screenwriter’s imagination, rather than on the reality of juvenile crime. Do I have opinions about effective crime prevention policy? Yes, and I suppose some of those opinions might be considered controversial, but that’s irrelevant to the controversy around Adolescence. The point is, this dramatization should not be made the basis of public policy, which is what the media are trying to do.

What I did in my 3,000-word post Thursday was to point out that the writers of Adolescence had cited three specific incidents in England where teenagers had committed fatal stabbings as the inspiration for their project. Upon investigation, none of these crimes remotely resembles the plot of Adolescence, which is about a young boy who “has been deeply disturbed by school bullying via social media centred on incel subculture.” The creators of Adolescence have talked extensively about their desire to provoke a discussion of “young male violence,” but “didn’t want to blame the parents,” and thus settled on “the attraction of the so-called ‘manosphere'” as the teen killer’s motive.

It is therefore highly relevant that (a) no fatal stabbing by a minor in England has ever been attributed to such a motive, and (b) the alarming rise of knife attacks in England has mainly involved minorities from immigrant communities, rather than white boys like “Jamie Miller,” the protagonist of Adolescence. Despite this, the media commentary — e.g., MSNBC calling the Netflix series “a necessary lesson in modern day masculinity” — treats the dramatic fiction as if it were a documentary.

Now, from Texas, we get the unexpected exclamation point. Media accounts of the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf are woefully lacking in background information about the killer, Karmelo Anthony, and this dearth of information is . . . Well, mystifying might be the proper adjective. A heinous murder happens, and we expect reporters to dig up facts about the suspect that might give us clues to the motive. Was the accused teenager under some kind of stress? Did he have mental health problems? Were there “warning signs” that got overlooked?

Six weeks ago, Karmelo Anthony was brandishing an AK-47 and flashing gang signs, then the night before committing an atrocious murder, he posted a defiant photo to his Instagram account — so indeed, there were “warning signs” that got overlooked. But why do we have to rely on random X accounts to tell us these things? Why are the media so derelict in their journalistic duty? This is the real point, you see.

MSNBC isn’t calling this crime “a necessary lesson.” The media are not inviting us to engage in a discussion examining the social significance of this shocking murder. In case you were wondering — again, I must do the work the mainstream media won’t do — Frisco is about 30 miles north of Dallas. The town has boomed in the past 25 years, growing from a population of just 33,714 in 2000 to more than 225,000 now. The 2020 census found that the population of Frisco is 48% white, 26% Asian, 12% Hispanic and 9% black. It is a very prosperous community with excellent public schools, and therefore we must ask, why was Karmelo Anthony posing with an AK-47 on Instagram and flashing gang signs like he was some kind of ghetto hoodlum? Also, since we’re asking questions, this seems rather obvious: Why bring a knife to a track meet?

Good luck finding the answers to those questions in media coverage of this horrifying murder in Texas. Just try to keep in mind it is the gap between reality and media coverage that’s the real story. We wouldn’t be here if the media told the truth. What would Scott Adams say?

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)



 

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Category: Crime, Media Bias, Texas
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