The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 05.16.18

Posted on | May 17, 2018 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.16.18

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #257
EBL: Remember The Lessons Of The Chinese Cultural Revolution
Twitchy: Round Two! Dana Loesch Knocks  Out Rep. Ted Lieu For Trying To Link NRA To Russia, also, Rob Schneider Takes Dramatic Step To Close Hollywood Pay Gap!
Louder With Crowder: Kyle Kashuv Wrecks Twitter Troll – “I Was Seven When It Was Published”
Mad Genius Club: It Is Time To Fight Back

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Greasy Pole Podcast #4 – The Blue Lobsters Episode
American Power: Resistance Candidates Win Tuesday Primaries, also, Why Trump Is A President Like No Other
American Thinker: Let’s Stop Calling It Liberalism
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
BattleSwarm: Blue Wave? Not So Much, also, In A Surprise Development, Germany Now Sucks At War
CDR Salamander: Are We Watching The Free Previews In Ukraine?
Da Tech Guy: Israel Exists Because The Palestinians Can’t Slaughter Them; Palestinians Exist Because Israel Won’t Slaughter Them, also, The Government Solution Is Always Worse Than The Problem
Don Surber: “Just Quit Talking Down To Me”
Dustbury: Adolescent, After All
The Geller Report: Honor Barbarism – Pakistan Muslim, 22, Has Eyes Gouged Out By Father & Brothers Because He Wanted To Marry A Girl Of His Choosing, also, “Palestinians” Thank Canada For Not Attending Opening Of U.S. Embassy In Jerusalem
Hogewash: Gilmore v Jones et al LOLsuit News, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
Joe For America: Beaver County PA Teacher Having Affair With Student Murdered On Mother’s Day
Legal Insurrection: NYT Report Confirms Obama’s FBI Spied On Trump Campaign, also, Chicago Advocacy Group Files Federal Lawsuit To Block Obama Presidential Center
Michelle Malkin: Marginalizing Melania
Power Line: Tom Steyer – Trump Isn’t As Bad As Hitler…Yet, also, Don’t Blame Trump For The Violence In Gaza
Shark Tank: Rubio Calls Venezuelan Dictator “Direct Threat” To U.S. National Security
Shot In The Dark: Into The Provinces
STUMP: Happy Pension News – Wisconsin State Pensions
The Political Hat: British Doctor Accidentally Decapitates Baby
This Ain’t Hell: Kaitlin Marie & The Gun Control Advocates, also, Tchaasu Taylor Killed Two Days After Being Released On Bail
Victory Girls: Chelsea Clinton, Meet The Facts
Weasel Zippers: Hamas Admits 50 Of 62 Killed In Gaza Border Incident Were Terrorists, also, Fauxcahontas Whines That Democracy “Crumbling Around Us” Since Trump Won
Mark Steyn: It Was A Very Good Year, also, Franchise Man v. Burka Girl


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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 05.15.18

Posted on | May 15, 2018 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.15.18

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
First Street Journal: The Euros Are Just So Upset Over Trump Moving Our Embassy To Jerusalem
EBL: Tom Wolfe, RIP
Twitchy: Blue-Check Journo Dragged For This Horrendous Take On Gaza Riots
Louder With Crowder: FOX Releases Trailer For Last Man Standing Reboot
Kyle Smith: The Great One
Michael Lewis: How Tom Wolfe Became…Tom Wolfe

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Jordan Peterson, Globalist Shill
American Thinker: Democrats Disgrace Themselves Interrogating Trump’s CIA Nominee
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Jerusalem Embassy News
BattleSwarm: SDF Finally Clearing Euphrates Pocket, also, Texas Primary Runoff Voting Starts Today
CDR Salamander: Prepper Math
Da Tech Guy: When Your Enemy Tells You What He Will Do, Believe Him, also, I Can’t Wait For Election Day NYT Comments – Iowahawk Edition
Don Surber: Trump Is The Dove With The Olive Branch
Dustbury: Netflix And Jail
The Geller Report: Refugee Timeout Policy – Massive Daycare Fraud In MN Somali Community, also, Facebook Posts Instruct Gaza Muslims To Arm Themselves, Invade Israel
Hogewash: Tom Wolfe, RIP, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
Joe For America: Iran Threatens To Release Names Of Officials Who Took Bribes To Pass Obama’s Nuke Deal
Legal Insurrection: Students At Germany’s Heidelberg University Reject Antisemitic BDS Movement, also, Court Says Expelled Student Can Proceed On Key Claims Against Johnson & Wales U
Power Line: John Brennan, Lying Nutter, also, Behind The Smoke Screen
Shark Tank: Florida’s Most Popular Republican Politician Is…
Shot In The Dark: The Delicious Irony…
STUMP: Mornings With Meep, also, Taxing Tuesday
The Jawa Report: Attention Twitter Luser @hamzahf17
The Political Hat: Amazon Rights
This Ain’t Hell: Ron Worthey Gets His Time In The Spotlight, also, U.S. Milsurp M1911s Available – Almost
Victory Girls: Origins Game Fair Caves to SJZ Brownshirts, also, The Lies Of John Ward (Origins Post Update)
Weasel Zippers: Judge Rules Broward Co. Elections Supervisor Illegally Destroyed Ballots, also, Black California Voters Blast Sanctuary City Policies
Mark Steyn: Heel, Hipster, Loner, Loser, also, Russian To Judgement


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Category: Linkagery

The Terrorist Riot in Gaza

Posted on | May 15, 2018 | 2 Comments

 

The shock of events Monday — when a rioting mob attacked the Israeli border and 55 people were killed — is being twisted by the liberal media which misleadingly call this attack a “protest.” The truth is that the people of Gaza are governed by a terrorist organization, Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel:

An IAF fighter jet struck five terrorist targets in the northern Gaza Strip in response to violent acts by Hamas along the security fence on Monday, according to IDF reports. The targets included military training facilities belonging to Hamas.
Earlier [Monday], two additional Hamas military positions were hit by tank- and aircraft fire, after IDF forces were shot at by Hamas from the northern part of the coastal enclave.
“The IDF is determined to prevent massive terror activities constantly being led by the Hamas terror organization,” an IDF statement emphasized, adding that “Each act of terror will be met with a harsh response.”
40,000 Palestinians took part in Monday’s violent riots in 13 locations along the Gaza Strip security fence, marking Nakba Day and protesting the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem.
“Nakba Day,” or “Day of Catastrophe,” is observed annually by Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs to commemorate the events following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
Gazans have been protesting along the border with Israel for the past six weeks as part of what organizers have called the ‘Great March of Return’, with demonstrators throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and rocks, as well as launching incendiary kites toward Israeli troops.

Most Americans do not know the history of this conflict well enough to understand the reality of what happened Monday, even if the liberal media were willing to report it accurately (which they are not). Many people talk of “peace” in the Middle East as if there were something that Israel could do to placate the demands of its enemies, but this is an error akin to blaming Czechoslovakia for the 1938 Sudetenland crisis.

The reason there is no peace in the Middle East is because Israel’s enemies don’t want peace. What they want is dead Jews.

Do not let yourself be deceived about this fact. Israel is surrounded by Arab countries, and the so-called “Palestinians” are just Arabs who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Israel’s national existence. Seventy years after Israel won its independence from British colonial rule, there has grown up an anti-Israel mythology — a false history, created by Jew-hating propagandists — to justify terrorist warfare. The Arabs in Gaza can have peace simply by stopping their attacks on Israel.

Many of my paleoconservative friends dislike the U.S.-Israel alliance, which they perceive as unnecessarily involving us in what George Washington called “foreign entanglements.” Granting the legitimacy of these concerns, it is my belief that the real problem in the Middle East is that the United States erred in the 1990s by attempting to act as a broker in a “peace process” which was always doomed to fail. If the U.S. would simply stop its interference, Israel could bring about peace in the Middle East by the only feasible “process” — victory.

Because I remember the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, I know that Israel is capable of destroying its enemies. Guess what? Israel’s enemies know this, too, which is why they engage in terrorism and propaganda, rather than open warfare. By fomenting violence — and falsely blaming Israel for the bloodshed — Hamas seeks to continue a war that it can never ultimately hope to win. Why? Because killing Jews is the only purpose of Hamas, its raison d’être as a terrorist organization.

We can help advance the cause of peace by speaking the blunt truth. There was no “protest” in Gaza yesterday. It was a terrorist riot.




 

 

Category: Israel, Terrorism

In The Mailbox: 05.14.18

Posted on | May 14, 2018 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 05.14.18

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
First Street Journal: Hold Them Accountable!
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #256
EBL: Jeff Bezos Vs. Kshama “I Wanna, I Wanna” Sawant
Twitchy: Kamala Harris Left A Very Important Detail Out Of Her “Affordable Housing” Plea
Louder With Crowder: Does This Tweet Show That David Hogg Knows That He’s Lost The Game?

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Friday Hawt Links & Chicks – the Beautiful Weather Edition, also, Sunday Lifting Thread
American Power: Dana Loesch – The U.S. Keeps Winning Under Trump’s Foreign Policy, also, Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity
American Thinker: President Trump Fulfills Prophecies, Moves Embassy To Jerusalem
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
BattleSwarm: Real Charges Finally Filed In Waco Biker Shootout
CDR Salamander: The Simple, Right Thing Is Often The Most Difficult Thing
Da Tech Guy: Failed State Trying To Distract From Budget Mess By Ratifying ERA, also, Why Does McCain Regret Choosing Palin For VP?
Don Surber: Sustained Outrage Is For Losers
Dustbury: Strange Search Engine Queries, also,  Slightly Overbought
Fred On Everything: Netanyahu – “Let’s You And Him Fight”
The Geller Report: Not One Democrat In Jerusalem To Honor Embassy Opening, also, Canadian Ambassador To Israel Instructed to Boycott  Our Embassy Opening
Hogewash: Yours Truly, Johnny Atsign, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
Joe For America: Why Does God Scare Democrats So Much?
JustOneMinute: Say What?!?
Legal Insurrection: California Democrats Push Communist May Day Over Presidents’ Birthdays, also, Hillary Transferred Campaign $$$ To LLC That Handles Her Personal Income
Power Line: Trump Is Starting To Spook The Left, also, The Wind Energy Fiasco Writ Large
Shark Tank: Judge Finds “Unlawful” Ballot Destruction In Wasserman-Schultz’ 2016 Primary Race
Shot In The Dark: This Is Tina Flint-Smith
STUMP: Around The Pension-O-Sphere, also, Memory Monday – Second Week Of May 1918
The Political Hat: California To Demand People Sacrifice & Suffer For The God Of Global Warming
This Ain’t Hell: Dick’s Cut Off, also, Gonads
Victory Girls: Gina Haspel Has Nothing To Apologize For
Weasel Zippers: Dem Who Slammed Trump Over Clean Water Act Made Millions Violating That Same Law, also, Another Conservative Revolt In California
Mark Steyn: Non-Stop Number Ones, also, Announcing The Inaugural Mark Steyn Club Cruise


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Category: Linkagery

Parenting, California Style

Posted on | May 14, 2018 | 2 Comments

 

Say hello to Jonathan Allen, father of 10:

Children removed from a squalid California home described acts of intentional abuse that resulted in puncture wounds, burns, bruising and injuries consistent with being shot with a pellet gun, authorities said Monday.
Sharon Henry, chief deputy district attorney for Solano County, said she was “horrified” by the statements from the children and that torture was carried out in the house “for sadistic purposes.” She declined to elaborate.
“It literally breaks your heart, and you’re outraged by how a parent or anyone could commit those acts,” Henry said afterward.
Jonathan Allen, 29, the father of the children, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of torture and nine counts of felony child abuse. He is being held on $5.2 million bail.
Police in Fairfield said earlier Monday that the 10 children, ages 4 months to 12 years, had been removed from their home March 31 after their mother, Ina Rogers, 30, reported her oldest child was missing.
Police found filthy conditions in the home shared by Rogers and Allen, police Lt. Greg Hurlbut said.
“Officers located unsafe and unsanitary living conditions including garbage and spoiled food on the floor, animal and human feces and a large amount of debris making areas of the house unpassable,” he said.
Rogers was arrested and released after posting $10,000 bail on April 9.
She gave reporters a tour of her house on Monday, denying that her husband had abused the children. . . .
Rogers told reporters she’s surprised police had leveled the most serious accusations against her husband, as he was not the disciplinarian of the family.
“There’s no broken bones, there is no major scars, nothing,” Rogers told reporters in front of her house. “My kids get bumped and bruised and scratched because they’re kids but that’s it.”
During the tour, the four-bedroom house in Fairfield, 46 miles (74 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, was messy with scuffed walls and animal feces in the bathroom.

YOUR HUSBAND HAS TATTOOS ON HIS FACE! YOUR HOUSE IS FULL OF FECES! YOU’RE 30 YEARS OLD AND HAVE 10 KIDS!

Excuse me if I seem a bit … judgmental, but in what kind of world does this happen? “Hey, honey, I’m thinking about getting a tattoo on my face.” And she’s like, “That would be awesome. Let’s get pregnant again, because 9 kids isn’t enough. Oops, watch out for the cat poop . . .”

Well, at least they didn’t drive the kids off a cliff.

(Hat-tip: Kirby McCain on Twitter.)

 

Category: California

SJWs Ruin Everything

Posted on | May 14, 2018 | Comments Off on SJWs Ruin Everything

 

How does Hollywood make money?

  1. By producing popular entertainment;
    or
  2. By advancing the cause of social justice?

Some people seem to be confused about this. Millions of dollars are thrown away annually producing “artsy” and avant-garde films that nobody wants to see, but the biggest waste of dollars in Hollywood are movies that seek to “send a message” or “make a statement” about social and political issues beloved by the Left. Too many soi-disant “progressives” in the movie business ignore the wisdom of famed producer Sam Goldwyn: “Pictures were made to entertain; if you want to send a message, call Western Union.” How else to explain misguided catastrophes like the all-female Ghostbusters remake?

Occasionally, of course, a “message” movie makes a profit, because it is also entertaining. Such was the case with War Games, a 1983 thriller that depicted nuclear warfare as unthinkable and futile. The “message” of War Games was liberal, but the plot was exciting and the central characters — Matthew Broderick as a teenage computer whiz kid and Ally Sheedy as his girlfriend — were well played and sympathetic.

 

Broderick went on to star in the teen comedy classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, while Sheedy became known as part of Hollywood’s “Brat Pack,” with starring roles in two 1985 hits, The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire. Despite her early success, however, Sheedy’s acting career dwindled away after the mid-1980s; she worked regularly in films and TV, but did not become a marquee name. This was disappointing to me, because I always liked Ally Sheedy, but I’m ready to reconsider my previous admiration for her, now that she has contributed a chapter to a feminist anthology, blaming sexism for her misfortunes:

I was eighteen years old when I went to Hollywood to begin my acting career, after growing up in NYC and being raised, in great part, by feminists. . . .
On one of my first auditions, a director told me he liked me but could not possibly cast me because there was a “beach” scene. Apparently, my thighs and a– were going to get in the way of my fledgling career. I was five seven and weighed about 130 pounds.
It did not matter that I did a good job on auditions, that I was smart, that I had natural ability. My thighs were the “thing.” . . .
I learned that whatever I might contribute to a role through talent would be instantly marginalized by my physical appearance. I learned that my success would be dependent on what the men in charge thought about my face and my body. Everything I had learned back home had to go out the window as I adapted to these new requirements: what I looked like was paramount.
It wasn’t even just whether I was pretty or thin; it was that I wasn’t sexy. . . .
A few years later, I was told point-blank that my career was moving slowly because “nobody wants to f–k you.” There was something about me, sexually, that wasn’t selling. . . .

You can read the rest. Let’s stipulate that the men who run Hollywood are a bunch of contemptible moral degenerates. Sic semper hoc. But their job is to make movies that sell tickets, and if you want to be a movie star, having what is called “sex appeal” is part of your job. There are good roles for actresses who aren’t sexy, but these tend to be supporting-cast parts. That’s the way it’s always been and, given the nature of the business (and the tastes of audiences) that’s how it probably always will be.

If you don’t like the way the business is, stay away from Hollywood. For an actress to complain about “sexism” in Hollywood is like somebody going into the journalism business and complaining about deadlines — it’s just part of the job. If you don’t like it, get another job.

Also, it’s wrong for Ally Sheedy to pretend that “sexism” was the only reason her career faded away after St. Elmo’s Fire. She started dating Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora — an abusive alcoholic — got addicted to sleeping pills and had to go into rehab. In addition to her personal problems, Sheedy made some lousy career choices. (Maid to Order? What were you thinking?) And she also had some bad luck. Sheedy was cast as the lead in Heart of Dixie, based on a critically acclaimed novel by Anne Rivers Siddons. The novel is a coming-of-age story set against the background of Jim Crow-era social conflict, and the lead role had the potential to be a real breakthrough for Sheedy. Alas, this potential was not realized, as the 1989 review in the Washington Post made clear:

Ally Sheedy, Virginia Madsen and Phoebe Cates combine their negligible talents in “Heart of Dixie” — a melodrama so full of hams, it oinks. Led by Sheedy, the tedious trio plays giddy coeds caught up in the racist and sexist traditions of the South in the late ’50s. They all sound like they’ve been gulping hush puppy batter.
The actresses, however, are not solely responsible for this remarkably dumb potboiler, which is a sort of white folks’ “School Daze,” with novice screenwriter Tom McCown whining about apolitical campus Greeks. Working from McCown’s histrionic screenplay, Martin Davidson of “Eddie and the Cruisers” proves once again that he don’t know nothing ’bout directing no movies.

Well, tough luck. What could have been a breakthrough turned out to be a bomb and, at 27, Sheedy was getting too old for ingenue roles. What could she have done at that point? In a 1998 interview, promoting a forgettable indie film, Sheedy criticized her “Brat Pack” peer Demi Moore for choosing to cash in on her sex appeal, making movies based on “this male myth about the power of women’s sexuality,” but is it really a myth?

Not that I want to start an argument, of course. It’s just disappointing to see an actress I once liked go total SJW. Never go total SJW.

 

Category: Hollywood

The School of Hard Knocks

Posted on | May 14, 2018 | 1 Comment

Steven Hayward at Powerline catches David Brooks making a point about the educational value of Donald Trump’s background in business:

There is growing reason to believe that Donald Trump understands the thug mind a whole lot better than the people who attended our prestigious Foreign Service academies. . . .
Maybe Trump intuited something about the sorts of people who run the North Korean regime that others missed.

Hard times make hard men. The main problem with most alumni of elite universities is that they have never faced real adversity, or had to deal with people who are ready to use violence to get their way.

What people don’t like about Trump — his boasting, his vulgarity, his domineering personality — are traits developed in an environment where he was dealing with tough men on a daily basis, with his success dependent on his ability to get what he wanted from such men.

Also, as much as I despise David Brooks, he is correct to qualify his praise by noting that it is “impossible to know how things will pan out” in the Korean negotiations, or in any other area of foreign policy where Trump’s tough-guy posture is currently succeeding. We live in a dangerous world, and things could go sideways quickly. On the other hand, what’s the point of being the world’s greatest superpower, if we are not willing occasionally to employ our strength to our advantage? There is no such thing as a 100% guaranteed “safe” policy, but why not at least pursue a policy intended to advance our own national interests?

Here is another problem with the mindset of elite university alumni: They have generally been indoctrinated by leftist professors who do not believe that the United States has legitimate national interests. When I visited Harvard last fall with Da Tech Guy, the moment we stepped out of the MBTA subway station, we encountered a pro-DACA protest on campus. Imagine that! You’re attending a prestigious $65,000-a-year private university and you’re protesting in favor of criminals — people in the country illegally — to defend their “right” to a Harvard education?

The mentality that Shelby Steele described in his book White Guilt, where privileged people don’t think of their privileges as useful or legitimate, exercises its disastrous influence on U.S. policy, where the elite make misguided notions of “social justice” the basis of their preferences. Even if we stipulate their good faith, these people are mistaken in their beliefs, because what the elite think of as a policy of fairness and benevolence, our enemies perceive as symptomatic of decadent weakness. And I don’t think our enemies are necessarily wrong about this.

 

Category: Donald Trump

Israel Braces for Violence

Posted on | May 14, 2018 | Comments Off on Israel Braces for Violence

Religion of Peace™ Update:

After a week of peaking tensions in the Golan Heights, Israel’s defense establishment is bracing for a week of violent confrontations along the border fence with the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.
With the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday followed by Nakba Day and the beginning of Ramadan on Tuesday, the IDF is gearing up for several days of violence in its most explosive arenas.
Thousands of soldiers from 11 battalions, including from the Nahal and Givati brigades, as well as special forces and intelligence-gathering units, the Armored Corps, snipers and drones will reinforce the troops already deployed.
As part of preparations, the training of regular combat troops has also been paused in order to focus efforts to dealing with the possible disturbances.
Gazans have been protesting along the border with Israel for the past six weeks as part of what organizers have called the Great March of Return, with demonstrators throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and rocks, as well as launching incendiary kites, toward Israeli troops.
But this week’s mass protests are expected to be much more aggressive.
Israel is accusing Hamas of using the protests as cover to carry out terror attacks and says it has identified intentions by protesters to destroy engineering equipment belonging to the army, damage security infrastructure on the fence and attempt to kidnap soldiers.
The IDF is expecting tens of thousands of protesters at some 20 sites along the Gaza border fence. The Southern Command is preparing for masses of protesters, including armed activists and children, to attempt to breach the fence.

Anthony Kliegman at the Washington Free Beacon:

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” is one of the worst clichés in the English language. Unfortunately the phrase’s logic is applied all too often to the ongoing violence at the Israel-Gaza Strip border. Just look at Peter Beinart’s recent column on the riots there. “Why are thousands of Palestinians risking their lives by running toward the Israeli snipers who guard the fence that encloses Gaza?” asks Beinart. “Because Gaza is becoming uninhabitable.” And why is the Strip becoming uninhabitable? Because Israel is “denying Gaza’s people the water, electricity, education, and food they need to live decent lives.”
According to Beinart, the ongoing attempts to damage and breach the border security fence to attack Israel, the rocks and firebombs hurled and shots fired at Israeli soldiers, the firebomb-bearing kites that torment Israeli farmers trying to grow crops, the widespread presence of swastikas at the demonstrations, the anti-Semitic threats against Jews, the horrible ecological effects caused by burning tires to blind Israeli border guards — all actions carried out by Gazans — are reactions of victims motivated by resistance against their oppressors. The fact that most of the rioters who Israelis have killed were terrorist operatives, or individuals affiliated with terrorist organizations, is irrelevant, because it gets in the way of this narrative.

The Israelis are civilized human beings. Their enemies, not so much.

(Hat-tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)

 

Category: Israel
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