The Other McCain

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Some Advice for NFL Losers

Posted on | December 8, 2024 | Comments Off on Some Advice for NFL Losers

Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow

DRAFT OFFENSIVE LINEMEN.

Three simple words, and you might think NFL coaches and general managers — career professionals, who are paid to know football — would understand the importance of drafting offensive linemen, in terms of building long-term success in the league. Yet what is so apparent to me doesn’t seem to penetrate the minds of many of those highly paid experts, or else things might be far different for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New England Patriots, two teams whose fates I’ve followed since 2021, when the Patriots drafted Alabama QB Mac Jones, who was traded this year to the Jags. A big part of what went wrong for Mac in New England was that the quality of the Patriots’ offensive line noticeably deteriorated in 2022 and 2023. Part of that can be blamed on Bill Belichick’s inexplicable decision to make Matt Patricia the team’s offensive coordinator for the 2022 season. But the problems on the offensive line weren’t just a matter of coaching; rather, the Patriots weren’t adequately replenishing their line through the draft. By his third season in New England, the pass protection was so horrible that the constant pressure basically wrecked Mac’s confidence. Having ruined their former first-round draft pick, the Patriots then decided to trade Mac Jones to Jacksonvile, and drafted Drake Maye from the University of North Carolina as their future “franchise” quarterback.

Well, guess what? The Patriots are now 3-10, and their offense is one of the worst in the league because their offensive line is still garbage. The Boston sports media has belatedly figured this out. Having spent the past two seasons blaming Mac Jones for everything wrong in New England, now that their darling Drake Maye is at QB — oh, the man-crushes this rookie inspires among Boston media types! — the fact that he’s got no protection up front is suddenly recognized as an issue.

Meanwhile, down in Jacksonville, the Jaguars have a very similar problem. The Jags are 2-10, and their “franchise” QB Trevor Lawrence is on injured reserve, with Mac Jones scheduled to start in his stead. Much of what’s gone wrong in Jacksonville since 2022, when Lawrence took them to the playoffs, is due to the weakness of their offensive line.

A few basic considerations: If the offensive line can’t make the running game work, you’re going to find yourself in a lot of third-and-long situations where you’ve got to pass, meaning that the defense can tee off on their pass-rush and, generally speaking, linemen who aren’t effective as run blockers aren’t going to be adequate when blocking pass protection. What this means strategically is that, if the offensive line isn’t getting the job done — both in the running game and the passing game — you’re going to be three-and-out on offense pretty regularly, your quarterback’s going to get sacked a lot and, because pressure from the defensive pass rush is distracting to a quarterback’s focus, you’re also going to lose the ball more often because of interceptions. This, in turn, means your defense is going to get worn out because of a lopsided time-of-possession. When commentators speak of football games being won “in the trenches,” this is what they’re talking about. Offensive linemen work almost anonymously, but what they do is essential to team success.

You’ve got to have five starters on the offensive line and, given the frequency of injuries, you also need three or four quality backup linemen, so that you really have to think of eight or nine players — roughly 1/6th of the 53-man NFL roster. While the different line positions are somewhat specialized, there is a bit of overlap between them: Your backup center can play guard, if needed, and some guards are big enough that they can play tackle, if needed. With this in mind, a typical NFL roster might include four offensive tackles, three guards, and two centers.

Something else: No team is ever going to let go of a really good left tackle. (Because he protects the quarterback’s “blind side,” the left tackle is the highest paid offensive lineman). If you think you’re going to find a good starting LT through free agency or trade, you’re delusional. Realistically, the only way to address that crucial position is through the draft, and how long is a left tackle going to last in the league, what with injuries and everything? Every five or six years, then, an NFL general manager has to be willing to expend the team’s first-round draft pick on a stud tackle, or else the team will never be credible as a Super Bowl contender.

The same is true, to a lesser extent, for any other high-quality offensive lineman. A healthy Pro Bowl center? No way a team’s going to let that guy’s contract expire so he becomes a free agent, and what could you possibly offer in a trade that would make the Detroit Lions say, “Sure, we’ll give you Frank Ragnow”? Generally speaking, the teams with great offensive lines get their players from the draft, not via trade or free agency. How many linemen are drafted in a typical year?

To study this, I took four recent years (2018-2021) when NFL teams drafted a combined total of 172 offensive linemen (31 centers, 52 guards, 89 tackles), meaning that in an average year, 43 offensive linemen were drafted. There are 32 teams in the league, which means that a typical NFL team drafted 5.4 linemen during that four-year span. There are seven rounds in the NFL draft, and nearly all the best players — the Pro Bowlers — and most of those who will be starters for five or more seasons, are drafted in the first four rounds. It is rare for late-round draft picks to develop into truly great NFL players, the most noteworthy exception being Tom Brady, who was a sixth-round pick out of Michigan.

Of the 172 offensive linemen drafted from 2018 to 2021, fourteen have made the Pro Bowl at least once: Frank Ragnow (C, Arkansas, 1st round, 2018), Quenton Nelson (OG, Notre Dame, 1st round 2018), Brian O’Neill (OT, Pittsburgh, 2nd round 2018), Orlando Brown Jr. (OT, Oklahoma, 3rd round 2018), Wyatt Teller (OG, Virginia Tech, 5th round, 2018), Chris Lindstrom (OG, Boston College, 1st round, 2019), Erik McCoy (C, Texas A&M, 2nd round, 2019), Elgton Jenkins (OG, Mississippi State, 2nd round, 2019), Tyler Biadasz (C, Wisconsin, 4th round, 2020), Tristan Wirfs (OT, Iowa, 1st round, 2020), Jonah Jackson (OG, Ohio State, 3rd round, 2020), Rashawn Slater (OT, Northwestern, 1st round, 2021), Penei Sewell (OT, Oregon, 1st round, 2021), Landon Dickerson (OG, Alabama, 2nd round, 2021), Creed Humphrey (C, Oklahoma, 2nd round, 2021). That’s five first-round picks, five second-round picks, two third-round picks and one fifth-round pick. The good news in this analysis is that your chances of scoring a Pro Bowl lineman are about equal in the first and second rounds, so if a team has some other pressing need — cornerback, wide receiver, etc. — they don’t miss too much of a chance in passing over a first-round offensive tackle. But there is a notable drop-off in the third round and later, which means that a quality offensive line is usually going to include more players drafted in the early rounds.

Of the 172 offensive linemen drafted 2018-21, slightly more than half (81) were taken in the first three rounds, which means that, over this four-year span, the average team drafted 2.5 linemen in the first three rounds. Do the best teams prioritize offensive linemen in the draft? During the past five years, six different teams have played in the Super Bowl — the Kansas Chiefs (four times), the San Francisco 49ers (twice), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Los Angeles Rams, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Philadelphia Eagles. These teams, as conference champions, are by definition “elite.” Here are their offensive line draft picks for 2018-2021:

  • Kansas City Chiefs (4, including 2 third-round or higher) — OG Nick Allegretti (7th round, 2019), OT Lucas Niang (3rd round, 2020), C Creed Humphrey (2nd round, 2021), OG Trey Smith (6th round, 2021).
  • Cincinnati Bengals (8, including 3 third-round or higher) — C Billy Price (1st round, 2018), OG Rod Taylor (7th round, 2018), OT Jonah Williams (1st round, 2019), OG Michael Jordan (4th round, 2019), OT Hakeem Adeniji (6th round, 2020), OT Jackson Carman (2nd round, 2021), OT D’Ante Smith (4th round, 2021), C Trey Hill (6th round, 2021).
  • Los Angeles Rams (6, including 2 third-round or higher) — OT Joseph Noteboom (3rd round, 2018), C Brian Allen (4th round, 2018), OT Jamil Demby (6th round, 2018), OT Bobby Evans (3rd round, 2019), OT David Edwards (5th round, 2019), OG Tremayne Anchrum (7th round, 2020).
  • Philadelphia Eagles (6 including 2 third round or higher) — OT Matt Pryor (6th round, 2018), OT Jordan Mailata (7th round, 2018), OT Andre Dillard (2nd round, 2019), OG Jack Driscoll (4th round, 2020), OT Prince Tega Wanogho (6th round, 2020), C Landon Dickerson (2nd round, 2021).
  • San Francisco 49ers (5, including 2 third-round or higher) — OT Mike McGlinchey (1st round, 2018), OT Justin Skule (6th round, 2019), OT Colton McKivitz (5th round, 2020), OG Aaron Banks (2nd round, 2021), OG Jaylon Moore (5th round, 2021).
  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3, including 3 third-round or higher) — OT Alex Cappa (3rd round, 2018), OT Tristan Wirfs (1st round, 2020), OT Robert Hainsey (3rd round, 2021).

Between them, these six elite teams drafted a combined 32 offensive linemen (5.3 average), of which 14 were taken in the third round or higher (2.3 average). Both numbers are slightly below the league average, mainly due to the low numbers for the Chiefs and Buccaneers. This may be because those teams entered 2018 with relatively strong offensive lines, as compared to a team like the Cincinnati Bengals, who went on an OL shopping binge during this time frame. However, the latter case may help explain why, in 2021, second-year Cincinnati QB Joe Burrow was able to take the Bengals all the way to the Super Bowl, beating the Chiefs along the way. By beefing up their offensive line, Cincinnait gave Burrow the kind of protection that would help a young quarterback flourish.

Also worth noting is Tampa Bay’s quality-over-quantity approach — the Buccaneers didn’t draft a lot of offensive linemen during this four-year span, but when they did, they favored higher-round picks. They have continued this trend in subsequent drafts, taking OT Luke Goedeke in the 2nd round in 2022, OG Cody Mauch in the second round in 2023 and C Graham Barton in the first round in 2024. As for the Kansas City Chiefs, now trying to win their third consecutive Super Bowl, in the three most recent drafts, they’ve taken a total of five offensive linemen, including third-round OT Wanya Morris in 2023 and second-round OT Kingsley Suamataia in 2024. Gotta protect Mahomes, right?

Building a good offensive line, and then replenishing it regularly to maintain that quality, makes it imperative for teams to use their draft selections judiciously. Some NFL front offices seem to get distracted by the glamour of quarterbacks and wide receivers as first-round picks. Everybody in the local sports media gets excited about picks like that, but an NFL general manager isn’t going to get much media praise for taking an offensive tackle in the first round. In the long run, however, that tackle might make a lot more difference in the W-L column than any wide receiver on the roster. A lot of teams would love to be where the Detroit Lions are right now — 12-1, heavily favored to make it to the Super Bowl after barely missing it last year. Look over that list of Pro Bowl offensive linemen I cited earlier and you’ll find that two of them, Frank Ragnow and Penei Sewell, both play for the Lions. There’s a reason Detroit has gotten where they are. Other teams should pay attention.



 

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Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | December 8, 2024 | 2 Comments

Say hello to Daniel Escalera and, while you’re at it, go ahead and say good-bye, because Escalera was shot dead by police last Sunday when he went crazy and attacked an Illinois nursing home:

A chainsaw-wielding man was shot and killed by police Sunday morning in the west suburbs, officials said.
The officer-involved shooting happened in the 900 block of North 5th Avenue at the River Glen of St. Charles senior living facility, St. Charles police said.
A shirtless man was reportedly attempting to cut down a tree outside around 8:45 a.m. of the building before he then entered the senior living facility, police said. The suspect then began to confront senior home residents with his chainsaw, according to responding officers.
Police deployed a taser after attempts to de-escalate the situation failed, officials said. The man then allegedly continued his attack on tenants and officers.
At that point, an officer shot the suspect with his service weapon, St. Charles police said.
The chainsaw-wielding man was taken to a hospital in Geneva, where he was later pronounced dead.

Readers will probably not be surprised to learn that this wasn’t the chainsaw-wielding Escalera’s first encounter with law enforcement:

The record spans almost 25 years and includes numerous arrests for driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol; becoming an habitual DUI traffic violator and resisting law enforcement; cocaine and methamphetamine possession; public intoxication and endangerment; and domestic battery, as reported by a local Indiana paper, when he was accused of stabbing his then-wife and SWAT had to be called in.
As for why he showed up at the senior living facility on Sunday with a chainsaw and started attacking trees and elderly residents? It was his MO: Back in September 2022 in rural Indiana, Escalera tangled in a spontaneous road rage incident, beating a motorcyclist with his own helmet.
Escalera was convicted and jailed. And it appears he was supposed to be in jail Sunday for violating probation in one of the many other cases against him.

Let’s talk about that 2019 case:

Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Horacio Escalera got drunk and stabbed his wife with a small pocket knife during a domestic fight, according to Lafayette police.
Officers were called at 7:20 p.m. Monday to Escalera’s home in the 100 block of South 31st Street with a report of a domestic battery incident, according to police bulletins.
Escalera fought with his wife in the presence of a minor and stabbed his wife in the leg with a small pocket knife, police said. The wound was minor.
When police arrived, Escalera refused to cooperate, so the Lafayette police SWAT team was activated while other officers got a warrant.
The SWAT team made the arrest; however, one of the officers suffered minor injuries while trying to handcuff Escalera, according to police.
Police booked Escalera into the jail on suspicion of battery with a deadly weapon, domestic battery in the presence of a minor and resisting law enforcement with bodily injury.

Permit me to suggest that when (a) someone with an extensive criminal history (b) stabs his wife and (c) you have to call the SWAT team to arrest him, then (d) maybe he should go to prison for a long time. Despite this, however, Escalera was back on the streets by 2022, when he attacked a motorcyclist in a road rage incident and yet — and yet — this still wasn’t enough to keep him locked up a while. By June 2024, Escalera was once more terrorizing the general public, and was arrested on a slew of charges including meth possession, obstruction of justice, resisting arrest, etc.

The criminal justice system is clearly broken, or Daniel Escalera would still be serving time on that 2019 rap. Instead, the courts kept turning him loose until finally the dude gets torqued up on meth, grabs a chainsaw and shows up at a nursing home threatening senior citizens. The cop who shot him deserves a medal for saving taxpayers money.



 

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In The Mailbox: 12.05.24

Posted on | December 6, 2024 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Who Wore It Better: Thompson or Castellano? Justice Thomas Is Awesome, BIDEN IS GOING TO ISSUE LOTS AND LOTS OF PARDONS, and Are Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff Getting Divorced?
Twitchy: Nancy Mace Celebrates 47 By Showing America Her Pink Taco, Will Cain – Trump Wins & Senate Republicans Start Handing Him Losses, and Trannies Arrested At Capitol While Protesting Reality-Based Bathroom Rules
Louder With Crowder: This salon owner’s clients are “dropping like flies” after her video bashing Trump voters, also, Pete Hegseth stands defiant in Megyn Kelly interview, refuses to let himself be “Kavanaugh’d”
Vox Popoli: The Media-Corporate Censorship Complex, This Very Night, and The Spacebunny Experience
Upstream Reviews: Prep & Landing, 
Stoic Observations: Censorship For The Whole Of Society, 
Toni Airaksinen: Study Claims Teslas Promote “White Masculinity”

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: The Hidden Logic of Trump’s National Security Picks
American Greatness: What the Trump nominees Have Not Done—And Will Not Do, Biden Regime Quietly Revokes Veterans Hiring Preference For Civil Service Jobs, Illegal Aliens Already Self-Deporting in Anticipation of Second Trump Presidency, President-elect Trump Suggests Shakeup of White House Press Briefing Room, and More Preemptive Pardons May Be Coming, Will Biden Seek to Protect the Swamp from Kash Patel?
American Thinker: The Hunter Biden Who Could Have Been
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Red Thursday News
Babalu Blog: Activist in Cuba arrested for possessing copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Communist Cuba’s nightmarish electrical grid, Cuban dictatorship authorizes export of oil extracted by Australian firm despite crippling fuel shortage, Dismembered corpse found floating near Havana’s Malecon seawall, and Cuban dictatorship denies Russian reports of ‘killer flies’ and deadly Marburg Virus on the island
BattleSwarm: Paxton Takes Aim At Austin Homeless Industrial Complex
Behind The Black: Another record-setting launch day worldwide, Airbus cuts almost 500 jobs in Great Britain, Union official accuses Boeing of more unsafe practices, Next two Artemis missions delayed again, with the future of SLS/Orion hanging by a thread, and Republican California state legislator introduces bill to overturn California Coastal Commission’s effort to block SpaceX
CDR Salamander: Tell History We Need A Half-Decade, mmkay?
Chicago Boyz: Michael Kennedy
Da Tech Guy: Dodging the Bullet, also, There is one primary difference between the Political Left and the Political Right on Social Media
Don Surber: Most of the world is still ruled by Bidens, not Trumps
First Street Journal: The Democrats say we need more affordable housing, but look what has happened when they were in charge of it
Gates Of Vienna: Asylum Seekers Trafficking Illegal Immigrants, The Pause That Refreshes, and Madrassa in Malmö Teaches Jew-Hatred
The Geller Report: Jewish Groups Stand Against Terrorism at Cooper Union
Hollywood In Toto: Trump Effect: Stewart, Rowling, Spacey Defy Woke Mob, Why Hollywood’s Women’s March Won’t Get a Sequel, and Late-Night ‘Losers’ – Hollywood Reporter Mocks Colbert, Kimmel
The Lid:  Sneaky Biden Enacts New Protections for Leech Government Workers to Sabotage Trump
Legal Insurrection: Trump Effect: Mexico Seizes 20 Million Doses of Fentanyl in Record-Breaking Haul, Fetterman Warns Against Weaponizing Institutions Against Opponents, Backs Pardon, Administrators at Universities of Wisconsin to Evaluate ‘Low-Enrollment’ Campus Programs, KBJ’s Vacuous Remarks During Transgender Case Arguments Would Be Funny If Justices Didn’t Have Lifetime Appointments, and US Supreme Court Poised to Uphold Tennessee’s Ban on Transgender Treatments for Minors
Michele Catalano: coming soon – I have that on vinyl
Nebraska Energy Observer: Sometimes
Outkick: Bill Belichick Reportedly Interviewed For North Carolina Job, Though It Would Be The Wrong Move For Tar Heels, New Report Says Japanese Star Roki Sasaki Has Already Picked A Team, A’s Stadium In Las Vegas Clears Final Major Hurdle, Rachel Bush Brings Bikini Sunshine Vibes To The Make America Healthy Again Movement, and Lindsey Vonn Hits The Gym In A Custom Bodysuit Ahead Of First Competition Since Announcing Her Comeback
Power Line: The Daily Chart: Another Look at the Red Shift, Today in the College Collapse, and Skrmetti and beyond
Shark Tank: Rep. Mast Calls Justice Sotomayor A Moron For Comparing Castration/Mutilation Surgeries To Taking Aspirin 
Shot In The Dark: Options, also, Only Human 
The Political Hat: Quick Takes – DEI Not Dead Yet: UC Santa Cruz; South Carolina; Medical Schools Everywhere
This Ain’t Hell: Two trials notes, Tim Kennedy stolen valor accusations, and Justice Ketanji Jackson: Banning transgender procedures akin to banning interracial marriage
Transterrestrial Musings: The New Space Era, also, Rebel Yell
Victory Girls: Annette Bening Says The Quiet Part Out Loud About Having a “Trans Child”
Watts Up With That: Vietnam’s Bustling Economy Requires Fossil Fuels, Quit Fearmongering – Climate Change is Not a National Security Threat, The Banned Books Hoax, and Why Are UK Electricity Prices So High?
The Federalist: Corporate Music Is Killing Classic Country And Its American Values, Republican Senator Introduces Federal Ban On Mutilating Trans Procedures For Children, Cowboys, Billionaires, And Pastors Break Tough Ground To Build Great Books Colleges, Biden’s Potential Pardons For Corrupt Bureaucrats Expose ‘Nobody’s Above The Law’ As A Lie, and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst Endorsed Transgender Military Service
Mark Steyn: A Pardon From the Big Guy, also, A Murder in Midtown

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In The Mailbox: 12.04.24 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | December 5, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.04.24 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Looks like SCOTUS is going to put a stop to that.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: The Rise & Fall of the Surveillance State
EBL: Attack submarine USS Minnesota sent to Guam, also, DARK BRANDON PINO NOIR
Twitchy: White House Press Corps Recoils Over Proposed Seating Plan Shakeup, Unhinged Taylor Lorenz Says She Wants Health Insurance Execs To Die, and Has Scott Presler Finally Found His Perfect Match?
Louder With Crowder: SNL’s Leslie Jones Goes On Unhinged, Trump-Hating Rant About White People, ACLU lawyer swears your two-year-old is old enough to change their gender if they feel like it, and Joy Reid has major freakout over hilarious Trump joke about Canada
Vox Popoli: The Dragon Stirs, Martial Law in South Korea, The Inevitable Pardon, France’s Unholy Alliance, and An Adverse Effect?
Flappr: Farewell. My Big, Dumb Farm Boy

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: So about those vaccines
American Conservative: Trump’s Coming Immigration Showdown, also, Will Trump Channel Nixon in Ukraine?
American Greatness: The Time for Duty, Honor, Country is now: Our Country Needs a Pete Hegseth to Lead the Department of Defense, House Democrats Want to Release Gaetz Ethics Report, Trump and Congress Gear Up To Fight Campus Antisemitism, Kash Patel Targeted by Iranian Hacking Effort, and Trump Taps Peter Navarro For Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing
American Thinker: Addressing the Hunter Pardon
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday, Animal’s…Placeholder, and Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Cuba’s electrical grid suffers another complete collapse, plunges entire nation into darkness, Wife of José Daniel Ferrer finally allowed to visit him in prison, reveals details of savage beating, Front company set up by Cuban military to receive remittances from the U.S. is exposed, and Cuban prisoner dies of starvation in infamous jail rife with hunger, tuberculosis, scabies, and constant violence
BattleSwarm: Jaguar Continues Brand Suicide, Paxton Sues BlackRock Over Black Rocks, Syria’s Civil War Unfreezes, Ryan Long On “Activists”, and USA vs. Russia: Who Wins?
Behind The Black: Two launches completed of the seven launches expected in the next 24 hours, Orbex gives up on the Sutherland spaceport, switches to SaxaVord, The strange beginning of a 300-mile-long meandering canyon on Mars, Japan awards $32.5 million contract for lunar GPS-type satellite constellation to startup, and Trump picks billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to run NASA
Cafe Hayek: More on Jay Bhattacharya, The Case for Protectionism Continues to Be At Odds with Facts and Logic, Milton Friedman in 1980, Contribute to Sound Economic Education, and There Is Nothing Left to Oren Cass’s Protectionist Argument
CDR Salamander: Anchor? What Anchor?
Chicago Boyz: Springs, Cables, and the Rebirth of America, Seth Barrett Tillman: “In Remembrance of P.J. O’Rourke: Let’s Make a List”, The Hunter Biden Pardon, Worth Pondering, and Random Thoughts (5): Trump Bestriding the World
Da Tech Guy: I Don’t Recommend or Support People Choosing Sin, Bad News Present, Good News Future, It’s time for the Chicago Police Department to use spike strips to fight back against dangerous muscle car street takeovers, How DARE Biden Make Us Look Bad – The Sin of Pride Squared, and Corrupt Pol Acts Corruptly and I’m Supposed to be Shocked?
Don Surber: Democrat Totem Pole is collapsing
First Street Journal: San José State University’s mostly women’s volleyball team is beaten in conference finals, also, I check Bluesky so you don’t have to
Gates Of Vienna: The Public Prosecutor Does Not Believe in Self-Defense, The Religion Behind the Religions, Islam’s Control Over Women Never Ceases to Amaze, Choirboys Overrun Aleppo, and Will Donald Trump Support the Greater Idaho Movement?
The Geller Report: Biden Pledges $1 BILLION in Handouts to Victims of AFRICAN Natural Disasters, Bankrupting Biden To Send Another $275 Million to Ukraine, and Voters Thrash Soros-Backed George Gascon, New DA Sworn In
Hollywood In Toto: Snow White Trailer Draws Hysterical Reactions, Nightbitch Wallows in Woke’s Fading Embers, Trump Effect: Sean Penn Demands Diversity of Opinion, The Order Doesn’t Take the Trump Bait, and Why Are So Many Christmas Movies Set in Chicago?
The Lid: America’s Trust in Joe Biden’s Corrupt FBI Plummets
Legal Insurrection: Trump Georgia Case: Fani Willis Must Hand Over All Communications With Jack Smith, J6 Committee, Gov. Gavin Newsom Wants $25 Million from CA Taxpayers to Engage in Lawfare against Trump, U. Minnesota Suspends and Fines Pro-Hamas Rioters Who Took Over Building, Pete Hegseth: ‘I Have Never Backed Down From a Fight and Won’t Back Down From This One’, and Asian Parents Lawsuit Challenging Discriminatory NY STEP Program Can Go Forward, Court Rules
Nebraska Energy Observer: Come Party with Us, Enough Said, and Bulls in China Shops
Outkick: Martina Navratilova Calls Out Democrats For Stance On Trangenders In Sports, Rhett Lashlee Has Stark Warning For College Football If SMU Is Left Out Of CFP With Clemson Loss, Three And Out: Alabama In The Drivers Seat As We Hit Championship Weekend, Roger Clemens Makes Good Point About Proposed MLB Rule Change, and Woman Goes Viral With Wild Move On The Sacramento Kings Kiss Cam
Power Line: Judge Scarsi to Joe Biden, Brendan Carr on NewsGuard, and Why Are Liberal Haters Teaching Our Children?
Shark Tank: FL Dems Panic Over Possibility DeSantis May Get Nod At Defense
Shot In The Dark: Exactly As Predicted, El Dijo/Ella Dijo, Your Tax Dollars At Work, This Didn’t Age Well, Hunter, and Downtown Minneapolis Is (Checks Notes) MAGA Country
The Political Hat: Why do unions hate right-to-work? Fighting Politically: Performance vs. Substance, and Artificial Intelligence vs. Cats: Why Not Both?
This Ain’t Hell: Trump: DO Something! Part 1, Trump: DO Something Part 2,New Zealand’s Newest Artificial Reef- Crew Error, Elizabeth Warren calls for taking steps to limit the use of active-duty troops against Americans, and New York law maker proposed blue states becoming a Canadian province
Transterrestrial Musings: The Problem With Our “Expert” Class, The Border, Well That’s…Different, The Return Of Realpolitik, and The Biden Guide
Victory Girls: Supreme Court Hears Transgender Minor Children Case
Watts Up With That: California “purifies” its little air bubble at the expense of its residents., The California offshore wind environmental impact statement is full of holes, U.S. “Energy Dominance:” A Key to Trump’s Peace Bid, and Trump 45’s Environmental Reset: 112 Rule Changes
The Federalist: 9th Circuit Says Local Authorities In Washington State Can’t Block Feds From Deporting Illegals, Trump World Sources Say Joni Ernst Is Waging ‘Aggressive’ Personal Jihad Against Hegseth, Yes, Ronald Reagan Won The Cold War, ‘100 Percent Bullsh-t’: Fox News Talent Shoot Down NBC’s Smear Campaign Against Pete Hegseth, and Trump Vows To Make U.S. Steel Great Again As Debate Smolders Over Nippon Merger
Mark Steyn: Smooth Criminal – Jean Gabin in Pépé le Moko, Trumping Trudeau, The Not So Long Goodbye, Goodnight, Vienna, and Live Around the Planet: The Return of Steyn

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In The Mailbox: 12.04.24 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | December 4, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 12.04.24 (Afternoon Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Indeed, we dodged a whole spray of bullets in November

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: 3D Printed 380 Semi-Automatic Carbine, also Congressional Medal of Honor Winner versus HOA Karens
EBL: What will Hunter Biden do next? also, Why The Broad Hunter Biden Pardon?
Twitchy: Prosecutor Behind The Daniel Penny Case Is As AWFL As You Expect, Mattel Faces Lawsuit Over Wicked Toy Typo, and Concerned Veterans For America Trustee Praises Pete Hegseth After “Very Personal Attack”
Louder With Crowder: Liberal women are allegedly sterilizing themselves in protest of Donald Trump
Vox Popoli: Spacebunny FTW, Suddenly in Serie A, Based Books are Inevitable, A Timely Reminder on Tariffs, and The Official Covid-19 Story: Revised Edition
Upstream Reviews: Fatman, also, New Releases
Stoic Observations: Life or Death
Defending The Wood Perilous: What Is Fan Fiction?

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: When Your VLS Hobbyhorse Goes Mainstream
Dana Loesch: Trump’s Lockdown Sheriff Drops From DEA Consideration
Don Surber: Dems are saying FJB
Glenn Reynolds: Welcome To The Party, Pal
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Notes from a cluttered mind, 
STUMP: Giving Tuesday 2024, 

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Antifa Assassin? Health Insurance CEO Gunned Down on Manhattan Street

Posted on | December 4, 2024 | 1 Comment

A masked man using a pistol with a silencer murdered a health insurance CEO near the Hilton hotel on 6th Avenue in midtown Manhattan this morning, and Ace of Spades speculates that the gunman was Antifa, which might be the only political motive that makes sense, but I have no reason to suspect that this was politically motivated. The slain executive’s wife says there had been threats against her husband, which is exactly what she’d say if she had hired a hit man to kill him so she could cash in his life insurance — which I’ve got no reason to suspect that, either, but if this was a network primetime crime drama, you know the wife would be Suspect No. 1. But then it would turn out that the dead man’s mistress or his business partner did it, because it’s never the obvious suspect, is it?

The motive is the real mystery here, and what makes the story so fascinating is, first of all, the smoothness of the killer, who had obviously spent time planning this murder, staking out the hotel, lying in wait, then making his getaway on a bicycle. This is spy-thriller stuff. And, of course, this isn’t a “usual suspects” sort of murder. Like, there will be hundreds of homicides in New York City this year, the vast majority of which will be Ghetto Dudes killing other Ghetto Dudes — some kind of personal dispute or a gang rivalry or a drug deal gone bad. But this was a rich white guy getting shot by another white guy in a “targeted” killing outside a posh hotel, not a random drive-by in the ’hood.

By the way, the slain CEO was being investigated by the Department of Justice on suspicion of insider trading. Could that have something to do with why he was killed? Was he prepared to testify against other executives suspected in that case? Or was somebody afraid that he might spill the beans about something else? IYKWIMAITYD.

Just sayin’ . . .



 

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Category: Crime, New York

Death of a Freak

Posted on | December 4, 2024 | Comments Off on Death of a Freak

October is celebrated as “LGBTQ+ Liberation Month” on the campus of the University of Rhode Island [URI], and as part of that celebration in 2023, URI’s Gender and Sexuality Center hosted an “OnlyFans Entrepreneur Panel” featuring Apollo Moon. Let us pause here to ask an important question: “WTF? A state university is sponsoring panel discussions to encourage students to be ‘entrepreneurs’ on OnlyFans?” What next? “How to Support Your Meth Addiction as a Hooker”?

Leaving aside questions about the lunacy taking hold in academia, what about “Apollo Moon”? Turns out that “he” was a woman originally named Hannah Lynn Harader, who had undergone transgender treatment (mastectomy and testosterone) to become a “trans male porn performer.” Being a journalist, curiosity is a career requirement, so I felt compelled to investigate exactly what “Apollo Moon” did to pay the bills. You should probably hit my tip jar to compensate me for the psychological trauma of seeing it. Why anyone would enjoy watching that — let alone pay to watch it — is a profound mystery, but then I remember that nearly 75 million Americans voted for Kamala Harris, and it’s somewhat less mysterious. In a nation of 335 million people, where everybody’s got access to the Internet, it’s not actually difficult to find an audience of several hundred people who are into whatever kink or fetish you’re peddling, so that “Apollo Moon” could probably collect a few thousand a month as a “trans male porn performer.” The idea that this made her an “enterpreneur” who should be featured in a panel discussion at a public university — well, why not just go down to the nearest truck stop and find some “lot lizards” to tell your students about enterpreneurship?

R.I.P., Apollo Moon, who died last week at age 26, probably by suicide, according to Andy Ngo. “Apollo”/Harader had recently decided to quit “his”/her career as a porn performer, and had a lot of social-media posts about “his”/her personal problems, as @TTExulansic exposed at length.

The U.K. Daily Mail reports:

Just days before his death, Moon wrote on X: ‘Being trans brought me so much joy and there was nothing in this world that made me happier than sharing that experience with my community.’
In October, Moon announced he was leaving the porn industry after it took a toll on his mental health.
‘When I started my career in 2020 I was excited and loved it. Over the years it took a toll on my mental health,’ he wrote.
‘My financial and mental health became reliant on how others view and put worth on my body. I love the community that I was able to build and I am grateful for my coperformers for being such supportive people to me.’

By the way, “Moon”/Harader’s friends and family won’t say that “his”/her death was suicide, but if it wasn’t foul play or an accident or natural causes, the process of elimination leaves few alternatives.

The promoters of transgender ideology don’t want the larger public to be aware of how often medical “treatment” yields such outcomes. Young people with profound mental health problems are vulnerable to recruitment into transgender identity, which is presented to them as a panacea for adolescent woe. The teenage/young adult years are difficult for most kids, and the appeal of transgenderism is that, for a certain subset of young misfits, it seems to explain all their problems, and provides them with a sense of belonging to a sort of community. The obvious downside is that this “community” is full of damaged freaks. Belonging to the Transgender Freak Club doesn’t confer any real benefits on its members, and tends to alienate them from the world where successful, happy and emotionally stable people live. Your “community” is essentially a free-range lunatic asylum, and that’s not a good life.

“Apollo Moon” may be an extreme example of this, but “he”/she is in many ways typical of what’s wrong with transgender ideology. Hannah Harader traveled the same path as many other such people, the only difference being that “he”/she went farther down the path than most, gaining a certain level of notoriety (it seems wrong to call it “fame,” and perhaps the better word is infamy) as a porn performer.

That officials of the Univerity of Rhode Island would celebrate such a person as a heroic role model of “LGBTQ+ Liberation” raises a lot of questions about what kind of “liberation” they are advocating.



 

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Category: The Transgender Cult

For the Benefit of Nate Silver (and Anyone Else Who Has Just Now Discovered How Selfish and Dishonest Joe Biden Really Is)

Posted on | December 3, 2024 | 1 Comment

Much of the outrage directed at Joe Biden since the announcement that he would pardon Hunter Biden — a blanket pardon, covering any crimes committed during an entire decade, back to 2014 — is obviously disingenuous. The earlier public pronouncements by Biden that he would not pardon his son, which were echoed by his White House spokeswoman and various media pundits, were never credible, and only a fool would have believed them. Surely Nate Silver is not so naïve, and I don’t know why he’s stamping his feet about the Hunter Biden pardon now, given that it was so predictable and, indeed, was predicted months ago by many commentators. But just in case Nate Silver or anyone else was previously under the mistaken impression that Joe Biden was honest, let me tell you a story about a truck driver from Pennsylvania.

One December afternoon in 1972, Curtis Dunn was driving a flatbed truck north on Delaware Route 7 near the village of Hockessin when a station wagon, heading west on Valley Road, suddenly pulled into the highway. There was no chance for the driver to stop, and the truck T-boned the station wagon, hurling it some 150 feet north along the highway. Nowadays, there is a traffic signal at the intersection of Route 7 and Valley Road, but in 1972, there was no signal — just stop signs for the traffic on Valley Road, and none for the traffic on the highway. Probably, the driver of the station wagon simply failed to look both ways at the stop sign, but that’s just speculation, because the driver was killed in the tragic accident. Her name was Neilia Biden.

The crash on Route 7 was investigated, and the truck driver was cleared of any wrongdoing; Neilia Biden was entirely at fault for the accident, which not only killed her, but also killed her 18-month-daughter, and injured her two sons. Despite this, however, Joe Biden repeatedly slandered Curtis Dunn, claiming that the truck driver was drunk (he “drank his lunch,” Biden said) at the time of the accident, which was clearly false. We know for a fact that Biden told this lie at least twice — in 2001 and 2007, because it was quoted in news reports at the time — but I suspect he threw this bogus story into his stump speech on many other occasions that didn’t get reported.

This accident haunted Curtis Dunn to the day he died in 1999. In 2009, after Biden was criticized for this slander, Curtis Dunn’s daughter Pamela Hamill said Biden called her to privately apologize, but another one of Dunn’s daughters, Deborah Criddle, later pointed out the obvious: Biden never publicly retracted that slander. You don’t defame someone in public and then clear your wrongdoing by apologizing in private.

What is so disturbing about this is that, as Jack Fowler wrote in 2019, the defamation of Curis Dunn was so unnecessary. What purpose could possibly be served by Biden’s lie about this innocent man? Was the idea to make Biden seem more sympathetic, by turning the truck driver into a villain? Or was Biden perhaps trying to exculpate his deceased wife, who died because of her own bad driving? We can merely speculate on the motives of Biden’s dishonesty, in the same way we can do no more than speculate why Nailia Biden didn’t look to her left before she drove past that stop sign into the path of a truck on the highway. But as to the fact of Biden’s lie, isn’t this one case — to ignore every other proven lie that Biden has ever told — enough to convince anyone that they should never trust Joe Biden to tell the truth about anything? If you would lie about how your own wife died, and in the process smear the reputation of an innocent man, how can you expect anyone to trust you?

So now we have the Hunter Biden pardon, and Nate Silver’s indignation because the White House “consistently lied” about it — and? AND? What’s your point here, Nate? As if the White House hasn’t been lying about everything, from the day Biden became president?

See, this is what’s really all about. The media, playing their part as “Democratic operatives with bylines,” voluntarily repeat whatever message they’re handed by their political overlords, and only complain about this arrangement when it results in embarrassment — when the lies are exposed so clearly that everybody can see that the media are unreliable narrators. The TV talking heads who repeatedly assured their audience that Joe Biden would not pardon Hunter have now been made to look like fools, and they’re angry about it. It was the same way after the June 27 debate exposed Biden as hopelessly senile. Suddenly, the same media personalities who had assured us that Biden was “sharp as a tack” began clamoring for him to step aside and let someone else be the Democratic presidential nominee. He had become a source of embarrassment, and in the process had exposed the media’s own dishonesty, and for that reason, Joe had to go.

Now, with the Hunter Biden pardon, the same media personalities are again exposed as untrustworthy, and thus are either trying to change the subject — “WHAT ABOUT TRUMP?” — or trying to convince us that they are shocked, shocked, to discover that Joe Biden is a liar.

Does anyone believe this play-acting? I hope not.



 

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Category: Joe Biden, Media Bias
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