The Other McCain

Category: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Polls

BOOM! We Are So #Winning!

Posted on | October 29, 2024 | 1 Comment

Of course, I must add the necessary “don’t get cocky” disclaimer, but ladies and gentlemen, this news is YUGE:

Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is waving the white flag in North Carolina, surrendering the state to former President Donald Trump as her campaign withdraws nearly $2 million in planned ad buys from television stations statewide one week before the election.
The more than $1.7 million in canceled ad buys by Harris’s campaign in North Carolina suggests that her team believes, given polling data and early vote data, that the Tar Heel State is no longer in play for her.
Trump’s senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita jumped at the news on Tuesday morning, celebrating Harris’s team giving up on the state one week before the election . . .

?@KamalaHarris? giving up on North Carolina..pulling money out. Maybe to drop in Virginia to try and stop the slide ? pic.twitter.com/oTcCAuTJYx

— Chris LaCivita (@LaCivitaC) October 29, 2024

It is fact, by the way, that polling shows Virginia now a lot closer than it was in 2020, when Biden won it by 10 points. There are important House races on the ballot in Virginia that Democrats can’t afford to lose, and it may indeed be that they’re making this move to “try and stop the slide” in Virginia. More important, of course, is the apparent surrender in North Carolina, the only “battleground” where Democrats were trying to flip a state that went for Trump four years ago. If indeed, Team Kamala has waved the white flag in North Carolina, that means they’re not strictly playing defense, trying to hold onto states that Biden (allegedly) won.

Weeks ago, it was clear that Trump had a straightforward path to victory — hold North Carolina, flip Georgia and Pennsylvania, and nothing else mattered. Even if Trump were to lose Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin, he’s still the winner (exactly 270 Electoral College votes) with the NC/GA/PA trifecta. Georgia has looked pretty solid for Trump all along (thank you, Fani Willis), and a source told me this week that the Trump campaign’s internal polls have them up by three points in Pennsylvania. That’s a little closer than they would like it, but they are “cautiously optimistic” in Pennsylvania. Now, Team Kamala surrenders North Carolina? YUGE! That frees up Republican resources for the late push in Pennsylvania — and Michigan, Wisconsin, etc.

My hunch — and it’s not a completely uneducated guess — is that Trump’s got Arizona nailed down and he looks like a winner in Nevada, too, but that’s likely to be a lot closer. Michigan is at least close enough that Democrats there are still sweating it. If Harris wins Michigan and Wisconsin, and Trump wins Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada, then Pennsylvania is the whole game. Meanwhile . . .

Today, I went and voted early. I don’t live in a “battleground state,” but I do live in a competitive House district, so it matters. What made me decide to vote today was that I watched the video of Steve Bannon’s press conference after he got released from federal prison:

If that doesn’t make you vote, I don’t know what will.

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Category: Donald Trump, Election, Kamala Harris, North Carolina

In The Mailbox: 10.28.24

Posted on | October 28, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 10.28.24

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

The Redemption of Kristi Noem

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: European Union Wages War on Free Speech, also Worst 10 Disney Star Wars Mistakes
EBL: Muslim and Arab leaders take the stage to endorse Trump at Michigan rally, MAGA Madison Square Garden Rally, Canary Black, Lioness Season 2, and Donald Trump : Never Quit
Twitchy: “Coach” Walz Gets Dragged For Not Knowing The First Thing About Football, Bezos “People Don’t Trust The Media” Reality Check Guaranteed To Trigger Lib Journo-Land, and Chicago Tribune Leaves Out A Big Detail In Headline About Fatal Police Shooting
Louder With Crowder: “If I can get up to vote, you can too”, CNN panel has hissy fit after “Mr. Wonderful” drops massive truth bomb on Kamala Harris’s “election”, “This raises a whole lot of questions”, and Kamala Harris Claims Donald Trump (?I) Will Take Away Your Guns
Vox Popoli: God is Not Blessing America, Fake Trump on Rogan, Pseudo-Escalation, An Intriguing Metric, and Australia Bans Blacks
Postcards From Barsoom: Character Generation On The Carousel Of Collapse
Defending The Wood Perilous: Hope In Dark Places
Draw & Talk Comics: How To Make A $10,000A Month Business In 30 Days…I Have No Idea
Upstream Reviews: Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki Accused Of A Slew Of Ethics Complaints
Flappr: Big TD’s Football Blog – Week 8

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: First 100 Days For Seapower
Don Surber: Endorse Trump To Save Your Newspaper, also, Eight more days, four more years?
Michele Catalano: pinball wizard
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Notes from a cluttered mind
STUMP: Longer Term Mortality Trend In The U.S. – Period Life Expectancy By Sex, 1900-2021

Category: Linkagery

Probably Not Wearing a MAGA Hat

Posted on | October 28, 2024 | 1 Comment

This has not yet been classified as a “hate crime” and I don’t expect CNN viewers will hear a word about it for some reason:

The gunman who allegedly shot an Orthodox Jewish man walking to synagogue Saturday morning in Chicago has been identified as 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi.
Abdallahi reportedly shot the 39-year-old victim at 9:25 a.m. in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood, before returning less than 30 minutes later and opening fire on police and paramedics. A neighbor’s security camera caught him screaming “Allahu Akbar” during the second shooting.
Police then returned fire and wounded Abdallahi, who was brought to a hospital.
In a video shared with The Daily Wire, police are seen shooting Abdallahi on a sidewalk. In another video, the neighbors’ reaction is documented as they discover the shooter injured outside their home.
Abdallahi was charged with 14 felony counts including 6 counts of attempted murder in the first degree, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, and one count of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department. His detention hearing will be on Tuesday.
Abdallahi was not charged with a hate crime, drawing criticism from neighbors and local leaders.
“Notably, and despite evidence that seems to suggest an antisemitic motive for the shooting, authorities did not file hate crime charges,” 50th Ward Alderman Debra Silverstein said in a statement. “I am very disappointed by this turn of events and strongly encourage the Cook County State’s Attorney Office to prosecute the offender to the full extent of the law.”
Silverstein added that she has spoken to police who “share our disgust at a Jewish man being the victim of violence over the Jewish holidays.”

According to New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz, the suspect “is an illegal immigrant from northwest Africa. He crossed our southern border a year and a half ago,” although I caution that no other source has confirmed that information. Someone else on Twitter, however, noticed that the suspect’s name is apparently a tribute to a former president of Mauritania, which is a country in northwest Africa, so that could tend to confirm Markowicz’s exclusive, at least in part. But whatever the case may be, it’s curious that CNN — which spent all day bleating about Trump’s alleged “Nazi” rally at Madison Square Garden, can’t be bothered to notice a Jew being targeted for deadly violence when (a) it happens in the Democrat stronghold of Chicago and (b) the suspect is yelling “Allahu Akbar.” The good news is that, so far as we know, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi never made any jokes about Puerto Rico.

In another video shared with The Daily Wire by a neighbor, the gunman who shot an Orthodox Jew and shouted Allahu Akbar in Chicago is seen being shot by a police officer. pic.twitter.com/0yUXyp5bDq

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) October 28, 2024

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Category: Chicago, Crime, Media Bias, Terrorism

Rule 5 Sunday: Coffee, Please

Posted on | October 28, 2024 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

The most important part of the morning is coffee. This week’s appetizer is courtesy of Rule 5 Texan on X.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Starbucks? Seriously?

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule Five Money In Politics Friday, and the Saturday Gingermegeddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, MAGA Joe Rogan Experience, Suspiria, I Married A Witch, Fantastic Planet, The Wicker Man, Scanners, Eraserhead, Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds, Eyes Without A Face, and Carnival of Souls.

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Charly Jordan, Fish Pic Friday – Sea Sail n Sun, Tattoo Thursday, The Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, The Catfish That’s Eating Pennsylvania, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Science is Dead, Long Live Science!, Palm Sunday and RIP: Mitzi Gaynor

FLAPPR: Serious Matters & Unfolding Trends for October 25

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Preparing for the Winter Meetings

Posted on | October 27, 2024 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

As I mentioned Friday, the 1972 season in Pete’s league is over (Yankees won) and we’re gearing up for the 1973 season. As mentioned here, there are four expansion teams available and the deadline to let Pete know you want one of them is November 2 – next Saturday. Pete’s looking to get the draft going on the 16th, which beats last season when the draft began while I was in Nashville for the Confinement SF convention. As you can guess from the pic (which is definitely related) my Senators are staying in DC and not moving to Texas.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Meanwhile in the front office…

FMJRA 2.0: The God-Emperor Works A Shift At McD’s
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: Where My Wolfsbane At?
Flappr
EBL

‘A Routine Patrol’ in Rafah
The Daley Gator
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.21.24
EBL
357 Magnum

Charlie Martin Needs Your Help
The Daley Gator
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.22.24
Battleswarm Blog
EBL
357 Magnum

DOA on the Road to Social Justice
Flappr
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.24.24
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.25.24 (Afternoon Edition)
EBL
357 Magnum

Armageddon Update: IDF Strikes Iran
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 10.25.24 (Evening Edition)
EBL
357 Magnum

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

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Category: FMJRA Award

It’s Classical Allusions Day

Posted on | October 26, 2024 | 1 Comment

Cicero

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus bonorum omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil horum ora voltusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia non sentis, constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris?
O tempora, o mores! Senatus haec intellegit. Consul videt; hic tamen vivit. Vivit? immo vero etiam in senatum venit, fit publici consilii particeps, notat et designat oculis ad caedem unum quemque nostrum.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero,
First Oration Against Catiline, 63 B.C.

The last time I quoted Cicero here was June 2012, in reference to the Kimberlin affair. The insolence of the Pipsqueak Pipebomber, and the very fact that he was not still in prison, was as outrageous to me as Catline’s presence in the Senate was to Cicero. When he laments the decadence of the age — “O tempora, o mores!” — what Cicero means is that, in an earlier era, Romans knew how to deal with such a criminal, who would have already been executed for sedition, given what was known of Catiline’s conspiracy: hic tamen vivit. “Yet this man lives.”

Such is the outrage any intelligent person must feel when, for the umpteenth time, we get the Trump-is-Hitler smear from MSNBC — the same MSNBC that provides a platform to Al Sharpton who, to this day, has never apologized for inciting the 1991 Crown Heights pogrom.

“How long, O Catline, do you intend to abuse our patience? How long do you think your rage can elude us? How far will you go with this unbridled audacity of yours?” This is perhaps not the best translation. Some 30 years ago, I know I had a really eloquent translation — dating back to the Victorian era, as I recall — but today when I went to find it, all I found on my bookshelf was a 1948 translation that lacked the poetic quality of the version I remembered. The original Latin has a certain cadence to it, the way Churchill’s best speeches did, and I missed that dignified cadence in the translation used by Roger Kimball in his latest column:

Whose fault was it?
That of course is going to be the overwhelming question Democrats will be asking themselves after Kamala Harris loses on November 5.
It is worth stressing that a question can also be an accusation. Cicero reminded us of this in his first oration against Catiline, which opens with more than half a dozen questions spat out like bullets from a Gatling gun. Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? “How long, Catiline, will you go on exhausting our patience?” Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? “And how long will that madness of yours mock us?”
The biased circus concession that we call much of the media has an interest in drawing out the festivities surrounding an election. So in the case of Trump vs Harris, the answer to Cicero’s questions is “as long as possible” . . .

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

Kimball’s scholarship is, no doubt, superior to my own, but I still miss the stately cadence of the translation I remember from decades ago. Nevertheless, it’s good to see Cicero invoked this way, to remind the 21st-century readership that, not so many years ago, a man was not considered truly educated unless he knew Latin and Greek. And along with that knowledge, of course, the educated man also acquired some knowledge of ancient history, which our Founding Fathers knew so well.

One of the worst traits of liberals is their quasi-religious faith in progress, the idea that we — the present generation — are more educated, more intelligent and morally superior to our ancestors. The beliefs and customs of the past are to be disdained as crude, primitive and backward, and nothing about our forebears is genuinely admirable, so that monuments to heroes once universally admired are toppled because our erstwhile heroes are now condemned as racist colonizers or whatever.

Studying the controversies of the distant past, such as Catline’s conspiracy and Cicero’s role in exposing it, tends to give us a better perspective on contemporary controversies, a point made in the comments earlier today by my old friend Bert the Samoan Lawyer:

We are in uncharted territory insofar as the brief history of this Republic is concerned. Viewed in the light of all of human history, however … Well, I’ll defer to Ozymandias for comment.

Heh, indeed: “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”