The Other McCain

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

In The Mailbox: 10.11.24 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | October 11, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 10.11.24 (Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up. – Bruce Schneier

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

This meme implies a level of competency that Deanne Criswell conspicuously lacks.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Don’t Like the Swill Produced by Hollywood? Then You’re a Bad Person (Part 3)
EBL: Harris Walz Media Hurricane, also, Hurricane Milton Hits Central Florida
Twitchy: Just A Photo-Op! “You And Kamala Disagree?”, and Kamala’s Univision Town Hall Scooped In A Big Way
Louder With Crowder: , also, Watch: Biden throws Kamala under the bus AGAIN over Ron DeSantis feud. Does he realize what he’s doing?
Vox Popoli: The Value of Awards, The Invasion is No Accident, 200+ Videos, The Movable Rock, and Sold Out
Upstream Reviews: Why Aren’t Men Reading? Why Are People Reading Less? also, Pack Dynamics
Postcards From Barsoom: Hector Saves His Dad
Ammo.com: Mass Shootings & Prescription Antidepressants

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: The Houthis’ Issue Isn’t Really With Israel
Dana Loesch: The Harris Campaign Tries Baiting Voters With WoW, 
Michele Catalano: you gotta have faith

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In The Mailbox: 10.10.24

Posted on | October 10, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 10.10.24

— compiled by Wombat-socho

As of yesterday, I am 65. Never thought I was going to live anywhere near this long.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: When Politicians Pretend They Know Anything About High Tech
EBL: We Will Dance Again
Twitchy: Politico Fantasizes That Kamala Is Riding A Dream Economy Into The Election, Internet Archive Taken Offline Weeks Before The Election, Making A Lot Of People Suspicious, and Did Sleepy Joe Forget He’s POTUS?
Louder With Crowder: Anti-Woke Athletic Brand Calls Out Nike For Not Standing Up For Girls In Powerful Video
Vox Popoli: No Place for SJWs, No Flags for Lebanon, Not Much News, He Never Did Nothing to Nobody, and The Terrifying Decline
Upstream Reviews: Eighty-Six

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: 2023 INSURV Report, Finally In 1Q 2025
Dana Loesch: Last Week In Legal – The Jack Smith Filing Special Edition
Don Surber: Polling only today
Glenn Reynolds: Debt Doom Is Coming
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Humpday Shrapnel

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Democrats ‘Increasingly Worried About a Number of Issues Plaguing’ Kamala

Posted on | October 10, 2024 | Comments Off on Democrats ‘Increasingly Worried About a Number of Issues Plaguing’ Kamala

Remember what I told you in mid-September? “Kamala Is Underperforming” was the headline, at a time when the newly-minted Democratic presidential nominee was still riding her post-convention “bounce.” A careful comparison of Harris’s poll numbers to Joe Biden’s numbers in 2020 and Hillary Clinton’s numbers in 2016 showed that she was weaker against Trump than either Joe or Hillary.

Ace of Spades highlights the troubling trends that have Democrats hitting the panic button, with the quote in my headline from a story in The Hill which quotes one Democratic strategist thus:

Democratic strategist Anthony Coley, who served in the Biden administration, acknowledged the trepidation, pointing to the stagnant poll numbers in the weeks following the Democratic National Convention, when Democrats were making comparisons between Harris’s campaign and former President Obama’s run in 2008.
“Now that the sugar high is gone, people have realized what Kamala Harris has said from the start, which is that she is the underdog,” Coley said. “This is going to be a fight. … These numbers are just so stubborn.”

What he means by those “stubborn” numbers is that Kamala got to a certain level in the polls, and can’t get past it. She’s reached her ceiling, and it’s not high enough to give Democrats confidence that she can win. Trump’s numbers are solid — his voters aren’t going anywhere, and the number of “undecided” voters is very small. And then you start looking at polls for the battleground states and . . . Uh, oh. Internal polling by Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s campaign shows Harris losing by three points to Trump there, and Democrats are also starting to worry about Michigan. If both of those Midwest “blue wall” states are shaky for Harris, we could be looking at 300+ Electoral College votes for Trump. And the signs of trouble multiply from there.

It’s a simple arithmetic problem: How does she get to 270 Electoral College voters if, for example, Trump wins Pennsylvania. Do the math and you realize that, if Trump wins Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, that’s the whole ballgame — Wisconsin and Michigan become irrelevant. As matters stand now, Georgia looks pretty solid for Trump, Harris has no better than a 50-50 chance in Pennsylvania, and whatever’s going on in North Carolina, it’s a state that Trump won twice, so that flipping it to Harris would appear to be a rather desperate hope.

What, therefore, are we to make of this headline from NBC News? “Harris and Democratic allies descend on Arizona in all-hands push before early voting.” The obvious inference is that Team Harris is worried enough about some other state (or combination of states) that they find it necessary to expend resources trying to get 11 Electoral College votes from Arizona, a state where practically every poll shows Trump leading. If you are a Democrat worried about Kamala’s chances, this ought to be a flashing red light, the trigger that turns your headache into a full-blown migraine. Look, if CNN’s aggregation of public polls has Harris +1 in Pennsylvania, that almost certainly means Trump is winning Pennsylvania, and perhaps by as much as 4 or 5 points.

Do I trust those polls? Not really, but there is a general consensus that, as a candidate, Kamala is not all that and a stack of pancakes. A former Democratic Party fundraiser puts his finger on the fundamental problem — the Democrats are ignoring the demos:

Consider the long-time friendship between Kamala Harris and billionaire donor Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs. The New York Times described the women as being so close that they’ve gone on vacation together and consider each other family. Powell Jobs sat in Harris’ exclusive friends and family suite at the DNC last month. She was also instrumental in getting Biden to step down to clear the way for Harris; one of her top aides circulated a polling memo to other key influential donors that allegedly showed Biden’s inability to win.
It was another example of a megadonor overcoming the will of the people — and making things worse for voters. Now that the Kool-Aid from the DNC is wearing off, people are waking up to the realities of an untested candidate. Harris is barely beating Biden in key swing state polls, dodges questions from the press, and continually gaffes answers on significant policy issues. She can barely answer basic questions about her plans for regular people in friendly encounters with people like Oprah.
This is what happens when a candidate is anointed by donors and not selected by voters.

Exactly. Harris was never as popular as Biden. She flopped in the 2020 primaries, exiting the race in 2019 before a single vote was cast. If Biden had announced in 2019 that he would not seek a second term, that would have allowed Democrats to choose their candidate in an open primary, and how likely is it that Harris would have won such a primary against, e.g., Gavin Newsome, Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore, et al.? What happened instead was that Biden decided to run again, despite his increasingly obvious cognitive impairment and then, after his debate meltdown in June, was forced off the ticket, with Harris anointed as the nominee.

Kamala didn’t win the nomination, it was handed to her, gift-wrapped on a silver platter, and many voters who might not be eager to see another Trump presidency are neverthless reluctant to vote for this ill-qualified woman who reminds us that “DEI” stands for Didn’t Earn It. With 26 days until November 5, the Democrats have nobody but themselves to blame for this unforced error. The party’s billionaire donors got what they paid for, but voters won’t endorse this corrupt bargain.



 

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Category: Donald Trump, Election, Kamala Harris, Polls

In The Mailbox: 10.08.24 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | October 9, 2024 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

There’s no native birth requirement for Supreme Court justices. DANKULA FOR SCOTUS!

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Lies, Damn Lies, and Government Statistics
EBL: Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas Prioritizes High End Personal Shopping Over Hurricane Recovery, Hurricane Kamala only cares about Kamala, Kamala Flounders In 60 Minutes Interview, and Notorious robophobe Matt Yglesias is allegedly sexbot curious
Twitchy: Senator Mike Lee Lays Out Demands For Next GOP Senate Leader, Tim Scott Calls Out CBS News’ DEI Strategist For Racist Social Media Posts…And He’s Gone, and Was FBI Probe Of Brett Kavanaugh Sexual Assault Allegations Hindered By Trump Administration? WaPo Alleges Yes!
Louder With Crowder: Joy Behar begs GOPers to vote Democrat “just this once” so let’s laugh at her, Special K can’t answer why we have money for Lebanon and not North Carolina, so she runs away, and MAGA PAC has already turned Kamala’s “The View” gaffe into a pro-Trump ad
Vox Popoli: Don’t Tell Them About the Helmets, A New Wave of Censorship, Mailvox: Surviving Helene, Hungary Opts Out, and Will October See Total War?
Wright’s Writing Corner: At Long Last…Space Pirates of Andromeda!

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: And Women Rule Over Us
American Conservative: What Was Gained by the Ukraine War?
American Greatness: Actor Ben Affleck and Son Stranded After Electric Truck Dies, Vance Shows the Power of a Silver Tongue, Hurricane Helene Damaged Seven States, Hurricane Biden-Harris Damaged 50, and FEMA Anxiously Working To Repair Damage–To Its Own Reputation
American Thinker: FEMA an Even Bigger Disaster Than the Storms Themselves — and How it Can Be Replaced, Zuckerbucks a Grave Peril for 2024, and Recent Events Force Us To See The Reality Of Today’s Democrats
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday, also, Animal’s Daily Queen of Word Salads News
Babalu Blog: Drastic drop in egg production in Cuba due to chickenfeed shortage, RIP Luis Tiant, and Russian oil company employees begin arriving in Cuba for 2 weeks of ‘health tourism,’ but where’s the Russian oil?
BattleSwarm: Paxton Files Lawsuit Against Tik-Tok, Dear Hollywood: Wokeness Or Profit. Choose One., Police Raid San Antonio Apartment Complex Run By Tren de Aragua, and Sexbots? In My Cloud Stack? It’s More Likely Than You Think!
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches Europe’s Hera asteroid mission, FAA and the Biden administration proves it is out to destroy SpaceX, SpaceX says it is targeting October 13, 2024 for 5th Starship/Superheavy launch, Curiosity’s upcoming travel route, and Donations to Columbia University continue to plunge in response to the pro-Hamas anti-Semitic protests on campus
Cafe Hayek: ProPublica Protects Power from Account, Christian Science Monitor: “State of the Union shows Obama is now pro-business. He should be pro-growth.”, and Open Letter to Freddie deBoer
Chicago Boyz: Hillbilly Death Wish, Quote of the Day, and “When Is Blowing Up the World A Success?”
Da Tech Guy: Israel Passes the Test: A thought about the “Don’t Fear the Beeper” Attack, Nixon had his Saturday Night Massacre, Chicago’s mayor has his Friday Afternoon Massacre, I Want to Note One Thing About All of the Brave “Death to Israel” Protesters Particularly Men of Military Age All Over the Western World on This Oct 7th 2024, and A Reverse Pappy O’Daniel in PA?
Don Surber: Media can sure pick them
First Street Journal: The Philadelphia Inquirer conceals a truth that everyone already knows, October 6, 2023: a day of peace, The ‘Palestinian’ supporters conveniently ‘forgot’ what started this war, and When the Jew haters tell you who they are, believe them!
Gates Of Vienna: Horrors, and Rumors of Horrors, Rope For Sale, A Free Pass Into the EU For All Afghan Chicks, Powers and Principalities, and You Can’t Deport a Tranny
The Geller Report: Cocaine Kamala: White House Staffer Reveals It Was Kamala’s Cocaine Found in White House, also, Kamala on the View: I Wouldn’t Change a Thing Over Past 4 Years
Hollywood In Toto: The One Lesson Hollywood Hasn’t Learned, How Sixth Sense Turned Conventional Wisdom on Its Head, October 7 Play Faces New Threats on Attack’s Anniversary, Buried Bruce Willis Drama Brought Future Stars to TV, and Apprentice Crushed by Trump Derangement Syndrome
The Lid: New Jersey High School Bans Yellow Ribbons to Commemorate Oct. 7 Attack on Israel, Calls them ‘Hate’ against Muslims, also, Special Ops Vets Launch ‘Redneck Air Force’ to Help Victims of Hurricane Helene as Biden’s FEMA Fails
Legal Insurrection: Making a Woke GenZ Anthropologist a Celebrity Shows the Left’s Grip on Science, NY Equal Rights Amendment Ballot Initiative “sets up … racial retribution and favoritism under the guise of ‘dismantling discrimination’”, Biden Reportedly Blames Obama for Putin Invading Ukraine in 2022, Afghan National Arrested for Plotting Election Day Terrorist Attack, and Whitaker to Walz: ‘Isn’t That More Than Just Being a Knucklehead?’
Nebraska Energy Observer: Glimpses of a Vanished World, Government Is Evil, and Just when you think you’ve heard everything
Outkick: After Latest Georgia Arrest, It’s Time For Kirby Smart To Admit His Program Is Out Of Control , NCAA Votes To Shorten Transfer Portal Window, But Keeps Spring Period Open, And Some Coaches Won’t Be Happy, Michigan Staffer Caught On Video Threatening Fans With Vulgar Message, There’s A Bill Looking To Give Miracle On Ice Team Congressional Gold Medals And It Better Pass, and Deadspin Loses Bid to Dismiss Defamation Suit Over Accusing 9-Year-Old Chiefs Fan of Blackface
Power Line: Walz a Laughingstock? Yes, But He’s Much Worse, Kamala Runs For President, Sort Of, Musk Goes Missing, and Can’t Anyone Here Play This Game?
Shark Tank: Mills Confident Trump Can Solve Middle East Crisis If He Returns To Office
Shot In The Dark: Digging Into The Memory Hole, While Awaiting Kanye’s Two Cents Worth, Public Service, Again, It Practically Goes Without Saying, It’s The Absence Of Coverup, and Tortal Recall
The Political Hat: Witchcraft And The Politics Of Panic, also, Judge Bans The Changing Of Genetic Makeup To Create Hybrid Sheep. Will A Ban On Catgirls Follow?
This Ain’t Hell: Late night off-base drinking curtailed for US troops in Japan, Ghost Ship Found, Retired Army logistics officer compares government’s responses to Katrina and Helene, New Zealand loses first ship since WWII, and Illegal aliens not being recruited to vote? Videos indicate otherwise
Transterrestrial Musings: The Russian Economy, A Civil RIghts Victory, and Have They Satisfied The Fish People?
Victory Girls: Tim Walz About His Passionate Lies: “I Don’t Think People Care”, also, FEMA Doesn’t Have The Funds, Or Do They?
Volokh Conspiracy: Biden Foolishly [sic] Decides Not to Extend Legal Status for Migrants Who Entered the US Under the CHNV Private Sponsorship Program, also, Sixth Circuit Allows Enforcement of Ohio Law Barring Foreign Expenditures on Ballot Initiatives
Watts Up With That: Heating Season Is Starting in Earnest EARLY This Fall Across Western Europe, Meet the 108-Year-Old 1916 Major Hurricane that Brought 8 Feet of Flood Water to Asheville, NC & Covered All of Biltmore, and Tactical Science
The Federalist: ‘Long Live Oct. 7’: Pro-Hamas Demonstrators Celebrate Slaughter Of Israelis One Year Later, Colorado Supreme Court Dismisses Lawfare Case Against Christian Cake Baker, The Federal Government Is Fighting To Keep Noncitizens On Voter Rolls, SCOTUS Declines To Interrupt Jack Smith’s Election-Interference Probe Of Trump’s Private Data, and FEMA Doesn’t Care About Helping Americans After A Disaster, It Cares About ‘Disaster Equity’
Mark Steyn: Droning Clichés in a Burning Theatre, Nonplussed and Terrified, The Way You Look Tonight, What She Saw: Kate Winslet as Lee Miller, and Here’s to You, Glenda!

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In The Mailbox: 10.08.24 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | October 8, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 10.08.24 (Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

“Trump is everywhere. Anxious Dems wonder why Kamala isn’t.”

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Don’t Like the Swill Produced by Hollywood? Then You’re a Bad Person (Part 2)
EBL: Kamala giving $157 million to Lebanon, but not for Hurricane Helene vicitms, Killer Heat, Our Lady of the Rosary, and October 7, 2023: The hours that shook Israel
Twitchy: Vivek Ramaswamy’s Immigration Solution Triggers A Lot Of Stupidity On The Left, Watch Kamala Babble, Squirm, & Flail Explaining To Colbert Why She Loves America, and Biden Throwing Harris Under The Bus After She’s Caught Lying About DeSantis Call Is GLORIOUS
Louder With Crowder: Elon Musk says his blood is boiling over FEMA not allowing these critical supplies to get to hurricane victims, Another major union doesn’t feel the joy, REJECTS Kamala Harris after backing Joe Biden in 2020, Even in this pre-recorded “60 Minutes” interview, Kamala Harris struggles to answer BASIC questions, and Here are three RED FLAGS that show just how horrible things are going for Kamala Harris
Vox Popoli: Illiteracy is Good for the Economy, The Next British Scandal, Ski-U-Mah, Terry Pratchett Knew, and Anyone But Americans
Gab: The Rise of a Parallel Government, also, Hillary Clinton’s Threat To Free Speech
Upstream Reviews: Sword’s Edge
Draw & Talk Comics: The Addiction of Comics & Manga
Fandom Pulse: Kickstarter Banned Me For Submitting My Space Marine Comic Book
Flappr: Big TD’s Football Blog – Week 5
Postcards From Barsoom: Universal Suffrage Is A Suicide Pact

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Japan’s New Look Leadership
Dana Loesch: Harris Blasts DeSantis For Blocking Her Attempt To Politicize Hurricane Response
Don Surber: Globalism that worked
Glenn Reynolds: Schrödinger’s Election
Micxhele Catalano: someone saved my life tonight
Protein Wisdom Reborn: Notes from a cluttered mind
STUMP: Notable Cancer Deaths, 

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Death by Online Misadventure

Posted on | October 7, 2024 | 1 Comment

Say hello to Joseph Nathan Ryan, “a Springfield, Va., resident who lived with his grandmother and a small dog,” according to the Washington Post, until one day in February 2023, when he was shot to death as “part of an elaborate ruse that lured a man interested in sexual fetishes” to the home of a married couple “in a well-to-do suburb of the nation’s capital.”

My brother Kirby told me about this story, and after doing some research, I remarked to him what I’ve often said before: “There’s a reason why some things are called ‘fantasies,’ because if you try to do them in real life, bad things happen.” Certainly, Joseph Ryan would agree, were he still alive to discuss the subject. What brought Ryan to the home in Herndon on the day of his death was a website called “FetLife,” catering to the devotees of bizarre sexual fetishes, where Ryan’s account handle was “tacosupreme7000.” He had been communicating with an account with the handle “Annastasia9.” The photo associated with the “Annastasia9” account was of a 37-year-old woman.

Christine Banfield was a pediatric ICU nurse, the mother of a 4-year-old, but according to prosecutors, she was not involved in the kinky BDSM practices that “Annastasia9” had been discussing on FetLife with Joseph Ryan. In fact, it is alleged, she apparently had no idea that her photo was being used on this site, because “the elaborate ruse” was apparently a setup hatched by her husband, Brendan Banfield, and the couple’s 22-year-old Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães.

Brendan Banfield (left), Juliana Magalhães (right)

It took investigators a long time to get enough evidence to bring charges, first against Magalhães, in April, and then last month against Brendan Banfield. Both are charged with the death of Ryan, but so far not with the death of Christine Banfield who, it seems, was stabbed by Ryan, who apparently came to the Banfield home with the idea that “Annastasia9” wanted to be tortured with a knife. Sounds crazy, right? The Washington Post calls it “a case that has become an internet sensation, prompting an episode on ‘Crime Stories With Nancy Grace,’ a social following on TikTok and fervid coverage in Brazilian media outlets.”

Frankly, it’s got enough dramatic twists and turns it could be a Netflix series, and here’s just a little ironic plot twist:

In a Facebook post that included a link to her online petition protesting the COVID-era suspension of foreign travel visas, Christine Banfield wrote: “Our au pair has become a part of our family and we share our love of America with her and she shares her Brazilian culture with us.”

Yeah, there was lots of cultural sharing between Christine’s husband and their au pair, which affair prosecutors allege was the motive for the “elaborate ruse” that got both Christine and Joseph Ryan killed. As I understand it, the prosecution’s theory is that Brendan Banfield and Magalhães had been sexually involved for some months prior to that deadly day in February 2023. Banfield set up this FetLife account “Annastasia9,” which lured Ryan to the Banfield home with the idea of acting out some kind of fantasy involving sex at knifepoint. So then Brendan Banfield and Magalhães claim to have discovered this knife-wielding “intruder” in the Banfield home, fatally stabbing Christine. Ryan is then shot to death, supposedly in self-defense, thereby eliminating the only witness who can explain what’s happening. If they got away with it, Brendan Banfield and Magalhães would then carry on their romance, but despite the deviousness of this scheme, somehow prosecutors were able to figure it out, and so a trial is now scheduled for November.

Among the many possible lessons that might be learned from this bizarre case, arguably the most crucial is this: You have no idea who is really behind that sexy-looking online profile you might encounter in your Internet browsing. It is very easy to create fake personas on the Internet — or so I have been told by the former deputy Minister of the Interior of Nigeria, who sent me an email inviting me to get rich with his assistance.

If something seems too good to be true, it’s probably neither good nor true. Scammers are everywhere, but when Joseph Ryan went pursuing his fantasies on FetLife, he apparently had no doubt that “Annastasia9” was who she said she was. A lack of skepticism can get you killed, and while most murders perpetrated through such online impersonation schemes are not as luridly fascinating as the plot that killed Joseph Ryan, it certainly illustrates the point I made to my brother: “There’s a reason why some things are called ‘fantasies,’ because if you try to do them in real life, bad things happen.” Be careful out there, y’all.



 

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Category: Crime

Rule 5 Sunday: But First, Coffee

Posted on | October 7, 2024 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Somewhere in one of my picture folders I have a photo of a coffee-drinking lass on a bed wearing a T-shirt* with the sentence “Yes, But First, Coffee”. Until I find it again, this pic from Rule5Texan on X will do quite nicely.

Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM: Rule 5 Barn-burner Friday, and the Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, MAGA Fayetteville NC, Ride Me, Cowboy! – Sexiest Classic Westerns, Faith Hill, Dark Angel Theme, Sasquatch Sunset, Happy Rosh Hashana, CNN Turkey Confirms The Mossad Is At It Again, Green Day, and RIP Maggie Smith

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Son?a Holen?a?kova?, Gone Fishin’, Fish Pic Friday – Brittany McWaters, Thursday Tanlines, Brown Boobies Make Maryland Stop, Night of the Master Debaters, The Wednesday Wetness, Helene Is Biden/Harris’s Katrina, Supermassive, Back Through the Rain, The Monday Morning Stimulus and Palm Sunday

FLAPPR: Serious Matters & Unfolding Trends for 10.4.24

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

*Maybe she had panties on. It was hard to tell. 

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Category: Rule 5

Happy Birthday to Me

Posted on | October 6, 2024 | Comments Off on Happy Birthday to Me

Among the ‘elite’ in 2017

Today is my 65th birthday — old enough to qualify for Social Security, but still working. It’s been four days since I updated the blog, but my day job kind of interfered with the blogging schedule this week. Also, I keep doing that thing where I begin an article, write hundreds or even thousands of words, and then abandon the draft because some news event interrupts. Do not accuse me of early-onset Alzheimer’s — I’ve always been somewhat scatter-breained this way, before they had such terms as “ADD” or “multi-tasking” to describe my modus operandi.

My greatest joy in journalism was the years I spent, from 2008 to 2012, in a blur of frenetic travel, doing shoe-leather reporting on the campaign trail. Being on the scene, reporting what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, provided infinitely more satisfaction than the mere quote-and-comment stuff of blogging. But the rigors of the campaign trail take their toll — it’s a young man’s game, and I was something of a senior citizen in the traveling press corps even when I was not yet 50. Nowadays, it seems, the business of covering campaigns is done mainly by kids fresh out of college, no doubt as a cost-saving measure by financially strapped media organizations.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been so long ago that I was careening around upstate New York covering the Doug Hoffman campaign, furiously ratting the tip jar to pay for my gas and the rental car (that got ambushed by a deer one foggy night). That grassroots populist Tea Party campaign against the GOP Establishment (remember Dede Scozzafava?) was, as those of us who witnessed it predicted at the time, a template for the 2010 midterms, when Republicans recaptured the House in a historic landslide (see “The Republican Mandate,” Nov. 25, 2010). And, when you look at it in retrospect, one can trace a direct path from the populism of the Tea Party movement to the campaign that put Donald Trump in the White House in 2016 and which now, less than a month before Election Day, bids fair to return Trump to the White House again.

Excuse the nostalgic reverie, but you get to be this old and find that most of what you have to offer the younger generation is (a) fabulous tales of Ye Olden Days, and (b) advice that they will, of course, ignore.

Portrait of the Author as an Old Man

However frustrating it is to get old, however, it is still preferable to the alternative. Merely being alive can be considered an achievement, at this point and, like Carl Spackler said after telling his story about the Dalai Lama: “So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.”

Speaking of old guys, it’s a great misfortune that my old blog buddy John Hoge died last year. As you know, Hoge was an alumnus of Vanderbilt University and yesterday, the Commodores upset the Alabama Crimson Tide, the first time in 40 years that Vandy beat ’Bama, and the first time they had ever beat a team ranked No. 1 in the country. Why did this tragedy strike the Tide, which was riding high after knocking off Georgia a week earlier? My brother Kirby could preach you a sermon about what’s wrong with Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, but you probably wouldn’t want to hear that sermon. However, having received total consciousness (thank you, Dalai Lama), I view this world-historic event — Vandy beating Alabama — as a timely omen of November 5.

Maybe it’s just me who sees it this way, but if lowly Vanderbilt can triumph over the top-ranked team in the country, isn’t it possible that Donald Trump can achieve something no president has done since Grover Cleveland, winning the presidency in two non-consecutive terms?

Trust me on this one. I went to Harvard University. Once, on a road trip with Da Tech Guy in 2017. But at least I can say I went there.

What did I gain from that experience? Well, not total consciousness (again, thank you Dalai Lama), but merely walking across Harvard Yard has a mystical way of imparting the spirit of elite enlightenment, and from that experience I obtained a crucial esoteric insight that, to celebrate the occasion of my 65th birthday, I will now share with readers, i.e., the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

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Category: Journalism, Shoe Leather Fund
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