The Other McCain

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

GA-6: ‘The Big Short’ and the Establishment Media Bubble

Posted on | June 21, 2017 | 2 Comments

 

Tuesday night, I monitored election results from Georgia’s 6th District special election on my phone (via AoSHQ Decision Desk) while finishing up a day mowing lawns for my son’s contracting business. We were leaning on the truck and enjoying cold beverages while Jim chatted with his business partner when the Decision Desk called it for Republican Karen Handel — a sweet moment. Democrats had poured an estimated $30 million into “Pajamaboy Carpetbagger” Jon Osoff’s doomed campaign and came away with another “L,” their fourth consecutive special-election defeat since Trump’s election.

Democrats’ hope of returning to power by riding a wave of anti-Trump “backlash” has been exposed as a delusion based on denial. Along with their media allies, Democrats simply refuse to accept the reality that American voters have rejected them. Democrats are the ex-boyfriend who refuses to move on, and voters are the girl getting stalked on Facebook by an obsessed loser who can’t take a hint. It’s creepy.

The now iconic image of the CNN crew at 9:43 pm ET Tuesday is a perfect distillation of a problem we can call the Establishment Media Bubble.

Those pictured were CNN’s political director David Chalian, CNN’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger, CNN’s executive director of Political Programming/Sr. Political Analyst Mark Preston, and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash.

The pretense of journalistic objectivity, which is the Establishment Media’s stock in trade, has become so transparently implausible that no intelligent viewer could be deceived by it. Beyond that, and perhaps more importantly, the media’s pretense of political expertise was even more brutally exposed as a fraud — a hoax as bogus as “Haven Monahan.”

If Mark Preston is such an insightful political analyst, why couldn’t CNN accurately predict the outcome of this election? For the same reason that CNN was so disastrously wrong in 2016: They are no longer a news organization, but instead are a Democrat propaganda operation. Mark Preston is a partisan Democrat who, as a University of Massachusetts student, worked in Ted Kennedy’s office. Ask yourself this question: In his role as a CNN executive, would Mark Preston ever hire a reporter who had worked for Rand Paul or Ted Cruz? Answer: Fuck no.

CNN, like every other Establishment Media organization, actively discriminates against Republicans in its hiring decisions. Mark Preston’s network is a sort of political cult that only employs True Believers. The organization’s journalistic standards are subordinated to its political mission, which is to persuade viewers to vote Democrat. Period.

 

* * * * *

 

When my son had finished up talking with his business partner Tuesday night, we went to my son’s house and watched The Big Short on Netflix. My son had already seen the movie twice, but I never had, and I kept trying to shush him and my brother, who were talking during most of the show. Because a lot of my son’s business involves “repo flips” — rehabbing properties that have been repossessed, so that they can be resold — he has a direct familiarity with how the housing market operates at the practical level. And he’s been doing this kind of work since he was a teenager, during the final years of the bubble, so he can tell you what it was like from the ant’s-eye view. The Big Short is a fascinating movie, but the “moral of the story” at the end of the film is badly flawed. The filmmakers want to sell the audience an “Occupy Wall Street”/Bernie Sanders left-populist myth, that the subprime mortgage industry was a result of deregulation and/or Bush-era Republican corruption.

“Stop the movie!” I shouted at Jim, when we got to that payoff scene, after Mark Baum (who in real life is actually Steve Eisman) has made the final decision to sell his short options. “The people who got those mortgages were as guilty as the people who gave them the mortgages!”

If you were buying a $400,000 home with a zero-down ARM for which you could not qualify under any normal standards of credit worthiness, you weren’t the victim of a fraud, you were an active accomplice. People who “bought” homes with so-called NINJA (no income, no job) loans were engaged in an immoral enterprise, and it is wrong to exempt them from blame for doing something they must have known was wrong.

To repeat what I’ve said before: If something seems too good to be true, it is either (a) not really true, or (b) not really good. The notion that any random loser could (and should) become a homeowner was always dubious, and government policies intended to promote minority home ownership By Any Means Necessary played a huge role in the housing bubble, a crucial factor that The Big Short does not acknowledge. The filmmakers want to exempt from blame the people who became “homeowners” by getting ARM mortgages they knew (or should have known) they would not be able to pay back. If you want to blame “greed” for the housing bubble, isn’t it true that the people who bought homes with NINJA loans were as greedy, in their own way, as the bond hustlers whose collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) financed those loans?

Well, what does this have to do with CNN’s pathetic excuse for political journalism? It’s this — the people who watch CNN are as much a part of the problems as the people who run CNN. Just as the housing bubble could never have happened, had there not been so many uncreditworthy borrowers willing to buy homes with no-money-down ARMs, there could be no Establishment Media Bubble, if there weren’t so many people willing to consume the blatantly biased “journalism” produced by CNN (and NBC, and the New York Times, etc.). You will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of Democrat voters, and the Establishment Media’s business is based on exploiting this stupidity.

The Democrat viewers who let CNN convince them that Jon Osoff was going to win GA-6, and thereby vindicate the anti-Trump #Resistance, learned nothing from Tuesday night’s results. Those viewers woke up this morning and turned on their TVs to watch the “experts” on CNN explain to them what went wrong and what this means for the future. But why should anyone believe the Establishment Media’s explanations for another Democrat defeat, when the Establishment Media failed to predict this defeat, in the same way they failed to predict Hillary’s defeat?

 

Mark Preston is not an omniscient political genius. He is not really that much smarter than the average Democrat, or else he wouldn’t have been sitting there Tuesday night on the CNN set looking like a guy who just got home from Vegas and has to tell his wife how much money he lost.

Stephen Miller at Heat Street summarizes the result:

Herein lies the Democrats’ problem, just as it was a problem when Hillary Clinton bellowed about a basket full of deplorables during the 2016 campaign. The Democrats and their base (Hollywood) think the key to winning elections is to insult voters. “They don’t vote for us because they are bigots” is not a strategy I would employ as a campaign manager but they are welcome to keep trying this, and they are welcome to keep losing.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)



 

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

 

 

Category: CNN, Democrats, Election, Media Bias

Rule 5 Tuesday: EDC Girls

Posted on | June 20, 2017 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

The annual Electric Daisy Carnival wrapped up Monday morning at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and since I was out there doing the Uber thing getting folks to and from the event, I was pretty wiped out yesterday. So the weekly extravaganza of beautiful women dressed to show it off got punted for a couple of days, but it’s here now. Today’s appetizer – some of the young ladies at this year’s EDC, where rave clothing is the norm.
As usual, many of the following links are to pics generally considered NSFW, and one should exercise discretion in one’s clicking accordingly.

Goodstuff leads off this week with Geena Davis and some hot Thai chicks, followed by Animal Magnetism with Rule Five MYOB Friday and the Saturday Gingermageddon. We also heard from Ninety Miles From Tyranny with Hot Pick of the Late Night, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

EBL’s herd of mutant heifers this week includes Who Wore It Better?, Megyn Kelly, “Punk Rock Girl”, Bloomsday, Tina Benko, Romper Room, Rachel Borch, Megan Leavey, and Kim Wilde.

At a View From The Beach, it’s From Moldova, Xenia Deli, Fish Pic Friday – Tarpon, Tanline Thursday, Happy Flag Day!, A Wednesday Dip in the Pool, New York City Celebrates Nude Post It Day, Adiós, Glen Campbell, Ocean City Going Topless? and RIP: Batman, Er, I Mean Adam West

Proof Positive’s Friday Night Babe is Aisha Tyler, his Vintage Babe is Capucine, and Sex in Advertising is Smokin’ Hot! At Dustbury, it’s Diablo Cody and Lana Perrilla.

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery!


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Category: Rule 5

In The Mailbox: 06.20.17

Posted on | June 20, 2017 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.20.17

— compiled by Wombat-socho


I was so wiped out from EDC this past weekend that I barely had enough energy to do In The Mailbox. Rule 5 SundayTuesday will follow this post in a couple of hours.


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: The Media Gets Excited Over Van Attack In London, Ignores An Illegal Killing A Muslim Girl In Virginia. Why?
Twitchy: Louise Mensch Gets Fact-Checked After She Urges Republicans To Vote For Jon Ossoff
Louder With Crowder: Transman Says “Real Men Have Periods”. Humanity Is Doomed.


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Boiling Frog
American Power: Bing West, The March Up
American Thinker: Bleeding America?
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Free Speech News
BattleSwarm: Unmasking Documents Sealed For Five Years?
BLACKFIVE: Arthur J. Jackson – Someone You Should Know
Bring The HEAT: Army Plans “Dad Bod” Physical Standards For Men With Dependents
Da Tech Guy: The Front And Back Cover Of My New Book
Don Surber: Carrie Fisher Story Is Another Reason People Hate The Media
Dustbury: Run, Don’t Walk
The Geller Report: Leaked Swedish Police Report Lists Eight New No-Go Areas, 23 Total
Hogewash: NGC 922
Jammie Wearing Fools: When Narratives Collide – Illegal Murders Muslim Girl, Media Censor Key Details
Joe For America: Plot Twist – Illegal Alien Accused Of Killing Muslim Teen
Power Line: Civil War On The Left Part 41 – Democrats And Immigration
Shot In The Dark: Live By Bureaucracy, Die By Bureaucracy
STUMP: Pennsylvania Pension Trends – Assets
The Jawa Report: House Freedom Caucus Listed On Shooter’s Kill List, also, Christians Denied Refugee Status By Muslim UN Refugee Social Workers
The Political Hat: Queering The Census
This Ain’t Hell: The Left And Right Are NOT Morally Equivalent, also, Former VA LPN Stole Thousands From Disabled Vet
Weasel Zippers: New Independent Report Suggests Seth Rich’s Murder Not Random, also, Harvard Blames California Restaurant Closings On Minimum Wage Hike
Megan McArdle: The Amazon Approach To Groceries Won’t Replace Stores
Mark Steyn: Batman Makes Girl Talk, also, O Canada, Our Home On Natives’ Land


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Category: Linkagery

Failing the ‘Underrepresented’ at MIT

Posted on | June 20, 2017 | Comments Off on Failing the ‘Underrepresented’ at MIT

 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is one of the most elite universities on the planet. Only 8% of students who apply are accepted for admission, and annual cost of attendance (tuition, room and board) is $62,662. So unless you’re a National Merit Scholar type with a rich Daddy to pay the bills, don’t even think about going to MIT.

Alas, the idolatry of “diversity” in academia means that MIT makes special efforts to attract students from “underrepresented” groups. (The use of the term “underrepresented” instead of “minority” is necessitated because Asian students, while a minority, are actually over-represented in enrollment at elite universities.) What predictably results from such efforts is a pattern of failure that critics of affirmative action have described in terms of “mismatch theory.” If you thought the geniuses at MIT might be an exception to the pattern, you thought wrong:

Senior House, a dorm beloved by many underrepresented minority groups at MIT, has been described many ways: free-wheeling, experimental, diverse, inclusive — and, in the words of one former student, in constant violation of “campus policy on smoking, pets, drugs, alcohol, public sex, (insert flavor-of-the-month form of rebellion here).”
The dorm is about to be dismantled. MIT has decided to kick everyone out, allowing its current members to reapply for residence in the space for the fall, but insisting it will repopulate it. “You will see that we are seeking individuals who are committed to contributing to a residential environment that supports residents’ academic and personal development,” chancellor Cynthia Barnhart wrote in a letter to current and former student members, obtained by Quartz and confirmed by the university.
MIT, which prides itself on exalting data, says data drove the decision: 59.7% of students who start off (pdf) living in Senior House graduate in four years. That compares to a university-wide average of 83.7%. More than a fifth of students had not graduated after their sixth year, nearly double the rate of the next worst-performing dorm, called Random.
MIT initially proposed overhauling the house, based on the graduation data and concerns over illegal drug use. It halted 2016-2017 freshman from moving in, appointed a turnaround committee, and added more mental health resources to the house. But the administration ultimately concluded that revamping it wasn’t worth the bother. Senior House was filled with “serious and unsafe behaviors” which undermine the university’s goals for the health, safety and academic success of the students, the letter stated.

The data on graduation rates alone would suffice to defend this decision. If you’re attending a school that costs $62,662 a year, and you still haven’t graduated after six years, this is an expensive failure. However, it appears that some MIT students are not exactly objective about the data:

On [an MIT student and alumni] blog, Michelle G., class of 2018, questioned whether the graduation data cited by the university ignored that “students of certain demographic backgrounds are significantly more likely to take longer than four years to graduate.” Senior House, she wrote, is one of the most inexpensive dorms to live in, and attracts a disproportionately high share of low-income students. According to her post, the three most expensive dorms have the highest graduation rates vs. the cheapest ones, which have the lowest. She also noted that, according to the chancellor’s office, 40% of Senior House students are LGBT.

OK, if you’re a low-income Latina lesbian, was it really a smart decision to choose MIT? Does the cost-benefit analysis make sense? And considering that MIT’s admissions process is so highly selective that only 8% of applicants are accepted, what conclusion should we draw from the fact that 40% of Senior House residents can’t graduate within four years?

I’m not smart enough to know the answers to all those questions, so maybe there’s a reason why hillbillies are “underrepresented” at MIT.

(Hat-tip: The Unz Review.)

 

Category: Education

In The Mailbox: 06.19.17

Posted on | June 20, 2017 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.19.17

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: RIP Stephen “Flounder” Furst
Michelle Malkin: Rape Fakers Must Pay A Higher Price
Twitchy: Ben Shapiro Holds Off Contenders In Sad Katy Perry Caption Contest
Louder With Crowder: “Victim” Who Falsely Accused Students Of Rape Now Faces Prison Time


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Culture, Language, And Chicks
American Power: Otto Warmbier Has Died, also, Christopher Knowlton, Cattle Kingdom
American Thinker: Mueller’s Real Mandate, also, How The Deep State Built Its Field Of Dreams
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
BattleSwarm: Paglia On Democrats – “A Nationwide Orgy Of Rage And Spite”, also, Venezuela – Lynching, Riots, General Collapse
BLACKFIVE: Remembering
Bring The HEAT: Fighting To Save The Ship
Da Tech Guy: Baldilocks – Forked, also, The #Unexpectedly Chronicles – St. Anthony’s School In Fitchburg Is The Next Domino To Fall
Don Surber: How To Save The USA In Six Words, also, Go Ahead, Punks. Make Trump’s Day.
Dustbury: Strange Search-Engine Queries, also, Detotaled
The Geller Report: UK PM May Vows To Stamp Out “Islamophobia”, also, German Parents Summoned For Keeping Their Child From School Mosque Trip
Hogewash: Yours Truly, Johnny Atsign, also, Team Kimberlin Post of The Day
Jammie Wearing Fools: Former NFL QB Colin Kaepernick Compares Police To Fugitive Slave Patrols
Joe For America: Pennsylvanians Furious About Sale Of Juvenile Detention Center To Muslim Group, also, Texas Governor Abbott Signs Anti-Sharia Bill Into Law
JustOneMinute: Don’t Get Shot
Power Line: SCOTUS – No Hate Speech Exception For First Amendment, also, Another Left-Wing Science Scandal
Shark Tank: Wasserman-Schultz/Canova Rematch Now Officially On, also, Gloves Come off In Diaz/De La Portilla Race
Shot In The Dark: Because Katy Perry Doesn’t Do That Much Politics, Really
STUMP: Illinois Financial Disaster – This Is Fine, also, Mortality Monday – Cause of Death, 2014
The Jawa Report: Ministry Of Irony, Islamophobia Edition, also, Jawa Report Hereby And Forever Claims Dibs On #Trushia
The Political Hat: An Evergreen Madness
This Ain’t Hell: David Eubank Saving The World, also, RIP Bill Dana
Weasel Zippers: Outdoor Clothing Giant Patagonia Pledges To Lead Anti-Trump “Resistance”, also, NSC Refuses To Turn Over Info On Susan Rice Unmaskings, Says Evidence Being Held At Obama Library
Mark Steyn: Happy Father’s Day!, also, Action & Reaction


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Category: Linkagery

Terrorism, Et Cetera

Posted on | June 19, 2017 | 2 Comments

There was a terrorist attack Sunday night in London and, by all indications — i.e., a white suspect who plowed his vehicle into a crowd leaving a mosque — this would appear to be an anti-Muslim terror attack. As Greg Palkot said on Fox News, this looks like a “reverse copycat” of the June 3 jihad attack on London Bridge that killed eight people.

Liberals, who have spent years insisting that terrorism is never a reason to be concerned about Muslims, are now reversing their logic 180 degrees, claiming that one white guy attacking Muslims is a valid reason to be suspicious of all white males everywhere. It’s so predictable.

UPDATE: If anyone was wondering about my paucity of blog activity the last few days, I got sick Wednesday evening and only began recovering Saturday. I was well enough Sunday to go to dinner with my wife, youngest daughter and a family friend. The pizza was good, and the service was excellent, because our 18-year-old son was our waiter.

UPDATE II: Meanwhile, in London . . .

“One report says that the man arrested shouted ‘kill all the Muslims’ during the attack. You can draw your own conclusions about the veracity of that statement. We will certainly hear more about this incident as the day goes on. Right now, we can only hope there were no fatalities and that the injured are not too badly hurt.”

I blame the media. When in doubt, always blame the media. It’s best to focus on generalized group blame, because that’s who commits atrocities — general groups. Liberals don’t believe in individual responsibility, except when Muslims or women or racial minorities commit atrocities, in which case it’s a “lone wolf” attack. For example, if your name is “Youssef,” “Khuram” or “Rachid,” obviously you must be a lone wolf.

UPDATE III: The suspect is reportedly a 48-year-old white man who was wearing a white T-shirt. I blame the white T-shirt. What? Yeah, obviously, white T-shirts are racist code-speak, like cartoon amphibians.

 

Category: Great Britain, Terrorism

FMJRA 2.0: EDC 2017 – All EDM, All The Time

Posted on | June 17, 2017 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Rule 5 Sunday: Summertime Girls
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Transgender Satanic Porn Performer @ZJemptv Offers SJW Dating Advice
The Pirate’s Cove
Living In Anglo-America
Ugly Mind Babies
A View From The Beach

FMJRA 2.0: A Farewell To Batman
The Pirate’s Cove
A View From The Beach
EBL

Gay Pride = Hate Republicans?
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.12.17
Proof Positive
EBL

Violence Against Women Update
EBL

UVA Rape Hoax: Rolling Stone to Pay $1.65 Million to Defamed Fraternity
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 06.13.17
Proof Positive
EBL

Too Many Republicans on MSNBC?
EBL

Republican Congressman Shot; UPDATE: Suspect Is Illinois ‘Democrat Socialist’
Zilla Of The United States Of America
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.14.17
Proof Positive
A View From The Beach

In The Mailbox: 06.15.17
Proof Positive
EBL

The Left Continues Fomenting Hatred
EBL

In The Mailbox: 06.16.17
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Top linkers this week:

  1. EBL (11)
  2. (tied) A View From The Beach and Proof Positive (6)

Thanks to everyone for their linkagery!


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Category: FMJRA Award

In The Mailbox: 06.16.17

Posted on | June 16, 2017 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 06.16.17

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
First Street Journal: Is Bernie Sanders Responsible For James Hodgkinson?
EBL: When It Comes To Political Violence, The Left Has Been Carefully Taught…
Twitchy: Planned Parenthood Apparently Agreed To Defund Itself While Playing Hashtag Game
Louder With Crowder: Last Man Standing In Talks For Revival On New Network
According To Hoyt: It’s Not The Worst Of Times
Monster Hunter Nation: Mike Glyer Is A Scumbag
Vox Popoli: The SBC Virtue-Signals


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Give Me Your Links! Give Me Your Vids! Give Me Your Haaaaawwwwwt Chicks!
American Power: Trump Administration Rescinds DAPA, also, Meagan Leavey Review
American Thinker: The Rise And Fall of James Comey
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five MYOB Friday
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For June 16
Bring The HEAT: USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) Collides With Merchantman Off Japan
Da Tech Guy: Zilla – Some Happy News
Don Surber: Trump Brings Government Into 21st Century. Literally.
Dustbury: Hey, 19.98
The Geller Report: In Canada, Syrian Muslim Refugee Father Of Six Goes On Trial For Molesting Six Little Girls In Public Pool
Hogewash: Programming Announcement
Joe For America: Did FBI Have Evidence Of A Bigger Breach Than Snowden?
Power Line: The Empire Strikes Back, also, Obstruct This (2)
Shark Tank: Rubio Praises President Trump’s New Cuba Policy
Shot In The Dark: Our Passive-Aggressive Overlords
STUMP: Illinois Budget Impasse – Now It’s Serious, MegaMillions And Powerball To Withdraw
The Jawa Report: Defeating The Digital Caliphate, also, Russians Attack Zombie Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi
The Political Hat: Just When You Thought Western Civilization Couldn’t Die Any More Stupidly
This Ain’t Hell: Shulkin Says VA Won’t Cut Disability Payments, also, Sorry – It Is About Politics, Not Guns
Weasel Zippers: NJ Democrat Responds To Scalise Shooting By Posting #HuntRepublicans, also, Democrat Staffers Boo Trump At “Unity” Congressional Baseball Game
Megan McArdle: Beware Of Blaming Government For London Tower Fire
Mark Steyn: The Great Fire Of A New London


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Category: Linkagery
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