13th May 2020
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David Rutz has put together a hilarious Washington Free Beacon SUPERcuts video of Brian Stelter calling out conservatives for their obsession with the Russia probe (via Twitter below). The video has struck a nerve; it has garnered more than 1.5 million viewers on Twitter. It is also posted here on YouTube. There are a lot of us out here laughing at and hating on Brian Stelter and CNN. This is an instant boomerang classic.
I’m still not convinced that Stelter isn’t a Seinfeld character that wandered into a CNN studio by mistake.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Stelter on Stilts
13th May 2020
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A lot of jogging going on in Chicago.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Shootings In Chicago Increase Despite Stay-At-Home Orders
13th May 2020
Kevin Williamson examines a favored clerisy phrase.
The “Republicans pounce!” cliche is bad enough, but, if you’re going to write a “Republicans pounce!” story, shouldn’t you give one of them the opportunity to, you know, pounce?
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on ‘Republicans Pounce,’ A Series
13th May 2020
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13th May 2020
Steve Sailer does the reporting that the ‘mainstream media’ won’t do.
ast Friday, the day after two whites in Georgia were arrested in the vastly publicized killing of the black jogger/prowler Ahmaud Arbery, a young black gunman murdered two octogenarian whites, Paul and Lidia Marino, while they were visiting their son’s grave at a veterans’ cemetery in Delaware. After a six-hour firefight with the police, the shooter, a 29-year-old black man, was dead—whether at police hands or his own remains unknown.
In contrast to Arbery’s killing, this second interracial killing case has gotten virtually zero national media attention through Tuesday morning, even though it’s fairly spectacular in scale and quite curious in motive. For example, an eyewitness speculated that the killer appeared to have brought extra ammunition for his planned shoot-out to the death with the police.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Racial Revenge?
13th May 2020
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You knew it had to happen.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Utah Decriminalizes Polygamy
12th May 2020
Trump reveals the problem with our hero worship of the military Washington Post.
A reporter questioned Trump and he told her to ‘ask China’ CNN. ‘Duh, what’s he mean by that, Martha?’
‘The Five’ shreds NBC’s Chuck Todd for airing selectively edited clip of Barr
It’s Only Monday: Liberal WH Reporters Peddle Fear, Impugn Trump’s Motives on Reopening, Testing
Brian Stelter: Trump Doesn’t Get ‘The Benefit Of The Doubt,’ His China Comment Was ‘Racist’
‘My Mistake Was Relying On The Word Of The FBI’: Trey Gowdy Explains What He Did Wrong In Russia Probe
CNN Calls Trump ‘Preposterous’ and ‘Pretty Shameless’ to See Politics from Democrats
Poor Joe Scarborough Whines: Pro-Trump Media So Mean to Me! It’s because you’re a douche-bag, Joe.
Andrew Cuomo Has Blood On His Hands, Media Blames Trump
Colbert Asks Tapper: Is It Your ‘Role’ to ‘Encourage’ President to Act on Policy? As if the President would take policy advice from any ‘journalist’, much less an anti-trumpet like Tapper.
‘The Outpouring Of Venom Was Disgusting’: Jimmy Kimmel Says He Received Death Threats After Showing Deceptively-Edited Clip Of Pence Welcome to our world; Jimmy. Enjoy your visit.
HBO’s John Oliver: Trump Battle Plan for Corona Is ‘for Him to Live’ as ‘a Lot of Us Die’ If that lot includes you, John, I’m good with it.
Joy Behar Throws Tantrum Defending Reporters Against ‘Disgusting Racist’ Trump They actually pay her to act like an arrested adolescent.
The Problem With Media Freakout Over Trump’s Latest Press Briefing
Bitter Jimmy Kimmel Lashes Out At ‘Lunatic’ Critics Calling Him Out for Misleading Pence Video
LAME: Chuck Todd Offers Mealy-Mouthed Apology for Deceptive Edit, Blames….CBS?
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Trump Derangement Syndrome
12th May 2020
Latest Estimates on Sea Level Rise by 2100 Are Worse Than We Thought Perhaps because nobody is believing existing ‘estimates’.
As sea levels rise, are we ready to live behind giant walls? Except that there is no actual evidence that sea levels actually are rising, just ‘estimates’.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Today in Global Warming Hysteria
12th May 2020
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
12th May 2020
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On January 8, London Breed, San Francisco’s mayor, was sworn in for her first full term. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi congratulated her in a tweet, saying, “I look forward to working with you to continue San Francisco’s proud tradition of standing as a guiding light for progress across America.” I don’t know what definition of “progress” Pelosi is using, but any candid observer would rate the city a catastrophe. Mayor Breed was inaugurated on the same day that I moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles, after ten years working at the cutting edge of science and technology.
Even before the current Covid-19 pandemic, San Francisco was a deeply troubled city. It ranks first in the nation in theft, burglary, vandalism, shoplifting, and other property crime. On average, about 60 cars get broken into each day. Diseases arising from poor sanitation—typhoid, typhus, hepatitis A—are reappearing at an alarming rate. Fentanyl goes for about $20 a pill on Market Street, and each year the city hands out 4.5 million needles, which you can find used and tossed out like cigarette butts in parks and around bus stops. The city’s department of public works deploys feces cleaners daily—a “poop patrol” to wash the filth from the sidewalks.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on America’s Havana
12th May 2020
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Now that’s comedy.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on 404 Error Page for Trump Campaign Shows Joe Biden With Caption ‘You’re as Lost as Me’
12th May 2020
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The Washington Post on Tuesday unleashed a nasty broadside against Florida’s popular conservative Governor. Writer Ben Terris and Josh Dawsey compared Ron DeSantis to the “oafish” Florida Man satire of dumb people in the sunshine state. The online headline sneered, “Does Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis know what he’s doing? We’re about to find out.”
All the while supporting senile serial groper “Fingers” Joe Biden. Makes you wonder.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Nasty Washington Post Compares Conservative Ron DeSantis to ‘Oafish’ Florida Man
12th May 2020
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A lawsuit alleges San Francisco fails to clear the streets in the Tenderloin district of the feces and pervasive drug dealing and overall “deplorable” conditions.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Law School Sues San Francisco for Street Feces, Drug Dealing
12th May 2020
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An attempt to answer the question that has been on the minds of many people during this whole amazing affair.
I had assumed that they were just playing parrot for the Crust, as they are wont to do, but have never felt comfortable with that opinion.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Why Does the Mainstream Media Seem So Desperate to Keep the COVID-19 Lockdowns Going?
12th May 2020
John C. Wright does an amazing classic piece of literary criticism.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson
12th May 2020
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We’ve all seen footage of those carefully timed explosions that bring down antiquated buildings and clear the ground for new ones. A horn sounds, the detonations begin, the building shakes, suspended for a frozen moment, and then collapses in a vast cloud of dust. That, metaphorically, is what is happening to the Obama administration’s legacy.
The presidential edifice has come down in two episodes, and the dust has not yet settled from either one. The first wrecked President Obama’s most consequential policies: the Affordable Care Act and the Iran nuclear deal. The second, happening now, is crushing its reputation for integrity, for following the most basic rules for conducting free and fair elections.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Trump’s Methodical Destruction of Obama’s Legacy
12th May 2020
ZMan peels back the scab.
An axiom of politics is that scandals are about sex or money. The politician at the center of a scandal got caught with a live boy or a dead girl. The public loves those stories, so it becomes a scandal, even when the politician is from the inner party, as was the case with Bill Clinton. Alternatively, the politician confused his money with public money or someone else’s money and someone blabbed. This is almost always the heart of local political scandals, where political machines run on graft.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on What Lies Beneath
12th May 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day
12th May 2020
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Denouncing it as “a path to disaster,” investigative correspondent Cynthia McFadden’s Monday report for NBC Nightly News called out Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for forcing nursing homes in his state to take in coronavirus-positive patients just out of the hospital. On top of that, she pointed out how he had refused to give those facilities personal protective equipment (PPE). All of this, while ABC and CBS still refused to criticize their governor and bashed President Trump.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | 1 Comment »
11th May 2020
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11th May 2020
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Women and minorities hardest hit.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Coronavirus Has Shone a Light on Inequalities in Food System, Experts Warn
11th May 2020
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And you’ll be surrounded by the same communists you knew in California.
Posted in Dystopia Watch | 2 Comments »
11th May 2020
Babylon Bee.
Still, it’s a really good idea….
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Texans Put ‘Welcome to Texas’ Signs Around Oklahoma So Californians Will Move There Instead
11th May 2020
ZMan looks at the latest race-pimp scam.
Thanks to the relentless anti-white animus, America and the world now has a new colorful euphemism for a certain element of society. The word “jogger” is now the preferred word of choice to describe the young black male creeping around in the neighborhood, looking for trouble. Over the weekend, the funnymen and meme makers had fun with the story of Ahmaud Arbery, the black male shot and killed by two white men in Georgia during a confrontation.
Ref: Suspect identified in deadly shooting of couple at Delaware Veterans cemetery
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Springtime for Joggers
11th May 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Thought for the Day: Error Types
11th May 2020
Jim Goad.
According to a letter from the Waycross, GA District Attorney’s office:
The video made by William Bryan clearly shows the shooting in realtime. From said video it appears Ahmaud Arbery was running along the right side of the McMichael truck then abruptly turns 90 degrees to the left and attacks Travis McMichael who was standing at the front left corner of the truck. A brief skirmish ensues in which it appear [sic] Arbery strikes McMichael and appears to grab the shotgun and pull it from McMichael. The shot is through Arbery’s right hand palm which is consistent with him grabbing and pulling the shotgun at the barrel tip, the 2nd and 3rd wounds are consistent with the struggle for the shotgun as depicted in the video, the angle of the 2nd shot with the rear of the buttstock being pushed away and down from the fight are also consistent with the upward angle of blood plume shown in the video and that McMichael was attempting to push the gun away from Arbery while Arbery was pulling it toward himself.
The 3rd shot too appears to be in a struggle over the gun. The angle of the shots and the video show this was from the beginning or almost immediately became– a fight over the shotgun.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on The Lynching of a Black Jogger
11th May 2020
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The Washington Post’s editors argue that Sullivan should not dismiss the case against Flynn. Their editorial does not address or acknowledge the legal standard for denying the DOJ’s motion. Instead, it argues the merits of the case against Flynn.
The Post does so in a one-sided and less than fully honest way. The title of the editorial (paper edition) is “A blow to impartial justice.” Yet, the Post doesn’t mention the evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, described in detail in the DOJ’s motion, that underlies the Department’s decision. That evidence shows that Flynn did not receive “impartial justice” from the FBI. In my view, the FBI’s misconduct was so egregious and so plainly motivated by political considerations as to justify dismissing this case in the interest of justice.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on What’s next in the Flynn case?
10th May 2020
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10th May 2020
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10th May 2020
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Trump Derangement Syndrome
10th May 2020
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A few days ago, the House Intelligence Committee finally released transcripts of 53 interviews it conducted in 2017-18 regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. Though the Committee had voted in November 2018 to release the transcripts after national security reviews for classified information were completed, new chairman Adam Schiff refused to do so until now because he had repeatedly lied to the media and public about what was said in those interviews and releasing the transcripts would show he was lying.
Under pressure from Acting DNI Richard Grenell, who publicly announced release was fine from a national security perspective and threatened to release the transcripts himself, Schiff finally relented.
I’ve now read 19 of the 53 interviews and will write at more length when finished but wanted to pass along some fascinating quotes. And, by the way, it’ll come as no surprise there is absolutely no evidence, direct or indirect, in what I’ve read so far of any collusion between the Trump campaign or Trump personally with the Russians.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on 53 Transcripts: The Forrest Gump of Campaigns
10th May 2020
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And the left-wing media are trying to obscure the injustice done to Flynn by handwaving hysteria about virus deaths.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Stelter: ‘Right-Wing Media’ Trying to ‘Downplay’ Virus Deaths By Covering Flynn Case
10th May 2020
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I guess being able to read and to count are not a requirement for Senators from Blue states.
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Connecticut Senator Claims COVID-19 Pandemic Has Killed “70 Million Americans”
10th May 2020
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As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases explodes across Africa, the creeping involvement of the WHO has made some leaders suspicious of the NGO. Tanzanian President John Magufuli was growing suspicious of the organization, so he reportedly decided to investigate whether the organization was as trustworthy and reliable as it claimed to be.
He played what the local press described as “a trick” on the organization: He sent the WHO samples of a goat, a papaya and a quail for testing.
All three samples reportedly tested positive. When the president heard the news, he reportedly confronted the WHO, then kicked the organization out of the country. Though, to be sure, the WHO has yet to comment on the situation.
UPDATE: Has The WHO Done Anything Correctly? One More Example Of their Incompetence…Or Malfeasance (You Be The Judge)
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on “We Sent Them Samples of a Goat, a Papaya & a Pheasant”: Tanzanian President Catches WHO in Epic Lie
10th May 2020
Walter Lippmann in 1919.
From our recent experience [WWI and Woodrow Wilson] it is clear that the traditional liberties of speech and opinion rest on no solid foundation. At a time when the world needs above all other things the activity of generous imaginations and the creative leadership of planning and inventive minds, our thinking is shriveled with panic. Time and energy that should go to building and restoring are instead consumed in warding off the pin-pricks of prejudice and fighting a guerilla war against misunderstanding and intolerance. For suppression is felt, not simply by the scattered individuals who are actually suppressed. It reaches back into the steadiest minds, creating tension everywhere; and the tension of fear produces sterility. Men cease to say what they think; and when they cease to say it, they soon cease to think it. They think in reference to their critics and not in reference to the facts. For when thought becomes socially hazardous, men spend more time wondering about the hazard than they do in developing their thought. Yet nothing is more certain than that mere bold resistance will not permanently liberate men’s minds. The problem is not only greater than that, but different, and the time is ripe for reconsideration. We have learned that many of the hard-won rights of man are utterly insecure. It may be that we cannot make them secure simply by imitating the earlier champions of liberty.
Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »
10th May 2020
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Immigration restriction comes to mind. When someone tells me that I hold my positions because of racism, despite my having laid out my actual reasons, then my heart and my mind closes. There is no conversation anymore, there is no compromise, there is only strife. War. Pick your issue — abortion, same-sex marriage, gun control, whatever. When my interlocutor insists that I want to impose racism, control women’s wombs, or see people die, I stop caring what they say because they obviously don’t care what I’m saying. I stop listening to them because they’re obviously not listening to me. When that happens, there is no way we can have any sort of exchange or even come away with a mutually agreeable plan. On the other hand, people can and do change minds when we’re actually talking about the same things and not mischaracterizing others. At least we understand each other and can continue with love and trust.
Exactly so. This, I think, points up the difference between Left and Right. The Right think that the Left are wrong. The Left think that the Right are evil. You can argue with someone you think is wrong, but there is no arguing with evil.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Harden Not Their Hearts (or Minds)
10th May 2020
Steve Hayward at Powerline does a little venting.
There’s no shortage of examples of our garbage media at work, but now and then a few examples start to pile up to the point it trips my annoyance threshold.
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Our Garbage Media
9th May 2020
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9th May 2020
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9th May 2020
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9th May 2020
Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Musk Rails Against California’s ‘Ignorant’ Health Officials, Says He’s Moving Tesla’s HQ To Texas
9th May 2020
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Lockdown Skeptics
9th May 2020
Posted in Think about it. | 1 Comment »
8th May 2020
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Today in Global Warming Hysteria
8th May 2020
Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Today in Trump Derangement Syndrome
8th May 2020
Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Today in Progressive Totalitarianism
8th May 2020
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My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Businesses Discover Employees Would Rather Stay Home and Collect Unemployment During Pandemic
8th May 2020
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Over the last few weeks, we have been keeping a close eye on the growing glut of automobile inventory, exacerbated by demand falling off a cliff, plunging used car prices and rental car companies suffering from an unprecedented collapse in business (or, like Hertz, simply going bankrupt). To wit, just hours ago, we documented how declining fleet sales was having a profoundly negative impact on automakers. Previously, we pointed out how a crash in used car prices could be putting significant pressure on the rental car industry. And most notably, several days ago we also wrote that automakers were having so much trouble finding space for their unsellable inventory that ships bearing auto cargo from overseas were denied entry at US ports and sent back out into the ocean.
Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Something Odd Is Going On in Parking Lots Around the US