AT AMAZON, Bras for Women.
Plus: Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu Ray Player with 4K HDR and Dolby Vision + 6FT HDMI Cable – (UBP-X700).
October 31, 2020
DONALD SENSING: What will you do when they come for you?
IT’S AS RELIABLE AS THE POLLS: Forget the Polls: This Chinese Indicator Is Flashing ‘Trump.’ “The measure is unscientific at best. But merchants say sales of the president’s campaign merchandise at a major wholesale market are outstripping Biden’s.”
NATIONAL REVIEW: TRUMP? HELL, YES. “The case for Trump: Antics aside, he has many achievements, and a win by Biden would do vast harm.”
UNSURPRISING: Philadelphia Firefighters Union Confirms Trump Endorsement in Forced Recount.
Earlier in October, the union representing Philadelphia firefighters voted to endorse Donald Trump. This was no small undertaking, given the overwhelming support of most unions for Joe Biden. When some union members complained about the process, a second vote was conducted. Trump won that vote by a two-to-one margin. . . .
“It’s a huge win for Trump,” a source in the department told PJ Media. “Firefighters are overwhelmingly sacrificing future contract increases with a Democrat-run city to try and get Trump re-elected. It’s actually quite profound.” The vote and the revote further indicate how little support the radical Democrats and their police-defunding agenda get from first responders around the country.
It’s hard to expect firefighters to endorse a party of arsonists.
LEFTIES AT STANFORD TRY TO USE COVID-19 AS an excuse to get rid of the Hoover Institution.
NICK OWENS, RIP: Mack Mackowiak’s tribute is truly touching. And a useful insight into Washington’s 20-30 Something culture that is hardly different today from when I arrived in 1976.
HE’S RIGHT, ALAS:
The press can’t be trusted to play the role of honest interlocutor anymore, and that’s very destructive. But an honest interlocutor needs to be honest, and they lack the self-discipline and sense of professional mission to do that.
Meanwhile, these folks don’t sound like they’re preparing for an easy Biden victory: Celeb-packed apartments to be protected by armed guards on Election Day.
Related thoughts here.
2020 REALLY GOING ALL-OUT: Rare Halloween ‘Blue Moon’ is a spooky treat for us all. “Skywatchers, ghouls and (especially) werewolves take note: The moon will be full this Halloween night across the entire United States.”
CNN is not holding up well under the pressure: This weekend is nuts. Halloween, full moon, time change and just before the election. How do we cope?
“Dear diary…”
I LOVE THE “BUY AMMO” POPUP THAT ACCOMPANIES THIS DISCUSSION. VERY APPROPRIATE. Cultural Marxism’s Origins: How the Disciples of an Obscure Italian Linguist Subverted America.
THE BIDEN RIOTS ROLL ON: Handicapping the Post-Election Unrest.
SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Duke professor blames white men for white female professors impersonating women of color.
HOW CAN YOU TAKE THEM OFF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST, JUST BECAUSE THEY AREN’T ENDANGERED ANYMORE? Trump Administration Takes Gray Wolves Off Endangered Species List, Drawing Protests From Conservation Groups.
IT’S COME TO THIS: ‘Is this a joke?’ Biden/Harris supporter in Texas bus tour called 911 on Trump caravan that tagged along & put them ‘in harm’s way.’
And Jake Tapper is on it! “CNN’s Jake Tapper noticed a thread from a Biden supporter who was there and not happy about it:”
As Jim Treacher adds, “Jake Tapper is not a journalist. He’s a Democratic Party operative.“
KATHY SHAIDLE IS ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR HALLOWEEN: The Hilarious House of Frightenstein — How Vincent Price wound up on a low-budget Canadian kids’ horror show.
Price arrived at the modest TV studio, got into makeup and costume and was handed reams of doggerel poems about some crazy characters he’d never heard of before.
He’d read each piece once, put his head down, then look up at the camera’s red light and utter his lines perfectly in one take.
Next!
New makeup, new costume, same perfect delivery, hour after hour.
Finally, it was time for a break. The weary yet exhilarated crew turned off the cameras and lights.
Then they looked around and realized that Vincent Price had disappeared.
Oh well, they said to each other, what do you expect? He’s a big star and all. Plus he’s, like, 60 years old, so he probably went for a nap…
The studio door opened a few minutes later.
It was Vincent Price and a cab driver, hauling “two-fours” of beer from the nearby Brewer’s Retail.
He handed cold stubbies out to the cast and crew and regaled them with tales of old Hollywood, his days working with Karloff and Peter Lorre and Gene Tierney and Cecil B. DeMille and all the other greats he’d known.
Then he posed for photos with everybody individually.
On an overnight rush, these were blown up into 8 x 10s, which Price personally autographed for everyone at the station.
Over the course of four days, taping over 400 of these interstitials, Price never complained, blew a line or missed a mark.
In an era when standards of conduct were collapsing, Vincent Price insisted on behaving like the well-bred gentleman he so often portrayed on screen.
Read the whole thing. Exit quote: “You may not be aware that when it was syndicated in the states in the early 70’s it aired around 4:30 in half hour format. The story we heard was that it practically cleared the streets of New York of soft drug users so that they could freak out on the Wolfman segments!”
NEW STUDY FINDS GENDER WAGE GAP DISAPPEARING: Likely not quickly enough to satisfy the feminazis or the MSM, but disappearing nevertheless, according to Kay Hymowitz, writing for the Institute for Family Studies.
“WE’RE GONNA TURN TEXAS BLUE, YOU GUYS!” Democrats cancel Texas event after Trump supporters surround, follow Biden bus.
Note the angry terms used in the story, like “ambush.” Heck, it was a mostly peaceful protest of Biden’s candidacy. Protest is patriotic, right?
LOCKDOWN PUTS US BACK TO DISEASE CASTES: Jeffrey Tucker of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) describes how caste systems functioned to insulate the elite from direct exposure to pandemics. Elites can work from home, most of the rest of us have to leave our houses with some frequency. See where this is going?
YOU EXPECT TO ENCOUNTER A BEAR? 5 Reasons to Choose a 10 mm for Self Defense.
DENVER JUDGE DOUBTS SECURITY GUARD’S SELF-DEFENSE CLAIM IN PROTEST SHOOTING, REFUSED TO REDUCE BAIL FROM $500,000: Matthew Dolloff is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Lee Keltner.
Earlier, from Jim Treacher: Trump Supporter Shot Dead in Denver, Media Tiptoes Around It.
So: Matthew Dolloff is a private security guard who doesn’t have a license, he wasn’t wearing anything that identified him as security, and the company that was supposed to have employed him says he doesn’t work for them.
If that seems strange to you, then you have a more curious nature than most of the national news media. They’re tiptoeing around the story, giving it just enough coverage to cover their own asses.
That’s because the shooter is on their team. Despite the Denver Police’s initial claim, Dolloff’s social media history is full of leftist stuff…
Read the whole thing.
Flashback: Bernie Bro James T. Hodgkinson, Attempted Assassin Of Steve Scalise, Already Being Erased From History. And additional examples of leftist violence and eliminationist rhetoric at the link.
WHO DO YOU THINK WE THINK WE ARE? Babylon Bee retracts retraction after US Navy confirms USA Today fact check is false.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: International Space Station marks 20 years of humans on board.
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE…PRETTY CONSISTENT, ACTUALLY:
Why is the Democratic Party still a cesspit of racism, even in the 21st century?
NEWSWEEK: Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump.
IT MUST KILL THEM TO HAVE TO REPORT THIS RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION: American hostage Philip Walton rescued in dramatic military operation. “An American citizen abducted last week in Niger has been rescued during a high-risk U.S. military raid in neighboring Nigeria, officials told ABC News early Saturday. The mission was undertaken by elite commandos as part of a major effort to free the U.S. citizen, Philip Walton, 27, before his abductors could get far after taking him captive in Niger on Oct. 26, counterterrorism officials told ABC News.”
FLASHBACK: Why oh why is NY Governor Andrew Cuomo being praised for his coronavirus response? Governor Andrew Cuomo does not deserve kudos for his COVID-19 policies. He put the elderly at great risk. And by “great risk,” I mean he killed thousands.
Related: Justice Department Ramps Up Inquiry into NY Care Home Deaths.
The demand ratchets up pressure on Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo after months of bipartisan criticism that the state’s official tally of 6,722 dead at long-term care facilities is probably off by thousands. That’s because New York, unlike nearly every other state, counts only residents who died on a nursing home’s property and not those who died after being taken to a hospital. Cuomo’s administration has repeatedly refused to release such nursing home data to lawmakers and the media, including a public-records request from The Associated Press dating back to May. . . .
An AP analysis in August found New York is probably undercounting nursing home deaths by thousands, noting that a separate federal count since May that included resident deaths in hospitals was 65 percent higher than the comparable state count.
Cuomo, who has generally been praised for flattening the curve in a state hit with a nation-topping 33,400 deaths, has nonetheless faced unrelenting criticism over his handling of nursing homes, particularly a controversial March 25 order that sent thousands of recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals into nursing homes at the height of the pandemic.
New York’s method of counting allows Cuomo to boast that his state has a lower percentage of nursing home deaths compared to other states.
A friend suggests that this investigation will go nowhere if Biden is elected. My cynical response is that it all depends on which Democrats see Cuomo as a threat and want to knock him out.
COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Hospital floors frequently contaminated with antibiotic resistant bacteria.
FLASHBACK: Middle East peace accord, economic recovery and space travel: There is still good news. “It might sometimes feel as if the news media, with all their depressing and divisive coverage, are waging psychological warfare against their audience. But out in the real world, good things are happening.”
RIP SEAN CONNERY: Iconic James Bond Pioneer Actor Dies at 90.
Sean Connery, the most iconic James Bond actor, is now having drinks with the Man Upstairs. The acting giant passed away in his sleep overnight in the Bahamas. His loss is tragic, but he lived to the age of 90.
Before his iconic roles as James Bond, Indiana Jones’ father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and more, Connery worked as a milkman, laborer, artist’s model, bodybuilder, and sailor in the British Royal Navy. At the age of 23, he chose acting over becoming a professional soccer player.
Connery pioneered the role of 007 in Dr. No (1962). He embodied the iconic British spy at the height of the Cold War, launching the James Bond series that continues to this day.
In his 1990 book Medium Cool: The Movies of the 1960s, Ethan Mordden wrote of Connery as Bond, “Once in an era there is perfect casting. Greta Garbo as Ninotchka, Margaret O’Brien as Tootie Smith, Johnny Sheffield as Bomba the Jungle Boy—and Connery as 007.”
TO BE FAIR, THE GRAY LADY’S BEEN UNHINGED FOR QUITE SOME TIME: New York Times opinion section comes unhinged ahead of the 2020 election.
What shameful caterwauling. If ever there was an example of the obscene privilege of the elite, this appallingly self-indulgent and self-important collaboration by the New York Times is surely it.
Kristof, Bruni, and Cohen have a combined 181 years among them on this planet. That is to say nothing of the other columnists who participated in the New York Times project, including Gail Collins, 74, and Maureen Dowd, 68.
They lived through Abscam, the Iran-Contra scandal, the Waco massacre, Bill Clinton perjuring himself, the launch of the Forever Wars, the federal government’s culpability in the financial crisis, the Veterans Affairs scandal, the NSA spying scandal, and the extrajudicial droning of American citizens.
But it was not until this administration that the United States lost its “innocence,” its “persuasion,” its “pride,” and its standing as a democratic world power?
So if America only lost its “innocence,” “pride,” and its standing as a democratic world power under Trump, that means no one at the Times believes its “1619 Project,” either. Has anyone checked in on Nikole Hannah-Jones to see if she’s had another temper tantrum?
CLAY TRAVIS: Why I’m Voting for Donald Trump.
IN THE MAIL: From David Clinton, Keeping Up: Backgrounders to all the big technology trends you can’t afford to ignore.
ROGER SIMON: The Two Necessary Approaches for Ending Big Tech.
The captains of Big Tech who appeared before a Senate committee a few days ago revealed once again what a pernicious force they are.
Moral narcissists of the highest order, they are all the more dangerous because they think they are good. They are convinced they are helping the world, making sure we in the great unwashed are not propagandized by what they deem disinformation or misinformation, when in actuality they are making a frontal assault on free speech via various forms of censorship.
This reached the level of Theater of the Absurd when Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, responding to Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), testified that Holocaust denial did not meet Twitter’s definition of misinformation while, evidently, the New York Post’s reporting on Tony Bobulinski’s widely-authenticated emails did.
Dorsey also told Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) his site had not censored tweets from the president when they had done so literally dozens of times.
The most flagrant Orwellian prevarication, however, was when Dorsey stated Twitter had no influence on elections. (Why then would he bother to censor the New York Post?)
Four legs good, two legs bad, anyone?
Google and Facebook are at least as disturbing and arguably vastly more powerful.
In a manner even the Chinese might envy, “The ends justify the means” has come to America via unseen algorithms dictating what is displayed on our laptops, cellphones and, soon, just about everything else.
But what do we do about it?
I propose a two-pronged attack, one legislative and one personal/consumer-oriented. The latter, I believe, may ultimately be more effective, but both are necessary.
From the legal standpoint, Sens. Blackburn, Joshua Hawley (R-Mo.) and several others, some Democrats, are attempting to overhaul Section 230 that shields sites like Facebook and Twitter from being sued for the content to which they have linked.
Written over twenty years ago, the early Paleolithic Age in internet terms, the authors of this rule could not have conceived to the degree these sites have become publishers themselves.
In fact, they are now, in essence, the managing editors of the world’s news and therefore the gatekeepers of an overwhelming percentage of global information. In a sense, the truth is what they say it is. What could be more powerful than that in a digital age?
We should adamantly support a rewriting of 230, allowing these behemoths to be sued just as much as the rest of us residents of Grub Street. It’s possible this can be accomplished, but, unfortunately, as no doubt some of those legislators would agree, that is not going to be nearly enough.
A serious look at rewriting anti-trust legislation should be in the cards, but without a Trump victory, that is highly unlikely. And even with one, it will be tremendously difficult, given the deepest pockets in Washington—the deepest pockets anywhere actually— belong to the tech giants. And since “money is the mother’s milk of politics,” well, you know the rest….
Consumers
Which leads me, my fellow citizens, to that second prong, to what we can and must do—the consumer approach.
We can leave Google, Twitter, and Facebook, pretty much in that order. If there are enough of us, we can cut their profits and build competition.
For some, maybe many, of us that means our lives will change radically—or at least we fear it will. But as the saying goes, fortune favors the daring.
The lockout of the New York Post is a reminder that Abandoning the decentralized Blogosphere for the walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube was a huge mistake, particularly for conservatives. Somebody should write a book about the reasons why.
QUESTION ASKED: American Weimar or American Hapsburg?
Above all, the typical affluent young American, the sort who in a more stable time might have thrown in his or her lot with the bureaucracy or a management job in the Mittelstand, the corporate heart of the economy, now resembles no literary figure so much as Ulrich, the protagonist of Robert Musil’s 1913 novel The Man Without Qualities.
Ulrich is a forerunner of our college-educated millennials: morally enfeebled, sexually frustrated, professionally stunted. He has acquired enough sophistication to see through the forms of politics and social life — ‘critical thinking’, as the imposters of our schools call it — but not enough conviction to act in a way that might improve his life by bringing him into authentic contact with ‘reality’, which he knows is somewhere out there but cannot touch.
Musil never finished his novel. But Hitler, who rode the failings of Weimar all the way to the top spot, eventually gave the Ulrichs a purpose. The American future won’t be Weimar, but late-Hapsburg: a dual monarchy, divided between itself and within itself by nationalism, decadent with corruption and lassitude, scapegoating Jews because it cannot accept its own mediocrity, and waiting for the historical intrusion that will free it from the slow spiral of decline.
Read the whole thing.
Earlier: Weimar America?
If the polls are right, we’re about to elect our equivalent of Field Marshall von Hindenburg, in the form of a 78-year-old with obviously failing mental capacity whose career in any case has shown him always unable to resist the blandishments of the left. Biden is, at best, a transitional figure to the complete wokification of the Democratic Party, and the further extension of the administrative state that is its preferred instrument of rule.
How good and hard do Americans want to get it for the next four years? We’re about to find out.
CALIFORNIA DISSIDENTS STRIKE BACK: Group Responsible for 405 Trump Sign Comes Forward With Killer Pro-Trump Campaign Ad. “On October 6th, 2020 Los Angeles woke up to a giant TRUMP sign in the foothills overlooking one of the busiest stretches of road in the United States, the 405 freeway. The sign was immediately removed by the City of Los Angeles, citing traffic hazard worries, despite being on private land. Although the antics made national news, no one came forward to claim responsibility for the sign. Until now.”
The video is here.
Plus: “If you had asked me in 2018 if I thought there was any chance in hell Trump could flip the Golden State I’d have said you were out of your mind for even suggesting it. In March of this year I changed my mind, and published an article predicting the possibility of a flip for Trump. That was before lockdowns, before school closures, before Uber and Lyft were threatening to leave the state, before businesses closed, before riots and looting, before Defund the Police…even before all these horrors California was feeling ripe for a flip, mainly due to the horrific AB5 law that decimated the gig economy and eliminated nearly 300 job categories overnight. I’d never seen so many true blue Democrats ready to cross the aisle. It’s only gotten worse here.”
If the Democrats lose California, it’ll be a self-inflicted wound, brought on by arrogance and ineptitude. Of course the arrogance and ineptitude are still there whether they lose or not.
A DEFEAT FOR BIGOTRY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: NYU and Department of Education reach settlement over anti-Semitism complaint.
OLD AND BUSTED: “We Report, You Decide.”
The New Hotness? CNN’s Don Lemon Brags About Abandoning His Friends for Disagreeing With Him.
And speaking of CNN: ‘You struck a nerve with the intern’! Kirstie Alley fires back after somebody at CNN PR took offense to her calling out their fear-mongering.
You stay classy, CNN.
IF WHITE PRIVILEGE IS SUCH A THING, WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE PRETENDING NOT TO BE WHITE? Again? Another White Professor Outed as Fake ‘Chicana.’
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, GET-WOKE-GO-BROKE EDITION: Evergreen State College enrollment is down sharply again in 2020.
The decline in enrollment must have put a massive dent in the school’s operating budget and is almost surely going to translate into the need to reduce the size of the faculty. There don’t seem to be any announcements or news stories about that but it must be happening behind the scenes. That will in turn make it harder to recover as the school will have less capacity and maybe even fewer degrees to offer. For the record, I think it’s fair to say the pandemic could also be playing a role in enrollment but that’s clearly not the main problem at Evergreen.
I wonder if at some point it will simply be unable to survive. Again, no one is saying that but there must be some lower limit where they have to call it. The school is a testament to what can happen when far left extremists are allowed to take over an organization. I sincerely hope other large organizations are watching and learning what not to do.
As Iowahawk would say:
#HIMTOO: Dem Senate Candidate Kelly Wanted Ex-Wife Jailed Amid Custody Dispute. “Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly made an odd request years after his 2004 divorce: The famed astronaut petitioned a Texas court in 2010 to sentence his ex-wife to 6 months in jail and 10 years of supervised release after she moved to a new town a few miles outside of their children’s school district. . . . The documents, which include a temporary restraining order issued against Kelly in 2004, appear to contradict his description of the divorce as ‘amicable’ in his 2011 autobiography.”
Related: Buzz Aldrin endorses Martha McSally over former astronaut Mark Kelly.
REST IN PEACE: Sean Connery dead at 90: The Scotsman played James Bond and defined aging coolness. The best of the many Bonds by far.
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Drudge Report traffic plunges as content turns against Trump.
STANDING UP TO TYRANNY: Trump greets throngs of fans outside Minnesota rally after state allows just 250 seats.
IF JOE BIDEN IS ELECTED, SOME WILL REGARD HIS PRESIDENCY AS ILLEGITIMATE BECAUSE OF THIS: Mollie Hemingway: Yes, Media Are Rigging The Election Against Half The Country. Here’s How.
MATTHEW CONTINETTI: The Next Populist Revolt: The combustible politics of a coronavirus ‘dark winter’.
Governments resort to shutdowns to impose discipline on an unruly population. But shutdowns do not solve the problem. They turn public health crises into economic and social ones. After a while, the price of shutdowns grows too high. The government reopens the economy. The virus returns. Before long, the cycle repeats.
There are plenty of ways to think about the politics of the Trump era. You can analyze the parties according to the traditional left-right axis. You can study public debate through the prism of liberal democracy versus authoritarianism. You can understand recent elections as pitting establishment insiders against populist outsiders. You can see the ideological contest as a three-way grudge match between common-good conservatives, neoliberals in both parties, and woke progressives. Coronavirus has spawned yet another interpretive framework. In this frame, politics is the struggle between the faction that wants to keep the economy and society relatively open during the pandemic and the faction that is ready and willing to shut them down.
Joe Biden has been able to straddle these two poles. He says you can have a (relatively) open society as well as a public health system that reduces infection to a negligible level. He says he will “shut down the virus, not the country.” What he hasn’t explained is how that can happen in the absence of a widely administered vaccine. Only Taiwan and South Korea contained outbreaks without nationwide lockdowns. It is hard to see the United States replicating their success. Taiwan benefited from its rapid response at the outset of the crisis. South Korean authorities rapidly approved tests while enjoying access to cell phone data. None of that happened here.
If Biden takes office during the “dark winter” he prophesied at the final presidential debate, he will have to decide, in addition to his national mask mandate, whether to put the country through another “30 days to slow the spread.” The bureaucratic pressure to shut down will be immense. The media, entertainment, and technology sectors will be sure to support and promote his decision. Polarization between “red” states and the nation’s capital will intensify. The commanding heights of culture and business will consign the Republican Party to the ash heap of history. And opposition to the restoration of progressive rule will manifest itself as a populist revolt whose character, magnitude, disposition, and endgame can only be imagined.
Related: Protests show two Americas — those who lost their jobs and those still getting paid.
FORWARD ARMING AND REFUELING: U.S. Marines refuel a Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter during Integrated Training Exercise 1-21 at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California. Photo taken Oct. 22, 2020.
GREAT ORATORS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. To borrow an old recurring leitmotif of James Taranto, when he was writing the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web Today:
● “One man with courage makes a majority.” — attributed to Andrew Jackson.
● “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt.
● “The buck stops here.” — Harry S. Truman.
● “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy.
● “I’ll lead an effective strategy to mobilize trunalimunumaprzure!” — Joe Biden.
BIDEN: “I’ll lead an effective strategy to mobilize trunalimunumaprzure.”
pic.twitter.com/TAkj7bJndN— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) October 30, 2020
PENNSYLVANIA 2020: Inside The Democratic Strongholds That No Longer Recognize Their Party.
With a soul patch and a piercing in the top of his left ear, working in a typically blue industry in a deep-blue city, his politics don’t fit into the stereotype, a sentiment that echoes all over eastern Pennsylvania. From coal country to steel town, God is taken seriously, but so is party affiliation. While in some parts of the country parents and children vote differently without a second thought, in Luzerne and Northampton counties, generations of pro-life, pro-labor Democrats feel untethered from once-familiar parties, torn between traditions and beliefs.
“My wife told me, ‘It sounds like you’re going to the other side,’” he says. “But I don’t know what my side is anymore.”
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is poised to be either the Rustbelt keystone that secures a second term for Trump, or the capstone on a one-term presidency. While much of the attention is focused on the riotous streets of Philadelphia and the machine that runs its elections, it’s a decision that might well be made in the places where the sky truly gets dark, the mines lay empty, and the ruins of industry stand cold.
WE’VE DONE IT, PEOPLE. WE’VE MADE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN: McDonald’s McRib is returning to menus across America for the first time in 8 years, sparking celebration among the obsessive fans of the cult-classic sandwich.
UPDATE (FROM THE COMMENTS): “I look forward to Obama issuing a statement claiming credit for this news.”
October 30, 2020
AT AMAZON, Leupold Rifle Scopes.
NAMES THAT ARE WORTH TEN THOUSAND LANCES: Bobby Orr endorses Donald Trump with full-page ad. “NHL and Boston Bruins icon Bobby Orr took out a full-page ad in Friday’s New Hampshire Union Leader endorsing Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. election. . . . Orr is just the latest sports legend to endorse Trump this week alone, joining Nicklaus and Pro Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre as front-seat passengers on the ol’ Trump train.”
The Greatest Generation in sports renders a final service.
OUT OF SIGHT, BUT NOT OUT OF MIND: There’s an old sawhorse in media about the “Streisand Effect,” namely, that when someone tries to suppress a story it backfires and gets more attention than it might have without the suppression. There’s a lot about the Hunter Biden story and its suppression that proves this true.
The news that Glenn Greenwald had resigned from The Intercept because management there have joined the open conspiracy among so-called news providers to pretend that there is no substance or legitimacy behind allegations – or even asking questions – about Joe Biden’s involvement and financial interest in his son’s business dealings in Ukraine, Russia or China was stunning. NPR was surprisingly honest about their dishonesty when they “explained” that they would not cover the story because:
“We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions […] And quite frankly, that’s where we ended up, this was a politically driven event, and we decided to treat it that way.”
As has been said repeatedly, they and other legacy media operations’ newfound devotion to media ethics is both amusing and depressing at the same time. These are the same people who had no problem alleging that Justice Kavanaugh was a gang rapist on the say-so of a somewhat mentally frail woman who could produce no documents or corroborating witnesses, could not recount any details and yet, these same publications applied “woke logic” by insisting we “believe all women.”
Every insane allegation and false witness propounded by Michael Avenatti was breathlessly reported and touted as the truth by CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and Washington Post. Avenatti was convicted last year of extortion in a $20 billion scheme against Nike, and still faces trial for defrauding his client Stormy Daniels. Up until this week, these kinds of witnesses and “sources” were more than credible enough to publish defamatory and salacious stories.
If you need a reminder, this is the same media who promised you “pee tapes” of President Trump cavorting with Russian hookers based on evidence that never existed. In one of his magnificent histories of LBJ, Robert Caro retold the story of then-congressional candidate Johnson asking his aide to help spread a rumor that his opponent engaged in sex with barnyard animals:
“We can’t prove that Mr. Johnson,” the aide said.
“But we can make the son of a bitch deny it!” Johnson purportedly replied.
For a story that the Biden surrogates and stenographers insist has no factual foundation, they have been rather vocal, splashing a tremendous array of defensive claims. Despite the fact that neither Biden nor his son Hunter have yet to deny the authenticity of any of the documents and emails being reported on by smaller news organizations dismissed as “conservative” those committed to dragging Biden across the finish line no matter what, have said (like NPR) that the story doesn’t pass their standards of integrity; that the timing of the story being advantageous to Trump somehow nullifies its factual underpinning (welcome to political journalism); and perhaps most laughably, social media surrogates insist that “nobody cares.”
This last chimera is perhaps the most revealing. It reveals the arrogant elitism that led the mainstream off the rails in 2016 and shows us how this small group has a genuine disdain for most Americans. Moreover, it underscores the denial they suffer about the inevitable extinction of their long-held and highly profitable grip on public opinion.
The data show how remarkably wrong our moral and intellectual betters are. In the last ten days – and before Tucker Carlson’s bombshell interview – The Daily Caller’s Hunter Biden stories drew 554,566 unique internet visitors. That’s more than half a million “nobodies.”
One of their initial stories, about the laptop left behind by a crack-addled Hunter Biden drew 16,474 unique readers; another story, about Hunter Biden’s setting up a meeting with his father (then Vice-President) and Chinese businessmen was read by at least 89,649 people. Oh, I mean “nobodies.” As JustTheNews’ Editor in Chief John Solomon pointed out:
“[C]riminality isn’t the only standard by which Americans evaluate their leaders. Judgment, ethics and transparency are also essential attributes.”
JustTheNews.com has been doggedly breaking news on Hunter and Joe Biden’s “pay to meet me” scheme. Rough estimates show that JTN’s coverage of this issue has been read by as many as 7.5 million people. Moreover, Tucker Carlson’s interview with whistleblower and ex-Biden partner Tony Bobulinski broke cable news records: as many as 7.6 million viewers tuned in. That’s a lot of nobodies. I’ll bet NPR’s Public Editor Kelly McBride wishes she got a third as many “nobodies” to pay attention to her.
It’s little wonder the mainstream media is going broke. They don’t serve you: They insult you. When they say “nobody cares” what they really mean to say is that the only people who count, who deserve any say in our political process are those who agree with them. Everyone else is a nobody. (Bumped, by Glenn, because this is important).
AFTER SIX MONTHS OF SCARING PEOPLE ABOUT A VIRUS: Wisconsin governor urges voters to come to polls rather than mail ballots.
STANDOFF REPORTED OVER: Twitter backs down, unlocks NY Post’s account.
Twitter backed down Friday in its battle with The Post and unlocked its main account after a two-week stalemate over its Hunter Biden exposé.
The Post never deleted the tweets during the standoff.
Jake Tapper hardest hit: Principled CNN Journalist Jake Tapper Tells NY Post to Bow to Twitter’s Demands, Gets Wrecked in Response.
EVERGREEN HEADLINE: Yikes! Can You Translate Biden’s Latest Gibberish?
SO EVERYTHING WE SEE WAS THE PRODUCT OF A SORT OF MENTAL MASTURBATION? EXPLAINS A LOT. New hypothesis argues the universe simulates itself into existence.
PANIC A LIBERAL, SHOW THEM THIS VIDEO OF MINORITY KIDS FOR TRUMP: From Campus Reform. Might want to have an ER on hand, though.
ROSETTA WEPT: Yikes! Can You Translate Biden’s Latest Gibberish?
JOHN PIPER IS A FAMOUS THEOLOGIAN, KYLEE ZEMPEL IS NOT: Piper made a lot of disruptive waves in conservative and evangelical circles last week with his essay entitled “Policies, Persons and Paths to Ruin.” Essentially, Piper is mystified by Christians who vote for Trump despite his abundant and obvious character flaws.
Zempel is an assistant editor at The Federalist where her official bio says nothing about her holding any theological degrees. Be that as it may, Zempel takes Piper’s arguments apart and leaves them in a scattered pile on the floor. Her basic critique is seen in these two graphs:
“Piper’s framing is at best problematic and at worst intellectually dishonest, for he doesn’t make an appropriate comparison. Piper doesn’t juxtapose Trump’s character with Biden’s character or Trump’s policies with Biden’s policies. Instead, he compares Trump’s immoral character with Biden’s immoral policies.
“It’s here that he finds himself ‘baffled’ that Christians don’t take Trump’s character seriously. Many Christians, however, refuse to equate these two unequal realms. Character should be weighed against character, and policy against policy. Piper’s value judgment comes at the disposal of Trump’s policy victories, many of which are advantageous to those pursuing godliness, and at the oversight of Biden’s demonstrably depraved character.”
If the brutal clarity of this piece is indicative of what to expect from Zempel in the future, we should all take note and look forward to her future work.
STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: Watch a Self-Driving Race Car Crash before It Starts.
HERE WE GO AGAIN? Anti-Trumpers Worry About a Potential Repeat of 2016.
TODD HENDERSON: Court-Packing is Unconstitutional.
TO BE FAIR, HE’S A TERRIBLE PERSON AND THEY’RE PROBABLY BETTER OFF: CNN’s Don Lemon Brags About Abandoning His Friends for Disagreeing With Him. “Imagine being cut out of Don Lemon’s life for disagreeing with him. What a bad deal for his friends, huh? Who wouldn’t leap at the chance to repent and be welcomed back into the warmth of his embrace?”
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