Quote of the Day - The Rings of Power Edition

So I've been distracting myself from the Ukraine invasion, and the insanity it has produced on social media, by concentrating on something that is mostly pointless:the furor that's erupted over the train-wreck that is Amazon's The Rings of Power.

And of course, the Internet being what it is, an intelligent, thoughtful and measured discussion was soon had by all.

While there are a bunch of fun comments, there are some real suggestions of what you could have done to include diverse characters without pissing all over the intellectual property.

The Pot

We haven't had any Tool in a while, and that must be rectified.

10,000 Days may be my favorite Tool album. "Right in Two" is probably my favorite Tool song; it heads my Tool playlist and is included a few others. "Vicarious" is also a great song. And today's song isn't bad either.

Here is a link to the lyrics.

This is "The Pot" by Tool from their 2006 album 10,000 Days.

Stockton Suffers From Increasing Homicide

But then what part of the country is not? Stockton homicide surge surprises some residents, others in dismay

Some Stockton residents expressed resignation, others surprise and dismay over February's surge of homicides.

Stockton, California is (according to the Wiki anyway) the 11th largest city in California and the 58th largest in the USA. It is not a Big City.

The pace of homicides in the city is running 45 percent above last year with most of those happening in February.

The article has a lot of reactions from neighbors. Some are hunkering down. Some are shocked to discover that they do, in fact, live in The Real World™ and not some fantasy land where crime never happens.

There is strangely no quote from the cops about what they are doing to combat this. But then again it is California, and reporters are probably afraid to talk to cops.

Winston Churchill's Ministry of Destruction

Due to technical difficulties in the Real World™ there will be no Infrastructure post this week. But in response to everything going on in #Ukraine, I thought I would dredge this up from The 357 Archives 2.0 - Section D

Section D: D for Destruction.

There is a good book, that I recommend heartily, especially if you are likely to have uninvited Russians coming to call. That book is Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat.

It was known as Winston Churchill’s Toyshop. (One of the chief designers could have been the role-model for Q from the James Bond series.) It seems to have been fluid in 1940. Some of it remained in the War Department, some became part of the Special Operations Executive.

When Churchill saw the Germans rolling across France, he was convinced that there would be an invasion. The SOE was building weapons that they thought would be needed on the home front in Great Britain. Delayed fuses for bombs. Ways to blow up trains. They built all of that and stockpiled arms in secret caches around the country. Just in 2019 a cache of Self-Igniting Phosphorus (SIP) grenades was found buried in a field in Britain.

But back to the book...

It is not a British version of The Anarchist Cookbook, but it does describe the mentality of some of the British. (The military was mostly preparing for Napoleon to come tea.)

When the expected invasion of the UK didn't materialize, the SOE started deploying agents to Europe, to blow up trains, to sabotage power plants, and set up communications for the Resistance.

They created everything from sticky bombs, for attacking tanks (1 million were produced over the objections of the supply division. "It broke the rules.") They built limpet mines that could be delivered by a single diver that were originally built from steel mixing bowls.

As the D-Day invasion was taking place, large numbers of resistance fighters blew up railways, bridges, etc. to keep the Germans from reinforcing the coastal areas.

This kind of preparation won't do much for the Ukrainians, but everyone else should decide if they think Putin will be the first empire builder in history to say, "That's enough."

February 26, 1993: The Attack No One Remembers

Yesterday was the important anniversary that goes unremembered. February 26, 1993: The Attack on the World Trade Center | 357 Magnum Archive 2.0

Six people died, and 1000 were injured.

There was a fountain commemorating the 1993 attack at The World Trade Center, but it was obliterated in the 2001 attack.

To the best of my knowledge, which is not extensive in this case, the only memorial that includes the victims of the 93 attack is The Teardrop Memorial.

Officially it is To the Struggle Against World Terrorism, ... but is is usually known as The Teardrop Memorial. Sometimes, though less often, it is called the Tear of Grief. (Click the image for a better view.)

The names of the victims of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center as well as the names of those who died in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center are engraved around the plinth.

It stands in Bayonne, New Jersey.

What's the Plan?

Ace at Ace of Spades HQ - America is BACK: Brandon's Big Plan for Stopping Russia From Invading Was to BEG CHINA TO PRESSURE RUSSIA; Instead of Helping Brandon, China Betrayed Him and Told Russia All About His Undignified Groveling.

Don't kid yourself. They never had a plan.

Apparently the Left and NeverTrump think all of this is Trump's fault. (It can't be their fault; they are too smart.)

The NeverTrump Delusionaries are continuing to spin out yet another Paranoid Fantasy in which the sitting president, who personally controls both the entire diplomatic power of the US as well as the military power of the US, and furthermore, needs no popular mandate to wield either one of these (short of having to get a treaty signed or a declaration of war -- neither of which is going to happen), is not responsible for anything that happens.

The people responsible are a former president, chilling out at his place at Mar-a-Lago, because he sometimes does not condemn Putin forcefully enough, which...

What?

See, they never finish these sentences. They just hint. And they do not finish these thoughts because these thoughts are stupid.

Biden's decimation of the US energy industry, means that we are not an exporter of energy. Which means that the oil and gas Russia exports are worth a whole lot more than they were 2 years ago. But hey, that constitutes getting tough with Russia. Or something.

And NeverTrump and the Left are on about how if you don't completely support Brandon then you're a traitor who's helping Putin. They never say how.

So what do they actually want? They claim that anyone who does not join them in Uncritically Supporting Brandon is Undermining the Unified US Front and stopping them from executing their great plan, whatever that is.

So what is that plan? When I'm not clapping hard enough for Brandon, what is the great plan I'm actually blocking from taking effect?

They never say.

Hat tip to The Other McCain - UKRAINE: No, Thanks, Fox News, I Don’t Want to Hear Geraldo Rivera’s Opinion.

Which aside from the insanity of asking Rivera's opinion on anything...

There is a war going on, and when I turn on a TV news channel, I’d like some news about the war. Is this too much to ask? Like, could I get some footage of military action? Some confirmed reports of where the troops are fighting, who’s winning, that kind of stuff? It’s a war, after all.

People keep resisting the idea that FoxNews is not what it was. It isn't.

The Ukrainians made the mistake of believing what they were told about Trump being a villainous Putin ally, and Biden being the hero who would protect them from Putin. So it looks as if Hunter Biden will have to find somewhere else to hustle for corrupt cash, and I hope nobody invested their savings in Burisma stock.

No Saturday Roundup Today

Things have been a bit crazy in my life the past few days, and don't actually look better in the next few. At least the sun came out today.

Though spending zero time with social media has been a boost to my morale.

I hope eveyone is having a good weekend.

The Building Blocks of Tyranny

Update: I got called out for referencing the YT version of the video. Actually that was the only version I was aware of, but it caused me to go looking. So know the Rumble version is below. They are only slightly better than YT, but whatever.

Russell Brand can be a wacky guy. But he makes a couple of great points in this video. They can now - and not only in Canada - shut down any protest they don't like. They can freeze bank accounts with no judicial involvement. All they have to do is say that you are a problem, and all your money is gone. Your insurance. Your way to make a living. Not because you were convicted of a crime, but only because you pissed off some bureaucrat with nice hair. (And if you think Justine Trudeau is not a tyrant because he has nice hair, you are kidding youself.)

They started with Wikileaks. You didn't like Wikileaks because the government - under Obama - said they were bad. They told secrets the government didn't want told. A year-long investigation failed to find ANY crimes they had committed.

But because they pissed off the government, they were deplatformed - kicked off Amazon Web Services. Their access to the financial system was suspended in order to make it impossible for Wikileaks to survive. You were fine with that because Wikileaks Bad. Now they are doing the same thing to the truckers' protest. Next to anyone and everyone they disagree with. The NRA. Gunowners of America. Oil Companies. Car companies. Anyone who questions global warming. Anyone who questions the next pandemic. Anyone who wants to know how the Obamas can afford to build another mansion. Anyone who questions the insider trading of the people in Congress. Etc. Anyone who questions the Progressive agenda will be crushed.

All because you were not concerned about Wikileaks when they were treated unfairly. Now, as Russell Brand says, they have the basic tools of tyranny.

This is Russell Brand's video Tyranny.

More from Soft-on-Crime Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg

He apparently never met a crook that he didn't want to set free. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg lowers charges in grand larceny case: sources.

Cops witnessed the miscreant steal the money from a New Yorker. That wasn't good enough for Alvin B. He knocked the charges down from Grand Larceny to Petty Larceny.

“This is yet another case where we do our job and take a recidivist off the street – identifying the grand larceny of an innocent, hard-working New Yorker, and they see the crime as it is occurring, witnessing it, and it is knocked down to a petit larceny,” said a Manhattan cop. “And that means that this person will be back out on the street to potentially harm more innocent victims.”

Alvin Bragg and the Democrats who elected him don't care about innocent victims. They want to destroy the rule of law.

And I am not surprised by this:

The Manhattan DA’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Western Civilization was nice while it lasted.

Can't Let Go

There are several songs titled "Can't Let Go." This one was written by Randy Weeks, and this is the first recording of that song. It was covered by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in 2007. I quite like it.

I think this is Alternative Country, because it did get some radio time on the alternative rock stations in the late 1990s.

This is "Can't Let Go" by Lucinda Williams from the 1998 album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.

Friday Links - 25 February

Flopping Aces - dems try to shift blame to Trump for Ukraine incursion

View from the Porch - "Low" versus "No"

There's a reason I carry a flashlight everywhere I go, and it amazes me that people don't. Your neolithic ancestors would have considered it next thing to magic.

Just One Minute - The Dash To Dumb

A CNN contributor explains thats the San Francisco school board recall (backed by the progressive mayor and succeeding with about 75% of the vote) was a nefarious right wing propaganda ploy.

The Other McCain - The Duke and Duchess of Trash

Again from the Other McCain - Ukraine as 21st-Century Sudetenland

Wombat-socho at The Other McCain - The Doom That Came To Complex 34 Book post from Wombat-socho.

Granite Grok - Will the Response to This Pandemic Go Down as One of the Worst Mistakes in the History of Mankind?”

Daniel Greenfield - Was Christina Lee Murdered Because Critical Race Theory Told Her She Was a Racist?

Claire Wolfe at Living Freedom - A great big mea culpa to (almost) all conspiracy theorists everywhere

You were (almost) all right and I was wrong.

The Feral Irishman - One Of The Best Things I've Read In A While....

On his short list of people, the organization is looking to sue on his behalf, Rittenhouse said they’re “looking at quite a few politicians, celebrities, athletes, Whoopi Goldberg is on the list.”

He Suffered a Failure of the Victim-selection Process

He apparently thought robbing a gas station would be a good idea. He was mistaken. Miramar Gas Station Clerk Shot Would-Be Robber.

Miramar, Florida is in Broward County. It is a bedroom community that is about 10 or 12 miles north of Miami, and about 5 miles southwest of Fort Lauderdale. To the west, it borders the Everglades.

According to police, John Philippe, 34, walked into a Sunoco gas station at Desoto Drive and Pembroke Road around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and started fighting with the clerk.

The clerk (or store owner, it is not clear) has a concealed carry permit, and drew a weapon and shot the would be bad-guy.

The injured bad-guy ran a couple of blocks and tried to get help from a home. The residents of the home called the police.

Police and paramedics showed up a short time later and found a bleeding Phillipe. He was taken to the hospital. Police said the gunshot wound was non-life-threatening.

He will face some charges when he gets out of the hospital.

Self-defense is a human-right, and this did not take place in New Jersey.

Confess to Murder and We'll Buy You Lunch

The cop in question is an idiot. 15-year-old boy wrongly charged with shooting store clerk in Waukegan says police offered him McDonald's in exchange for confession.

Williams said police kept asking him the same question and offered him McDonald’s in exchange for a confession, CBS Chicago reported.

“It is true he bribed me with McDonald’s, and he kept trying to get a confession,” Williams said.

They arrested the wrong guy, and tried to bribe him with lunh to confess. When they realized that they had the wrong guy, they set him free, expunged his record and shut up.

Florip said the police department immediately eliminated the teen as a suspect in the case and he was released from custody Friday morning and cleared of all charges.

The PD will "review" to see what they can learn, but they can't comment. My take is that they are hoping the whole thing goes away. But it won't go away as the family has a lawyer.

This kid is 15, so is it even legal for cops to question him without a parent or guardian?

Assaults in NYC on the Rise

Policies, like soft-on-crime, have consequences. Major crime in NYC rising as Eric Adams looks to save city.

They will have trouble spinning these numbers as anything but bad news.

New police data shows that serious crime is up nearly 14 percent this year as of Sunday, compared to the same period in 2020 — when the city was bustling before COVID-19.

And while there have been a large number of car thefts...

New York has seen an uptick in felony assaults, burglary and grand larceny over the first eight weeks of 2022.

And in a completely unsurprising reaction to rising crime... 65 percent of New York voters back stricter bail law: poll.

New York state voters want to see the controversial bail law tightened amid concerns about a surge in violent crime, a new poll released Tuesday reveals.

91 percent of those surveyed said that crime is a "very serious or somewhat serious problem," with 60 percent saying "very serious."

That holds true across the state, and across demographic differences.

So, the Democrats and their soft-on-crime DAs have succeeded in uniting people: Everyone hates their soft-on-crime policies and the crime that comes with them.

Back to the first article at the top.

There have been 300 more serious assaults this year, compared to 2020 — 2,994 versus 2690, an 11.3 percent increase, according to the data released Monday.

Burglaries are up 6.6 percent from 1,908 to 2,034 and grand larcenies up 7 percent from 3,753 to 6,763, the data shows.

Shooting are up 60 percent from 97 to 154.

That is the backdrop for which Eric Adams wants people to return to Manhattan offices. Of course a lot of those people will never return to Manhattan.

“Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.”

Robert Stacy "The Other" McCain brings us an update: Re: ‘Hannah’ Tubbs

James “Hannah” Tubbs allegedly assaulted a 10-year-old girl in a public restroom. (He is apparently taking a plea.) He was 17 at the time, so he could have been tried as an adult. That didn't happen, because Los Angeles, California DAs don't like keeping dangerous people in jail.

Robert Stacy reminds us...

Have I mentioned lately that you can purchase a 7-horsepower wood chipper from Amazon for $619 through our associates program, which pays me a modest commission on all products purchased through our affiliated links, at no cost to you?

The title to this post is a quote from Inspector Harry Callahan, from one of the Dirty Harry movies. It was brought to my attention by The Other McCain, because the DA is so broken up over the rights of the felon monster. Click thru for all that and more.

I'm Shocked - Shocked! I Tell You - About a Scandal in Chicago

OK, I am not shocked. City leaders go mute as a scandal involving heroin, a CPD chief's car, a confidential police informant, and the city's police oversight agency brews - CWB Chicago

Let’s get you up to speed quickly.

Last week, news broke that a man with a long list of felony drug convictions was charged with felony heroin distribution after he allegedly threw $6,300 worth of heroin from a Lexus owned by CPD’s chief of internal affairs, Yolanda Talley.

Talley was not in the car. Her niece was driving it at the time.

Now you would think that a guy with a long list of drug convictions was riding with the niece of the head of Police Internal Affairs division that might call for a statement. Or something. But only if you are not from Chicago.

Instead you can insert the sound of crickets here.

Oh, and there's more.

CWB reported exclusively on Monday that the man who allegedly threw the heroin from the car, Kenneth Miles, is identified in public records as the confidential police source whose bad information led to the wrongful raid of Anjanette Young’s home in February 2019. The city cut a $2.9 million settlement check to end litigation with Young just two months ago.

There is a lot more at the link. More questions exist than answers, but even some of the questions are interesting. Like Talley still the head of Internal Affairs while and Internal Affairs investigation is going on?

Click thru for that and more.

He Shot a Cop, Then Broke Into a Florida Home

He apparently thought breaking into an occupied home in Florida was a good idea. He was mistaken. Florida man who shot deputy killed after breaking into home, exchanging shots with owner: report

The man involved in the alleged shooting of a Florida deputy has reportedly been shot and killed after breaking into a home in Dixie County and exchanging gunfire with a homeowner, the Gilchrist County Sheriff's Office said.

Gregory Ryan Miedema, 33, was the subject of a statewide manhunt and a Florida Blue Alert issued late Tuesday night. Officials say he shot a Taylor County deputy during a traffic stop.

The homeowner was wounded and hospitalized. The deputy is in the hospital, with "life threatening" injuries.

There are more details at the link above.

Self-defense is a human-right.

Bail Reform Leads to Attack on 4-year-old

He is such a big tough man to sucker-punch a 4-year-old kid. Mom of 4-year-old NYC punch victim became a 'mama bear'

Read the story for the details. It is every bit as screwed up as that headline makes it sound.

Police charged Babacar Mbaye, 34, a repeat offender with 51 arrests, in the attack with assault, endangering the welfare of a child and resisting arrest.

As for the bail reform.

Mbaye had three recent prior arrests for assault including a Feb. 3. charge for allegedly punching a woman in the head on the subway. He was released without bail on a desk appearance ticket for that incident, said his lawyer, Thomas Kenniff.

He was given supervised release for a Jan. 20 charge when he was accused of punching and kicking a woman in the stomach. He was then released without bail after an August arrest for kicking a woman.

He has bail, for now anyway. $30,000.

The mother, Carmen Rivera, wants to know why he wasn't locked up. That is because keeping violent offenders in jail is unfair.

Angel's father, Federico, had this to say.

“It’s a different New York now – forget it. The crime is out of this world,” he said. “There is no police presence like it used to be.”

So is he a violent criminal, or mentally ill? Either way society should be protected from him. But that would be unfair. Or something.

Denver Police Response Time and Recidivism

Like many cities, Denver is suffering from a lack of police. Denver Police down 170 officers, Chief Paul Pazen says.

The details that are important are as follows.

• The Denver PD is down about 10% in headcount of cops to answer 911 calls,
• there are about 4% more calls coming in than the 3-year-baseline would indicate, and
• In Denver PD's mind, a 12 minute response time to a 911 call is doing OK.

12 minutes is a long time to wait, if something bad is happening, assuming you can call 911 BEFORE the bad stuff starts happening. But that isn't what interested me in this article.

“How was it that 32 people in our city were killed? And the offender was on some form of supervision? That flies in the face of what supervision is supposed to be,” he said. “We need to get this figured out as quickly as possible because unfortunately people are being harmed in our community. Families are being destroyed by this type of activity.”

Because keeping violent offenders in jail is unfair, a number of them have been released on recognizance bonds, only to be arrested later in relation to a murder.

Oh, and that response time target that Denver PD had... They can't meet due to increase in calls and the decrease in officers. Response times have increased 18 percent.

Everybody I Disagree With is Racist

I wonder if the Progressives really believe this, or if they know it is BS. The Other McCain brings us Way to Go, ‘White Supremacists’!

The San Francisco school board president was just recalled; she blamed "White Supremacists" for her loss. In San Francisco.

You probably didn’t realize “white supremacists” had taken over San Francisco, but that’s just how clever and sneaky they are.

When voters in San Francisco reject the Woke agenda, it might just be in trouble.

And her loss actually had a lot to do with her making the Asian community mad. But I guess Asians can be White Supremacists in the minds of Woke Progressives.

Click thru for details and commentary from Robert Stacy McCain.

"What You Tolkien 'Bout Willis?"

So the Tolkien fans have had plenty of time to react to Amazon's billion dollar insanity, The Rings of Power. The consensus is almost unanimous: "What fresh Hell is this?"

Most of the videos are too long, unless you're a die hard fan. I am a die hard fan; I used to read Lord of the Rings about once a year. Then I went to watching the extended edition of the movies about once a year. I think I will go back to reading them. I also used to own the BBC dramatization on cassette tape, and I had the unabridged audio book on CD. Like I said...

Here's a link to one such fan video. LOTR: The Rings of Power Trailer REACTION | This is Going to be a DISASTER. The best line in that video might be in relation to inter-racial love-story:

Guess Who's Coming to Second Breakfast.

There is also a line in that video about "prioritizing the message (of Woke) over good story telling."

I can't say it is the best of the fan videos, because I have only seen a few. And there are so many.

The Babylon Bee also produced a video, but it is more parody than reaction. This is the video for 9 New Woke Characters From Amazon's 'Rings of Power.'

Wednesday Link Roundup - 23 February

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkage

The Intrepid Reporter: Some Military Humor for Monday
Watts Up With That: Another Grid Scale Battery Fire “Incident”

Pirate's Cove - Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

1. The Last Refuge shows the Royal Canadian Mounted Police trampling a lady in a walker
2. The Lid has thoughts on President’s Day

Wombat-socho at The Other McCain - In The Mailbox: 02.21.22

Transterrestrial Musings: The Hatred Of Democrats By Rurals, Climate Risk, and That NYT Ad About J.K. Rowling
Victory Girls: Beijing Olympics – A PR Disaster

Political Hat - News of the Week (February 20th, 2022)

Court rules against Philadelphia lost-gun reporting law
A Pennsylvania court is stopping a Philadelphia ordinance that requires gun owners to tell police when a firearm has been lost or stolen.

EBL - Blackface Trudeau Sends In The Canadian Cop Calvary To Crush A Peaceful Protest 😬🏇🏻🏇🏻🏇🏻

The Freedom Convoy has been peaceful. Yet Justin Trudeau is calling them all racists and misogynists (?), sending in mounted police, trampling protesters, and threatening to agressively hunt them down and seize their assets. How is this even possible?

Battleswarm Blog - Am I Paranoid Enough?

And it also doesn’t help that Trudeau is in fact a member of the World Economic Forum, as is Chrystia Freeland.
James Lindsay has a long thread on Schwab’s book The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 2/22/2022

As Inflation Hits 30-Year High, UK Households Start to Buckle
ASHFORD, England, Feb 22 (Reuters) — After work in the evenings, Nicola Frape turns off the heating and huddles under a blanket with her daughter and a hot water bottle.

A View from the Beach - A Political Status Post

Politico hopeful, Republicans wince at Wisconsin GOP crack-up. From JTN, Colorado Secretary of State sues election clerk to turn over data copied from voting machines "No, you can't see how we did things!"

Vlad Tepes - Tyranny: Links 2, 2/22/22

1. Measures Will Be Permanent in Germany
2. Canadian YouTuber gets phone call from Trudeau government suggesting he delete his Youtube channel
(I can’t find any of his videos on Youtube but here is a list from Bitchute)

Cafe Hayek - Some Covid Links

Peter Suderman is correct: “Like the war on drugs and the war on terror before it, the war on COVID is a futile, deeply destructive campaign, and Americans want out.”

Splendid Isolation - News Roundup

Jeffrey Epstein's pimp Jean-Luc Brunel 'hangs himself alone in Paris jail with no CCTV'
…OF COURSE he did.

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: A Horrifying Social Credit System Arrives in Canada

• America Is Not Divided; It’s Being Hijacked Alexander Zubatov
• Ottawa Police Highlight International Trend of Jackboot Aggression Toward Citizens CTH

Maggie's Farm - Monday morning links

CDC quietly lowers the bar for early childhood speech development
England To Scrap Mandatory COVID Self-Isolation As Hospitalisations Continue To Drop

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report - 2/21/22

Lloyd Billingsley: "FBI and DHS see something, say nothing."
FBI Still Silent on Murder of DHS Whistleblower Philip Haney

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 02/22/2022

Idaho House passes a bill banning ballot harvesting.
An overlooked Durham filing proves that Trump Transition data was passed to the CIA.

I leave you with Sunday gifdump from Wirecutter, Sunday Funnies For 02-20-22 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Tuesday Memes … from MaddMedic, and Sunday Funnies from Flopping Aces.

Some Predators Do Have 4 Legs

They can be just as dangerous as the 2-legged variety. 'I immediately took action': Good Samaritan Dwayne Patrick shoots dog to save small child from attack in Philadelphia - 6abc Philadelphia.

Two dogs believed to be rottweilers were running loose when one attacked the child named Kasion.

Dwayne Patrick was driving by and saw the dog attack. He says he took his legally owned gun, which is licensed, and shot the attacking animal.

"I caught the attack on camera. I immediately took action, jumped out, told everybody to move, and discharged my firearm," said Patrick. "There were a lot of people out there. They were beating the dogs shooting with a paintball gun, trying to do everything to get the dog off the child, but there was nothing no one could do."

There is more at the link above, including all the details of the happy ending. Everyone, except that dog, is OK.

Dwayne Patrick will not face charges in the shooting. That is one of the things concealed carry is for.

How Is That Bail Reform Working Out?

Not so good, if you go by the victims. #6: Man killed nursing student months after going AWOL from felony DUI case, prosecutors say - CWB Chicago

This is messed up on several levels.

An Oak Park man killed 20-year-old nursing student Charisma Ehresman after meeting her on social media last month, prosecutors said Saturday. The accused man, Richard Chavez, 24, had been AWOL from a felony DUI case for six months at the time of the alleged murder.

He is the sixth person charged with killing or shooting — or trying to shoot or kill — someone in Chicago this year while awaiting trial for a felony.

This kind of story is becoming so commonplace that I almost feel I should stop highlighting them. Well, CWBChicago is doing most of the work. (That is a maximum "almost" by the way.)

But what interests me are the statistics that come along with this story. The graphic below is from CWBChicago.

And if you can, consider subscribing. They do good work, they don't rely on advertising, and they are one of the few (I count 2) news organizations in Chicago that are really willing to report things that the Mayor and other politicians don't like to see reported.

Fuguetta

What happens when you have a Heavy Metal guitar player who was obsessed with Classical Music in his youth? You get Yngwie ("Ing-vay") Malmsteen's take on "Fugue in G Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach.

This is "Fuguetta" by Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force from the 2005 album Unleash The Fury.

As for the name of the album...

In 2002, guitar acrobatic extraordinaire Yngwie Malmsteen was aboard an airplane in Japan and received the surprise of his life. As folklore goes, Malmsteen allegedly made offensive comments regarding homosexuality. A fellow passenger took offense to the comment and proceeded to throw a glass of water on Malmsteen. This sent his temper into a rising force and began a legendary tirade that catapulted Malmsteen back into the heavy metal spotlight for one last time. Amid the fracas Malmsteen launched a verbal spat on the passenger with the phrase "you've unleashed the f*cking fury" being atop the most quotable of moments. [Ref. ALLMUSIC.]

A Feral Irishman Musical Interlude

A bit of music from a time gone by. ♫♪♫ Take A Break And Travel Back To A Tavern In Medieval Times.. Grab Your Mead.. Enjoy... ♫♪♫

Two videos on the Hurdy-Gurdy by Andrey Vinogradov. Of the two, I prefer the first. Though that may be due to length. The first video is one song, at about three and one half minutes. The second video is an entire concert lasting more than an hour. I have not watched/listened-to the entire thing..

Gunfights In The Middle of the Day

The violence in Killadelphia rolls on. At least no one died. Gun battle outside busy Pa. Rite Aid leaves 4 shot as suspects get away: ‘They’re shooting all the time’.

“As they’re shooting each other in this business district, which is a very crowded area, there’s four people, innocent victims who get hit by gunfire,” Philadelphia Police Capt. John Walker told the media. “They range from ages 16 to 67.”

No suspects are in custody. Cops estimate the ages of the gunmen to be between 15 years and 20 years.

There is more, including reactions from people who work in the area. Click thru.

Tuesday Links - 22 February

Granite Grok starts things off with ironic news from the Gun Control front. Two State’s With the Lowest Crime in the Nation Get an ‘F’ on “Grabby” Giffords Gun Safety Scorecard

American Thinker - 'Freedom' now deemed a white supremacist notion. You knew it would come to this. You should want to be a slave of the state, you Nazi. Now shut up and do what you're told to do.

War on Guns - Meanwhile, Across the Pond in Piers Morgan Paradise...

Small Dead Animals - 2014 Prediction: Why Canada Will Become a Dictatorship Under Trudeau

Pirate's Cover - UK Set To Remove Most COVID Restrictions

Clayton Cramer - Things Are Bad When the Left is Going After Biden

Meep at STUMP - The Geography of Homicide -- States, Base Rates, Increases, and Correlations

Ace at Ace of Spades HQ - Latest CNN Leak: Zucker and Gollust Let Andrew Cuomo Choose What Questions He'd Be Asked When Interviewed by CNN "Professional Journalism," which includes the NY Times and Fox News trying (and failing) to cover up the name the anchor who asked the questions.

The Other McCain - Exposing Gender, Inc.

Every conservative understands what it’s like to be smeared this way. If you advocate for limited government, fiscal sanity and maintenance of the Constitution — just basic common-sense traditionalism — you will inevitably find yourself depicted by the media as some kind of “extremist,” lumped in with neo-Nazis, etc. And this is what is happening now to feminists. Whenever liberals have an agenda, everyone who is against must be Hitler, according to the media.

Moonbattery - Seattle Repeals Bike Helmet Law for Being Racist

Political Hat - End Political Litmus Tests in Education

Increasingly, teachers and academics are required to no only affirm Left-wing ideology dressed up as “diversity, inclusion, and equity” or other such set us euphemisms, which has the effect of shutting heterodox ideas from consideration in academia.

Again from The Other McCain - ‘He Had a 48-Page Rap Sheet’

I was generally under the impression that progressive soft-on-crime leniency hadn’t spread as far as St. Clair County, Alabama — which, last time I checked, was a redneck stronghold where Donald Trump got 81% of the vote — and yet, in this too I was mistaken, because a judge there sent Lanier to a drug-rehab facility. And of course, the career criminal just waltzed right out of there, and went on a crime spree that ended shortly after he decided to carjack somebody at Waffle House, in Oxford, Alabama.

Political Hat - Trudeau The Tyrant

Cincinnati As a Microcosm of the End of Civilized Behavior

This is a story of one man's life and death, and, in a way, the story of the death of a civilization. Youth violence: Donnell Steele's family reels from loss one year later.

Before I dive into this story, and the links it provides, it is important to note that Cincinnati is the 3rd largest city in Ohio, behind Columbus and Cleveland. It is only the 65th largest city in the country, while the Cincinnati metropolitan area is the largest in the state (suburbia rules in this part of the world) and the 29th largest metropolitan area in the country.

Despite the fact that you know the name Cincinnati, it is NOT a big city.

Back to the story of Donnell Steele.

Donnell Steele, 30, was shot and killed at the 2100 block of Millvale Court on Feb. 18, 2021, just down the street from where he was born, said his mother, Juanita Steele. He was one of more than a dozen victims killed last year in an unprecedented wave of homicides involving juvenile offenders.

That quote actually contains a link to the following story: Naming the victims: Grief follows homicides involving teenage offenders.

There were "only" 15 murders committed by juveniles in Cincinnati in 2021. At least that is the info provided by The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Then there is the story of the individual who killed Donnell Steele. Kids who kill: More teens are facing murder charges. How it came to this.

Even in a year as violent as this one, the accused killer Cincinnati police arrested this spring was exceptional.

In less than four months, police say, he’d been involved in a robbery and shooting in South Fairmount, an attack that left a car riddled with bullets in Westwood, a fatal shooting in Millvale and a deadly ambush that prosecutors say he arranged on Facebook.

Four dead. Three wounded. One suspect connected to every crime.

That suspect, police say, was 14 years old.

What were you doing at 14? I'm guessing it did not include murder. What has happened to society? The Left will blame guns, but I grew up around guns, and by 16 I had both a .22 caliber rifle, and a 16 Gauge Shotgun. Not to mention the other guns in the house. Those guns never forced me to shoot anyone. Then they will blame poverty. They will blame everything but the kids who pulled the triggers and their parents.

Lately, when a story like this comes to my attention I am reminded of Hobbes' Leviathan, but this time it brought up a poem by William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming." Part of it anyway.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

That is part of the first stanza. The poem was written in 1919, which was both post World War One, and the carnage that caused in Europe, as well as being in the middle of the Spanish Flu pandemic.

What Happens When You Don't Let the Market Set Wages?

You get disruptions in the labor market. In this case, the disruptions are in the labor market for ambulance services. Delayed: Ambulance Response Times Suffer From EMS Worker Shortage

I read a lot of news articles about 911 response times. I'm usually interested in police response times in the face of violent crimes, but occasionally I can't ignore a problem impacting Fire/Rescue and Emergency Medical Services. This makes no sense to me. But then very little in the world to day makes sense to me.

High stress. Low wages. I'm shocked that more people are not signing up for that. Not really that shocked. Actually, I'm shocked that anyone is currently signing up for that.

And while this is a story from, and about, Massachusetts, this is somewhat of a nationwide problem.

As a result of staffing shortages, response times are increasing. They mention one case where it took 30 minutes for an ambulance to respond to a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. That is a long time.

Prior to COVID-19, there was already a high turnover rate among EMS workers. But the pandemic has exacerbated the shortage with some workers leaving the industry from burnout, and fewer recruits coming onboard.

Prospective workers can make similar wages in less stressful, less risky environments like department stores or fast-food chains.

And then the cause of the disparity between the pay and the responsibilities:

Ambulance companies say their revenue is dependent on reimbursement rates from the state and federal government, along with commercial insurers. Until those are increased, don't expect EMS salaries to show much of bump.

And before you jump on the evil, capitalistic insurance companies consider who sets the rates they are permitted to charge. (Hint: It's the government.)

So as people call 911 with greater frequency for issues big and small, the Massachusetts Ambulance Association estimates there are 30% fewer ambulances on the road because there simply aren't enough EMTs and paramedics to staff them.

Is anyone shocked that a high stress job, with literally life and death responsibilities, coupled with the joys of seeing gruesome accident and crime scenes and low pay is having trouble attracting people?

Of course if the market was able to function, that is if wages could be raised to attract and retain enough qualified people, and that cost could be passed on, this would not be an issue. But the evils of Free Markets cannot be allowed to stand, so we have this.

The next choice would be to pay for market wages out of the tax base, but then that might mean that politicians would have to cut back on things that make great news items when elections roll around. Things like parks and community centers and Art in the Parks, and free crack pipes for all, or whatever the latest craze is. In the meantime, while tax money is being spent on crap, life-and-death services are left to suffer.

With apologies to Ron Weasley, and J. K. Rowling, they need to sort out their priorities.

The powers that be are putting lipstick on the pig and saying that they do not know of any negative outcomes caused by this. (Are they looking for outcomes, or are they choosing to remain blissfully ignorant?) But we know that delays in medical care in trauma situations does cause bad things to happen. So even if nothing bad has happened, that cannot last. Something bad will happen to someone because we are incapable of making tough spending choices.

How a City in Love with Transit is Killing Public Transit

"Soft on Crime" ruins everything. Wanton Fentanyl Smoking Has Made Seattle Public Transit Rolling HazMat Sites - The Tatum Report

It had to happen that Seattle city leaders’ soft-on-crime slime would eventually ooze onto city busses. C. Douglas Golden, at The Western Journal points out, “Smoking on public transit hasn’t been tolerated for years — yet, in one of America’s most liberal cities, it’s so common that trains and buses are becoming toxic.”

The Seattle Times reported, “Bus and train operators say so many people are smoking drugs on Seattle-area transit that the fumes, and volatile behavior, create a hazardous work environment that discourages ridership.”

In 2019 there were 44 drug incidents (not defined) on King County (Seattle area) Transit. In 2020 73 incidents. In 2021 there were 398 reports.

Addicts place meth, heroin, and/or fentanyl on an aluminum foil strip, then heat it with a lighter. Users then use a straw to suck in the vapors (Warning: possessing a plastic straw. Now, that’s a serious crime in Seattle).

The ambient smoke then wafts throughout the coach, exposing passengers and drivers to these toxic clouds. Fourteen transit operators have reported “headaches, dizziness or irritated breathing.” A minimum of six drivers have requested they be relieved before their shift ended.

That is not what I would want to sit next to while trying to get around Seattle.

Between defunding the cops, and hamstringing their ability to do anything once they do arrive, the problem is not going to get better anytime soon.

When you abandon the rule of law, everything crumbles.

This Mask Insanity Has Gotten Out of Control

Whatever your position on masks, it is clear that people are even more insane than they were before COVID. Clerk shot patron who refused to wear mask then killed self.

A guy wasn't wearing a mask, so the clerk would not help him. He walked out with 3 bags of chips that the clerk refused to ring up. The clerk followed him and started recording video on his phone. (Aren't there enough surveillance cameras in the average convenience store?)

The would-be customer took exception to that and an altercation ensued. Once the fight was broken up, the clerk drew a handgun and shot the would-be customer in the shoulder.

Then he had an argument with someone on the phone, and he shot himself in the head.

The officer wrote in the report that when he arrived on the scene, the man was still holding the handgun in one hand and cellphone in the other, lying on his back with no pulse and blood coming from his head.

Whoever you think was right or wrong, this is insane. And yes, they can BOTH be wrong, but then I guess we are living in insane times.

Peacemaker

I always like knowing about new music. Even when I'm not sure I like it, and I'm not sure I like this song. YMMV.

For a long time the only song I could identify as having been played by Scoripons was "Rock You Like a Hurricane," though they had other songs that got radio play. Lately I've been thinking that I may have missed out on some decent music.

Scorpions have a new album coming out tomorrow in Europe and on Februray 25th in North America. They released a single in November, but I only tripped over it in January.

This song is "Peacemaker" by Scorpions from their upcoming album, Rock Believer.

The Scandal F*c*book Doesn't Want You to Know About

Or Meta, or whatever they are calling themselves today. Why? Because they don't want the bad PR of course. Meta axes a head of global community development after he appears on video in underage sex sting | TechCrunch

”The seriousness of these allegations cannot be overstated. The individual is no longer employed with the company. We are actively investigating this situation and cannot provide further comment at this time,” said a statement from a Meta spokesperson provided to us by Drew Pusateri. I’ll point out that Pusateri also tried to talk me out of the newsworthiness of this story over the phone before sending over the statement, noting that other outlets were not covering it (thanks for the advice). [My emphasis. Z-Deb]

Not The Bee takes that to mean the likes of NY Times, and WaPo will not be covering this. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Back to TechCrunch.

Even underage sex scandals are not new news at this point.

If you follow that link in the quote, you find a story at TC from 2017, in which they report on F*c*book replacing the head of Computer Vision at Occulus VR, who was apparently, or allegedly, caught in an underage sex sting operation.

And Not the Bee has a quick lesson in professional journalism.

Here we digress for a quick lesson in Journalism 101:

In journalism, if a source actively attempts to get you to not report on a story, that means it's really quite a bad story for them. [emphasis in the original.]

Remember How Ethanol Fuels Were Going to Save the Day?

Well, biofuels generally. Yeah, not so much. Ethanol Is Worse for Climate Than Gasoline, Study Finds

It is funny to see this story on a site called Treehugger.

Ethanol was supposed fulfill the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and make everything better. It wasn't supposed to be derived from corn. Things didn't turn out the way we were told they would.

The researchers found RFS increased corn prices by 30%, expanded corn cultivation by 8.7%, increased fertilizer use by 3 to 8%, degraded the water supply with chemical runoff, and "caused enough domestic land use change emissions such that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher."

If you click the link above, there is a cartoon which shows the ethanol being sent to gas pump via a pipeline. But that was one of the problems early on, that ethanol must be trucked - adding to the cost of its use.

So why do we still use it, if it is so bad for the environment? Money. Agribusiness makes tons of money off ethanol.

And then there is the issue that even before the recent wave of inflation, people in a lot of the world were going hungry.

Treehugger has long complained about feeding corn to cars instead of people, and in a time when food prices are rising fast, it seems particularly silly.

I got directed to Treehugger because of a "discussion" happening in the comments section related to one article. And while I miss the days of the old bulletin board flame-wars as much as anyone, I did not participate. (It wasn't really a flame war, with only a handful of personal insults being thrown around.) Anyway, I don't know if I will be visiting that site on a regular basis, because it is mostly annoying as hell.

Why Stories of Self-defense Are Rarely in the Media

Aside from it not supporting the anti-gun narrative. No Shots Fired In 9 Of 10 Defensive Gun Uses (DGUs).

One of the many reasons the actual number of DGUs is hard to nail down is that around 95% don't involve a single fired shot. Because of this, most go unreported to police. The media barely covers incidents where someone shoots a gun in self-defense. They certainly don't report on DGUs with no shots fired.

Statistics on self-defense. Self-defense mindsets. A link to the book More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott. All that and more is at the link.

The Fermi Paradox and the Search for Extraterrestrials

Not that it will stop the true believers. Massive search for alien life among billions of stars comes up empty - Study Finds

While absence of evidence is not definitive, believing is something with no evidence is not scientific.

PERTH, Australia — The quest to find alien life in the cosmos has come up empty in one of the biggest searches to date. Researchers in Australia say their latest project scanned billions of stars and 144 known exoplanets for signs of alien broadcasts — but ultimately found nothing.

A trio of scientists used the Murchison Widefield Array, a collection of more than 4,000 spider-like antennas in the Western Australian desert, to listen for alien “technosignatures” near the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.

Now maybe the evidence exists, and the Men in Black are covering it up, but it doesn't look that way from the official data.

As for The Fermi Paradox, Enrico Fermi asked, way back in 1950, "Where is everybody?"

Fermi grasped that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology and an immodest amount of imperial incentive could rapidly colonize the entire Galaxy. Within a few tens of millions of years, every star system could be brought under the wing of empire. Tens of millions of years may sound like a long project, but in fact it’s quite short compared to the age of the Galaxy, which is roughly a thousand times more.

So what Fermi immediately recognized was that the aliens have had more than enough time to pepper the Galaxy with their presence. But looking around, we don’t see any clear indication that they’re out and about. We don’t see any obvious evidence of a galactic empire or a United Federation of Planets.

This prompted Fermi to ask what was (to him) an obvious question: “where is everybody?”

It doesn't matter if the colonizers could travel at 1% the speed of light, or 10%. If you make any "reasonable assumptions" about the spread of civilization we should see signs everywhere. Instead, we see signs nowhere.

Don't expect SETI to close up shop any time soon, but this is the 4th survey to come up empty. And it is also the largest of the 4. The standard explanations trotted out by SETI include...

• We are using the wrong communications technology
• The aliens are hiding from us (the Zoo hypothesis)

SETI doesn't usually claim that the Men in Black are hiding stuff from us, but then then if there are Men in Black they control SETI; they would have to.

At some point however, we are going to have to own up to the fact, that given the publicly available data, it looks like we have the same amount evidence for the Easter Bunny as we do for extraterrestrials. (Hat tip to Don Surber.)

Canada Becomes a Full-on Police State

Lone Star Parson brings us NO CASH FOR YOU NAZI.

In Canada you're not allowed to have money in a bank if you disagree with the State. In fact, Canadian banks have been ordered by the STATE to seize your money if they even suspect you of being seditious, of having the brazen gall to criticize the STATE.

There is more. Click thru

Bridge Collapse in Pittsburgh

The Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed on 28 January 2022 at roughly 6:40 a.m. eastern standard time. It happened just prior to Joe Biden showing up in Pittsburgh to talk about infrastructure. Go figure.

The details: 10 injured in Pittsburgh bridge collapse just before Biden’s visit on infrastructure.

Ten people were hurt in the collapse, with rescuers forming a human chain to get to them.

At least four people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries following the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge just before 7 a.m., the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The bridge, part of Forbes Ave., traverses Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park. The collapse also led to a large gas leak.

The area around the bridge had to be evacuated. It took the gas company about 30 minutes to shut off gas to the line that ruptured.

There are no shortages of articles on the collapse. The initial reports. The fact that since it happened so early, there were no fatalities. The lawsuits. Yes, those are already in the works. Pete Buttigieg making pronouncements. Biden promising to fix 'every bridge.' Et cetera, ad nauseam.

One story did catch my eye... The impact of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse goes far beyond the disruption to a heavily traveled route.

The bridge was a respite. I took a mental health day after the Tree of Life shooting and walked through Frick Park, shadowed under the wings of the bridge just blocks away from the shooting. Although the bridge provided solace, I looked up to see its beams bending precariously.

Here is a hint: If you see a bridge, and you notice deformation, report it to someone. Keep reporting it until they take you seriously. Take a couple of photos with your phone so they cannot blow you off as being alarmist. Bridges often DEFORM before the fail. "Beams bending precariously" constitute a WARNING SIGN. At the very least, the bridge could have been closed, and no one would have been injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released something that they call a "preliminary report." It basically says "A bridge collapsed; we are looking into it." Though it takes 2 pages of government-speak to say that. They do provide some interesting video footage.

This is the video of NTSB B-Roll: Pittsburgh, PA Bridge Collapse (1/30/2022). There are some good views of the aftermath.

The DA Is Taking This Seriously

It appears that self-defense is legal in Georgia, but then I thought it was. Georgia Man Remains Free After Grand Jury Declines To Indict Him For September Shooting.

One motorist shot another. The cops took the shooter in for questioning, but he was not arrested.

The Catoosa County Grand Jury convened this week, and after hearing the presentation by the District Attorney’s office, declined to indict the still unnamed man. Speaking on the case, District Attorney Chris Arnt said that he is not at liberty to share any details of the Grand Jury’s deliberation, but that they had determined that no criminal laws in the State of Georgia had been violated by the shooter.

September to February seems a long time to make that determination, but with Thanksgiving, and Christmas and New Years in there, on top of whatever COVID restrictions Georgia courts still have in place, maybe it isn't unreasonable.

Oh, and the DA went out of his way to assure everyone he doesn't take any of this lightly. Maybe he is up for reelection.

And whether or not the DA in question hates self-defense, it is a human-right.

Cold War Flying

Juvat at Chant du Départ has an interesting anecdote about flying the F-15D and preparing for dealing with the MiG-25 Foxbat. How to get High...Fast!

No, Beans, this post has nothing to do with our fearless white house occupant's idea to distribute crack pipes.

Heh. Click thru for details on the Rutowski Climb profile.

A 21-year-old's Response to Being Teased

Violence is the only response today. Chicago man fatally shot 12-year-old boy because he teased him about his girlfriend: prosecutors

He shot a 12-year-old boy in the chest because that boy teased him. He didn't know how to ignore it. He didn't know how to tease back. He racked the slide on a semiautomatic pistol, pointed it at the 12-year-old, and pulled the trigger.

He knew it was wrong. He communicated with his girlfriend after the fact, and ran away to Wisconsin.

Western civilization was nice while it lasted.

We Risk Losing Our Freedom

I've come to appreciate some of what Russell Brand has to say, now that he is spending a lot of time talking about Freedom. Not all he has to say... He is certainly entertaining, and the videos are not hours long, but more like 10 or 15 minutes.

The censorship imposed by F*c*book and other platforms. The collusion between big business and big government. How do we preserve Freedom when everyone is now saying that only dangerous extremists believe in Freedom. And yes the Department for State Security of Homeland Security has said exactly that.

Well if being in favor of Freedom is a dangerous stance to take, then I will stand with Ronald Reagan.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free. – 1961

This is Russell Brand's video They're Scared.

Are the People at CNN Still Crazy?

The Other McCain is watching CNN, so you don't have to! CNN and the Ukraine ‘Crisis’

Today, mainly out of curiosity but also perhaps revealing a deep-seated masochistic tendency, I switched my office TV to CNN, where today there were three main stories: (a) the walls are still closing in on Trump, (b) the sentencing of the cop who accidentally shot Daunte Wright in Minnesota, and (c) ZOMG THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE!!!

That made me laugh.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 19 February

Wombat-socho at The Other McCain - In The Mailbox: 02.16.22

American Power: Three San Francisco School Board Members Recalled
American Thinker: Why Nearly 40% Of Gen Z Identify As LGBTQWTFBBQ

The Right Way - Top of the News

Run For Them Hills Boys. We're Out Numbered! - Diogenes Middle Finger News Service
Quote du jour and Best of the Web - Proof Positive

Flopping Aces - The Week in Radical Leftism, 2/18/21

2/11 – Five “Are We the Baddies” Indicators for the opponents of the Canadian Trucker Convoy
Only five?

EBL - Allison Gollust, Zuck's Squeeze, gets the boot from CNN

I am sure Allison will have her lawsuit against CNN too, just like Fredo.
I bet there are lots of CNN employees who will gladly stick the shiv in both of them...
Not that they love Zuck (other than Tater), it is just no one likes a thug bully or a whore at work.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 02.17.22

Shot In The Dark: Three Steps Forward, One Step Back, also, Dispatches From Planet DFL
STUMP: Political Mortality
The Political Hat: School Transparency In Oregon?

Don Surber - Highlights of the News

ITEM 7: Paul Bedard reported, "No spying on Trump? 35 times Big Media lied."
After 35 times, you give up counting.

A View from the Beach - Democrats on the Run in Rural Areas

Matt Vespa at Town Hall cites the AP, 'I Feel Like We're on the Run': The Hatred for Democrats in Rural America Has Reached Biblical Levels. Insty responds IF YOU CALL PEOPLE DEPLORABLE ENOUGH, THEY RETURN THE SENTIMENT

Battleswarm Blog - Trudeau The Thieving Bully

Which of these limited powers is Trudeau invoking first? None of them. He’s using it to track and steal the money of people who dare to disagree with him.

Vlad Tepes - Looking at the new communist landscape of Canada, rules are officially ethnically based: Links 1, February 18, 2022

As he isn’t a Canadian one can forgive him for not thinking to point out Trudeau’s additional hypocrisy when left wing groups blocked railways and other critical infrastructure last summer, and the police actually arrested the guy who TOOK DOWN THE barricade on the highway ramp.

Cafe Hayek - Some Covid Links

Freddie Sayers talks to people in Ottawa, including a protesting trucker.
Judson Berger reviews the awfulness of Covid-19 politics.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 2/17/2022

Breaking: My Pillow’s Mike Lindell Barred From Entering Canada to Support Truckers and Freedom Protesters
Breaking: Freedom Convoy Organizer Tamara Lich Arrested in Ottawa

Maggie's Farm - Thursday morning links

Kling is tough on the welfare state
Americans’ Trust in Scientists, Other Groups Declines
Authorities Say Seattle’s Public Transit is Unusable Due to Drugs and Crime

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report - 2/18/22

"The CIA's surveillance authorities need to be sharply curtailed and the market for third-party data restructured or eliminated entirely." The CIA Got Caught Spying on Americans Again. It's Time for Congress to Make Them Stop

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Revealed: The 12 Year-Old Essay that Explains What the Woke Want

• Biden Sends Kamala Harris to Urgently Secure the Border – Not Ours, Ukraine’s CTH
• Congress approved increase in defense spending, but Pentagon hasn't seen it Jamie McIntyre

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 02/18/2022

CIA knew Trump Russian collusion charges were false and they did nothing, because they were in on it. Good question. Where were all the intel and counter-intel, what did they know, and what did they do about the crime they were witnessing?

I leave you with Thursday gifdump from Wirecutter, Thursday Memes .. from MaddMedic, and Libturd Thursday Y'all - 2 from Woodsterman.