Victim-Blaming D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Dragged for Sharing 'Preventing Auto Thefts' Video While She Stays Mum on (Alleged) Murder of Mohammad Anwar (VIDEO)

I did see the video of the carjacking on Twitter, and I didn't want to jump to conclusions as to the race of the youth suspects, although watching the video in its entirety, it's clear at the end of it, that the two depraved "children" perpetrators were certainly not "white supremacist domestic terrorists" inflicting bloody murder-mayhem on a decent, immigrant family-man making some money, in his own car, delivering food during a pandemic for Uber Eats.

My wife and I were both stunned by this story, and personally, it's one of the worst crime stories I can recall in years, and that's saying a lot, considering how almost all the big Democrat-controlled cities in the U.S. have seen skyrocketing crime rates since the death of George Floyd, and the subsequent "peaceful protests" that burned down police stations, neighborhood shops, and more, during our dreadfully dishonest summer of "racial reconciliation" and "Black Lives Matter" lies.

At Twitchy, "Victim-blaming: Mayor Bowser gets called out by both sides of the political spectrum over VILE tweet on how to prevent carjackings."

And at Fox News, "DC mayor takes heat for sharing 'preventing auto thefts' video amid silence on Mohammad Anwar's death":

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser is taking heat for sharing a video on "preventing auto thefts" amid her silence on the death of Mohammad Anwar, who died just days ago after two teen girls allegedly tasered him to steal his vehicle.

"Auto theft is a crime of opportunity. Follow these steps to reduce the risk of your vehicle becoming a target. Remember the motto, #ProtectYourAuto," Bowser wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

"Carjackings are a senseless act of violence that risk the lives of innocent individuals, and over the course of this month, we have worked to raise awareness about a troubling increase in this violent crime, related arrests and safety tips," a spokeswoman for the mayor told Fox News in a statement. "Today’s prescheduled social media post was part of that effort and should not detract from the tragic death of Mohammad Anwar. Our thoughts and prayers remain with his family and the families of those we have lost to violence."

Bowser's tweet received instantaneous backlash.

"Horrible timing on this clearly scheduled tweet. And even if Mohammed Anwar wasn’t dead, carjackings are a plague in DC — there isn’t a lot you can do [with regard to] risk reduction besides simply not driving a car. This was broad daylight," journalist Natalia Antonova wrote on Twitter.

"Blame the victim huh? How about cracking down on perpetrators to deter this behavior?" Twitter user Jesse Hunt wrote.

"Uber Eats driver Muhammad Anwar was the victim of a carjacking by two teenage girls, who committed felony murder, in DC. He died as a result of injuries. I presume this is a scheduled tweet but it’s extremely tone deaf. Bowser’s silence is deafening," media strategist Gabriella Hoffman wrote on Twitter.

Two teenage girls fought Anwar, a 66-year-old UberEats delivery driver, for control of his car, leaving him dead as he was flung from the vehicle when it wrecked. The suspects, who police say are ages 13 and 15, have been charged with murder.

The suspects, who police say are ages 13 and 15, have been charged with murder in the death of Anwar.

One of the girls told D.C. police officers that they had set out with a stun gun to steal a car on Tuesday, according to court testimony from homicide unit Detective Chad Leo.

The girls got into Anwar’s car around 4:30 p.m. at the Navy Yard Metro Station as he was making deliveries, Leo said.

Anwar drove the girls to Nationals Park where he pulled his car over and a struggle ensued between them. Officials, citing police, said Anwar partially left the car and was pinned between the door and the driver’s seat as the teens allegedly put the vehicle in gear, the New York Post reported.

The car then lurched forward, causing Anwar to be fatally flung out as the car made a sharp right turn, causing it to roll over on its side and crash into two parked cars.

Officials arrived on the scene and found Anwar suffering from "life-threatening injuries," police said. D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene and transported the victim to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead...

Also, at the video above, it turns out one of the youth suspects, not identified, had been arrested for a previous carjacking, so, I mean, what gives? Who's the racists here? The two girls, who (allegedly, as they've still got to face trial), or the court system, which let one of them off, presumably, with a slap on the wrist, not just because minors "have their whole lives in front of them," blah, blah, but, because, obviously, these two suspected murderers are black.  

And, I don't know, Mayor Bowser, she's stayed silent right? Is her team still brainstorming to figure out another way to pin it on this poor Pakistani-born immigrant, driving his own car, and not taking in Jamie Dimon-level wages for his hard work? Dimon is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan Chase, the same bank that delayed the recent pandemic-economic relief checks for two-days after the feds sent the money to his bank branches, so no doubt Chase could reap windfall interest-earning profits, on the hundreds of millions of dollars of cash that sat in their coffers for two days, while regular Americans were scratching out their next meals, and downing anxiety meds like candy, while stressing over whether they'll go totally bankrupt when their rental eviction moratoriums expire, and they'll be on the hook for tens of thousands in unpaid back-rent, and which there's literally no way the average family would be able to afford (including millions of ethnic minority families in "marginalized" communities), unless Congress passes legislation making the rest of us --- the rest of us regular citizens, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender identity, also struggling to make ends meet --- bailout our corporate masters on Wall Street, whose lobbyists meet regularly with Washington D.C. power-brokers, especially Democrat Members of Congress and top Biden administration officials.

So tell me, again, who's the racist in all of this? 

Ooh Woo ... I Feel It Still (VIDEO)

So, I'm just back from Cerritos, where I came from visiting my young son, who was hospitalized this last week (due to a psyche breakdown dealing with his A.S.D.). He's coming home tomorrow, so I don't need to say too much more about that, other than, "Thank God," because working with these numbskull so-called "professionals" at such places is a nightmare.

Okay, in any case, driving back down the 91 freeway to I-5 South, I did have on 93.1 Jack FM Los Angeles, and it turns out they've screwed up their website, and I can't find the "playlist" of recent songs just aired, like I used to post back in the days of my regular "drive-time" musical updates. (I guess the station had to "consolidate" with some others on "radio.com," or some such bull, but no matter, at least it's still on, shoot.) 

I mean, 95.5 KLOS Los Angeles is still going strong, since back in the day when I was in high school, and K-EARTH 101 Los Angeles, which 20 years ago was an "oldies but goodies" station, playing everything from the Beach Boys to the Beatles to Sam Cooke to Dobie Gray to Elvis to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles to the Temptations, and more. Now it's just, basically, another "classic rock" channel, with a few 80s "new wave" hits thrown in, which is okay, but I miss KKLQ 100.3 FM "The Sound" Los Angeles, which, frankly, was just as good, and even better, when you figure in the nostalgia, as the old KMET Los Angeles, a.k.a., the "Might Met," which used to have D.J.s like Jim Ladd, who used to smoke "doobies" while on air, as well as Cynthia Fox, who years later, was back "spinning" the classics, at "The Sound."

The one other radio station I really miss was the Long Beach-based "Pure Rock" 105.5 KNAC, which used to have the most hilarious morning D.J., Norm McBride, who after I'd had a couple of "tokes" in the morning, my eyes would be watering and my stomach aching, non-stop, because I'd get the "lolz" bad. 

In any case, it's all iTunes and whatever the f*ck nowadays, so who really gives a rat's ass? Most of the old "classic rockers" are starting to kick the bucket now anyway (R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen), so I know I'm getting too old for this stuff anyway.

But I like Portugal. The Man, so I guess I should count my blessings that I'm still here, and I never O.D.'d on some damn stupid coke-cocktail, or some such dumb sh*t (heroin, f*ck, hated the "junk" myself, holy motherf*cker, and I only tried it once, and that was once too many, jeez), that some of my long lost buddies, from back in the day, succumbed to. 

And pfft, don't even get me going about "KROQ," as, frankly, with folks like "Darby Crash," former alcoholic lead singer of the "Germs," now also dead, I don't need to relive the experience; and Rodney Bingenheimer, the stuck up old c*nt, used to spin records at the "Starwood" punk nightclub, in West Hollywood, at the time, when I wasn't so smart as I am now. No need to relive that sh*t, sheesh.

Thanks for checking back in at this old fart's old blog.

Can't keep my hands to myself

Think I'll dust 'em off, put 'em back up on the shelf

In case my little baby girl is in need

Am I coming out of left field?

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

I been feeling it since 1966, now

Might be over now, but I feel it still

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

Let me kick it like it's 1986, now

Might be over now, but I feel it still

Got another mouth to feed

Leave her with a baby sitter, mama, call the grave digger

Gone with the fallen leaves

Am I coming out of left field?

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

I been feeling it since 1966, now

Might've had your fill, but you feel it still

Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now

I been feeling it since 1966, now

Might've had your fill, but you feel it still

We could fight a war for peace

Is it coming?

Is it coming?

Most Wished For Items

At Amazon, Most Wished For Items.

BONUS: Douglas Murray, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity.

Ireland Baldwin Photos

She's the 25-year-old daughter of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, and she's looking good!  

See, at Taxi Driver, "Ireland Baldwin Braless Pokies in White Tank Top."

And, at the Fappening, "Ireland Baldwin for Voting (3 Photos)."

BONUS: At Drunken Stepfather, "FLASHER FRIDAYS OF THE DAY," and "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY." 

And here, some scantily laced beauty, via Twitter:

Tucker Rips Bumbling and Stumbling 'China Joe's' Press Conference Debacle (VIDEO)

Following-up from last night, "Trey Gowdy Has the Clear Lead in Viewership for Fox News' 'Rotating' Fox News Primetime, Which Airs Daily, at 4:00pm Pacific Time (VIDEO)."

I will very pleased if Mr. Gowdy scores the 4:00pm broadcast, because then I might be able to have two straight hours of news programming that I actually would enjoy watching, and I won't get all the "woke" bullcrap from CNN, and, of course, I rarely, if ever, flip over to the clowns at MSNBC.

So, fingers crossed, because Tucker's "Da Man!"

Kara Del Toro Freakin' Deep Cleavage While Out Dining in Los Angeles; Plus, Sara Jean Underwood Totally Wild; And Still More Billie Eilish! (PHOTOS)

Hoo boy!

Great way to start the weekend, boyz! (And girls too, if you do the "crossover" thing, NTTAWWT!)

Here, "KARA DEL TORO WENT OUT FOR DINNER OF THE DAY."

Also, "Sara Jean Underwood (5 Hot Photos)."

And still more Billie Eilish!

Have a great day, and get out for some wonderful sunshine before it starts raining again, man.

Trey Gowdy Has the Clear Lead in Viewership for Fox News' 'Rotating' Fox News Primetime, Which Airs Daily, at 4:00pm Pacific Time (VIDEO)

The news is at Outkick, "MARK STEYN TO RETURN TO HOST FOX NEWS PRIMETIME AS NETWORK SETS NEXT 3 WEEKS DURING SEARCH." 

And Steyn is a worthy host, and he's even more hilarious than Tucker is at the 5:00pm show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight" (which, right now is the highest rated cable program out of all the cable networks, and it's no surprise, because he's just been killin' it).

Here's the list of ratings leaders for the 4:00pm "Primetime" program: 

In order of viewership:

3/8, Trey Gowdy: 2,057,000

2/1, Trey Gowdy: 1,988,000

1/1, Brian Kilmeade: 1,960,000

1/25, Maria Bartiromo: 1,877,000

3/22 (Mon-Wed), Brian Kilmeade: 1,777,000

3/15, Maria Bartiromo: 1,767,000

2/8, Mark Steyn: 1,759,000

2/15, Rachel Campos-Duffy: 1,728,000

3/1, Lawrence Jones: 1,713,000

2/22, Katie Pavlich: 1,647,000

Now, I'm a little surprised that Rachel Campus-Duffy beat out Katie Pavlich, who, I think, is 100 times smarter than Ms. Campus-Duffy, but who knows? Ms. Katie did look a little "green" in the role as "host" of an hour-long show, and, I don't recall, but perhaps Ms. Campos-Duffy is just more experienced. And Ms. Bartiromo's a freakin' pro, in any case, and I wish I saw her on T.V. more often, because I'm rarely up at 3:00am (Pacific) to watch her "Wall Street" program, although I do remember reading she got into a little "hot water" with her aggressive promotion of the "voter fraud" allegations being pushed by Team Trump. (And while there was fraud, and probably monumental fraud, I just wanted personally to "move on," and just gear up for the Georgia special elections, which Republicans lost, not just because of the hypocritical idiot Kelly Loeffler, but because all of those invovled, in the Washington G.OP. [the RNC], and folks down in the "Peach State," just refused to coordinate a wining electoral strategy down there).

Beautiful Florida Women (PHOTOS)

Via Rad Chicks.

Plus another Florida hottie here.

BONUS: Completely NSFW, "What a damn body on this college freshman" (VIDEO).

Shop Online for Apparel, Computers, Electronics, and More

At Amazon, Apparel, Computers, Electronics, and More.

BONUS: Jamie Glazov, United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror.

Ellie Goulding, "Lights" (VIDEO)

Following-up on my previous entry, "Ellie Goulding Enhanced (PHOTOS)," here's a music video featuring the lovely lass, snagged from the Other McCain:

Ellie Goulding Enhanced (PHOTOS)

 Way back when, about 9 years ago, the Other McCain posted about Ellie Goulding, where he writes:

Speaking of new theme songs . . . while I was riding with Ali Akbar to the Romney event Friday in Abingdon, Virginia, Ali was doing the usual thing he does when we’re traveling in his car: Playing crappy pop music from his smartphone through the car stereo system at top volume and singing along at the top of lungs, off-key.

Seriously, we’re like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger, except that Ali’s not old enough to know who Oscar and Felix were. We get on each other’s nerves something awful and it’s really amazing that we’ve been friends for three years. Anyway . . .

So Ali was cranking out his wretched music when, amid the noise rotation, I heard a song that wasn’t quite as awful as the rest. In fact, it was kinda catchy. A pulsing bass riff in a minor key with some techno stuff in the treble and a chick singer with a keening falsetto. “Hey, man, play that again,” I said.

Intriguing. There was something spooky about the lyrics — lights and sleeping and “constant calling me home” — although I couldn’t understand them clearly enough to make out every word. And what was it about that voice? The chick had a weird Celtic-folk quaver going on, with a little bit Stevie Nicks, and also a little bit Cyndi Lauper. (Ali: “Cyndi who?”)

So I looked up the lyrics and the singer, a British chick named Ellie Goulding, and thereby learned...

Well, I personally don't have any such muscially-moving reminiscences, but I do have this:

At Celeb Jihad, "Ellie Goulding Selfies Set Remastered and Enhanced."

She does it all, music, (no-clothes) selfies, or whatever, and that's worth dancing over, for sure. 

Glenn Reynolds, The Social Media Upheaval

Instapundit was on the 4:00pm Fox program today, discussing "cancel culture" (what else?), which I thought was cool, as I did get that Instalanche last week, and he's an expert on this stuff anyway (as you can tell, from reading his own book about it). 

At Amazon, Glenn Reynolds, The Social Media Upheaval.

Hoo Boy! Billie Eilish is 'Bigger' Than I Thought! (PHOTOS)

Holy humongous, dang! 

I mean, I've posted about her "enviable assets" before, but not this enviable, hot darn!

At Celeb Jihad, "Billie Eilish Nude Behind-The-Scenes Photo Released (PHOTOS)."

It's like "release the hounds" with those honkin' "sweater puppies," shoot!

Jack Phillips Said 'No', Again

This is a really excellent piece, and hits so close to the bone, it's almost too good.

From Bill McGurn, at WSJ, "The Christian Baker Who Said ‘No’":  

Jack Phillips is America’s most famous baker. People have taken him all the way to the Supreme Court in hopes of getting it to force him to bake them one of his custom cakes. This week he’s back in the dock, again defending his refusal to bake a custom cake with a message he says goes against his Christian faith.

Mr. Phillips owns Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., and holds traditional views on marriage and sexuality. The first legal action against him came via the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, when in 2012 he declined to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding and found himself accused of unlawful discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This time he’s being sued because he wouldn’t bake a cake celebrating a gender transition.

“Jack is being targeted for his religious beliefs,” says Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, who defended Mr. Phillips in his first case and continues to represent him. “His opponents are weaponizing the law to punish and destroy him because he won’t create expression that violates his Christian faith. They want to make the law an arm of cancel culture.”

In the first go-round, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 for Mr. Phillips. But it did so narrowly, on grounds that the commission had displayed “clear and impermissible hostility” to Mr. Phillips’s religious beliefs. (One commissioner compared Mr. Phillips’s invocation of his Christian beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust.) The court left unresolved the key constitutional question: Can the government compel people to create speech or artistic expressions to which they profoundly object?

The latest trial started Monday in Colorado state court. It dates to 2017, when Autumn Scardina called Mr. Phillips’s shop. She requested a custom cake—pink on the inside, blue on the outside—reflecting her gender transition. When the shop refused, she complained to the commission.

The commission pursued the case but dropped it in 2019 after Mr. Phillips filed a federal lawsuit against the state. Ms. Scardina then filed her own suit. Given that Mr. Phillips has already lost 40% of his business because he has stopped making his signature custom wedding cakes, these suits are plainly aimed at harassing him into submission.

A 2017 New York Times profile opened with this lead: “Jack Phillips bakes beautiful cakes, and it is not a stretch to call him an artist.” As an artist, he argues that his custom cakes are speech, and that he shouldn’t be compelled to create cakes with messages he deeply objects to.

In her court filing, Ms. Scardina says she asked for a birthday cake, not a cake celebrating her transition, and accuses Mr. Phillips of refusing her because she is transgender. But her story has shifted. In her original complaint to the commission, she wrote that she’d told the bakery the design was “intended for the celebration of my transition from male to female.”

After Masterpiece turned down this cake, Ms. Scardina called to request another. This one would feature Satan smoking a joint. Mr. Phillips declined, again because of the message...

Still more at that top link, and I do hope and pray Mr. Phillips prevails again in court, even if, once again, it goes to the Supremes.

 

David Horowitz, The Enemy Within

Due out April 6th, at Amazon, David Horowitz, The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America. 

'Ms. Davis, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army who at the time worked as an insurance lobbyist, said Mr. Reed put his hand on her back, unhooked her bra and touched her leg during a fundraising trip, according to an account she gave to the Washington Post. She didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday night...'

Whoa!

Maybe this dude will set a good example for New York's serial abuser, Gov. Andrew "Emmy Award" Cuomo.

At WSJ, "Rep. Tom Reed Says He Won’t Run for Re-election in 2022: After allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct, the New York lawmaker said he wouldn’t run for governor either." 

Tammy Duckworth Blames Trump for Border Crisis, and Margaret Brennan Botches Follow-Up on Recent Attacks on Asian-Americans (VIDEO)

You know, I actually think Tammy Duckworth's a freakin' patriot. She lost both legs after her Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq, when she was "over there" working on troop support missions, and she did multiple tours, if I recall correctly. And she made an amazing health recovery (because losing both legs, and dealing with all the initial trauma and surgeries, and rehab, and PTSD, and whatnot, is incredible), and she was elected to the Senate, and that's no small achievement, and I don't care what party, in that respect. So that's all good.

What's not so good is she's an extremely partisan Democrat, and she's got the blame-game and the "woke" left's victimology down to a "T". I mean, c'mon, what is it with all these "poor" and "marginalized" and "weak" Asian women? They are none of these things, so cut me a freakin' break. It's Duckworth who's actually being "racist" when she lowers the bar for folks like this, who are actually hard workers and entrepreneurs. (Though, of course, I abhor the attacks on them, which is f*cked up, and bad, even if the dude really did have a "sex addiction" --- you just don't kill people when you should be getting your own damned psychiatric treatment, the motherf*cker.)

And y'all know I love that hottie Margaret Brennan, but she screwed up by not following-up on her decent questioning by pressing Duckworth on the race of the perpetrators. That is, Brennan let stand Duckworth's false meme of "white supremacist" violence against these "poor, helpless" "communities of color." What bull.

So, Brennan should have pressed on the background of the perps, because we have the data, both at the federal, state, and local levels, regarding exactly what ethnic groups are committing the most crimes, and as I've noted before, if you just watch the many, many videos posted to social media, and YouTube, or whatever, it's mostly black street thugs in "hoodies" who're knocking down and killing the old Asian folks, and it needs to stop, and fast. Sheesh.  

At "Face the Nation" earlier:

Holy Cow! That's One Buffed 'Country Gal', Dang!

I like it!

I don't even know what weapon she's toting, but she could prolly knock you out cold with one big roundhouse, dang!

At Country Girls, on Twitter:

Plus, more bodalicious babe, here and here. 

Well, That Didn't Take Long: Sharon Osbourne Out at 'The Talk' as Unhinged Leftists Claim Another Scalp Over Imaginary Racism (VIDEO)

So, my wife was on target, naturally. 

Sharon Osbourne is definitely out at "The Talk," and just one quick search for "Sharon Osbourne" on Twitter gives you a glimpse into the radical --- and so "pure" --- left's utter ideological fury over the audacity that this woman might actually stand up for something, that thing being, er, the truth.

Here's my earlier entry, "'The Talk' Extends Hiatus After Sharon Osbourne's 'Controversial' Defense of Friend Piers Morgan (VIDEO)."

And now at OK Magazine, with, what looks like, a bit of actual news on some likely nasty litigation to be forthcoming: "CBS Will Reportedly Have to Pay Sharon Osbourne a 'Sizeable Settlement to Keep Her Quiet' Amid 'The Talk' Investigation." Also, "'It's All Out of Control': Sharon Osbourne 'Not Expected to Return' to 'The Talk' After Shocking On-Air Meltdown, Says Source."

It wasn't a "shocking on-air meltdown." 

Indeed, Ms. Osbourne was freakin' ambushed, and she's right to claim she was set up, for whatever reason, the most likely being that this black race-mongering beatdown queen, Sheryl Underwood, came to the taping all ready to go for the big "you be racist!" backstab --- and the rest is history, or it will be, once we get more on the true juicy details of exactly how this degenerate bull came down.

The kicker is this Don Lemon segment at CNN from the other night (below), which I did not see in real time, in which he "discusses" how "calm" was Ms. Underwood in responding to the "privileged Ms. Osbourne, who shoulda just sucked it up. And further, neither has the "brother" Mr. Lemon, nor the "I ain't never seen no white person who wasn't no racist cracka" Ms. Hill, accepted Ms. Osbourne's apology, which I had not seen until today; and they claimed Osbourne's mea culpa wasn't "really" addressing" the "underlying" issue, which is that if muthaf*ckin' black folks call you out for your "enabling" of alleged "racist" treatment of "people of color" (and a "coloured" royal, no less), then you best be shuttin' the f*ck up, bitch.

And don't forget, Ms Hill was first suspended at then basically fired from  --- after a year of turmoil, and with Ms. Hill brokering some kind of "settlement," er, payoff --- ESPN, after she basically attacked Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (on Twitter, of course) as the second coming of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. 

And this lady's been bad news for a long time. See the Washington Examiner, for example, "Lessons from Trader Jose and Jemele Hill: Calling everything racist is a really bad way to fight racism."

I'm am done.

I can barely get through Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room" anymore, and if I continue to watch the network, it's going to be just to monitor how low Zucker's FUBAR programming will go down the hole of despicable and hysterically deranged leftist racial paranoia (and obvious pro-Biden/Dem "white supremacist" propaganda).

Oh brother, Sharon Osbourne should just turn the tables and retort, "Bitch Better Have My Money." (*Eyes rolling into the back of my head.*)

Joe Biden 'Doing Fine' After Falling 'Up the Stairs' While Boarding Air Force One (VIDEO)

Heh, again, at the Guardian, which, as noted previously, is more likely to defend "Bumbling and Stumbling" Joe Biden than they are to criticize him. 

Here, "Biden 'doing fine' after stumbling once, twice, thrice on steps of Air Force One: White House spokesperson blames windy weather after Biden loses his footing three times boarding presidential plane."

Also at the New York Post, "Biden keeps falling up the stairs as he boards Air Force One."

And, of course, here's the inimitable, and hilarious, Tucker, to deliver the coup de grâce. 

(And as I schedule this post for later, I still haven't finished watching Tucker's entire episode from "yesterday," because again, family, work, and actually, emailing all my classes about the story of Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, who Tucker covered about midway through his program, had me procrastinating like a lazy mofo, lol; and so, if I'm behind on my grading, it's only my fault, and I'll probably have to pull another 10-hour-day on Monday, just to get caught back up; but the late afternoon is, really, the only time I can catch a little news, so if a couple of awesome Fox News segments here and there actually, "make my day," then it's a trade-off I'm more than willing to take.)

Watch:

Blockbuster Maria Bartiromo Opening Segment on Fox News' 'Prime Time' (VIDEO)

I was busy yesterday, but I did catch this opening segment with the fabulous, and most beautiful, Italian-American, Maria Bartiromo. 

Just great stuff, and I hope more and more folks hear, and heed, her message, and shout about these very threatened notions of "liberty" and "opportunity" in the U.S. today, "from the rooftops."

Watch:

San Francisco Asian Woman Who Fought Back Now Has 'GoFundMe' Campaign Closing-In on $1 Million (VIDEO)

It's been a big day, again, with work and family stuff, so blogging has been light.

But I did see the story earlier this morning, on "CBS This Morning," when at that time the San Francisco lady's "GoFundMe" hadn't yet reached $600,000.

Now the Guardian's reporting it's getting up to $800,000, and I won't be surprised if it passes a cool million over the weekend. (And I hope that helps the woman with all her medical bills, and what not, and perhaps she'll be able to "spread the wealth" to some of her neighbors, who many, no doubt, could use a hand, as this pandemic hurts everybody, even generally hard-working Asian families living up that way).  

See, "Nearly $800,000 raised for two elderly Asian people attacked in San Francisco: Video of an injured and crying Xiao Zhen Xie standing on a street corner prompted thousands to share messages and donate." 

(ADDED: Of course the Guardian had to get in the obligatory, "Anti-Asian rhetoric, fueled by Donald Trump and the far right’s insistence on using offensive, stigmatizing language to describe the coronavirus, has helped provoke violence," blah, blah.)

In any case, and good for them, but some of lady's younger Asian-American neighbors are forming "citizens' patrols" to, frankly, stand guard and protect their communities from these kinds of attacks; and remember, most of these attacks are not from "white crackers," but black "hoodlums" whose culture is already anti-social, and committing crime for these idiots is just another day "on the job."

At KPIX News 5 San Francisco: 

Now That's What I'm Talkin' About! 75-Year-Old San Francisco Woman Beats and Bloodies Her Anti-Asian Attacker! (VIDEO)

Now this is some story!

And it's interesting, because, if you think about it, it doesn't follow the script regarding recent attacks on Asian-Americans in San Francisco (so far, it's been mostly black urban hoodlums). I mean, here's some young white dude, who hates Asians, and let's say, he comes from outside the city to mount his attack? Where'd he come from? Who taught him this clearly racist and violent attitude? Because you know, while Gavin Newsom's overplaying his hand on all the "white supremacists" sponsoring the recall, it's not like we don't have any in this state. 

I mean, you have the "State of Jefferson" secession movement, and those folks, probably many of them, are no doubt "white crackers." They live in the northeast part of the state, in some of the most remote counties, including Tehama County (just south of Redding), Modoc County (at literally the most northeast corner of the state), and Yuba Country (which abuts, on the east side, State Highway 99, which following it up north, about 100 miles or so, connects back over to Interstate 5 at Red Bluff).

So, yeah, it's just a hypothesis, but still --- who is this guy and where'd he come from?

So, that brings us back to the 75-five-year old Asian lady. She was carrying a stick, and though she suffered a horrible black eye, she gave as good as it gets. Now, what should really happen is San Francisco should expedite concealed-carry permits for local Asian-Americans who want to get armed, and frankly, the city should subsidize firearms training, to put their money where it counts (but not where it "is," sadly, because S.F. District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, is a "red-diaper baby," and he'll resist anything that conflicts with the Soros-leftist's "criminals are really vicitims" stupidity, which is one of the massive drivers of residents right the hell out of this dumphole of a state).

In any case, three cheers for this woman. I hope she sets an example and emboldens other S.F. Asians (especially those of the Chinese-American community) to do the same.

Via KPIX News 5 San Francisco:

Fox News Should Just Give Stephen Miller His Own Show, Dang! (VIDEO)

Heh, keeping my with my "unaccompanied minors" story-line here, and following-up, "Even the Far-Left Los Angeles Times Can't Ignore Biden Administration's Cluster at the Southern Border."

Shoot, Fox should just make this guy a permanent anchor on any and all immigration news. No doubt the ratings for an hour with "Stephen Miller on the Border" would be right up there with Tucker's, heh. 

From Laura Ingraham's last night:

Suspect in Heinous Atlanta Asian-American Spa Attacks Charged With 8 Counts of Murder (VIDEO)

Well dang, one would think!

The Other McCain is on the story, "Georgia Massage Parlor Massacre":

When my brother mentioned this story to me this morning, my reaction was: “Massage parlors? In Cherokee County? WTF?” I’m old enough to remember when that area was largely rural, and the idea that you would have Asian massage parlors there is just mind-boggling to me.

Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds just said at a press conference in Atlanta that the suspect in this case appeared to have “sexual addiction” problems and “may have frequented” some of the establishments where these shootings occurred...

Keep reading.

And at the video, from CBS "The Morning, "Police say the suspect in the deadly Atlanta spa shootings confessed to the killings, but told them he's a sex addict, not a racist..."

Well, of course you wouldn't want to suggest that these were RACIALLY motivated all while the suspect is WHITE, but hey, in this age of unlimited pornography, and the misogynistic culture that comes with it, who knows?

Even the Far-Left Los Angeles Times Can't Ignore Biden Administration's Cluster at the Southern Border

Following-up once again, "Thousands of Unaccompanied Minors Are Crossing Over to the U.S., as the Biden Administration Continues to Hide From the Media's Questions (VIDEO)." 

Here's Molly Hennessy-Fiske, who's about as "woke" a journalist you can find, reporting on the humanitarian disaster of the Biden administration's making.

At LAT, "Surge of migrant families and youths overwhelms Border Patrol in Texas":

MISSION, Texas — The priest arrived to bless about 90 Central American families Tuesday at an old parish hall that had been converted into a shelter to absorb the rising number of migrants and unaccompanied children streaming into Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The Rev. Roy Snipes, a native Texan who preaches in a straw cowboy hat, stood in front of a portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He prayed in Spanish over the families, sprinkling them with holy water drawn from the Rio Grande, the same river many had crossed just days before.

“You made it here, and here you are,” said Snipes. The parents — some holding infants — applauded.

Migrant families and unaccompanied children are overwhelming U.S. Customs and Border Protection holding areas and federal youth shelters even as the facilities are being expanded. The surge is happening as families flee gang violence, unstable governments, poverty and hurricane damage at a time many believe the Biden administration will be more welcoming than the former Trump White House.

“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said Tuesday. “We are securing our border, executing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s public health authority to safeguard the American public and the migrants themselves.”

The number of migrant families has doubled this year but remains below previous spikes, including the most recent influx in 2019. But the flow of youths arriving without adults has increased to near-record levels, to 9,457 last month from 5,858 in January — more than the number who arrived in the same period in 2019. The influx is straining U.S. immigration resources and intensifying pressure on the Biden administration to stem an emerging crisis Republicans say it should have been prepared to handle.

Federal officials have reopened a migrant youth shelter for 700 in central Texas and created a temporary shelter for another 700 at a former oil camp in west Texas. The Dallas convention center will house up to 3,000 youths. Some shelters have faced criticism in the past amid allegations of mistreatment, and migrant advocates oppose reopening them.

The Border Patrol’s main holding center for migrant families in the Rio Grande Valley is closed for renovation. About 600 families and more than 1,800 unaccompanied migrant youths were held at a nearby Border Patrol tent facility last week, some sleeping on the floor because there were not enough mats, according to Leecia Welsh, one of the lawyers who interviewed about 20 youths held there Thursday.

She said some young migrants told the lawyers they had been held at the facility for more than a week, despite the federal government’s three-day limit for detaining children. Many said they had not been allowed to phone their parents or other relatives.

Some parents have been unable to locate children for more than a week after they arrived in the U.S., said Dr. Amy Cohen, co-founder and executive director of Every Last One, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that works to reunite separated migrant families.

“We are forcing the hand of these parents who are in a situation of tremendous danger in Mexico, where they are seeing or experiencing being kidnapped again and again,” Cohen said. “I’ve had parents who were in the situation where they were afraid they would be murdered and their child left alone.”

Two Honduran children, ages 11 and 9, were separated from their uncle recently. The man was returned to the Mexican border city of Miguel Aleman, where he was kidnapped and freed only after his relatives in the U.S. paid $5,000 ransom, Cohen said. Relatives in Texas are still trying to find out where federal officials are holding the children.

By law, children are supposed to be transferred by Border Patrol to Health and Human Services shelters within 72 hours, but there have been delays because of pandemic restrictions. Some children have also been transferred out of state to federal foster care, Cohen said...

And as always, the despicable Dems blame on it "Texas Republicans." Well, now, maybe A.O.C. can fly back down to Hidalgo and Zapata Counties, right near the border, where the surge of illegals continues unabated. And while she's there, maybe she can do some fundraising for the AMERICANS getting hammered by her party's clusterf*ck policies? 

Thousands of Unaccompanied Minors Are Crossing Over to the U.S., as the Biden Administration Continues to Hide From the Media's Questions (VIDEO)

I wanted to post this one earlier, but I'm glad I waited until after I found the Tucker segment posted earlier, "Spectacular Tucker Carlson Episode 'On Assignment' in El Salvador! (VIDEO)."

At one point at the video below, CBS News correspondent Mireya Villarreal is near tears, as she watches a young boy start off down the highway into the U.S., with no one "accompanying" him, so who knows what fate awaited that child, because the "bad hombres" prey on children not just south of the border, but inside the U.S. as well?

And I've got Fox News on right now as I'm working on this, and they've already had three segments blasting Jen Psaki and other administration officials for their lies and deceit, and it's not just Fox's Peter Doocy doing the grilling. 

No doubt I'll be keeping up with this story, because it's one of the most volatile for Biden, as he's just not up to the task on this issue, or any other, dealing with actually helping Americans rather than foreign "migrants," many of whom have in fact been designated as "terrorists," especially the untold number of "MS-13" gang-bangers and murderers Biden's now letting into the country, to kill, maim, and rape U.S. citizens, who're being literally f*cked by the ghouls now in charge in D.C. 

New Gina Carano Scenes

At Celeb Jihad, "Gina Carano Scene From 'Cancel This' (VIDEO)."

"Former UFC fighter and actress, Gina Carano, appears to take the fight to 'cancel culture' in the ... scene [at the link] from the new film 'Cancel This'."

This is obviously NSFW.

Have a great day!

Spectacular Tucker Carlson Episode 'On Assignment' in El Salvador! (VIDEO)

Shoot, I'm surprised Fox News actually posted this whole segment, because as I've mentioned before, they're kinda stingy on posting Turker's stuff to YouTube. But this one is phenomenal, and I'm glad they did!

(Maybe they're just really "pumping up" some of the new content that will be part of the new "Fox Nation" package of specials, of which Tucker's new programming will be the highlight.)

Anyway, he keeps getting better, that's for sure, and as always, I can't stop laughing when I'm watching his segments. 

Here:

Media's Entire Georgia Narrative Is Fraudulent, Not Just The Fabricated Trump Quotes

It's Mollie Hemingway, at the Federalist. 

She's day in and day out, a one-woman wrecking-crew demolishing the endless lies streaming from all the hate-addled (and despicable) leftist media outlets, be they print, broadcast, cable, or whatever. I'm glad she's on our side. 

She's the author, most prominently, of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, but also, Trump vs. the Media (Encounter Broadsides Book 51).

Also, my apologies for the light blogging today, but the pace of posting should pick up a bit over the next couple of days, and into the weekend.

Be well. 

Instalanche!

Actually, I received not just one, but two!, in the past few days, for my post, "Biden, Harris, Psaki and Other Top Staffers Afraid to Appear in Sunday News Shows (VIDEO)."

On Sunday, Ed Driscoll, one of the main co-bloggers at Instapundit, linked my post, probably just moments after I tweeted it to him. 

And then Stephen Green, also one of the other main stalwart co-bloggers over there, linked it again this morning. 

It's pretty gratifying, especially since I've had little time to blog, and I sure appreciate getting tons of traffic, and I welcome the Instapundit readers. 

But I want to thank MY loyal readers most of all, who number probably just in the hundreds, and if the number's over a thousand, that's on a good day. So thank you again for your all your support, for coming here to read, and to shop occasionally at my Amazon links. 

I've been doing this a long time, and some of the the greatest blogs from back in the day, at the height of the blogosphere, probably around the time from the Iraq war in 2003 (or maybe a little earlier, like 9/11) to the years of both the Obama administrations, are long gone; and back then, blogging was bigger and way more influential, than, say, social media (and especially Twitter, which itself was better back in the day, around the first part of the Obama years, before they starting f*cking with all the stupid "algorithms").

So, thanks for reading. This blog isn't going anywhere, but the volume of posting will rise and fall, perhaps a lot, depending on how things are going right here at home, with my wife and two sons, because, like everybody else, this godforsaken pandemic has messed everything up, including not just income flow, but the way the world works, how people literally "go to work," and how people engage and socially interact. It's killing people, literally, with the rise not just deaths from Covid-19, which are horrifying, but perhaps even more dangerously long-term, from the increasing social despondency and isolation people are enduring, particularly young people, whose life chances have been set back years, and even decades, if this economy flounders, or inflation surges, and the national debt keeps growing, and on, and on.

So, thanks again, dear readers, I appreciate the support. 

I'll be back with more later, probably in the late afternoon or early evening. 

'The Talk' Extends Hiatus After Sharon Osbourne's 'Controversial' Defense of Friend Piers Morgan (VIDEO)

"Controversial." Wait, what?

I used to watch "The Talk" years ago with my wife, who was an absolute fan of Julie Chen. But when she left the show when her husband, Leslie Moonves, got caught up in the "MeToo" witch hunt (which might not have been the biggest "witch-hunt" in his case, since the man HAD been engaged in bad behavior, the details of which I can't exactly recall, because there were so many top leftist execs just like him who did the exact same things, and worse), my wife was still pissed that Ms. Chen quit --- and she quit, because, actually, all the show was really about is a bunch of privileged women sitting around gossiping about how horrible their privileged lives were, and of course, inevitably, Ms. Chen would have actually been attacked mercilessly for her husband doing something (indeed) horrible and unforgivably un-woke.

And I never personally could stand founding host Sara Gilbert, whose only real claim to fame is having starred as Darlene Conner on "Roseanne" for so many years. And the real Rosanne Barr made whatever stupid remarks she made after the "reboot" appeared, and the über-woke Gilbert had a hissy-fit, and ultimately quit "The Talk" after ABC canceled the second season of the re-branded "Roseanne" show, "The Connors."

So, here we are, and the one remaining smart and decent personality on the show, Ms. Osbourne, wife of the notorious heavy (and early "death") metal icon, Ozzy, is now about to be canceled, because she defended Piers Morgan? 

This country if f*ked. And it's leftists who've f*cked it all up. 

At the Hollywood Reporter, "'The Talk' Extends Hiatus as Claims Mount Against Sharon Osbourne":

After a controversial defense of friend Piers Morgan during a conversation about racism, Osbourne is facing accusations of further misdeeds on set.

The Talk will remain silent for another week.

After going dark on Monday and Tuesday, CBS' panel series is extending its brief hiatus from live shows until Tuesday, Mar. 23, as the network continues a review stemming from last Wednesday's heated debate between Sharon Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood. Initially planning to return to live episodes on Wednesday, Mar. 17, the show will stay dark as Osbourne's defense of Piers Morgan and comments on racism — particularly her confrontation with Underwood, her Black colleague — go under the microscope internally.

A CBS spokesperson sent The Hollywood Reporter the following comment about the extended hiatus on Tuesday: “CBS is committed to a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace across all of our productions. We’re also very mindful of the important concerns expressed and discussions taking place regarding events on The Talk. This includes a process where all voices are heard, claims are investigated and appropriate action is taken where necessary. The show will extend its production hiatus until next Tuesday as we continue to review these issues.”

Fallout for Osbourne (and the show) was swift following the longtime panelist's teary defense of friend and fellow Brit, Morgan, who stormed off the set of (and ultimately quit) ITV's Good Morning Britain — which he'd co-hosted since 2015 — after his vitriolic criticism of Meghan Markle was read by most as racist. At one point in her defense of Morgan, Osbourne went on the offense and demanded that Underwood tell her what Morgan had done wrong. "Educate me, tell me when you have heard him say racist things," Osbourne said. "I very much feel like I'm about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend, who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist?"

Since then scrutiny has only increased...

Well, naturally, the scrutiny was never going to "decrease," because CBS, craven as can be, is just letting all the controversy hang in the wind, without doing a thing to defend Ms. Osbourne, who will soon enough, probably early next week, be fired.

Now, this is my wife's theory, but she's been predicting the actual cravenness of the network's execs since the story first broke. My wife says if the media outrage dies down over the remainder of this week, the execs will be "in the clear" to keep Ms. Osbourne on the show. But if by next Monday, the clamor is continuing, the wife of the "Iron Man" vocalist will be melted down and dribbled along with the rest of the (cast) iron dregs of the nearest ironwork's foundry. 

So disgusting. I say it every time, but these people (leftists) are despicable. 

(The "controversial" portion of the episode, with the "controversial" comments by Ms. Osbourne, can seen at the beginning of the video above.)

Paul Werth, 1837

At Amazon, Paul Werth, 1837: Russia's Quiet Revolution. 

Hoo Boy!

Holy cow!

I've been off everything today, and frankly, I just scheduled my sixth "discussion forum" a little while ago, to go live at 12:01am on Tuesday, in less than 50 minutes from now, and the first thing I see when I click over to Instapundit is this, dang!

It's Sharyl Attkisson:

Biden, Harris, Psaki and Other Top Staffers Afraid to Appear in Sunday News Shows (VIDEO)

You know why these ghouls won't go live on air to take real questioning about the administration's so-called "BFD" victories --- they'e scared sh*tless to actually have to face the music. And I freakin' watched "Face the Nation" this morning, because Margaret Brennan's the only Sunday morning host who I can take seriously (not to mention, she's quite easy to gaze upon).

And who does the administration give the "O.K" to appear? This Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who is not just "Chair of the White House's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force," but is also the "Associate Dean for Health Equity Research" at Yale. Now that's some privilege, dang! I think I barely made it through the interview, but I did listen to this women's "equity speak," and she's got the whole "equity, inclusion, and diversity" boondoggle down cold. 

So, in the end, Biden had to send, really, a lower-lever White House aide, who is a black woman, and thus pretty much impervious to criticism, lest anyone who does have a word of opposition wants to be branded a "racist." 

These people are despicable, and even Ms. Brennan, who is noticeably pregnant (which is admirable and shows that women do have incredible opportunities in the leftist media world these days), didn't drill down hard enough against this "woke" medical "social justice warrior" administrative shill as she could have.

Oh brother. It's bad. And it's going to be a long-four years; and keep in mind, my family's not opposed to getting the checks. But I'll bet like millions of other Americans, we're definitely not so happy about the, what?, near-90 percent of the bill which is practically a $2 trillion grab bag of pork-ladened goodies for far-left constituencies that helped these clowns gain office in the first place. 

I can't even. *Sigh.*

At Politico, "POLITICO Playbook: Biden stiffs the Sunday shows":

President JOE BIDEN just signed the first BFD of his administration — a massive Covid relief bill to boost the fortunes of everyday Americans. But you barely heard a peep about it from his own administration on the Sunday shows. Yes, Biden is hitting the road this week to sell the package. But on his way out the door, he skipped a major audience on Sunday — a day many people will actually sit back and watch something of substance, hence the gangbuster ratings for CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

Just one senior administration official was booked on the five major Sunday shows: Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN on ABC’s “This Week.” She fended off questions on whether $1.9 trillion in new spending would drive inflation and balloon the debt. Sunday show producers tell me the White House only offered medical staff like ANTHONY FAUCI, who appeared on CNN, NBC and FOX, and MARCELLA NUNEZ-SMITH, who went on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” This was despite requests for chief of staff RON KLAIN, VP KAMALA HARRIS and Biden himself. Senior communications staffers like JEN PSAKI, KATE BEDINGFIELD and SYMONE SANDERS were not even offered to explain the bill.

“They’re leaving a vacuum on the Sunday shows,” said one senior producer, who called the whole thing “baffling.”

A senior administration official downplayed the light presence on the Sunday programs, saying that Biden and Harris “look forward to hitting the road this week and engaging directly with the American people through events and interviews.” The official noted that the administration has done and will continue to do plenty of other press — national and local — on the Covid bill.

But the Sunday shows combined reach an audience of about 10 to 15 million each weekend and help drive newspaper coverage on Monday. Biden himself has said BARACK OBAMA erred in not selling the 2009 economic rescue package to the public aggressively enough, and they paid a price for it in the 2010 midterms.

Biden, who hasn’t held a news conference since he took office, is expected to interview with local media during his roadshow...

There's still more, but all it says is that "China Joe's" gonna talk sometime soon with fake journalist and high-paid Democrat-media-shill George Stephanopoulos, on ABC's morally bankrupt "Good Morning America," and KAMala (don't you dare say KaMALa) Harris will sit down with "CBS This Morning's Gayle King who is nice, but she's got heavy baggage as an Oprah lackey, and she's one who's guaranteed to be soft as a feather in interviewing the actually not-truly "black" vice president (at least, not truly black in the sense that she's never experienced the grinding poverty of real inner-city blacks who've been screwed by Democrat policies in the big urban leftist strongholds for decades), not to mention that King for sure won't press the former high-falutin' Brentwood local who's lied through her teeth about "marching" for civil rights, and don't you dare mention she's just as bad a plagiarist as Joe "Neil Kinnock" Biden (and both her parents, minorities they might be, earned doctoral degrees at U.C. Berkeley), so cry me a river about our "oppressed" second-in-command, who is perhaps more than any V.P. in history, literally a "heartbeat away" from taking her seat at the "resolute desk" for herself. 

See what I mean, how bad things are? Gosh, the 2022 midterms can't come soon enough.   

Nine-Hundred U.S. Troops Still Deployed to Syria. Oh. Why? And Who Lied About It?

At LAT, surprisingly, "Inside U.S. troops’ stronghold in Syria, a question of how long Biden will keep them there":

KHSHAM, Syria — At a makeshift military outpost abutting a natural gas field in eastern Syria, the signs of the country’s violent upheaval are everywhere. Bombed-out concrete buildings lie in ruins. The pipes that once carried liquefied natural gas are shredded and twisted. A tattered U.S. flag strung between 40-foot-tall gas processing towers flies high over the base, a visible symbol that American troops are here — and not planning on leaving soon.

“We’ve got the flagpole planted,” said Army Lt. Alan Favalora, a Louisiana National Guard soldier at Conoco, the name the base acquired from the long- departed U.S. oil and gas firm that once operated the wells. “We want them to know we are committed to this region.”

How committed President Biden will be to keeping troops in Syria is uncertain, however.

The Biden administration does not appear to be in any rush to pull out the 900 U.S. troops who remain in the country, a relatively small force that some White House officials see as key to preventing a resurgence of Islamic State and a rush to reclaim the area’s oil fields by Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.

But White House officials have said they are reviewing the troop presence in Syria — an announcement that has raised concerns that Biden could reconsider the deployment as part of a larger scaling back of U.S. troops in the Middle East and a planned shift of Pentagon focus to Asia.

What Biden is going to do “is the one question I got from everybody,” Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie Jr., the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said in an interview after visiting eastern Syria on Friday. “I think the new administration is going to look at this, and then we’re going to get guidance.”

Robert Ford, who was an ambassador to Syria during the Obama administration, called the U.S. strategy “deeply flawed” and said Biden should withdraw the remaining troops who have helped the Syrian Democratic Forces — a Kurdish-led militia — carve out a semiautonomous enclave in the country’s northeast.

“I don’t think it’s worth it,” Ford said about the American deployment in an interview. Islamic State “is largely contained and not in a position to threaten the U.S. homeland or even to send fighters to Europe.”

The Arab population in northeastern Syria initially supported Kurdish militias’ efforts to oust Islamic State. But many Arabs now resent being under the Kurds’ governance, creating a new source of recruits as Islamic State tries to recover, Ford added...

Well, of course Biden's policy is "deeply flawed," because his foreign policy advice has been "deeply flawed" all around, particularly during the Obama administration, when the "red line" fiasco basically put Russia in the driver's seat, giving that neo-imperialist power strategic advantage, of which it hasn't wasted, to the disadvantage of U.S. interests. Now Biden's just trying to salvage his own reckless legacy and save whatever loss of face he can for all the f*cked up Democrat foreign policy fiascos. These people are liars and hacks. 

Criticizing Public Figures, Including Influential Journalists, is Not Harassment or Abuse (VIDEO)

 A great piece, from the fearless Gleen Greenwald, at his Substack page:

The most powerful and influential newspaper in the U.S., arguably the West, is The New York Times. Journalists who write for it, especially those whose work is featured on its front page or in its op-ed section, wield immense power to shape public discourse, influence thought, set the political agenda for the planet’s most powerful nation, expose injustices, or ruin the lives of public figures and private citizens alike. That is an enormous amount of power in the hands of one media institution and its employees. That’s why it calls itself the Paper of Record.

One of the Paper of Record’s star reporters, Taylor Lorenz, has been much discussed of late. That is so for three reasons. The first is that the thirty-six-year-old tech and culture reporter has helped innovate a new kind of reportorial beat that seems to have a couple of purposes. She publishes articles exploring in great detail the online culture of teenagers and very young adults, which, as a father of two young Tik-Tok-using children, I have found occasionally and mildly interesting. She also seeks to catch famous and non-famous people alike using bad words or being in close digital proximity to bad people so that she can alert the rest of the world to these important findings. It is natural that journalists who pioneer a new form of reporting this way are going to be discussed.

The second reason Lorenz is the topic of recent discussion is that she has been repeatedly caught fabricating claims about influential people, and attempting to ruin the reputations and lives of decidedly non-famous people. In the last six weeks alone, she twice publicly lied about Netscape founder Marc Andreessen: once claiming he used the word “retarded” in a Clubhouse room in which she was lurking (he had not) and then accusing him of plotting with a white nationalist in a different Clubhouse room to attack her (he, in fact, had said nothing).

She also often uses her large, powerful public platform to malign private citizens without any power or public standing by accusing them of harboring bad beliefs and/or associating with others who do. (She is currently being sued by a citizen named Arya Toufanian, who claims Lorenz has used her private Twitter account to destroy her reputation and business, particularly with a tweet that Lorenz kept pinned at the top of her Twitter page for eight months, while several other non-public figures complain that Lorenz has “reported” on their non-public activities). It is to be expected that a New York Times journalist who gets caught lying as she did against Andreessen and trying to destroy the reputations of non-public figures will be a topic of conversation.

The third reason this New York Times reporter is receiving attention is because she has become a leading advocate and symbol for a toxic tactic now frequently used by wealthy and influential public figures (like her) to delegitimize criticisms and even render off-limits any attempt to hold them accountable. Specifically, she and her media allies constantly conflate criticisms of people like them with “harassment,” “abuse” and even “violence.”

That is what Lorenz did on Tuesday when she co-opted International Women’s Day to announce that “it is not an exaggeration to say that the harassment and smear campaign I have had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life.” She began her story by proclaiming: “For international women’s day please consider supporting women enduring online harassment.” She finished it with this: “No one should have to go through this.” Notably, there was no mention, by her or her many media defenders, of the lives she has harmed or otherwise deleteriously affected with her massive journalistic platform.

That is deliberate. Under this formulation, if you criticize the ways Lorenz uses her very influential media perch — including by pointing out that she probably should stop fabricating accusations against people and monitoring the private acts of non-public people — then you are guilty of harassing a “young woman” and inflicting emotional pain and violence on her (it’s quite a bizarre dynamic, best left to psychologists, how her supporters insist on infantilizing this fully grown, close-to-middle-aged successful journalist by talking about her as if she’s a fragile high school junior; it’s particularly creepy when her good male Allies speak of her this way).

This is worth focusing on precisely because it is now so common among the nation’s political and media elite. By no means is this tactic unique to Lorenz. She did not pioneer it. She is just latching onto it, exploiting it, in order to immunize herself from criticisms of her destructive journalistic misconduct and to depict her critics as violent harassers and abusers. With this framework implanted, there is no way to express criticisms of Taylor Lorenz’s work and the use and abuse of her journalistic platform without standing widely accused of maliciously inciting a mob of violent misogynists to ruin her life — that’s quite a potent shield from accountability for someone this influential in public life.

But this is now a commonplace tactic among the society’s richest, most powerful and most influential public figures. The advent of the internet has empowered the riff-raff, the peasants, the unlicensed and the uncredentialed — those who in the past were blissfully silent and invisible — to be heard, often with irreverence and even contempt for those who wield the greatest societal privileges, such as a star New York Times reporter. By recasting themselves as oppressed, abused and powerless rather than what they are (powerful oppressors who sometimes abuse their power), elite political and media luminaries seek to completely reverse the dynamic.

During Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 presidential campaign, one of the most common tactics used by her political and media supporters was to cast criticisms of her (largely from supporters of Bernie Sanders) not as ideological or political but as misogynistic, thus converting one of the world’s richest and most powerful political figures into some kind of a victim, exactly when she was seeking to obtain for herself the planet’s most powerful political office. There was no way to criticize Hillary Clinton — there still is not — without being branded a misogynist.

A very similar tactic was used four years later to vilify anyone criticizing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — also one of the world’s richest and most powerful figures — as she sought the power of the Oval Office...

Still more.

And at Hot Air, "Glenn Greenwald’s Insightful Take on the Taylor Lorenz Situation."

The Sovietization of the American Press

A great piece, from the surprisingly amazing Matt Taibbi, at his Substack page:

I collect Soviet newspapers. Years ago, I used to travel to Moscow’s Izmailovsky flea market every few weeks, hooking up with a dealer who crisscrossed the country digging up front pages from the Cold War era. I have Izvestia’s celebration of Gagarin’s flight, a Pravda account of a 1938 show trial, even an ancient copy of Ogonyek with Trotsky on the cover that someone must have taken a risk to keep.

These relics, with dramatic block fonts and red highlights, are cool pieces of history. Not so cool: the writing! Soviet newspapers were wrought with such anvil shamelessness that it’s difficult to imagine anyone ever read them without laughing. A good Soviet could write almost any Pravda headline in advance. What else but “A Mighty Demonstration of the Union of the Party and the People” fit the day after Supreme Soviet elections? What news could come from the Spanish civil war but “Success of the Republican Fleet?” Who could earn an obit headline but a “Faithful Son of the Party”?

Reality in Soviet news was 100% binary, with all people either heroes or villains, and the villains all in league with one another (an SR was no better than a fascist or a “Right-Trotskyite Bandit,” a kind of proto-horseshoe theory). Other ideas were not represented, except to be attacked and deconstructed. Also, since anything good was all good, politicians were not described as people at all but paragons of limitless virtue — 95% of most issues of Pravda or Izvestia were just names of party leaders surrounded by lists of applause-words, like “glittering,” “full-hearted,” “wise,” “mighty,” “courageous,” “in complete moral-political union with the people,” etc.

Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like this kind of work:

— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty

— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor

— Biden's historic victory for America

The most Soviet of the recent efforts didn’t have a classically Soviet headline. “Comedians are struggling to parody Biden. Let’s hope this doesn’t last,” read the Washington Post opinion piece by Richard Zoglin, arguing that Biden is the first president in generations who might be “impervious to impressionists.” Zoglin contended Biden is “impregnable” to parody, his voice being too “devoid of obvious quirks,” his manner too “muted and self-effacing” to offer comedians much to work with. He was talking about this person:

Forget that the “impregnable to parody” pol spent the last campaign year jamming fingers in the sternums of voters, challenging them to pushup contests, calling them “lying dog-faced pony soldiers,” and forgetting what state he was in. Biden, on the day Zoglin ran his piece, couldn’t remember the name of his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and referred to the Department of Defense as “that outfit over there”:

It doesn’t take much looking to find comedians like James Adomian and Anthony Atamaniuk ab-libbing riffs on Biden with ease. He checks almost every box as a comic subject, saying inappropriate things, engaging in wacky Inspector Clouseau-style physical stunts (like biting his wife’s finger), and switching back and forth between outbursts of splenetic certainty and total cluelessness. The parody doesn’t even have to be mean — you could make it endearing cluelessness. But to say nothing’s there to work with is bananas.

The first 50 days of Biden’s administration have been a surprise on multiple fronts. The breadth of his stimulus suggests a real change from the Obama years, while hints that this administration wants to pick a unionization fight with Amazon go against every tendency of Clintonian politics. But it’s hard to know what much of it means, because coverage of Biden increasingly resembles official press releases, often featuring embarrassing, Soviet-style contortions.

When Biden decided not to punish Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi on the grounds that the “cost” of “breaching the relationship with one of America’s key Arab allies” was too high, the New York Times headline read: “Biden Won’t Penalize Saudi Crown Prince Over Khashoggi’s Killing, Fearing Relations Breach.” When Donald Trump made the same calculation, saying he couldn’t cut ties because “the world is a very dangerous place” and “our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the paper joined most of the rest of the press corps in howling in outrage.

“In Extraordinary Statement, Trump Stands With Saudis Despite Khashoggi Killing.” was the Times headline, in a piece that said Trump’s decision was “a stark distillation of the Trump worldview: remorselessly transactional, heedless of the facts, determined to put America’s interests first, and founded on a theory of moral equivalence.” The paper noted, “Even Mr. Trump’s staunchest allies on Capitol Hill expressed revulsion.”

This week, in its “Crusader for the Poor” piece, the Times described Biden’s identical bin Salman decision as mere evidence that he remains “in the cautious middle” in his foreign policy. The paper previously had David Sanger dig up a quote from former Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross, who “applauded Mr. Biden for ‘trying to thread the needle here… This is the classic example of where you have to balance your values and your interests.’” It’s two opposite takes on exactly the same thing.

The old con of the Manufacturing Consent era of media was a phony show of bipartisanship. Legitimate opinion was depicted as a spectrum stretching all the way from “moderate” Democrats (often depicted as more correct on social issues) to “moderate” Republicans (whose views on the economy or war were often depicted as more realistic). That propaganda trick involved constantly narrowing the debate to a little slice of the Venn diagram between two established parties. Did we need to invade Iraq right away to stay safe, as Republicans contended, or should we wait until inspectors finished their work and then invade, as Democrats insisted?

The new, cleaved media landscape advances the same tiny intersection of elite opinion, except in the post-Trump era, that strip fits inside one party. Instead of appearing as props in a phony rendering of objectivity, Republicans in basically all non-Fox media have been moved off the legitimacy spectrum, and appear as foils only. Allowable opinion is now depicted stretching all the way from one brand of “moderate” Democrat to another...

Keep reading.

 

Alex Marlow, Breaking the News

At Amazon, Alex Marlow, Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media's Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption. 

The Los Angeles Times Hails Biden as the New 'F.D.R.'; Meanwhile, 'China Joe' Lies About His Administration's Vaccine Rollout (VIDEO)

Again, you have to go to Duck Duck Go to find any decent conservative videos, especially for Tucker Carlson (and I don't know why Fox doesn't upload more of them, except to say, maybe they're afraid they'll lose even more audience share, despite Tucker's continuing killer ratings metrics). 

And if you missed it, you gotta watch Tucker's interview with Alex Berenson from Wednesday night, which was just amazing, "Tucker Carlson Tonight 2-10-21 Alex Berenson."

But don't miss it! The Los Angeles Times has found its new "New Dealer" in the 78-year-old mumbo-jumbo "China Joe."

See, "Biden’s early win on COVID-19 relief could be hard to repeat. Or he could be FDR":

WASHINGTON — President Biden’s first big legislative victory, the $1.9-trillion package he calls the American Rescue Plan, squeaked through an evenly divided Senate by the narrowest of margins, along party lines, foreshadowing the challenges ahead for his other priorities — on infrastructure, voting rights, immigration and climate change.

But the accomplishment — and the potential economic and public health impact of the wide-ranging relief program — could also mark a big step toward Biden fulfilling his Rooseveltian ambitions.

“This is going to be the biggest legislation affecting social and economic justice in decades, and it’s been achieved in the early days of an administration,” said Bob Shrum, a longtime Democratic operative.

Building on this early success won’t be easy, given Democrats’ razor-thin Senate and House majorities and the nation’s deep partisan divisions. Few of the president’s other policy initiatives are likely to be as broadly popular as combating a painful year-old pandemic. But his first 50 days have given Democrats reason to believe that the experienced, grandfatherly Biden is well-suited to capitalize on the opportunities opened up by the confluence of twin health and economic crises and a divided, distracted opposition party.

“He’s been underestimated all along ... and then he pulled off the biggest popular vote defeat of an incumbent president since Herbert Hoover lost in 1932,” said Shrum. “Nobody would have predicted this, but Biden’s not on a path to being a transitional figure. He’s on a path to being a transformational figure.”

With Republicans failing to mount a blitz against him, Biden kept his focus on his pandemic response. He amped up vaccination efforts, mourned the more than 529,000 Americans killed by COVID-19, and built public support for his relief bill, much of which — direct payments, extended unemployment benefits, a child tax credit — is targeted toward the country’s neediest families.

The fact that not a single Republican voted for the package belied its broad popularity, which Biden said was critical for passage. In a poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, 70% of Americans surveyed said they supported the proposal, including 41% of Republicans. And Biden, set to deliver a prime-time address Thursday to mark one year since the country first locked down to limit the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID, continues to earn high marks for his response.

“He just seems like the right person at the right time, and this is a totally unprecedented time,” said Mack McLarty, President Clinton’s first chief of staff. “He’s very self-aware, and after being vice president and serving in the Senate, he’s at a different place in his life and career. He’s very secure in himself; he’s experienced loss and that’s shaped him.

“He’s been decisive and bold, but in a very statesmanlike manner,” McLarty continued. “So far, it’s been effective.”

Republican strategist Mike DuHaime said Biden benefits from the low bar Donald Trump set by his outlandish conduct as president.

“It’s a very basic level of competency and a lack of controversy,” DuHaime said of Biden. “Just by being boring, he is clearing the bar.”

Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher said Biden also benefits from “being an old white guy.”

Belcher, who is Black, added: “It’s hard for Republicans to scare middle-of-the-road Republicans about Joe Biden.... But he’s also someone minorities have rallied around. And that makes for a combination we don’t see very often in our politics.”

Biden and Democrats have been guided by hindsight and an oft-avowed determination not to repeat perceived mistakes from President Obama’s first year by going too small on a recovery package, waiting too long for Republican support, or failing to tout its benefits.

The example of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has also been influential for Biden and his team. Chief of Staff Ron Klain and other senior aides made a point of studying FDR’s Depression-era presidency during the transition period, and Biden hung his portrait in the Oval Office.

But past experience is only so helpful.

“It’s good to learn from the past. It’s more important to recognize changed circumstances when you’re in the moment,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who was a communications director for Obama. “The Biden team, as much as they’re relying on their experience, they’re seeing and appreciating that they’re in uncharted territory.”

Many senior aides, Palmieri noted, are on their third tour of duty at the White House after serving Presidents Clinton and Obama.

“You learn to trust your instincts,” she said. “And you come to know that to some degree, you’re damned [politically] if you do and if you don’t. So it becomes: Position yourself to actually solve the problems.”

When Biden and his aides began sketching out a relief bill before the inauguration, they didn’t start with a price tag. “We spent weeks assessing and analyzing what more the federal government could do to meet this challenge more effectively, more aggressively and more forcefully,” said Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti. “The total number and nature of the package reflected that analysis. The president had assessed that this was what was needed to address the crisis.”

Biden never budged from the $1.9-trillion bottom line, arguing that Obama’s 2009 stimulus package suggested the greater risk was spending too little. Emboldened by two Senate victories on Jan. 5 in Georgia, where the Democratic candidates won after campaigning for larger relief payments, Biden also refused to reduce the $1,400 provided for most Americans in the bill.

Once the Georgia elections suddenly put Democrats in control of the Senate, they could use a procedural option for budget bills, known as reconciliation, to pass the measure with just 50 votes — without Republican support.

Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate, leveraged his relationships with lawmakers in both parties. He was unsuccessful in cajoling moderate Republicans, but helped negotiate a last-minute compromise on unemployment benefits to secure the decisive 50th vote from centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.

The victory unified a Democratic caucus that had been divided over parts of the bill, in particular over a minimum wage increase that was ultimately removed on procedural grounds...

I should say, I hope the authors of this piece, Eli Stokols and Chris Megerian, had an extra set of clothes handy, after obviously drooling all over themselves while writing-up this hasty hagiography. (*Eye-roll.*)