The Other McCain

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

The Big Yellow Button Is Back Again!

Posted on | April 12, 2026 | No Comments

We are now less than three months away from the 250th anniversary of American independence, which means that the “Early Bird Special” at my favorite fireworks wholesaler will soon be ending. That’s the shortest explanation for why I’ve once again super-sized the PayPal “donate” button for the benefit of near-sighted readers who otherwise may have overlooked the PayPal button. The first time I did this, seven years ago, the financial situation was so dire that I posted a picture of Mrs. Other McCain in a bikini. Fortunately, the household budget has improved since then, so I’m not fretting over the electric bill now. However my favorite wholesale fireworks outlet has a $750 minimum purchase to qualify for their 25% Early Bird discount, and so why not the bikini?

Nineteen ninety was a very good year, my friends. Perhaps you can see why keeping my wife happy is Job Number One, and despite the improvement in our household finances, we’re not so affluent that taking out $750 for a wholesale fireworks purchase would make my wife happy. She tolerates my annual pyrotechnical extravaganzas, which is not to say she approves of the expense. From her point of view, it’s terribly wasteful, whereas from my point of view, it’s therapeutic. Maintaining sanity in this crazy world is difficult, especially when your day job requires you to pay attention to politics. The business of assembling a fireworks show — timing all those fuses in search of the perfect finale, etc. — gives me a distraction from the howling madness, and a constructive outlet for my mental and emotional energies.

 

That’s the finale of our 2020 show, and we hope to make it extra special for this year’s 250th celebration of July 4th. So whatever you could contribute — $5, $10, $25 — would be greatly appreciated because the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are still:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

Category: Fireworks

FMJRA 2.0: Grinding Forward

Posted on | April 13, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Another good week to be a Senators fan! The week began badly as we lost two out of three at Cleveland, but tonight we swept Pete’s Brewers to finish the week 73-74, still in second place behind the Twins but now 15.5 games ahead of the Brewers – and more importantly, just a bit ahead of the 71-73 Royals, who are coming off a four-game losing streak and facing the Tribe, against whom they are 3-6. So I have a good chance to expand my hair-thin lead in the race for the last AL wildcard spot. Go Tribe!
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

4-2 is very good indeed.

Arithmetic vs. Liberal Narrative: Who Is Killing ‘Transgender Women of Color’?
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum




Easter Miracle: U.S. Rescues Second Crewman From Downed F-15E in Iran
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless: The Family Had ‘Great Satan’ Green Cards
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

FMJRA 2.0: O’s, Yeah!
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule 5 Sunday: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor
A View From The Beach
EBL

In The Mailbox: 04.06.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

It Would Be Wrong to Say Democrats Are Going Completely Crazy Today…
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In the Mailbox: 04.07.2026
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Trump Declares Ceasefire in Iran
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 04.08.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 04.09.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

‘Independent Journalist,’ My Ass!
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 04.10.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

 

Amazon Warehouse Deals
Amazon Essentials
H&R Block Deluxe & State Tax Software


 

Category: FMJRA Award

Memo From the National Desk: Tales of Fear and Loathing in the Commonwealth

Posted on | April 12, 2026 | No Comments

Filet-O-Fish combo and a deadline

LOUISA, Virginia — It was a lovely 150-mile drive to get here for today’s “VOTE NO” rally at the Louisa County Courthouse. A sunny spring day, with the trees turning green, and the picturesque scenery of central Virginia, adorned with signs that the Old Dominion ain’t dead yet.

The courthouse crowd was friendly, and my biggest problem today was that my deadline for the American Spectator was 6 p.m., which meant that when the rally ended at 4, I had to race over here to the McDonald’s, set up the National Desk in the corner booth and get to work. Cranking out 1,000 words in two hours? Yeah, I used to do that routinely during the years when I was a roving campaign correspondent, but I was younger then, and the deadline rush is more challenging now that I’m a gray-bearded senior citizen. That Filet-O-Fish combo cost $10.34, if any of y’all are thinking of hitting the tip jar, as I certainly hope you do.

Some of y’all remember how wild it was back in the days of the Tea Party, when I raced all over upstate New York in a rented Nissan covering the special election campaign that ended the political career of Dede Scozzafava, then turned right around to cover Scott Brown’s campaign to win Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. For the final week of the 2010 midterm campaign, I drove all the way to Boca Raton, Florida, where I spent election night at Allen West’s victory party. There were a lot of victory parties that night — “The Republican Mandate,” I called it, after Ann Marie Buerkle was finally declared the winner in a New York district where she was outspent 5-to-1 by the Democrat incumbent she beat.

There’s a reason I don’t believe in quitting, because I have seen miracles with my own eyes. If you believe you can win, confidence is contagious, and a real grassroots effort can overcome even the most formidable odds. Such are the odds facing Republicans in this Virginia referendum battle, where the GOP has been outspent at least 3-to-1 by the big-money Democrats (including, of course, George Soros). The key point is that this is a special election with nothing else on the ballot except this godawful gerrymander, and polls indicate that at least 25% of Democrats don’t want to vote for Spanberger’s Monster, as we might call it. If Republicans can get any kind of grassroots energy going, they can deliver a punch in the nose that will make Democrats regret they ever tried to inflict this scheme on the Commonwealth. There are some hopeful signs.

People here are offended by what Spanberger and the Democrats are trying to do to them. This county would be shoved into a district that looks like a bad sketch of a lobster, the tail reaching all the way up to the Potomac River more than 100 miles away. All we can do is hope that their indignation is sufficient to inspire an overwhelming turnout that overwhelms the foreign scum currently occupying Northern Virginia.

Anyway, that’s getting ahead of the game. My column in the American Spectator should be online around midnight, and I’ve still got a two-and-half hour drive to get back home. Maybe you could cover that $10.34 Filet-O-Fish combo, or $4 for a gallon of gas, but as always I remind you that the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are still:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

Category: Economics, Fear. Loathing., Shoe Leather Fund, Virginia

Stop the Gerrymander, Virginia!

Posted on | April 12, 2026 | No Comments

If the election of Abigail Spanberger as governor of Virginia has proven anything, it’s that there are no more “moderate” Democrats. Since taking office in January, Spanberger has been ramming through a left-wing agenda that might be more suitable to Berkeley, California, than to the Old Dominion, and the very worst of it is the proposal to redistrict Virginia’s congressional map by an outrageous partisan gerrymander. Among the many atrocities of this is the proposed 7th District, which would stretch all the way from the Potomac River in Arlington County to Harrisonburg in the Shenandoah Valley and down to Powhatan County, below the James River 30 miles west of Richmond.

The irony is that this is being done in direct contradiction to the desires of Virginia voters, 66% of whom approved a 2020 referendum that established a non-partisan commission to handle the state’s redistricting. Despite this 2-to-1 majority for the non-partisan approach, Spanberger and the Democratic majority in the Virginia legislature rammed through a measure for a new referendum to implement one of the most egregious gerrymanders in American history. Republican Rep. Ben Cline, whose 6th District would be wiped out by the gerrymander, explains the stakes:

As it stands today, Virginia has one of the most balanced congressional delegations in the country. In the 2024 elections, Democrats received 51.4 percent of the statewide congressional vote while Republicans received about 47.6 percent. The current delegation reflects that closely, with a 6-to-5 Democratic majority.
But Richmond politicians decided to try to ram through a new map that benefits one party over the other so badly that it’s widely considered the most extreme attempt at gerrymandering anywhere in the country. If approved, the new map takes Virginia from a 6-to-5 party split to a delegation that’s 10-to-1 in favor of Democrats.

Early voting is already under way, with Election Day on April 21, which is a week from Tuesday. Democrats pushing the “yes” vote have vastly outspent Republicans — the RNC has been MIA on this — but the backlash against Spanberger’s radical agenda is strong enough that there is a very real chance the “no” vote can win in a low-turnout election.

The referendum has deceptive and confusing language about “restoring fairness,” and opponents of the gerrymander have worked to make it clear that a “no” vote is what fairness really requires.

This afternoon at 2 p.m., there will be a rally at the courthouse in Louisa County, with featured speakers including 5th District Rep. John McGuire. Louisa County is about 150 miles south of here, and it will take about two-and-a-half hours for me to drive there and cover the rally. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these shoe-leather reporting road trips, but since I’m already raising funds for other patriotic duties, maybe it’s time to earn my keep. Feel free to hit the tip jar, and if you’re in the vicinity of Louisa Courthouse today, look for the old man in the fedora.



 

Category: Democrats, Virginia

The Christine Blasey Ford Standard and the Sudden Destruction of Eric Swalwell

Posted on | April 11, 2026 | No Comments

Far be it from me to defend Eric Swalwell, now accused of rape and other “inappropriate” behavior by at least four women. If CNN is willing to vouch for the credibility of Swalwell’s accusers, then certainly I will not cast doubt on their veracity. However, I have never supported Swalwell, and have not voted for any Democrat for more than three decades, so my hands are clean — I bear no responsibility for Swalwell’s wrongdoing, and can applaud his destruction with a clear conscience. The same cannot be said, however, by CNN and other Democrat-friendly media venues which have spent years giving Eric Swalwell a platform without ever even hinting about his lecherous habits, which were apparently an open secret among Democratic Party operatives on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.

Has everyone forgotten Christine Blasey Ford? Her name came up in my column last month about the Duke lacrosse rape hoax:

The institutions of media and academia that had disgraced themselves in the Duke lacrosse rape hoax did not even seem to learn a lesson from their blunders. In 2014, another rape hoax was perpetrated at the University of Virginia, with an emotionally unbalanced young woman claiming that she had been brutally attacked at a fraternity house, a crime she blamed on an imaginary frat member she called “Haven Monahan.” The university immediately suspended fraternity activities on campus, as feminists proclaimed that the story in Rolling Stone magazine proved the existence of a rape epidemic among college students nationwide. Rolling Stone was found guilty of defamation, and the mysterious “Haven Monahan” was never found.
How many hoaxes has the news media helped promote since then? Somewhere there may be a full list, but certainly the “Russian collusion” hoax during Trump’s first term stands out in memory, and then there was the Christine Blasey Ford claim of a long-ago gang rape during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. The lack of accountability — nobody yet has gone to prison for their role in the “Russian collusion” hoax, and most in the media won’t even admit that Kavanaugh was the victim of an outrageous lie — is what frustrates so many people who’ve grown tired of such shenanigans, which have an obvious political agenda.

Someone needs to speak to Mark Judge, who was collateral damage in the Kavanaugh affair, about this lack of media accountability. For myself, I consider Christine Blasey Ford to be a heinous liar, and have the same opinion of E. Jean Carroll. When all else fails, it seems, Democrats are always able to find some woman willing to make accusations of sexual wrongdoing by Republicans, and I’m sure Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will testify that this is a long-established pattern.

Never forget what they did to Clarence Thomas

It is the political double standard in such matters that is objectionable, particularly in regard to the allegedly “objective” news media. Now that it is permissible to speak the truth about Eric Swalwell, the question everyone should be asking is, “Why now?” The accusations against Swalwell involve events that are not entirely recent:

On April 10, 2026, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story where a former Swalwell staffer claimed that Swalwell, 17 years her senior, had sexually assaulted her on more than one occasion, including when she was too intoxicated to give consent. A few hours later, CNN published a story in which four women alleged sexual misconduct by Swalwell, including a former staffer who said he raped her. Politico also reported that a former Swalwell employee signed a non-disclosure agreement pertaining to employment discrimination when they left his office. Although the agreement was not related to sexual harassment, it directly contradicted Swalwell’s previous claims that no one on his staff signed an NDA.
Swalwell described the allegations as “lies” and claimed that they were intended to damage his campaign for governor. The Los Angeles Times reported that Swalwell’s attorney had sent a cease and desist letter to the staffer and threatened to sue for defamation.
Multiple high-level staffers resigned from Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign in advance of the report, including U.S. Representative and campaign chair Jimmy Gomez. Others, including the California Teachers Association, former state assemblymember Ian Calderon, and U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego rescinded their endorsements of Swalwell.

This happened very suddenly on a Friday, you see, even though the allegations involve incidents that happened as far back as 2019:

A former staffer of Rep. Eric Swalwell, a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, says that the congressman raped her when she was heavily intoxicated and left her bruised and bleeding, an allegation Swalwell strongly denies.
“I was pushing him off of me, saying no,” the woman told CNN of the incident, which she said happened in 2024 after she had stopped working in Swalwell’s office. “He didn’t stop.”
She said it was the second time Swalwell had nonconsensual sexual contact with her while she was drunk. In 2019, when she was still working for him, she said she woke up naked with him in a hotel room after a night of heavy drinking. She said she had no memory of what happened but could feel physically that they’d had sexual contact.

Keep in mind that Swalwell literally ran for president, campaigning for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination for several months in 2019 before dropping out, and yet this staffer didn’t speak out against him at the time. Allegedly, they continued to socialize for years after the 2019 rape, so that he could rape her again in 2024, but still she did not denounce him, until two months ahead of the California primary in which Swalwell was the leading Democratic candidate. The timing is rather curious.

You can see from the Real Clear Politics poll average that, in California’s open “jungle primary,” Swalwell was positioned to be the only Democrat to qualify for the general election, ahead of billionaire Tom Steyer and Rep. Katie Porter. These three Democrats were splitting the Democratic vote in such a way that, not only was Republican Steve Hilton the leading candidate in the race, but there was a serious chance that Republican Chad Bianco might finish second in the primary, meaning that there would be zero Democrats on the ballot come November.

Yet it seems Swalwell’s habits were an “open secret” in D.C.:

Swalwell was crowned the “Snapchat king of Congress” in 2016 over his enthusiasm for the app, which was then popular among teens and young millennials.
Social media creator [Ally] Sammarco claimed she messaged Swalwell on Twitter in 2021 asking about his history growing up in a Republican family.
She claimed he began sending her provocative late-night messages, referring to her as a “bad angel,” and eventually switched their communications to Snapchat where he allegedly shared photos of his penis.
He allegedly “ran by her apartment building several times,” giving her hugs but not coming inside.

That was five years ago, and Swalwell has twice been reelected to Congress since then, but for some reason Ms. Sammarco decided to say nothing about a congressman sending her obscene images until now?

“Oh, it’s nothing — a congressman who is on TV multiple times every week sent me a dick pic but I won’t say anything about it.”

As I say, however, it is not my intent to defend Swalwell, nor to cast aspersions on the numerous victims of his egregious actions. It’s just that there seems to have been a cover-up, an agreement among everyone who was aware of Swalwell’s pattern of predatory behavior, that nothing would be said publicly about it, until this week. Are we supposed to believe that, among the cable news anchors who interviewed Swalwell over the past several years, none of them ever heard any rumors about his sexual misconduct? Excuse me for being suspicious about this.

The Christine Blasey Ford Standard, as I’ll call it, is that whenever a woman accuses a man of sexual wrongdoing, his guilt is certain, because no woman would ever lie about such things. Her accusation is the only evidence necessary to convict him in the court of public opinion. Thus let it be with Eric Swalwell — “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!” — but I’m still curious about why the media kept silent for so long, until this week.

 



 

Category: California, Democrats, Media Bias, Scandal, Sex, Violence Against Women

In The Mailbox: 04.10.26

Posted on | April 11, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Today is Friday in California.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

Finally the returns are coming in.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: A Day With Bonnie & Clyde (1933) 
357 Magnum: Professional Journalism at the NY Times and CNN
EBL: Artemis II Re-Entry, Friday Fish Fry, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, Rovers on the Moon, and Why can’t you get seafood in Cuba?
Twitchy: Ape-solutely BANANAS! Jeffries Demands Swalwell Drop Out Of CA Gov Race – But Not Resign From Congress, and NYT Melts Down Over J6 Recidivism – A “Crime Spree” At Just 0.8%
Louder With Crowder: Crowder leaves no doubt with Piers Morgan where he stands on the MAGA “Civil War”, Gavin Newsom’s wife responds to all those viral videos of her being AWFL, Gavin Newsom attempts to take credit for investigating fraud after claiming Nick Shirley was a pervert for exposing it, Drag queens host show inspired by popular Christian CHILDREN’S cartoon VeggieTales, and Trump Nukes Former ‘Allies’ on Truth: What Happens Next?
Vox Popoli: Mailvox: Do the Right Thing, also,  Clones and the Frozen Gene
According To Hoyt: Vibing History, Writers who don’t hate you, Extraordinary Promo Post, Turn The Boat Around, Never Leave a Fallen Comrade, and What A Time To Be Alive!
Upstream Reviews: Monster Hunter Files #2
Draw & Talk Comics: New Kickstarter!
Cedar Sanderson: Tie Me Knot
Stoic Observations: Two Thirds,

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: First Shocking Allegation Against Eric Swalwell Drops Amid Cease and Desist Letters, Fairfax County Attorney Steve Descano to Be Grilled About His ‘Dangerous’ Sanctuary Policies, Study of Gender-Confused Youth Shows Mental Health Outcomes Worsened, ‘Clinton Hoax, Obama Coup’ by Drew Thomas Allen: The Declassified Blueprint That Finally Exposes the Russian Memos and the Real Coup, and A Peace Framework for America and Iran
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For April 10
Behind The Black: Orion survives re-entry, crew splashes down safe, Amazon to begin commercial availability of Leo internet service in mid-2026, India conducts another parachute drop test for its Gaganyaan manned capsule, China launches another set of satellites for its Guowang internet constellation, and A military pilot’s perspective on downed pilot rescue in Iran Easter weekend
Cafe Hayek: MBD Is Both Factually Mistaken and Presumptuous
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Dana Loesch: The Spiritual Battle For The Heart of the Catholic Church and the Nation
Don Surber: Art of the Deal met Sun Tzu in Iran
First Street Journal: The problem isn’t that the city rejected the interior remodeling plans
The Geller Report: Terror Inciter and Rabid Jew Hater Mahmoud Khalil Finally DEPORTED, Congressional Bill Designates Hamas-Tied CAIR as Terrorist Entity, Would-Be Mass Murdering Muslim Pleads Guilty In NYC Jewish Center Terrorism Plot, Zul Mohamed, Convicted of 106 Counts of Voter Fraud, Running for Mayor In Carrollton Texas, and Pakistan ‘Peace’ Mediator IMPLODES
Hollywood In Toto: American History X Scribe Says ‘Hollywood Loves Alienating Half the Country’, also, Why Hollywood’s Reaction to Oct. 7 Stunned Patricia Heaton
Legal Insurrection: Finnish Register Study Shows Medical Gender Transition Tied to Major Spike in Teen Psychiatric Crises, Artemis II Concludes Successful Mission with Splashdown off San Diego’s Coast, Baltimore Reparations Fund Plagued by Infighting and Struggles for Control, Swalwell Campaign Bleeds Leadership After New Sexual Assault Allegation, and Supreme Court Shuts Down Progressive’s Bid to Run in Ohio GOP Primary
Nebraska Energy Observer: Treason Day
Outkick: Is The Miami Marlins’ Hot Start Legit, Or Just A Mirage, Dianna Russini’s Career Officially In Question Amid New Probe Into Vrabel Photos, How Mainstream Sports Media Is Tainting Jackie Robinson’s Legacy, Sidney Crosby Gives His Thoughts On Alex Ovechkin Ahead Of Possible Final Meetings, and Topanga From Boy Meets World Refuses To Age, Carrie Underwood Stuffed In A Pink Dress & Masters Middle Finger!
Power Line: Swalwell Goes Down, The Unserious West, “British” Men Caught Crossing Border, Accused of $11M fraud, he flees country, and Fridley man lit up by LGBTQ flag
Racket News: A Conversation with John Papola, 
Shark Tank: Former Rep Ted Yoho Endorses Paul Renner For Governor
STUMP: Mysterious NASA Deaths! (Or Maybe Not)
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday: Senator Dodd and General Klein
This Ain’t Hell: Engine test creates big $$$ hole, Valor Friday, and Minneapolis considering legalizing sex venues
Transterrestrial Musings: Disney, also, China’s Weapons
Victory Girls: Melania Trump Says Enough on Epstein—and The Daily Beast Keeps Spinning
Watts Up With That: Green Nations Supposedly Poised to Become a New Superpower, Matt Ridley thinks the Climate Parrot is almost dead, The Hydrogen Highway Ends in a Traffic Jam, The Carbon Bureaucracy Nobody Voted For, and 1504 Died From Heat Last Summer, Say UKHSA
The Federalist: How Republicans Surrendered Virginia To Left-Wing Colonizers, Here’s How Sotomayor And Jackson’s Temper Tantrums Are Causing Headaches For Kagan, The Left Threw Columbus Into The Harbor — Now Trump Is Putting Him Back, WaPo Thinks SCOTUS Upholding The Constitution Is A Bad Thing, and Canada Poised To Criminalize Christianity With Ban On Citing Biblical Truths
Mark Steyn: Resetting the Reset

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H&R Block Deluxe & State Tax Software


 

Category: Linkagery

‘Independent Journalist,’ My Ass!

Posted on | April 10, 2026 | No Comments

Joe Biden (left) with Democrat activist Christopher Hale (right)

The tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) was founded in 2005 by two Democrats, Tom Perriello and Alexia Kelley. CACG “received at least $450,000 in financial support from the massive George Soros philanthropy network from 2006-2010.” A memo that leaked in 2016 credited CACG with shaping President Obama’s 2009 speech at Notre Dame university in which he sought to “reframe” the debate about abortion. Kevin Jones of Catholic News Agency reported in October 2016:

[T]he site Wikileaks has posted alleged 2012 emails involving Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, who appears to state that Catholics in Alliance was founded to aid a “Catholic Spring” political revolution within the Church.
Christopher Hale, who became Catholics in Alliance’s executive director in late 2013, distanced himself from accusations he and his colleagues aimed to split the Church.
“We don’t concern ourselves with the internal politics of the Catholic Church,” Hale told CNA Oct. 17.

Four years later, in 2020, when Christopher Hale ran for Congress in Tennessee, his tenure with CACG became controversial:

The former executive director of a progressive Catholic political advocacy organization, who is now vying for a Congressional seat in Tennessee, has denied a former board member?s allegations that he defrauded the organization and eventually left it bankrupt.
“I’m speaking publicly now, with very little interest in scoring points. I’m simply here to speak on the record, to establish a fact pattern, to help explain to the public the disappointing experience I have had with Chris Hale,” said James Salt, a former board member of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, in a livestream announcement Aug. 3. . . .
Hale is running in the Democratic primary in Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District. His opponent in that race, Noelle Bivens, hosted a livestreamed event with Salt on Monday evening, after local media reported that Hale is accused of misusing email lists from his former employer to fundraise for his own benefit.
Salt said the political advocacy group, which aimed to advance Democratic candidates and policy initiatives by appealing to Catholics, was financially and legally harmed by Hale’s leadership of the organization.
“My job is simply to be on the record saying he did a great disservice to everyone who has worked with him.”
After Hale was hired as executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good in 2013, Salt said, “we began to see a pattern of Chris obfuscating and avoiding any kind of accountability.”
Eventually, Salt said, Hale lied about filing financial records, and once told colleagues he was having surgery, which was apparently not true, in order to excuse missed work.
Hale was fired from the group in 2017, Salt said, and the group was dissolved. Hale disputed that he was fired, saying he left on good terms with the board, because he was ready to “move on and have different adventures in life.”
He is accused of leaving with the organization’s mailing and email donor lists, and using them after he was fired to fundraise for an initiative he started later that year, called The Francis Project.
According to documents obtained by the Murfreesboro Voice, Hale was asked repeatedly to stop using those lists for fundraising, but continued to do so as late as December 2019.
In a Jan. 24 letter to Washington, D.C’s attorney general, Lawyers for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and the related Catholics United organization, said that The Francis Project was not actually a non-profit, but was instead a trade name connected to a Washington, DC for-profit corporation incorporated by Hale, and registered as “Christopher Hale.”

Are you with me so far? There can be no doubt that (a) Christopher Hale is a member of the Democratic Party who was (b) associated with a left-wing group that got hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Soros network, but (c) was accused of unscrupulous dealings after he left that organization and ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2020. Hale won the Democratic primary that year, but lost the general election by a 33-point margin to incumbent Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais.

All of this is preamble to a weird story this week:

The Pentagon and White House are refuting reports that high-level U.S. defense officials told Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican to take the United States’ “side” when it comes to matters of military influence and Western Hemisphere oversight.
Allegations stem from interactions that originated in January, according to the Free Press, which reported that Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby allegedly summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s ambassador to Washington, D.C., to deliver a “bitter lecture” during a closed?door meeting characterized as tense.
Colby purportedly told Pierre that “the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world,” adding: “The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
On Wednesday, independent journalist Christopher Hale on his Letters From Leo webpage confirmed that the meeting took place, adding “that some Vatican officials were so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that they shelved plans for Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States later this year.” The pope, 70, who hails from Chicago, was expected to come to the U.S. this July as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
“The Free Press’ characterization of the meeting is highly exaggerated and distorted,” a U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson told Military.com on Thursday. “The meeting between Pentagon and Vatican officials was a respectful and reasonable discussion. We have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See.” . . .
Officials in the Vatican saw the official’s purported remarks as referencing an Avignon papacy, viewed as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.

This story is just wild beyond words, but what infuriated me was the reference to “independent journalist Christopher Hale,” when anyone could have done a Google search and learned what I have told you about Hale, that he is a Democratic Party operative, with a shady reputation and no credentials whatsoever as a “journalist.” Furthermore — and I should hope my Catholic friends see this as I do — what are we to make of the fact that George Soros has expended vast amounts of money to influence (or perhaps a better verb is subvert) the Catholic Church?

Being a Protestant myself, I don’t take orders from the Vatican, but we live in a world where everything has become political, and this story (which the Pentagon has basically called a pile of bovine excrement) is just another example of how the left-wing billionaire Soros poisons everything he touches. Everyone needs to wake up and pay attention.



 

Category: Catholics, Democrats, Journalism

In The Mailbox: 04.09.26

Posted on | April 10, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Like Bob Zimmerman of Behind The Black, I too am on Starlink starting today. Makes a BIG difference.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: The Classified Sensor That Found A Lost Airman In Iran, 
357 Magnum: What They Took From Us Can Never Be Recovered, also Artificial Stupidity
EBL: Thursday Fish Fry, “I’m A Believer”, I know twenty Republicans who need to be primaried, and “The Road To Appomattox”
Twitchy: George Conway Cries About Giving His Kids’ Inheritance To Biden’s Victory Fund, Pentagon Takes Down Pic Of Sailor Wearing “Save The Big Booty Venezuelans” Patch, and Chicago Teacher Union Prez Confesses – We Do Politics So Black Women Can Live Without Husbands
Louder With Crowder: New study makes shocking revelation that transitioning genders is bad for your mental health, JD Vance makes it clear where blackpilling blackpillers can shove their blackpills, Megyn Kelly and others are wrong, Donald Trump is NOT fracturing the MAGA base, The career criminal who murdered Iryna Zarutska is allegedly too  “incompetent” to stand trial, and Is Israel Sabotaging The US-Iran Ceasefire?
Vox Popoli: Why Trump Wants Out, A Misunderstanding, and China and the “Ceasefire”
L’Ombre de L’Olivier: Who Won – Trump Or Iran?
Weird Catholic: King Arthur in the Lives of the Saints

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: NYC Mayor’s ‘Racial Equity Plan’ Would Direct City Resources to ‘Black and Brown New Yorkers’, California’s Future – Elaine Culotti’s Independent Vision, Antifa Are the Real KKK – Proscribing Antifa and Their Supporters, Melania Trump Calls on Congress to Hold Public Hearing Allowing Epstein Survivors to Testify, and Peru and Polling – Will Another Latin American Country Move Toward the U.S.?
BattleSwarm: Musk’s Terafab To Have Intel Inside
Behind The Black: Martian mountains on Mount Sharp, European Union to restructure its space bureaucracy, ESA paid Arianespace about $96 million for an Ariane-6 launch, Russia’s latest plans for its post-ISS space station, and Now on Starlink!
Cafe Hayek: Harnessing Mercantilist Idiocy for the Public Good
CDR Salamander: Great Britain Is A Warning
Chicago Boyz: The Light Side of the Moon
Da Tech Guy: 100 Word Fan Fiction Teaser: Flash Forward, the Squeeze is Off
Dana Loesch: Trump Slams Podcastistan
Don Surber: Tucker has no ball to take home
First Street Journal: You in a heap o’ trouble, girl!
Gates Of Vienna: Berlin: Culture-Enriching Knife Fight Between an Afghan and a Syrian
The Geller Report: DECAPITATION WITHOUT DEATH – Iran’s Regime Survives the “Thirty-Nine Days of Fire”, Iryna Zarutska’s Savage Murderer Decarlos Brown Jr. Found “Incompetent To Stand Trial”, Disgruntled Army Employee Arrested For Leaking Classified Info To Media, Putting Troops in Harm’s Way, Muslim Mohammed Mahd Opened Fire On Jewish Restaurant During Passover, and One California Doctor Linked to 126 Hospices, 2,800 ‘Terminal’ Patients, $71 MILLION Haul
Hollywood In Toto: Outcome Takes Belated Slap at Cancel Culture, also, More Bad News for Mandalorian and Grogu
Legal Insurrection: Zeldin’s EPA Overhaul Signals End of Federal Push for Start-Stop Engines, Trump on Tucker – “Perhaps he should see a good psychiatrist!”, Steven Crowder Event Canceled at UPenn Due to Security Issues, Los Angeles Battles Record Typhus Cases as City Prepares to Host 2028 Games, and Yes, the ‘DIGNIDAD Act’ Grants Amnesty – Why Do 20 GOP Lawmakers Support It?
Nebraska Energy Observer: Cease Fire – Well, Maybe
Outkick: Philly Host Eats Massive L After Crushing Joel Embiid While He Was Literally Undergoing Surgery, Shohei Ohtani’s Special Pitching Treatment Seems To Spark Tension In Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series Rematch, Paul Skenes Says His ‘Happy Face’ And ‘Sad Face’ Are Basically The Same In New Interview, Sarah Chalke Ditches Her Scrubs For A Cheeky Beach Day, Canada Goes Insane & Balls Are FLYING At The Masters, and Will Dianna Russini’s Career Survive Mike Vrabel’s Scandal?
Power Line: Iran and the ship of Theseus, Trump Declares War, Twins attendance plummets, Weekend at Mojtaba’s, and Suicide Wish?
Shark Tank: Austin Rogers Raises $725k for FL-2 Congressional Race
Shot In The Dark: Unwarranted Optimism
This Ain’t Hell: Pentagon Says Iran’s military capabilities have been destroyed, also, More fun than now?
Transterrestrial Musings: Gavin Newsom
Victory Girls: The Amnesty Bill Of Maria Salazar – Don’t Be Fooled
Watts Up With That: The ‘Leading UK Scientists’ Letter Urging Abandonment of North Sea is Ideology Masquerading as Science, The Genesis Revitalizing U.S. Scientific Research, Some Claim The Climate Crisis Has Already Caused Society to Collapse, and North Sea Gas “Saves Britain Billions a Year”
The Federalist: These 4 States Already Enacted SAVE Act Look-Alikes While John Thune Does Failure Theater, The Hysterical Media Are Lying About The Forest Service Reorganization, After Years Of Big-City Rootlessness, Gen Z and Millennials Can Find Happiness Moving Home, Analysis Shows More Than 90 Percent Of Funds Backing Dems’ Gerrymandering Scheme Come From Outside Virginia, and The Real Reason Obamacare Enrollment Is Down Is Thanks To Trump’s Fraud Crackdown
Mark Steyn: Promises Kept

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