The Other McCain

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

Justice Thomas Concurs

Posted on | May 2, 2026 | No Comments

The reaction of Democrats to the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais reminded me of General Sherman who, in proposing his 1864 “March to the Sea,” vowed the he would “make Georgia howl.”

On TV and social media Wednesday, the howling from Democrats was deranged and incessant. From a conservative perspective, these reactions were as delicious as the “Tears of Unfathomable Sadness.” If ever anyone deserved to be miserable, certainly the Democratic Party does.

Among those vindicated by Wednesday’s ruling was my friend Professor Carol Swain, who had famously warned in the early 1990s that racial Gerrymandering — seeking to maximize the number of majority-black districts, in order to send more black representatives to Congress — would undermine the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives because, in the process, it would create majority white districts that favored Republicans. Swain’s warning was not heeded by Democrats, and when she was proven correct by the 1994 midterm landslide for Republicans, liberals never forgave her for being right.

The unhinged rage of Democrats after the Callais decision could be (or at least should be) silenced simply by posting the map of Louisiana’s 2nd and 6th districts, which was what brought the case to the Supreme Court.

It is an insult to defend such a map by shouting “RAAAAACISM” at anyone who criticizes it, which is the essence of the Democrats’ reaction. One wonders whether they are (a) so ignorant they don’t understand the law and the Constitution, or (b) so dishonest they think they can frighten people with their feigned outrage and false claims. Surely someone will add, (c) embrace the healing power of “and,” e.g., Chuck Schumer.

If any living man can be considered an authority on racism and Jim Crow, permit me to suggest that it’s not the Jew from Brooklyn, but rather the black man from Chatham County, Georgia:

This Court should never have interpreted [Section 2] of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to effectively give racial groups “an entitlement to roughly proportional representation.” … By doing so, the Court led legislatures and courts to “systematically divid[e] the country into electoral districts along racial lines.” Holder v. Hall, 512 U. S. 874, 905 (1994) (THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment). “Blacks [we]re drawn into ‘black districts’ and given ‘black representatives’; Hispanics [were] drawn into Hispanic districts and given ‘Hispanic representatives’; and so on.” Ibid. That interpretation rendered [Section 2] “repugnant to any nation that strives for the ideal of a color-blind Constitution.” Id., at 905–906. Today’s decision should largely put an end to this “disastrous misadventure” in voting-rights jurisprudence. Id., at 893.
As I explained more than 30 years ago, I would go further and hold that [Section 2] of the Voting Rights Act does not regulate districting at all. See id., at 922–923. The relevant text prohibits States from imposing or applying a “voting qualification,” “prerequisite to voting,” or “standard, practice, or procedure,” in a manner that results in a denial or abridgement of the right to vote based on race. … How States draw district lines does not fall within any of those three categories. Holder, 512 U. S., at 922–923 (opinion of THOMAS, J.); Allen v. Milligan, 599 U. S. 1, 46 (2023) (THOMAS, J., dissenting). The words in [Section 2] instead “reach only ‘enactments that regulate citizens’ access to the ballot or the processes for counting a ballot’; they ‘do not include a State’s . . . choice of one districting scheme over another.’” Ibid. (quoting Holder, 512 U. S., at 945 (opinion of THOMAS, J.)). Therefore, no [Section 2] challenge to districting should ever succeed.

It’s not really complicated, you see. Why is it that what is so obvious to Justice Thomas should be incomprehensible to Senator Schumer?



 

Category: Congress, Constitution, Louisiana, Racism, Supreme Court

In The Mailbox: 05.01.26

Posted on | May 2, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Thanks to everyone who bought stuff through my Amazon links in April!
Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

SuperJustice Thomas strikes again!

OVER THE TRANSOM
Doug Ross: Top 20 Game Changing Infantry Weapons of 2026
EBL: Julia Child : Bouillabaisse, Animal Farm Movie – This Was A Bad Idea, Batman, “Let’s Take An Old Fashioned Walk”, and Can Romans Understand Latin?
Twitchy: Socialist Seattle Mayor Gets Aggressively Saved By Handlers When Reporter Politely Asks Basic Questions, The Man, The LEGEND, and Marc Elias Continues Multi-Day Crashout Over SCOTUS Ruling & Florida Loss
Louder With Crowder: Democrats’ favorite AWFL podcaster, launches a vicious attack on Erika Kirk, Sunny Hostin, an alleged lawyer, claims the Supreme Court just took away her kids’ civil rights, Indian Realtor Defends Kidnapping Of Child By Telling Canadian Judge It Is Part Of His Culture, Unholy Alliance? Decoding the Islam-Christian “Friendship” with Jay Dyer, and Marco Rubio assaults a dog hand puppet, and he may have just become the 2028 frontrunner
Vox Popoli: HARDCODED, Ready to Rumble, Test the Game, and Interview with Orson Scott Card
According To Hoyt: Pushed To The Edge, Weirdos And Misfits, Avoid being badly written, Something Fun, the boss says, and Dancing with Shadow
Upstream Reviews: The Revenant King
Ammo.com: Where Are Silencers Illegal?

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness:  Biden-Appointed Judge Orders Release of International Fugitive Wanted For Murder, Trump Signs Executive Order Expanding Access to Retirement Accounts for American Workers, Congress Ends Record-Shattering DHS Shutdown, What Trump’s Remarks to King Charles Mean for the Special Relationship and about Who Americans Really Are, and Virginia Succumbs to Tyrants
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For May 1
Behind The Black: $2 bill that Gene Cernan carried on three missions sells for more than $90K, No Starliner mission to ISS this year, SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites, Next Artemis mission will be later than promised, and House Appropriations committee approves NASA budget, with some cuts proposed by Trump
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Chicago Boyz: The UAE and the Revenge of Geography, also, History Friday – Recollections of Vietnam at a Distance
Da Tech Guy: Indulgence Calendar for May 2026
Don Surber: Democrats will nominate a Nazi
Flopping Aces: Thought you knew how deep the fraud was in Minnesota?
Gates Of Vienna: Die Already, Hungary
The Geller Report: Mills Bails – Nazi-Tattooed Platner Poised to Take Democratic Nomination, Unemployment Falls To LOWEST LEVEL IN 50 YEARS, After 76 Days, GOP House Votes to End Democrat Government Shutdown – DHS NOW FUNDED, Florida GOP Legislature Sends New House Map, Netting Party 4 More Seats, To DeSantis for Signature, and TRUMP RIPS IRAN: ‘Get It Together, Sign a Nonnuclear Deal’ — War Hits 2 Months, Still No Agreement
Hollywood In Toto: Is The Christophers Ian McKellen’s Career-Best Performance? The War Against Angel Studios’ Animal Farm Explained, Hollywood Media Ignores Spencer Pratt’s Viral Ad, and Ruthless Podcast: Kimmel Joke Normalizes Trump Assassination Attempts
Legal Insurrection: Appalachia Lithium Cache Could Power U.S. for Centuries, Nebraska State Senator Compares College Republicans To Nazis For DEI Criticism, The Southern Poverty Law Center was Weaponized Against Everyone Right of Center, May Day Protests: Over 20 North Carolina School Districts Cancel Classes, and Michigan City Draws Criticism for Removing Anti-Crime Signs to be ‘Inclusive’
Nebraska Energy Observer: What If and What Is
Outkick: Pete Alonso rips on traffic, goes yard in return to NYC, Caitlin Clark raises eyebrows with comment on team’s AI post, Molson buys Sabres fans drinks after they save Canadian anthem, MLB ump’s blown strike call overturned by ABS, and Axe-slingin’ Sophie Lloyd melts faces – Starbucks not about coffee apparently – The great “back-in” debate
Power Line: “Diversity” Is Our Weakness, “A matter of shame for this country”, Aftermath of the Assassination Attempt, Betting On the Midterms, and Sacre bleu!
Shark Tank: Florida GOP Praises Ruling Upholding Election Integrity Reform
The Political Hat: Victims of Communism Day, 2026
This Ain’t Hell: Teachers, Valor Friday, and DEI Shatters Canadian Military Cohesion
Victory Girls: May Day Has A History But Illiterates Can’t Read It
Watts Up With That: Sorry, Los Angeles Times, Climate Change Isn’t Driving Georgia’s Wildfires, Democrats Make It Clear That If They Retake Power, U.S. Energy Security Will Once Again Be at Risk, Grid Balancing Costs Set to Rise To £8 Billion By 2030, and Bugs, Windshields and Climate Change – Oh My!
The Federalist: Imagine If People Cared About Their Own Countries As Much As They Do Timmy The Self-Beaching Whale, Trump To Pull 5,000 Troops Out Of Germany After Merz Inaction In Iran War, Here’s How Trump Should Let Middle-Class Americans In On The Private Equity Bonanza, Doctors Can Fraudulently Code ‘Trans’ Child Genital Mutilation To Bypass Bans: Report, and Two New Indictments Illuminate China’s Unconventional War Against The U.S.
Mark Steyn: When Wars Merge

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 04.30.26

Posted on | May 1, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

The Senators are done for 1974. More details Saturday.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process
Doug Ross: The Day The Earth Swallowed San Francisco (1906), 
EBL: Snapper Milt, Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella, and Whispers of Al-Andalus
Twitchy: Judge Halves Rapist’s Sentence For Being Black In America, Jessica Tarlov’s Claim Republicans Are Gaslighting About Democrat Violent Rhetoric Blows Up In Her Face, and Texas Judge Clears Way For Work To Resume On Muslim-Centric EPIC City
Louder With Crowder: Narrative BUSTED – Polls show Trump has held on to his historic gains with Black voters, Minnesota Family Hit With Federal Charges Over Vicious (Alleged) Assault Of TPUSA Journalist, We need to talk seriously about this hilarious Nick Fuentes video, Scott Jennings shuts down CNN hack’s attempt to play the race card with two key facts, and Jasmine Crockett demands your respect
Vox Popoli: Conceding the Math, Three Categories, Zero Errors, Two Can Play That Game, and UATV with the Big Bear
The Abbey of Misrule: A Map of the Abbey
Cedar Sanderson: State of the Writer
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Inflection Points

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: Democrat Congressman Claims Hegseth ‘Guilty’ of War Crimes That Got Nazi Submarine Captains Executed, Gallup Says High Cost of Living Is Top Financial Concern for Most Americans, House Renews FISA Surveillance Powers as Debate Over Civil Liberties Continues, Paxton Sues Houston-Area Care Center Over Alleged ‘Birth Tourism’ Operation, and Republicans Push to Redraw Maps After Supreme Court Deals Blow to VRA
BattleSwarm: How Much Does It Cost To Build A Bridge?
Behind The Black: The present state of India’s space program, Falcon 9 upper stage to hit the Moon in August, Morocco signs the Artemis Accords, and Two launches yesterday
CDR Salamander: Shoes Are Taking Back The Amphibs
Chicago Boyz: Traveling’s Dark Companion
Da Tech Guy: Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day The Last Day and Gabe
Dana Loesch: The Comey Indictment 2.0, 
Don Surber: Blue Wednesday for Communists
First Street Journal: You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!
Flopping Aces: Was Ted Lieu Cole Allen’s Mentor?
Gates Of Vienna: Knife Jihad in Golders Green, A Moroccan Knifeman in Almeria, and Ah, to be in London Town, a-Hatin’ on the Jews
The Geller Report: HOSTAGE HORROR: Nigerian Muslim Terror Group Abducts 416 Women and Children – Deadline Expired, Executions Imminent, DOJ Report Documents Rampant Anti-Christian Bias Within The Biden Government, Minnesota State Trooper Says State ‘Tried to Cover Up Fraud Allegations’ – Then Walz Shut Down His Department, At the Fed, Warsh Secures Committee Approval, but Powell Doesn’t Want to Leave, and Biden Officials Buried COVID Vaccine Injury Data
Hollywood In Toto: Over Your Dead Body – Nasty, Desperate but Sporadically Funny, Melania Crushed Jimmy Kimmel with One Perfect Adjective, Devil Wears Prada 2 Lets Miranda Off the Hook, What Everyone Is Missing About Silence of the Lambs, and Hokum – So Scary You Can’t Keep Quiet in a Theater
Legal Insurrection: Mathematicians Want Conference Moved Out of U.S. Due to Trump’s Supposed ‘Hatred of Immigrants’, Viral Rhode Island KKK Video was a Hoax, Israeli Navy Intercepts Gaza ‘Humanitarian’ Flotilla, Recovers Drugs and Condoms, UNC Professor May Be Next COVID Scientist to Experience Long-Delayed Consequences, and Unanimous Supreme Court Sides With Pro-Life Pregnancy Group To Protect Donors’ Privacy
Nebraska Energy Observer: The King Amongst the Rebels
Outkick: Punxsutawney Phil Throws Out First Pitch (Kinda Sorta) At Pirates Game, Did Red Sox GM Replace Cora & Coaches Because Of One Player?, Inevitable Outcome Arrives For LIV Golf As Saudis Pull Plug, Kirby Smart Says Big 10 More Competitive Than SEC, and Jenny Dell Escapes To The Beach – Shilo Sanders is hungry – Nick Saban Scrambles off The Tee
Power Line: Trump attacker, local angle, One shutdown ends, another begins, Mixed signals, The Star Tribune and the Feeding Our Future documents, and Is Anti-Semitism the Central Ideology of the Democratic Party?
Shark Tank: Veteran-Led FireWatch Magazine Endorses Jay Collins For Governor
Shot In The Dark: Main Character Syndrome
STUMP: April Awareness – Autism, Cancer, Finance, Pensions, & More
The Political Hat: Quick Takes – Academic Journal Madness: Childhood Sexuality; J.K. Rowling Is Voldemort; Feminist Praxis
This Ain’t Hell: USS Ford Headed Home, Finally, also, Ukraine designing a new APC – based on what?
Victory Girls: Spencer Pratt’s Campaign Ad Exposes Hypocrite Karen Bass
Watts Up With That: It’s Time for Texas to Get Competitive on Transmission Development, South Korea’s Net Zero Boast Crumbles, WSJ Energy Reporting – Improvement Needed, Japan’s Coal and Nuclear Push Allegedly Risks Displacing Renewable Energy, and Oversupply Of Volatile Solar Energy Leads To Record NEGATIVE Prices!
The Federalist: $PLC Finally Faces A Reckoning For The Political Violence It Stoked, The California Primary Election Season Is Screaming A Warning For The Nation, Democrats In NY Town Block Christian Shelter From Welcoming More Homeless, ‘Resurrecting Jim Crow’- Democrats Melt Down After SCOTUS Eviscerates Racial Gerrymandering, and NY Times Seriously Claims If Affirmative Action Is Illegal, So Is Enforcing Immigration Law
Mark Steyn: Let Me Show You to Your Room, Live Around the Planet – Month Three, Extra Innings, and Trump! Trump! Trump!

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 04.29.26 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | April 30, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

The glorious banner of the Greater East Asia Buc-ee’s Co-Prosperity Sphere.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The Doctor Will Kill You Now
EBL: Martha Vickers, Humanity’s Near Extinction, MAGA SCOTUS Congressional Districts, Oven Grilled Red Snapper, and “Joan of Arc”
Twitchy: Obnoxious Ostroushko Family Indicted For Assault On TPUSA Reporter, CNN’s Laura Coates Calls SCOTUS VRA Ruling “Illogical” As Dems Double Down On Racism, and Seattle’s Socialist Nepo-Baby Mayor Cackles As Wealth Flees Her Flaming Dumpster Of A City
Louder With Crowder: Seattle’s socialist mayor thinks it’s hilarious she’s chasing billionaires – and their tax revenue – out of state, GOP Mayoral Candidate Releases Brilliant Ad Exposing Corrupt California Democrats Mansions, Christian School Awarded $500k Settlement After Being Banned From Sports Over Opposing Trans Athletes, Chicago mayor brags about how he discriminates against white people, and Tampon Tim Walz brags about increasing prisoner voting, pre-registering teenagers, as if those are good things
Vox Popoli: Ramifications, The Ticket-Taker’s Hell, One Down, Two to Go, and John Scalzi Killed Science Fiction
Upstream Reviews: Finnian & The Seven Mountains,
Born Lucky: The Destructive Impulse of Liberalism
Cedar Sanderson: The Hymn of Breaking Strain

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: Anti-ICE Family Indicted For Assault on TPUSA Journalist in Minnesota, Supreme Court Rules that Racial Gerrymandering is Unconstitutional, New Florida Redistricting Plan Advances, Republicans Poised to Gain Up to Four House Seats, White House Warns DHS Funding Shortfall Could Disrupt Security Operations, and Senate Rejects Curb on Trump Military Action in Cuba
Animal Magnetism: Animal Magnetism LIVE Ep. 85 – Alaska and Castles
BattleSwarm: Texas Sales Tax Holiday Starts Today, Houston, Dallas And Austin Cave On ICE, Would-Be Trump Shooter Got Past Secret Service Checkpoint Using Sophisticated Penetration Technique Known As “Running”, Supreme Court Greenlights Texas Redistricting Map, and Biden-Era “Gun Dealer” Rule Dead
Behind The Black: Propaganda vs reporting in describing the battle over NASA’s budget, Canada cancels $72 million contract to build constellation to track wildfires, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launches Viasat communications satellite, California Coastal Commission settles SpaceX lawsuit by apologizing and conceding all points, and Who really was Jay Gould?
Cafe Hayek: A Note on Trade Deficits to an Astute Taiwanese Student, Entrepreneurial Opportunities, in Free Markets, Are Limited Only By the Human Imagination, Celebrating a Half-Century of U.S. Trade ‘Deficits’, Tamny Is Misled On Government Debt by a Collectivist Assumption, and A Final Few Words on My Disagreement with John Tamny on Deficit Financing of Government Spending
CDR Salamander: The BBG-1 Argument Is Obscuring The Long-Running Requirement For Capability
Chicago Boyz: When Norah Interviewed Trump, also, Don’t stand so close to me
Da Tech Guy: Get Woke Go Broke Anna Maria College Edition, Five Quick 0-3 Trying to Kill Trump Thoughts Under the Fedora, Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day: Tuckey, Tuckey and more Todd Tuckey, and Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day: My Interview with Pinball Game Designer Steve Ritchie
Don Surber: The B in EBT stands for Bentley
First Street Journal: No matter how much you hate the credentialed media, you do not hate them enough, also, You in a heap o’ trouble, girl!
Flopping Aces: Democrats Embrace The Culture Of Death
Gates Of Vienna: Damage to Catalonia, The Culture-Enriching Murder of Gabriele Vaccaro, Slouching Towards Civil War, and Cultural Enrichment, Philly Style
The Geller Report: UN Elects Islamic Republic of Iran as VP of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation, NYC Public School Sends Students Outside to “Embrace” Islamic Culture—Blurring the Line Between Education and Proselytizing, Supreme Court Rules Louisiana’s House Map an ‘Unconstitutional Racial Gerrymander’, Qatar Bribed the International Criminal Court to Act Against the State of Israel, and Muslim Stabs Two Jews Outside Synagogue In Knife Rampage in London Jewish Neighborhood
Hollywood In Toto: Russell Brand Won’t Condemn Oct. 7 Attacks, Low-rated Jimmy Fallon Lies About Tonight Show Liberal Bias, Delayed Savant Series Gets More Bad News, Melania’s Right, But Firing Jimmy Kimmel Would Be Wrong, and Sasqualogist Producer: They Don’t Make ’em Like They Used To
Legal Insurrection: Trump Fires Board Overseeing DEI-Riddled National Science Foundation, Karma – $PLC Tried To Cut Off “Hate List” Groups From Fidelity Charitable, Now It’s Cut Off, Law School in Florida Reverses Course, Recognizes TPUSA Chapter After Pressure, Greg Gutfeld Lays Blame for WHCD Shooter at the Feet of Democrats and Media, and Man Holding N-Word Sign at Kansas State is Black, Not in ‘Blackface’ as Student Paper Claimed
Nebraska Energy Observer: Reagan, Brits at War, The Scots Irish, Mercedes Schapp and Liz Truss, and Ragnarök
Outkick: Freddie Freeman admits Dodgers are ‘going through it’ after $73M Marlins take series from $500M-plus LA, Young Flyers fan gives Penguins star a perfect Philly welcome before Game Six, How the Diana Russini scandal could derail the Patriots’ season, Stephen A. Smith refuses to back down from LeBron James feud, and MAGA bikini congresswoman sends a message to Big Brother, Dale Earnhardt’s 75th, and MLB fan gets pulverized 
Power Line: $1.82 million, Anti-Semitic Attacks Roil London, The Supreme Court Does Justice On Districting, In the Hernandez assault, and Another Minnesota city switches flags
Racket News: Racket Lists – American Hysteria
Shark Tank: Brian Mast Announces Re-Election Bid Amidst Florida Redistricting
Shot In The Dark: Incentive Structure
STUMP: NYC Pension Watch – Hey, What If We “Delay” The Contributions?, 
The Political Hat: The European Union vs. Emojis
This Ain’t Hell: Why we love the media, Stolen Valor in the AI Age, Changing criteria, Better Late Than Never, and Someone to watch?
Transterrestrial Musings: The Democrats’ Enemies List, The Good News Just Keeps Coming, Fantastic News, America Without Democrats, and Cat Scents, Explained
Victory Girls: Shooter’s Manifesto Parrots Democrat Anti-Trump Talking Points, ‘It was Just A Joke’, Fauci’s Senior Aide, David Morens, Indicted In Covid Origin Cover-up, Brandon Gill To Abortion Advocate: Name Your Favorite Abortion Procedure, and Does Cherfilus-McCormick Think She Has A Political Future?
Watts Up With That: Changing Sunlight, Weather & Climate, Co-op City – What It Looks Like When Energy Reality Catches Up To You, Claim: Only Conservatives who Don’t Like Liberals Oppose Climate Action, Lee Zeldin Infuriates Purple-Haired Democrat While He Schools Her On Basic Supreme Court Cases, and Federal Power Meets California Resistance in Santa Ynez Oil Restart Battle
The Federalist: Pro-Lifers March On Richmond As Democrats Race To Write Unlimited Abortion Into Virginia’s Constitution, SCOTUS Confirms First Amendment Protects Pregnancy Center Donors From Nosey Abortion States, No, The Trump Administration Shouldn’t Bail Out Spirit Airlines, Leftist Brewery Owner With Death Wish For Trump Gets Secret Service, FBI Attention, and How This Conservative Group Is Breaking The Bureaucratic Bloat Wrecking Red States
Mark Steyn: Dancing with the Polovtsians, Blame it on the Youth: Cary Grant in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous, Begin the Beguine, and Oops! He Did It Again

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In The Mailbox: 04.29.26 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | April 29, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Well, as you can see, I didn’t have the necessary energy.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

A reminder to the Virginia Democrats from Red Forman

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Claude AI Deletes Company’s ENTIRE Database, also The Gun Debate Trap
EBL: The Success of the P-51 in WWII, Veronika Miller, Mutiny on the Bounty, Miso Hungry Monday, and Indiana Pork Tenderloin Sandwich
Twitchy: Cluck Around & Find Out, Scott Jennings Exposes The $200 Billion Fraud Scheme Targeting Your Parents, and While The Left Shrieks “Trump Must Lower The Temperature!” Wajahat Ali Literally Begs Trump To Die
Louder With Crowder: Democrats Double Down on Terrorist Language – You Are the Enemy, Elliot Page hopes they/them’s new documentary about LGBTQ animals will help your kids come out of the closet, As Donald Trump meets with King Charles, remember when Joe Biden (allegedly) ripped a loud fart in front of the Queen, Bodega worker tells media in 2025 how violent NYC had gotten and feared for his life – he was just murdered outside his bodega, and Sick Ana Navarro thinks it’s awesome someone shot at the Trump Admin because something something gun control
Vox Popoli: THE TSURUGISAN SCROLL, The Satanic EU, Frozen in Time, Less Than Zero, and Immigration and National Defense
Defending The Wood Perilous: God Is Not A Respecter Of Story Size
Stoic Observations: Southwall Update

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: FF(X) Flight II – In The Works
Don Surber: Trump isn’t Hitler
Racket News: The NerdProm Shooting, Time Travel, And Solomon’s Temple – Conspiracy Theory Roundup,
STUMP: Geeking Out – Census Numbers For Apportionment Released

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Methods of Journalism 301

Posted on | April 29, 2026 | No Comments

Welcome to J-School, boys and girls, and before we start today’s lesson, somebody needs to hit the tip jar for $16.04, for reasons to be explained later. This morning I had an online colloquy with my friend Ladd Ehlinger over the merits of When Harry Met Sally. It was Ladd’s contention that, as a director, Rob Reiner had never produced a masterpiece, to which my rejoinder was that he needed to rewatch that movie, which is certainly one of the best romantic comedies of all time. As much as we all despise Reiner’s left-wing politics, it seems to me wrong to deny him credit for that. Ehlinger shot back with some argle-bargle technical/artistic stuff, to which I replied, “Film school.”

What you have just witnessed, class, was my attempt at what Hunter S. Thompson called the Symbiotic Trapezoid Quote — the lead being a bizarre digression apparently irrelevant to the actual subject , ending with an admission of failure before continuing onward to compile your notes into some semblance of an article. Advanced technique, you see, and not for entry-level students of the craft. Having been in this racket for 40 years, I can make some claim to knowing what I’m doing, and the fact that you’re still reading this post after that (deliberately) botched lead is testimony to this advanced skill. What made Hunter S. Thompson great, at least in the years before chronic substance abuse wrecked him, was that he knew how to grab the reader by the eyeballs and drag him along with vivid phrasing, the reader/victim always wondering, “What’s this crazy son of a bitch going to do next?” Among other things, he accused the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review of being afflicted with “brain syphilis,” and given that the CJR editor did not sue for libel, we can assume that Dr. Thompson’s diagnosis was correct.

So as I was arguing with Ehlinger about the merits of When Harry Met Sally, the analogy occurred to me that Ladd’s film school standards of assessing what constitutes a movie masterpiece is sort of like the CJR editor’s version of what constitutes “quality journalism.” The real test of a movie is whether audiences like it — never mind the artistic quibbles — and the test of journalism is whether people actually read it.

Getting the facts right kind of counts, too, but even a beginner knows that. Learning how to tell the story in such a way that people feel compelled to read all the way to the end? That’s the trick.

OK, there’s your daily quota of Important News, but you didn’t need me to tell you that story, did you? Social media and 24/7 cable news have changed the game in ways that could not have been imagined back in the day when most people got their news from the daily paper, or the 30-minute nightly broadcasts on ABC/NBC/CBS. Now any random son of a bitch with a WiFi hookup can be a “journalist,” which means that I have to find a way to do something different, something valuable, something that might inspire you to hit the tip jar for $16.04. And it so happens that getting a WiFi hookup is relevant to the real reason I wrote this post:

One afternoon in August 2011, I set up my laptop in a restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska, ready to write a column for The American Spectator. It was the week before the Iowa Straw Poll, and I’d spent the day following Herman Cain’s presidential campaign bus, ending the day with a rally at a park in Council Bluffs. My friend Dave Weigel was there, and when he said he was going to have dinner at a German restaurant in Omaha, just across the river, I sort of invited myself to join him.
When I set up my laptop, however, I kept having trouble getting a WiFi connection. After an hour of fruitless effort — and a couple of cold beers — I gave up, telling Dave that it was obvious that I’d fallen afoul of The Gods of Dateline Integrity. . . .

Read my latest Substack article, which among other things includes the explanation for why I’m so specific about that $16.04.



 

Category: Fear. Loathing., R.S. McCain School of Journalism

In The Mailbox: 04.28.26 (Afternoon Edition)

Posted on | April 29, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

We’ll see if I have the energy after driving back from Vegas to do the evening edition.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

“Hakeem Jeffries calls for unity” – Sky News

OVER THE TRANSOM
Doug Ross: With Eisenhower On D-day (1944), The Nuland Prophecy also, A Day With Pvt. John Steele of the 82nd Airborne (1944),
357 Magnum: The Direct Impact of Banning Fossil-Fuel Generated Electricity
EBL: Hamburg Fish Sandwich, Roman Puls (porridge), “Shoot To Kill”, Saturday Spot Prawns, and Why Hasn’t China Collapsed?
Twitchy: Elevenhan 0mar World War 11 Memes are Off The Charts Perfection, Richard Stengel Farts Out That Holding NerdProm In WH Ballroom Could Violate First Amendment, and Seashell Enthusiast James Comey Indicted A Second Time  
Louder With Crowder: Dog hospitalized after accidentally ingesting meth on the streets of Democrat run California, Joy Behar swears on God that Donald Trump is totally trying to kill everyone, Mother of teen who stomped a girl’s head on the streets of NYC claims her baby boy is the real victim here, Superintendent testifies it’s totally fine for kindergarteners to read book featuring two dude kissing in fetish gear, and Neighborhood that voted 70% for Mamdani isn’t happy he’s moving the homeless into THEIR neighborhood
Vox Popoli: Confirmed Oncogenic, UK Jets Attack Russian Targets, Round 4, The Warning Shot, and A Deep and Debilitating Dive
Cedar Sanderson: Cultivating Words, 
Stoic Observations: Remembering Charlottesville, also Assassins Creed
The Bugscuffle Gazette: White House Correspondents’ Dinner, also, On April 27 2006, 
Upstream Reviews: Mech War 3 – Dynamo
Ammo.com: States With The Highest Murder Rate
Weird Catholic: The Devil’s Mousetrap
Mazelit Airaksinen: Professor claims algebra & geometry perpetuate whiteness and “unearned Privilege” in society
Jim McCoy: Escaping Fate

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Latin American Policy – On Midrats, also, I’ll take LCC 21 & 22, and 23 & 24 as well, thank you
Dana Loesch: Shots Fired At Nerd Prom, Motive & Targets Revealed In NerdProm Shooting, and SecWar’s Wife Criticized For Modest Cost of NerdProm Dress
Don Surber: Hail Caesar – A patriot’s statue returns
Elizabeth NIckson: James Howard Kunstler & I Discuss Globalism’s Dark Mysteries, also, The Gleaming City of the Future Will Rise From Gaza’s Blasted Plain
Glenn Reynolds: Our Self-Colonized Nation
Racket News: The Press Promotes Violence And Everyone Knows It

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Category: Linkagery

‘Pretending Not to Know’

Posted on | April 27, 2026 | No Comments

In 2011, explaining his abandonment of “brain-dead” liberalism, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet published The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture. It was there that he expressed what has become known as The Mamet Principle: “In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments, modern liberals have to pretend not to know things.” We see this all the time in the make-believe play-acting of TV personalities like Jake Tapper, who did a perfect imitation of Claude Rains in Casablanca in describing how he was shocked — shocked! — by the revelation that Joe Biden was senile.

As a journalist, one of my biggest gripes is that TV news has given people a mistaken idea about what journalism actually is. Writing a 700-word news article is a full day’s work for the reporter who has to rely on his own notes of conversations with sources. To be an actual reporter — as opposed to a TV talking head — means spending a lot of time on the phone, trying to get people to tell the truth when it would better suit them to keep the truth out of the newspaper. By contrast, if you understand what TV news actually is, you realize that the anchorman is paid for his ability to convey the proper emotion about what he’s telling you.

As Mamet remarked, newscasters are hired “not for their probity or for their intelligence, but for their ‘believability,'” and that is how Barack Obama became president — he had that same kind of superficial “believability” that characterizes a successful TV news anchor.

This brings us to Obama’s disingenuous (unsolicited and unnecessary) comment about Cole Allen’s botched assassination attempt Saturday night at the annual White House Correspondents dinner. By the time he pushed the “publish” button on that tweet, we did indeed “have the details about the motives” of the gunman. Allen’s social-media archives and his written “manifesto” made clear that Allen was a Democrat, inspired by the same vicious lies about Trump that Democrats and their media allies have been promoting for the past decade.

“His beliefs mirrored mainstream Democrat talking points” — in other words, he was radicalized not by some obscure fringe website, but by what every Democrat with access to a microphone or a camera has been saying publicly ever since Trump beat Hillary nearly 10 years ago.

Barack Obama’s intent was to conceal and obscure this truth, to assert that Democrats are against political violence, no matter how often we have seen them incite, defend, justify and participate in such violence (e.g., the “fiery but mostly peaceful” riots of 2020). As David Mamet said, Obama must “pretend not to know things” (and encourage others to join him in that pretense) or else the very existence of the Democratic Party might be jeopardized, because everybody would realize what a colossal scam it is (as all honest and intelligent people already do).



 

Category: Barack Obama, Donald Trump
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