Home » Open thread 6/18/22

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Open thread 6/18/22 — 92 Comments

  1. Neo,

    I was watching this video of people waltzing to Shostakovich’s Second waltz and noticed that the couples would occasionally do a complicated little hand dance, eg at 4:40. As our resident dance expert, is that standard?

    https://youtu.be/IOK8Jb76ibc

  2. According to this, the City of Uvalde Police Department has agreed to send witnesses to a Texas State legislature hearing, but they, and the City, have hired a private attorney who says that they are not required to release any records about the shooting to the public, in part because it would be “highly embarrassing” and they “are not of legitimate concern to the public.” Lawsuit prevention, I presume, but still, this looks very bad.

    https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/06/18/uvalde-police-claim-they-dont-need-to-release-records-about-shooting-n477085

  3. RE: UFOs—Ruminating on the current state of play, and on the recent Hearing on UFOs by a subcommittee of the House Intelligence Committee, it seems more and more odd to me that–while DOD sent a high level witness, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and the Navy even sent their Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence–there was no representative from the Air Force, nor was there a representative from the recently formed U.S. Space Force.

    And while the Navy has taken the lead in making public their numerous encounters with UAPs/UFOs, it is the Air Force and the Space Force which are charged, I’d imagine, with being the lead U.S. military organizations responsible for the surveillance and security of U.S. airspace–from the ground up to outer space.

    Think about that a little.

    Many of the “investigations” of UFOs throughout the last 70 plus years have taken place under the auspices of the Air Force.

    Moreover, the Air Force has the massive detection and tracking capabilities of NORAD, it has access to a large array of all sorts of other surveillance capabilities, including various satellites–which I assume not only look down to surveil the Earth, the airspace above it, and our oceans, but also look outward to surveil whatever is in near Earth orbit and beyond–and I’d imagine it also has aircraft up in the sky over the U.S. and many other countries around the clock.

    In fact, in a recent article wondering why the Air Force has been silent on the UAP issue, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Chris Mellon pointed out seven different unclassified surveillance systems that the Air Force has access to, and alluded to the Air Force’s access, in addition, to many other systems which are classified. *

    Thus, one would think, our Air Force and/or Space Force have the best chance of encountering and surveiling UFOs, yet, no witness, no statement, no videos, from either one of theses military services–nothing.

    It would appear that the Air Force has accumulated many decades worth, massive amounts of data, of observations of what are actual,“unidentified” UAPs/UFOs.

    Why, then, their silence?

    * See https://thedebrief.org/why-is-the-air-force-awol-on-the-uap-issue/

  4. PBS aired an episode of ‘American Masters’ on Brian Wilson this week that was really interesting.

  5. So does anyone know what is happening in Ukraine? I haven’t seen any reporting in about two weeks. Not even CNN’s web site is mentioning anything, and they were continually reporting. Guess not a priority even though it’s the “cause of the inflation”.

    If someone has a good link that gives updates, please post.

  6. Andrew McCarthy just posted something on NRO about how we all need to bow down to the greatness of Liz Cheney at the Jan. 6 hearings.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/AndrewCMcCarthy/status/1538120283634155521?cxt=HHwWgoCy_fSPwNgqAAAA

    If nothing else, Trump at least deserves credit for revealing just how much of the conservative intelligentsia has been made up of grifters, hacks, fools, and handmaidens for the establishment.

    It’s not even so much that McCarthy is wrong. It’s that he’s making an argument so disconnected from the reality on the ground it is actually counterproductive. If you really want to weaken support for Trump in the GOP, fanboying all over Liz Cheney is the WORST way to do it.

    Sometimes people like McCarthy make murmurs like they’ve realized the error of their ways. Don’t ever believe them. They always default back to “Everything is fine. We just need to get rid of that Trump guy.”

    Mike

  7. Good grief mccarthy no wonder ali mohammed laughed in your face as he skipped town to case the embassies

  8. They want as many terrorists drug smugglers and common criminals in this country

  9. I couldn’t finish watching the video. It bothered me too much. I recognize this is their culture- and other tribes do other things that are similar yet dissimilar if you know what I mean. But the “it pushes my shoulders down” is a bunch of hooey. These women’s cervical vertebra become subluxed and the spine is elongated over time. They can’t survive without the links. Funny how US (or western) feminists yell about our sexist society but none complain about real sexism as we see here or the hijab- and these are only the tip of the spear

  10. Thats probably thr opposite of the truth after ferguson provoked by a lie they chose to deescalate forces

  11. For those you skeptical of the current idea that the aliens are here:

    https://www.metabunk.org/home/

    Thinking myself that there is too much hype to this craze I’m glad that these guys have both the skill and the time to debunk at least some of videos.

  12. Look at the congress or the cabinet no need to look at externalities

  13. Kate:

    It’s necessary to carefully read and to think about not only what is being said but what is being left out. The MSM and unfortunately nearly every pundit or blogger on the right, as well as many readers on the right, already have the snti-police narrative set in stone and therefore any benign explanation regarding police in Uvalde is left out. But I have a benign explanation- don’t you? The police are cooperating with the investigation and a report will be issued one day. But – as is common and usual – the police are fighting the MSM’s demand for all the sensationalist gory details that would cause emotional harm to VICTIMS and their families if released to the public. Have you ever seen what is routinely available online if all those things are released? It’s horrific.

  14. Very nice but garland wants them dead.

    Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blasted Garland as “a partisan hack who should resign in disgrace for dereliction of duty”…He continued by saying, “His primary job is to enforce the law, and he has failed totally. If he won’t resign, then we’ll impeach him once Republicans control the Congress in January. Either way, he is finished.”

  15. Neo, I can see that the City and Police in Uvalde are in a no-win situation as far as public perceptions, and trying to avoid making it worse is reasonable. But at some point the timeline, actions, and reasons are going to have to come out.

  16. Kids in the video: horrific child abuse. Stopped watching when the little girl was crying in pain as more metal was coiled around her neck.

  17. Tina @ 1:14 says:

    “Funny how US (or western) feminists yell about our sexist society but none complain about real sexism as we see here or the hijab- and these are only the tip of the spear.”

    That’s because the feminist movement is a leftist political movement that, in this instance, is using the “vehicle” of women’s rights to advance their leftist agenda.
    Their goal, their raison d’etre, is to promote their left wing political ideology.
    This is why not one feminist group has objected to men, claiming to be females, participating in women’s sports.
    Having men compete against women is just one method of breaking down existing social mores and values; a necessary step destroying the family structure, family traditions, the middle class, and of course, installing a leftist totalitarian govt.

    Rest assured that if those nations requiring the wearing of hijabs or other sexist “traditions” were considered “right wing,” you can bet that the feminists here would be raising a big stink.

    For leftists , feminists or not, there is no right or wrong. There is only the ends justifies the means.

  18. Another example of how left-wing fascists are ruining the rule of law.

    If you get stopped by a law enforcement in Washington state, and choose to just drive off, whether that is legal or not now depends on whether you’re a BIPOC or not.

    “BIPOC status, the court ruled on June 9, 2022, is relevant to whether the person “was not free to leave, to refuse a request, or to otherwise terminate the encounter ….” So two identical factual circumstances of a police encounter maybe result in different judicial results depending on whether the person is BIPOC or not-BIPOC (i.e. white).”

    The case before the Washington Supreme Court involved a person named Palla Sum who identified as a Asian/Pacific Islander approached by police in a high crime area while sleeping with a friend in a car. The police asked Sum for identification. He provided a false name and birth date, and then took off in the car when the policeman returned to the police vehicle to check the information. His conviction for fleeing the scene is not disputed, only his conviction for providing false information to the police. If the false information was provided pusuant to an unlawful “seizure,” the information was not admissible as evidence.

    The issue before the court was whether asking for identification in this circumstance was a “seizure” such that police needed either a warrant or to prove an exception to the warrant requirement. The court made clear at multiple points in the Opinion that it was deciding the case under the Washington State Constitution, which it said contained broader protections than the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

    The court held that this was a seizure and reiterated that Sum being BIPOC was a necessary consideration.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/06/washington-state-supreme-court-imposes-different-standards-on-police-seizures-for-bipoc-and-whites/

    BIPOC– Black, Indigenous, People of Color.

  19. John Tyler:

    Yes, feminist groups are uniformly leftist above feminist. If there’s a choice, they go with leftist rather than defending or helping women. There are tons of examples of this.

    However, there are certainly feminist individuals who condemn the entrance of transwomen into women’s sports. Quite a few of them are lesbians. The phenomenon has engendered a term for them from those who wish they’d shut up: “TERF.” That stands for this:

    TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008, the term originally applied to the minority of feminists espousing sentiments that other feminists considered transphobic, such as the rejection of the assertion that trans women are women, the exclusion of trans women from women’s spaces, and opposition to transgender rights legislation.

    They are a minority among feminists, but there are many of them. I don’t think they have an organization.

  20. Kate:

    That’s what the investigation is for.

    That’s the way it’s done, and there’s every indication that that will happen.

    But the press and virtually everyone else at this point uses each piece of information to defame the police. And that post you linked does the same – takes information and twists it to make a cheap anti-police point.

    I see it all over the place.

  21. Brian E:

    But that law, BIPOC get out of jail free, was so “reasonable” since BIPOC can’t be arrested.

  22. Tina:

    This is how it works:

    Neck rings push the clavicle and ribs down. The neck stretching is mostly illusory: the weight of the rings twists the collarbone and eventually the upper ribs at an angle 45 degrees lower than what is natural, causing the illusion of an elongated neck. The vertebrae do not elongate, though the space between them may increase as the intervertebral discs absorb liquid.

    If you had watched the entire video you would have seen some of the women after they took the rings off. They certainly seem fine without the links, but choose to put them back on.

    I would guess that they have some orthopedic problems because of the forced sinking of the upper body, however. For example, there might be a compression of the brachial plexus leading to some nerve compression in susceptible individuals.

  23. McCarthy has always detested Trump but after Jan 6 McCarthy became even more intense on the subject and particularly on anything connected with Trump and that day.

  24. om,

    The amazing thing is that is from the WA state supreme court and not some loony Seattle leftist legislator.

    At this point why would any law enforcement officer in WA pull anybody over?

  25. Griffin:

    Not just anyone is guilty. It’s a systemic problem after all; the whole concept of laws. Whose justice after all? Wacky raised to infinity.

    Those robed maroons are elected; small hope to vote them out.

  26. Neo, I appreciate your trying to wait for information on the Uvalde situation. I am also looking for information. I’m not crying “cowards” like many others. But nearly four weeks later, we don’t know why the room keys were so hard to locate, and we don’t know (unless I’ve missed it) whether the shooter had drugs in his system.

    I think the attorneys for the city and police would be far better advised to issue a statement about what investigations are underway and how they are progressing. Saying that the public has no legitimate concerns doesn’t help.

  27. Paul in Boston:

    I haven’t a clue about that hand thing. I’ve never seen if before, but I bet it’s based on something or other.

  28. om,

    Yep, and the voters have shown little interest in doing any due diligence with regards to who they are electing to the court.

    I remember when the voters elected an unknown lawyer to the court simply because he shared his name with a popular Seattle news anchor.

    He is now the longest tenured justice.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._Johnson_(jurist)

  29. Griffin:

    I would expect a

    “BIPOC on Board”

    bumper sticker can now be substituted for plates, registration, insurance, and necessity for compliance with any and all motor vehicle laws or regulations.

    What could possibly go wrong?

  30. Kate:

    Everything they have released has been twisted and used against them with people prematurely rushing to judgment. There is a tsunami of hatred directed against them. Anything they release now will get the same treatment, and anything they release now is preliminary anyway. A situation that complex cannot be understood without an investigation that takes a lot of time. This is standard for such investigations. Because the public clamors for answers, it’s not a reason to release a fact here and a fact there.

    I don’t think they yet have the full picture themselves. These things take many many months.

    What’s more, and this is germane to that Vice article on which your link was based, this is what the police are saying they won’t release:

    The public records Uvalde is trying to suppress include body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more.

    That is standard to not release early on. It is an invasion of the privacy of the victims to release it. The only time bodycam footage is usually released early on by the police is if an officer is charged or about to be charged or might be charged with manslaughter or murder. That’s not the case here.

    They are not talking about not releasing info about the keys. That’s not what this lawyer’s fight is about.

    As for drugs in the perp’s system, that’s part of the autopsy report that is generally released when the full investigation comes out. What’s the all-fired hurry to know that? Also, are you aware of how long autopsy reports (and particularly toxicology reports) take? It can be up to 6 weeks. The Uvalde shooting occurred on May 24th. It’s now about three and a half weeks later. The demand for an autopsy report at this point is unreasonable.

  31. Transformation!
    “New Fossil Fuel Fan: Obama Orders 2,500-Gallon Propane Storage For Vacation Home”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-fossil-fuel-fan-obama-orders-2500-gallon-propane-storage-vacation-home

    But at least we have Pelosi to tell us why all this is necessary…
    “82-Year-Old Speaker Pelosi Blames Bidenflation On “COVID, And The War… In Iraq”‘—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/82-year-old-speaker-pelosi-blames-bidenflation-covid-and-war-iraq

    + Bonus (just another uber-sinister development that spotlights the Democratic party’s AND the media’s disgusting hypocrisy):
    “Taibbi: The World’s Most Taboo Legal Case”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/taibbi-worlds-most-taboo-legal-case
    Opening grafs:
    ‘On November 17, 2021, the Women’s Liberation Front, or WoLF, filed a civil rights lawsuit in California that drew almost no coverage.
    ‘A press corps gearing up to be outraged en masse by the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp defamation case had zero interest in a lawsuit filed by far poorer female abuse victims. [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
    ‘Janine Chandler et al vs. California Department of Corrections targeted a new California state law, the “The Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act,” a.k.a. S.B. 132.
    ‘The statute allows any prisoner who self-identifies as a woman — including prisoners with penises who may have stopped taking hormones — into women’s prisons….’

  32. But tbat hot take is the hottest evarr, the atlantic has become terrible specially since cheryl jobs took it over.

  33. And it does indeed look as though “Biden” will be getting what “he” wants, what “he” has been planning for, and what “he” NEEDS to get to the next level—the MEGA-CRISIS that will enable “him” to achieve total domination of the country.

    That’s right. “Biden” will go down in history as THE MOST SUCCESSFUL president (well, “president”) in American history, surpassing even Obama’s huge success between 2009 and 2016…and beyond!.
    (This, of course, is no coincidence.)

    Warning: not for the faint of heart….
    “Here’s 18 Signs That The Economic Meltdown We’ve Been Waiting For Has Already Begun”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/economy-going-collapse-heres-18-signs-economic-meltdown-weve-been-waiting-has
    – – – – – –
    Oops. That “emphasis” (in the 3:33 post) should have been for the words, zero interest

  34. Warning: not for the faint of heart….

    Was there sometime in the past during which ZeroHedge was not anticipating an economic meltdown?

  35. When the Fed aggressively raised rates in the early 1980s, it resulted in one of the most painful recessions in American history.

    It didn’t. The newspapers and liberal opinion journalists hyped the problems in part out of ignorance, in part due their sensationalist nature, and in part to help the Democratic Party.

  36. Well, it took months for Officer Sicknick’s autopsy to be released, but some of that was politics.

  37. ‘Was there sometime in the past which ZeroHedge was not anticipating an economic meltdown?’

    They are the absolute worst doom and gloom clickbait but many on the right love to link to them.

  38. The subprime collapse was because greenspan raised 4 points in two years and this popped the property bubble

  39. Through the Trump era we have found many we thought were friends are our enemies

  40. Eva Marie:

    Yeah, I read that earlier. I have some problems with the reporting on it.

    First of all, in that link you gave, it says “The admission, uncovered by the New York Times on Friday…” No link to the Times article. So I can’t say how it was “uncovered.” Was it “uncovered” in the same way the Times has “uncovered” so many other things, such as January 6 demonstrators killing Officer Sicknick with a fire extinguisher? I’d try to find the link myself except I’ve exceeded my free articles there.

    What’s more, it makes no sense in a way. I have not heard a single previous suggestion that any children were outside the school when the perp came towards it that day, and I’ve read tons on the subject. The perp came and started shooting at school windows for a minute before entering the school. Does it make sense that the perp was near children outside and didn’t fire at them? Makes no sense at all to me.

    The information seems to have come, as best I can tell from the article you linked, from a sheriff of a neighboring town. What does he know, and how? Then there’s this:

    The Times also stated conflicting reports on what the children were doing at the time. The cop who arrived on the scene claiming they were playing, while a deputy from a local sheriff’s officer said they were running from the impending massacre.

    Up to now I have seen nothing – and that includes interviews with parents and children who attended the school – that says a single child was outside that day when the perp came to the school. This is such basic information one would think we’d already have lots of stories about it from the kids and parents themselves. They certainly haven’t been shy about talking to the press. And yet we have nothing except this Times report.

    Here it says that Rios – the guy who gave this report about Ramos and kids outside the school – didn’t get to Robb Elementary till about noon. That was long after these events would have occurred. So how does he know about what he is alleging? He certainly wouldn’t have witnessed it himself.

    And if for some reason it turns out to be true that kids were outside the school near the perp when the perp first arrived, and an officer had a few seconds to shoot the perp, are you saying the officer should have risked killing some kids himself, even though at the time the perp hadn’t killed anyone and wasn’t even shooting at the kids? Oh boy, the police would have been praised for that one if any kids had been injured or killed!

  41. Skip, I think that this is one of the reasons for the existence of the neverTrumpers. Ignorance really was a kind of bliss.

  42. Kate:

    It’s not how long it takes for them to be released, it’s how long it takes for toxicology reports to be completed. Up to 6 weeks, which haven’t even occurred yet in the case of Uvalde.

    But ordinarily the autopsies aren’t released until they are part of the full investigative report on mass shootings. That can take up to a year. What is the pressing reason to know right now whether Ramos was on drugs? It’s one of the least important facts, I think. I have no problem with waiting on that. Drugs may have contributed, or maybe not.

  43. “…the absolute worst…”
    I understand where you’re coming from—all that “Skyisfalling” ‘R Us stuff—but I’m not sure that’s entirely fair to ZH.
    For example:
    “Over 53K Illegal Aliens Given DACA Despite Arrest Records Including For Murder, Rape, Kidnapping”—
    https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/06/18/over-53k-illegal-aliens-given-daca-despite-arrest-records-including-for-murder-rape-kidnapping/
    “Bitcoin continues rapid slide, drops 12% to nearly $18,000 amid economic turmoil”—
    https://justthenews.com/nation/economy/bitcoin-continues-rapid-slide-drops-12-nearly-18000-amid-economic-turmoil

    Besides, ZH does include occasional flashes of humor….e.g.,
    “Biden Downplays Plans To Meet With Crown Prince MbS, Saudis Immediately Contradict Him”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-downplays-plans-meet-crown-prince-mbs-saudis-immediately-contradict-him
    “Janet Yellen: The Lingering ‘Legacy’ Of A Decades-Old Monetary Policy Freak Show”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/janet-yellen-lingering-legacy-decades-old-monetary-policy-freak-show

    Etc….

  44. Barry,

    Yeah the sky is falling stuff is a real pet peeve of mine. I’m not a fan of that on any topic not just economics.

    There is a lot of space between ‘humming along nicely’ and ‘meltdown’ and people who consistently preach one extreme or the other are not to be taken seriously IMO.

    P.S.- I actually agree with some of what they say in a general sense it’s the race to inevitable ‘meltdown’ I don’t agree with.

  45. Well I certainly hope you’re right about that.

    Not sure what provides the hope except the resilience and essential optimism of the American people (and maybe the law of averages).

    But is that enough to defeat the psycho saboteurs and pusillanimous poseurs running the country (into the ground)?

  46. “are you saying the officer should have risked killing some kids himself, even though at the time the perp hadn’t killed anyone and wasn’t even shooting at the kids?”
    I’m saying that it looks like an officer (going by his own statement) had a chance to stop Ramos and didn’t because he thought he might hurt children who were behind the killer. That’s the decision that he says he made.
    That’s what the linked article says as well as the article in the NYT

  47. “…America Is on the Edge of Losing Democracy”—
    …says the woman who tried her darnedest to destroy the country and may have largely succeeded…. (though to be fair, she did have plenty of help…)
    https://www.newsmax.com/politics/bill-clinton-hillary-clinton-biden-democracy/2022/06/17/id/1075002/
    Key graf:
    ‘…”We are standing on the precipice of losing our democracy, and everything that everybody else cares about then goes out the window. … Look, the most important thing is to win the next election. The alternative is so frightening that whatever does not help you win should not be a priority.”…’

    The above, of course, is her shameless rationale for already trying to destroy the country. Cleary, she is still completely on board.

  48. The subprime collapse was because greenspan raised 4 points in two years and this popped the property bubble – Miguel Cervantes

    I would argue the fed was too slow to raise rates after the 2001 recession, which caused the subprime mortgage market to overheat and eventually collapse. Had the fed acted sooner the housing bubble that burst might never have formed.

    Lots of blame to go around, though.

  49. Eva Marie:

    Going by “his own statement”? Where is he quoted as having talked to these newpapers? I only hear second and third-hand reports on what he said, from people who don’t seem to have been there or to have spoken with him.

    If you know differently, give the link and the quote.

    Read carefully.

  50. I would argue the fed was too slow to raise rates after the 2001 recession, which caused the subprime mortgage market to overheat and eventually collapse. Had the fed acted sooner the housing bubble that burst might never have formed.

    Several events. One was you had a decoupling of real estate prices and nominal incomes. You can date this to about 1997, though it wasn’t that noticeable until 2000. Another was that Fed policy from the fall of 2002 to the fall of 2004 generated an abnormally low Federal Funds rate. The third was that in 2003 Freddie Mac elected to slash underwriting standards on the promissory notes it purchased. Another was the dark market in derivatives, especially credit default swaps, which exploded after 2001; Brooksley Born when she chaired the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had tried in 1998 to issue regulations to flush out this market and was defeated in an intra-administration battle by a collection which included Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Alan Greenspan, and Arthur Levitt Jr. Levitt later publicly apologized when it all blew up. Steve Sailer has also noted another phenomenon: the effect of the Community Reinvestment Act on regulators. Banks which had a culture of lax underwriting standards were more likely to get approval for their merger deals and formed an increasingly large share of the real estate lending market.

  51. Howabout if you read it instead. It’s not the whole article but quite a bit of it.
    Here’s the NYT:

    UVALDE, Texas — A city police officer armed with an AR-15-style rifle hesitated when he had a brief chance to shoot the gunman approaching a school in Uvalde, Texas, because he did not want to hit children, according to a senior sheriff’s deputy who spoke to the officer.

    The fateful decision, which has not been previously reported, represented the second missed opportunity for officers arriving at Robb Elementary School to prevent a massacre by intervening while the gunman was still outside the school. Officials have said that an officer from a different department, the Uvalde school district police force, arrived early but drove past the gunman, not seeing him in the parking lot of the school.

    The quick arrival of several officers on May 24 reflected the speed with which the initial response took place, and contrasted sharply with what would become a protracted delay in finally confronting the gunman after he began shooting inside a pair of connected fourth-grade classrooms.
    . . .

    It also made clear the agonizing decisions law enforcement officers had to make as they confronted the gunman, who was firing shots outside the school; the officer who arrived with a rifle had only seconds to make a decision, and feared that firing his weapon could have meant hitting children, the senior sheriff’s deputy said
    . . .

    At least two law enforcement cars arrived in close succession at the school, according to investigatory documents reviewed by The New York Times. One was driven by an officer from the small police force that patrols Uvalde’s schools. Another arrived less than a minute later, at 11:32 a.m., with officers from the Uvalde Police Department.

    At that point, the gunman was still shooting outside of the school.

    Officials have said he was firing at the building and toward a nearby funeral home, but arriving officers believed in the moment that the gunfire was directed at them, said Chief Deputy Sheriff Ricardo Rios of Zavala County, who also responded to the shooting in the neighboring county.

    “My understanding, after talking to several officers that were there, was that the gunman engaged two City of Uvalde officers when they got there, outside the building,” Chief Deputy Rios said.
    He said the two officers, including one with the long gun, took cover behind a patrol car. They wanted to return fire, he said, but held off.

    Chief Deputy Rios, recounting his conversation with one of the officers, said that he was surprised and replied with a blunt question.
    “I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you shoot? Why didn’t you engage?’ And that’s when he told me about the background,” he said. “According to the officers, they didn’t engage back because in the background there was kids playing and they were scared of hitting the kids.”

    In one of the initial 911 calls, at 11:29 a.m., a caller told dispatchers about the gunfire outside and also that there were children running, according to the documents. It was not clear where those children were or if there were others in the line of fire in those first minutes.

    The chief deputy sheriff said that any attempt to shoot the moving gunman would have been difficult, and that the officer would undoubtedly have faced harsh criticism and possibly even a criminal investigation had he missed and hit a bystander in the distance, especially a child.

    The chance passed “really quick” he said, perhaps in a matter of seconds.

    “I’m not bashing him or anything. I get it,” he said. “The Ranger who took my statement even said: ‘It’s come to the point where we’re second-guessing ourselves shooting somebody because we’re scared. Every bullet has our names.’”
    . . .

    Sheriff Salinas said he and Chief Deputy Rios arrived at the school at some point after 12 p.m. to find a chaotic scene, with both uniformed law enforcement and plainclothes officers responding.

    “I saw a guy in street clothes carrying a shotgun,” Sheriff Salinas said. “I immediately pointed my gun at him, but a female officer popped up right beside him, so I said, ‘Wait a minute, this might be an off-duty officer.’” (He later learned that the man was an off-duty Border Patrol officer who had been at a nearby barbershop and borrowed the weapon from the barber.)

    And from earlier in the article:

    The Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Rangers, referred questions to the district attorney. The Uvalde Police Department, whose officer was said to have had line of sight on the gunman, did not respond to a request for comment.

    The chair of the legislative committee, Dustin Burrows, said the department had not made any of its officers available to provide testimony but on Friday had promised to do so. The committee met in Uvalde on Thursday and Friday but heard from witnesses behind closed doors.

  52. “The newspapers and liberal opinion journalists hyped the problems in part out of ignorance”

    Oh for pity’s sake. They can’t convince people the economy is actually good today and it’s beyond ridiculous for you to pretend the early 80s economy was anything but awful. You want to argue the causes? Knock yourself out. I was living in farm country in the early 80s and it was horrific.

    As for Uvalde, Neo has made her position clear. Anything that makes the cops look bad is to be doubted. Anything that runs counter to that narrative is to be believed. It’s become one of those “look how much smarter I am than other people” traps that are almost impossible to get out of.

    Mike

  53. Sometimes people like McCarthy make murmurs like they’ve realized the error of their ways. Don’t ever believe them. They always default back to “Everything is fine. We just need to get rid of that Trump guy.”

    He’s like a gyroscope that way.

    IMO, the best of the starboard punditocracy (bracketing out Limbaugh, whom I never got in the habit of listening to) have their own perspective and book of business and are not addled by particular politicians and not conning anyone. That would include Heather MacDonald and others at the Manhattan Institute, Thomas Sowell, Victor Davis Hanson, Stanley Kurtz, Sorhab Ahmari, Robert Stacy McCain, &c.

  54. Hey guys: Just in time for Pride Month, the CDC (those wonderful folks who handled COVID-19 so well!) puts you some knowledge about how to have safe sex in the time of monkeypox:

    “Monkeypox Facts for People Who Are Sexually Active”

    Not gonna try to summarize the content except to note the tasteful drawing of an interracial gay couple to symbolize “sexual health”:

    https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/sexualhealth/index.html

  55. They can’t convince people the economy is actually good today and it’s beyond ridiculous for you to pretend the early 80s economy was anything but awful. You want to argue the causes? Knock yourself out. I was living in farm country in the early 80s and it was horrific.

    The recession of 1981-82 lasted about 18 months and the rate at which goods and services were being produced declined by about 2%. There was a spike in unemployment rates which began in mid-1979 and reached its peak in the fall of 1982. There were some long-term pathologies in the labor market which grew evident at that time but had been concealed before due to expansionary monetary policy (manifest in escalating inflation during the period running from 1966 to 1981). This sort of sclerosis receded only gradually and haltingly. It took until 1988 to return to 1979 unemployment rates.

    As for the farm sector, the absolute decline in the population making their living from farming had been a phenomenon for 60 years ‘ere Ronald Reagan took office. The auto industry’s problems were already manifest by 1979, and were not a function of monetary policy.

  56. US dollar will fall 40% against the Euro in the next five years as the dollar continues to lose its place as the world’s reserve currency.

    This will bake inflation into our economy, with the final result probably being a world economic collapse. This is usually when wars break out.

    Our debt to GDP ratio is right up there with the PIGS.

    As the Fed is forced to continue to raise interest rates to control inflation, servicing the debt will swamp the federal budget, forcing increased taxes to continue the obligations of SS and Medicare.

    Now HERE’s an end of the world scenario!

    https://www.netnewsledger.com/2022/01/20/why-will-dollar-likely-lose-its-status-as-world-currency/

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/06/18/powell-rapid-changes-are-taking-place-in-the-global-monetary-system-that-may-affect-the-international-role-of-the-dollar/

  57. Paul in Boston: what a beautiful compilation video. Thank you for posting it.

  58. what is the countervailing element, you see as we asphixiate the fossil fuel industry, this is the price of the lie that barr, pence and co enabled, what mccarthy is so proud of, noonan, god this woman just grinds my gears, actually brought up the plight of january 6th prisoners, while as much as saying they deserved what they got, and yes that red wave, well mcconnell and mccarthy have as much as enabled this fraud, and only took exception at gaetz and greene,

  59. interesting powell is the author of the powell rule, which he disregarded for the last two years, now mind you the other fed appointees they have put in are manifestly worse,

  60. MBunge:

    I’ve already issued a previous warning to you about your gratuitous insults towards me on the Uvalde police issue. You seem to be unable of unwilling to stop, as evidenced by this comment of yours in exactly the same vein.

  61. Hey, everything’s hunky dory!
    “Biden”‘s NOT worried. (Why should “he” be?)
    “As minority support plummets for Biden, Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman shrugs off concern”—
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/congressional-black-caucus-chair-biden-holding-his-own-im-not-worred

    …and if yer wondering just why “Biden” isn’t worried…
    …let’s pan over to Hillary!…for this “entertaining” repost—
    https://www.newsmax.com/politics/bill-clinton-hillary-clinton-biden-democracy/2022/06/17/id/1075002/

  62. And it looks like Alan Dershowitz should be writing for ZH
    (Maybe he does…under a pseudonym—Hersh Lanowitz?)

    …wherein Dershowitz promises another (Democratic party) Summer of LOVE! (and UNITY!)
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/alan-dershowitz-constitution-law-abuse-of-power/2022/06/18/id/1075021/
    Key grafs:
    ‘…[L]egal expert Alan Dershowitz predicts a “summer of violence,” with more unconstitutional abuses of power and politicized justice in America….
    ‘…Dershowitz denounced the hands-off approach and failing to hold those accountable in violent race riots in the summer of 2020, while Jan. 6 defendants are selectively prosecuted and treated more harshly than other more alleged violent criminals.
    ‘ “We have to have one law for all,” Dershowitz told host Tom Basile. “The rules have to be identical….
    ‘ “That’s not what the First Amendment is about. The First Amendment does not choose between causes, and it has — as [former] Chief Justice [William] Rehnquist said — there’s no such thing as a false opinion under the First Amendment. So the rules have to be identical; and unfortunately, they’re not identical. They’re selectively imposed and enforced.
    ‘The abuse of power will not be limited to the Justice Department’s selective enforcement of the law against conservatives either, Dershowitz lamented, as Biden is also going to abuse the executive authority, like using the Defense Production Act to speed up green energy initiates amid massive inflation, energy shortages, and rising gas prices….’

    One must hope the man has no idea of what he’s mouthing off about….

  63. More lies, more deceit, more stealth, more coverups—but we understand: these are Democrats…

    And so…”Biden”‘s MiniTru has already been “in play” for far longer than we’re supposed to know.
    (AKA, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain…”)
    https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/06/19/mo-la-strike-back-against-new-dhs-ministry-of-truth-in-federal-court/
    Key graf:
    “DHS’s so-called ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ [DGB] … was not a novel initiative by the federal government to launch a new censorship program to silence disfavored voices on social media. On the contrary… federal social-media censorship program is already in full swing at DHS and other federal agencies on a massive scale….”

    …which brings to mind this classic video of Maxine Waters going gaga about Obama’s ingenious database of EVERYONE!!
    https://grabien.com/story.php?id=852

  64. Professor Margot Cleveland notices something rather curious about the Jan. 6 show trials.
    “Jan. 6 Committee Ignores Clear Evidence Of Mass Illegal Voting, Systematically Broken Election Laws;
    “The Jan. 6 Committee completely sidestepped the verifiable evidence of systemic violations of election law, illegal voting, and more.”—
    https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/17/jan-6-committee-ignores-clear-evidence-of-mass-illegal-voting-systematically-broken-election-laws/

    It’s all true of course, but Prof. Cleveland seems to believe that the goal of the Democrats is JUSTICE (well, make that “blind, impartial, non-partisan justice”…as opposed to the partisan, authoritarian variety).

    Poor Prof. Cleveland. Such purity, such simple-mindedness.
    Such naivete.
    Still, she’s a fighter and good for her.
    But she must know by now that in our times, if a little boy should happen to shout that the unrobed king is bare-nekkid then said little boy will be first flayed and then drawn and quartered (all this following the wall-to-wall blackout of the event, um, er, non-event).

    True, the Jan. 6 committee members are ALL wandering around bereft. Bereft of clothing, of sense, of decency.
    Bereft of Truth—worse, bereft of any desire to uncover it.

    And in spite of everything, Prof. Cleveland deserves a lot of credit.
    All the credit in the world, in fact, for not shirking the battle.

  65. Looks like the transportation crisis may soon be solved….
    “Buttigieg says feds have power to force airlines to hire more workers amid travel delays”—
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/buttigieg-power-force-airlines-workers-travel-delays
    Key grafs:
    “The federal government could take action against U.S. airlines on behalf of customers, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Saturday.
    “Many Americans have endured delays, cancelations, and other travel complications during the coronavirus pandemic, and in recent months, after many pandemic-related travel restrictions were lifted.
    “Following Buttigieg’s own flight being canceled, forcing him to drive from Washington to New York, he said his department has authority to enforce action against airlines that do not sufficiently maintain consumer-protection standards, potentially requiring them to hire more staff….”

    Yadda, yadda, yadda
    (Though if one were to believe Sec. Pete, one would have to believe that the guvmint already solved the baby formula crisis (or at least is working on it. And so, yadda, yadda, yadda….)

    File under: “Instant Karma”?

  66. These days, whenever a politician says something that makes sense, it’s almost…uncanny, shocking…
    “Virginia’s Winsome Sears rips the left for ‘indoctrination’ in schools following youth abortion protests”—
    https://www.foxnews.com/media/winsome-sears-rips-left-indoctrination-schools-following-youth-abortion-protests
    Key phrase:
    “…They’re talking about our children, and we’re not having it. You can’t take our children. Our children belong to us. We are their first teachers….”

    God bless her.

  67. >Our debt to GDP ratio is right up there with the PIGS.
    [Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain (economics)]
    What a lovely acronym!

    Thinking about how the lunatics have corrupted the language. First, “gay” was hijacked, while “homosexual” has been deprecated. Then LGB, but lesbians and bisexuals are also “gay”.

    BIPOC? How about “nonwhite”?

    TERF? Oh, come on.

  68. “Biden” seethes as the nation is hit by another shortage, this time tampons.
    A source who whispered off the record reports a furious “president” shouting, “Shortage? What shortage?? What problem? There is NO problem!
    All that those wimps have to do is identify as men!
    Presto. Problem disappears.
    There’s only a “PROBLEM” because they don’t want to find a SOLUTION!!
    And then those A**H***S turn around and BLAME ME. And the LOUSY MEDIA piles on. ME.
    What kind of media does this country have, ANYWAY??
    Wimps! A**H***S!
    They don’t deserve me.
    https://spectatorworld.com/topic/joe-biden-tampon-shortage-supply-chain/

  69. whos really running the country, biden, aka shambling or bernie sanders, who I dubbed the commissar one was an obvious soviet tool, the other less so, jamie raskin is the offspring of a soviet frontman, shortages of everything seem to be the point of the exercise,

  70. Here is a recent and interesting discussion featuring two very intelligent scientists and “public intellectuals”—Harvard Ph.D Eric E. Weinstein, among other things a mathematical physicist, and Harvard Astronomer Avi Loeb, head of the new Galileo Project, about the issue of UFOs and researching them, how scientific research should be conducted, how Academia works, and reacts to this subject.

    See v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdwuhU_zu8Y

  71. ..Wherein the author, Daniel J. Mahoney, takes apart the “argument” of Nikole Hannah-Jones piece by piece by piece…

    …Not that she’ll mind. She’ll just castigate Mahoney as an out and out racist…as is her wont.
    In fact, she will probably declare herself proud to be taken apart piece by piece by piece by such a terrible person….
    In fact, it is THE ONLY argument she has….
    ‘The 1619 Lesson;
    ‘If the young are taught the terrible falsehood that “racism is and always was the dominant ideology,” then the American experiment will hang by the thinnest thread, and we will have no Lincolns to save it.’—
    https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-1619-lesson/
    H/T Powerline blog.

    Opening graf (RTWT—or at least the parts about Frederick Douglass):
    ‘A self-respecting people must be a self-critical people, open to introspection and ready to repent of real sin. But self-criticism is not the same as self-loathing. Reckless and willful distortion of the historical record betokens not integrity, but ingratitude toward those who have left the American people a noble civic and moral inheritance. The “1619 Project” represents everything to be avoided in this regard. It is an effort to identify the American story unilaterally with irredeemable racism, systematic oppression, unprecedented violence, and Hitlerian malignity….’ [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]

  72. @ Barry > “Professor Margot Cleveland notices something rather curious about the Jan. 6 show trials.”

    An excellent post, continuing her excellent work on reporting the election problems (doing the investigative journalism others won’t do…).

    Odd as it might seem, our old PowerLine friend, Paul Mirengoff, also believes that the J6 Committee, while (in his opinion) rightfully lambasting President Trump, falls woefully short in the good old due-process department, which offends him as an honest (if NeverTrumper) lawyer.

    https://ringsideatthereckoning.substack.com/p/the-jan-6-committee-isnt-acting-in
    “The Jan. 6 committee isn’t acting in good faith.”

    His major complaint, though, is that “Good faith hearings would make its strong case more credible.”
    Which is nuts.
    However, he cites many of the same points that conservatives have made about the biased procedures the left is touting as an “investigation” rather than the infomercial that it is.

    I’m glad so many Americans are interested in learning more about the January 6 rioting and events related to it. I’m glad they are learning about Donald Trump’s shameful role in these events. The committee does the country a service by enabling this to happen.

    But is the committee providing that service in good faith? I don’t think so.

    For example, I have now watched nearly four hours of hearings devoted to hammering home the underlying theme that Trump brought a mob to Washington, assembled the mob, and “lit the flame” that produced the riot. I think there’s plenty of truth to this charge.

    However, I’ve yet to hear it noted that, on the day of the riot, Trump encouraged his supporters “to march over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” (Emphasis added)

    In the context of everything else Trump did, does this statement absolve Trump of all moral responsibility for the rioting? Not in my opinion. Does it bear on the extent of his responsibility, moral and legal? Yes, I think it does.

    Americans can answer these questions for themselves, but should not have to do so without this piece of information.

    Accordingly, a good faith investigation into Trump’s conduct would present all evidence of what Trump told his followers on January 6 — that which may have persuaded them to riot and that which may have dissuaded them. As far as I can tell, this hasn’t happened, at least not yet.

    Today’s hearing provides another, albeit less egregious, example of the committee’s bad faith selectivity. It was devoted to showing that (1) Trump’s claims that the election was stolen — the predicate for assembling and firing up the January 6 protesters — were baseless and (2) Trump was repeatedly informed of this by his campaign staff and other counselors he had trusted in the past.

    The committee put on a strong case through deposition testimony from witnesses like Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien and his attorney general Bill Barr. They demonstrated to my satisfaction that in conversations with the president, they demolished certain claims of election-determinative fraud. Yet Trump continued to push these claims.

    Particularly telling was evidence that Trump peddled claims of (1) ballot dumping in Detroit and (2) manipulation of voting machines the day after Barr had explained to Trump why there was nothing to these claims. In my view, Trump either knew or should have known at least that these particular claims were baseless. It’s outrageous that Trump, without having questioned what Barr told him, pushed them nonetheless.

    The committee considered briefly what has become the leading presentation supporting Trump’s claim of massive election fraud — Dinesh D’Souza’s film “2,000 Mules.” It used testimony from Bill Barr to attack that film.

    This was fine as far as it went. But a good faith investigation would have included, or at least permitted, testimony from a witness, perhaps D’Souza, supporting claims of election fraud.

    Did the committee attempt to line up such testimony? I doubt it.

    The apparent unwillingness of the committee to present any evidence that casts Trump and his election fraud claims in a favorable light is the foreseeable result of its unwillingness to include Republicans members of the leadership’s choosing. I assume this was the intended result.

    Had Jim Jordan, for example, been allowed to serve on the committee, we surely would have heard about Trump telling the January 6 protesters to be peaceful. Would we have heard a defense of “2,000 Mules” or other aspects of Trump’s election fraud claims? I don’t know. But if such a defense has even superficial plausibility, I assume we would have heard it. As it is, we have only Barr’s take.

    Including minority members like Jim Jordan would have made life more difficult for the Democrat members and Liz Cheney. It likely would have entailed plenty of smoke blowing.

    Yet, I think the committee shot itself in the foot by not including them. Their exclusion and the resulting exclusion of evidence that cuts against the committee’s narrative cost the committee credibility, making it too easy to dismiss the hearings as hyper-partisan. This undercuts the committee’s goal of persuading the undecided and influencing the views of those who don’t see Trump as culpable but have kept an open mind.

    Imagine a conversation in which a convert to the view that Trump sparked a violent attack on “our democracy” hears from a friend that Trump urged the January 6 protesters to be peaceful. The new adherent might feel hoodwinked by the committee, and justifiably so.

    In any case, it’s simply unfair for a congressional investigation to squelch one side of the story. Every hearing of this type I’ve ever watched, from Watergate to Benghazi, allowed both sides to participate.

    There’s no good excuse for making the January 6 hearings an exception.

    Of course, the Democrats think that forestalling another run by Trump in 2024 IS the good excuse.

  73. Okay, this is just funny. The confluence of conflicting trends on the Left produces karmic komedy.

    https://jonathanturley.org/2022/06/19/he-who-must-not-be-heard-youtube-censors-jan-6th-committee-for-including-video-clip-of-president-donald-trump/

    We have previously discussed the increasing censorship at YouTube where conservative and dissenting viewpoints are now increasingly blocked, including U.S. senators and physicians with opposing views of Covid. It has also banned videotapes of former President Don Trump. Other social media companies have banned others from posting the voice of Trump. The problem with censorship is that it becomes an insatiable appetite. As you censor opposing views, it demands more and more censorship. It becomes increasingly ridiculous as was the case this week. According to a New York Post report when YouTube censored the Democratic-controlled Select Committee for a video that included a clip of Trump. It was being posted to implicate Trump in the January 6th riot but YouTube has continued to blindly follow its “he-who-must-not-be-heard” policy.

    The Google-owned platform also insisted that the excerpt included videotaped testimony from former Attorney General William Barr, which violated its terms of service.

    In the latest absurd removal, the company explained:

    Our election integrity policy prohibits content advancing false claims that widespread fraud, errors or glitches changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, if it does not provide sufficient context.

    We enforce our policies equally for everyone, and have removed the video uploaded by the Jan. 6 committee channel.

    However, Barr’s testimony was [has] never been shown to be false. While people can disagree, YouTube is barring people from being able to watch the testimony and reach their own conclusions. It is simply enforcing the view of one side in this public controversy.

    Accordingly, even critics of Trump are barred from showing his words. It is the ludicrous license of those who claim the right to control what people can say or see on such sites. There is no stopping once you put yourself on this slippery slope of censorship.

  74. AF,
    I too saw that article by Mirengoff—I had wondered what happened to him and assumed that the friction with his Powerline colleagues just grew to be unsustainable, but never saw any official “banns of divorce”, though maybe I missed that—and was more than a bit miffed by the attempts at even handedness.

    IOW, the WHOLE POINT of the Jan. 6 “Commission” is to tar and feather Trump and his supporters. So what is Mirengoff actually talking about.

    When I got to the “simply unfair” part of the “analysis”, I realized that this man is incorrigible.
    (“..In any case, it’s simply unfair for a congressional investigation to squelch one side of the story….”)

    How did Dershowitz put this “aspect” of the Commission? (For him it’s far more than “simply unfair”):
    ‘…Constitutional law expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Friday that the Jan. 6 committee’s public hearing on Thursday night was ”not a fair proceeding” in that it was ”one-sided” and ”unethical.”
    ”’Take, for example, President Trump’s speech on Jan. 6,” Dershowitz said…. ”He said at the end of the speech he wanted people to show their voices patriotically and peacefully.
    ”’They doctored the tape,” he continued. ”They edited those words out. If a prosecutor ever did that, they’d be disbarred. You can’t present part of the tape and deliberately omit the rest of the tape in order to mislead the audience, especially when the other side has no opportunity to cross-examine, no opportunity to present its own evidence.”…’

  75. And speaking of Dershowitz, here he is on that slimeball “Constitutional scholar” (and Avenatti-“Champion”—sheesh) Laurence Tribe:
    “Dershowitz Slams Harvard’s Tribe for Avenatti, Trump Claims”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/michael-avenatti-laurence-tribe-harvard-left/2022/06/19/id/1075119/

    Can there be any doubt that Tribe’s off-the-wall “commentary” is further proof that Trump does have the power to make people insane?
    (OTOH, his mental competence may have been questionable to begin with…)

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