When the NYT commits an act of journalism

Townhall: "NYTimes Readers Aren't Happy With the Peltola Piece" - "The New York Times has gone so long without committing an act of journalism against someone with a D next to their name that they were forced to publish an explainer article detailing the thought process behind their exposé on Mary Peltola’s fake Dan Sullivan scheme." 

"I think it's funny"

The brave defenders of democracy think the Alaskan confusion is a big joke.  Jonathan Turley: "“That’s Part of the Process”: Democratic Leaders Embrace Voter Confusion Tactics as Harmless or Humorous."

Western Massachusetts update

People in Northampton are fighting over a plan to redesign Main Street: "Main Street is ‘a place where people come together.’ In Northampton, it’s tearing the town apart."

This article is unintentionally funny for two reasons.  First, there are multiple references to Trump.  What does Trump have to do with a town project to redesign downtown?  Couldn't tell ya!  Something about Northampton citizens being mean to each other, therefore Trump.  And that's the second funny thing: all these hippy-dippy tolerance-bumper-sticker types are at each other's throats over parking spaces.

Let me tell you a story about Northampton.  Years ago, the wife and I went to Northampton nearly every other weekend.  There was an art house theater that showed foreign films and great restaurants all over the place.  In the center of town was a quirky T-shirt and novelty shop called "Faces" (never mentioned in the Boston Globe article) that drew in large crowds.  The Iron Horse Music Group (venues Iron Horse, Pearl Street, Calvin Theater) regularly bought in major acts.  After dinner, we would treat ourselves at a great Italian bakery called La Fiorentina right down the street from the Northampton Brewery or maybe have a cappuccino at the Haymarket Cafe.  

All of that is gone.

The theater is gone.  A lot of major restaurants like Spoleto closed down or moved.  The Northampton Brewery once served full dinners and now they're a burger and nachos joint.  La Fiorentina Bakery shut down.  Haymarket Cafe is gone.  Faces shut down.  Thorne's Marketplace across the street is a shadow of its former glory.  The Iron Horse Music Group shut down and the town sued the owner to either sell his venues or lose his liquor license.  He sold the Iron Horse but all the other venues are vacant and unused.

Northampton isn't dying because of bad traffic patterns.  It's dying because the Left does what the Left does: raise taxes on "greedy" businesses, allow vagrants to overrun the sidewalks, and inject politics into every experience.  A downtown redesign isn't going to bring back the consumers so they can eat mozzarella sticks and sidestep beggars.  Damn you, Trump!

It's because people hate the mainstream media

Townhall: "The Washington Post Just Gave Republicans Another Reason to Question the Midterm Polls."

It's because Republicans simply do not participate in polls.  Know why?  Because Republicans hate the mainstream media, which is correctly perceived to be totally in the tank for Democrats.  I've been banging this drum of media bias and credibility for so long but nothing ever changes.  When Trump won in 2016, it led to a series of "Gorillas in the Mist" articles where urban journalists traveled to flyover country but that quickly faded.  Now you have news rooms actively rebelling in investigating anything that might reflect poorly on their favored candidates. 

Not to my knowledge

NY Post: "Ilhan Omar was so confused by marriage to ‘brother’ she crossed out her own name twice on official application."

Who among us doesn't remember their own name once in a while?

Appointed by Trump

This was a swing and a miss by the President: "'Your White Mediocrity': Federal Judge Ordered to Seek Psychiatric Assessment After Racist Rants." 

Extra - Twitchy: "A Judge Is Facing Discipline for Her Conduct at a Hearing, and the Transcript Is WILD."  What a kook.

Headline of the day

Fox News: "'Biscuit' the dog is latest dead felon to get their voting rights back from Spanberger, confused owner says."  

That's right: not only is this "voter" a dog but it's also dead.  Which, come to think of it, dead voters are a large constituent for the Democrats. 

They want to fail

Great essay by Lionel Shriver in the New Criterion: "What do progressives really want?"

The point is this: these people are not serious. They’re playacting. They gesture toward a future they have no desire to inhabit. The fringes of this movement openly wish to tear down the very civilization on which they personally rely and on which their own lives are entirely built. Yes, this brings us to the democratic socialists, some of whose advocates are wealthy and aglitter with designer froufrou. Let’s pretend to consider their platform in earnest for a moment. No jails, no police. Housing as a human right. National defense reduced to veritably zero. State usurpation of major industries. Citizenship for all illegal immigrants, presumably including the many visitors who’ve yet to arrive. Cozying up to North Korea.

It goes without saying that the socialists want everything free: free housing, free healthcare, free childcare, free pre-K; at the least, below-cost groceries. All this freeness will be paid for by “the rich.” Alas, there seems to be no plan for what happens when the money spigot runs dry because you’ve just confiscated all the assets of the people who made your society tick over. Repeated back-of-the-envelope demonstrations that “the rich” don’t have the wherewithal to pay for everything even if you suck up their last sou never faze these people. No, if only the “oligarchs” stopped picking everyone’s pockets, we’d all live on easy street. “Medicare for all” is also appealingly catchy. Yet Medicare reimbursement rates for hospitals average 10 percent below the break-even point; without overpayment by private insurers, the entire U.S. health system would collapse. Progressives aren’t big on math. Conservatives care about what works; leftists care about what should work.

Shriver theorizes that the Left wants failure because it extends their endless struggle and perpetuates their bottomless need to feel good about themselves:

For armchair revolutionaries, being eternally thwarted is a blessing, because they get to keep their resentment, their fury, their purity unsullied by contact with reality, and their sense of purpose that’s never ruined by getting what they claim to want.

Finally, as Shriver notes, Americans are pouring into Red states from the Blue states, showing what happens when the progressives actually take power...and fail. 

Everybody knew

Hot Air: "Ilhan Omar's 'Conspiracy Theory' Just Became a New York Times Investigation of Sham Marriage."

It sure was nice of the New York Times to release this story less than a week from election day.  This way the Times can claim they published a damaging report of a Democrat to show lack of bias while at the same time making sure there are absolutely no repercussions that might threaten a favored Congressional seat. 

It was also sure nice of the Obama Justice Department to throw up their hands and give up on the case.  "Nobody is above the law" - remember that old chestnut? 

I'm going to clown college!

Legal Insurrection: "Massachusetts Lesbian Bar in Viral Story About Masking is Closing Permanently."

If you know, you know.

Sounds about right

Breitbart: "Study: Apple News pushed 84 negative headlines about GOP priorities before midterms, zero positive."

Everything you wanted to know about Somali naming conventions

Consider the source

Twitchy: "60 Minutes' Source on Man Deported to Ghana Is Self-Proclaimed 'Prison and Border Abolitionist'."

I'm old enough to remember the Andy Rooney era of "60 Minutes" when the show was must-watch TV and the stories were rigorously sourced and presented.  Now CBS News has fallen into the same credibility death spiral plaguing all of mainstream media. 

Wonder how Chuck Schumer feels about it

We'll never know!  Townhall: "Is This the Most Antisemitic Ad to Ever Air for a Senate Race?"

Wild, man, just batsh*t crazy. 

Extra - Twitchy: "Van Jones and Scott Jennings Agree Pro-Abdul El-Sayed High Grocery Prices Ad Is Antisemitic." El-Sayed won't denounce the ad for the same reason he glosses over his relationship with Hasan Piker as "that twitch streamer from California."  Because he believes it and wants to hide that fact from the voting public.

You can vote for the communists

But you have to shoot your way out: "Leftwing Brazilian Strongman Lula Puts His Personal Lawyer on the Supreme Court, Who Then Orders the Polls to Remain Open in Lula Strongholds." 

"You can see everything"

NY Times: "That Trick Nathan Fielder Does."

I saw the movie "You can see everything," the Nathan Fielder documentary about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.  A film crew follows Holmes and her partner in the month or so before she needs to report to a Texas Federal prison to serve her sentence for defrauding investors. 

In the end, the movie tries to get to the bottom of the question of whether Holmes is "the most manipulative person in history" (as Fielder wonders) or simply somebody who felt she was doing something good and got caught up in her own fantasy.  A telling scene is when Fielder shows Holmes the Abbott & Costello bit "Who's on First" as an example of communication breakdown.  Holmes can't figure it out and can't explain why it's funny.  This circles back to a previous scene where Holmes asserts her blood analysis machine "worked" but that certain "chemistries" needed to be developed.

This is like saying my car can drive to Boston...if it had an engine.  And, watching the scene, Holmes doesn't seem to make that distinction.  She seems oblivious to the hard fact that, if the machine worked, she wouldn't be going to prison.

Halfway through the movie, I was convinced Holmes and her partner "Billy" were sociopaths.  By the end, I was convinced that Holmes is somewhere on the autistic scale and believes her own illusions. 

That, or I was manipulated also.

This was inevitable

Washington Examiner: "Out of arguments, el Sayed resorts to crying ‘Islamophobia’" - "Abdul el Sayed is starting to crumble under the public pressure of his Senate campaign in Michigan, so he has sprinted to the Democratic Party’s old, reliable argument: Everyone criticizing him must be a bigot." 

As far as I can tell, he's never disavowed his support for the Muslim Brotherhood.  

Unknown

National Review: "A Simple Question: What Year Was Ilhan Omar Born?" 

Cherry-picking with John Oliver

Hot Air: "John Oliver: 'One Study Found'."

I ranted about this very topic a while back in that John Oliver will present studies from invested parties and gloss over any contrary opinions, if presented at all.