Bill Cosby's conviction was overturned and he was released from prison

 

Bill Cosby in 2011. World Affairs Council of Philadelphia 

Bill Cosby's rape conviction was overturned on appeal today and he was released from prison. NBC News. Pennsylvania's Supreme Court overturned the conviction. At issue was a non-prosecution agreement which forced Cosby to testify that he had had sexual contact with Andrea Constand and said he consensually drugged her. Cosby waived his 5th amendment rights against self incrimination on the condition he wouldn't face criminal charges from his testimony. Much later after the original prosecutor had left, new prosecutors, used the testimony to convict Cosby of rape. The Court said that this violated Cosby's 5th amendment rights along with his 14th amendment rights. Cosby was convicted in 2018 after his first trial ended in a mistrial. 

My Comment:

Fairly shocking news today as I, and everyone else, assumed that Bill Cosby was going to die in prison. But now he is a free man and cannot be charged in this case again. It's possible that some of the other cases could lead to another conviction but I think the statute of limitations most likely has run out. 

I do think he had a very strong legal argument though. If you waive your 5th amendment rights against self incrimination with a prosecutor under the understanding you won't be charged for your testimony then it is prosecutorial misconduct to charge you based on that testimony. And it also seems clear that Cosby's civil court testimony was what lead to his conviction. The case was otherwise not strong with it being a he said she said case. 

I think that this is a good thing. Despite Cosby most likely being guilty of the crimes he was charged with, even he has civil rights and cannot be convicted on evidence gathered in violation of his civil rights. Indeed, this case makes me feel slightly better about the criminal justice system. Even though there was immense political pressure to keep Cosby in prison, the court made the right decision. 

And it's not like Cosby got away without being punished. He still spent three years in prison, which was the lower end of his sentence anyways. His conviction was overturned but he still spent three years near the end of his life in prison. Plus his professional career is totally over and his legacy is in ruins. He won't ever be considered anything but a creepy rapist. 

I know a lot of people are angry about this and they are saying that it may discredit the entire Me Too movement. That seems stupid for a couple of reasons. First of all the Me Too movement is dead now. It started losing influence once high profile Democrats started to get caught up into it, with Al Franken being the highest profile person being taken down. But the movement died when Tara Reade accused Joe Biden of sexual assault. By that point the movement died. 

Plus this is an edge case regardless. Bill Cosby got out not because people didn't believe him or because the system was biased in his favor. Instead he got out because the prosecution screwed up and screwed up badly. The uniqueness of this case probably means that we shouldn't expect it to have much of an impact. 

As for Cosby, I don't see him doing much in the little bit of time he has left. He's too old to do much anyways at 83 and I am guessing he will probably try to keep a low profile. I don't think we will see anything much out of him other than a possible book or something similar. And even that seems pretty unlikely. 

I e-mailed my senator about Joe Biden's nominee for the ATF, David Chipman. Here is her response.

 As you may know I wrote a post about Biden's nominee for the head of the ATF, David Chipman, last month. I was, and remain, totally opposed to his nomination for obvious reasons, the most relevant being he supports a ban on AR-15 rifles, a move that would make me a felon. In the post I mentioned that I had contacted both my senators, Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin. I no longer have the original message I sent to both senators but it was identical in content. 

Yesterday I finally received a response from one of them, Senator Baldwin, which I will post below. I am no fan of Baldwin's politics (and I generally support Senator Johnson) but regardless of the politics I have emailed both senators several times now and Baldwin is MUCH better at sending me something back. I honestly don't think I have gotten anything back from Johnson. I'm no fan of Baldwin but I have to admit that she (or rather her staff) is so much better at responding than Johnson. Credit where credit is due. 

Generally speaking I like to write up a short post when I get a response to my e-mails to government officals. Some of my real life friends like to see what was sent back to me and others can learn about what it looks like when the government likes to respond to you. In the unlikely event that Senator Johnson responds as well I will post his response in a future post. 

Now for the letter itself. It's rather evasive on what she wants to do with David Chipman. She said that she takes her duty seriously and then pointed out she was not on the Senate Judiciary Committee and that Chipman had not made it out of the committee yet. She also said that she would keep my comments in mind if/when Chipman does make it out of committee. 

In short, she gave no information of whether or not she will vote for Chipman or not. I guess this makes sense since she both has the duty to respond to me but also probably realizes that I completely disagree with her on this issue. Rather than alienate me as a potential voter (it's a form letter yes, but I am guessing it gets sent to Democrats, Republicans AND independents), she kept it nice and vague. Politically this makes sense though it is such a politician's answer. 

So what was the point of me sending her an e-mail? I still think that it's important to speak out when you see something the government is doing that you don't like. Even a reliable Democrat like Baldwin could have her mind changed if she gets buried in e-mails and I like to do my part. Plus it makes me feel better about things to write it out. I'm still furious that Chipman even has a chance of being confirmed, let alone that he was nominated, but it does help to know that at least one of my senators knows I am not a fan of his. 

Joe Biden tells Israel that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.

 

Joe Biden and Israeli President Reuven Rivlen. NBC News/AFP.

Joe Biden has told Israel that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. NBC News. Biden has been trying to revive the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran, but Israel has opposed that deal from the start. Despite new leadership, Israel still opposed the nuclear deal. Iran's own election of hardliner Ehbrahim Raisi has cast any new deal in serious doubt. Relations with Israel have suffered recently due to progressive objections to the recent skirmish between Israel and Hamas. 

My Comment:

Just a quick post about Biden again. This seems like another incident of him putting his foot in his mouth. I doubt his handlers wanted him to be so forceful when they are trying to negotiate with Iran and its government. Israel probably liked the comment but I doubt they think that Biden will follow through. 

I generally think that Israel realizes that Biden is a lame duck president with very little actual power. I don't think that they think that Biden's promise here means a thing. Indeed, they, and I think they are right, believe that Biden is saying one thing but doing another. 

Indeed, the Israelis never thought that the Iran deal was anything but a joke. It never had any teeth to make sure that the Iranians could not build a bomb. They knew that it wouldn't work so they did everything they could to undermine it. 

The other concern here is that Biden is actually serious about this and that it could lead to war with Iran. The Iranians just elected a hardliner who might respond to this with terror attacks or escalating naval conflicts. With Biden not being predictable it's possible that he could start a major war with Iran. 

Of course nobody wants a major war. People are tired of the wars we already have and if Biden starts a war with Iran for dubious reasons it would be the end of his already dubious presidency. There is zero support in America for another war with Iran. 

As for Israel, I think they should solve their own problems here. They have the capabilities to destroy Iran's nuclear programs and they have already done a lot to reduce their progress with their special forces and espionage groups. Since they are the ones that are being directly threatened (along with the gulf states) they are the ones that should deal with it. 

Russia intercepts Dutch frigate in the Black Sea.

 

The HNLMS Evertsen. Reuters.

Russia sent jets armed with anti-ship missiles to intercept a Dutch frigate in the Black Sea. Reuters. The armed fighters and bombers launched mock attacks on the frigate and jammed their communication systems over a period of five hours. The Dutch claim they were in international waters while Russia says their planes acted within the law. The frigate was part of a joint patrol with the UK's Royal Navy that included one of their carriers. The Netherlands will raise the incident with Russian diplomats. 

My Comment:

This incident occurred around the same time that the HMS Defender was getting harassed near Crimea. It seems pretty clear that the Russians were not happy with the actions of this Carrier Strike Group that was launched near their territorial waters. They seem pretty confident in harassing these ships. 

This is pretty obviously a case of saber rattling from both sides. Yes, the HNLMS Eversten did have a right to be in the Black Sea but they also knew that sending the ship there would be seen as an aggression. And the over-the-top reaction from the Russians is also all about sending messages. 

What are those messages? For the UK/Dutch its a twofold one. First that the seas are free and they can operate anywhere they want if they choose to do so. Second, they do not recognize Russia's defacto control of the Crimean Peninsula. For the Russians they are saying that if you interfere with their business you can be destroyed. Don't violate Russian territorial claims because they will respond if you do. 

I don't really think either side is in the right here. Provoking the Russians over Crimea is a joke as it's never reverting back to the control of Ukraine. But I also think that the Russians reaction was a bit extreme. Simply shadowing the fleet and giving them warnings if they approach your territory is the standard action, not jamming electronics and launching mock attacks. 

That being said, I think both sides are using this situation for training and intelligence gathering. The Dutch and British now know how Russia will respond if their borders are threatened and I am sure they got a ton of data on Russian jets and electronic weapons. Russia too got a little training for their pilots against live targets and discovered what the capabilities of these ships are. 

Do I think there is much of a chance of a major international incidents due to these kinds of incidents? It's very possible, accidents have happened before and sometimes one side just gets pushed to far (like the incident in Turkey where they shot down a Russian jet). But I do think the chances of that are very low and even if something dumb does happen it won't likely turn into a major war. 

India has deployed 50,000 additional troops to the border with China.

 

Disputed areas between China, India and Pakistan.

India has shifted 50,000 additional troops to the border with China. Financial Post/Bloomberg. Though China and India have fought battles before, most notably in 1962, India's major concern has been Pakistan. With this new troop deployment, which includes ground forces as well as fighter squadrons, India now has 200,000 troops on the border with China. The posture is different as well as the forces now present would allow for offensive operations as well as defensive. China too has built up their forces, though the numbers are not public. They have built air bases and bunkers along with heavy weapons like tanks and artillery. 

My Comment:

Just a quick notice that there are somewhat disturbing developments on the China/India border. It's a massive deployment of troops for the Indians and it looks like the Chinese have been doing the same thing. This is both bad news and good news.  

The good news is that a war between Pakistan and India seems a lot less likely. They have come close to all out war before but that seems like a distant concern now. I think both Pakistan and India have bigger concerns. 

For India that's obviously China but I think Pakistan has their own problems as well. They have their own internal terror groups to worry about but I think it is the situation in Afghanistan that is making them concerned. With the government collapsing Pakistan has to worry about the Taliban, a refugee crisis and groups like ISIS or al-Qaeda taking advantage of the situation. 

But it's obviously a major concern about China. Chin has been extremely aggressive in foreign policy lately. Most of that has been with Taiwan for obvious reasons, but I think that the China/India border could be an even greater tinder box. After all both China and India have nuclear weapons and a major war between them could cause a nuclear conflict. 

Is a war likely though? It's not, but it is possible. With both sides trying to enforce their claims, sometimes with violence, it's possible that things could spiral out of control. With hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides the chances of a minor skirmish spiraling out into a major war are higher. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail. 

"Good Samaritan" who shot and killed a gunman that had just murdered a cop was himself shot and killed by responding officers.

 

A man with a Blue Lives Matter flag stands to honor Officer Gordan Beesly. NBC News.

A man who shot and killed a gunman that had just murdered a police officer was himself shot and killed by responding officers. NBC News. The gunman, Ronald Troyke snuck up on Officer Gordan Beesly with a shotgun and murdered him. He returned to his car and picked up an AR-15 but was then shot and killed by John Hurley, who used a handgun to stop the man. Hurley himself was then shot and killed by the police as he had picked up Troyke's AR. Troyke left a suicide note saying he would kill as many Arvada officers as he could and was motivated by hatred of the police. An investigation is ongoing to see if the police shooting was justified legally. 

My Comment:

This story hit the news a couple of days ago but I did not see it until now. Given the tragic nature of the case and the obvious lessons here for both police and CCW holders I think it is important to cover the case. It's the kind of nightmare scenario that can keep you up at night. 

First of all it seems very clear that Mr. Hurley was a hero for his actions that day. This event could have lead to a lot more deaths if it wasn't for him. I don't think the shooter was expecting that an armed citizen was going to put him down and if it had been police that had responded to the shooter I am guessing there would have been a shootout. 

The shooters motives are pretty clear, though details are scarce. He hated police and wanted to kill as many of them as possible. I don't know if that was because of some incident he had with them in the past or because of the extreme anti-cop rhetoric we are seeing in the media today but either way he wanted to kill cops. 

Ironically enough, his actions might have indirectly led to more people distrusting police as there will be people who will argue their actions were completely out of line. Nobody has a problem shooting an active shooter but to mistake the guy that just saved your life for the killer? That's not a good look and some people won't be able to forgive that. 

On the other hand, I do think it's possible to argue that the shooting was justified. After all police were responding to an officer down call and when they got there they saw a guy with an AR-15 standing near a guy that he shot. It makes sense that they would shoot first and ask questions later. 

But was the shooting legally justified? I don't know at this point. Without more evidence like a video of the shooting or eyewitness testimony I am not sure. My gut says that it probably wasn't legally justified because I can't imagine John Hurley was actively pointing the gun at someone. But without a clearer picture of what happened I can't really decide either way. And it's possible that the entire incident happened so fast that no actual thoughts happened at all. These shootings happen in seconds and it's possible the officer just didn't have enough time to think things through. 

Still, I can't imagine why John Hurley picked up that AR-15. Was he trying to empty the gun and make it safe? Was he just checking out the weapon? Was he trying to get it away from the shooter? I don't know, but it seems like a very big mistake on his part. I don't think this would have happened if he hadn't picked up the rifle. 

What would I have done? I sure as hell wouldn't have picked up the rifle. If the shooter was still a threat I would still be shooting until he isn't. At most I would have kicked the rifle away or dragged it, but I would not have picked it up or tried to unload it. And as soon as the threat was neutralized I would be either holstering or dropping my weapon just to avoid this kind of situation. And when the cops got there I would have my hands up in the air as soon as they arrived baring it still being an active situation. 

Regardless, this is a nightmare scenario for everyone involved, except for the shooter who got exactly what he wanted. I can see both sides of the argument and no matter what happened here it was a major tragedy. I can't imagine what everyone involved is going through, including Mr. Hurley's family and the officer that shot him. 

Finally, I do have to say that despite the tragic nature of this shooting, it does go to show the importance of CCW. This will probably not go down as a mass shooting as it was three deaths from three different shooters, but it will go down as a mass shooting stopped by a gunman. And I would also like to point out that the guy with the AR-15 lost out to the guy with a handgun. It's a good example of how the anti-gun crowd is wrong about the narratives they push. 

Government was unable to explain 143 cases out of 144 in new UFO report.

 

One of the previously released videos. DoD via To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science.

A highly anticipated report on UFO's shows that the government was unable to explain 143 cases out of 144. NBC News. The reports were from 2004 to 2021 but in all cases but one the government was unable to explain the incidents. The one incident they could explain was due to a large deflating balloon. Several incidents included the phenomenon showing unusual flight capabilities. The government was unable to rule out any explanations for the UFO's, including equipment failures, spoofing, advanced foreign technology and even advanced American technology. Alien life was not mentioned in the report as a possible explanation, but was also not ruled out. 

The report can be found here. 

My Comment:

As expected the report was fairly disappointing. Other than the actual numbers involved, we didn't really learn too much that was new here. We already knew that these UFO's (or UAP if you want to match what the government is saying) were displaying advanced behavior and that many of these sightings were corroborated by various sensors and other technology. And we didn't get any new videos, pictures or even descriptions of these incidents, which is the biggest disappointment of all. 

What is fairly shocking is that so few of these reports got explanations. Ironically enough it sounds like it was a weather balloon, which of course was the excuse (valid as it turns out) for the Roswell incident. You would have thought they would have been able to debunk or explain a few more but apparently they just did not have the data. 

I don't think we are any closer to figuring out what these things are. All of the possible explanations are on the table, from alien life, to advanced foreign technology to simple mistakes. Without more data or a crashed sample of these UFO's we might not ever find out. 

I do have to wonder about the increased transparency coming from the world's governments about this issue. In the past UFO's were treated as a conspiracy theory at best and as a joke at worst, but now the government is releasing reports and admitting that they don't know what is going on. And it's not the US, from what I understand China and the UK are admitting the same thing. 

The most obvious explanation is that they really don't know what is going on and just want to find out. I think that's the most likely explanation as well as these UFO's are probably a threat just because they are an unknown factor. Everyone wants to know if there is advanced technology out there and if there is than it could very well be a threat. 

Another possibility is that the US government is trying to coverup their own technology. This is very possible as they have done it before. The Roswell incident is a good example but there are many others. I remember when I was a kid I got an UFO book from the library and one of the "UFO's" was a pre-public picture of an F-117 nighthawk. It's very possible that these UFO's are the same thing and this is a very public disinformation campaign. 

The conspiracy boards I frequent (for fun, I don't actually believe in most conspiracies) have put forth the idea that the government is very slowly ramping up to alien disclosure. That's not impossible but I don't understand what the point of it would be. Why would the government be ok with revealing aliens given the sea change that would cause to human culture? Why would the aliens be ok with being revealed? Doesn't make much sense to me. 

Regardless, it is interesting to think about the issue and how prominent it is, even if this report is mostly a nothingburger. The government basically shrugged and said "we don't know" which I suppose is a perfectly valid answer but also a disappointing one. 

Russia says it is willing to attack ships that violate its waters after an incident where they fired warning shots at an UK Destroyer

 

The HMS Defender. Royal Navy photo.

Russia says it is willing to attack ships that violate its territorial waters after an incident where they fired warning shots at an UK Destroyer. Fox News. The statement happens after the HMS Defender entered Russian claimed waters near Crimea. Russia says it fired warning shots from a ship and dropped bombs in the path of the ship. However, the bombs were dropped very far away from the Defender which was not at risk. The UK had denied these reports. Russia considers the UK to have provoked them into action, while the UK refuses to recognize that Russia has control of Crimea  

My Comment:

Someone embarrassing for the United Kingdom. This was a deliberate provocation by them and it did not work out well for them. The UK had weapons fired in their vicinity and did not prove that they had the right to be in the area they were in. 

It's not clear if weapons were actually used though. With conflicting reports it comes down to who you trust more and which option makes more sense. I can't really think of a reason why the Russians would lie about this issue though as it kind of eliminates the point of using weapons here. The UK has every reason to lie as they don't want to appear like they were pushed away by the Russians. 

I've gone against the mainstream for a long time now when it comes to Crimea. Regardless of what you think about it it's pretty obvious that the Russians control the area and won't give it up anytime soon. It's de facto Russian territory and with that being the case I think they have a right to defend it. 

As for the United Kingdom, this was a pretty clear diplomatic insult to the Russians. They are telling them that they don't recognize their claims on Crimea even though there is nothing the United Kingdom could do to give the territory to Ukraine. Given the circumstances I don't really have a problem with what the Russians did here. 

Not that the Russians can complain too much. They regularly test the borders of other countries, including the United States. Their actions means they have no reason to try and take the high ground. If they weren't constantly sending bombers to test other countries defenses then they could complain.  

Do I take their claims that they would fire on ships directly seriously? Probably not. These provocations are annoying to them but I don't think they would want to risk a conflict over territory violations. Blowing up a UK Destroyer would be a major escalation and not one they want to do. 

Of course even if the Russians did fire on a UK ship I don't think it would lead to war. After all Turkey shot down a Russian jet and it didn't lead to a war. Blowing up a destroyer would be more serious but I think in the end cooler heads would prevail. 

But I don't think anything will happen. I don't think the UK will risk doing this again and I am hoping that things will eventually cool down. I don't think it was a wise move and I hope that they won't try something dumb like this again. 

Joe Biden argues the 2nd amendment is irrelevent because the government has "F-15's and nukes"

 

An F-15EX Eagle. Public domain photo.

Joe Biden made a major speech attacking gun rights saying among other things that "to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons". Fox News. The comments were made as crime is surging in the United States. Biden blamed the surge on guns and vowed to go after gun dealers instead of the criminals committing crimes. Biden also said he would be asking for more money to fund non-police solutions to crime. 

President Biden says there have always been ways to "rationally limit" owning weapons since the creation of the Second Amendment: "If you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons." https://t.co/AfTvxIBkOu pic.twitter.com/Dt6qgsKffU

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 23, 2021

My Comment:

Before I get into the meat and bones of this discussion, make sure you watch that clip from CBS's twitter account. The amount of decline seen in Joe Biden was shocking to me. The quotes I have seen from these speech universally edit out the stumbling and nonsense words that Biden was saying. Comparing it to the 2012 election cycle debate where he did a good job against Paul Ryan, or even the 2020 election cycle is shocking. 

Biden, or more actually his handlers, were of course lying through there teeth. Most of the claims he made were false, with the most ridiculous being that people couldn't by cannons back in revolutionary war times. Indeed, people back then owned entire warships and you can still buy cannons today if you have the money. It's a totally false argument. 

And, of course, going after gun dealers is the exact opposite of something that will help. Most criminals either steal their guns, buy them from the black market or use straw purchases to get their weapons. Acting against those things might possibly help the crime wave in some small way but creating more paperwork and hassle for legal gun dealers will not do a thing to help. I haven't seen any evidence that there are legal gun dealers selling guns to criminals. Indeed, most of the gun dealers I have been to were super serious about background checks.

The crime waves actual cause is of course the lack of policing going on. Police have been muzzled, handicapped and demonized to the point where they can no longer do their jobs. And the complete lack of consequences of last summer's riots have sent the message to criminals that it is open season on criminals. Fixing this would require a crackdown on crime which would likely break apart the Democrat's already fragile coalition. 

But the most dangerous comments were the ones where Biden essentially threatened to use F-15's and nukes against patriots resisting him. To be fair, dropping a nuke on my apartment would probably stop me from fighting back against the government. But it would also incinerate much of Northeast Wisconsin, spread radiation to much of the Midwest and infuriate even our closest allies. Dropping a JDAM on my apartment would be better but not by much, since you would also kill everyone else who lives here. 

And it's insane that Biden is making the argument because it obviously isn't true. Our air superiority didn't help us win in Vietnam, it didn't help us win in Iraq and it also didn't help us win in Afghanistan. Indeed, we are in the process pulling our troops out of Afghanistan with our tails between our legs because all our advanced technology was not able to defeat a bunch of poorly armed insurgents hiding out in the mountains. 

It's also incredibly hypocritical. Biden, the Democrats and the American Media have been going on for months how the January 6th countercoup was a threat to Democracy and that they almost overthrew the government. If that is the case than his argument falls apart because a small group of totally unarmed patriots was able to almost topple the government? I guess those F-15's and nukes weren't so helpful after all...

Activists are pushing back against critical race theory and transgender ideology in schools.

 

A school board meeting in Loundoun County. Fox News.

As you may be aware there has been a movement to challenge what school boards are teaching in the United States. The latest of these incidents took place in Loundoun County in Virginia. In that case the school board decided to shut down public comment on trans issues. The majority of parents were opposed to the teaching of critical race theory and transgender issues. 

Both of these issues have grassroots opposition and I think this is a good way for anyone opposed to the far left progressives that have taken over public education. I was going to say just Republicans, but that's not even true, there are a lot of radical feminists that are opposed to transgender issues as well. Though they make for strange allies, I did not want to say that everyone that is opposed to these issues are conservatives. 

In this case it was about transgender ideology. Though I believe that adult transgender people should be treated with dignity, I think a lot of people agree that exposing children to this is undesirable at best and child abuse at worst. It does not make any sense to have this in elementary schools at the very least. 

I am not surprised about transgender ideology having a major pushback against it. In general, the transgender community has made a lot of enemies, not just Christian conservatives. Like I mentioned many radical feminists are upset with them due to the fact that the male to female transgender community tends to take over woman only spaces. Indeed, lesbian dating apps are so full of MTF transgenders that actual lesbians can't find each other. 

It's also a bridge to far for many to push this ideology on children. A transgender elementary school child is a lot like a vegetarian cat. We all know who is making the actual choices. Even if they are transgender, it doesn't make sense to push things like hormones and surgery on small children since those things are irreversible and a lot of transgender children stop being transgender as they get older. 

The other major area of pushback is against critical race theory. CRT basically says that instead of judging people by their character we should judge them by their race. It also states that America is a hopelessly racist country and that in order to address this racism we have to tear down the entire system. 

This is radically different than the race relations of old. Instead of judging people by their personality and actions there is a hierarchy based on how "oppressed" someone is. It's basically original sin but your sin is what color your skin is. 

The reason for pushback against this is obvious. No reasonable white person wants to raise their kids to hate themselves. No reasonable black person wants all of their accomplishments and failures to be based on their race. And I am guessing people of other races are going to be angry about how they are second fiddle to everyone else. 

But regardless of the arguments against CRT and Transgender ideology, is this the right idea for people opposed to these things? I think it is. The left has been doing things like this for decades now and it has been successful. It's good to see other groups pushing back. Putting pressure on these people is always a good thing for people to understand that not everyone is on the same page as them 

Elite Afghan unit wiped out after reinforcements fail to arrive.

 

Major Sohrab Azimi was one of the commandos killed in the raid. Stars and Stripes. 

An elite Afghan unit was wiped out after reinforcements failed to arrive. Stars and Stripes. At least 21 commandos were killed after being pinned down by the Taliban and their artillery. A unit of 170 conventional troops refused to reinforce the commandos due to fears that the Taliban were aware of the mission. The troops were on a mission to take back a town from the Taliban, which has advanced since the cease fire deal fell apart. They had taken back the town and were awaiting reinforcement from the Army and police forces but the Taliban sent their own reinforcements. 

My Comment:

It's starting to look like the war in Afghanistan will end the same way that the war in Vietnam did. With a complete defeat of our allied forces. The same problems that plagued ARVN seem to be plaguing the Afghan military. Though we have spent billions training and arming them, they seem incapable of sustained combat without US support. 

This will go down as one of the major last stands of the Afghan war. A tiny unit wiped out and denied support from their government. One wonders how much damage they did to the Taliban. I hope that their deaths were good and that they gave as good as they got.

As for the reinforcing units there is little to say other than that this was cowardice. You don't leave people behind like this regardless of the circumstances. They should have done everything in their power to try and relive this unit and they did not do it. They didn't even try because of some rumor that the Taliban were waiting in ambush.

This will be devastating to the morale of these advanced commando units. They now know for sure that if they get into trouble nobody will have their back. They have no reason to put their lives on the line other than the fact that if they get captured by the Taliban they might be executed. My guess is a lot of these guys will try to get out in any way they can. 

I have thought for awhile that the Afghan government will fall once the American and NATO troops withdraw. But I am now wondering if they will even last that long. This latest incident shows that they are losing the war. The loses they have been taking have not been sustainable for a long time and they are losing territory fast. 

And they can't depend on America to support them anymore. I personally don't support spending any more time in a war we have spent 20 years in. There is no support in America, or NATO for that matter, for any more support for Afghanistan. Especially if it's clear that it's a lost cause, which it now appears to be. 

My fishing adventures.

 

A while back I wrote about all the fish I had ever caught and the fact that I have gone fishing quite a bit more than I have in past years. Since it has been a slow news weekend and I have nothing else to write about I figured I would write an update about how I have done fishing this year. 

Though I have been fishing since I was a kid, I decided to go more often this year, dramatically so, largely because my other outdoors hobby, shooting, has been largely destroyed by massive demand for ammo. I have been going once or twice a week, weather permitting, for awhile now. 

I started in March and April during the Walleye run up here, and it did not go well for me. I think I snagged a baby perch and that was it. Lost a ton of lures, only had a couple of bites, and only even saw a couple walleyes get caught. 

Later in April I finally started to catch some fish. Part of that was switching from lures to live bait, which seemed to help a lot. But I have been catching some fish now on lures as well. The fishing got better as the year went along and I have only been skunked once since then (most likely because I was fishing in a new spot that time). 

I have had quite a bit of luck. I have caught my new personal best channel catfish (see above) which was 6 pounds even. That probably isn't too impressive and I have seen bigger fish than that get caught but it is the biggest one I have gotten. I also caught my personal best sheepshead (freshwater drum) which also weighed 6 pounds even, funny enough. 

I have also crossed a few fish off that I hadn't caught before. I finally caught a white bass, seen below, and I actually caught two of them, both on crankbaits. I know people can fill coolers full of the fish in the right places, but where I go isn't one of them, and I was just impressed that I caught them at all. And as I posted before I caught my first white perch awhile back before as well. 

But what has really blown my mind is how many sheepshead I have caught. The fish are kinda ugly and not something I would ever want to keep but they do put up a very good fight. And some of them have been dramatically bigger than the ones I caught back in the day when I was a kid. Plus, I have been catching some of them on crankbaits and other artificial lures, which is not something I have done ever. 

Despite catching my personal best catfish, I haven't much luck targeting them. I have mostly caught them on nightcrawlers with my cut bait being ignored on the bottom. I am not sure what the deal is there but I do think it's funny that I spent a lot of money on a new catfish rod and other tackle for the fish, and I am still catching them on the same nightcrawlers I have always used. 

There are also a few more species of fish I want to catch this summer. I tried a new place that supposedly had smallmouth bass but all I caught were sheepsheads again. Don't get me wrong, they were big sheepshead and fun to catch, but not what I was expecting. 

I also want to try going for bowfin/dogfish and possibly gar. I know a place that has them but I didn't have much luck fishing there due to the poor conditions that day. I've never caught either fish and it might be fun to try for it. 

I do wish I had the ability to buy a boat. I have the money for it, I just don't have a place to store one. Shore fishing is tough and it's not always fun to deal with the crowds. Most of the available fishing areas around here are in parks, and then you have to deal with screaming kids. And it would be nice to be able to go to the fish instead of waiting for them to come to me. 

I also have to say that I see so many people making mistakes when I go out. Things like using a bobber with 12 inches of line underneath to try and catch fish in 15 feet of water. Using buzzbaits and other surface lures in the middle of the river. Complete ignorance of the bag limits and regulations. It's really a mess. I think a lot of people got into the hobby last year during the pandemic as it was one of the only excuses you could use to get outside. And a lot of these people don't know what they are doing. 

That being said, I have also seen some pretty amazing fish get caught. A guy today caught a pretty large flathead catfish (and I almost died of jealousy). And last week I saw a guy catch an absolutely massive (for around here) 7.5 sheepshead. It's clear that the places I go have a ton of big fish in them. It's just a matter of catching them! 

The Taliban are predicting that they will take Afghanistan soon after US troops leave for good.

 

Afghan troops. AFP.

The Taliban are predicting that they will take Afghanistan soon after US troops leave for good. AFP. Afghan troops are in retreat and will soon lose their biggest advantage, US air support. US troops began withdrawing in May and since then the Taliban claim to have taken 30 districts. The Taliban have taken many rural areas and are encircling major cities. The Afghan government claim that they can withstand any major assault from the Taliban, due to their own air strike capability and the Taliban's lack of heavy weapons. Talks between the government and the Taliban have fallen apart. 

My Comment:

This is a story that is basically being ignored. But I do have to admit that I got the story wrong. I thought that Joe Biden had purposely sabotaged the peace talks so he could go back on his commitment to withdraw us troops. I had thought that the rising level of violence would "force" Joe Biden to re-deploy our troops to Afghanistan. 

But I have seen no evidence that Biden is going to do so. Indeed, many of our troops have already been pulled out and I think we will make our withdrawal date in September. I guess things could change in the coming months but given how the media is ignoring this story I don't think it will be changing.

This means that we are essentially leaving the Afghan government to twist in the wind. I don't think they will be able to survive the Taliban's onslaught and the government will likely fall. They do have their own air force, small as it may be, and more heavy weapons than the Taliban, but they don't have competent leadership or good morale. I think they will lose. 

Should we care? At this point I think we have done all we can for the Afghan government. We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years. Indeed, if we pull out on time we will be one month short. We have spent billions of dollars and sacrificed hundreds of lives and at this point we have done about all we can do for the Afghan government. I don't think we have any reason to keep wasting money and lives on the Afghan government. They need to stand on their own. 

There is of course the fear that the Taliban will take over and then give safe haven to groups like al-Qaeda. I am not worried about that. Al-Qaeda is dead and ISIS is no friend to the Taliban. Both groups are at war with each other and I bet the Taliban's first priority after taking down the government will be to take out ISIS once and for all. 

Is Parler dead?

 

Parler's logo.

This isn't a traditional post and it isn't based on anything but my own experience. I haven't seen any news articles about this but I do know what I have seen. And what I have seen shows me that Parler seems to be in a lot of trouble. 

As you are surely aware, Parler was one of the conservative alternatives to Twitter. The website grew fairly rapidly but was canceled by Amazon and other tech companies in the wake of the January 6th counter-coup. The website was taken down and it took quite awhile to come back. 

That's when the problems started. Initially when the website came back the site was full of bots. You would post anything and get dozens of notifications, obviously from fake accounts. This problem was annoying but it was taken care of and now the bots are gone, but I think it drove away quite a few users. It was difficult, even for a small account like mine, to find out what my actual followers were trying to say to me. 

But what really killed the website was the technical glitches. For a long time when you visited the site, you had to log in every time. Even worse you had to verify your account every time, which involved getting a code texted to you on your phone. This problem was extreme, to the point where if you even closed the website for a minute, you were logged out again and had to go through the same drawn out and annoying process again. 

This drove away the people that stayed through the site being canceled and the spambot problem. And though the problem is long gone I think a lot of people have stayed away. It seems like I only have a couple of followers that actually post anything. My interactions are essentially non-existent. 

It's a shame because before the cancelation Parler showed a lot of promise. It was growing fast and so was my follower count. The website didn't have the obvious problems that Twitter have with their awful censorship policy and clinically insane blue checkmark user base. And I think the site design and moderation is better than Gab, which has a lot of bad users as well. It struck a nice balance between the two sites. 

So can Parler right the ship? I am not sure. I think a lot of people now think of Parler as the "twitter clone that doesn't actually work", and it will take time to fix that perception. They could probably get their user base back if President Trump made an account but that seems unlikely to happen, given his designs on making his own website. Without that, I am not sure what Parler can do to fix things. It might be too late. 

House and Senate pass legislation to make "Juneteenth" a federal holiday.

 

Sponsors of the bill pose with a flag. CNBC/Getty.

The House and Senate have passed legislation to make "Juneteenth" a federal holiday, sending the bill to Joe Biden. CNBC. All senators voted for the bill while only 14 Republicans in the House voted against it. The bill will make June 19th a federal holiday celebrating when the last slaves were freed in 1865 in Texas. 48 states and the District of Colombia already recognize the date as a holiday. There was very little opposition to the bill, with most objections based on the cost of another federal holiday. Representative Matt Rosendale opposed it on grounds of the holiday celebrating critical race theory and identity politics. Biden is expected to sign the bill into law. 

My Comment:

I agree with Matt Rosendale. I don't think that this should be a federal holiday, if for no other reason, the woke left want it. They should not get anything they want ever because they are evil racists who hate this country and everything it stands for. 

I do think that it's reasonable to celebrate the end of slavery. But I would prefer a more general holiday that celebrates the end of the Civil War along with the soldiers who fought in it. And, in what is now a hot take but used to be standard, I would include the Confederate war dead in that as well. The end of slavery would be a part of that but this would be a holiday that would celebrate all Americans, not just the tiny part that descended from slaves.  

Indeed, this holiday seems like a middle finger to everyone else in America. It's a holiday that is not important to most people and indeed, even most black people seem to have never heard of it. There is no reason for this holiday to only be about slavery. And it's not like we don't have a holiday honoring black people and the civil rights movement. With Martin Luther King Jr's birthday being a federal holiday this is just redundant. 

I'm also sympathetic to the argument that this will cost a ton of money. I think there are already too many federal holidays, many of which are pointless. It costs Americans a ton of tax dollars to give all these federal workers a day off 10 days a year, in addition to their vacation and PTO. Adding an 11th day (or 12th for election years) will cost millions of dollars. 

And I feel like Juneteenth will be yet another holiday that nobody really celebrates like Flag Day, Washington's Birthday and Martin Luther King Jr day. I seriously that I will get a day off of work for this "holiday" even though it would be nice to have a holiday between Memorial Day and July 4th. My guess is that the only way that this will effect me in anyway is that I won't get any mail that day. 

I also don't understand where this holiday came from. I had never heard of it until last year. Supposedly it was popular before among a certain crowd but it had no mainstream support. Indeed, if you had told me that there would be a holiday called Juneteenth in 2019 I would have looked at you like you were crazy. 

Finally, more than anything else, I think the name of the holiday is beyond stupid. Why not Emancipation Day? Some people also call it Jubilee Day, which is also pretty bad but is better than a made up word like Juneteenth. It makes the holiday impossible to take seriously.

China sends an entire squadron of fighter jets to test Taiwan's air defenses.

A Chinese Shenyang J-16. Taiwanese military photo
 

China has sent 28 of their fighters to test Taiwan's air defenses. NPR. The incursion is the largest since Taiwan started publishing information on China's military incursions in to their airspace. Taiwan scrambled fighter jets, activated air defense arrays and sent radio messages to the Chinese fighters. The incursion comes after the leaders of NATO agreed that China was a threat and the G7 nations pledged to work against China and condemned their human rights record. China often sends fighters towards Taiwan when other countries criticize them. The flights included an entire squadron of fighter jets, a flight of bombers as well as early warning planes and anti-submarine planes. 

My Comment:

These incursions are dangerous to say the least. Sending so many fighters and bombers is a clear threat and one that forces Taiwan to respond. Though a war is unlikely, it's very possible that something could go wrong. An air to air collision might happen, either side might fire a missile or something even more stupid could happen and then we have a war on our hands. 

The more planes involved in these violations the more likely something goes wrong. Indeed, with so many planes involved in this it would have been reasonable for Taiwan to consider themselves to be under attack. They could have responded in kind and shot down some of these fighters and bombers. I wouldn't have blamed them if they did so even though the results would have been a disaster for basically everyone on earth. 

I do wonder what China's goal is here. It's been clear that they have had designs on Taiwan since the country's creation. And they have been working at modernizing their military so they can actually try and take the island. I have said in the past that China would probably lose any such war as their military hasn't been tested since the 1979 war with Vietnam, a war that they lost. 

But is that their goal here? I don't think so. I think even China understands that they aren't anywhere near where they need to be to even defeat Taiwan's military alone, let alone America's Navy. I don't think that they are going to invade Taiwan in the near future. 

It's possible that this is an intelligence operation. By launching these raids they are finding out how strong Taiwan's defenses are and how good their response time is. That's critical information for them if they ever do go to war. 

My guess is though that this is just saber rattling in response to the massive amount of criticism they are getting internationally. NATO has basically declared them a foe, the American media finally turned on them and admitted they may responsible for the Coronavirus and now everyone is concerned about their nuclear power plant. To save some face I think they are launching these air raids to remind everyone that they are still fairly strong... 

Company warns of radiological issue at a Chinese nuclear power plant.

 

A French Company has warned that a Chinese nuclear plant has an "imminent radiological threat" due to a leak. The Hill. The Taishan nuclear power plant is operated by the French company Framatome, which has told US officials that China has raised the acceptable levels of radiation so the plant will not be shut down. It is unclear exactly what is happening but the US administration does not consider the leak to be a crisis yet. China claims that radiation levels around the plant are normal and are nothing to be concerned about. 

My Comment:

Something to keep an eye on. It's very unclear what the actual threat is from the articles I have read. It seems as though there is a gas leak of radioactive material but nothing so serious as the Chernobyl disaster. Even that though is a very serious issue and I wish there was more information out there. 

The problem here is of course China. The entire plant could have blown up and we would never hear about it. Indeed, I think the only reason we heard about this incident is because the French company that runs the plant sounded the alarm. If they hadn't I doubt anyone would have known this was happening. 

This should be mostly a local threat right now. I doubt that this radioactive gas is the kind of threat that can effect areas outside of their region. The people around the power plant though? They should probably be evacuated until this leak brought under control. Radiation is not something you want to mess with and I think China is playing fast and lose with the lives of people in the region. 

China is getting a lot of bad press lately and I think it's for good reason. I feel they are responsible for the coronavirus pandemic, either because they failed to handle it well or because they allowed it to leak from their lab through incompetence. And they barely averted disaster with their Three Gorges Dam. Now they have a nuclear disaster to deal with. 

My big fear is that the incompetence of Chinese could lead to more discrimination towards nuclear power. Nuclear disasters are rare with Chernobyl being the main one. I'm not bleeding heart environmentalist but I do think that nuclear power is dramatically underused and is a clean alternative to fossil fuels.  

Mitch McConnell says he would not confirm a SOCTUS nominee before the 2024 election.

 

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell. Senate Photo.

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has said that if Republicans recapture the Senate in 2022, they will not consider approving any Supreme Court nominees until the 2024 election. USA Today. McConnell notes that it is not typical procedure for the Senate to confirm a Supreme Court nominee during an election year when the White House is controlled by another party. The statement comes as Democrats are demanding that 82 year old Justice Stephen Breyer step down so the party can chose a replacement. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died during the closing of President Donald Trump's first term allowing the Republicans to confirm Amy Coney Barrett. 

My Comment:

Just a quick post here mostly because I am rolling my eyes at the hypocrisy here. I know for the fact that if the GOP controlled the White House and the Democrats controlled the Senate there would be no chance of the Democrats confirming or even allowing a vote on a conservative justice. The people wringing their hands and whining about McConnell saying something obvious and true here is pretty ridiculous if you check twitter right now. 

Indeed, if the tables were turned I wouldn't even be upset by it, even though I hate the idea of another liberal on the court. It's just what happens when one party controls the Senate and another controls the White House. Under those circumstances it would be insane to confirm the candidate. 

Of course the whole scenario is dependent on a lot of things. First the Republicans would have to retake the Senate, which is likely but not a lock. Second a Supreme Court Justice would either have to die or retire, neither of which is that likely. Finally, Joe Biden and the Democrats would have to retain the White House, which is likely but no sure thing. My guess is that the issue is fairly unlikely to come up.

The comments were probably unwise though as it may spur Justice Stephen Breyer to step down. He's already under extreme pressure from some members of congress to do so and I think they do have a point. Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to do so and then died in office, resulting in a solid 5-3-1 conservative split with Justice Roberts being the swing vote. Before it was a solid 4-4-1 where Democrats only had to pressure Roberts to get the outcome they wanted. If Breyer was a more strategic thinker I think he would be wise to step down to ensure that his seat doesn't get replaced by a likely GOP majority in 2024. 

Time will tell what happens. My guess is that nothing will happen. I don't see Breyer stepping down anytime soon and the most likely outcome is that the entire issue is a moot point. I don't foresee any changes to the Supreme Court until after the 2024 presidential election and even then nothing might change. 

President Putin of Russia says that relations between Russia and America are at the lowest levels in years

 

President Putin of Russia says that relations between Russia and America are at the lowest level in years. NBC News. Putin made the comments with an NBC News journalist in a wide ranging interview. Putin praised President Trump calling him talented and saying that he had came from outside of the political machine. He also called Joe Biden the exact opposite of Trump. Putin has been called a killer by Biden but Putin downplayed the comments saying that people accuse him of all kinds of things. He also dismissed a report that Russia was going to give Iran satellite technology calling it fake news. 

My Comment:

Fairly interesting video above. I had to admit that it was a total power move by Putin to conduct the interview in Russia. Putin speaks English fluently and there are plenty of videos of him speaking the language. He must take it as a point of pride to not speak English to an American news organization.

I do think that our relations with Russia are worse than any time in my life time other than the Able Archer 83 exercises that the Soviets mistook for the prelude to a war. I don't think we are in that dire of straits but I don't see any daylight between Biden and Putin. 

As for Putin getting called a killer again, I don't think it's inaccurate but I also don't think it matters that much. Basically every head of state is a killer in some way, especially when that country is at war. I also don't doubt that Putin has ordered some of his critics killed, but I also don't doubt that Biden has done the same thing. At that level of power everyone is a killer. 

Biden was not smart to insult Putin though. Him calling Putin a killer was an own goal that may have helped his domestic critics on the left but did nothing at lowering tensions with Russia. However, I don't think Biden has totally burned bridges with Putin as he hasn't gone as far as calling him a Nazi, like Hillary Clinton did. 

I expect nothing from the meeting between Biden and Putin. There is basically nothing the two men agree on and I can't expect any kind of breakthrough to happen when they meet. Indeed, my only optimism about the meeting is that I don't think Biden will anger Putin any more than he already has. 

I do wish that better relations with Russia. I think a lot of the criticisms of Russia are fairly unfair as our actual allies are not any better than them. And I would love to have them as an ally against our true enemy, China. But given the massive influence of Russia hawks in our "intelligence" community I don't see better relations with Russia happening any time soon...

Bad numbers for consumer prices show that inflation is likely.

 

The Hill/Getty.

Bad numbers for consumer prices show that inflation is a real concern. The Hill. In the past year the consumer price index (CPI) went up 5%, which is the worst number since 2008. Minus the food and energy prices, which are more volatile, the CPI rose 3.8%. Most of this is due to high demand on the market and a shortage of goods, such as used cars, consumer goods. Republicans worry that the massive influx of cash due to the Coronavirus bailout and other government grants has caused inflation. 

My Comment:

I am no economists but even I can tell that prices are going up across the board, with gasoline, food and rent being the biggest problems. Gasoline is partially due to increased demand but I blame much of the rest on the Biden administration's crusade against cheap gas. They have canceled pipeline projects and canceled drilling and that has had the predictable result in rising prices. 

Food prices are going up too. Some of that was due to the JBS hack, but that was a temporary disruption, even without it prices were increasing. Food tends to be pretty variable and prices were probably messed up due to the long term effects of the pandemic. 

I do think that prices have gone up across the board. Everything seems more expensive these days, including lumber, rent and soda. Why is this happening? I think it's the predictable result of giving everyone thousands of dollars for free. The intent was to help people that needed to make rent and buy food, but pretty much everyone except the very rich got a ton of money from the government. A lot of people didn't use that money for rent or for paying bills, they bought all kinds of things they needed. 

Lumber is a good example of this as a ton of people decided to update their houses or build a new one. This has caused the cost of lumber to skyrocket and it hasn't come down now that the pandemic is mostly over. 

Real estate and rent has gone up too and I think we can safely blame this partially on Biden. I wrote yesterday about how big firms buying up real estate but that's only part of the picture. With the borders totally open now immigrants are flowing into the country and they almost always rent, increasing demand and then increasing prices. 

I don't know what can be done to reduce inflation. I think stopping spending like the money was free would be a good start. We should be cutting spending at this point instead of increasing it, we can't keep printing money if we expect inflation to slow down. Raising interest rates a bit might help things as well, they have been at historic lows for a long time. 

But I don't think that anything good will happen. I have zero faith in the Biden administration or congress to do anything to deal with this problem until it's way too late. I think the next couple of years are going to be extremely painful economically. 

Large investment firms like BlackRock are buying houses and locking out first time home owners.

 

Large investment firms, including BlackRock, JP Morgan and Fundrise, have been buying houses locking out first time home owners. Wall Street Journal. These firms have gone so far as to buy entire subdivisions for rental properties. Cheap loan prices and a huge interest in safe investments means many investors are buying real estate for rental purposes, which has driven up prices to the point where many people cannot afford to buy a house. This is resulting in a major real estate bubble that may eventually burst. Home prices rose 11% in 2020 and are expected to rise an additional 12% in 2021.  

My Comment:

This is an older story but BlackRock is trending on Twitter right now and it's something I have wanted to talk about for awhile. This story hits close to home for me because I have been searching for a new home myself. I made quite a bit of money in 2020 and have a decent saving account a small amount of debt. 

In theory I should be in the market for a new house or condo. After months of semi-serious searching I have come to the conclusion that I simply cannot afford one right now. Wisconsin's real estate market isn't the hottest in the nation but the prices are still out of control. Anything that is remotely affordable needs at least $50,000 of work to be done and that's assuming you don't get outbid. Most of the houses are in the $300,000 range. 

Part of this is due to investors. They have been buying up a lot of cheap housing for rentals and that means that the prices are getting out of control. It's not just the big investment firms too but also the smaller guys that just want the "easy" income that rentals provide. 

Immigration isn't helping things either. It's increasing the demand for both rental and home ownership and it is causing prices to go up. My rent has increased massively in the last couple years and I don't see it changing anytime soon until something changes. 

The lack of cheap housing is locking a lot of people out of home ownership. People like me cannot afford a house even if our financial situation is good. And I consider it a wealth transfer from the lower and middle classes to the upper classes. Home ownership is one of the better ways to build wealth and is considered an important milestone for young Americans. 

I do think this is an issue that has rare bipartisan support. I have seen a lot of that on Twitter today with a lot of right wing people bashing BlackRock and then being surprised when a lot of the far left people are agreeing with them. High housing prices do not benefit anyone except the rich and there are plenty of people on all sides of the political spectrum are against it. 

Will anything happen though? I don't think so. Both the Democrats and Republicans have a major problem with being owned by these large investment groups and I doubt any actual reform would have a chance of passing. 

But I do think that a crash is coming. The signs are all there for a major collapse in home value and economic recession in general. Inflation is up and prices for everything are out of control. Energy prices are up as well. When that happens I do hope I can take advantage of all the real estate investors who will lose their shirts. 

Hunter Biden text reveal he called his lawyer the n-word.

 

Hunter Biden. The Daily Mail/AFP/Getty.

New texts from Hunter Biden show that he called his lawyer the n-word. The Daily Mail. Biden talked to his lawyer, George Mesires, in 2019. Hunter also had a meme saved on his laptop that also used the racial slur. The information is sure to be embarrassing to Joe Biden, who has made race relations a core center of his campaign and presidency. Joe Biden himself has used the n-word back in 1985, in a quote.

EDIT: A previous version of this post said that George Mesires is black. He is in fact white. I regret the error and have corrected the post.  

The Daily Mail.

My Comment:

I wasn't really offended by the use of the n-word here by Hunter Biden. He wasn't using the hard-R version of the word and it seems clear that his lawyer wasn't offended. And I don't support canceling people just because they said a naughty word. If it wasn't for the blatant hypocrisy being shown here I would have probably ignored this story. 

I do have to say that the most shocking part of this story isn't that Hunter Biden was using the N-word it's the fact that his words are pretty much incomprehensible to me. He writes like a child and he does not make any sense at all. 

Hunter Biden obviously has a lot of problems. His sexual deviancy is well documented, along with his drug use. It also seems pretty clear that he's an absolute idiot. He was very lucky that his lawyer laughed off his comments as it's very possible that he could have rightly claimed that Biden was being racist to him. It just seems to me that Hunter Biden clearly understands that he is above any judgement for his actions as he knows that everyone, including the media and his dad, will cover for him.

Do I think Hunter Biden is racist? Probably not. I don't think he was acting out of racial animus, just stupidity. I don't think the kids that get canceled for quoting rap lyrics are racist either. You can't say a word is so vile that nobody should ever say it but then have it play in pretty much every rap song made in the last 20 years. Biden probably was doing the same thing, with the added realization that even if someone got offended he would be fine. 

I do think that Hunter Biden probably hates lower class black people, but that's because they are lowerclass, not because they are black. He would hate white people and other non-whites for the same reason if they were of a different social class then him. 

If there is a real story here it will be how the media covers this. The media famously censored the Hunter Biden scandal in 2020 where it was revealed that he was both a sexual deviant and totally corrupt. And it seems clear that the American media is largely ignoring this story. Only conservative and international outlets are covering this story as far as I can see. 

If this was a reaction to the relatively minor use of the slur I would be fine with it. But we all know if Biden was a Republican or even just a random normal person they would be canceled with the full force of the media. Indeed, they would be gleeful about it, celebrating the defeat of one of their "enemies". 

Will this hurt Joe Biden? I doubt it. The media will simply not cover the story and that means the majority of Americans will never hear about it. And even if they did I do get the idea that most people won't care. Most people are tired of cancel culture and even the people that prop it up won't cancel one of their own, which Hunter Biden is...