The Great Leveler Is Coming, Mimi

June 7th, 2022

In The Before-Time, The Long Long Ago, prior to The Great Dot Com Bubble Bust, newspapers (remember those?) were filled with reports of day-traders, ordinary people who quit their day jobs to trade stocks. And what do you know! A whole bunch of them made money doing that! They must have been geniuses!

Few paused to test an alternative theory: They just happened to be riding the tail end of one of the greatest stock bubbles in history. It’s easy to pick stock market winners when there are lots of winners around.

Then the bust hit, and a whole lot of geniuses turned out to not be so smart after all, especially those who had backed such companies as Flooz and WorldCom.

Thanks in large measure to the SUPERgenius economic management of the Biden Administration, the world is now exiting an era of historically cheap money and entering a period of rising interest rates. A whole lot of business models that seemed to make sense during an era of cheap credit are going to look as retroactively foolish as Pets.com.

Example the first: Vice Media is looking for a buyer.

Vice will be mounting a new round of cost-cutting to try to stretch out its solvency while it searches for some sucker to buy it.

Vice does not make money. It will never make money. It just wants a series of Sugar Daddies willing to pump money into it forever to keep its overpaid, underperforming staff paid.

Snip.

The article says that they can only estimate what Vice is worth. They guess it’s worth, maybe, “at least one billion.” (And they owe $1.1 billion in debt?)

It was valued at $5.7 billion just a few years ago.

Ace of Spades also posted this Ryan Long video that I’m absolutely stealing:

As for the next media outlets to close, well, I’ve got to think any Bulwarkesque outlets whose entire raison d’être is subsidized Trump-hating is going to look like a luxury good during the Biden Recession.

And Crunchbase keeps a running list of tech layoffs.

Another sign of the serious straits people find themselves in: Consumers are maxing out their credit cards.

High debt, high inflation and high interest rates are all recipes for disaster. And as those pools of liquidity dry up as cheap capital recedes, all the stranded starfish that so briefly thrived will find that they have no place to hide in the Biden Recession.

Allusion in headline:

D-Day: 78 Years Ago Today

June 6th, 2022

78 years ago today, some 175,000 American, British and Canadian troops were either being dropped behind enemy lines or coming ashore under enemy fire at Gold, Juno, Sword, Omaha and Utah beaches.

Here’s some footage of D-Day:

There are still D-Day veterans alive today, but soon the war will pass out of living memory.

Successful Ukrainian Counterattack in Severodonetsk?

June 5th, 2022

Information coming out of the Russo-Ukrainian War can be hard to verify, especially given how untrustworthy the mainstream media have made themselves. But Ukraine seems to have launched a successful counterattack in the key city of Severodonetsk.

Russia is “suffering huge losses” and losing hard-fought ground in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after invading units started retreating from the key industrial center, Ukrainian officials asserted Saturday.

The dramatic turnabout, which could not be independently confirmed, represented a rare successful counter-offensive against Russian forces, which had recently been steadily advancing in Ukraine’s eastern territories.

It was the first time Ukraine claimed to have conducted a large counter-attack in Severodonetsk, a city of 100,000 and the last major municipality in the disputed Luhansk oblast under Ukrainian control, after days of losing ground in the country’s embattled east.

Russia had “previously managed to capture most of the city,” Sergiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region said in a televised address Saturday, The Guardian reported. “But now our military has pushed them back.”

Later Saturday, Oleksandr Stryuk, the head of the city’s military operations, said that Ukrainian forces were able to build a line of defense in Severodonetsk, according to The Kyiv Independent.

Both sides of the war have claimed to have inflicted huge casualties in the fighting for the city — a battlefront that military experts believe could determine which of the two countries has the momentum for a prolonged war of attrition in coming months.

Here’s a quick Livemap snapshot:

A more detailed annotated map from Random Guy On Twitter (grains of salt apply):

There’s some talk on Twitter of Ukrainian forces luring Russia into a trap and using the high ground in Luhansk to rain artillery on Russian positions:

Here’s Denys Davydov, AKA Ukrainian Map Guy, on the action (usual caveats and grains of salt apply):

When faced with the task of taking large hostile cities, Russian doctrine has been to bomb them flat with artillery first. Historically, urban warfare has not been a source of happiness for the Russian military. They got torn up badly in Grozny, and seem to have forgotten all the painful lessons learned there.

Russia may have a hefty supply of old tanks, but it’s supply of competent ground forces absent a general mobilization (which Putin has thus far refused to authorize) is quite finite. Russia has even resorted to forced mobilization of troops in the area it occupies, a desperation tactic likely to make things worse for an army that already suffers from low morale.

Says ISW:

The Ukrainian government and military are furthermore discussing the battle of Severodonetsk in increasingly confident terms and are likely successfully blunting the Russian military’s major commitment of reserves to the grinding battle for the city. While Russian forces may still be able to capture Severodonetsk and Lysychansk and Ukrainian forces are likely more degraded than Haidai’s statements imply, Ukrainian defenses remain strong in this pivotal theater. The Russian military has concentrated all of its available resources on this single battle to make only modest gains. The Ukrainian military contrarily retains the flexibility and confidence to not only conduct localized counterattacks elsewhere in Ukraine (such as north of Kherson) but conduct effective counterattacks into the teeth of Russian assaults in Severodonetsk that reportedly retook 20% of the city in the last 24 hours. The Ukrainian government’s confidence in directly stating its forces can hold Severodonetsk for more than two weeks and willingness to conduct local counterattacks, rather than strictly remaining on the defensive, is a marked shift from Ukrainian statements as recently as May 28 that Ukrainian forces might withdraw from Severodonetsk to avoid encirclement.

The fog of war and the paucity of competent in-theater reporting makes things hard to analyze, but at this point in time, it appears that Ukraine is winning the Battle of Severodonetsk.

Now Is A Great Time To Adopt A Pet

June 4th, 2022

Some sad but predictable news: Soaring inflation is causing some people to abandon or surrender family pets.

According to a growing number of reports, the soaring costs of food, gas, and housing are causing a spike in the number of family pets being abandoned or surrendered to shelters.

In January 2022, the first alarming animal shelter statistics began to emerge. While an average of 6.2 million animals are taken into shelters each year, only about 3.2 million find a home. The other three million are euthanized.

In March 2022, shelters in Cedar City, Utah, noted a dramatic increase in the number of phone messages being left by desperate pet owners who needed to surrender their pets, receiving as many as 30 calls from mid-January through February. Shelter administrators and staff said the number of strays and the number of pets being surrendered voluntarily are on par with the number of phone calls.

In April, shelters across Utah were reporting that millions of pets adopted during the outbreak of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus (commonly known as the novel coronavirus) of 2020 were being surrendered again as the high cost of living and the return to in-person working was making it impossible for pet owners to continue to care for their animals.

In May, Orange County Animal Services in Orlando, Florida, reported a 37 percent increase in the number of surrendered pets compared to the same time in 2021. Officials say the increase in housing costs in the area is the primary reason why people are being forced to surrender their pets. In Hernando County, Florida, shelter administrators are seeing a similar spike in the number of family pets being surrendered or simply abandoned on the streets.

This is not to be confused with people adopting pets to keep them entertained during the Flu Manchu lockdowns, only to abandon them once the lockdowns were lifted, a phenomena that experts refer to as You’re A Horrible Human Being.

I highly recommend getting a dog, as they make great companions.

Avery

I’m a dog guy, but feel free to adopt cats as well, if that’s your thing.

Austin-area groups I’ve successfully adopted dogs from:

  • Gold Ribbon Rescue
  • Heart of Texas Lab Rescue
  • Texas Great Pyrenees Rescue
  • Some other central Texas shelter resources:

  • Austin Animal Center
  • Austin Pets Alive
  • Williamson County Regional Animal
  • 5 Indicted APD Officers Sue City, DA Garza, SJW Groups

    June 2nd, 2022

    The kangaroo court proceedings against 19 APD officers for daring to enforce the law and keep order rather than letting the hard left’s pet Antifa/BlackLivesMatter rioters go on a spree of destruction continues to grind away, but five of the indicted officers are fighting back.

    Five of the 19 police officers indicted on aggravated assault charges stemming from the May 2020 protests have filed a lawsuit against the City of Austin, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and various social justice groups [Austin Justice Coalition and the Mike Ramos Brigade].

    The officers filing suit are Joshua Jackson, Rolan Rast, Todd Gilbertson, Derrick Lehman and Alexander Lomovstev. They’re all on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal charges.

    At least 19 APD officers face indictments linked to May 2020 protests.

    They misspelled “attempted riots.”

    The lawsuit states “plaintiffs were ordered to respond and were given less than lethal beanbag rounds, for which they were provided no training and some of which proved to be defective or expired[.]

    Adam Muery, the attorney representing the five officers, says they filed now because the statute of limitations for certain legal action stemming from the May 2020 protests expired last night.

    “We brought this suit now because it’s only been three months since their indictments and that’s when the fullest extent of damages became known to my clients. Because before that their damages were different,” said Muery.

    Snip.

    The lawsuit also alleges numerous times the crowds were “riotous” and the officers followed orders to keep the crowds safe. Causes of action in suit claim, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, malicious prosecution, negligence and negligent hiring/supervision/training and retention, among other things.

    “None of them had training on using these types of weapons while wearing gas masks,” said Muery. “Which is obviously difficult because, in this situation, they made the decision to put the CS gas out onto the interstate. And these officers are now having to use these weapons with these masks that block their field of vision and make it more difficult. Some of these officers were also not specialty officers and were not part of this special response team. So some of these officers had no training on how to use these less-than-lethal rounds.”

    I hope not only that the lawsuit is successful, but that discovery for it also reveals all sorts of criminal collusion between Travis County DA Jose Garza, the Austin Justice Coalition and various George Soros front groups to deprive American citizens equal protection under the rule of law in the name of radical social justice.

    More Donna ISD Weirdness: Active Shooters Thwarted?

    June 1st, 2022

    This is a small post-Uvalde-shooting story that I might not have posted had it not happened in Donna ISD.

    Four students at a high school in Donna, TX were arrested last week for making terroristic threats towards their school just days after the Uvalde shooting.

    Two 17-year-old males — Barbarito Pantoja and Nathaniel Montelongo — were arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Both were held on $750,000 bond. That charge, if convicted, carries with it up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

    An anonymous tip was made on the same day as the Uvalde shooting in which 21 people, including 19 children, were murdered.

    Police investigated the tip, which led to the arrest of Pantoja and Montelongo, along with two other students, to-date unnamed juveniles, who were also arraigned last week.

    Classes resumed Tuesday in Donna Independent School District after the administration canceled classes for the week once discovering the threat. “We’ve received a credible threat of violence that is currently under investigation,” the district’s statement to parents read. “In light of the recent events and in an abundance of caution, we will be canceling school district-wide and staff will work from home.”

    According to initial reports, an AK-47 and a “hit list” were found at the home of one of the students, but Donna Police Chief Gilbert Guerrero later said his department found no such list and did not specify whether a firearm was found.

    Time to dig this handy visual aid out again:

    Absent an actual weapon, I suspect there’s less to this story than meets the eye, and is probably nothing more than a case of disgruntled teenagers shooting their mouths off. What really caught my eye was the fact this happened in Donna ISD, which punches well above its weight for stories of weirdness and corruption. Previous Donna ISD stories:

  • School board members were convicted of extortion.
  • $1 million in missing funds.
  • Vote-Buying and Suicide Over a School Board Election?
  • And that’s to say nothing of Round Rock ISD importing sketchy Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez from Donna ISD.

    I don’t know what it is, but Donna ISD produces more notable news stories than every other Rio Grande Valley school district combined.

    Maybe there’s a South Texas version of the South Florida Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet

    Biden Administration Changes Rules To Get Graft Flowing To Leftwing Cronies Again

    May 31st, 2022

    My Working Theory is that every single expansion of the welfare state is merely a means to pass graft into the hands of Democratic Party cronies and leftwing activists. Today’s data point: Merrick Garland is bringing back Obama-era legally-mandated slush funds for leftwing activist groups scrapped by Trump.

    President Biden’s Department of Justice appears to be rebuilding a dubious money chain known as “settlement slush funds.” The Obama DOJ used these funds to channel cash from corporate settlements to bankroll private progressive organizations, circumventing the budget and oversight authority of Congress.

    On May 5, Attorney General Merrick Garland revoked a Trump-era rule that specifically prohibited the DOJ from directing funds from corporate settlements to finance third-party organizations and causes. The use of these so-called settlement slush funds became so rampant under the Obama administration that the House passed the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act in 2017 in an attempt to end it. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate but failed to pass.

    Under the Obama Justice Department, corporate fines were directed to organizations including the Sierra Club, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and the National Council of La Raza.

    So payoff to the left, payoff to the left, and payoff to the left.

    Through arrangements known as Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) and third-party payments, corporations could have their fines reduced if they paid money to organizations that, although not victims in the DOJ suit, were nonetheless approved as beneficiaries.

    In addition to reducing fines, these arrangements also gave penalized companies a tax deduction for their charitable contributions, which bought corporate support for the practice and prevented legal challenges. There were hundreds of such arrangements under the Obama administration.

    The most notable cases include Volkswagen’s settlement of its emissions cheating scandal, which included a requirement that VW spend $2 billion to build electric filling stations. The Obama administration had twice requested these funds from Congress and been denied, so it used the VW settlement to fund the project instead. Of the $2 billion that VW paid, $800 million went to the state of California.

    Settlements with Wall Street banks after the mortgage crisis also featured payments to progressive groups that were favored by Obama’s DOJ. A 2017 congressional hearing revealed internal DOJ memos regarding these settlements, one of which was addressed to then-Associate Attorney General Tony West, asking: “Can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money to an organization of our choosing?” Another DOJ email stated that the settlement with Citibank, which included third-party payments, should “not allow Citi to pick a statewide intermediary like the Pacific Legal Foundation,” which the official said “does conservative property-rights free legal services.”

    You can’t let anyone else get their fingers in the pie you’re trying to get your crony’s fingers into.

    Third-party settlement payments include no provision to track where the funds went, how they were being used, or if they achieved the goals the DOJ intended when arranging the payments.

    The DOJ itself was not forthcoming with information regarding these payments. Although the congressional investigation began in November 2014, the report noted that “for over a year, DOJ provided none of the requested internal communications pertaining to the controversial settlement provisions.”

    The House Judiciary Committee, however, obtained emails from the president of one of the organizations that received donations from settlement funds, the National Association of Interest On Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Programs, stating, “I would like to discuss ways we might want to recognize and show appreciation for the Department of Justice and specifically Associate Attorney General Tony West, who by all accounts was the one person most responsible for including the IOLTA provisions [in the settlement].”

    In response, the executive director of the Hawaii Legal Aid Foundation, another recipient, wrote that he “would be willing to have us build a statue [of West] and then we could bow down to this statue each day after we get our $200,000.”

    In order to stop this practice, in June 2017 then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions enacted what has become known as the “Sessions Rule,” prohibiting third-party settlements at the DOJ. Immediately upon assuming office in January 2021, however, President Biden directed his administration to review this rule, which his DOJ has now rescinded.

    “The fact that they’re spending resources on getting rid of an anti-corruption regulation shows that they intend to engage in the corruption that the regulation was intended to prevent,” said Ted Frank, senior attorney at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute. “It’s a good way to avoid voter accountability, and it gives power to the DOJ that Congress didn’t give them. They can direct hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to pet causes.”

    Of course they will. The Democratic Party and its vast panoply of left-wing fellow travelers are corrupt, parasitic institutions that can only thrive when they suck the lifeblood out of taxpayers.

    The only surprise here is that it took over a year for the Biden Administration to give their cronies the greenlight to stick their snouts back into the trough.

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

    Memorial Day: Remembering Samuel David Dealey

    May 30th, 2022

    This Memorial Day we honor the memory of Navy Commander Samuel David Dealey, AKA The Torpedo Toting Texan, AKA Destroyer Killer, the Medal of Honor winner whose submarine the U.S.S. Harder sank five Japanese destroyers in five days off the Sulu Archipelago during World War II.

    Here’s his official Medal of Honor citation:

    For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Harder during her 5th war patrol in Japanese-controlled waters. Floodlighted by a bright moon and disclosed to an enemy destroyer escort which bore down with intent to attack. Comdr. Dealey quickly dived to periscope depth and waited for the pursuer to close range, then opened fire, sending the target and all aboard down in flames with his third torpedo. Plunging deep to avoid fierce depth charges, he again surfaced and, within nine minutes after sighting another destroyer, had sent the enemy down tail first with a hit directly amidship. Evading detection, he penetrated the confined waters off Tawi Tawi with the Japanese Fleet base six miles away and scored death blows on two patrolling destroyers in quick succession. With his ship heeled over by concussion from the first exploding target and the second vessel nose-diving in a blinding detonation, he cleared the area at high speed. Sighted by a large hostile fleet force on the following day, he swung his bow toward the lead destroyer for another “down-the-throat” shot, fired three bow tubes, and promptly crash-dived to be terrifically rocked seconds later by the exploding ship as the Harder passed beneath. This remarkable record of five vital Japanese destroyers sunk in five short-range torpedo attacks attests the valiant fighting spirit of Comdr. Dealey and his indomitable command.

    Dealey survived that action, but his sub was lost sometime on August 24, 1944 somewhere off the Philippines. “In the final analysis, Dealey had sunk 16 enemy ships, with total tonnage of 54,002 tons (according to the postwar accounting – enough to make him number five among U.S. submarine skippers in World War II.)”

    Here’s a video:

    These Are The Cope Cages

    May 29th, 2022

    It looks like we finally have an answer to just what the “cope cages” seen on some Russian tanks were meant to accomplish:

    The Red Effect guy went back and looked at the original specs for the original factor-manufactured slat armor purpose-built for advanced Russian tanks like the rear of the Armata, and found it was spaced to capture incoming RPG-7 round and prevent effective formation of the penetration jet based on extensive studies of which gap sizes worked best. However, the cope cages added at the last minute before the invasion didn’t follow any of the meticulous research that went into the real slat armor. The result is armor that provides some minimal protection to drone-dropped munitions, but probably won’t do squat against a Javelin, and brings with it some new drawbacks (like a high profile that makes them easier to spot, and impeding easy crew escape.