Color me dubious

UNCW professor Mike Adams died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a news release from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. 

Detectives began their investigation in partnership with the medical examiner and it was ascertained that Mr. Adams committed suicide with a single gunshot wound to the head,” the news release stated.

No one else was in the home at the time of the incident and no foul play is suspected, the sheriff’s office says.

Because he was so depressed about being paid more than $500k to go and do whatever he wanted? I am… skeptical.

RIP Laurie Bluedorn

Laurie Bluedorn, a great champion of homeschooling and the author of the highly influential instructional book Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style, died this morning. She was a model of the defender of Christian civilization that we would all do well to aspire to be.

Requiescat in pace.

You can’t fix convergence

A reader emails about Wikipedia’s new code of conduct:

There is a big SJW convergence step happening on Wikipedia right now. They are trying to impose an universal code of conduct on all Wikimedia projects to be more “inclusive” and target “harassment”. Aka the same old bullshit as always. Only this time it would target something as big as all of the Wikipedias in all of their languages (another hilariously hypocritical example of SJW imposing their standards on different peoples and cultures, btw). The new code would be retroactive as well, apparently, so already closed cases could be opened again.

In the meantime they are also setting up an interim “case review committee“, just to be able to start doing this shit as fast as possible:

They are clearly trying to close this process as fast as possible, even doing it during summer when a lot of users are enjoying their holidays. I wonder if something could be done to stop it or limit its effect. Maybe some users that have been on Wikipedia for a while could work on it somehow. I don’t know if you have any ideas about that.

Why would we want to stop it? We’ve already provided everyone with the ideal alternative. People have got to learn to stop crying, stop complaining, and stop trying to fix the enemy and simply start making use of the existing alternatives instead.

Trump will take Minnesota

As well as a number of other states that no one expects him to win:

Let’s say Donald Trump fails to sweep the Rust Belt states in 2020. His chances of winning Ohio, where he swamped Hillary Clinton by 9 points in 2016, are still great. But without Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, where Trump won by smaller margins four years ago, the president might well lose reelection.

In 2016, Trump had a 68 electoral-vote margin over Clinton — 304 to 236. Take away the combined 44 electoral votes from those three states, and Trump falls short of the needed 270 votes by 10.

With Trump trailing most of the Democratic candidates in the Rust Belt by double digits in recent polling, liberals seem gleeful about their chances of victory in 2020. But this optimism assumes Trump cannot expand the electoral map elsewhere.

In fact, he can. Thanks to the success of Trump’s policies and other fortuitous developments, several other blue-trending states are certain to be in play in 2020.

Of these, none is more important than Minnesota. Its 10 electoral votes alone could offset a possible Rust Belt loss. The mainstream media has barely covered Trump’s remarkable gains in Minnesota, a state that historically is the bluest of the blue.

How blue? Even during the Reagan landslide victories of 1980 and 1984, the Gopher State remained a bastion of New Deal liberalism and economic populism. In fact, the last time the GOP captured Minnesota was during Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign in 1972, nearly a half-century ago.

Yet Trump, with his own brand of populism, nearly captured the state in 2016. He carried 78 of the state’s 87 counties, double the number carried by President Barack Obama in 2012. Overall, the margin between Trump and Hillary Clinton was a mere 1.5 percent — just 44,000 votes — the weakest Democratic tilt in decades.

I knew Trump would win Minnesota in 2020 back in 2016. But the riots and the burning of the Lake and Hiawatha neighborhood sealed the deal. That was too much even for the nicest Scandihoovian cucks and karens.

They’re at it again

Patreon changes its terms for the second time in less than three weeks.

Dispute resolution

To summarize: If you have a problem please talk to us, but you are limited in how you can resolve disputes. You waive your right to trial by jury and your right to participate in a class action proceeding.

We encourage you to contact us if you have an issue. If a dispute does arise out of these terms or related to your use of Patreon, and it cannot be resolved after you talk with us, then it must be resolved by arbitration. This arbitration must be administered by JAMS under the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures, except as expressly provided below. Judgment on the arbitration may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. Arbitrations may only take place on an individual basis. No class arbitrations or other other grouping of parties is allowed. By agreeing to these terms you are waiving your right to trial by jury or to participate in a class action or representative proceeding; we are also waiving these rights.

For creators and patrons who are consumers, we also follow the JAMS Policy on Consumer Arbitrations Pursuant to Pre-Dispute Clauses Minimum Standards of Procedural Fairness for consumer arbitrations done under these terms. For the purpose of an arbitration subject to the consumer standards, if any portion of these terms do not follow that standard, that portion is severed from these terms.

This clause does not limit either party’s ability to file an action in a court with jurisdiction to seek injunctive or other equitable relief for disputes relating to intellectual property, proprietary data or to enforce this dispute resolution clause, including your agreement not to assert claims related to the suspension or termination of another person’s account. In any such action, the court rather than an arbitrator must decide whether such a claim is arbitrable and must decide whether the party is entitled to the requested injunctive or other equitable relief.

This is rapidly threatening to move beyond comedy into farce… they just keep digging the hole deeper. Remember, these are the legal geniuses who, in the full knowledge that they had waived their right to participate in a group action, filed not one, but TWO group actions.

They also don’t seem to grasp that the relevant terms are those at the time that the event concerned took place, not when the legal action is taken. Also, they appear to have completely blown off their duty to notify their users of these changes, so if you’re a Patreon user, be sure to keep your notification emails from them and note how many days after the effective date it is.

It’s more than a bit strange how they keep trying to defend their deceptive practices by engaging in more of them. But it should be entirely clear to everyone at this point that if you’re desperately trying to change the rules again and again, you’re obviously not winning the game.

How to deal with a hit piece

Clay Travis follows Owen Benjamin’s lead in dealing with a Daily Beast hitpiece:

“OutKick recently added Dr. David Chao as a staff writer. Did you ask about the medical lawsuits and six-figure settlements, probations, accusations of “gross negligence” and malpractice, and/or the DUIs prior to hiring him? In the blog post announcing his arrival, why is this information omitted? Did Dr. Chao or someone representing him ask you or anyone at OutKick to exclude that information? Do you feel it’s relevant for your readers to have this information when reading his content?”

Dr. Chao is a licensed doctor in California. Given that he’s licensed to operate on people in this country, I felt comfortable with him writing for an opinion website.

Furthermore, he’s been profiled as an NFL injury expert in the New York Times recently, written for the San Diego Tribune for years prior to joining Outkick, and is cited as an NFL injury expert, thanks to his tenure as team physician of the San Diego Chargers, throughout the Internet.

He’s not remotely controversial.

We believe in the first amendment on this site, writers don’t tell other writers what they can and can’t say. And writers certainly don’t tell the owners of this site what we can and can’t say either.

“Jason Whitlock wrote a column describing Jaden McNeil as a “martyr” who was targeted for tweeting “politically incorrect” jokes about George Floyd. Jaden McNeil is a member of the openly racist “Groyper” movement. He also promotes, works with and praises white nationalists. How and why was this information left out and did you personally edit the column? Are all of the articles on OutKick edited or are staffers allowed to post stories on the site without review?”

I asked Whitlock to respond to this question since the writer didn’t email him directly, but asked me to comment on his column. Enjoy his response.

“Karen, I honestly find this line of questioning racist and emblematic of the systemic racism practiced by busybodies in the white alt-left movement. Let me translate what you just did: “Clay, Mr. White Folks, your negro writer is out of control and published an opinion that upstanding white people disagree with. Discipline and control your negro or we will.”

Karen, I’m a PARTNER at Outkick. Clay is not my overseer. He is my partner. All due respect to Clay, but I am the most accomplished journalist at Outkick. You could argue I’m the most accomplished sports journalist in America.

I’m offended you reached out to Clay and Dr. Chao directly with questions about their work, but in typical Karen fashion chose to report me to Mr. White Folks. Did you question Kansas State president Richard Myers for not mentioning Jaden McNeil’s alleged affiliation to white nationalists in Mr. Myers’ public critique of McNeil? Like 99.99 percent of America, I’ve never heard of the Groyper movement. When I was in college I was attracted to and attended events put on by the Nation of Islam, an organized and well-known black nationalist group.

Kids experiment with dumb shit. Karen, I am the wrong negro for you to be f–king with. Go sit down.”

Of course, this preemptive exposure response is only recommended for those with sizeable audiences. What is different about this sort of hit piece than the usual media inquiry is that it is usually going to be written whether you respond to the individual writing it or not, so preemptive exposure is an opportunity to both undermine the hit piece in advance as well as highlight the elements that the hit piece’s author obviously intends to omit.

It will be interesting to see if the Outkick piece, like the Big Bear piece, fails to run after being preemptively exposed.

The very best strategy, of course, is to refer the inquiry to my media relations expert, Pax Dickonson.

China is “stoking racial tensions”

Of course the Chinese are helping fan the flames of the demographic fire that is going to destroy the United States of America. Why wouldn’t they do so? The US military and its ability to intervene in Asia is the only thing that currently stands between China and the regional dominance it seeks, and if the USA collapses, China can avoid the need for a war with a very real possibility of turning into World War III.

China is stoking racial tensions in the United States, Fox News Asia analyst Gordon Chang stated Wednesday. In an interview on “America’s Newsroom,”  Chang pointed out that the reason the State Department said the Chinese consulate in Houston was ordered shut this week was that it was “involved in intellectual property theft” and because they “wanted to protect the information of U.S. individuals.”

“Also, there are stories that this consulate had links with protest groups in the United States providing financial and logistical support. That’s unconfirmed,” he added. “But, what is confirmed is that the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Communist Party’s global ties have been engaged in a malicious disinformation campaign, deliberately stoking racial tensions in the U.S.

“And, U.S. Customs has seized items coming from China this year that would be very handy for protesters,” Chang noted.

Of course, it would be considerably more meaningful if Fox News or anyone else in the mainstream media would also report honestly on the way another nation has been doing exactly the same thing since 1923.

Celler made his first important speech on the House floor during consideration of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924. Three years earlier, Congress had imposed a quota that limited immigration for persons of any nationality to 3 percent of that nationality present in the United States in 1910, with an annual admission limit of 356,000 immigrants. This national origin system was structured to preserve the ethnic and religious identity of the United States by reducing immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, thereby excluding many Jews, Catholics, among others. Celler was vehemently opposed to the Johnson-Reed Act, which passed the isolationist Congress and was signed into law. Celler had found his cause and for the next four decades he vigorously spoke out in favor of eliminating the national origin quotas as a basis for immigration restriction.

The Chinese may well finish the demolition of the USA, but they obviously are not the nation responsible for starting it.

Total insanity

I wouldn’t have even thought it was possible to SKI down K-freaking-2!

A super-athlete’s mission become the only person to ever descend the world’s most dangerous mountain on skis has been turned into a feature length documentary.

In 2018, Andrzej Bargiel made history when he clicked into his bindings 28,000 feet up the side of K2 in Pakistan and didn’t once take them off until he was safely off the mountain. Following a treacherous 60-hour ascent without supplemental oxygen, the Polish mountaineer had to make his way back down ‘as quickly as possible’ to escape the notorious ‘death zone’ above 8000m (26,200ft).

He then dodged ice falling ‘at the speed of bullets’ to reach the Messner Traverse, a barely-climbed narrow route with deep caverns on either side, and on to the crevasse-filled Kukuczka-Piotrowski route back to base camp.

Don’t ever count Europeans out. They aren’t just crazier than you think, they are crazier than you imagine.

Jason Whitlock won’t work on the SJW plantation

The ex-ESPN commentator calls out Mike Florio for SJW and extends support for Jets owner Woody Johnson:

I’m “deeply troubled” that a State Department official was “stunned” by Johnson’s comment on the importance of black fathers. I don’t know a single black person unconcerned with the general state of the black family. Seventy-five percent of black children are born to unwed mothers and raised in homes with an absent father.

Johnson’s “real challenge” statement is as controversial and insensitive as observing water’s ability to produce wetness.

But somehow Johnson is being analogized to disgraced and bigoted former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. ProFootballTalk founder and NBC Sunday Night Football contributor Mike Florio, who has never hired a black contributor to his website, raised the possibility of Johnson being forced out of the NFL….

Black people, we’re being set up and used. We’re pawns in a global political game. The attack on Woody Johnson is really an attack on Donald Trump. Johnson’s real crime was allegedly asking a British official about the possibility of The British Open Golf Championship being played at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.

Johnson is a Trump supporter, and Newspeak/Twitter has reduced Trump support to “systemic racism.”  Anti-black racism is now just a political ploy used by white liberals to grab political power. It’s the Democratic Northern Strategy.

Trust me, the purple-haired white liberals holding up Black Lives Matter signs and rioting in Portland and Seattle don’t give a f–k about black people. Those aren’t George Floyd’s friends or family members. Those are people chasing power they were denied in junior high and high school. Only a fool would think they’re going to share their new-won power.

Let’s face it, Woody Johnson has hired hundreds, if not thousands, of black employees. Mike Florio has never hired one. Who, then, is the racist?

Good news about women in combat

The good news is they can hit what they shoot at. The bad news is that they are shooting at their fellow US soldiers:

A U.S. Army M1A2 Abrams main battle tank has been reportedly shooting another tank during a training exercise at Fort Bliss. On July 20, an incident with friendly fire occurred at the Fort Bliss training ground in Texas during firing at moving targets. Some sources reported that one of the “Abrams” tanks, from a distance of 2600m, has shot a tank from his own Cavalry Regiment. One soldier was injured in an accident when the M1002 multi-purpose training round hit his tank. His tank commander and crew responded quickly to render aid.

But the media isn’t covering the whole story, and reportedly, all the soldiers involved have had their phones confiscated:

The big detail they are leaving out is that the tank doing the shooting was helmed by a brand new Female 2LT, who was the Tank Commander in charge of directing fire. And she put 2 MPAT T rounds in to her Platoon Sergeant’s tank, from 2600m away.