In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

I did a quick web search on Sam Brinton in preparing yesterday's post, especially in the context of his felony charges for stealing designer luggage and the doubts the gay community has aired about him since that scandal broke. Wikipedia provides a somewhat more complete account of his career , but as far as I can tell, it still omits critical issues. Using his preferred they/them pronouns, it says Brinton graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in nuclear engineering and vocal music. While attending the university, they organized its first Pride march in 2010. They have a dual Master of Science degree in nuclear science and engineering (technology and policy program) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. . . ., In 2016, Brinton was a senior policy analyst for the Bipartisan Policy Center, lobbying for updated regulations so nuclear waste can be used to power advanced nuclear reactors. In February 2020, the website of Deep Isolation, a Berkel...

The poster above is is from just one recent controversy involving school curricula that effectively groom children for all the variants of pansexualism. In this particular case, New Jersey mother Angela Reading revealed she was told she was being 'monitored' by local law enforcement, after airing concerns about posters hanging at the entrance of her seven-year-old's school in North Hanover Township. Reportedly part of an assignment to create a 'safe space' for students, the colorful art installations contain language that tout different sorts of sexuality, including the virtues of being both 'poly-' and 'pansexual' - all scrawled in children's handwriting. The added wrinkle is the woman "revealed cops became privy to her since-deleted Facebook post after being tipped [off] by a lieutenant colonel at nearby military base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, who took issue with the post." The military official - a senior staffer at the New Jerse...

The photo above has caused a stir this morning on several right-wing platforms. "Bonchie" at Red State has the conventonal take: Notice anything? If you are politically astute and have paid attention to leftwing rhetoric over the last decade or so, what’s wrong with the picture will jump out immediately: Everyone is white. Well, to be fair, there does appear to be one woman of Asian ancestry, but regardless, I’ve been assured that this ratio of whiteness is proof of systemic racism. They're represented as the female Capitol press corps, surrounding outgoing Speaker Pelosi. Almost all of them have the exact same hairstyle, the 1960s Joan Baez that Ted Bundy is said to have favored, in which Ms Baez herself is seen at left, altthough what's puzzling is that Ms Baez has moved on, as shown below right. Indeed, they all have somewhat dull facial expressions with phony smiles, and they're all dressed in something like the minimalist upper-class style one might ...

I wasn't surprised when Time chose Zelensky as its "person" of the year -- in fact, several days ago, I assumed the choice had already been published, and I just hadn't seen it, Says a lot about Time these days. What struck me most was the kitschiness of the portrait, the Kennedyesque visionary stare into the distance that in fact would have worked 60 years ago, but of course, we're in 2022. The other thing that hit me a moment later was remembering last year's choice for woman of the year, Admiral Levine. President Zelensky is a person ; Admiral Levine is a woman , which of course she is not. In fact, Elon Musk just withdrew the Babylon Bee's suspension from Twitter for maintaining just this. I was briefly tempted to call Time 's successive choices inconsistent, but on a moment's reflection, I realized it wasn't inconsistent, it was just two-spirited. Recall that the Old Left saw the Soviet Union as the authoritative manifestation of ...

Whittaker Chambers made the point in Witness , almost in passing, that up to the 1920s, German was the language of international socialism. But once the Bolsheviks consolidated power in Russia, that position passed almost immediately to Russian. Chambers's sympathies strike me as having remained with a more German brand of socialism throughout his career as a spy, which may explain his eventual defection. But I think this also reflects a basic conflict on the Left, which might be characterized as the idealists vs the Tankies. According to this site , A Tankie is an apologist for the violence and crimes against humanity perpetrated by twentieth-century Marxist-Leninist regimes, particularly the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin (1924 - 1953). More broadly, the term may refer to any leftist who is perceived to support or defend authoritarian regimes on the basis that they are enemies of the United States. This can include regimes that are not and do not claim to be communist suc...

PLEASE CONFIRM: A user claims that they spotted Caroline Ellison at Ground Support Coffee on West Broad in SoHo Manhattan at 8:15 AM. This would mean she is not in Hong Kong and is in NY not in custody. pic.twitter.com/QUduYO9GfZ — Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 4, 2022 According to this story, The citizen journalist also shared pictures of messages sent that also said a source was “99%” sure “it’s her.” The message also says there’s an “Alameda person” with her. In addition to the confirmations from the barista behind the counter, there’s also the sighting of a Golden Doodle puppy pictured at the bottom of the ostensible Ellison’s feet. FTX and Alameda executives shared a Golden Doodle pup called “Gopher.” SBF recently tweeted about Gopher before FTX collapsed. . . . People also shared street maps showing that the coffee and sandwich shop was really close to the New York Attorney’s Office and the FBI. “After a close analysis, she’s snitching on Sam,” one person...

I continue to be amazed that writers on the right-wing blogs are actually paid for their output. Some guy who goes by "Bonchie" at Red State and apparently has a full time job there posed this question about Sam Bankman-Fried yesterday. My only answer has to be that google is your friend. Let's look at equivalent cases. Kenneth Lay's company, Enron, went bankrupt in 2001. It wasn't until 2004 that he was indicted by a grand jury for his role in the company's failure. The decline of Elizabeth Holmes's company, Theranos, began with adverse reporting in 2015 . It wasn't until 2018 that a federal grand jury indicted Holmes on fraud charges. The closest parallel case is Bernard Madoff. On December 10, 2008, Madoff's sons Mark and Andrew told authorities that their father had confessed to them that his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme. According to the Wikipedia entry, "The following day, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation a...