When the Mainstream Media Descends into Self-Parody

I just skimmed through a magazine article called (so help me this is true):

“How Joe Biden Is Positioning Himself as a Modern FDR”

It was published in what is left on-line of Time magazine and written by Charlotte Alter who apparently has either learned at the foot of her father Jonathan Alter  how to lie outrageously or is a congenital idiot.

Reading what Alter says about the similarities between Roosevelt and Creepy Uncle Joe is like some kind of fun house mirror that could turn a flawed but patriotic persona like FDR into the semblance of a congenital liar and moral leper like the grifting, influence peddling, hair-sniffing, shoulder-fondling, gollum-like sex predator that fathered something as degraded as Hunter Biden.

Now I know that the mainstream media is shameless and will say anything to aid the Democrats but what kind of morons do they think the American people are?  FDR was a master communicator that was elected four times to the presidency during the Great Depression and World War II.  Joe Biden can barely string a noun and verb together in a sentence and when he manages to do that the noun is invariably a mistake for some other subject.  Is he running against George Bush or Donald Trump?  Is he running for the Senate or the presidency?  Is it 1988 or 2020?

FDR was a power politician who was known to manipulate those around him to achieve his goals.  But Joe Biden is a just an out and out crook who has sold the influence that his offices as Senator and Vice President have allowed him.  And the culmination of that career of betraying his public office is on display on the hard drive of Hunter Biden’s laptop.  Hunter was Joe’s self-identified bagman for thirty years.  He collected the bribes and laundered them through ridiculously overpaid, no-show jobs for which he was absurdly unqualified.  He was paid $80,000 a month by Burisma, a Ukrainian oil company, when he had no knowledge about the petroleum industry and no knowledge about the Ukraine.  And just to make sure no one mistook him for an actual employee he never showed up in the Ukraine.

Just to be clear, I am not a big fan of FDR.  His handling of the Great Depression was disastrous.  His socialist policies in the long run have not been helpful to the financial health of the United States.  And his character was quite flawed.  But to compare FDR to Joe Biden is like comparing Augustus Caesar to Caligula.  We can agree that both men were Romans and there the comparison ends.  We can agree that FDR and Joe Biden were both born in the United States and that’s about it.

Instead of advocating to have Biden elevated to the White House we should be endeavoring to have him locked up in a prison or at best consigned to a mental institution where he can’t harm himself or anyone else.

I didn’t include a hyperlink to the article because I didn’t want to provide them with any clicks for this crap.  If you really have a strong stomach or enjoy absurdist humor just do an internet search with the title.  But you’d be more amused by stopping by the Babylon Bee.  It truly is amazing what the human mind can make up if rent money is provided as an incentive.  At least if you happen to be a shameless progressive.

Is a Million Dollars a Tweet Too Much?

The Senate is debating whether they should remove the Section 230 protection from the internet.  No, I would leave that status available to sites that warrant it.  What I would do is specifically prosecute Twitter, Facebook and Google for violating the equal protection rights of their users.  These companies run actual monopolies for the services they provide.  And the users who have political or social positions that do not align with those of the management of Twitter, Facebook and Google are being treated differently from everyone else based on these political and social opinions.

And to those who give the lame argument that Google, Facebook and Twitter are for profit companies and would never do something that was against their financial interests like disrespecting a large proportion of their user base, I’d say well let’s find out.  How about fining these companies a million bucks each time they delete a tweet or shadow ban a post?  Or how about a billion dollars when they de-platform a conservative channel for a supposed offense that isn’t actually illegal?  That would be a real test.  For that kind of money even I’d create a YouTube channel and try to get them to de-platform me.

No, forget all that.  These tech giants are an existential threat to all of us.  Declaring each of them a monopoly and crippling them is a better idea.  I’d have one of the judges that isn’t against us carve these creeps into little tiny pieces.  Or how about nationalize them.  Turn them into a utility that is heavily regulated by the government just like the phone companies are.  And that will allow us to rein in some of their worse excesses like harvesting our data and spying on us.  And anyone complaining about content would have to get a lawyer and try to sue in court to have content removed.

Of course, the much-vaunted algorithms would need to be opened up and exposed to the light of day.  All of the built-in bias against conservatives and Republicans would be there to see.  Can you imagine how great it would be to see a search on Donald Trump not have the top results be CNN and MSNBC?  It would be a revelation.

Let’s face it.  If you make money through e-commerce being banned by Facebook and Google is devastating.  It’s like what would have happened fifty years ago if AT&T would have been allowed to prevent someone from having a telephone line based on their political or religious affiliations.  It’s as if today the interstate highways could be closed to you just because you called the Bidens a treasonous crime family.  It would be as if the television and cable channels were allowed to restrict campaign ads based on which candidate they favored.  Oh, wait a minute, forget that last one.  They’re actually doing it now.

And finally, I want this done because I know that both the President and I would spend at least a month crowing about it on the internet.  I would celebrate by going on all three platforms and mocking the management relentlessly.  I would welcome back all the re-platformed right-wingers and perform virtual victory dances in the most obnoxious and annoying ways I can think of.  And I’m sure the President will do the same.  So please President Trump, get the Justice department on the hop.  Make this a priority and makes these bastards sweat like they’ve done to countless people on the Right.  Here’s another great Christmas present for all of us.  Even before they get carved up make them stop the abuse.  Beat them like an army mule and make them say uncle and then beat’em again just for good measure.

The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) – An OCF Classic Movie Review

I have to admit I have mixed feeling about calling this a classic movie review.  Even though it falls within the “Golden Age” of Hollywood time period “The Beast with Five Fingers” is hardly a masterpiece.  But a rose by any other name would smell as sweet and vice versa.  Warner Bros. still had Peter Lorre on the payroll from his days in Casablanca and other more mainstream titles so it made sense to have him as the bug-eyed maniac in this little gem.

The story takes place in a small town in Italy circa the year 1900.  Francis Ingram is a rich man who until recently was an acclaimed concert pianist.  He had suffered a stroke that left all but his right arm extremely weakened so that he needed a wheelchair to get around his house.  With him at the time of the story are a circle of people that assist him in various ways.  Conrad Ryler is a friend who has agreed to transcribe music into notes that can be played on the piano with one hand.  Hillary Cummins (played by Peter Lorre) is Ingram’s manservant.  He has attended to Ingram’s household chores for years in exchange for access to Ingram’s library of books on occult studies.  He is more than a little nuts.  Julie Holden is a recent addition to the household.  Since his stroke, she has been Ingram’s nurse.  She has been extremely kind to him in his illness for which he is extremely grateful.  But she has become terribly worn by the job and wishes to leave.  She and Conrad are also in love and planning to leave the town to get married.  Ingram’s lawyer is also in house, a man named Duprex who has just finished drafting Ingram’s new will.  All the above residents of Ingram’s home are there to witness his new will.  But this crystalizes in Julie’s mind the need for her to leave Ingram’s employ and she and Conrad go out into the garden to plan their departure.  Hilary overhears their plans and communicates them to Ingram.  But Ingram flies into a rage believing it to be jealousy at Julie’s preferred status with the master.  He grabs Hilary by the throat with his good hand and practically strangles him to death before Hilary escapes his grip.  Ingram fires Hilary and tells him to leave the next morning.

But that night there is a wild storm outside and the sound of the wind and banging shutters wakes Ingram and he manages to get into his wheelchair by himself and heads into the second-floor hall looking for Julie to help him.  Somehow, he becomes disoriented and ends up falling down the long staircase in his wheelchair and breaks his neck and dies.

The local police chief or as he is titled “Commissario” Ovidio Castanio (played comically with a Chico Marx Italian accent by J. Carrol Naish) investigates the death and declares it an accident.  The will is read and it turns out that Julie is the heir to all of Ingram’s property.  At this point Ingram’s relatives, his brother-in-law and nephew, Raymond and Donald Arlington show up and are unhappy about the new will.  They feel that the will is debatable.  They make it clear that they want to get possession of the estate and liquidate it for cash.  When they mention selling the library Hilary becomes unhinged and says that the books were bought for him and no one will take them away.  We find that he believes that esoteric knowledge found in these books will allow him to possess untold powers over the mysteries of the universe, or something.  Anyway, he’s really incensed at the Arlingtons.  They on the other hand take practical steps to gain possession of Ingram’s estate.  They cut a deal with the lawyer Duprex to have him use his legal acumen and his knowledge of Ingram’s mental state to have the will overturned in return for a third of the value of the estate.

But a funny thing happens that night.  A light is seen shining in the mausoleum where Ingram is interred and later on Duprex is murdered, strangled by a powerful hand that leaves the same kind of marks that Hilary got from Ingram.  Upon examination it is discovered that Ingram’s corpse in its tomb is holding a knife in his paralyzed hand and his good hand has been cut off and is missing.  A small broken window and hand prints on the ground out side the mausoleum makes it scientifically certain that the dead man cut off his own hand and that the dead hand is navigating about and strangling people and also by the way playing the piano in the Ingram house.  Well sure.

Commissario Castanio investigates the murder and confirms that fingerprints on the throat of the dead man and several other places are of Ingram.  Later on, Donald Arlington is unsuccessfully strangled, allegedly by the hand and the whole household is starting to get spooked enough to want to bail on the house for safer lodgings.  At about this time Hilary witnesses the hand playing the piano and after capturing it he nails it to a piece of wood to slow it down somewhat.  Not everyone believes him.  But when Donald Arlington recovers and opens up his uncle’s safe, he finds the hand nailed to the board.  He panics and runs out of the house with Conrad in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile Julie confronts Hilary with proof that she has that he was the one who strangled Duprex and Donald in order to keep them from getting possession of his precious books.  Now we learn that Hilary is guilty of the crimes but he really does believe that the hand he cut off of Ingram is animate and committing the murders.  But Julie’s clear portrayal of his actions convinces him he must kill her too.  He attempts it but she fends him off and locks herself into her bedroom.  But of course, there is another door and for whatever reason she was too stupid to lock it.  As he gets ready to stab her this time, she convinces Hilary that she can hear the hand playing the piano downstairs.  Hilary snaps back into his crazier persona and promises to save her from the hand.  He heads downstairs whereupon Julie locks both doors and throws herself on her bed and has a breakdown.  Now why she is sure there isn’t a third door is unknown to me.

At this point we get to watch Lorre’s Hilary go completely bonkers.  He sees the hand at the piano and grabs it and starts grappling with it.  Eventually he throws it in the fire place and tries to keep it in there with a poker.  But for some reason eventually he just sort of sits there with his bulging eyes and does nothing while the hand crawls up his shirt, grabs him by the throat and strangles him to death.  Loser.

The next day Commissario Castanio shows Conrad the string that Hilary used to trigger a recording of Ingram playing the piano that everybody attributed to the hand.  Everything else could be explained by Hilary walking around with the severed hand and strangling people.  Julie decides to give the estate to the Arlingtons and she and Conrad get exit visas from the Commisario to start their new lives together elsewhere.  At the very end of the film a servant girl starts screaming because she sees a glove on the staircase.  The Commisario picks up his glove and puts it on and says how silly to think a hand can move on its own.  At which point in the close up shot we see a hand coming up to his throat.  Pulling the shot back we see it’s his hand.  Hilarity ensues.

This thing is almost silly enough to be an Abbott and Costello horror movie.  But I would say Peter Lorre’s disturbed manner, voice and face adds just enough creepiness to make it interesting.  Your mileage may definitely vary.  Let’s call it mildly fun.

Shut Down the FBI

Say whatever you like, if the Hunter Biden laptop has elicited no action from the FBI in nine months then we are officially a banana republic.  There is no way to paper over or hedge on the fact that they are refusing to investigate obvious influence peddling and corruption at the highest levels.  What are we supposed to believe, that Hunter Biden is really James Bond investigating international crime by appearing to be a sexual degenerate crack addict and accepting bribes for his demented father?  If a Republican had a tiny fraction of the evidence against him that Biden does, he’d have been hauled into court months ago to the accompaniment of media headlines branding all conservatives criminals.

And we’re supposed to believe that the Democrat party would have allowed Joe Biden to accept the Democrat nomination for President with this information floating around the government for over nine months?  The only explanation I can come up with is that the FBI is so bought and sold that the Democrats didn’t even sweat for a minute that any of this would be allowed to surface or in any way endanger the candidacy of Creepy Uncle Joe.

Where the hell is Christopher Wray to explain this outrage?  Where the hell is his boss Bill Barr?  Doesn’t it seem perfectly clear that if there is a reasonable explanation for why Hunter Biden isn’t on trial that they should be providing it right about now?  Based on everything I’ve read and heard Wray should have been fired by Barr and replaced with Rudy Giuliani at least temporarily to begin the prosecution of the Biden crime family and to begin the long hard process of emptying out the FBI.

I know that fixing the FBI wouldn’t end the corruption in Washington.  The CIA, the NSA and the State Department are all rats’ nests of corruption and anti-American globalism.  But the FBI is the single most dangerous weapon that the Left uses against its enemies among the deplorables.  Their expertise at gaming the various laws and their connections to the corrupt leftist judges that they feed their cases to makes them a terrible weapon to have turned on anyone even among the rich and powerful, never mind private individuals without resources or connections.

I was saying before any of this broke out that as soon as the election confirms President Trump for another term, he must confront Bill Barr with the ultimatum of either prosecuting the Russiagate offenders immediately or resigning.  Now I think the day after the election he should fire Barr.  It’s obvious there is no equal justice to be had in Washington D.C.  General Flynn is railroaded for imaginary crimes that even the Justice Department admitted didn’t exist but actual criminals whose crimes are documented and outrageously illegal are not only ignored but their co-conspirators are among the highest elected officials in the land.  The CIA needs to be forced to uncover the off-shore accounts of the Bidens and all their criminal partners and this whole outrage needs to be punished in a way that will put the fear of God into every dirty politician in this country.  Russia and China are adversaries of the United States.  Accepting bribes and other payments from them is tantamount to treason.  Joe Biden is a dirty crook and instead of moving into the White House he should be moving into Leavenworth for the remainder of his unnatural life.

Aside from any considerations of who wins this election, the American people have to come to grips with the fact that equal treatment under the law has been proven to be an illusion.  The rich and powerful on the Left are protected by a praetorian guard that includes the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that protect the status quo and make sure that anyone who shouldn’t be in charge isn’t.  If we ever hope to become free men again, we will have to find a champion willing to pull the teeth of this awful monster and then put it down.  That’s what has to be done.