CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: NASDAQ Nancy holds up bills on congressional trading while the insider rot spreads.

SPARE ME: GQ and the “New Masculinity.”

A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: Petition To Remove El Paso Democrat DA Moves Forward.

A petition to remove El Paso District Attorney (DA) Yvonne Rosales was approved by Odessa Judge Tyron D. Lewis on Wednesday. The information was confirmed by defense attorney Omar Carmona, who originally filed the petition on August 24.

Rosales, a Democrat, has been in office since she was elected in 2020, taking over for 30-year DA Jaime Esparza, also a Democrat.

The petition for removal comes on the heels of claims of “official misconduct” and “incompetence.” Both of these allegations are grounds for removal under Texas Local Government Code 87.

Rosales is overseeing the capital murder trial of Patrick Crusius, who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019. Crusius’ trial is set for 2024.

The petition accuses Rosales of ”mishandling” of the mass murder trial. Two key prosecutors, Assistant District Attorney John Briggs and Special Prosecutor Monica Barron-Auger, were removed from their positions on August 22.

The DA’s office released a statement on the matter that reads, “Following recent events, a change was necessary. We wish Mr. Briggs the best.”

Rosales also came under fire from District Court Judge Sam Medrano after she informed the Dallas Morning News of a trial date. Following this, the judge issued a gag order on Rosales and everyone involved in the case, saying, “This case is not going to be tried in the media but will be tried in a court of law.”

“Never in my 26 years on the bench, have I had to resort to the order that I have this morning entered in this case.”

Medrano also berated her for not doing enough to prosecute the case, stating, “The record should reflect that since you took office, not one pleading, not one motion, not one request, not one business record, not one proposed jury questionnaire, not one subpoena duces tecum, not one witness list, not one expert witness list has been filed by your office.”

Nice work.

SOD OFF, SWAMPY: Motorist plays bagpipes at road blockers.

SO MY FACEBOOK FEED IS SUDDENLY OVERRUN WITH ADS FOR DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES: Fetterman, Charlie Crist, even Al Franken (?). Either their targeting algorithm is horribly broken, or the Democrats are desperate.

Okay, technically Disgraced #MeToo Groper Al Franken is shilling for Admiral Mike Franken, who is running against Chuck Grassley because, well, I guess retirement is boring and he’s used to working for the government. But still.

BATTEN DOWN: Hurricane warning issued for Puerto Rico ahead of Tropical Storm Fiona.

HAHA: No bueno: Jill Biden avoids public comments about Hispanic Heritage Month after ‘breakfast tacos’ remark.

HMM: Congress asks for more transparency into New Shepard failure investigation.

OPEN THREAD: It’s like Open Line Friday except it happens every night.

A QUAD AXEL SOUNDS LIKE A BIG TRUCK, BUT NO: Teenage figure skater Ilia Malinin lands first quad axel in competition history – video.

I REMEMBER WHEN THE PRESS WENT GAGA OVER THE BUSH GIRLS CONSUMING ALCOHOL IN COLLEGE: Hunter Biden appeared to beg Maryland criminal to mail drugs to LA hotel: report.

TYPICAL LEFTIST — WON’T PROSECUTE ORDINARY CRIMINALS, JUST POLITICAL ENEMIES: District Attorney Gascon accused of vindictively charging LA sheriff’s official with crime.

Gascon also seems to be trying hard to look like a Bond villain, judging from the accompanying picture.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BEGINS TO REHABILITATE ORANGE HITLER: Jamelle Bouie writes that Ron DeSantis lacks the ‘soft edges and eccentricity’ of the actual Donald Trump.

Yes, when viewed from the perspective of partisan media, DeSantis looks almost unstoppable. But to a typical person — someone who may have heard about these stunts but doesn’t know much about DeSantis otherwise — he looks a lot like a bully, someone willing to play high-stakes games with people’s lives for the sake of his own ego and advancement.

Well, you might say, Donald Trump is a bully, too. Yes, he is. But Donald Trump is also a lifelong celebrity with a public persona that is as much about “The Apprentice” and even “Home Alone 2” as it is about his political career. What’s more, Trump has the skills of a celebrity. He’s funny, he has stage presence, and he has a kind of natural charisma. He can be a bully in part because he can temper his cruelty and egoism with the performance of a clown or a showman. He can persuade an audience that he’s just kidding — that he doesn’t actually mean it.

Exit quote: “Ah the ol’ ‘every subsequent republican is worse than the last one’ trope. You can set your watch by it.”

Yes we can!, as a legendary community organizer liked to say.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: The 2022 Ig Nobel Prizes.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: U.S. drug shortages put people with life-threatening illness at risk.

BIDEN DEMANDS WHITE SUPREMACY, EVEN IF IT’S MADE UP: “To the best of my knowledge, I have never met a white supremacist, so this doesn’t surprise me. What ought to surprise all of us is that the FBI’s politicized hierarchy is so willing to do the corrupt bidding of the Democratic Party.”

Should it surprise us, at this point? Should it really?

SHOCKER: EV Sales Are Up, But So Are Lithium Prices.

HOW IT STARTED: Immigration Issue Stirs Heartfelt Response on Martha’s Vineyard.

—The Vineyard Gazette, April 6th, 2017.

How it’s going:

Martha's Vineyard residents cheer as illegal immigrants are led to a bus to a military facility pic.twitter.com/0iLDln2Pmn

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 17, 2022

FDR would be proud of today’s “Progressives!”

JESSE SINGAL: How the Media Fell for A Racism Sham.

Last month, Rachel Richardson—the only black starter on the women’s volleyball team at Duke University—leveled a shocking accusation. She said that during her team’s August 26 match against Brigham Young University, fans inside the BYU arena in Provo, Utah inundated her with racist abuse and threats.

After the match, 19-year-old Richardson told her godmother, Lesa Pamplin, about the incident. Pamplin is a criminal defense attorney running for a county judgeship in Texas, and was not at the game—but the next day, she published a tweet that rocketed the story to national attention: “My Goddaughter is the only black starter for Dukes [sic] volleyball team. While playing yesterday, she was called a [n-word] every time she served. She was threatened by a white male that told her to watch her back going to the team bus. A police officer had to be put by their bench.”

The tweet is no longer available, but it racked up 185,000 likes before it was archived. LeBron James himself responded: “you tell your Goddaughter to stand tall, be proud and continue to be BLACK!!! We are a brotherhood and sisterhood!  We have her back. This is not sports.”

* * * * * * * *

Unsurprisingly, major media outlets were all over this story. The Times’ coverage set the tone, with the Washington Post and CNN and Sports Illustrated and NPR all publishing similar articles, alongside the predictable think pieces. The incident also had consequences for BYU sports more generally. The head coach of women’s basketball at the University of South Carolina canceled its home opener against BYU. A match between Duke and Rider University’s women’s volleyball teams—scheduled to be played at the BYU arena—was moved to a nearby high school gym in order to provide both teams “the safest atmosphere,” according to Duke’s Director of Athletics, Nina King.

For millions of people watching this story unfold, this was yet another example of the ineradicable stain of American racism, of just how little progress we’ve really made.

Except it didn’t happen.

There is no evidence that the chain of events described by Richardson and her family members occurred. There isn’t even evidence a single slur was hurled at her and her teammates, let alone a terrifying onslaught of them.

All the journalists who credulously reported on this event were wrong—and it was an embarrassing kind of wrong, because the red flags were large, numerous, and flapping loudly. Richardson and her family members reported that racial slurs had been hurled with abandon, loudly and repeatedly, in a crowded gym filled with more than 5,000 people. But the journalists covering this incident never stopped to notice how odd it was that none of these vile slurs were captured by any of the thousands of little handheld cameras in the gym at the time, nor on the bigger cameras recording the match. Nor did they find it strange that in the days following the incident, not a single other eyewitness came forward—none of Richardson’s black teammates, and none of the players for either team.

Read the whole thing. As Roger Kimball wrote when Jussie Smollett’s story broke in 2019, “The less hate there is in the United States, the more hate crimes must be manufactured in order to keep the Fraternal Order of Victims afloat.”

GREAT MOMENTS IN LEFTIST AMNESIA:

Shot: AOC says governors sending migrant buses to liberal cities are committing ‘crimes against humanity.’

Republican governors who are shipping migrants to liberal cities are committing “crimes against humanity,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fumed.

“It’s appalling that far-right politicians seem to have decided that fall before an election is their regularly scheduled time to commit crimes against humanity on refugees,” she said in a tweet Friday evening. “Don’t normalize this. Lying to & trafficking people for TV and clicks isn’t politics as usual. It’s abuse.”

For months, Texas has been busing migrants to so-called “sanctuary cities” like New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago in what they say is an effort pressure the Biden administration for more action to secure the US border. At least 11,000 new migrants have landed in the Big Apple since May.

—The New York Post, today.

Chaser: Amid border surge, Biden admin plans to send migrants to cities deeper inside U.S., starting with L.A., say internal documents.

The new model would use federal funds to send migrants to shelters in cities farther inside the country before they go to their final destinations. Besides Los Angeles, they will be sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico; Houston; Dallas; and other cities. DHS is working with shelters in each of the cities in advance of moving migrants. The agency’s Southwest Border Coordination Center, which combines officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP and other agencies, is coordinating the effort.

—NBC News, June 8th.

SELF-DEFENSE: Building the Combat Mindset.

READER FAVORITE: Vont 2 Pack LED Camping Lanterns. #CommissionEarned

RIP: Legendary Hollywood tough guy Henry Silva dead at 95. “Actor Henry Silva, known for playing gangsters, goons and henchmen in hundreds of films including ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and ‘The Manchurian Candidate,’ died Wednesday. He was 95.”

WELL, GOOD: Topical ointment made from tree sap found to be effective in treating skin wound infections.

DISPATCHES FROM THE “IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN WE DO IT” PARTY: Flashback: Gavin Newsom Shipped Homeless People Out of San Francisco With ‘One-Way Tickets.’

Governor Gavin Newsom sent a letter to Merrick Garland on Thursday requesting the Attorney General look into “kidnapping” charges for those involved in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ effort to send illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

But if shipping people out of state to try and give them a better life amounts to “kidnapping,” Newsom has some explaining to do.

In July of 2019, SFist published an article critiquing a program called ‘Homeward Bound,’ an effort initiated by Newsom as mayor of San Francisco in 2004.

The program paid for bus tickets out of town, presumably with the destination being to friends and family willing to take the homeless individual in.

And then there are all of Joe Biden’s late night flights for illegal immigrants: Biden Encourages Massive Illegal Immigration and Tries To Hide It With Secret Flights.