Excerpt from Alaric Dearment article on abovethelaw.com, posted on 5.27: “In their zeal to boost Reade’s accusation and lend credence to her claims, people like podcaster Katie Halper, Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson and many others effectively presumed Biden’s guilt. But mounting evidence has raised serious doubts about the veracity of Reade’s allegation and her own credibility — mounting evidence uncovered, I should add, by professionally trained journalists who actually knew what they were doing.

“To be sure, no concrete proof –- in the form of damning or exonerating documentary or photographic evidence –- has surfaced of whether Biden is guilty or innocent, or of whether Reade’s allegation is true or false. Because of that, only a fair and impartial examination can determine whether the totality of evidence at hand favors or disfavors her allegation or remains inconclusive. But this isn’t really about Reade, Biden, or sexual assault — it’s about how activist journalism is ill-equipped to provide such an examination, and how its poor handling of the Reade story is a shining example of that.

Meanwhile, N.Y. Times columnists Michelle Goldberg, Frank Bruni and Ross Douthat have assessed the all-but-total collapse of Tara Reade‘s accusation of sexual assault against Joe Biden. Here’s an alternate link.

Despite Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey calling for now-fired Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin to be charged with having murdered George Floyd…Chauvin having clearly ended Floyd’s life by keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck until asphyxiation occured…

Despite the obvious, authorities haven’t charged Chauvin because, I’m assuming, certain elements within the Minneapolis police department and judicial system have resisted because they’re persuaded it would be rash or bad for police morale or some such hooey.

No one believes that the other three officers involved in the incident — Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng — should be charged, but Chauvin definitely needs to pay the piper.

“I’ve wrestled with, more than anything else over the last 36 hours, one fundamental question: Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?” Frey said in a news briefing. “If you had done it, or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now. And I cannot come up with a good answer to that.”

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“But the film closest to my heart…the one that really rings my deep emotional bell after all these years…well, there’re two, really. Jaws 4: The Revenge and, of course, The Swarm.”

Our Tijuana dental work completed by 3 pm, we arrived at Poco Cielo Hotel (south of Puerto Nuevo, even further south of Rosarito) at 4:10 pm. We were walking on the beach by 5:30 pm.

This isn’t a good thing to admit, but we melted when we realized that Dimitry’s original La Fonda restaurant, which is right next door, was allowing customers to sit inside and order. It was the first time we’d been to an eatery since late February.

We’re bad people for having done so, we realize, but the place was nearly vacant and the waiters were so grateful we’d arrived. Plus we could sense that God wasn’t frowning at us.

We sat on the outdoor patio at dusk, overlooking the crashing surf and almost weeping about how wonderful it felt to be ourselves again. We apologize to all of the Virusbros out there who are no doubt seething with rage as they read these words.

And forget The Disney Channel…not this horse.

And I don’t mean the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There’s a phrase below that should read “in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

I’m sorry but it’s time once again to hit the Baja Oral Center. Tatiana and I are currently in the waiting room. All masked and gloved up, Elton John softly playing, antiseptic to the max. Post-procedure we’re heading 50 minutes south to Hotel Poco Cielo, which has moderately fast wifi,

Carl Foreman‘s The Victors (’63) is apparently unobtainable in any home format — no streaming, no DVD or Bluray, nothing. There was only a British DVD in the wrong aspect ratio and wrong running time (146 minutes as opposed to the original 175) that is no longer available.

I never saw it, but the general thematic idea was that “war darkens and destroys and reduces everything to cinders and everyone to despair.” Or something in that realm. The big signature moment was the execution for cowardice scene [below]. Sexuality (vaguely envelope-pushing for ’63) was used as a selling point.

Costarring George Hamilton, Vincent Edwards, Albert Finney, Melina Mercouri, Jeanne Moreau, Eli Wallach, Romy Schneider, Elke Sommer and Michael Callan.

It was a financial bust but a “serious” film. I wouldn’t mind seeing it.

This passage from Terence Blanchard‘s score for Da 5 Bloods is mainstream orchestral. Solemn, going for gut sadness, nothing ironic or twitchy, etc. For African American veterans, the Vietnam War teemed with conflict and trauma and all kinds of random hell. Time to open that box again.

…because Twitter management, in the wake of Trump’s bullshit claims about fraudulent mail-voting plus his imaginary Joe Scarborough murder allegation, actually grew a backbone.

I’ve never been one of those “Walker died in Alcatraz and so Point Blank is just a last dying fever dream of revenge” type of guys. I insist that Walker, despite two or three gunshot wounds, was strong enough to swim from Alcatraz Island to the Embarcadero, and that he somehow found his way to a good hospital without the cops getting wind. And then three or four months later and fully healed, he bought himself a spiffy new wardrobe to go with his new silver hair color (which was definitely darker before he was plugged), and then arranged to meet Keenan Wynn on that Alcatraz tourist boat. And then he flew to Los Angeles. Walker lives!