The Daily Gouge Archive, Monday, April 6th, 2020

On April 7, 2020, in Uncategorized, by magoo1310

It’s Monday, April 6th, 2020…but before beginning, we offer yet another example of the execrable result of contemporary journalistic standards mixed with increasingly self-absorbed subjects, as the misnamed Intelligencer gives credence to…

Matthew Broderick’s sister claims she got preferential coronavirus treatment: ‘I feel evil for saying that’

“Matthew Broderick’s sister, Rector Janet Broderick, is opening up about her experience obtaining coronavirus care. Janet recently spoke to New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, where she opened up about her scary encounter with the novel virus that put her in the intensive care unit.

After suffering symptoms, Janet said she went to the hospital, where it took five hours to obtain a coronavirus test, which was administered before her symptoms worsened, including a high fever and low level of oxygen. While she said she’s now “totally getting better,” she felt she was “close to death” while in the ICU, even planning her own funeral and video chatting with her children.

Janet claimed her diligent hospital care may be due to her being the sister of Matthew Broderick, star of stage and screen. Asked by the outlet: “Did you get preferential treatment being a religious leader and Matthew Broderick’s sister?” Janet responded: “Yes, but I feel evil for saying that.”

“I think I’m absolute living proof that this system is completely corrupt,” Janet stated, before further claiming: “My GP didn’t know I was Matthew Broderick’s sister and didn’t care very much. But as soon as I got ahold of the guy at the hospital who knew who Matthew was, I was given the name of the head of the emergency room.”

Janet explained that she believes the people she works with would not have been given the name of the head of the emergency room at all — or would be ignored if they had.

“I think there is no question and it breaks my heart,” she said of receiving preferential treatment. “My God, I hope this causes us to take some kind of look at how we are handling medicine in this country. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?“

Sorry Janet, but all this only causes us to take any kind of look at is your status as a self-impressed, undoubted douche nozzle who’s somehow come to believe anyone other than you gives a flying fart about who your brother might be. Hells bells, every Google search result about you says the same thing: Janet Broderick Kraft is an Episcopal priest who is best known for being the sister of American actor Matthew Broderick.

In other words…

So much about this sophistry masquerading as a “reporting” is so wrong.

(1). Would it be too much to ask her holiness provide any proof whatsoever …other than, of course, her thoughts and beliefs…she received preferential treatment? After all, despite being “given the name of the head of the emergency room” once she got “hold of the guy at the hospital who knew who Matthew was“, Saint Sister-of-Matthew STILL waited five hours for her Wuhan Virus test. What did those unrelated to Matthew Broderick wait: six hours?!?

(2). Did she personally witness others NOT receiving treatment so that she could; and if so, as a religious “leader“, why did Saint Sister-of-Matthew not insist they receive treatment prior to any being given her?

(3). Since when does being a simple Episcopal priest make you a religious “leader”?!? By that definition, every Southern Baptist pastor, Jewish Rabbi (do they come any other way?!?) and/or Roman Catholic Priest is a religious “leader”.

Here’s the juice: Janet Kraft, aka Saint Sister-of-Matthew, no more received “preferential” healthcare treatment owing to her relationship to a fading Hollywood star than we’d back Cousin Rico giving odds on…

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, courtesy of Balls Cotton, the efforts at misrepresentation and misreporting by the Progressive powers-that-be on Capitol Hill and in the MSM notwithstanding, we wholeheartedly agree with the recommendation of The Weichert Report:

Don’t Make a Hero Out of Captain Brett Crozier

“By now, those of us deemed non-essential for society’s proper operation during this time of pandemic have probably seen something online or in the news about the purportedly “heroic” US Navy Captain Brett Crozier and his four-paged letter pleading for help for his coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Presently, 100 crewmembers of the Theodore Roosevelt‘s complement of 5,000 sailors have tested positive for coronavirus. One-thousand of the ship’s crew have been offloaded to nearby Guam to be put into isolation, with another 2,700 expected to be removed from the ship for quarantine by the week’s end. A meager ten percent of the crew will remain onboard the leviathan warship in order to maintain its nuclear reactor, maintain a fire suppression squadron should trouble erupt, and keep the all-important galley open. That I am even able to write this with certainty (because this information has been released to press outlets, such as Axios) is a grotesque failure of operational security.

Here is what Foreign Policy assessed recently:

While top officials insisted Wednesday that the remaining crew aboard the ship would be able to respond to a crisis, the Navy’s decision to offload most of the USS Roosevelt has created a strain on the carrier fleet, as the USS Ronald Reagan is also docked and undergoing maintenance. The coronavirus has spread to at least 93 sailors aboard the Roosevelt, senior Navy officials said Wednesday. The Pentagon has not confirmed the initial source of the outbreak, though the ship made a port visit to Vietnam in early March as the novel coronavirus spread across Asia. (Seriously?!?)

…It makes sense that Captain Crozier would want to seek help from his commanding officers.

Yet, here’s the rub: Captain Crozier, clearly–understandably–concerned with the lives of his crew wrote a detailed letter, a combination of complaint and distress call, to his commanders in Washington, D.C. The key problem is, according to the Department of the Navy, Captain Crozier did not relay this information through “secure channels.” He sent his four-paged letter “far and wide” according the US Navy.

In other words, a man who controls one of the most expensive and powerful weapons in America’s mighty arsenal leaked what is ordinarily highly classified information to the public. Specifically, his letter ended up in the pages of the ordinarily military-bashing San Francisco Chronicle.

Make no mistake: this is precisely what Captain Crozier intended.

Contrary to what some may believe, a captain in the United States Navy has a first duty to the country rather than the crew. Part of that first duty means protecting critical information about the vulnerabilities of his ship.

…Thanks to the commanding officer of the Theodore Roosevelt, the Chinese, Russians, North Koreans, and Iranians now all know that America’s ubiquitous form of power projection has been weakened. Sure, other carriers can be called to replace the stricken carrier. But that will take time. And in geopolitics, wasted time is wasted opportunity…and it can be a once-in-a-lifetime opening for an enemy. (Such as that presented by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie’s infamous comment to Saddam Hussein only days before he invaded Kuwait, sparking the First Gulf War.)

…Yet, the good captain opted to take his problem public. That is a court martial-able offense. Today, the Navy announced that it was relieving Captain Crozier of his command. In typical fashion, the media is attempting to make a hero of Crozier (simply because they think Crozier’s made the Trump administration look bad). This is an embarrassment. As citizens, each and everyone of us should be upset that a man entrusted with one of the most important–and expensive–taxpayer-funded weapons system broke the chain of command to make a political statement during a time of international crisis. In so doing, Captain Crozier laid bare a critical vulnerability that a coterie of American rivals may decide to take advantage of–which could prompt a major war. (Including

Captain Crozier is not some hero and he deserves whatever scorn and punishment he receives.“

One of the first things we learned during Plebe Summer at the Naval Academy was our five basic responses: “Yes, Sir!, “No, Sir!”, “Aye-aye, Sir!”, “I’ll find out, Sir!” and most important of all, “No EXCUSE, Sir!”. And though the politically-correct powers-that-be have since added additional responses to provide certain protected classes of midshipmen,…er,…midshippeople…absolution for their transgressions, being a White male, Crozier’s actions fall in the category of “No EXCUSE, Sir!”; and indeed, in his case, “No EXCUSE WHATSOEVER, Sir!”.

As we’ve believed from the moment this story broke, forget Crozier going outside the chain of command: his unpardonable crime…and we consider his actions at the very least criminally negligent…was an inexcusable breach of standard classified communications protocols constituting a very real threat to national security.

Crozier’s act was in fact so egregious we could only conclude the good Captain already knew his career advancement was limited (after all, there are only so many flag slots available, even for carrier commanders) and his letter was intended to secure him a gig as an anti-Trump military propagandist on either CNN or MSDNC.

Only time will tell; but trust us to keep an eye on Crozier’s future civilian employment. In the meantime, you can skim SecNav’s reasons for relieving the Roosevelt‘s skipper here, as well as read reports Crozier’s rejoined his crew.

Speaking of heads who talk sans knowledge of the subject at hand, listen as former four-star Jack Keane gives his take on the circumstances of Crozier being relieved…

…without ONCE mentioning the national security implications inherent in the Captain’s action. Then again, Keane was a full General in the Army…which puts him equivalent to somewhere between a Lieutenant and a Lieutenant Commander in our Navy.

Next up, courtesy of Walt Meisen, the Gateway Pundit wonders whether the Land of Fruits & Nuts hasn’t pushed its enforcement of sheltering-in-place and social-distancing pronouncements just a wee bit…

TOO FAR?? Man Arrested for Paddleboarding in Malibu BY HIMSELF — Faces Up to Six Months in Jail!

“…Local authorities claim that he was violating social distancing rules, despite being all alone. In a Facebook post about the incident, the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station said that “deputies were flagged down by lifeguards regarding a male adult in the water, disobeying lifeguard orders to exit the water.”

The post continued on to claim that the man “remained in the water paddle boarding for approximately 30-40 minutes. LASD boat was brought in from Marina Del Rey Station, once the Sheriff’s boat arrived on scene, the suspect complied and swam to shore.”

The unnamed man was arrested for Disobeying a Lifeguard and Violation of Government Code for not complying with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Stay-at-Home order. He is now facing up to a $1,000 fine, up to six months in jail — or both.

Earlier this week a surfer in Manhattan Beach was fined $1,000 after ignoring orders to get out of the ocean.“

Talking with The Boss, there may be more to this issue than the story suggests, liability being a major factor. Consider the case of an inexperienced, under-qualified Continental Airlines First Officer who, back on November 15, 1987 began a tragic series of errors by leaving the gate without clearance to taxi:

Think about it: liability. What could…or would…have been the inevitable outcome, in our increasingly litigious society, had…after the paddle-boarder ignored the lifeguards’ commands to come in…and the lifeguards subsequently ignored him…the paddle-boarder somehow been injured, and then filed suit for negligence?

There’s no question how the verdict would have come down.

Moving on, the WSJ‘s Kim Strassel relates how, across the country,…

Pols Face a Coronavirus Test

Who’s leading and who’s seeking political advantage? Here are the answers.

“Crises have a way of separating the leaderlike wheat from the opportunistic chaff. Coronavirus is the crisis of our time, and the political winnowing is something to behold.

Example: The Trump administration spent this week distributing ventilators, standing up small-business loans, dispatching hospital ships, erecting alternate care facilities, explaining virus modeling, revamping regulations to keep truckers on the road, and plastering the airwaves with information about hygiene and social distancing. Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent this week setting up a new House committee to investigate Donald Trump. (While the equally inept and ineffective Dimocratic governor of Michigan inexplicably found time to feud with The Donald rather than focus on her duties back home.)

…Democratic partisans are playing a risky game here. Mr. Trump is currently clocking the best approval ratings of his presidency, and a late March Gallup poll found 60% of respondents approve of his virus response. Americans have traditionally looked dimly on those who undercut presidents and other elected leaders in time of crisis. Some on the left are making it easy to separate the politicians who are fighting for their people from the politicians who are fighting for their self-interest. That may come back to haunt them in November.“