Today’s Poser

Why do Democrat-run cities and states generally have a lower quality of life — more crime, higher taxes, more corruption, rampant homelessness, voter fraud, poorer sanitation, wildfires, poor elementary education, crumbling infrastructure, higher unemployment and rioting? Is it because of their politics or are they just piss-poor managers?

Afterthought: Or both?!


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Liberal Arrows

According to Nancy Pelosi (and Elizabeth Warren?), America’s  liberals have a lot of arrows in their quivers to threaten who, for many years, have been spineless Republicans. Here are some of them so far identified (I’m sure there are many more arrows):

=> Make states out of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia =  four more Democrat Senators

=> Accuse Republicans of being racists, homophobes or sexists ... often all three

=> Fulminate violent rioting and mayhem in the streets

=> Eliminate the filibuster rule in the Senate

=> Call Trump & Company white supremacist, Nazis, etc.

=> Impeach the President, the Attorney General, etc.

=> Obliterate the electoral college

=> Pull down statues, rename locales and cover our cities with graffiti both unsanctioned and sanctioned

=> Physically threaten conservatives with bodily harm

=> Stop enforcing the law in many of our major cities and defund the police


That is, this was the case until Donald Trump reminded us that we all have backbones.


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Woke Up

Are you pissed at all these snowflakes rioting and pillaging? Well, spend a few moments watching a video of these woke come-uppances. And, be careful ... grinning too much can break your face: from Feral Irishman blog.


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Boogaloos

It was predictable ... now that public opinion is turning against them, the anti-Trump rioters in the Pacific Northwest are not blamed by the loony left ... but it is the righteous right that is now pointed to for fulminating this unrest.

On a Zoom call recently with predictably liberal classmates, one prime topic was the Hawaiian-shirt-wearing Boogaloos ... a supposedly Gestapo-like group that were instigating the bad behavior by these preservers of justice and righteousness, ANTIFA and BLM ... who for over 60 straight nights have been “peacefully protesting” in Portland Oregon.

To read a typically tainted write-ip about these right-wing “storm troopers” see: Heavy News.

In watching all the on-line videos from Portland (unfortunately not on the liberal TV media who are attempting to pretend that this rioting is NOT taking place), I have yet to see a Hawaiian shirt.

The best way to know when the left is loosing, is to pay attention to how they are deflecting ... starting to accuse the right of doing what they themselves are instigating and, by doing so, trying to shed blame (such a strategy would never succeed without being abetted by our collaborative media).

Secret Police

The Democrats ... along with their media collaboTRAITORS ... are really good at using pejorative language to accomplish their mischief. They have just dubbed the federal DHS agents who have been dispatched to Portland, Oregon to protect federal property there as the “secret police.” (They also have been called “storm troopers.”) This is after almost 40 days of continuous destructive rioting there which has been unchecked by the local police and where federal buildings have been continuously targeted ... see: NY PoSt Story.

This semantic attack, by design, augments the mob violence ... and puts these agents on the defensive ... constantly having to explain every action they undergo as not being like the East German Stasi. It is almost like the media are these thugs collaborators ...

See: DHS Pushback.

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Newest Newspeak

Hate is love ... peace through violence ... suppressing free speech is Constitutional ... being attacked is incitement ... denouncing the KKK is racist ... rioting is peace-loving ... castigating neo-Nazi is anti-Semitic ... killing cops is justified payback ... enforcing immigration law is xenophobic ... embracing Afro-American leaders is racism ... refuting fake media news is anti-American ... black-masked fascism is patriotic ... fighting terrorism is Islamophobic ... telling it like it is, is lying -- some of the newest Newspeak

Reality

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." -- Albert Einstein

Kafka is alive and well. He has hacked into the program in that super-mega-giga-computer that Elon Musk believes is running the software simulation hundreds of years from now that has created our current reality. To me, it seems like the world is loosing it balance ... or perhaps it is just a bunch of 22nd century programmers having some fun with our lives? Not only has our current  political process gotten bizarre, but every day events seem to present themselves as head-scratchers. In particular, here are two news items that seem to be three-sigma events.

The black Milwaukee police officer, who shot and killed a black armed thug, turns out to be a part-time rapper and classmate of the very man he shot. Except for the police uniform this would be a forgettable commonplace event in this Blatz-beer  city ... see: Powerline Blog Posting. So effectively blue pants, a blue shirt and a badge have just caused extensive rioting, arson and looting in Milwaukee ... Strange!

For another real dose of reality, the Obummer administration fessed up today ... under the cover of the Olympic's swimmers' scandal ... that it really did pay $400 million as a quid pro quo for the release of four American prisoners ... ransom that is ... see: NY Post Story. This is after many months of adamantly denying same ... including President Obummer. I guess we are all so used to these scum bags lying that they are not even shamed by this revelation ... How very sad!

Law of the Jungle

Sheriff David Clark

Straight-talking Milwaukee Sheriff David Clark has used the above phrase to describe the rioting, arson and looting (by mostly young black men) that has been taking place there as result of the shooting and killing of a young armed black thug by a black policeman ... see: Reuters Story? He started this observation by saying that under these circumstances "tribal behavior" takes over and this replaces law and order. Gasp! Are these racist comments? Can a black man criticize black rioters this way? One can be reasonably assured that lots of opprobrium will soon be thrown at this sheriff ...  which will then be echoed many times throughout the liberal media.

These rioters were misbehaving as outlined above as well as throwing rocks and bricks at the responding police and fire-persons, injuring some ... and also attacking random innocent white folks. This kind of wilding behavior can easily be characterized as Sheriff Clark did ... not that it will embarrass any of them. These rioters listen to a different drumbeat which drowns out any thought of civilized behavior.

By the bye, President Obummer has not, as of this posting, issued any statement calling for calm in Milwaukee. He hasn't even given it a "tsk, tsk." I guess he must be suffering a severe case of senioritis.

Out of Whack

The mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, caused possibly hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in her city two nights ago by pulling back her law enforcement officers because ...  get this please ...  because she feared that many of the rioters were high school students and she didn't want them to be injured ... see: Baltimore Sun Article. She decided to give them "space to destroy." Forget the fact that 15 of her police officers, who had been told to stand down, were hospitalized much due to this asinine decision on her part.

Yet, if any of these same students are found to have bullied anyone else in their high school, the wrath of Khan is visited upon their heads.

I don't want to besmirch all liberals by painting with such a broad brush, but such left-wing notions seem all too commonplace and suggests a denial of reality. May I conclude that the mayor's tilt was predictably out of whack?

Balti-less

Both the mayor and police chief of Baltimore, Maryland are black ... but this didn't mitigate the rioting that has occurred in this city after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a black youth who was killed in police custody last week ... see: UK Daily Mai Story. Even the feckless mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, handled similar rioting there better than did the mayor of Baltimore  ... who essentially gave the demonstrators there permission to riot and "space to destroy things." What was she thinking?

And so Baltimore has a black black eye ... and many businesses there will have to think twice about rebuilding and reopening.

The futility of such mayhem escapes me and most civilized people ... but apparently this Freddie Gray tragedy somehow gives license for feral behavior on the part of enough of the city's youths to besmirch this city for years to come. What a pity ...

The only real suggestion that I have is that there are enough cell-phone pictures and news coverage that dozens of rioters and looters can be identified and arrested. The justice system in Baltimore should be swift and tough on these miscreants. If the governance there were so inclined, perhaps ... just perhaps, this might assuage such future criminal behavior.

In the end, justice should be served ... else it will be subverted.

Afterward: There are some reasonable law-abiding parents in Baltimore ... see:ABC News Video. Good for her!

After Afterward: And here is a picture of the good Baltimore citizens lining up to protect their police force:

From reddit

Tourist Leverage

Apparently democratically-elected Islamists are inclined toward the tyrannical takeovers of their governments. We saw this develop in Egypt where President Mohamed Morsi jumped on a fast horse to try to outrun his political opposition ... and ended up angering many of his supporters and found himself and most of his posse behind bars after street rioting and a military coup ... see: BBC Story.

Now President Erdogan of Turkey is following this same game plan by arresting 27 of his opponents on trumped-up charges ... trying to cement his control over this Muslim country (which is also a member of NATO) ... see: Yahoo News Story. Certainly and rightfully, Erdogan's despotic moves have also estranged many countries in Europe and, I hope, many of those voters who mistakenly put him into office.

President Erdogan seems so anxious to rid Turkey of its secular heritage that he might find himself in the same super-steam bath that Morsi drew for himself. I would like to be sensitive enough to the Turkish psyche to be able to predict the outcome of this passion play. But, if tourism falls off in Turkey like it fell off in Egypt, I think that this might be a catalyst in the overthrow of this caliphate-loving Caesar. Economics very often trumps ideology.

My wife wanted us to take a cruise next year that stopped in Turkey. After some discussion about the situation there, we decided to forgo this junket. This is a shame ... for Turkey was on our bucket list and there isn't much water left in our collective pail. But, if many other tourists passing such an opportunity up, means that Erdogan, like Morsi, also must dine on bread and water for a number of years, it all would be well worth it.

Ferguson Observations

I was surprised last night at the grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.  Here are a few of my thoughts on this issue:

- Even though it would have been the expedient thing to do ... the grand jury didn't even find for involuntary manslaughter. Felix Giuliani, a former prosecutor and once mayor of New York City, commented on TV that he and other federal prosecutors felt that this would be the outcome (as did I). However, given that it was unlikely that Officer Wilson would have been convicted of even this lesser charge, as a result, St. Louis and environs only had to suffer one spat of rioting rather than two.

- The civil unrest in Ferguson and around the country, I believe, would have occurred under almost any of the grand jury outcomes ... even possibly a indictment for first-degree murder. This civil mayhem was almost preordained, given the intense media coverage that was present. In fact, this level of media coverage likely contributed to the rioting. Perhaps there should be some retrospection of how, in the future, the media coverage might be less instigating.

- Robert McCulloch, the Ferguson prosecutor's lengthy explanation of the grand jury process was somewhat soothing in that he explained how many "witnesses" testimony had been found wanting ... and how much conflicting testimony still resulted from the more credible onlookers. However, there still were questions that I didn't hear answered ... to wit ... why twelve shots and six wounds? and why was the body left on the street for four hours? To me, I believe that Officer Wilson's juices were flowing as a result of being punched by Brown and that this was part of the problem.

- Being that schools in the area were closed anyway, I don't understand why the grand jury's decision was not announced at, say, 10 AM on today ... or even Thanksgiving day. Surely this might have mitigated the degree of rioting that occurred under the cover of darkness.

- I thought that President Obama said all the right words after the grand jury's decision was announced. However, his presentation was again very matter-of-fact. I constantly wonder why his speaking style never varies during emotional times. I believe it would be the same at the start of World War III as it would be announcing that he has a hang nail.

Greasing the Skids

Greece erupted in disturbing violence yesterday in response to the austerity measures that are being required of it to get the next round of bailout money.  I won't go into the details of this rioting ... you can read about it here.  The point of this blog entry is to reprise two data points I heard this AM on television.  First, in 2010 Greece passed a set of austerity measures to get the first round of bailout money - $61 billion.  It implemented not one of them.  Secondly, this time around the European Union (read Angela Merkel) is not taking the Greek Parliament at their collective word.  It is requiring the Greek party leaders to sign personal pledges to implement the measures that were passed into law yesterday before the $160+ billion of bailout money will be released to them (see: Wall Street Journal Article).

This sounds to me a little like the Treaty of Versailles that was foisted upon and humiliated Germany after World War I ... which many feel set the stage for World War II.  One wonders what this forced-fed dirt dish will eventually elicit from Greece?  Enter the drachma [stage right] ... ?