Month: June 2020

Have They Had Enough Yet?

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Now that most of arson fires have gone out and Antifa is back in its parents’ basements, I’ve started to think about how the President’s campaign should address the riots.  Naturally there will be the usual lip service to the need to correct problems with police practices and ways of identifying rogue officers, etc., etc., etc.

But if I were framing the argument, I’d put it to the voters like this.  Even knowing that there are dishonest and even criminal police officers out there, would you rather live in a place policed by the current police force or by some combination of BLM and Antifa?

In places like Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Minneapolis they might vote for BLM and Antifa.  But they won’t in Michigan or Pennsylvania or even Wisconsin.  Hell, even most of the people in Minnesota outside of Minneapolis must be appalled.  The people in those states watched as the mayors of blue cities in their states capitulated to the rioters and let them loot stores and burn them down.  Even the governors treated the rioters with kid gloves hesitating to let the National Guard subdue the protests and arrest the perpetrators.  In these places I’m guessing that the dominant sentiment is how do we get new governors who will protect us from the monster that the progressive cities have created.  They’ve seen that the next place the rioters want to go is into the suburbs and countryside to terrorize the non-urban populations surrounding their hellhole homes.

I’d have a commercial that features Minneapolis and New York City in flames and police chiefs, mayors, governors and Joe Biden on their knees.  I’d show that Minneapolis police precinct being abandoned and then that idiot Mayor Frey running away from a crowd of BLM and Antifa followers.

And as valuable as this will be in the Presidential campaign, I think it will also be effective for the rest of the ticket.  Races for mayor and governor of several cities and states should be affected by the actions that several of the incumbents took during the riots.  And even office holders who aren’t up for re-election soon should worry that recall votes may be started against them.  As for congressional and senate seats, the same kind of commercials showing Pelosi and Schumer on their knees wearing their matching colorful prayer shawls should be highly effective.

And I’d make sure that the film clips showed all the gory details.  Show the picture of the white Antifa guys taking a sledge hammer to the security gates to let the looters into a store.  And the Antifa guys with the rock hammers tearing up curbstones to assault the police with.  Show that shop owner in Dallas crumpled on the sidewalk like a dead animal.  Show the old woman in Buffalo being beaten with a two by four by thugs.  Show the woman in Minneapolis in a wheelchair being tormented by a mob and doused with a fire extinguisher.  Show the footage of the retired police captain from St. Louis being gunned down trying to protect his friend’s store.  This one should be especially poignant considering that the officer is black.

Show a couple of the interviews with the sick old ladies living in the inner city neighborhoods that have just been looted and burned and listen to them cry because now their grocery store and their drug store are gone and they have to travel an hour by bus to get to a place that isn’t burned out.

Play the interview with the black businessman in Minneapolis whose sports bar was gutted and torched, whose life savings are now gone.

I’ve even got the tag line to end each of these commercials:

“Had enough?  Vote Republican and stop the madness.”

And all this has the added benefit that it’s actually 100% true.  Even in blue states the majority of the voters aren’t inner city denizens.  Most of the voters are middle- and working-class people.  When they finally have had enough of the madness, they will vote for someone who will stop it.  So, the only question is, have they had enough yet?

UPDATE:

I held this up last night to see how the fallout from the Atlanta police arrest killing would play out.  This situation is going to repeat indefinitely.  Apparently, the new dynamic for black criminals is to resist arrest by any and all means.  Apparently suicide by cop is the new normal and considering the lives some of these folks live it probably doesn’t seem like a bad option.  That is going to make the BLM crowd shout twice as loud.  But it still leaves the same choice for the voters.  If you’re a middle-class American living in the suburbs are you happier with the police trying to maintain some semblance of order in the dangerous Democrat cities or would you like there to be warlords and thug armies in charge like in Mexico and other failed states.  Seems a pretty easy answer but maybe knuckling under is the new American way.  Time will tell.

14JUN2020 – OCF Update – Things Seem to be Accelerating

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So today is the President’s birthday.  I wish it would be a more peaceful time for him but that is not in the cards.  But I wish for him the strength he’ll need to deal with the madness that is engulfing our world.

I have a post I wrote yesterday but it already is somewhat overtaken by events.  I may strengthen it or just skip it.  Things are accelerating and we may see resolution of some things and new priorities emerging.  But certain things still hold.  Ground yourself in reality and focus on the things that will be important to you regardless of the outcome of political and cultural events.

We’re getting into unknown territory.  Some of the rules we thought were laws of nature are starting to break down.  Don’t take too much for granted.  Situational awareness could be very important.  If you live in or adjacent to unstable areas be especially careful until things settle down.  Keep in touch with family members and be ready to lend support if the need arises.

So as Sgt. Phil Esterhaus used to say on Hill Street Blues, “let’s be careful out there.”

How Stupid Do You Have to Be?

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On both sides of the racial divide there are reactions to the George Floyd killing that cannot be called just, proportionate or even, in some cases, rational.  If one white policeman kills one black crime suspect then multiple cities should be looted and burned and fifteen people should lose their lives?  And alternatively, when a mob robs and loots your city should you kneel down to them, beg their forgiveness and wash their feet?

The title of the post reflects one possible reason for these two extreme reactions.  It is possible that there are white and black people so stupid that they believe both of these reactions are reasonable and even just.  In fact, I’ll grant that there is certainly a percentage of the human race so dim that they can be persuaded by media false equivalence and just plain ignorance that these courses of action are reasonable and correct.  But at the same time, I know these numbers are low.  Call these people the core of the problem.

Then there are people for whom these terrible actions are within their conscienceless self-interest.  On the rioting side you have criminal looters and Antifa anarchists who are gaining from the rioting.  The looters have material gain in the form of stolen property.  The Antifa lunatics are gaining political power and street credibility.  On the national front of the groveling side we have politicians and the media who hope to use the riots as a political wedge to drive the black vote and the suburban woman vote to the Democrat side.  On the local level you have blue city mayors pandering to their black voting base.  They seem to have finally chosen between maintaining a semblance of law and order in their crime ridden cities and kowtowing to inner-city lunacy.  Let’s call this the primary cause of the actions in question.  Without a doubt, these are the catalysts without which, the riots wouldn’t occur.

But then there is a third component.  These are the people just going along with their team.  Here we have all the people who should know better and should act as a brake on these things but are so conditioned to follow the narrative that it’s reflexive.  They’ll parrot the media’s talking points and justify even the most insane behavior on the basis of their team color.  And you get the impression that no matter what lengths the madness goes they would excuse it as reasonable.

So that’s my point.  You have to be mighty stupid to believe that these actions are reasonable, fair or even sane.  But you don’t have to be stupid to make believe that you believe in it.  You just have to be dishonest.

In an ethics class you might make a distinction between these groups of people.  You wouldn’t hold the dim-witted responsible for their actions and would attempt to educate them.  The other groups would be culpable because they should know better but choose to do wrong.

In real life you can’t make any distinction.  They are all the enemy.  Their actions are inimical to your physical and mental well-being.  Trying to convince them of your side of things will not succeed.  In fact, after a certain point wasting effort trying to convince them of their error is more a sign of stupidity or insanity on your part.

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME TRYING TO CONVINCE DISHONEST PEOPLE TO DO THE RIGHT THING.

The only people left who should be considered are honest people with at least normal intelligence.  And it won’t take more than minimal effort to present the information in a form that shows which side they should be on.  You could put the timeline on the back of a 5 X 7 index card.

  • Derek Chauvin kills George Floyd.
  • Minneapolis fires Chauvin.
  • Minneapolis arrests Chauvin for murder.
  • Antifa and black looters burn chunks of Minneapolis.
  • Mayor Frey abandons police precinct to the mob.
  • Mob burns more of Minneapolis and moves into the suburbs.
  • Mobs burn a number of Democrat run cities, billions in damage, 15 dead.
  • Democrat mayors grovel to the mobs.

I think that about sums it up.  Anyone who knows this much about what happened and still sides with the mob is beyond any hope of convincing.  You would be wasting your time and actually making yourself stupider just by the effort.

What is sensible to do is to figure out how you can minimize the chance that you or one of your loved ones will ever be in the path of one of these pitiless mobs.  Losing your home or business is bad enough.  But to be battered and possibly killed by this inhuman buzz saw is something that should not be left to chance.

Make sure you live where the government has more concern for law-abiding citizens than for the mob.  If it doesn’t, then move to where it does.  Vote for President Trump in November.  Make sure your friends go out and vote for him too.  If you are able, donate to President Trump’s re-election committee.  If you are able, donate to the election funds of any Republicans that you know to be reliable.

Lots of people say boycott those who support our enemies.  I guess I agree with that .  But more importantly support the businesses and interests of people on our side, especially on the local level.  Find like minded people where you live and spend time around them.  It’s good for morale and gives opportunities for local actions that wouldn’t seem possible for you alone.  Start up a social club or activity with people from our side and grow it.

And while you’re at it, leave a comment on this post.  It can be approving or disapproving.  Feedback is welcome.  Constructive criticism is especially welcome.  If you like what I write tell a friend.  If you especially like an article put up a link to it on your webpage or blog.

There’s plenty we can all do and all of it has a positive effect.  Okay, that’s enough cheerleading.  Enjoy the weekend.