YOU WENT FULL AYATOLLAH, MAN. NEVER GO FULL AYATOLLAH:
It’s not like far leftists haven’t already embraced the slogans of the Iranian mullahs long before many of these “protestors” were even born: Michel Foucault’s Iranian Folly.
Archive for 2020
September 5, 2020
BLACK LIVES MATTER RIOTERS RANSACK ROCHESTER, NY:
Rochester, NY is the latest hub of antia/ BLM rioting as obnoxious swarms of antifa and BLM activists disturbed the peace, climbed on people’s homes, vandalized businesses, assaulted people, including police officers, committed arson, and generally engaged in free-form lawlessness.
Back in March, a black man, Daniel Prude, was reportedly on PCP and running around naked in the streets, and as police attempted to control him with a “spit mask” and hold, he stopped breathing. He was revived but died seven days later after be taken off of life support.
The rioting hordes learned of the tragic incident on Wednesday when the video was released, and although Rochester mayor Lovely Warren (D) announced the suspension of the officers involved, the mobs took to the streets to assault, harass, annoy, and frighten innocent people, apparently intending to win them over.
Video and more details at link. On Twitter, Declan Ganley of the Rivada Networks telecommunications company writes, “The contempt for those that took risks to set up these small businesses. These small restaurants, these are not big corporations. The contempt for those having a Friday evening meal. The contempt for those working in these establishments for an honest living. The indecency.”
Of course, as far left In Defense of Looting author Vicky Osterweil told NPR during her puff-piece interview, “It’s actually a Republican myth that has, over the last 20 years, really crawled into even leftist discourse: that the small-business owner must be respected, that the small-business owner creates jobs and is part of the community. But that’s actually a right-wing myth.”
This is a similar reaction to fellow leftist Michael Moore when asked why he wasn’t speaking in small, independently owned bookstores:
When asked by a reporter from the Arcata Eye in 2002 why he wasn’t speaking at independent bookstores rather than at corporate chains, he exploded in a tirade that revealed his willingness to have his principles—in this case, his distrust of corporate power—take a backseat to his personal vengefulness. “You know in my town the small businesses that everyone wanted to protect? They were the people that supported all the right-wing groups,” he ranted. “They were the Republicans in town, they were in Kiwanis, the Chamber of Commerce—people that kept the town all white. The small hardware salesman, the small clothing store sales persons, Jesse the Barber who signed his name three different times on three different petitions to recall me from the school board. Fuck all these small businesses—fuck ’em all. Bring in the chains.”
Of course, sufficient destruction and anarchy in cities is what will drive out both small and large businesses: Those ‘Food Deserts’ May Become Food Wastelands.
I’M STILL WAITING FOR THEIR ORION SPACECRAFT: China seems to have launched a secret reusable space plane.
WHY THE ECONOMIC SCARS OF RIOTING WILL HAUNT MINNEAPOLIS FOR DECADES:
“This was it for us,” medical supply store owner Lisa Steffes told CBS Minnesota. “We are a family-owned business. It’s just not worth it anymore being downtown.”
In another example, the Star Tribune reports that a manufacturing company, 7-Sigma Inc., is leaving the city after burning in the riots, and taking 50 jobs with it.
“They don’t care about my business,” owner Kris Wyrobek said of city officials. “They didn’t protect our people. We were all on our own.”
An exodus of businesses is exactly what economists would expect to see in an area ravaged by rioting. The underlying reason is not hard to understand: Property rights are the foundation of any market-based economy. There is a long and clearly observed correlation between the strength of property rights and economic growth.
Why? Well, private enterprise can only function so long as entrepreneurs know they will be reasonably secure in their property. When entire city blocks are destroyed by wanton rioting while local officials sit on their hands, it sends the message that even an otherwise-profitable investment might not pay off. Investors in such cities must now price in economic risk and insecurity that makes it much less competitive compared to its neighbors. And safety considerations also will come into play.
As a result, jobs and economic opportunity are likely to dry up. Property values fall, and the area slips into decline. What’s more, higher insurance rates will make doing business more expensive and leave locals facing higher prices. Does that sound like progress to you?
Thanks to rioters who wrap themselves in the rhetoric of “social justice,” this fate may await Minneapolis, or at least some of it. This isn’t mere speculation: We’ve seen this scenario play out before in parts of Los Angeles, and in cities such as Detroit and Newark.
Detroit, you say?
Earlier: Kimberly Klacik At The RNC: ‘I Want Baltimore To Be An Example’ To The GOP.
GOOD NEWS FOR JOE BIDEN: Older bulls hold important leadership roles in elephant societies.
Well, except that elephants have memories.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Proud Mayor Lets His Entire City Burn To The Ground Just To Make Trump Look Bad.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Scientists turn nuclear waste into diamond batteries. They’ll reportedly last for thousands of years. This technology may someday power spacecraft, satellites, high-flying drones, and pacemakers.
WEIRD, FEMINISM HAS MARCHED FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY AND WOMEN ARE UNHAPPIER THAN EVER: Antidepressant use rising in U.S., mostly in women, CDC says.
Flashback: “By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well‐being indicate that women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. The paradox of women’s declining relative well‐being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well‐being, and is pervasive across demographic groups and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well‐being than did men.”
Maybe we’ve confused giving feminists what they want, with giving women what they want. Outspoken feminists are a neurotic minority of women, and what makes them happy — to the extent anything does — may not make women in general happy.
WELCOME TO THE NEXT TWO MONTHS: The Atlantic’s Anonymously-Sourced Article Jump Starts The Permanent Pre-Election Anti-Trump Crisis News Cycle.
Ben Rhodes’ Blob is eager to get back into power.
WHEN #METOO IS SOLD OUT FOR #ORANGEMANBAD: Joe Biden Accused of Groping Breast of Secret Service Agent’s Girlfriend During 2009 Photo-Op.
Flashback: Democrat Makes #MeToo Claim Against Joe Biden: He Smelled Me and Kissed My Head. “Flores said that pictures of Biden touching other women inappropriately made it more difficult to keep silent, referring to Biden nuzzling the neck of Secretary of Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s wife, kissing Sen. Chuck Grassley’s wife on the lips, whispering in women’s ears, and snuggling women on the campaign trail.”
Flashback: It’s time to talk about former Vice President Joe Biden, the open sexual predator.
Biden Swims Naked, Upsetting Female Secret Service Agents:
“Agents say that, whether at the vice president’s residence or at his home in Delaware, Biden has a habit of swimming in his pool nude,” Kessler writes in the book – due for release Aug. 5.
“Female Secret Service agents find that offensive,” he writes.
“Biden likes to be revered as everyday Joe,” an unnamed agent told Kessler. “But the reality is no agents want to go on his detail because Biden makes agents’ lives so tough.”
Plus: Washington Post: What Are We Going To Do About Creepy Uncle Joe Biden?
Also: Joe Biden’s Woman-Touching Habit.
Related: Talking Points Memo: Why Does Creepy Uncle Joe Biden Get A Pass From Liberals?
Plus:
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Scientists turn nuclear waste into diamond batteries.
#SALONGATE: Nancy Marie Antoinette Pelosi Must Resign (Video).
Related: Gov. Kristi Noem Extends Offer to Salon Owner Smeared by Pelosi.
HE SHOULD SUE THEM INDIVIDUALLY FOR TRYING TO IMPAIR HIS CIVIL RIGHTS: UCLA students demand removal of computer science department chair who chided ‘PC police.’
And also mock them for proving his thesis.
WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH VAN JONES IS A VOICE OF SANITY: Van Jones Tells Joe Biden to Own the Antifa Rioters—and Keep Them Quiet Until Election Day.
WELL, THEY’RE NOT WRONG ABOUT THAT: VIDEO: Students slam Pelosi, Cuomo as ‘hypocritical’ for violating their own COVID rules.
SEEN ON FACEBOOK, SABO STRIKES AGAIN:
UPDATE: From the comments, an excellent suggestion to go to Sabo’s website and buy something. The Left supports its artists; we should do the same. The Nancy poster is here.
HEY, THAT OVERTON WINDOW DOESN’T MOVE ITSELF, YOU KNOW: NPR regrets elevating pro-looting anti-Semite.
Did anyone at NPR read the book, which includes a chapter titled “All Cops Are Bastards”? Did no one at NPR question the wisdom of elevating an activist whose Twitter handle even bears the acronym for “All Cops Are Bastards”? Did it not occur to anyone that, instead of elevating a provocative but worthwhile voice, they were actually amplifying an ignorant bigot with no basic understanding of history or community?
Apparently not, which is why NPR is in the embarrassing position this week of having to issue mea culpas for what was always an extremely avoidable fiasco.
“This piece was fact-checked, but we should have done more,” Code Switch editor Steve Drummond said of the interview, which has been updated to correct Osterweil’s many false assertions.
But even with the corrections, NPR’s McBride explained Thursday, “this failure to challenge this author’s statements is harmful on two levels. Publishing false information leaves the audience misinformed. On top of that, news consumers are watching closely to see who is challenged and who isn’t.”
Too much to quote in the above article, so read the whole thing. I have no problem with NPR interviewing Osterweil. If somebody writes a book with the provocative title of In Defense of Looting — A Riotous History of Uncivil Action, complete with a crowbar on the front cover, and gets it published by the subsidiary of a major publisher*, it’s news after all. Alex Haley famously interviewed American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell for Playboy in 1966 — but he asked the appropriately tough questions. In contrast, Natalie Escobar, who interviewed Osterweil for NPR, tweeted (and eventually deleted) the following, which was still cached by Google as of yesterday:
* Bold Type Books, Osterweil’s publisher, is a division of Hachette Book Group, the firm whose staff got the vapors over publishing Woody Allen’s recent autobiography.
BANNON SHOWS ‘THE OTHER’ DONOR INTENT PROBLEM: Shock waves are still radiating out from the indictment of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and three others for allegedly misusing funds contributed solely for the purpose of helping build the wall on the U.S./Mexico border. Michael Watson of the Capital Research Center (CRC) notes, a lot of liberals have a lot of explaining to do as well.
UPDATE: There is an alternative take on the Bannon case, as explained here by my friend Mark Fitzgibbons, for whom I have tremendous respect. There are important links to the sad case of former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) that are well worth pondering, too.
RUSSIAGATE DIDN’T WORK, IMPEACHMENT DIDN’T WORK, CRASHING THE ECONOMY DIDN’T WORK, CORONAPHOBIA DIDN’T WORK, RIOTS DIDN’T WORK, SO WHAT’S NEXT? Trump back to pre-virus approval high of 52%