Did This Black Life Matter?

DAVID DORN MURDERED BY A MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTOR

Is It Racist To Say "All Black Lives Matter?"

Did you miss the "mostly peaceful protests" for this black man's brutal slaying?  Did you miss Anderson Cooper cry as he discussed the subject? Did you miss the celebrity tweets expressing outrage at the murder of this innocent man of color? Did your workplace hold a public kneel-in for David Underwood?

(SOME?) BLACK LIVES MATTER

The Dawn of Significant Social Change

We have entered a profoundly new era but we might now realize it yet. When the USSR collapsed, we knew about it immediately. When landmark Supreme Court decisions were handed down, we learned of the verdicts instantly and we held advance knowledge of their significance.

History can turn on a dime: Gulf of Tonkin, Pearl Harbor, the sinking of The Maine. Other developments are gradual but every bit as profound. We might miss them altogether if the people who are supposed to report on such things choose to ignore them.

The development that I refer to is the collapse of media credibility. It would understate matters greatly to say the media have lost viewership or readership or circulation. No. No. No. Significant numbers reject the news media claim to arbiters of truth.

I am not sure how it happened but our news media but what we now call the MSM constituted an informational supreme court. The UFO phenomenon, the JFK assassination, paranormal activity, holistic healing, the discredited domino theory...the news media decided what topics warranted further discussion. Much like the Supreme Court, the newspeople spoke as authoritatively when they declined a case's hearing. Not worth further discussion. Case closed.

Marcia Linehan, a renowned American psychologist discusses the mindset of the suicidal patient who believes that taking one's life will improve one's fate. "I don't know about that. I didn't read that in the New York Times," (quoted with my faulty memory. Actual statement might vary slightly) Linehan states. The audience chuckles.

There is profundity in her jest.  The topic of life after death has not been approved by the paper of record. Point taken but why does the Gray Lady (the paper, not the shrink) get to make that decision? Who made the NYT the final word or final lack of words on this issue? When? Where? Why? I don't know. I do know that this was decided long ago, and rational people concurred.

News of the shepherd's demise has been largely overstated. Tens of millions of Americans still hold the judgment of the news media to be Gospel truth. The 2018 midterms were very fruitful for the Dems in part because the media advanced a knowingly false conspiracy involving Russia hacking our 2016 presidential election.  We had former intelligence officials make statements on television that contradicted their own sworn testimony. A large segment of the population chose to believe the news channels. After all, they are the news, aren't they?

Yes, the herdsman is alive but he is not well. He does not command the respect to which he had grown so accustomed. The flock has dispersed and his best briards cannot seem to restore order. If you take an eclectic approach to the news, you might have grown accustomed to sudden shifts in narrative that involve things like Pizzagate, the Illuminati, genocidal vaccines, or infant cannibalism. 

More colorful correspondents might segue into secret colonies on Mars, on the Moon and on Antarctica, and talk about things like Project Looking Glass, time travel, dimension-hopping, and reincarnation, as well as more arcane topics. The times have a-changed.

The social orthodoxy imposed by the news media continues its downward trajectory and I don't see that changing. My view is that this is essential if we are to resist totalitarianism. Still, the silver cloud has an ugly lining. Those of us of an age can recall a time when "60 Minutes" delivered nonpartisan journalism on a weekly basis. Nearly every story CBS delivered was a summary of news articles originating in America's newspapers. The Jimmy Olsens and Lois Lanes were not all bad, all the time. We lose something when we can NEVER trust the press.

Even the savviest futurist has been repeatedly surprised at where the Internet has taken us. The decline of media authority produces ripples great and small. Will a new orthodoxy replace the old? Will the old orthodoxy make a comeback? Will we see an array of competing orthodoxies? Boutique orthodoxies? Designer orthodoxies? Tailor-made orthodoxy? Zero orthodoxy?

Who knows? What I can tell you is that for a long time to come, when someone says, "And that's the way it is..." most of us will not believe it.

Let the Litigation Begin

Let the litigation begin!

Now that America has suffered roughly a dozen deaths, hundreds of injuries, and a billion dollars or so in property damage at the hands of rioters, looters, thugs and "mostly peaceful protestors," it is time to call Saul. Or Abe. Or Gloria. Or any member of the bar who has fallen behind on their country club dues.

My legal advice is worth exactly what I charge but here is a nugget that any dream team will endorse. If you received injury to person or property as a result of the civilly-sanctioned riots of 2020, talk to a hungry attorney immediately.

You see, taxation is legitimized by necessity...Public safety is deemed essential...Even if you pay no taxes, your safety is regarded as a constitutional right and if your constitutional rights are violated, you may be entitled to compensation...When an ego-driven mayor tells his police to "stand down" in the heat of battle, that might not be his decision to make...when a police station is sacrificed to "mostly peaceful protestors" it might not be a choice the mayor or police brass can legally render...not every decision is discretionary...

I know I used plenty of dots but trust me, a good lawyer can connect those dots for you. Oh yeah. If dots can connect, there is someone willing and able to make the figure take form.

Public officials are immune from litigation but not the entities they serve. The cities of New York, Seattle, St. Louis, fill in the blank, might have some huge sums to pay out. BLM is not immune from litigation. Antifa is not immune from litigation. Donors to BLM and Antifa are not immune from real or punitive damages.

To the three hundred officers wounded in NYC, the officers who were burned, shot or otherwise injured in St. Louis, as well as scores of other officers, you might think about seeking representation. Whoever bussed in the Rent-A-Riot crew shares in the liability for your treatment and recuperation. I hear Antifa and BLM have deep, deep, deep pockets.

So come on, my good-hearted Americans, let’s perform that most American ritual of rituals. Please, please, please.

Sue the bastards!

Reflections on Defunding the Police

Writing is an amazing mental exercise. Sometimes, we grasp a subject, we decide to put our ideas into words and in the process typing, we go off in a different direction. We invent a widget that looks nothing like the blueprint.

When I read that Minneapolis had threatened to defund the police, my reaction was to make a few snarky remarks. I shall take a NIMBY approach but thank you, Minnesota, for serving as guinea pigs in this bold social experiment. Then I got to the keyboard and my fingers took over. and they repeatedly asked, "Why should we fund big-city police forces?"

Things are different in small-town America. There, we have police who behave in a traditional and predictable manner. I tend to think of the police in much of the same way as people think of Congress. In the abstract, we might not hold a strong opinion of such institutions but we usually reelect the incumbents. I have a low opinion of the law enforcement industry but local cops--especially in the small towns and cities where I have resided --have been consistently great.

Throughout America, we tolerate a level of police predation, parasitism, and pension because we know that we can press a button and the police will stand between us and an AK-47. A favorable cost-benefit analysis tilts the scales. But how does the balance sheet look when the police are no longer willing to stand between the sniper and the citizen? Short of that extreme, what happens when police are no longer willing to stand between brick and plate glass?

Remember when we had to read the British tabloids to find out about Barack Obama's secret life or when we had to watch Dutch TV to find a Julain Assange interview? I have been watching Australian coverage of American riots. The foreign journalists are not compulsively honest but they are not as blatantly partisan or dishonest as their highly-paid American counterparts.
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The Aussies have yet to tell me that Donald Trump murdered George Floyd. I have not heard the horse shit lines about "mostly peaceful protestors" juxtaposed with a backdrop of arson. I have not been treated to insults about systemic racism juxtaposed with looted pharmacies and liquor stores. What they did tell me, somewhat innocently I suppose, is that New York had a strong police presence but that the police and looters clustered in different places. Huh?

Let's back up a step or two. Why should a citizen of a sanctuary city fund a police force? The sanctuary police force has already surrendered to globalist criminals and has ceased to make public safety their primary objective. Returning to that aforementioned balance sheet, even if the police cannot deport the serial rapist, the citizens are still afforded some protection and the smiles return to the faces.

Now let's revisit present-day big city America where the police are not offering merchants and citizens any protection at all. We have witnessed scenes where police officers have "taken a knee" in ugly displays of servitude to the criminal mobs. Why don't the citizens step up and say, "Let Antifa fund your pension, blue boy. You are fired."

While we are on the subject of defunding fat cat pensioners, should we abolish the FBI? Maybe we could hold our noses and look past the country's largest organized crime cartel if they defended us against Terror Incorporated. You know, the old Whitey Bulger might have been a sinner but the streets of Southie were always safe. No crime in Little Italy. Little old ladies have nothing to worry about in Angelo Bruno's neighborhood. This time around, the Hoover Gang did not step up.

There was a time, not too long ago, when some questions were too ridiculous to entertain. For instance, if you proposed to replace the metropolitan police with street gangs in 2005, you would not have been granted much attention. In 2020, that idea does not seem so ridiculous. If we replaced the Seattle or Chicago or Houston Police Department with the Killaz, would things be any worse? Would it make any difference?  Maybe it's time we found out.

Trump's Katrina Moment

I am repeating journalist cliches. Ugh.

I can't remember Trump's other Katrina moments but I can tell you all about this one.

The Left is pulling out all its tricks to gain full control of America. George Soros, Lebron James, Hillary, social media, news media, Hollywood, local police, The Democrat Party and mostly, Antifa and allied thugs. No one is bigger than the cause: Women, children, non-whites: if they are in the way of progress, they will be steamrolled.

Donald Trump's 2016 campaign had one umbrella principle. It was not immigration or trade policy or tax reform. Those issues were screeched by the news media but Trump's base saw a larger problem. The systemic corruption rooted in DC and flowing from sea to shining sea negatively affected every other political issue of the day. What the Left cannot understand and the media will not acknowledge is that Trump was elected as an anti-corruption crusader. A bold position of overdue reform is what got Donald Trump elected.

Trump has been in office for almost three and a half years. That is plenty of time to take action against Antifa and their allied thugs. It has not happened. We can make excuses and some are legitimate. The FBI and DOJ had been hijacked. Points taken, but that was a long time ago.

Through proxies, Trump has talked tough about draining swamps, unsealed indictments, the storm, blah, blah, blah. Big talk, not much action.

Three and a half years is long enough, Mr. President. Comey and Rosenstein and Yates are long gone. There are no more excuses. The time has come, Mr. President. This is your genuine Katrina Moment.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter