Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Coronavirus, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Election 2020, Police, Seattle WA, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: COVID-19, Protester Idiocy, Seattle City Council
Human beings are kind of a mess, but so far we seem to be the brightest of living creatures available. Unfortunately, that still leaves a great deal to be desired. Behold:
Students at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, Loyola University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have formed a coalition called Solidarity Street that aims to abolish policing on campus.
The group (says) “Cops aren’t workers and the city needed to stop negotiating with them years ago. August 1st we’re demanding y’all cut ties and divest from this white supremacist cult sooner rather than later,” one Instagram caption reads.
In another post, the group argued that cops only exist to defend wealthy Americans. “Cops are not workers. A worker is someone that sells their labor to make ends meet. Cops do not do this,” the post reads. “They defend the interests and property of the wealthy. Cops do not need a pay raise. They need to be defunded. They are the armed wing of the American capitalist state.”
In a statement, Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown said that they will continue their efforts to reduce violence in the area.
If you can read this without laughing, or conversely, shedding a few tears, these are the students that are the future of our beloved country. It seems that a surprising number of our citizens are going to have to learn about police and policing the hard way. When they are getting beaten to a pulp by someone who wants their smart phone and their money, or when someone is breaking into their house, and they are frantically trying to call 911 with no response, and no one comes to their rescue.
California, it is reported today, is releasing almost 18,000 prison inmates including a convicted murderer, because of the Covid virus. Almost 8,000 inmates have been sickened by the virus, and eight have died. So let them out to spread it around?
There is way too much talk about “White Supremacy” today. There are significantly more white people in America than those of other races. The population of the U.S in 2000 was 393,745,538 at the time of the 2000 census. 196,817,552 or 63.7% were white. 37,685,848 or 12.2% were black. 14.465.164 or 3.6% were Asian. 50,477,694 or 12.5% were Hispanic, and 2,247,058 or 1.9% were American Indian or Alaska Native. Efforts to make sure that everybody is included have been continuous, with varying degrees of success. There are undoubtedly many people in charge of something or other who are white, and organizations that do not include a representative of a particular race.
I have read statements by many members of Congress, presidents of one organization or another, some of them fairly stupid, and many embarrassing. Should we test for IQ, historical knowledge, legal understanding, and basic common sense before allowing anyone to run for an important position? We’re stuck with ordinary human beings, fallible as they are, and we need to be generous or demand changes as the case may be.
Here in Seattle, it is apparently getting too expensive to “peacefully protest”. Protesters have, if I understand the radio correctly, filed a lawsuit to require the county to outfit them in protective gear to protect then from the depredations of the police in their protective gear so they can “peacefully protest” as is their constitutional right. (told you that was where this was going).
I have written previously about the Seattle City Council’s effort to defund the police and turn over the policing function to a “civilian-led department of community safety & violence prevention”.
Carmen Best is the first Black Woman Police Chief in the United States, and she has done a fabulous job, it is widely agreed. She dared to speak out about the City Council’s error in the civilian-led nonsense, and the City Council just decided to defund her. They reduced her salary by about $100,000. Don’t know how this will all play out, but Chief Best deserves far better.The Seattle City Council is an embarrassment.
People are out of work, cooped up at home, chafing at being confined, masks, shutdowns, and doing without the things they need. Elected officials are required to step up and do what needs to be done. A surprising number have demonstrated that they are not only not capable of doing so, but some of the most notable are making a mess of it all too.
ADDENDUM: I apparently messed up with my numbers here. The U.S. population in 2000 was 281,421,906. In 2010, it had increased to 309,349,689. I went to the U.S. Census Bureau for the numbers. And they reminded us that if you have not yet answered the census, do it now. You can do it online, only a few simple questions. Thanks to reader Counter for catching my error.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Election 2020, Law, Police, Politics, Pop Culture, Progressivism, Regulation, Seattle WA, Socialism, The Constitution, The United States | Tags: Destruction and Mayhem, Increasong Crime, Pointless Protests
Carmen Best, Seattle Chief of Police, has had protesters discover her home, and her neighbors turned out to shoo them away. Protests continue in Portland and Seattle, but it’s pretty clear that it is now about the fun of rioting and protesting, rather than actually having something to riot about.
Black Lives Matter doesn’t lead naturally to protesting at the Chief of Police’s house when the Chief is Black. I really believe that not very much of the rioting and protesting over the past weeks, the destruction of property and pulling down of statues has been far more about emotion and destruction than any actual principles. If there is some sort of goal behind all the hoopla, some urgent need for change, it is not at all apparent.
In Portland they burned Bibles and American flags in the street. Somewhere else, a statue of the Virgin Mary was burned, and even AOC, who thrives on media attention, made a fool of herself by attacking Father Damien, Hawaii’s Catholic martyr who gave his life to ministering to the leper colony on Molokai., and eventually died of the disease himself.
I’m not sure what the proper terminology is, “getting all worked-up” more or less covers it. Reaching an emotional state that demands action. Possession. Common sense departs. Like little kids having a temper tantrum. A spanking and sent to bed without any supper usually cures that. When it is adults who should know better, it’s another matter.
The Seattle City Council has gone along with the police defunding to suggesting a “civilian-led police department,” personally I prefer one led by someone deeply knowledgeable about crime and punishment and keeping order, but apparently that is not fashionable today.
Over the weekend, the press reported the usual round of shootings in New York and Chicago and other trouble spots. No suggestions for improving the situation. So there you go.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economy, Intelligence, Law, National Security, Police, Politics, Seattle WA, The United States | Tags: A Far Left City Council, A Move Too Far, Defunding Police
Improbable headline: but it is all too real. “Seattle City Council Moves to Defund Police and Create ‘Civilian Led Department”
The Seattle City Council, which has been mulling a proposal to defund the Seattle Police Department, drafted a resolution which would both defund the police and create a “civilian led department of community safety & violence prevention.”
“A civilian led department of community safety & violence prevention” Have you ever encountered a more brain dead sentence? There’s a long list of requirements before one can even apply to become a police officer, and then lengthy training in all aspects of policing as well as in the law. Oh well, never mind. Let’s just turn it over to a bunch of civilians who wouldn’t have the slightest idea of how to handle a difficult encounter. Armed, unarmed? Or is it just the chief who is supposed to be a civilian? It’s really hard to imagine what they could possibly have been thinking. Seattle is a Leftist enclave, and the city council is very far left, but this goes far beyond common sense.
Since they are also being defunded, do we assume that the new police department doesn’t get paid? They just volunteer to get shot out of the goodness of their hearts and purity of their ideas.
The Left has a hard time grasping not only cause and effect, but basic economics as well. City gets unruly, what happens? People pick up and move somewhere where they feel safer. Businesses move. If they are apt to be attacked or burned out or looted, they’ll do better somewhere else, and unrest or a lack of safety will effect the bottom line. It is an election year. Will Seattle dump their City Council? Probably not. Some of the loonier ones have been around for a long time.
Seattle has some very well known businesses: Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon, Whole Foods. There are lots of other cities that would be delighted to offer such businesses all sorts of amenities to move to their town. When Their Workers Do Not Feel Safe. Do click on the links. The virtue-signaling is remarkably nauseous, and the ignorance is on full display.
Filed under: Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Law, National Security, Police, Politics, Progressives, Seattle WA, The United States | Tags: Injured Policemen, Protests and Riots, Riots and Mob Behavior
Seattle’s Mayor, the feckless Jenny Durkan (D) took to CNN on Monday to blame President Trump for the riot in Seattle on Sunday. She said Trump’s actions “were responsible for what happened this weekend” in Seattle and “we are seeing the dry run for martial law.” She claimed that those who came to the “protest” came “because of what happened in Portland” but I think she meant the federal officers in Portland trying to end the attacks on the federal building and the people who work there, who obviously deserve to be protested for trying to set the federal building on fire while federal workers were working inside. Just peacefully trying to burn people alive. She seemed to think that people wanted to act out against the president and his administration so that’s why they were protesting in the streets?
If you want to protest against the president, clearly, destroying a Starbucks and setting a construction site for a juvenile detention facility on fire, and throwing explosive devices at Seattle police officers seems a rather odd way to protest Donald Trump. I guess carrying carefully constructed signs is just way too old fashioned, and ordinary people don’t know how to call their representatives in Congress to complain. Hard to come up with a good catchy chant: “No Justice, No Peace” is already old and tired. She told the reporter that “He’s using law enforcement as a political tool”, well, yes, everything any president does is a political tool.
If the mayor of a major city cannot keep order, and vast damage is being done to the city and the people who live there, who is going to take charge?
She further stated that “the number one thing we can do to bring peace to the streets in Seattle and across America is to bring more justice to the systems.” Like shutting down riots, seeing that those committing legal offenses are brought to justice, that sort of thing? Or just what justice did you have in mind?
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Capitalism, Communism, Democrat Corruption, Economics, History, Humor, Law, Police, Politics, Progressives, Regulation, Seattle WA | Tags: CHOPs Autonomous Six Blocks, Communist Kshama Sawant, Murder in Paradise
There are times when you look out upon the passing scene — and think if you could just give them all a spanking and send them to bed without any dinner, it might settle them down a bit. These attacks on our national history and the statues there to remind us, are so ignorant and mindlessly destructive that it is thoroughly disgusting.
There has been a drive-by shooting at the CHOP site on Capitol Hill in Seattle, one 16 year old young man dead, a 14 year old hospitalized. Essentially though, most have moved out. The East Precinct police station is due to be reoccupied next week. The CHOP protesters got some national attention, but not the kind they were hoping for, and when it gets violent with people killed, it isn’t just fun and games any more. Seattle’s feckless Mayor Jenny Durkan had protesters appear at her own house, and she takes it a bit more seriously now.
Seattle’s communist City Council member Kshama Sawant cheerfully blamed “Capitalism’s Brutality” for the murders in CHOP’s autonomous state that Seattle’s government allowed to exist contrary to the law. Sawant and other council members were expected to vote Tuesday on whether or not to repeal a tax on companies like Amazon and Starbucks that the council intended to combat a growing homelessness crisis.
Seattle does have a statue, a 16 foot tall bronze statue of Vladimir Lenin, but he is privately owned, and rests on private property, so he will continue to inspire the residents of Fremont. The statue was created by Bulgarian sculptor Emil Venkov. It was completed and put on display in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1988, the year before the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
In 1993 the statue was bought by an American who found it lying in a scrapyard, and brought it home to Washington state, but died before he could carry out his plans for displaying the Soviet era memento. Since 1995, the statue has been held in trust waiting for a buyer for the last 25 years on a prominent street corner in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, unwanted and unloved?
Senator Mitch McConnell weighed in on the civil unrest in the country today, pointing out that “a large statue of Vladimir Lenin remains untouched while protesters topple memorials to Thomas Jefferson” and George Washington. Does look, though, in some of the pictures, as if someone has painted Lenin’s hands suitably red.
Filed under: Capitalism, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economy, History, Humor, Law, News of the Weird, Police, Politics, Pop Culture, Progressivism, Regulation, Seattle WA, The United States | Tags: Capitol Hill Organized Protest, Reoccupying East Precinct, Vacating the Terror Zone
This is all extremely weird. The national news is reporting that the occupiers of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) are vacating, moving out. Their officials say that any protesters can stay as long as they went, but they seem to be tearing up the newly-planted vegetable garden and attempting to return it to ordinary park status, except that it has been all dug up.
Capitol Hill businesses have filed a major lawsuit against the City of Seattle. The merchants said in the suit that they have suffered economic ruin because the city allowed CHOP to happen. CHOP leader Naudia Miller confirmed reports that the area is being dissembled. She added “The burden of owning a business doesn’t compare to struggles of living in a nation that’s built on anti-black racism,” directed at businesses that are a party to the lawsuit.
A local investment firm closed it’s doors and announced that they were moving to Arizona. No local news purveyor managed to take pictures of the emptied streets, if they indeed are emptied. This is a screen capture from a hard-to-find video. Perhaps after the shootings, reporters and photographers decided to play it safe. This is the same view as in previous pictures that were decorated with barriers, signs, tents, debris and more signs. They talked about setting up at Seattle Center, by the Space Needle or elsewhere. The feckless Mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkan, was perhaps right when she called it a “summer of love” thing.
The CHOP (formerly CHAZ) has been major news across not only the country, but the world, turning the city of Seattle into something of a laughingstock, and suddenly they’re seeming to pretend that it never happened. There was a murder there, and people hospitalized.
CHOP leaders insisted their efforts are far from over: “We need every one of us to step up in a way that’s in our capacity, because we are dealing with trauma,” Miller said, adding that the only difference going forward is that Capitol Hill will no longer be a staging ground for Black Lives Matter.
Miller also spoke about everything that’s happened at the East Precinct, saying protesters’ takeover of the building was fair game after police used tear gas to disperse CHOP attendees.
“The Seattle Police Department chose that location when they terrorized people on Pine Street, and when they tear gassed people in their homes,” she commented.
The city says that the East Precinct will be reoccupied by next week. Stories about the six-block CHOP are pretty much absent from the news here, where one would think it would be big and welcome headlines. I had to really hunt to find anything.
Did they all suddenly recognize that this mess was giving Seattle a major black eye?
Capitol Hill is distinctly uphill from downtown Seattle, which is on a slight gradual slope down to the west and the water of Puget Sound, where the ferries dock. Seattle was famously built on seven hills, and some were plowed down to make them more acceptable for stores and businesses. If you assume that the CHOP area was in downtown Seattle, that’s incorrect. Capitol Hill is home to Seattle University, hospitals, schools and businesses. It slopes down on the eastern side to Lake Washington, and expensive residential areas along the lake.
Protesters have been shutting down the freeways too, or trying to. The Police keep them under control. As far as I can recall, we haven’t much here in the way of statues, or Confederate anything. Some totem poles.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Crime, Domestic Policy, Election 2020, Media Bias, Politics, Pop Culture, Progressives, Seattle WA | Tags: A Shifting World, Advertising, Magazines
Has the magazine industry died entirely while I wasn’t looking? Magazines are still plentiful in waiting rooms of doctors, hairdressers and barbers, and in bookstores. But do ordinary people still subscribe? I get a few specialized publications. But I grew up with Time, Life, Fortune, the Saturday Evening Post, Readers’ Digest, and Smithsonian. Times changed, and we all got computers. There used to be stories and cartoons, and interesting ads.
Now many people pay significant sums to avoid having to see any ads at all. I don’t remember ads being so objectionable as they are now. I am a reader, and I don’t want my reading interrupted, especially with something that moves and has sound. Google regularly tells me, as I delete yet another ad, that they base the advertising I see on my interests as determined by the websites I visit. They are clearly very bad at determining my interests. I have never responded to a Google ad, except to delete it. I’m still in the deleting phase rather than paying a hundred dollars to be free of ads. How about you?
The world is shifting and changing. We are occupied with the current protests and statue eradication, and not really noticing that shopping malls are disappearing, going broke, being transformed into apartments.
Post-pandemic, will our world return to pre-pandemic or has it all shifted? There is certainly more talk about more people working from home. Meetings can be held online. Offices are expensive. Here in Seattle businesses are moving out. What has driven them out is official failure to deal with protests and CHOP and consequent lack of public services and police protection. Protesters are occupying the freeways too.
If you are looking you will see frequent reports of whole populations moving, People leaving the large coastal cities and heading for safer territory. Even Chicago had 100 people shot on Father’s Day. The weekend before set a record, I believe, for fatalities.
Daniel Boorstin, the late Librarian of Congress, once wrote: “In our world of callused ears and overtaxed eyes, there are many symptoms of the desperate need of people to make somebody listen, to be sure somehow that somebody is hearing. More and more people are willing to pay fees they cannot afford, to medically trained psychiatric listeners who listen, nod, and take notes. A few desperate people especially young people with great energy who find that they cannot get people to listen when they say something, decide instead to throw something.” Is that what is going on?
Filed under: Coronavirus, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Law, Police, Politics, Progressives, Regulation, Seattle WA, Terrorism, The United States | Tags: Capitol Hill CHOP, Mayor Jenny Durkan, Six Blocks of Terror
Things are heating up in CHOP-land. On Sunday night, gunshots erupted in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone, less than 48 hours since an earlier shooting left one man dead and a 17 year-old male shot in the arm. Thought this was supposed to be a peaceful protest place, a “summer of love” thing. It appears that Seattle’s feckless mayor Jenny Durkan will have to act in some way. But she hasn’t figured out just how yet.
Perhaps our feckless governor, Jay Inslee, who has preferred to simply ignore the whole thing, will notice that it is giving his state a major black eye in the national news media.
But what to do and who will do it? Will they reclaim the East Precinct? The Police, who have been thoroughly demonized for no reason? The National Guard? That takes an order from Inslee. The neighborhood, and the six block area of homes and small shops and the residents are reported to be becoming restless. Small wonder.
I have no idea what the revolutionaries’ original vision was, in seceding from the United States to become an independent six blocks, but they dug up a patch of the local park to plant seedlings for their kitchen garden. Presumably they thought it would take only a few days to produce fresh vegetables, who knows. A little long on revolutionary fervor, short on common sense or just basic information.
Nationwide, the statues keep being attacked, but the major offenders are gone, so they’re down to the fringe characters like Francis Scott Key. He did write the Star Spangled Banner, but wasn’t that in the War of 1812 rather than the Civil War? I’m not sure just what the objection to him is. It was a Southern Fort with the rockets’ red glare. The statue attackers are also a little long on revolutionary fervor and quite short of basic information.
If we just ignore it will it go away? Get tiresome? Fervor grow stale? I’m already sick of it all and not feeling at all charitable towards the perpetrators. Put them away for a while to cool off. It is simply posturing, virtue-signaling, but not much virtue. “Summer of Love”indeed. The police are anxious to preserve the rule of law, but the city’s Democrat management simply doesn’t know what to do, or how to do it.
Filed under: Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Election 2020, History, Intelligence, Politics, Progressivism, Seattle WA | Tags: Accomplishing Nothing, Desperate Protesters, Ignorance of History
The brave people who are out fiercely attacking helpless statues are at it again. Not every city has handy statues of former Confederate generals, so they have to go after the lesser figures, who may or may not have owned slaves, which seems to be the latest charge. George Washington? Francis Scott Key? The Star Spangled Banner? Protesters are so monumentally ignorant of American history that they hardly know who to attack to show just how outraged they are. Outraged about what? George Floyd?
Not really. Here Victor Davis Hanson speaks about removing Confederate statues and the erasing of American History. We need to provide these unfortunates with some reading lists. How can they possibly have spent years in the classrooms of America and learned so little about our history. It’s not really the kids’ fault, but their parents and their teachers.
One of the particularly interesting websites is American Mind, which offers scholarly essays on contemporary issues. Their essays are accompanied by a notation at the top of how long it will take to read: 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 7 minutes. Can you, in your busy, busy life spend 5 minutes reading our laboriously researched and written essay? Is that not sad?
The Capitol Hill autonomous zone: CHOP, continues on. Seattle’s feckless mayor, Jenny Durkan, chooses to assume it’s just “the summer of love”. They’ve now had a shooting, somebody dead, somebody else in critical condition. They have dug up a public park to make a kitchen garden in which they have planted seedlings, perhaps unaware of just how long the distance is between planted seedling and anything actually useful for the kitchen table. Most of it seems to be mostly a matter of vast ignorance, whatever the topic. Left alone, they will soon run out of money, cleanliness, food, or energy. It’s hard to know how dependent they are on publicity, but they don’t seem to be adding adherents. But I’m not a close observer, I live across the lake.
I found this “Real History of Antifa” online, which you might find of interest.
Filed under: Australia, Canada, Coronavirus, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economy, England, France, Freedom, Health Care, History, Humor, Intelligence, Law, Media Bias, Police, Politics, Regulation, Seattle WA, The United States | Tags: Destroying Statues, Fury and Outrage, Rewriting the Past
Here’s the box they built around the statue of Winston Churchill in Britain. Police also protected the cenotaph, and protesters bravely threw some statues into the River Thames.
In Whittier, California, BLM protesters defaced a statue of John Greenleaf. Who is he? He was a prominent Quaker abolitionist, known for his anti-slavery writings. A picture shows the usual graffiti. Sometimes, it seems, we get a little over-excited about attacking statues. Of course, unlike attacking real people, statues just sit there and behave like the inanimate objects they are, and there’s no fuss unless the police catch you at it, and even then it depends on what the local rules are about attacking statues. It is entirely about the symbolism, and attacking a king symbolically ranks a little higher than a symbolic mere member of Parliament, for example.
Of course in America we went for bigger targets than mere statues (which were attacked as well) but that can’t compare to HBO blacklisting Gone With the Wind. Good Grief! Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler. Hattie McDaniels, who is black, won the first Oscar ever given to a person of another race. It was well deserved, but there’s the rub. She played the role of Mammy, a slave.
Well, never mind Oscars, the outrage was furious. Banning Gone With the Wind! America’s favorite movie of all time. What happened immediately was that everybody went out and bought a copy for their own, and just think through the economics of that little stunt, and how it would reverberate down through the years. I can even quote you the opening lines of the book: “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm, as the Tarelton twins were.”
HBO decided that unbanning Gone With the Wind was probably the better idea, but because of George Floyd and all, they hired Black scholar and TCM host Jacqueline Stewart. She is a professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. Cinema and Media Studies is a major at the University of Chicago? It has not been yet announced just when GWTW and Scarlett and Brett will return to streaming services. Jacqueline Stewart will provide an introduction to the movie, so you understand the correct viewpoint. This is a very odd time, we can’t seem to decide whether we can allow history to remain unchanged, or if we have to have a do-over that we like better. Historically, we do recognize that the Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Southern forces fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and on April 15, President Lincoln issued a public declaration than an insurrection existed and called for 75,000 militia to stop the rebellion. It ended on April 9, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S, Grant at the Appomattox Court House, with a remarkable lot of history in between those two dates. If you are unfamiliar with the Civil War, study up! You’ll be glad you did. Here’s a guide to books on the war.
You might want to look up the Emancipation Proclamation.
Race has come up as a major subject in the international outrage over the death of George Floyd. Statues are being destroyed in this country, in Britain, Australia, Scotland–Robert the Bruce, the Scottish King who freed Scotland from England’s clutches, and who knows where else, which accomplishes nothing at all, but expresses varying degrees of outrage over varying subjects. The Civil War in general, any generals who fought for the South, anything named for a general who fought for the South, that sort of thing. Fort Bragg and Fort Benning are especially mentioned as needing to be renamed immediately to appease the anger about race. Quick, can you tell me where Fort Bragg is, and who it is named for? Didn’t think so. How about Fort Benning — location, named for? If we are going to be outraged and change names, shouldn’t we know what we are talking about, and how it relates to, for example, “CHAZ” or “CHOP” as it is now, on six blocks of Capitol Hill in Seattle? And what does that have to do with putting a box around the statue of Winston Churchill in Britain?
What seemed to happen to George Floyd was clearly an outrage, but what actually happened was not as it seemed. The call to police about Floyd was that he was trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. We never learned if it was counterfeit or not. There must have been some kind of resisting arrest going on for him to end up on the ground with an officer holding him down with his knee.
Floyd was a very large man who worked as security in a night club, a “bouncer” as they are called, as did the police officer, and they apparently worked at the same establishment. The cause of death is unclear. Yes, he was saying “I can’t breathe” but before the choke hold as well. He was apparently high on fentanyl. The autopsies (there were two) also mentioned a heart attack, and another fatal condition. The officer has been charged with murder, but in the middle of international outrage. I have no idea. It just sounds like it is a lot more complicated than we were led to believe. The outrage over what was seen on film was huge. The emotion stirred up was huge and has led to all the rest.
Hopefully, enough information will eventually come out to clarify the whole thing. Why it has led to the destruction of Columbus statues, names of anything connected to the South in the Civil War, remains unknown. Aunt Jemima syrup has changed its name and picture. Kellogg’s Rice Crispies has been attacked for Snap, Crackle and Pop who seem to be three white boys. The same white boys are on the Cocoa Crispies box, although the cereal is brown. In other words, a big section of America has become certifiable. A City Councilman in Charlotte, SC has declared that it is time to proclaim that racism is a public health crisis. The worst reaction is the call to defund the police. which is beyond stupid. Unfortunately it has all been exacerbated by the CORONA-19 turmoil and societal shutdown and all the chaos that has caused. Emotions were already stirred up by people locked down.
This too shall pass. From the Federalist: “Why White People Will Always Be Racists: Whites are continually put into the position of forever having to prove the negative, that they’re not racists. This is impossible. And that’s the point.”
Filed under: Free Speech, Freedom, History, Humor, Law, Media Bias, News, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear, Police, Politics, Progressives, Regulation, Seattle WA, Socialism, The Constitution, The United States | Tags: And Other Helpful Deeds, Defunding the Police, Tear Down Statues
The Autonomous state of CHAZ on Seattle’s Capitol Hill continues, The folks who actually live in the area are somewhat terrorized, because if someone tries to break into their houses or attacks one of the occupants, they cannot call the police. And the occupants of the new state don’t seem to be the most congenial group.
The Seattle Police Chief, Carmen Best, who is a black woman, has been ordered to leave the East Precinct Police station to the anarchists. Neither our Governor, Jay Inslee, nor the Seattle Mayor, Jennie Durkin, want to be put in a position where they might actually have to do something that might possibly be criticized. Life is just so complicated these days.
History, one might remind, is what happened in the past. You cannot change it. There may be many things you might wish to change, but you can not. You don’t get to rewrite it either. We seem to have arrived at a point where all traces of the Southern side of the Civil War must be obliterated, statues torn down, anything named for a Southern general renamed. Won’t work.
The Civil War remains a major event in American history. The Confederacy lost, but that does not mean that they didn’t have some good generals. The Confederate Flag should not be flown over statehouses, just the American flag. But it is not necessary to recoil at the sight of the stars and bars. History is what happened. We can learn from it. You can tear down statues, but those men once lived and did what they, in real life, actually did.
Nancy Pelosi wants to remove something like 13 statues of Southerners from Statuary Hall, which will accomplish nothing. Her Father, Thomas D’Alessandro was mayor of Baltimore, and put up statues to Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. This is simply virtue-signaling.
Trying to assert that because you want to tear statues down, you are more completely one with today’s blacks who are angry about the death of George Floyd at the hands of a policeman who held him down with a knee. The death of George Floyd was clearly excessive force, but we don’t know what actions preceded George Floyd’s being taken down and what made the drastic hold necessary. Awful situation, and it has developed into a world wide situation. And just what will be improved by defunding the police? That they cannot seem to understand what the results of that would be remains a major puzzle.
Filed under: Capitalism, Economics, Education, History, Law, Police, Politics, Seattle WA, Socialism, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Antifa, Autonomous Zone, Mob Violence
What an interesting day! I got up late, but while I was sleeping, apparently Antifa rioters were hard at work, capturing a six-block square territory on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, proclaiming it “The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone“, under their own rules and regulations, seceding from the United States of America and issuing a long list of demands, unsurprisingly silly.
The Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, under attack from rioters, closed the precinct station down late yesterday, and evacuated before somebody got hurt. By early today the separatists had apparently run out of money and had to beg for food from supporters, beg for people with guns to help protect them, and the City helpfully provided them with dumpsters and porta-potties.
Protesters led by activist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant occupied City Hall downtown last night for just over an hour, called for the resignation of Mayor Jenny Durkan, and the defunding of the Seattle Police Department. They entered chanting “Whose City Hall? Our City Hall!” and a number of speakers on a range of issues spoke on the importance of Black LGBTQIA+ (Not sure that I can translate that, but you get the idea). “It is about building the kind of political representation that brings the voice of the people into the halls of power and grabs power for ordinary people” Sawant said. :Please stop using Black Lives Matter for your political campaigns, also noting the whiteness of many speakers at recent protests. Sawant also had critical words for her council colleagues who she called “corporate politicians” and “sellouts.”
There are apparently around 500 residential homes in the area, so they have stationed a fire truck there, just in case. While the mayor claimed to keep the area safe, she told the rioters.
“As the Chief takes this operational step, we will continue to remain focused on what we can and must do to address the systemic inequities that continue to disproportionately impact our Black residents,” she tweeted. “Yesterday, we announced a commitment to invest $100 million dollars into community – in addition to existing city programs — and to work with community to create a Black Commission that will help to amplify black voices in City Hall.” She added “With these operational changes, our city can peacefully move forward together.”
The rioters have declared independence from the city itself, and if they are seceding from the United States as well, they will have to negotiate with President Donald Trump. Which might prove interesting.
The Seattle area is home to an enormous number of colleges and universities, which may have something to do with this. There is the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran, University of Puget Sound, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University, Northwest University, Bellevue College, all sorts of Community colleges and Evergreen, a list that does not begin to include all the trade schools and branch locations. And, due to the Corona Virus shutdowns, they are not in session. College kids, having learned protesting in college, have in many cases been trained in the wonderfulness of socialism as well. There will be lots more excitement, I’m sure, before we can get back to normal life. Some COVID-19 watchers seem to think that because of all the riots and crowds, we’ll have another bad outbreak in the fall, others don’t think so.
How long our major corporations will be willing to put up with this (Increased taxes for Amazon and Microsoft are a common demand) is an unknown. The rioters seem remarkably free from any knowledge of history, or much of anything else as far as that goes. Certainly young blacks growing up in single-parent households, in bad neighborhoods, don’t see a path to success ahead of them. That is not the fault of the police, who try to keep neighborhoods safe.
Aside from abolishing the police, Seattle protesters have demanded not only amnesty, but free health care and free college. The Black Lives Matter people might pay a little more attention to the young black Ohio teen who walked three miles every day, to go to his public library that offered homework help. He has been offered admission to 12 colleges, including the one he most wants to attend.
American Elephants 