If Fox News polls tell the story, Trump is going to lose. Whether that happens remains a product of what happens on the streets and what comes out of his twitter feed, a battle for who can turn people off harder and faster, albeit each in their own special way.
But the day is still young, and there’s so much opportunity for either side to do something so outrageously awful. But there is a disconnect here, as Trump suffers from his own actions while Biden is tainted by the actions of others, who don’t like him, won’t listen to him and see him as the next hurdle to surmount in their quest for hegemony. Jonah Goldberg explains why. Continue reading →
Not too long ago, I decided not to publish a post that questioned our promiscuous use of the word “heroes.” Were people heroes for doing the job they chose to do, were paid to do, were supposed to do? If it was a hard job under the circumstances, a job that many of us would have chosen not to do, but still needed done, then we appreciated that people did the job. They could have walked away. They didn’t. We were the beneficiaries of their efforts.
But did that make them heroes? Did calling them heroes cheapen the word? Maybe we are just in desperate need of heroes, and so we turn regular people into heroes for being regular people. In any event, it seemed unwise at a time when passions were high to raise a thoughtful question that was likely to evoke outrage and a backlash. So it never saw the light of day.
The other day, there was a rally in Kenosha where the father of Jacob Blake spoke. Had his son not been shot by a cop, who would have cared what this random guy had to say? Who would have allowed him to speak? Who would have listened, not that anyone was really listening anyway. But he spoke because his son was shot. Getting shot does not make you a hero. Or a saint. Or a villain. Or anything except the guy who got shot. And being the shot guy’s father doesn’t make you someone with something useful to say.
As a father, I feel the pain of another parent whose child was harmed. Whether they deserved it or not, or whether the word “deserve” has nothing to do with it, as in a child who was harmed, killed, by some entirely random event like a car crash, the pain to a parent doesn’t change. Jacob Blake’s father felt the bullets going into his son’s body, and I can feel empathy for his pain. But he’s still no expert on the wrongfulness of what happened, and he’s got no greater gravitas than anyone else as to what should be done about it.
Inexplicably, the woke have beatified their victims. George Floyd has been made a saint, even though he wasn’t exactly a saint when he as alive. Did getting killed make him a better person or just a dead person? Did this guy whose existence registered on no one’s radar before he had the grave misfortune to die at the hands of police become an icon because of his personal virtue or being some random guy who died?
People have been put on pedestals not because they have any specialized knowledge of social problems or their solutions, but because they are victims, or somewhat closely related to victims. Some of them have sought out the opportunity to use their grave misfortune to elevate their voice far beyond its merit had they not been victims. Others have been thrust into the spotlight by others, whether because they can be used to serve their purposes, they believe it’s the right thing to do or they can bask in the reflected glory of victimhood.
People who have suffered are often not equipped to deal with the spotlight, or those pushing them into it or putting on them. They find themselves suddenly subjected to extreme scrutiny, whether accurate or not, that comes back to smear them and tear them off the pedestal they never wanted. They find themselves enjoying the limelight a bit too much, desiring more attention and bootstrapping their sudden fame into a position of prominence they’ve done nothing to deserve. Being a victim doesn’t take skill or effort. It’s not a virtue.
What drives us to turn ordinary people, maybe sinners but rarely terrible sinners, into heroes for the world to adore, to admire, to honor? We put them onstage. Their words make headlines. Hundreds, even thousands, of people take their words to heart and feel as if their thoughts, their words, their pain, should somehow exert an influence over our thoughts, our actions, our policies. Why?
George Floyd’s brother, Philonise, spoke before the House Judiciary Committee on June 10th.
It makes for good theater, but is Philonise Floyd knowledgeable, no less an expert, about police practices and accountability? Indeed, he can’t even speak to the killing of his brother as he wasn’t there and knows nothing more about it than anyone else who watched the video of Floyd’s death, and likely far less than those of us familiar with police procedure and capable of reading autopsy reports.
It may “feel” right, because he’s George Floyd’s brother, but it makes no sense. As much as we can empathize with his loss, or from the flip side, ponder why he didn’t do anything to stop his brother’s drug use and less than admirable conduct on the street, he’s just a random fellow whose brother was killed. No better or worse. No more worthy of offering his views than any other random person.
Much of this can be attributed to our rejection of reason and replacement with emotion. The victims bring a story, and their story evokes feelings. If their story, and the feelings they evoke, further what our feelings have to say, then we’re all for their elevation to sainthood, to importance, to prominence atop the pedestal. Some will say they need a hero, particularly given a broadbased movement devoid of leadership and purpose. This person at the microphone gives us someone to focus our attentions on when there is mostly chaos around us otherwise.
But as much as we can empathize with the loss and pain of victims and their families, and we might feel the need for a hero, the desire for a focal point, they still have no actual merit beyond having the great misfortune of being the victim. Any idiot can be shot or choked. That doesn’t make them someone to heed, and there’s nothing heroic about being some random guy killed.
Who doesn’t love mandatory minimums and the Sentencing Guidelines, amirite? Except for the fact that they’ve proven unduly Draconian, inflexible and too often produce absurd outcomes. But as hard as we’ve fought against rubrics that make criminal punishment clear, transparent and certain, there remains a bone in our heads that compels us to make the same mistakes again because, as much as we know the outcomes are terrible, they satisfy our desire for clarity.
“We want discipline to be a straightforward matter,” de Blasio said at a press conference. “We want it to be clear that when certain actions are taken, when certain mistakes are made, that there will be accountability.” Continue reading →
Forget the tu quoque comparisons to Trump, who did exactly what one would expect him to do.
“The violence is fueled by dangerous rhetoric from far-left politicians that demonize our nation and demonize our police,” Mr. Trump said Monday at a news conference. “The violent rioters share Biden’s same talking points, and they share his same agenda for our nation,” he added. “The rioters and Joe Biden have a side — they’re both on the side of the radical left.”
To suggest that Biden has given solace to rioters is clearly false. But then, Biden’s policy goals are far more aligned with the protesters than Trump’s, and while Trump has grossly overstated the case, has Biden been left to thread the needle between condemning violence without offending the violent? Continue reading →
There was only one full-time black journalist at the Kenosha News. Why that was the case is unknown, and any attempt to “explain” it would be nothing less than outright fabrication born of bias. Now, there are none. To his credit, the one black reporter, Daniel Thompson, saw something he couldn’t tolerate. After attempting to fix it, and being rebuffed, he did the only honorable thing he could do. He quit.
The headline, which appeared on the Kenosha News website on Saturday, highlighted a remark from one rally participant: “Kenosha speaker: ‘If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours.’” The online version of the article included a 59-second video showing the person who spoke those words, a Black man who was not identified by name.
The story was otherwise fine. It was the headline that offended Thompson. Continue reading →
A few years ago, I was visiting the Tate Modern in London, a beautiful museum housed in a decommissioned 19th-century power station that thrusts into the sky like the Tower of Mordor. The effect was stark on that winter evening, and I felt a little overawed, but the weather was so blustery that I would’ve been happy to duck inside even if I hadn’t wanted to look at the art.
I soon discovered that the museum has a “Rothko Room,” meant to let the viewer appreciate the artist’s work in a setting close to the one he would’ve wanted. From the Tate website:
In the late 1950s, Rothko was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the fashionable Four Seasons restaurant, in the Seagram Building on Park Avenue, New York. […] However, the murals were darker in mood than his previous work. The bright and intense colours [sic – Britain] of his earlier paintings shifted to maroon, dark red and black. […] Recognising [sic – more Britain] that the worldly setting of a restaurant would not be the ideal location for such a work, Rothko withdrew from the commission. […] This installation includes all nine of the paintings owned by Tate. Perceived, as the artist intended, in reduced light and in a compact space, the subtlety of the layered surfaces slowly emerges, revealing their solemn and meditative character.
Too deep in the morass of news ranging from bad to awful to make the cut, there was a stabbing at an AutoZone in Columbus, Georgia. Had it been at a protest or riot in Portland or Kenosha, it might be the subject of infinite discussion on social media, but it was off the map and few noticed it. But it’s worthy of notice.
Columbus Police are looking for the person responsible for attacking an AutoZone employee with a knife Tuesday morning.
The incident happened on at the AutoZone located on 32nd Street at around 8:26 a.m. According to police the suspect entered the store and attacked the employee with a knife in an unprovoked incident. Continue reading →
As much as I abhor Trump for being a vulgar, amoral, lying ignoramus, neither one more voice saying it nor one more person harping on his every word, every move, every act, is going to change anything. Trump lied? Oh no, it’s another Tuesday at 10 a.m. So what? Who expected otherwise? And so if it goes without saying, don’t say it. There’s no reason.
It’s also bad tactics, despite the Trump-hating obsession so many carry, to exhaust any utility to challenging the president. People are so inured to attacks that they mean nothing, and nothing he says or does has much of an impact. One lie is an outrage. A million is a statistic. Things that would have toppled any administration before just roll off his back, both because he does such wildly inappropriate stuff so regularly and there is so much screeching that it’s just background noise at this point. No outrage lasts longer than a few hours, tops, before the next comes along and captures the moment. Continue reading →
The contrast is jarring. Videos were everywhere showing Kyle Rittenhouse shooting his rifle. Yet, there was a killing in Portland, a bullet to the chest that left one man dead, and the only piece of information about it is the hat.
The man who was shot and killed was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in Portland that has clashed with protesters in the past.
There may be video, but it’s not offered, no link, no embedded video. And apparently it doesn’t really do much to illuminate what happened. Continue reading →
National media’s attention focused on Tennessee about a week ago when Governor Bill Lee signed into law a bill potentially stripping protesters of their ability to vote. At least that was the attention-grabbing narrative during an election season rife with incessant screeching about voter suppression. The context of SB 8005 adds no shine to the law and blunts that narrative’s credibility.
As interest and energy waned in Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” talk of establishing a similar community in Nashville started briefly on social media. Governor Lee wasn’t keen on a similar “summer of love” in Music City, warning protesters Nashville would never allow a Volunteer State version of CHAZ. Continue reading →
