When enough blue-collar workers get canceled because they are too busy doing their hard and valuable to society jobs to bother with the sensitivities of the latest update from the grievance studies departments of the academic elite, they will get together and build a fucking killdozer and the pushback will be diesel-powered.
J. KB
June 29, 2020
When you’ve lost the Atlantic…
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Via KOMO News:
A large group of demonstrators gathered in downtown Seattle Sunday afternoon.
The group gathered at West Lake Center for an Abolish ICE rally and then starting marching around downtown.
Seattle Police say they have received reports of property damage and looting.
Windows of the Starbucks at E Denny Way and Broadway East were seen smashed out as well as the windows of Victrola Coffee Roasters at 3rd Avenue and Pine Street. The Seattle Municipal Court Building was also vandalized.
I used to work across the corner from West Lake Center. Third and Pine is part of Mugme Street.
Watch the KOMO News video via the link at the top of this post. The reporter seems almost surprised the “demonstrators” exercising their First Amendment rights threatened them if they were to exercise their right to film them on a public street.
Here is some of the pictures (I have cropped some of them for better illustration of my point) they took of the “demonstrators” First Amendment activities:
They need to stop calling them “demonstrators” and “protestors”. Call them what they are. They are criminals and terrorists.
As I’ve said before appeasement doesn’t work:
This afternoon, in broad daylight, this happened in downtown Seattle:
NOW: Antifa Militants and Black Lives Matter rioters are breaking into Amazon Go Downtown Seattle. This protest has turned into a riot. #SeattleProtest #AntifaDomesticTerrorists #seattleriots #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/RH8u56fCGP
— Katie Daviscourt (@KatieDaviscourt) July 19, 2020
And as Joni Job @jj_talking said this afternoon:
I told @amazon they should leave and no matter how much you pay the MOB, they will turn on you. There’s not enough kneeling you can do pic.twitter.com/eHgOmC1lHj
— Joni Job (@jj_talking) July 19, 2020
“There’s not enough kneeling you can do.” I like that.
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles MacKay
1852
Preface to Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds
[Via Jeffrey A. Tucker When Will the Madness End?
I haven’t read the book yet but I have it on my phone and it is next in my queue.
The current mass delusion has interesting parallels to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s with the hijacking of claims of racism against blacks by white Marxists. Read about it in America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence Days of Rage. Many of the people who lived through that gradually came to their senses and were perplexed how they could have believed the stuff they were so certain of.
I haven’t read any books on it but I’ve read some newspaper clippings from the 1930’s about socialism/communism being openly viewed with great popularity in our country. Again, within a relatively short period of years, such views were strongly disavowed and even suppressed by government action.
That such cycles into madness have occurred before, and our country recovered, gives me hope that we can recover from this cycle into a political hell as well.—Joe]
I’ve been looking at the parallels of the cancel culture, riots, and looting of today in the U.S. to other times and places in history.
Numerous times I’ve mentioned Gulag Archipelago both on this blog and in private conversation with my children and others. The survivors of those times wrote of the truth not being “politically correct” and to speak the truth could result you being “reeducated”, sent to a slave labor camp, or being executed. But, as far as I know, they lacked the riots, thuggish mobs, and looting.
In Nazi Germany the removal of all Jews from government jobs and universities warrants at least a mention. The Brown Shirts, thuggish mobs, and looting ignored by the government certainly are a good match for what we are seeing today in some locations. But the removal of people from their jobs wasn’t because of their political beliefs and/or speech.
After reading Bari Weiss’s letter of resignation from the New York Times (via email from Paul K. and Reason Magazine which has a good article on the topic) another potential parallel was brought to my attention. From Weiss’s letter* (emphasis added):
The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people. This is a galaxy in which, to choose just a few recent examples, the Soviet space program is lauded for its “diversity”; the doxxing of teenagers in the name of justice is condoned; and the worst caste systems in human history includes the United States alongside Nazi Germany.
Even now, I am confident that most people at The Times do not hold these views. Yet they are cowed by those who do. Why? Perhaps because they believe the ultimate goal is righteous. Perhaps because they believe that they will be granted protection if they nod along as the coin of our realm—language—is degraded in service to an ever-shifting laundry list of right causes. Perhaps because there are millions of unemployed people in this country and they feel lucky to have a job in a contracting industry.
Or perhaps it is because they know that, nowadays, standing up for principle at the paper does not win plaudits. It puts a target on your back. Too wise to post on Slack, they write to me privately about the “new McCarthyism” that has taken root at the paper of record.
McCarthyism certainly cost a lot of people their jobs (watch The Front, if for nothing other than the credits at the end which are incredibly sobering). And it was about political correctness of a type. But the thuggish mobs, riots, and looting are missing as well as the political persuasion of the villains being anti-Marxist rather than pro-Marist as we have in the circumstances of today.
The fictional dystopia of 1984 could be considered a match in many ways but it takes place deep in the depths of the fierce suppression of speech, written word, and even many thoughts are forbidden. Something closer to our present circumstance and non-fictional is preferable.
I’m left with less than great matches. Sunday evening I suggested to my children they read Gulag Archipelago. Kim eagerly asked for the spelling but Jaime protested that unless it offered a solution then she didn’t want to get even more depressed and upset by our current situation. That’s a valid point. And furthermore, without great parallels how can I shed light on what to expect next or what to suggest as a remedy? And then there are so many variables such as our technology lending itself to vastly superior suppression of free speech than the previous examples. On the other side of that coin is that same technology also can also be a tool for the enabling of free speech and punishment of the evil doers. And, of course, 100s of millions of guns and billions of rounds of ammunition in the possession of the persecuted also is a variable not present in any of the historical scenarios.
The McCarthyism parallel is by far the least tragic of the outcomes, but it is also the worst match so I’m going to dismiss it.
The conclusion am am left with is that the all the reasonably good historical parallels lead to really bad situations. We must do our best to avoid going in that direction.
I keep thinking that with more and more evidence such as Weiss’s letter, the lessons learned from CHAZ/CHOP, and the continuing destruction in other cities, Portland Oregon in particular, that there is a good chance of a political turn around in the November elections. We should work at making a political solution the most likely outcome while ensuring a 2nd Amendment solution is a last resort and crystal clear that if needed it will be used and will be overwhelming successful.
* I intended to extract a paragraph of the letter for a QOTD but nearly every paragraph would have qualified. I would like to suggest you read the entire letter.
It is not transcendently stupid for the alleged anti-racism rioters to destroy a Lincoln statue, though, to normal people, it looks like the act of drooling morons. Now, a good number of these cesspeople are drooling morons, but that does not change the fact that trashing POTUS #16’s statuary is brilliant.
They have confused their targets – us – by casting off the constraints of coherence.
Oh wait, you thought that these folks were trying to make a point about racism being bad. And you thought, because that’s how those of us who weren’t raised on Instatwitbook, soy, and critical race theory, that if you point out that something is unreasonable then that will cause the person you were instructing to rethink it. After all, trashing some Honest Abe totem in order to illustrate how racism is double-plus-ungood is about a “12” on the 1-10 scale of unreasonability. And yet, you can point that out all day and they don’t care.
In fact, they laugh at you for doing so.
It’s not about making sense. It never was. It’s about making you kneel.
Kurt Schlichter
July 2, 2020
Stop Making Sense
[Just the other day I posted Not a contradiction which is somewhat related.
Some of his advice is similar to mine about not appeasing the terrorists (see also here and here):
So how do we beat them?
Step one is to understand the nature of the fight. It’s not one of right and wrong, though that’s how they like to disguise it. It is one of power. Give them nothing. Concede nothing. Stop trying to be reasonable with people who think a reasonable compromise is just impoverishing and disenfranchising you instead of stashing you in a gulag or worse.
Read the rest of his advice.—Joe]
One of the most revealing bits of left-wing racism is how they think they can scare 2nd Amendment advocates with pictures of black people exercising their gun rights, i.e., they think the right will be as scared of minorities with guns as they are.
Frank J. Fleming @IMAO_
Tweeted on July 2, 2020
[I suspect another fear is that if black people realize they need to own a gun to protect themselves and their property from rioters and looters and it is leftist politicians who are blocking them from doing so they will become “woke” in a manner which is not favorable to the left.
A reminder; I provide free ammo and gun use for new shooters of any color and sexual orientation when they go to the range with me for the first time. Examples include:
Contact information is available via the “Contact” tab at the top of the blog.—Joe]
I found the use of “gift clause” in the class action lawsuit against Seattle rather interesting:
The class action lawsuit claims that the city’s failure to provide police and fire service to the CHOP and surrounding areas, while providing the protesters assistance in blocking off roadways, amounts to an unconstitutional taking of property without due process and without just compensation. The suit also claims that by letting protestors occupy streets and set up community gardens in a public park, the City of Seattle has made a gift of public property to private parties, in violation of the “gift clause” in the Washington State constitution.
A number of western states have these gift clauses, which were originally intended to prevent the government from granting privileges to private corporations. It’s an irony that private businesses are now invoking the clause to stop Seattle from tolerating a leftist commune.
There are other stories about the lawsuit as well. But I was unable find others which mention the gift clause:
I wish the plaintiffs luck in their lawsuit. The politicians who encourage this sort of behavior need to know their will be consequences.
The unrest that has taken place in the city of Seattle … there is really is not a downtown business community today.
We’re hearing rumors of 40-story buildings that will be only 20-percent occupied by October … My biggest concern for Seattle was what the business community is going to come back to, and what kind of businesses are going to come back for customers.
…
We are playing the long game for our company, colleagues, clients and shareholders with this transition to our new location. As we plan for the next chapter of our organization, we believe that we gain tangible and intangible benefits through Greater Phoenix and its surrounding communities.
Cole Smead
President and CEO of Smead Capital Management
June 22, 2020
Seattle’s CHOP Just Cost The City A Billion Dollar Company
[That’s what a taste of socialism will do.—Joe]
While we await details of this tragic killing, it highlights capitalism’s brutality & endemic violence. Our movement rejects insinuations & falsehoods perpetuated by corporate & conservative media that this violence is outcome of CHOP or of our movement.
Kshama Sawant @cmkshama
Admitted socialist
Seattle City Councilwoman (under investigation)
Tweeted on June 29, 2020
[Enjoy your free taste of socialism.
The bigger the lie…—Joe]
The Capital Hill area of Seattle which was occupied by protesters since early June has been retaken:
Seattle police, under orders from Mayor Jenny Durkan, cleared demonstrators out of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest Zone (CHOP) on Wednesday, after a series of shootings marred the ongoing protest movement.
City officers on bikes and in riot gear — with help from FBI agents and police from nearby Bellevue — began dispersing the crowd at about 5 a.m., authorities said.
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best reiterated her support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which drove the protests, but said of the weekslong occupation of public streets: “Enough is enough.”
“I support peaceful demonstrations. Black lives matter and I too want to help propel this movement forward toward meaningful exchange in our community and meaningful change in our community,” Best told reporters. “But enough is enough. Our job is to protect and to serve the community.”
None of the reports I have been able to find have been negative. They have been surprisingly, to me, factual. Here is another example:
Police in Seattle have cleared out the city’s ‘autonomous zone’ and arrested over 30 protesters following an executive order from Mayor Jenny Durkan. ABC News reports that the “occupied” zone, which has been dubbed the Capitol Hill Organized Protest area, was cleared by police on Wednesday. The order from Durkan came after four shootings, two of which were fatal, occured in the area within the last month.
“Due to ongoing violence and public safety issues in the East Precinct/Cal Anderson Park area, Mayor Jenny Durkan has issued an executive order to vacate the area,” the Seattle Police Department wrote on Twitter. “Seattle police will be in the area this morning enforcing the Mayor’s order.”
And from Capital Hill Seattle:
UPDATE 9:30 AM: SPD now reports 31 arrests for “failure to disperse, obstruction, assault, and unlawful weapon possession.”
There were no significant injuries reported. Around 6:30 AM, SPD said that a woman was reported going into labor on the east side of Cal Anderson Park.
UPDATE 11:21 AM: More arrests and a large police presence was reported at Broadway and Pine after a clash between officers and protesters. Nearby Seattle Central announced its campus was locked down during the ongoing police activity.
Police said officers “enforcing today’s order” were wearing “a higher-level of protective gear.”
“Police are utilizing this equipment because individuals associated w/the CHOP are known to be armed and dangerous/may be associated with shootings, homicides, robberies, assaults & other violent crimes,” the update read.
SPD was also investigating reports of vehicles circling the area with officers reporting individuals “with firearms/armor” inside. The vehicles also did not have visible license plates, SPD reported.
The vandalism and mess are horrendous (from here):
From Joseph Suttner @josephsuttner:
I still think my original suggestion that letting them take over for a while was the correct decision. They didn’t disperse on their own like I thought they would. But digging in and getting into a violent confrontation on day one or even day five probably would leave us in a worse situation that what we have now.
The children demonstrated to the entire world and themselves they can’t get along without adult supervision. That lesson would not have been learned had the police gone in and immediately “kicked ass”. To the best of my knowledge there were no serious injuries during the retaking of the area. The videos I watched showed people passively resisting arrest but there weren’t any outbreaks of violence. Had the police gone in when emotions were high private citizens and police probably would have been injured and I can easily imagine there being tremendous property damage.
As I read somewhere a few days ago, paraphrasing, “This is your free sample of socialism.”
Last week T-Mobile tried to appease the terrorists.
This week new demands were made:
It makes me sad when people have to learn a lesson the hard way.
Never try to appease terrorists.
I have long noted that progressives/socialist/communists are inherently violent (further elaboration here). The current riots and looting are just further validation of that observation. I really believe it is part of their nature.
This trait causes them to sometimes overreach. If their numbers are too small and/or they have insufficient influence over the existing government they can end up being arrested and/or removed from power and influence.
We get the details via Jake Whittenberg @jwhittenbergK5.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is so far to the left on the political scale that she said CHAZ/CHOP was more like a block party and “We could have the Summer of Love” than a illegal take over. Yet it appears the Seattle admitted Socialist Councilwoman Kshama Sawant has overreached the limits of Mayor Durkin. She has asked the city council president to investigate, punish, and possibly remove Sawant from the city council:
As Constitutionalist Selah 111 @111Selah said:
They are eating each other.
Nice of them demonstrate their faults for everyone to see.
Dave Workman also has things to say about the situation.
There are times when it’s difficult to believe this is not some sort of slow motion dystopian nightmare:
Hundreds of protesters camped outside City Hall are demanding that lawmakers slash the New York City police budget by $1billion.
The ‘Occupy City Hall’ encampment began forming Tuesday following weeks of street protests sparked by the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement.
The protesters are part of a national ‘defund the police’ movement seeking more spending on other needs like housing and education and say they won’t move until they see a budget cut.
It comes as violent crime in New York City skyrockets, with June now on track for the highest number of murders in a month since 1996.
…
These cities are rapidly becoming uninhabitable. It’s a mass insanity which I can only see ending by either the adults taking charge or a culling of the herd as they, in essence, volunteer en masse for Darwin awards by destroying their own habitat.
It’s all so surreal.
There is an insight to take from this. Places outside of ground zero of this insanity will likely soon need protection from the mobs. There’s going to be a lot of experienced cops looking for jobs. And I’ll bet they are going to be friendly to gun owners willing to back them up.
Via Far Right Of Right@FarRightOfRight:
If you think this is a contradiction you probably made the mistake of thinking they were telling the truth when they said you don’t need guns because you have the police. As we have known for decades they have a culture of lies and deception.
With that established fact in mind we can generate hypothesizes and test them against the facts. If we include the newly established fact that they want to defund and abolish the police as we know it what can it mean?
The hypothesis which seems to best fit the data is our political opponents wish to harm us and/or take our property.
I’ve been collecting examples of “They want you dead” for some time now. The recent looting demonstrates the validity of the “they wish to take our property”. That they wanted us disarmed and dependent upon the police followed by defunding the police demonstrates not a contradiction, but consistency with this hypothesis.
Are there other hypothesizes which match the data? Are there other data points which invalidate my hypothesis?
Discuss. Then take appropriate action. Consider preparing for Boomershoot 2021. Sign up is here.
Why do I even worry about some silly little statues coming down or some silly little street names changing? Why do I care?
It is because the last time I didn’t care about this, I was a teenager. I have already lived through this thing when I was living in Venezuela. Statues came down — Chavez didn’t want that history displayed. And then he changed the street names. Then came the [school curricula]. Then some movies couldn’t be shown, then certain TV channels, and so on and so forth.
You guys think this can’t happen to you, I’ve heard it so many times. But always be on guard. Never believe something can’t happen to you. You’ve got to defend your country and your society or it will be destroyed.
We didn’t believe it could happen to us. Most Venezuelans — Cubans warned us — and we were like, ‘This is Venezuela, we know about freedom. That’s not going to happen here.’ Yet it happened. And there are literally a lot of people wanting to destroy the U.S.
Elizabeth Rogliani
June 22, 2020
‘Statues coming down’ is a big deal, Venezuelan actress warns
[The high these thugs get from destroying statues and buildings will fade and they will only be able to obtain that same high by escalation. If they are not stopped soon mass murder will be soon be required to sate their desires.
If you think things are happening fast now, don’t ever forget that in Rwandan things went from moderate tension to mass murder in 30 minutes*. The murders occurred at an average rate of about 8,000 per day for about 100 days. This sustained rate exceeded that of Nazi Germany with their gas chambers.
Hutu militiamen boasted they could kill 3,000 people an hour.**
We live in extremely “interesting” times. Prepare yourself.—Joe]
* Rwanda’s Genocide 1994—Supplement to Lethal Laws by Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice page 10:
The UN reports that, “less than half an hour after the plane crash occurred, roadblocks manned by Hutu militiamen, often assisted by gendarmerie or military personnel, were set up at which the identiy cards of passers-by were checked and Tutsis were taken aside and killed137.
137. UN Documents, pp. 37-38.
** Ibid, page 1.
Via daughter Kim:
Oregon county issues face mask order that exempts non-white people
Lincoln County, Oregon, has exempted non-white people from a new order requiring that face coverings be worn in public.
That was on June 16th.
Yesterday they revised the order:
Facing a torrent of “racist commentary,” Oregon’s Lincoln County has amended its exemption of non-white people from a new order that requires face coverings to be worn in public, according to a report.
How could they imagine such an order would pass a legal challenge? What if it had been that only women must cover their faces? Or only black people? Haven’t these people heard of equal rights?
Or is it they think of Animal Farm as a guidebook rather than a dystopian novel where some people are more equal than others?
We live in interesting times.
We are making changes in the following areas to increase opportunities for People of Color across our business.
Mike Sievert, CEO, T-Mobile, @MikeSievert
June 2020
Destroying Western Civilization’s History, one guilt trip on sin at a time.
[Some text has been removed for clarity. Please read the complete text at the link above. There is a lot more stuff of interest.
The post, written by howlingpuffin, outlines a set of concerns. I have a completely different set of concerns.
Did Sievert run this past the legal department? How in the world can it pass muster with either Federal or Washington State law?
For example, here are a few highlights from Federal law (emphasis added):
Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices
Under the laws enforced by EEOC, it is illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) because of that person’s race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to retaliate against a person because he or she complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.
The law forbids discrimination in every aspect of employment.
How does “making changes … to increase opportunities for People of Color“ or “funding new scholarship programs and launching an apprenticeship program for People of Color” not violate the law? If the company announced they were:
“making changes … to increase opportunities for white people“
… funding new scholarship programs and launching an apprenticeship program for white people.
Would this be legal? Isn’t this exactly what the law prohibits?
Okay. Let’s, just for the moment, ignore the illegal on the face of it aspect of these corporate changes.
Suppose neither the Federal government nor Washington State prosecute T-Mobile for this. Then, next year some dirt bag executive at some company creates a policy favoring white people in a nearly identical manner. Doesn’t the dirt bag have an air-tight defense in that they are not getting equal treatment under the law because T-Mobile wasn’t prosecuted?
Okay. Let’s pretend, for the moment, the legal aspects of this simply do not matter.
These past few weeks have been both historic and heart-wrenching, as the protests for greater racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder erupt all around the world. As I shared in my statement last week to customers, employees, and shareholders, T-Mobile stands in solidarity with the Black Community and behind our belief that Black Lives Matter.
I get it that T-Mobile stores have been targets of rioters and looters. I get it that at first thought appeasing the beast seems like a good idea. But it doesn’t work in the long (or even medium) term.
Mr. Sievert, please look at the incentives you have created. Which is greater the incentive? To stop the looting and vandalism because T-Mobile sent some money and potential employment opportunities in the general direction of the looters? Or continue the criminal activity because it gives them attention, power, and a sense of satisfaction plus money and potential employment opportunities every time they do it? Haven’t you ever heard you should never appease terrorists or pay a blackmailer or extortionist?
Suppose we even discount the probability this was about appeasement. Hasn’t he or anyone on his staff heard of The Tyranny of Low Expectations?
Low expectations are one of the most subtle yet devastatingly effective forms of sabotage we can do to others and ourselves. Low expectations often masquerade as kindness yet they are the cruelest cuts because they deny an individual or an organization its opportunity for greatness.
By passing low expectations off as being nice or kind under the guise of going easy on someone, low expectations perpetuate another insidious myth: That discipline is mean. Discipline is simply a mental tool, a form of training that lets you develop the skills and abilities to make your life better. Like any tool, discipline can and has been misused at times but in general, discipline is an incredibly valuable, frequently overlooked tool to create extraordinary value in your life.
Low expectations often involve mental laziness on both sides of the equation. Holding someone (or yourself) accountable is a LOT of hard work. It is much easier to just slide by. Easier that is until the time of testing comes and those who are not prepared diligently fail miserably.
Maybe there is some “3-D Chess” game being played here. Maybe the legal department explicitly told them to clearly make the policy illegal beyond any shadow of doubt. Then later they can say they have to cancel the program because of “unexpected” legal issues.
It will take the Feds and Washington State a few weeks or months to tell them what they are doing is illegal and in response they can “regretfully announce the cancellation of their well intentioned initiative” and it’s all the fault of the evil Trump administration (or some such thing). By that time emotions will have subsided and the vandalism and looting will have stopped. T-Mobile will have gotten all the benefits of the illegal activity with almost none of the costs.
I don’t know what’s going on here. I just know I don’t like any possible scenario I can imagine here. I don’t like the illegal employment policies. I don’t like the appeasement. I don’t like the incentives of low expectations. I don’t like the possibility of it being a clever game of false appeasement.
I think this is on the same moral level as the terrorists, looters, and vandals. It’s despicable.—Joe]
