Thank you for sharing this. It's amazing to me that the left NEVER takes responsibility when the logical consequences of their utopian ideas unfold in the real world. The battlecry is always, "If only we implemented these ideas more thoroughly, everything would be glorious."
What's more frightening...they actually believe that.
People ACCEPT responsibility when they are FORCED to accept responsibility. Why there's so much head-scratching on this is issue is bizarre. If no one tells the bad guys (the Alt-Left, in these cases) to stop doing what they're doing, they will assuredly keep doing it.
Once again, it comes down to the voters. Who thought electing Jenny Durkan, Denise Juneau, Kshama Sawant, etc. was a good idea??? Looking for those responsible? Look right there...
Watch it with that "NEVER." I can find you quite a number of articles and essays by Left-identified writers who are extremely critical of the lunatic fringe that took over public spaces in several cities in the name of inchoate, incoherent demands for "social justice", in 2020. Some of those writings can be found right here on Substack.
In my experience You can find lunatics as well as down to earth people with good intentions and practices both on the left and the right. No-one is an "idiot" just for being leftwing or rightwing. Yes, there's a lot of bullshit coming out of leftist colleges and universities lately, "gender science", "antiracism", "defund the police", "identity politics" etc., it doesn't seem to end. But on the right You see an equal stream of bovine manure poisoning politics, like q-anon, antivaxxers, Trumpism as a whole etc. It's getting ever more important that the sane people on both sides keep talking to each other and unite to stem the tide of sheer craziness and partisanship to reestablish a common sense approach to politics.
I'm a trained scientist, a biologist. I do not "blindly trust" anything, but I know from the science behind it that vaccines work and that medical science is far more trustworthy than any deranged conspiracy theorist operating from his parents' basement or a lunatic without any scientific or other credentials who recommends drinking Lysol to fight a covid infection out of the White House. Maybe You should reconsider who You trust.
The fully vaccinated are less likely to get covid and if they still get it they are less likely to get seriously ill of it or die. No-one ever claimed covid vaccines protect 100%.
I agree with you, Mascot. But the nuance you're looking for in how commenters on this thread view 'The Left' is rarely seen. It appears to many here that the Left is just one large amorphous blob obliterating the landscape, sort of how many progressives routinely view Trump Republicans. Both takes are wrong.
Funny thing about Seattle (I don't live there anymore but am a fourth-generation Puget Sounder) is that there is a long history of Scandinavianesque clogs-and-sweaters, Aunt Jenny-style soft socialist thinking. It was settled by lots of literal Scandis who worked closely together in strong communities to hack a living out of a difficult landscape. So the area comes by this sort of thing honestly. It's pitifully and sadly naive however in this violent and corrupt age to keep thinking in that way.
This is not 1910 and Sven helps himself to Bjorn's extra plow without asking because he needs to get those strawberries in the ground and Bjorn doesn't mind a bit because he knows Sven will return it later with a freshly sharpened blade. But bless their hearts lots of longtime Seattle people still think and behave as though that kind of high-trust society is what they are living in, despite the obvious evidence of fifty years of decline into a festival of drugs, crime and perversion.
Thanks for this information. It's very helpful to understand where this attitude comes from. @Golfer, you weren't the only one who was taken aback when you read that last paragraph.
Yeah Detective Young is on the cusp of his red pill moment. It's sad, and I feel for him, but one day he will wake up and realize that when you have an angry, divided, violent, weak-family, weak-faith, society (e.g. blue cities) the only thing a "welfare state" is is a mechanism for the connected to distribute public money to each other while the people on the bottom just get more and more feral.
The Scandinavian countries are not strictly speaking socialist. They have a free market economy, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, religion, common law etc. none of which are part of socialist states, which quickly end up authoritarian/totalitarian with planned economies.
Citizens in Scandinavia vote in favour of ‘socialist’ policies (childcare, health, etc) but every so often when the tax rate becomes ridiculous or for other reasons there is a correction.
Socialist states ruin incentive, innovation and ultimately destroy the human spirit, which is not a feature of the Scandinavian countries.
It is wrong to describe them as ‘socialist’ as that creates the impression that socialism is a free and democratic system, which it is not.
Australia is similar to Scandinavian countries in that 50% of people pay no net tax, that is they take out more than they contribute.
It’s not ideal but nor could it be described as living in a socialist state.
From memory things in Sweden reached ridiculous heights in 1976 when author Astrid Lindgren’s marginal tax rate was102%.
There was, however, a correction following the defeat of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. There have been other times when their social welfare programs have taken a hit following elections.
A lot of socialists hold up the Scandinavian countries as models of ‘successful’ socialism when in fact they are free market democracies. Note that people like BS never use Venezuela, Soviet Russia, Cuba, China, North Korea as examples of socialism because they are all failures and good examples of the totalitarian misery that arises out of the siren song of socialism.
Welfare state works fine, I guess, when it's Scandi style people who are industrious and self-disciplined with strong families and high trust communities. When it's the violent indolent - which is a large slice of all cities, especially blue ones - it just becomes a shitshow.
Texas (where I live now and have for over a decade) is busily importing plenty of violent indolent into its cities -- and our feckless governor is more interested in bringing royal blue tech companies into the state than preserving a red way of life -- so we'll see how long this experiment can last. Funnily enough though what might save us is the non-violent, non-indolent Hispanics because they do not want that shit either.
What would you have Abbott do instead? The blue tech companies are coming her because of what's happening in their states, not because of Abbott policies.
His administration is actively courting them and offering huge tax incentives at the same time as the ballooning housing market is causing property taxes to skyrocket. My house payment increased by $300 for example. We should not be screwing over Texas families so we can replace them with Oracle tech bros.
Imagine the societal catastrophe that would have resulted if Alcohol Prohibition had been extended to the present day. The corrosive effects of de facto ordaining a criminal monopoly over the trade in a substance with that sort of market appeal, for decades on end.
The "5M-10M people is different from 330M people" line never made much sense, but that's because it's a cagey way of saying something that DOES make sense: Scandinavia is populated by Scandinavians.
Scandinavians are a racial monoculture with a strong tradition of discipline, work ethic, and constructive behavior. This tradition is so strong, in fact, that it blinds them to the fact that the sorts of people they've recently begun importing in bulk are not the same.
America, by contrast, has a LOT of "diversity", and as the Left strongly encourages people with toxic cultural backgrounds to preserve and practice those cultures instead of assimilating, this means that welfare is far more toxic in America than in Scandinavia.
You're speaking of a Left faction as if they constituted the entire Left. It's as bogus a narrative as someone conflating Matthew Walther, Jacob Sullum, Jared Kushner, and Richard Spencer as comrades in arms on "the Right."
Matthew Walther, Jacob Sullum, Jared Kushner, and Richard Spencer would criticize each other vehemently and publicly. By contrast, while it is very common for left-wing people to try to gaslight the rest of us into thinking that fringe radicals don't dominate their camp, said fringe radicals consistently poll over 50% among self-identifies left-wing people or Democrats, and none can be found on the Left who are willing to either oppose them or publicly criticize their views.
Even if this were not true, it remains the case that their common traits - identity politics, "subjective truth", and general solipsism as an ideological driving force - are sufficient to bring about the ruin they always cause. They are what must be opposed.
Golfer, totally agree with you! It's (maybe) good-hearted, but so unbelievably misguided. These people who hold Scandinavia up as some kind of utopia in most cases know NOTHING about Scandinavia!
I'm hoping we can have civil discussions here without calling people "idiots". I like this site because people seem to have intelligent and respectful discourse.
Actually, Deirdre, being called an idiot in the Common Sense comment threads is akin to a left handed compliment (pun intended). Judgements here can be harsh. Be aware.
All I meant is that I hope we can be civil here and not fall into the ugly rhetoric of other sites. Calling individuals disparaging names is a bit meaningless. Thoughtful and interesting discourse carries more weight.
Saying we need more thoughtful discourse rather than calling people idiots doesn't seem to be demeaning to you, but I'm sorry if you took it that way. Take care.
No, the "idiot" you quoted is simply an American who holds Left-leaning political views that you find disagreeable, who also happens to be a police detective and someone who finds lunatic fringe Leftism unacceptable.
None of Scandinavia is socialist, though Norway has a mixed economy. Their generous welfare policies are due to minimal regulation of the private economy and tax policy that we would never tolerate. Norway has the added benefit of revenue from their North Sea oil assets.
Nearly all of the nations of the world have a mixed economy in some form, including the People's Republic of China. Hurling the word "Socialism" as a general epithet or pejorative slur is a practical irrelevance- except to the extent that the word has the power to repel or attract a reader, as a Trigger Term. I oppose being victimized that way by Pavlovian partisan politics.
The guy you quoted didn't use the word "socialism." That was a Trigger Term you put in his mouth.
I have a good friend who leans somewhat farther to the Left on welfare state policies than myself; he's also the sole owner of a private business with several employees who refers to himself as a "social democrat", not a "socialist."
Seriously: for anyone interested in pursuing an honest and open dialogue on politics, the sloppiness has to end. You need to home in on specifics and seek common ground, instead of trying to find excuses to not listen to people. This goes for both ends of the political spectrum.
I know socialism is as popular as fascism on this thread but the subsidization you speak of in regards to Sweden hasn't occurred yet. But it will begin soon, when the applications of both Sweden and Finland to NATO are accepted.
Michele, I applaud your sentiment, but if you actually found the money and made the offer, I guarantee Mr. Young would say "no thank you". Not sure if you know who Tim Pool is, but a few years ago he sent out a public offer that he and his company would move any person who felt the US was too far gone to any country of their choice, set them up with a place to live, food, etc., and in return they would report on their experience, likes, dislikes, etc. No one took him up on the offer. As "horrible" as we are, it's just funny that no one will leave.
I was a police officer for five years in Georgia (2014-2019). It’s hard to put into words how hard this article hits home, to sort through the impact the job had on my family and me, and to know the continued impact it has on a dwindling number of friends who have stayed the course and remained on the job.
I see a two-fold problem with policing as we know it. For decades now, we have come to expect more and more of our LEOs. We needed a mental health expert, we needed a marriage counselor, we needed a swat sniper, we someone who knew how to talk to kids who had been traumatized, etc. I could dwell forever on all that was and is expected of a good law enforcement officer. We demanded perfection, and anything less was insufficient. What’s more, we demanded it on a budget.
Enter into this already untenable scenario a very vocal and influential element of society that think everything America traditionally stood for was vile and racist. Taken to its extreme end, this philosophy sees the Constitution itself as garbage. Since our laws (and therefore law enforcement) are beholden to that document, law enforcement became the de-facto enemy and required defunding. The only trouble was (and as mentioned in the closing part of the article) no one thought about the cans the rest of the world had been kicking down to local police station for years. Just defund the police. No one considered the folks who might actually need or want the police to be around, or what might happen if the machinery came grinding to a premature halt. Defund. That was the refrain I heard. That was the refrain that thousands of experienced and disheartened officers across the nation felt when they turned in that badge they’d worn with so much pride.
We are seeing the results of this dolly now. I believe it is too late for some cities. An agency can replace bodies, but when a department has people with combined experience equal to several hundred years flowing out the door, there is no salve for that.
It is early, and I am rambling, but I am reminded of what my first Sergeant (a better leader and man I have not found) told me when I called to tell him I was thinking about hanging it up: he said emphatically, “if we don’t have good people in policing, we are doomed.” By we,” he meant all of us.
You hit it so perfectly. Growing up in the 60’s a lot of folks I knew joined the police force like their dads or uncles. It was an honorable respected job. Some 50 plus years and too many on the left see the police as local arm of the military. I grew up in large industrial New England city, but now I live in a small small town where the most serious crime is not picking up a dog turd. I recently returned from a visit to New Orleans and I can’t think that anyone would deny the NOPD the equipment/personnel/ pay that due these public servants. I’m a law and order liberal , which means I don’t believe that our police departments are hopelessly racist and I think it’s time more liberals got their head out from their butts on this issue. Police officers deal with violent, unstable humans that often have deadly weapons. I don’t understand how anyone can’t see that. The events in Seattle are shameful. Absolutely shameful and I can understand how and why folks make fun off us
Yup- tough sledding for a law & order liberal these days. I knew people would come to their senses but a lot of bad happened, and a lot of good cops left, in the interim.
I know you are proud to be the mother of someone who helps other people out every single day. Sounds like you did a good job as a parent. You and your child have my thanks and respect.
Well said. Did you know that criminal law started with seven crimes? Admittedly that was long ago but IMO part of the problem is the burgeoning list of crimes.
One of the biggest crisis happening in USA, is decline of its big cities. New York, San Francisco, Seattle, LA and many others are declining in front of our eyes, they are turning to unaffordable crime ridden places that look more like like sci-fi dystopias from movies or comics.
Nowhere has this decline been more visible than in LA and San Francisco. Last week I watched episode of TV Show "Full House", in the middle of video, I realized, that intro for the Show (with Family driving trough San Francisco), would not be possible to make today, since streets are riddled with homeless, drug users, junk and trash. LA is even worse, it is literally falling apart, and is each day more like large cities of third world, with slums surrounded by Villas of rich people.
Sure many conservatives might be tempted to say, "I don't care, I don't live there".
This might have been truth, if the migration wasn't bringing people who voted for those policies to other small cities across USA, and those people in many cases continue to vote for same polices they escaped from.
I ask myself, how did we get there?
I find it crazy, that election after election, voters like sheep, go and vote Democrats on local level(event though they city is collapsing) only because they disagree with Republicans on Federal or State level. I mean, aren't you tired of jumping over human excrement on streets? Don't you want to let your kind go play in park without worrying that they will be attacked by some drug users or get hold of used needles on the street?
I lived in Detroit during the riots of 1968. Detroit didn't immediately collapse, but slid into it's current state over many decades. Back in 68, Detroit was the fifth largest city in the country (chew on that), but it lost 60% of it's residents and dropped to 25th most populous city in the country.
It will be decades before a full accounting of the damage done by the 2020 'Summer of Love' can be completed. Unless immediate action is taken, which should include a full purge of the local government officials, and shoring up of the police departments, many large urban centers will continue to realize a Detroit style slide in population and relevance.
I continue to be shocked that we never fully questioned how all of the riots were organized and conducted at the time. Instead, we focused on to Jan 6.
Because dems are in charge in DC and Jan 6 is what they believe will keep them in the promised land in November 2022 instead if being cast into the wilderness of no power. Dems encouraged the riots and the destruction. Remember San Fran Nan and her geriatric cohorts kneeling with the African cloths on their necks to show solidarity with the Burn Loot Murder crowd? (Those cloths were from the black African tribe that actually enslaved and sold black Africans into over seas slavery. Ironic no?)
In addition, the piles of bricks delivered and neatly stacked...waiting for the hands that will come and throw them against windows. These riots were designed and directed by political operatives who promised "no consequences" for theft, vandalism and violence. Dec. 6 had a surprising number of FBI participants. Go figure.
Ooooohhh Unwoke I forgot about that. Hope it's part of the election material later this year. Remind everyone who did what. With receipts. There's so many!
Jon...nice gear. Because of the media emotionally touching the Jan 6th protest, 2 years now of time and money waste, we are suppose to believe the street riots are of small concern.
Exactly 1/6 is much more important because the focus is on President Trump 1/6 insurrectionists carry much more political mileage than the thugs of Seattle who are never going to be brought to book it shows how weak the leadership is there also Chicago leadership everybody out of control the men in blue don’t do well there either
hard to measure things when there's few numbers to go by. I believe the Floyd riots and the Jan. 6 were about equally bad. Hard-ta believe, mebbe. But look at it this Way. Riots killed and burned. People died. Businesses lost.
But Jan. 6 Democracy almost burned and died. That was the attempt. To "stop the steal." A president was elected. After the states certified their results, the election was OVER. You get that don't You? There's no appeal after that. But there was one guy caught on camera who actually DID try to steal the election. That was Trump.
Respect your thoughts jt although I totally disagree rioting, killing, burning and businesses lost is the murdering of our democracy the other was people’s right to protest as in our democracy you get that don’t you!
Just read an article about Jeff Flake. I know.. I know.. RINO, right?
But, see, I don't *have* a political party. Two things: I can be pretty flexible in my ideas, and two, the party doesn't mean a thing to me. Nothing. It's just ideas, "all the way down."
Just to show You a RINO can have a good idea:
>>> nd what of the “enlightened” autocratic models like China?
Flake admits that it can work for a season, especially when steeped in more free market economic philosophies and an openness to pluralism. But, in the end, “centrally planned economies don’t run very well,” he says. Concentrated power is only one bad leader away from failure.
>>> “So my bet is still with the West, and with democracy. And I hope the United States remains a valued example of the good that can happen over time.”
>>> The best way to persuade the world — and Turkey — is for the United States to live up to the full measure of its ideals, Flake explains. Showing a democratic model that builds unity, cooperation and prosperity out of diversity will always inspire. The fight for freedom, he continues, is what’s moving so many to rally around Ukraine.
That's the easy solution, and the hardest part: Unity and cooperation. But it's well worth it, if You want prosperity.
Now fo r the part You won't like, but which I believe is true:
>>> “Democracy can survive bad policy,” Flake continues. “It’s not positive, but it can survive. But what our country can’t survive is a failure to respect elections and their outcomes.”
We can, and will, survive Biden. What we'll never be able to survive is having *two presidents* at the same time. Think about it!
Biggest question is: How are the armed forces gonna split? I think anyone with a gun who wants to save their version of Democracy should consider that question, first and foremost. What's the Army and them gonna do?
See? One man's protest is another man's riot. What were the *aims* of the two "mostly peaceful" riots.
One was violence to people and property.
One was to the rule of the law of the Constitution. Once You understand that the election was over, what *was* the point of the "mostly peaceful" riot?
I place both-a those on the same pedestal, is all.
All true, yet the idea of voting for a Republican is seen as worse.
I used to be a democrat back in the JFK style democrat days, but I ran away from the Jimmy Carter style democrat party. The R’s are far from perfect, but at least I think they are on America’s side. The democrats act like they hate Americans and want to take us all down.
For me, it used to be a toss-up between "they hate America" and "they love power so much that the downsides of getting that power are worth it." Nowadays I think there are really two groups: the puppet-masters at the top who have a very definite plan for us and the Useful Idiots who swallow their lies and act upon them. And of course you have the Gutless Republicans, who seem to like losing politely, that make it all possible.
The problem is that the Left know their policies are despised by the average American, who does not want any of it, so they have to lie or cheat and shove it down our necks. If we can get back real vote integrity, I think we may - just may - get control of this lunacy.
I think You've got the right of it there, M. Lynne. But I'm thinking the plan may backfire as more and more Hispanics come to see the Dems for what they are. Just need a Repub candidate who isn't Trump, IMO.
you are correct, they don’t just act like they hate America, they DO hate America. I just finished listening to Douglas Murray interviewed on the podcast, Triggernometry. He has a new book coming out soon dealing with the hatred of America and the West by the Left. His answer—Enough! Time to start realizing how great America and the West are and stop apologizing! Time to stand up and defend them. I love Douglas Murray and could listen to him all day long.
I love him too! He’s such a straight shooter. I’m really looking forward to his new book and I’m going to go listen to that podcast right now while I cook dinner.
I don’t think the Reps are on our side - I know they are - the Democrats are trapped in an old style form of leadership you only need to look at Joe Biden God it’s archaic and yes the Democrats want America for themselves even if they burn us down in the process I have always voted for them come 2022 I hope we flip everything and 2024 take back the power I don’t care who the nominee is it will always be better than what we supposedly vote fir in 2020🇺🇸🇺🇸
All Dem run cities I hate to say this but President Trump told us in 2016 and told us in 2020 this is what happens when the Dems are in power and if we continue to give Nancy Pelosi Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden the White House we are going to go further down the tubes I really don’t think Americans want to eat each other I think we are all grateful for our military grateful for our men in blue it’s just at the moment as we stand the 20-30 years of state capture by the Clintons and the Obamas (yes I know we had the Bush father and son in between) is the result of what we have now but all is not lost the midterms coming up Elon Musk buying Twitter a vaccine mandate that was overturned it’s starting to look a little brighter 🌞🌞wish you all a good day!
When ideology ignores reality disaster ensues. Homicides are up across this nation and thousands have died and communities devestated. The defund police crowd cannot acknowledge this as it would make them culpable for policies that are covered in tragedy.
And most of those dying are black because most of those doing the killing and the robbing and the looting and the shoplifting are black. It’s not rocket science.
And did those who have trashed Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, SF, NYC etc ever get justice? The VP advocated for their release. City attorneys didn’t prosecute. Why not? Would those on the left here please explain why these looters, thieves and worse got off scott free?
Soros funded prosecutors in NY, SF, Philadelphia and LA, to name a few. See a trend? When doctors discover a cancer in your body, the first thing they do is cut it out and then irradiate or treat the surrounding tissue to cleanse it of the cancer. America needs to excise the progressive cancer. And its funding sources.
Soros has funded over 750 Democrats in the last ten years alone via The Soros Foundation the doesn't include the billions from The Tides Foundation and Open Society that are funding various migrant groups). If letting violent criminals out of prison early, encouraging DA's NOT to prosecute criminals, and funding mass (illegal) migration what do you suppose Soros' end goal is, I wonder?
Add Chicago to that. My friend lost her Cook County state's attorney job because of the woke Kim Foxx....and of course, everyone knows how she managed the Jussie Smollett case. And let's add that four bodies floated to the surface of Lake Michigan in Chicago last week! If that was the case in Kiev, Ukraine it would be national news. Now it doesn't get as much as a look!
Yes, I follow James Lindsay and he did a very long podcast on it. The left believes the right is so abhorrent, the left is justifed in suppressing it, even before it speaks.
IOW the ends justify the means. This attitude has invaded much of civic life (drones killing "terrorists", intelligence agencies facilitating coups, narcotics policing, ...). There is nothing good yo come from it in the long run.
There was a 43% increase in the murders of black Americans in 2020 compared to the past 10-year average.
Anti-police movement + prosecutors and lawmakers who invoked extreme leniency, forcing judges to release legitimate suspects who then go out and do the same shit if not worse.
There's an ideological culprit here. Everyone knows it.
I would have laughed at this as tinfoil hat nonsense two years ago, but it sure seems to me there is a deliberate, coordinated effort to destabilize our society by literally, directly increasing crime and mayhem, and more subtly and indirectly cause citizens to start to forget what it means to live in a high trust culture.
Obviously, the societal disruption of the covid lockdowns provided the opportunity for an increase in criminal activity.
However, in order to you make a conspiracy indictment, you need to make a plausible argument about means and motive. Established with facts, not conjecture. Attached to a list of the suspects who planned the conspiracy.
Otherwise, you're just playing on emotional triggers of the sort that incite paranoia, for the purpose of Partisan Trash Talk. Which seems to be the focus of commentary by most of the paraticipants in this particular coffeklatch,, hmm?
Those are periods, not blanks. It is a modern device to provide emphasis.Yes written, and oral, communication are changing, but really language always has, at least successful ones. There are things I dislike as well including passive/aggressive comments masquerading as civility or wit.
I still don't get how I'm expected to know what you're talking about on the basis of three words- whether interspersed with periods or not. And the technique of requiring me to guess is, wouldn't you know, a passive-aggressive tactic.
Were you referring to the US-Mexico border, or the Mason-Dixon Line? Or Mexico's southern border, or the Tropic of Capricorn? There's no way to be certain.
And, well, what about it? Clarity is key to political discussions. You can't just assume that every reader automatically knows what you're talking about. Some of us aren't all that automatic.
A 43% increase = what, in actual body count? 10? 100? 1,000? 10,000? What was identity group of the murderers? What zip codes? Pareto's Law asserts the square root of this number will be responsible for half (50%) of the murders -- so where are these murderer's located. And so on.
Even in the 2020's, it was well understood that out of the hundreds of thousands of police-civilian interactions, a miniscule fraction led to violence, and a fraction of those to lethal violence, and in most cases that violence included resisting arrest -- and a black person was more likely to NOT be shot by a policeperson.
But all this rational thinking is a white thing, and de facto white privilege and racist.
“I’m actually a left-wing guy on just about every issue,” says Christopher Young. “I want the United States to be a Scandinavian-style welfare state. So I’m very sympathetic to people’s concerns.”
How can a cop with decades of experience be this naive? How can anyone? The state of Washington alone has greater population than Finland with far greater cultural and ethnic diversity, and Washington is one of the least diverse states in the union. Yet he thinks what works there should work at the federal level in the US.
Cause he doesn’t know that Sweden’s top marginal tax rate is more than 50% and starts at $68,000 a year. Nobody in America recognizes what any of this costs the Northern European nations.
Correct, Alex. In Sweden, oft-mentioned cultural homogeneity aside, the Corporate tax rate is under 21%, because they want and need their private sector to be competitive, since it pays all the bills, just like here. With personal income taxes, the bottom 50% of Americans pay.... nothing, while Swedes pay around 25% - huge difference. Lastly, there is a national sales tax (VAT) of 25%. So everyone pays into the system. When you have skin in the game and are contributing to your society, you are far less likely to tear it down. One of the defining characteristics of radicals is they don't have a financial stake in the society they seek to destroy or, as is the case with many white liberals in the U.S., they are wealthy enough to be immune from the impacts of their politics.
We already pay too much in taxes and for what? I pay close to 40% and my city is becoming a garbage dump. People who think that model can work here are bonkers!
Opposition to which is what the nation was born out of, no? Until we recognize and appreciate what the founding fathers provided for the citizens we will not thrive.
"Christopher Young, a detective in the investigative support unit (previously named the criminal intelligence unit)"
This little snippet tells you everything you need to know. Priorities out of whack. Saw the same with left focused on renaming schools rather than reopening them during the pandemic.
I'm better with a slingshot but why not. If I don't whine when I'm a target I'm free to throw with abandon. Besides, ask a Swede if they're socialists and they'll laugh at you. They know the wages of the welfare state. That's why they're scaling it back. Young obviously wasn't a very good detective if he can't figure out cause and effect.
C'mon folks. It isn't as if this stuff is particularly daunting. About 2-3% of the population are flat out sociopaths and another 10% are just opportunistic followers. Although they wouldn't break into a store normally, they'll happily join in the looting. Or throwing rocks at cops. If you control the sociopaths, arresting and locking them up, the followers stay under control, too. If you let them do what they want, chaos ensues. This was all proven by Giuliani and Bloomberg decades ago with broken windows policing.
Everyone could see that Chauvin had no business being a cop. But it was a one-off that the Left - "don't let a good crisis go to waste"- and their media stooges used to fuel an anti-police frenzy and a summer of violence, destruction and chaos. And what did we get? Better policing? Nope. Better minority neighborhoods. Nope. Less racism? Nope. We got more crime, violence and outright racism in attacks on elderly and vulnerable Asians and Whites. The aim was to weaken America and it succeeded. Beyond measure. Are you getting the picture? Elect a Democrat halfwit such as Durkan and your city is toast. When someone says they're "progressive," a BLM supporter and want police "defunded" or "reimagined," they're actually saying "I hate America and I want to destroy our country." Don't be fooled into thinking otherwise.
I’m sure that’s true. But Chauvin went too far. And he had something like 20 complaints against him. I support our police but let’s not kid ourselves because we give them life and death power over us. So it isn’t asking too much that they act moderately and judiciously and within the bounds of reasonableness.
Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for over 20 years, what has happened to Seattle breaks my heart. The city and area were incredibly law-abiding when we moved there. One of the police chiefs (I think in the 90s) said he took the job after looking out of his hotel window at 3 am and seeing someone wait for a green light before crossing the street. When the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl (2014) there were jokes all around about how Seattle celebrates, such as by honking a car horn and then getting out to apologize to other drivers for the noise.
What changed? You can't look just at the past few years. There was a stolen/contested governor's election where ballots that were found in a couch changed the seat to a Democrat one. There was Occupy Wall Street where hooligans were allowed to cause damage. There was a change from a civilized society to one where it was "cool" to be Left. Boeing was replaced as the main employer by Microsoft and Amazon.
When the article quotes a befuddled policeman saying, "“I’m actually a left-wing guy on just about every issue,” says Christopher Young. “I want the United States to be a Scandinavian-style welfare state. So I’m very sympathetic to people’s concerns,” that explains what happened. Leftist policies don't work and they make people miserable. Scandinavia is not run in the way people think it is and it also isn't dealing with American diversity. The destruction of Seattle did not happen overnight.
And don't forget the role of our education system in brainwashing our kids, in addition to a 3rd rate basic education as judged by global (PISA) standards.
It is more than good nature, Ben. America ran very well on the fumes of the gasoline of Judeo-Christian religion and morality. But at a certain point, and we have reached it, you need to replenish the gas tank.
Obama led the charge to dystopia. When he ran for President, he promised to bring the country, the races, together. Instead, he is responsible for the burning of our cities. It seemed to me, every time a policeman shot a black thug, he would call up the family and commiserate with them. Not once did he call the families of cops killed in the line of duty but he sure called up the families of the thugs.
Not once did any Democrat/Communist speak out against the burning of our cities by the Marxist organizations BLM and ANTIFA. Nancy Pelosi called the Tea Party's peaceful demonstrators NAZIs but she and her Dem pals encouraged Occupy Wall Street who were nothing more than drug attics and thugs. Women were raped and there were murders and three of these thugs were arrested trying to blow up a bridge.
The Dems through their silence encouraged the burning of out cities. That moron Dem congressman, Jerry Nadler, called "called violence from Antifa in Portland a ‘myth'." Not once did Obama speak out against the burnings and murders in our Democrat run cities.
I find this disgusting yet Democrats don't and they will vote for their Communist Party pals come November. I guess they want more of the same.
It's true. Obama was highly destructive to American society and fomented a lot of hate, resulting in billions in property damage and the loss of many (often black) lives. Without getting into his entire CV, history will judge him as one of our worst presidents.
Why would you say this? Please which cities did Obama burn? The riots after George Floyds death happened on Trumps watch. Do you know what a Communism actually looks like? I’m sure Putin could enlighten you since he got his early training under the communists in East Germany and later the USSR. However, I do agree that liberals don’t focus enough on the belief that violent crime or individuals are destroying this country. There is no good reason for an individual to revolve in and out of prison for felonies - violent felonies.
The Obama along with his despicable wingman affirmative action Eric provided the spark. That you don’t get this shows either total ignorance or willful blindness or maybe just a leftist.
Thank you for refreshing my memory. Yes Ferguson was a situation where politics played an outsized part. I didn’t recall that at the moment there are too many. Please don’t refer to me as ignorant or wilfully blind. You don’t know me but provocative language solves nothing. In your opinion what should have happened?
Shall we recount all the things that happened during while Trump was President. Should he and he alone be responsible for Seattle? You seem to be saying that presidents have power over every aspect of life in the US. Presidents are no more responsible for individual acts of violence than you are. But since you brought up Obama getting the race baiting in high gear, is there a specific incident that where he “stoked the flames”. A direct quote would be good. And as a parting thought- Obama as President cannot tell “that black Harvard professor” what to say or even prevent anyone from saying what is on their mind. The Constitution forbids it. You should know that.
“If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon Martin” is an inflammatory comment? It’s a statement of fact. I suspect by simply being elected President Obama was seen as “stoking the flames”.
Please someone Look at Baton Rouge Louisiana. Since the city is “led” by democrats the crime is rampant. Mayor just announced a “week of peace” last week after a 4 year old was killed in his bed but it lasted maybe one hour. Every single day there are shootings and killings. Every day.
I was in New Orleans for a week about a month ago. My hotel was about a block from Tulane. I expected a big city “street stuff” but what I saw was crazy. Homeless, who were clearly mentally raving, people sleeping in small parks face down at least I think they were sleeping and kids - under 12 mostly sitting on street corners in the French Quarter banging on plastic tubs in tragic attempt at rhythmic drumming. On a school night. Dozens of these kids. And yet when I mentioned this to a liberal friend her response was “ their community has different ways to raise kids. You’re so judgmental “.
I somewhat blame the ACLU from about 50 years ago. In the distant past, an obviously unstable person could be involuntarily committed to a mental institution. ACLU fought this as being unconstitutional (probably was), and the practice ceased to a large extent, and with it funding for dedicated mental institutions. This fell to the police, and to local jails and state prisons to possibly house the unstable.
Agree this is where a large part of the problem began. I'm less clear what the solution is. But rewarding those who violate the social contract is the surest path to destroy any community or nation.
I live near the beach in Florida. And it's astonishing to me that, even here, vagrants are given primacy of place to encamp and lounge about all day on beachfront property.
I wouldn't dream of going near the local boardwalk – the one featured in photos from the 1950s as a magical place - because now it's filled with drug-addled and clearly unstable people. I can't even go to the local Starbucks anymore, which used to serve as my office. Because now there are mentally-ill and/or drugged out people lounging about in the chairs all day.
Surprise!!! My city is run by Democrats!
Do I feel sorry for these people? Yes.
Does that mean they should be given the right to displace productive, taxpaying members of the community? No.
Again, I don't have the answer. But catering to them, as we are now doing, clearly isn't it.
Well, getting back to the Scandinavians, Finland is widely regarded as having the best approach to homelessness. They are not allowed to sleep or camp in public places. All are picked up and triaged. Those who want to get sober go to one location, those who want to keep using go to a place (not of their choosing) where they can keep getting high. All have to work in some fashion. Recognizing they can't change human behavior and "save" each individual, Finland chooses not to let these people ruin the country's overall quality of life. What a concept.
You can't camp in public in Finland. Most of the year you would freeze to death. It's almost May and it's still barely clearing freezing most nights in Helsinki.
maybe Ron DeSantis and the Florida state Republican legislature should be more focused on these issues than engaging in performative political stunts against Disney, no? I mean he's such a "powerful governor", surely he could break some local kneecaps like he did about preventing local masking and vaccination policies.
I see a lot of comments that blame Democrats for the conditions of cities with regards to the homeless. Can you identify what the Democratic policies are that allow homeless to camp out in the beach or occupy the serving rooms of private businesses? Can you identify what the Republican policies will be to address homeless and public vagrancies?
Austin Democrats passed an ordinance that allowed camping in public spaces - parks, sidewalks, overpasses and ROWs, literally everywhere. The city was soon overwhelmed. Needles, trash, and feces everywhere. I do not go there anymore.
Democrat policy is lack of enforcement of existing laws. Republicans don't seem to have a coherent strategy as you say. See my comments on what Finland does above.
The governor can only do so much. Vagrancy has traditionally been a local issue, subject to local ordinances enforced by local police. If the local populace doesn’t care about homelessness, what is DeSantis supposed to do, send in the Florida National Guard?
In Texas the problem.in Austin was a city ordinance that allowed camping in public places. The Texas legislature enacted a statewide public camping ban.
I began losing massive amounts of respect for the ACLU back in the early ‘80’s while in grad school at Northwestern. The American Nazis wanted to March through Skokie IL where thousands of Holocaust survivors lived. ACLU gave them the green light. Just wrong. As for de institutionalising the mentally I’ll and expanding when why and how individuals can be held, has done little for their overall well being.
I don't know where one draws the line on free speech. So I tend to be an absolutist about it. I do think the shouting fire in a crowded theater exception is good. I believe the quip about sticks and stones I learned as a child so am not easily harmed by words. IMO if speech incites violence prosecute the violent offender and if the offender and the speaker are one and the same so be it. I do not believe in prosecution or censorship of "hate speech". Haters gonna hate, let 'em. I much prefer people who show their true colors than those who mask them.
I agree wholeheartedly that turning the mentally ill loose without resources was not good.
Free speech never really is. There are consequences. However, I believe we are not divided any worse than we were in the years if the civil War, the Civil Rights movement or the Vietnam years. We just can argue 24/7. I find it truly depressing. There are ideas that bear listening to - left to right and right to left. But my side - liberals don’t want to hear and the right aren’t making it easy. Such is lufr
I am very familiar with institutions for mentally ill and developmentally disabled. These people were let go by the governments in many states to commit crimes and live under the bridges and die there in high numbers in the name of freedom. There are zero resources for them out there . Some of them begged to stay where they were being taken care of (maybe not 100% ideally but still better than living on the streets). Their families were desperate too but nobody listen to them. Now they are out there fending for themselves and hurting themselves and others in the process. There is no money in taking care of these people. High percentage of prisoners are mentally ill or developmentally disabled but who cares. We as a society are consumed by surgeries and hormonal treatments on children which eventually will lead to severe mental anguish with no help for them. Full circle
The US Suoreme Court made the ruling. There was no choice but to release them. Many mentally ill are incompetent and thus cannot give consent. If they do not have family or others with the means to seek a guardianship they are essentially rudderless. And homeless.
Yes because the Supreme Court ruled the mentally ill could not be held without their consent. I was moving to Houston to go to school and worked downtown. The Texas mental hospitals put them on buses "home" despite the fact many had no homes. So they congregated around the Greyhound station. It quickly became a no-go zone.
What is the solution? Austin tried. It is impossible IMO. You cannot help people who do not want the help. They had issues with cholera in San Francsco for goodness sake. Sanitation matters. That is why we have codes to assure proper sanitation. Why is it okay for a group to not comply?
Just read article, not that long ago, from a guy that worked in the streets. (Didn't save link, but may be able to find it.) Even the idea that You give a person a free place doesn't seem to pan out. They've still got all the same problems, and it doesn't end well.
The solution is mandated institutionalization, AFAIK. Sorry if that seems harsh. But I don't see how it clears up until You treat the root of whatever is causing them to be non-functional. Whether it's drugs ojr whatever. That's just me.
Lorenzo Anderson, a young black man was shot and killed in CHAZ (or CHOPT as it was also called). His father and pastor both appeared on Sean Hannity and Mr. Anderson stated that his son, who had mental development issues, lived with him. He wasn't home when one of his son's friends stopped by and they decided to visit CHAZ to see what it was all about. There was gunfire in the pitch black darkness; a chaotic scene ensued and Lorenzo was a fatal casualty when the leaders refused to let in an ambulance. For around eleven days, Mr. Anderson did not know where his son's body was; he received no phone call from the mayor or governor. Last November, Lorenzo's mother, Donnitta Sinclair filed a lawsuit against the city that was dismissed. No one "said his name."
Seattle has a long history of being a magnet for the underbelly of society. The 1984 Martin Bell documentary, Streetwise chronicles the lives of adolescent and teen runaways (or in many
cases, throwaways). Followup includes a list of who died; many from drugs, suicide and one young woman fell victim to a serial killer.
Lorenzo Anderson had loving parents; he was a good kid whose only "offense" was curiosity and living in a city mired in cruelty masked as ideology.
If you’re in the Zoom class you don’t care and pick up and move. The people, business owners, thousands of workers in a big city who work in restaurants, etc. all suffer tremendously.
Cops save lives daily, too. There are never articles written about this.
Social workers to do cop’s jobs? The poor pay and attrition rate of that job is high enough as it is. Now expect them to get into physically dangerous confrontations and see how that goes.
NYC turned after eight years of DeBlasio’s incompetence. And he thinks he’ll run for congress! I was a life long liberal democrat. Not anymore.
No offense, but the lifelong liberal Democrats are what destroyed NYC, and continue to ruin it by voting for con artists like Adams, De Blasio, Cortes, Schumer, Cuomo, etc. ad nauseam. New York City dwellers watched while their city descended from the greatest place on earth to a quagmire of crime and corruption, and did nothing to fix it. Giuliani was a blip, a momentary respite, followed by fake Republican Bloomberg who rode G's coattails and then the place really collapsed. Unbelievable and appalling. The only bright spots in NYC today are the hordes of immigrants with incredible energy and drive to achieve ... who are held back because of racial quotas that favor the least motivated, lowest achieving group. While Asians are now assaulted so frequently that they are afraid to go out alone... nope, nothing to see here, let's only worry about blacks because... white guilt....
Not going to argue that point at all. My point is that i would no longer support them by any stretch. I’ve watched NYC go downhill firsthand and it pains me to think of the thousands of jobs that are lost thanks to DeBlasio and his minions.
Progressives are idiots. Floyd was a career criminal, a dangerous man, he personified everything whites fear in blacks. Clearly he didn’t deserve to die, he was murdered by a cop, tragic, but lionizing him was idiotic. Cops don’t kill blacks disproportionately, that’s a progressive lie. Seattle is a disaster because idiot progressives run it. Tom Cotton was right, the military was needed and NYT progressives were idiots to fire James Bennet for publishing that opinion. I hope the ascendency of idiots at NYT has the same effect as it has on Seattle: wonton destruction. Go speak to your children, I bet you they are idiots, they were polluted by this idiocy in school and their friends are also afflicted: this ain’t over for the foreseeable future.
He was NOT murdered by a cop. He was dying from his drug overdose. And I think based on his past criminal history including a home invasion of a pregnant woman and holding a gun to her belly and his rampant drug use and multiple ODs, then yes he did deserve to die.
No matter your skin color, obey the law and you will have no trouble with police. If you are stopped and questioned, cooperate, don't resist, and you won't be shot by the police. It really isn't complicated.
true enough i have a few white fiends that don't get this . They got the shit pounded out of them several times then sent to jail . it really is simple
You write, "he was murdered by a cop". Murder is the wrong word. Murder requires intent. Nothing the cops did showed intent. Manslaughter, perhaps. Not murder.
People on this board, and most people in general, are ignoring the most active groups of Rioters that are pushing this behavior. The Democratic Socialists of America, groups of Black Block Anarchists and other Communist groups are leading most of the destruction. Their signs are at every riot and protest, but the media rarely shows them on the news. My kids roll their eyes and think I’m talking about the 50’s when I mention the DSA, but they have gotten a large amount of people elected to various public offices on both coasts - see New York and the West Coast.
That's right. People have to wake up to what is happening. Over the last 30 to 40 years they have indoctrinated kids and shaped society. All while America has been sleeping. This is purposeful undermining of the fabric of our country. This is the new front line of the Cold War.
We are seeing the Long March coming to fruition. Defund the police, Equity, BLM, CRT, Soros District Attorneys, no bail/no prosecution, Green New Deal spending are all designed to tear down the fabric of our society. The absolute meltdown over Musk allowing free speech on Twitter is another example of the useful idiots welcoming the slow creep of authoritarianism to invade the U.S. like a cancer.
Thank you for sharing this. It's amazing to me that the left NEVER takes responsibility when the logical consequences of their utopian ideas unfold in the real world. The battlecry is always, "If only we implemented these ideas more thoroughly, everything would be glorious."
What's more frightening...they actually believe that.
They NEVER take responsibility. Never have ,never will
People ACCEPT responsibility when they are FORCED to accept responsibility. Why there's so much head-scratching on this is issue is bizarre. If no one tells the bad guys (the Alt-Left, in these cases) to stop doing what they're doing, they will assuredly keep doing it.
Once again, it comes down to the voters. Who thought electing Jenny Durkan, Denise Juneau, Kshama Sawant, etc. was a good idea??? Looking for those responsible? Look right there...
Watch it with that "NEVER." I can find you quite a number of articles and essays by Left-identified writers who are extremely critical of the lunatic fringe that took over public spaces in several cities in the name of inchoate, incoherent demands for "social justice", in 2020. Some of those writings can be found right here on Substack.
Yes!
In my experience You can find lunatics as well as down to earth people with good intentions and practices both on the left and the right. No-one is an "idiot" just for being leftwing or rightwing. Yes, there's a lot of bullshit coming out of leftist colleges and universities lately, "gender science", "antiracism", "defund the police", "identity politics" etc., it doesn't seem to end. But on the right You see an equal stream of bovine manure poisoning politics, like q-anon, antivaxxers, Trumpism as a whole etc. It's getting ever more important that the sane people on both sides keep talking to each other and unite to stem the tide of sheer craziness and partisanship to reestablish a common sense approach to politics.
I'm a trained scientist, a biologist. I do not "blindly trust" anything, but I know from the science behind it that vaccines work and that medical science is far more trustworthy than any deranged conspiracy theorist operating from his parents' basement or a lunatic without any scientific or other credentials who recommends drinking Lysol to fight a covid infection out of the White House. Maybe You should reconsider who You trust.
vaccines work , why are so many fully vaccinated getting covid ? I'll wait for ALL the data to be released , until then it's a crap shoot
The fully vaccinated are less likely to get covid and if they still get it they are less likely to get seriously ill of it or die. No-one ever claimed covid vaccines protect 100%.
I agree with you, Mascot. But the nuance you're looking for in how commenters on this thread view 'The Left' is rarely seen. It appears to many here that the Left is just one large amorphous blob obliterating the landscape, sort of how many progressives routinely view Trump Republicans. Both takes are wrong.
you sum it up very well.
Donna...nicely put. thanks.
The Central Planners are always wrong.
Ignore what they say. Ignore their actions. The results of their actions is what they want.
Funny thing about Seattle (I don't live there anymore but am a fourth-generation Puget Sounder) is that there is a long history of Scandinavianesque clogs-and-sweaters, Aunt Jenny-style soft socialist thinking. It was settled by lots of literal Scandis who worked closely together in strong communities to hack a living out of a difficult landscape. So the area comes by this sort of thing honestly. It's pitifully and sadly naive however in this violent and corrupt age to keep thinking in that way.
This is not 1910 and Sven helps himself to Bjorn's extra plow without asking because he needs to get those strawberries in the ground and Bjorn doesn't mind a bit because he knows Sven will return it later with a freshly sharpened blade. But bless their hearts lots of longtime Seattle people still think and behave as though that kind of high-trust society is what they are living in, despite the obvious evidence of fifty years of decline into a festival of drugs, crime and perversion.
Thanks for this information. It's very helpful to understand where this attitude comes from. @Golfer, you weren't the only one who was taken aback when you read that last paragraph.
Yeah Detective Young is on the cusp of his red pill moment. It's sad, and I feel for him, but one day he will wake up and realize that when you have an angry, divided, violent, weak-family, weak-faith, society (e.g. blue cities) the only thing a "welfare state" is is a mechanism for the connected to distribute public money to each other while the people on the bottom just get more and more feral.
"Detective Young is on the cusp of his red pill moment."
No, you're speculating in service of a partisan narrative.
The Scandinavian countries are not strictly speaking socialist. They have a free market economy, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, religion, common law etc. none of which are part of socialist states, which quickly end up authoritarian/totalitarian with planned economies.
Citizens in Scandinavia vote in favour of ‘socialist’ policies (childcare, health, etc) but every so often when the tax rate becomes ridiculous or for other reasons there is a correction.
Socialist states ruin incentive, innovation and ultimately destroy the human spirit, which is not a feature of the Scandinavian countries.
It is wrong to describe them as ‘socialist’ as that creates the impression that socialism is a free and democratic system, which it is not.
Australia is similar to Scandinavian countries in that 50% of people pay no net tax, that is they take out more than they contribute.
It’s not ideal but nor could it be described as living in a socialist state.
From memory things in Sweden reached ridiculous heights in 1976 when author Astrid Lindgren’s marginal tax rate was102%.
There was, however, a correction following the defeat of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. There have been other times when their social welfare programs have taken a hit following elections.
A lot of socialists hold up the Scandinavian countries as models of ‘successful’ socialism when in fact they are free market democracies. Note that people like BS never use Venezuela, Soviet Russia, Cuba, China, North Korea as examples of socialism because they are all failures and good examples of the totalitarian misery that arises out of the siren song of socialism.
Welfare state works fine, I guess, when it's Scandi style people who are industrious and self-disciplined with strong families and high trust communities. When it's the violent indolent - which is a large slice of all cities, especially blue ones - it just becomes a shitshow.
Texas (where I live now and have for over a decade) is busily importing plenty of violent indolent into its cities -- and our feckless governor is more interested in bringing royal blue tech companies into the state than preserving a red way of life -- so we'll see how long this experiment can last. Funnily enough though what might save us is the non-violent, non-indolent Hispanics because they do not want that shit either.
What would you have Abbott do instead? The blue tech companies are coming her because of what's happening in their states, not because of Abbott policies.
His administration is actively courting them and offering huge tax incentives at the same time as the ballooning housing market is causing property taxes to skyrocket. My house payment increased by $300 for example. We should not be screwing over Texas families so we can replace them with Oracle tech bros.
Imagine the societal catastrophe that would have resulted if Alcohol Prohibition had been extended to the present day. The corrosive effects of de facto ordaining a criminal monopoly over the trade in a substance with that sort of market appeal, for decades on end.
Oh, wait...
Yep.
Yep.
“I am, at the Fed level, libertarian;
at the state level, Republican;
at the local level, Democrat;
and at the family and friends level, a socialist.
If that saying doesn’t convince you of the fatuousness of left vs. right labels, nothing will.”
--Nassim Nicholas Taleb
A "Scandinavian-style welfare state" would be dramatically less "progressive" than what America is now.
It would also be virtually 100% "white" monoculture.
The "5M-10M people is different from 330M people" line never made much sense, but that's because it's a cagey way of saying something that DOES make sense: Scandinavia is populated by Scandinavians.
Scandinavians are a racial monoculture with a strong tradition of discipline, work ethic, and constructive behavior. This tradition is so strong, in fact, that it blinds them to the fact that the sorts of people they've recently begun importing in bulk are not the same.
America, by contrast, has a LOT of "diversity", and as the Left strongly encourages people with toxic cultural backgrounds to preserve and practice those cultures instead of assimilating, this means that welfare is far more toxic in America than in Scandinavia.
You're speaking of a Left faction as if they constituted the entire Left. It's as bogus a narrative as someone conflating Matthew Walther, Jacob Sullum, Jared Kushner, and Richard Spencer as comrades in arms on "the Right."
Matthew Walther, Jacob Sullum, Jared Kushner, and Richard Spencer would criticize each other vehemently and publicly. By contrast, while it is very common for left-wing people to try to gaslight the rest of us into thinking that fringe radicals don't dominate their camp, said fringe radicals consistently poll over 50% among self-identifies left-wing people or Democrats, and none can be found on the Left who are willing to either oppose them or publicly criticize their views.
Even if this were not true, it remains the case that their common traits - identity politics, "subjective truth", and general solipsism as an ideological driving force - are sufficient to bring about the ruin they always cause. They are what must be opposed.
Golfer, totally agree with you! It's (maybe) good-hearted, but so unbelievably misguided. These people who hold Scandinavia up as some kind of utopia in most cases know NOTHING about Scandinavia!
I'm hoping we can have civil discussions here without calling people "idiots". I like this site because people seem to have intelligent and respectful discourse.
Actually, Deirdre, being called an idiot in the Common Sense comment threads is akin to a left handed compliment (pun intended). Judgements here can be harsh. Be aware.
:)
That's unfortunate. Labeling someone is certainly not a good idea, especially when one doesn't know the person.
All I meant is that I hope we can be civil here and not fall into the ugly rhetoric of other sites. Calling individuals disparaging names is a bit meaningless. Thoughtful and interesting discourse carries more weight.
Saying we need more thoughtful discourse rather than calling people idiots doesn't seem to be demeaning to you, but I'm sorry if you took it that way. Take care.
No, the "idiot" you quoted is simply an American who holds Left-leaning political views that you find disagreeable, who also happens to be a police detective and someone who finds lunatic fringe Leftism unacceptable.
And that undercuts your narrative.
None of Scandinavia is socialist, though Norway has a mixed economy. Their generous welfare policies are due to minimal regulation of the private economy and tax policy that we would never tolerate. Norway has the added benefit of revenue from their North Sea oil assets.
Nearly all of the nations of the world have a mixed economy in some form, including the People's Republic of China. Hurling the word "Socialism" as a general epithet or pejorative slur is a practical irrelevance- except to the extent that the word has the power to repel or attract a reader, as a Trigger Term. I oppose being victimized that way by Pavlovian partisan politics.
The guy you quoted didn't use the word "socialism." That was a Trigger Term you put in his mouth.
I have a good friend who leans somewhat farther to the Left on welfare state policies than myself; he's also the sole owner of a private business with several employees who refers to himself as a "social democrat", not a "socialist."
Seriously: for anyone interested in pursuing an honest and open dialogue on politics, the sloppiness has to end. You need to home in on specifics and seek common ground, instead of trying to find excuses to not listen to people. This goes for both ends of the political spectrum.
I know socialism is as popular as fascism on this thread but the subsidization you speak of in regards to Sweden hasn't occurred yet. But it will begin soon, when the applications of both Sweden and Finland to NATO are accepted.
Please I’ll try and find the money for an air ticket for Mr Young the Scandinavians are fed up with their welfare system
Michele, I applaud your sentiment, but if you actually found the money and made the offer, I guarantee Mr. Young would say "no thank you". Not sure if you know who Tim Pool is, but a few years ago he sent out a public offer that he and his company would move any person who felt the US was too far gone to any country of their choice, set them up with a place to live, food, etc., and in return they would report on their experience, likes, dislikes, etc. No one took him up on the offer. As "horrible" as we are, it's just funny that no one will leave.
I was a police officer for five years in Georgia (2014-2019). It’s hard to put into words how hard this article hits home, to sort through the impact the job had on my family and me, and to know the continued impact it has on a dwindling number of friends who have stayed the course and remained on the job.
I see a two-fold problem with policing as we know it. For decades now, we have come to expect more and more of our LEOs. We needed a mental health expert, we needed a marriage counselor, we needed a swat sniper, we someone who knew how to talk to kids who had been traumatized, etc. I could dwell forever on all that was and is expected of a good law enforcement officer. We demanded perfection, and anything less was insufficient. What’s more, we demanded it on a budget.
Enter into this already untenable scenario a very vocal and influential element of society that think everything America traditionally stood for was vile and racist. Taken to its extreme end, this philosophy sees the Constitution itself as garbage. Since our laws (and therefore law enforcement) are beholden to that document, law enforcement became the de-facto enemy and required defunding. The only trouble was (and as mentioned in the closing part of the article) no one thought about the cans the rest of the world had been kicking down to local police station for years. Just defund the police. No one considered the folks who might actually need or want the police to be around, or what might happen if the machinery came grinding to a premature halt. Defund. That was the refrain I heard. That was the refrain that thousands of experienced and disheartened officers across the nation felt when they turned in that badge they’d worn with so much pride.
We are seeing the results of this dolly now. I believe it is too late for some cities. An agency can replace bodies, but when a department has people with combined experience equal to several hundred years flowing out the door, there is no salve for that.
It is early, and I am rambling, but I am reminded of what my first Sergeant (a better leader and man I have not found) told me when I called to tell him I was thinking about hanging it up: he said emphatically, “if we don’t have good people in policing, we are doomed.” By we,” he meant all of us.
Thanks for your service
You hit it so perfectly. Growing up in the 60’s a lot of folks I knew joined the police force like their dads or uncles. It was an honorable respected job. Some 50 plus years and too many on the left see the police as local arm of the military. I grew up in large industrial New England city, but now I live in a small small town where the most serious crime is not picking up a dog turd. I recently returned from a visit to New Orleans and I can’t think that anyone would deny the NOPD the equipment/personnel/ pay that due these public servants. I’m a law and order liberal , which means I don’t believe that our police departments are hopelessly racist and I think it’s time more liberals got their head out from their butts on this issue. Police officers deal with violent, unstable humans that often have deadly weapons. I don’t understand how anyone can’t see that. The events in Seattle are shameful. Absolutely shameful and I can understand how and why folks make fun off us
Yup- tough sledding for a law & order liberal these days. I knew people would come to their senses but a lot of bad happened, and a lot of good cops left, in the interim.
I am the mother of a Police Officer. You stated it very well. I truly appreciate your comment. Thank you, for your efforts on the job.
I know you are proud to be the mother of someone who helps other people out every single day. Sounds like you did a good job as a parent. You and your child have my thanks and respect.
Thank you, very much. Truly.
Wonderful comment; I couldn't agree more
Well said. Did you know that criminal law started with seven crimes? Admittedly that was long ago but IMO part of the problem is the burgeoning list of crimes.
I do not disagree. It’s a shame we do not judge legislators by how many laws they do NOT pass.
Thank you for your service.
One of the biggest crisis happening in USA, is decline of its big cities. New York, San Francisco, Seattle, LA and many others are declining in front of our eyes, they are turning to unaffordable crime ridden places that look more like like sci-fi dystopias from movies or comics.
Nowhere has this decline been more visible than in LA and San Francisco. Last week I watched episode of TV Show "Full House", in the middle of video, I realized, that intro for the Show (with Family driving trough San Francisco), would not be possible to make today, since streets are riddled with homeless, drug users, junk and trash. LA is even worse, it is literally falling apart, and is each day more like large cities of third world, with slums surrounded by Villas of rich people.
Sure many conservatives might be tempted to say, "I don't care, I don't live there".
This might have been truth, if the migration wasn't bringing people who voted for those policies to other small cities across USA, and those people in many cases continue to vote for same polices they escaped from.
I ask myself, how did we get there?
I find it crazy, that election after election, voters like sheep, go and vote Democrats on local level(event though they city is collapsing) only because they disagree with Republicans on Federal or State level. I mean, aren't you tired of jumping over human excrement on streets? Don't you want to let your kind go play in park without worrying that they will be attacked by some drug users or get hold of used needles on the street?
I lived in Detroit during the riots of 1968. Detroit didn't immediately collapse, but slid into it's current state over many decades. Back in 68, Detroit was the fifth largest city in the country (chew on that), but it lost 60% of it's residents and dropped to 25th most populous city in the country.
It will be decades before a full accounting of the damage done by the 2020 'Summer of Love' can be completed. Unless immediate action is taken, which should include a full purge of the local government officials, and shoring up of the police departments, many large urban centers will continue to realize a Detroit style slide in population and relevance.
I continue to be shocked that we never fully questioned how all of the riots were organized and conducted at the time. Instead, we focused on to Jan 6.
Because dems are in charge in DC and Jan 6 is what they believe will keep them in the promised land in November 2022 instead if being cast into the wilderness of no power. Dems encouraged the riots and the destruction. Remember San Fran Nan and her geriatric cohorts kneeling with the African cloths on their necks to show solidarity with the Burn Loot Murder crowd? (Those cloths were from the black African tribe that actually enslaved and sold black Africans into over seas slavery. Ironic no?)
In addition, the piles of bricks delivered and neatly stacked...waiting for the hands that will come and throw them against windows. These riots were designed and directed by political operatives who promised "no consequences" for theft, vandalism and violence. Dec. 6 had a surprising number of FBI participants. Go figure.
Ooooohhh Unwoke I forgot about that. Hope it's part of the election material later this year. Remind everyone who did what. With receipts. There's so many!
Excellent
Jon...nice gear. Because of the media emotionally touching the Jan 6th protest, 2 years now of time and money waste, we are suppose to believe the street riots are of small concern.
Exactly 1/6 is much more important because the focus is on President Trump 1/6 insurrectionists carry much more political mileage than the thugs of Seattle who are never going to be brought to book it shows how weak the leadership is there also Chicago leadership everybody out of control the men in blue don’t do well there either
hard to measure things when there's few numbers to go by. I believe the Floyd riots and the Jan. 6 were about equally bad. Hard-ta believe, mebbe. But look at it this Way. Riots killed and burned. People died. Businesses lost.
But Jan. 6 Democracy almost burned and died. That was the attempt. To "stop the steal." A president was elected. After the states certified their results, the election was OVER. You get that don't You? There's no appeal after that. But there was one guy caught on camera who actually DID try to steal the election. That was Trump.
Respect your thoughts jt although I totally disagree rioting, killing, burning and businesses lost is the murdering of our democracy the other was people’s right to protest as in our democracy you get that don’t you!
Just read an article about Jeff Flake. I know.. I know.. RINO, right?
But, see, I don't *have* a political party. Two things: I can be pretty flexible in my ideas, and two, the party doesn't mean a thing to me. Nothing. It's just ideas, "all the way down."
Just to show You a RINO can have a good idea:
>>> nd what of the “enlightened” autocratic models like China?
Flake admits that it can work for a season, especially when steeped in more free market economic philosophies and an openness to pluralism. But, in the end, “centrally planned economies don’t run very well,” he says. Concentrated power is only one bad leader away from failure.
>>> “So my bet is still with the West, and with democracy. And I hope the United States remains a valued example of the good that can happen over time.”
>>> The best way to persuade the world — and Turkey — is for the United States to live up to the full measure of its ideals, Flake explains. Showing a democratic model that builds unity, cooperation and prosperity out of diversity will always inspire. The fight for freedom, he continues, is what’s moving so many to rally around Ukraine.
That's the easy solution, and the hardest part: Unity and cooperation. But it's well worth it, if You want prosperity.
Now fo r the part You won't like, but which I believe is true:
>>> “Democracy can survive bad policy,” Flake continues. “It’s not positive, but it can survive. But what our country can’t survive is a failure to respect elections and their outcomes.”
We can, and will, survive Biden. What we'll never be able to survive is having *two presidents* at the same time. Think about it!
Biggest question is: How are the armed forces gonna split? I think anyone with a gun who wants to save their version of Democracy should consider that question, first and foremost. What's the Army and them gonna do?
See? One man's protest is another man's riot. What were the *aims* of the two "mostly peaceful" riots.
One was violence to people and property.
One was to the rule of the law of the Constitution. Once You understand that the election was over, what *was* the point of the "mostly peaceful" riot?
I place both-a those on the same pedestal, is all.
Well done, jt.
All true, yet the idea of voting for a Republican is seen as worse.
I used to be a democrat back in the JFK style democrat days, but I ran away from the Jimmy Carter style democrat party. The R’s are far from perfect, but at least I think they are on America’s side. The democrats act like they hate Americans and want to take us all down.
For me, it used to be a toss-up between "they hate America" and "they love power so much that the downsides of getting that power are worth it." Nowadays I think there are really two groups: the puppet-masters at the top who have a very definite plan for us and the Useful Idiots who swallow their lies and act upon them. And of course you have the Gutless Republicans, who seem to like losing politely, that make it all possible.
The problem is that the Left know their policies are despised by the average American, who does not want any of it, so they have to lie or cheat and shove it down our necks. If we can get back real vote integrity, I think we may - just may - get control of this lunacy.
IMO this is why they have opened the border - to import people more malleable to their vision.
It's a FACT.
The Establishment (consisting of Rs and Ds) are destroying America for the benefit of a ruling elite. Immigration is their tool. They are traitors.
I think You've got the right of it there, M. Lynne. But I'm thinking the plan may backfire as more and more Hispanics come to see the Dems for what they are. Just need a Repub candidate who isn't Trump, IMO.
I agree. Trump did a remarkable job but he is like catnip to his opposition and they will turn out in droves.
I liked a lotta YOur other comments, too.
Act like?
you are correct, they don’t just act like they hate America, they DO hate America. I just finished listening to Douglas Murray interviewed on the podcast, Triggernometry. He has a new book coming out soon dealing with the hatred of America and the West by the Left. His answer—Enough! Time to start realizing how great America and the West are and stop apologizing! Time to stand up and defend them. I love Douglas Murray and could listen to him all day long.
He's brilliant and bold.
same here! Loved his books Madness of Crowds and Strange Death of Europe.
Me too!
I just listened to him on Rogan 👍
Jordan Peterson just interviewed him as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd5qf4pG-xg&list=TLPQMjUwNDIwMjKJtlcZhnYWCw&index=2
Loved the interview it makes you realize the last thing you want to listen to is the MSM
I love him too! He’s such a straight shooter. I’m really looking forward to his new book and I’m going to go listen to that podcast right now while I cook dinner.
Love Douglas Murray the Madness of Crowds was a brilliant read going to definitely read his new one
I made the same transition at the same time for the same reason!
me too.
I don’t think the Reps are on our side - I know they are - the Democrats are trapped in an old style form of leadership you only need to look at Joe Biden God it’s archaic and yes the Democrats want America for themselves even if they burn us down in the process I have always voted for them come 2022 I hope we flip everything and 2024 take back the power I don’t care who the nominee is it will always be better than what we supposedly vote fir in 2020🇺🇸🇺🇸
All Dem run cities I hate to say this but President Trump told us in 2016 and told us in 2020 this is what happens when the Dems are in power and if we continue to give Nancy Pelosi Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden the White House we are going to go further down the tubes I really don’t think Americans want to eat each other I think we are all grateful for our military grateful for our men in blue it’s just at the moment as we stand the 20-30 years of state capture by the Clintons and the Obamas (yes I know we had the Bush father and son in between) is the result of what we have now but all is not lost the midterms coming up Elon Musk buying Twitter a vaccine mandate that was overturned it’s starting to look a little brighter 🌞🌞wish you all a good day!
When ideology ignores reality disaster ensues. Homicides are up across this nation and thousands have died and communities devestated. The defund police crowd cannot acknowledge this as it would make them culpable for policies that are covered in tragedy.
And most of those dying are black because most of those doing the killing and the robbing and the looting and the shoplifting are black. It’s not rocket science.
itis rocket science if you think 2+3=8
And did those who have trashed Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland, SF, NYC etc ever get justice? The VP advocated for their release. City attorneys didn’t prosecute. Why not? Would those on the left here please explain why these looters, thieves and worse got off scott free?
Soros funded prosecutors in NY, SF, Philadelphia and LA, to name a few. See a trend? When doctors discover a cancer in your body, the first thing they do is cut it out and then irradiate or treat the surrounding tissue to cleanse it of the cancer. America needs to excise the progressive cancer. And its funding sources.
Soros has funded over 750 Democrats in the last ten years alone via The Soros Foundation the doesn't include the billions from The Tides Foundation and Open Society that are funding various migrant groups). If letting violent criminals out of prison early, encouraging DA's NOT to prosecute criminals, and funding mass (illegal) migration what do you suppose Soros' end goal is, I wonder?
I wonder, too.
Add Chicago to that. My friend lost her Cook County state's attorney job because of the woke Kim Foxx....and of course, everyone knows how she managed the Jussie Smollett case. And let's add that four bodies floated to the surface of Lake Michigan in Chicago last week! If that was the case in Kiev, Ukraine it would be national news. Now it doesn't get as much as a look!
Kamala's tweet encouraging the bail out of looters and arsonists should be rebroadcast to remind everyone who did what. There's a ton of evidence.
That’s why the Veep got voted in by the Dems that’s not rocket science either
Yes, I follow James Lindsay and he did a very long podcast on it. The left believes the right is so abhorrent, the left is justifed in suppressing it, even before it speaks.
Are you familiar with the term, “projection”?
IOW the ends justify the means. This attitude has invaded much of civic life (drones killing "terrorists", intelligence agencies facilitating coups, narcotics policing, ...). There is nothing good yo come from it in the long run.
There was a 43% increase in the murders of black Americans in 2020 compared to the past 10-year average.
Anti-police movement + prosecutors and lawmakers who invoked extreme leniency, forcing judges to release legitimate suspects who then go out and do the same shit if not worse.
There's an ideological culprit here. Everyone knows it.
I would have laughed at this as tinfoil hat nonsense two years ago, but it sure seems to me there is a deliberate, coordinated effort to destabilize our society by literally, directly increasing crime and mayhem, and more subtly and indirectly cause citizens to start to forget what it means to live in a high trust culture.
The rule of law is being destroyed.
On purpose!
So much so that I wonder if the CCP or the globalists are behind it, or if it's just the long march through the institutions.
Obviously, the societal disruption of the covid lockdowns provided the opportunity for an increase in criminal activity.
However, in order to you make a conspiracy indictment, you need to make a plausible argument about means and motive. Established with facts, not conjecture. Attached to a list of the suspects who planned the conspiracy.
Otherwise, you're just playing on emotional triggers of the sort that incite paranoia, for the purpose of Partisan Trash Talk. Which seems to be the focus of commentary by most of the paraticipants in this particular coffeklatch,, hmm?
The. Southern.Border. Enjoy your coffee.
I suppose I'm expected to fill in the blanks required to extract the intended meaning from the sentence fragment.
Somehow, I could never quite get to do that. This is one reason why I'm not on Twitter.
Enjoy your upvoters.
Those are periods, not blanks. It is a modern device to provide emphasis.Yes written, and oral, communication are changing, but really language always has, at least successful ones. There are things I dislike as well including passive/aggressive comments masquerading as civility or wit.
I still don't get how I'm expected to know what you're talking about on the basis of three words- whether interspersed with periods or not. And the technique of requiring me to guess is, wouldn't you know, a passive-aggressive tactic.
Were you referring to the US-Mexico border, or the Mason-Dixon Line? Or Mexico's southern border, or the Tropic of Capricorn? There's no way to be certain.
And, well, what about it? Clarity is key to political discussions. You can't just assume that every reader automatically knows what you're talking about. Some of us aren't all that automatic.
Oh for FS!
yeah. the nerve of me.
What you meant to say is -- "yeah, the idiocy of me."
A 43% increase = what, in actual body count? 10? 100? 1,000? 10,000? What was identity group of the murderers? What zip codes? Pareto's Law asserts the square root of this number will be responsible for half (50%) of the murders -- so where are these murderer's located. And so on.
Even in the 2020's, it was well understood that out of the hundreds of thousands of police-civilian interactions, a miniscule fraction led to violence, and a fraction of those to lethal violence, and in most cases that violence included resisting arrest -- and a black person was more likely to NOT be shot by a policeperson.
But all this rational thinking is a white thing, and de facto white privilege and racist.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/black-americans-paid-enormous-price-for-defund-the-police-movement
“I’m actually a left-wing guy on just about every issue,” says Christopher Young. “I want the United States to be a Scandinavian-style welfare state. So I’m very sympathetic to people’s concerns.”
How can a cop with decades of experience be this naive? How can anyone? The state of Washington alone has greater population than Finland with far greater cultural and ethnic diversity, and Washington is one of the least diverse states in the union. Yet he thinks what works there should work at the federal level in the US.
Cause he doesn’t know that Sweden’s top marginal tax rate is more than 50% and starts at $68,000 a year. Nobody in America recognizes what any of this costs the Northern European nations.
Correct, Alex. In Sweden, oft-mentioned cultural homogeneity aside, the Corporate tax rate is under 21%, because they want and need their private sector to be competitive, since it pays all the bills, just like here. With personal income taxes, the bottom 50% of Americans pay.... nothing, while Swedes pay around 25% - huge difference. Lastly, there is a national sales tax (VAT) of 25%. So everyone pays into the system. When you have skin in the game and are contributing to your society, you are far less likely to tear it down. One of the defining characteristics of radicals is they don't have a financial stake in the society they seek to destroy or, as is the case with many white liberals in the U.S., they are wealthy enough to be immune from the impacts of their politics.
We already pay too much in taxes and for what? I pay close to 40% and my city is becoming a garbage dump. People who think that model can work here are bonkers!
Agree. It's not what you pay, it's how it's spent, or misspent.
Opposition to which is what the nation was born out of, no? Until we recognize and appreciate what the founding fathers provided for the citizens we will not thrive.
"Christopher Young, a detective in the investigative support unit (previously named the criminal intelligence unit)"
This little snippet tells you everything you need to know. Priorities out of whack. Saw the same with left focused on renaming schools rather than reopening them during the pandemic.
The same Christopher Young who brayed stupidly that he was "left wing on every issue?"
That has absolutely nothing to do with my comment.
I agreed with your comment. Was simply trying to add context. I think you misunderstood. me. And, because your comment was about Mr. Young.....
I did--apologies!
Fault was probably mine. Our side has to stick together.
He expressed a political viewpoint that you don't agree with, and your rebuttal is to describe him a "braying stupidly." Who's throwing rocks now?
Speaks to still having the blinders on. "I agree with them on *everything* except this one little place where they went too far lol." Sad.
I'm better with a slingshot but why not. If I don't whine when I'm a target I'm free to throw with abandon. Besides, ask a Swede if they're socialists and they'll laugh at you. They know the wages of the welfare state. That's why they're scaling it back. Young obviously wasn't a very good detective if he can't figure out cause and effect.
C'mon folks. It isn't as if this stuff is particularly daunting. About 2-3% of the population are flat out sociopaths and another 10% are just opportunistic followers. Although they wouldn't break into a store normally, they'll happily join in the looting. Or throwing rocks at cops. If you control the sociopaths, arresting and locking them up, the followers stay under control, too. If you let them do what they want, chaos ensues. This was all proven by Giuliani and Bloomberg decades ago with broken windows policing.
Everyone could see that Chauvin had no business being a cop. But it was a one-off that the Left - "don't let a good crisis go to waste"- and their media stooges used to fuel an anti-police frenzy and a summer of violence, destruction and chaos. And what did we get? Better policing? Nope. Better minority neighborhoods. Nope. Less racism? Nope. We got more crime, violence and outright racism in attacks on elderly and vulnerable Asians and Whites. The aim was to weaken America and it succeeded. Beyond measure. Are you getting the picture? Elect a Democrat halfwit such as Durkan and your city is toast. When someone says they're "progressive," a BLM supporter and want police "defunded" or "reimagined," they're actually saying "I hate America and I want to destroy our country." Don't be fooled into thinking otherwise.
Yes. This is a time to be clear-minded about what is at stake and who is destroying America.
Bruce... you do a good job and i agree, just let me say, i find a small fault with Chauvin, in that St. Floyd had No Business in being a citizen.
Chauvin and many officers, must reach a point of frustration, when seeing the same criminals time after time.
I’m sure that’s true. But Chauvin went too far. And he had something like 20 complaints against him. I support our police but let’s not kid ourselves because we give them life and death power over us. So it isn’t asking too much that they act moderately and judiciously and within the bounds of reasonableness.
Chauvin didn't kill St. Flloyd intentionally. St.Floyd resisted arrest, he was a criminal.
I'll take Chauvin on the street, anyday , over Saint Floyd....Hey that is me , i care not otherwise.
When the police stop you, put your hands up.
He didn’t deserve a life sentence. Floyd died of an overdose.
I do not disagree.
Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for over 20 years, what has happened to Seattle breaks my heart. The city and area were incredibly law-abiding when we moved there. One of the police chiefs (I think in the 90s) said he took the job after looking out of his hotel window at 3 am and seeing someone wait for a green light before crossing the street. When the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl (2014) there were jokes all around about how Seattle celebrates, such as by honking a car horn and then getting out to apologize to other drivers for the noise.
What changed? You can't look just at the past few years. There was a stolen/contested governor's election where ballots that were found in a couch changed the seat to a Democrat one. There was Occupy Wall Street where hooligans were allowed to cause damage. There was a change from a civilized society to one where it was "cool" to be Left. Boeing was replaced as the main employer by Microsoft and Amazon.
When the article quotes a befuddled policeman saying, "“I’m actually a left-wing guy on just about every issue,” says Christopher Young. “I want the United States to be a Scandinavian-style welfare state. So I’m very sympathetic to people’s concerns,” that explains what happened. Leftist policies don't work and they make people miserable. Scandinavia is not run in the way people think it is and it also isn't dealing with American diversity. The destruction of Seattle did not happen overnight.
And don't forget the role of our education system in brainwashing our kids, in addition to a 3rd rate basic education as judged by global (PISA) standards.
These people take advantage of the good-nature of the American people.
That is part of the problem.
Sometimes people need to standup and push-back against the lunatic fringe.
It is more than good nature, Ben. America ran very well on the fumes of the gasoline of Judeo-Christian religion and morality. But at a certain point, and we have reached it, you need to replenish the gas tank.
Obama led the charge to dystopia. When he ran for President, he promised to bring the country, the races, together. Instead, he is responsible for the burning of our cities. It seemed to me, every time a policeman shot a black thug, he would call up the family and commiserate with them. Not once did he call the families of cops killed in the line of duty but he sure called up the families of the thugs.
Not once did any Democrat/Communist speak out against the burning of our cities by the Marxist organizations BLM and ANTIFA. Nancy Pelosi called the Tea Party's peaceful demonstrators NAZIs but she and her Dem pals encouraged Occupy Wall Street who were nothing more than drug attics and thugs. Women were raped and there were murders and three of these thugs were arrested trying to blow up a bridge.
The Dems through their silence encouraged the burning of out cities. That moron Dem congressman, Jerry Nadler, called "called violence from Antifa in Portland a ‘myth'." Not once did Obama speak out against the burnings and murders in our Democrat run cities.
I find this disgusting yet Democrats don't and they will vote for their Communist Party pals come November. I guess they want more of the same.
It's true. Obama was highly destructive to American society and fomented a lot of hate, resulting in billions in property damage and the loss of many (often black) lives. Without getting into his entire CV, history will judge him as one of our worst presidents.
I think it was the rapes that finally made it impossible to pretend that Occupy was a happy little commune.
Why would you say this? Please which cities did Obama burn? The riots after George Floyds death happened on Trumps watch. Do you know what a Communism actually looks like? I’m sure Putin could enlighten you since he got his early training under the communists in East Germany and later the USSR. However, I do agree that liberals don’t focus enough on the belief that violent crime or individuals are destroying this country. There is no good reason for an individual to revolve in and out of prison for felonies - violent felonies.
I believe Ferguson blew up under the Obama.
The Obama along with his despicable wingman affirmative action Eric provided the spark. That you don’t get this shows either total ignorance or willful blindness or maybe just a leftist.
Thank you for refreshing my memory. Yes Ferguson was a situation where politics played an outsized part. I didn’t recall that at the moment there are too many. Please don’t refer to me as ignorant or wilfully blind. You don’t know me but provocative language solves nothing. In your opinion what should have happened?
Obama got the race baiting in high gear. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, that black Harvard professor in Cambridge… he stoked the flames.
Shall we recount all the things that happened during while Trump was President. Should he and he alone be responsible for Seattle? You seem to be saying that presidents have power over every aspect of life in the US. Presidents are no more responsible for individual acts of violence than you are. But since you brought up Obama getting the race baiting in high gear, is there a specific incident that where he “stoked the flames”. A direct quote would be good. And as a parting thought- Obama as President cannot tell “that black Harvard professor” what to say or even prevent anyone from saying what is on their mind. The Constitution forbids it. You should know that.
"The Cambridge police acted stupidly."
"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon Martin."
"...stains the heart of black children." (Michael Brown in Ferguson)
etc. google it there are plenty.
“If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon Martin” is an inflammatory comment? It’s a statement of fact. I suspect by simply being elected President Obama was seen as “stoking the flames”.
Please someone Look at Baton Rouge Louisiana. Since the city is “led” by democrats the crime is rampant. Mayor just announced a “week of peace” last week after a 4 year old was killed in his bed but it lasted maybe one hour. Every single day there are shootings and killings. Every day.
I was in New Orleans for a week about a month ago. My hotel was about a block from Tulane. I expected a big city “street stuff” but what I saw was crazy. Homeless, who were clearly mentally raving, people sleeping in small parks face down at least I think they were sleeping and kids - under 12 mostly sitting on street corners in the French Quarter banging on plastic tubs in tragic attempt at rhythmic drumming. On a school night. Dozens of these kids. And yet when I mentioned this to a liberal friend her response was “ their community has different ways to raise kids. You’re so judgmental “.
Liberalism is the embrace of stupidity.
I somewhat blame the ACLU from about 50 years ago. In the distant past, an obviously unstable person could be involuntarily committed to a mental institution. ACLU fought this as being unconstitutional (probably was), and the practice ceased to a large extent, and with it funding for dedicated mental institutions. This fell to the police, and to local jails and state prisons to possibly house the unstable.
Agree this is where a large part of the problem began. I'm less clear what the solution is. But rewarding those who violate the social contract is the surest path to destroy any community or nation.
I live near the beach in Florida. And it's astonishing to me that, even here, vagrants are given primacy of place to encamp and lounge about all day on beachfront property.
I wouldn't dream of going near the local boardwalk – the one featured in photos from the 1950s as a magical place - because now it's filled with drug-addled and clearly unstable people. I can't even go to the local Starbucks anymore, which used to serve as my office. Because now there are mentally-ill and/or drugged out people lounging about in the chairs all day.
Surprise!!! My city is run by Democrats!
Do I feel sorry for these people? Yes.
Does that mean they should be given the right to displace productive, taxpaying members of the community? No.
Again, I don't have the answer. But catering to them, as we are now doing, clearly isn't it.
Well, getting back to the Scandinavians, Finland is widely regarded as having the best approach to homelessness. They are not allowed to sleep or camp in public places. All are picked up and triaged. Those who want to get sober go to one location, those who want to keep using go to a place (not of their choosing) where they can keep getting high. All have to work in some fashion. Recognizing they can't change human behavior and "save" each individual, Finland chooses not to let these people ruin the country's overall quality of life. What a concept.
You can't camp in public in Finland. Most of the year you would freeze to death. It's almost May and it's still barely clearing freezing most nights in Helsinki.
It's certainly too cold for me, but Finland nonetheless has a homeless problem that is year around, though probably less in winter. NYC does too.
maybe Ron DeSantis and the Florida state Republican legislature should be more focused on these issues than engaging in performative political stunts against Disney, no? I mean he's such a "powerful governor", surely he could break some local kneecaps like he did about preventing local masking and vaccination policies.
I see a lot of comments that blame Democrats for the conditions of cities with regards to the homeless. Can you identify what the Democratic policies are that allow homeless to camp out in the beach or occupy the serving rooms of private businesses? Can you identify what the Republican policies will be to address homeless and public vagrancies?
Austin Democrats passed an ordinance that allowed camping in public spaces - parks, sidewalks, overpasses and ROWs, literally everywhere. The city was soon overwhelmed. Needles, trash, and feces everywhere. I do not go there anymore.
Democrat policy is lack of enforcement of existing laws. Republicans don't seem to have a coherent strategy as you say. See my comments on what Finland does above.
The governor can only do so much. Vagrancy has traditionally been a local issue, subject to local ordinances enforced by local police. If the local populace doesn’t care about homelessness, what is DeSantis supposed to do, send in the Florida National Guard?
In Texas the problem.in Austin was a city ordinance that allowed camping in public places. The Texas legislature enacted a statewide public camping ban.
That is true. We could not "warehouse" the mentally ill without their consent and well consent from the mentally ill is problematic.
I began losing massive amounts of respect for the ACLU back in the early ‘80’s while in grad school at Northwestern. The American Nazis wanted to March through Skokie IL where thousands of Holocaust survivors lived. ACLU gave them the green light. Just wrong. As for de institutionalising the mentally I’ll and expanding when why and how individuals can be held, has done little for their overall well being.
I don't know where one draws the line on free speech. So I tend to be an absolutist about it. I do think the shouting fire in a crowded theater exception is good. I believe the quip about sticks and stones I learned as a child so am not easily harmed by words. IMO if speech incites violence prosecute the violent offender and if the offender and the speaker are one and the same so be it. I do not believe in prosecution or censorship of "hate speech". Haters gonna hate, let 'em. I much prefer people who show their true colors than those who mask them.
I agree wholeheartedly that turning the mentally ill loose without resources was not good.
Free speech never really is. There are consequences. However, I believe we are not divided any worse than we were in the years if the civil War, the Civil Rights movement or the Vietnam years. We just can argue 24/7. I find it truly depressing. There are ideas that bear listening to - left to right and right to left. But my side - liberals don’t want to hear and the right aren’t making it easy. Such is lufr
Regan also closed all the federal mental hospitals in the 80s. That’s when homelessness skyrocketed.
I am very familiar with institutions for mentally ill and developmentally disabled. These people were let go by the governments in many states to commit crimes and live under the bridges and die there in high numbers in the name of freedom. There are zero resources for them out there . Some of them begged to stay where they were being taken care of (maybe not 100% ideally but still better than living on the streets). Their families were desperate too but nobody listen to them. Now they are out there fending for themselves and hurting themselves and others in the process. There is no money in taking care of these people. High percentage of prisoners are mentally ill or developmentally disabled but who cares. We as a society are consumed by surgeries and hormonal treatments on children which eventually will lead to severe mental anguish with no help for them. Full circle
The US Suoreme Court made the ruling. There was no choice but to release them. Many mentally ill are incompetent and thus cannot give consent. If they do not have family or others with the means to seek a guardianship they are essentially rudderless. And homeless.
Yes because the Supreme Court ruled the mentally ill could not be held without their consent. I was moving to Houston to go to school and worked downtown. The Texas mental hospitals put them on buses "home" despite the fact many had no homes. So they congregated around the Greyhound station. It quickly became a no-go zone.
I'd like to see that particular decision revisited with the current Supreme Court. Dunno it'd make a difference or not.
That is not true at all, but it has been part of the Democrat party line ever since.
Thank you for pointing that out. Man. I need to do more reading on the subject.
Roxanne...that's a good one. Homeless, being a big problem for warmer climate cities and it is being ignored.
When I lived in Fort Worth for a short time, it was as absolutely shameful that the country can’t find a solution
What is the solution? Austin tried. It is impossible IMO. You cannot help people who do not want the help. They had issues with cholera in San Francsco for goodness sake. Sanitation matters. That is why we have codes to assure proper sanitation. Why is it okay for a group to not comply?
Just read article, not that long ago, from a guy that worked in the streets. (Didn't save link, but may be able to find it.) Even the idea that You give a person a free place doesn't seem to pan out. They've still got all the same problems, and it doesn't end well.
The solution is mandated institutionalization, AFAIK. Sorry if that seems harsh. But I don't see how it clears up until You treat the root of whatever is causing them to be non-functional. Whether it's drugs ojr whatever. That's just me.
Oh! Just saw the reply below that ACLU made this illegal.
Weeeel, need to pass a law to somehow make it comply with whatever the objection was, I s'pose.
Lorenzo Anderson, a young black man was shot and killed in CHAZ (or CHOPT as it was also called). His father and pastor both appeared on Sean Hannity and Mr. Anderson stated that his son, who had mental development issues, lived with him. He wasn't home when one of his son's friends stopped by and they decided to visit CHAZ to see what it was all about. There was gunfire in the pitch black darkness; a chaotic scene ensued and Lorenzo was a fatal casualty when the leaders refused to let in an ambulance. For around eleven days, Mr. Anderson did not know where his son's body was; he received no phone call from the mayor or governor. Last November, Lorenzo's mother, Donnitta Sinclair filed a lawsuit against the city that was dismissed. No one "said his name."
Seattle has a long history of being a magnet for the underbelly of society. The 1984 Martin Bell documentary, Streetwise chronicles the lives of adolescent and teen runaways (or in many
cases, throwaways). Followup includes a list of who died; many from drugs, suicide and one young woman fell victim to a serial killer.
Lorenzo Anderson had loving parents; he was a good kid whose only "offense" was curiosity and living in a city mired in cruelty masked as ideology.
If you’re in the Zoom class you don’t care and pick up and move. The people, business owners, thousands of workers in a big city who work in restaurants, etc. all suffer tremendously.
Cops save lives daily, too. There are never articles written about this.
Social workers to do cop’s jobs? The poor pay and attrition rate of that job is high enough as it is. Now expect them to get into physically dangerous confrontations and see how that goes.
NYC turned after eight years of DeBlasio’s incompetence. And he thinks he’ll run for congress! I was a life long liberal democrat. Not anymore.
Turned? NYC elected a poseur as mayor and a Soros prosecutor. Nothing fundamentally changed. NYC voters remain flat out deluded lunatics.
Word. Adams is just another NYC flim-flam man, gettin' in on the sugar...
No offense, but the lifelong liberal Democrats are what destroyed NYC, and continue to ruin it by voting for con artists like Adams, De Blasio, Cortes, Schumer, Cuomo, etc. ad nauseam. New York City dwellers watched while their city descended from the greatest place on earth to a quagmire of crime and corruption, and did nothing to fix it. Giuliani was a blip, a momentary respite, followed by fake Republican Bloomberg who rode G's coattails and then the place really collapsed. Unbelievable and appalling. The only bright spots in NYC today are the hordes of immigrants with incredible energy and drive to achieve ... who are held back because of racial quotas that favor the least motivated, lowest achieving group. While Asians are now assaulted so frequently that they are afraid to go out alone... nope, nothing to see here, let's only worry about blacks because... white guilt....
Not going to argue that point at all. My point is that i would no longer support them by any stretch. I’ve watched NYC go downhill firsthand and it pains me to think of the thousands of jobs that are lost thanks to DeBlasio and his minions.
Progressives are idiots. Floyd was a career criminal, a dangerous man, he personified everything whites fear in blacks. Clearly he didn’t deserve to die, he was murdered by a cop, tragic, but lionizing him was idiotic. Cops don’t kill blacks disproportionately, that’s a progressive lie. Seattle is a disaster because idiot progressives run it. Tom Cotton was right, the military was needed and NYT progressives were idiots to fire James Bennet for publishing that opinion. I hope the ascendency of idiots at NYT has the same effect as it has on Seattle: wonton destruction. Go speak to your children, I bet you they are idiots, they were polluted by this idiocy in school and their friends are also afflicted: this ain’t over for the foreseeable future.
He was NOT murdered by a cop. He was dying from his drug overdose. And I think based on his past criminal history including a home invasion of a pregnant woman and holding a gun to her belly and his rampant drug use and multiple ODs, then yes he did deserve to die.
He is an unusual hero indeed, but progressives are truly and fully committed to idiocy.
No matter your skin color, obey the law and you will have no trouble with police. If you are stopped and questioned, cooperate, don't resist, and you won't be shot by the police. It really isn't complicated.
True true true
And I’m a liberal
true enough i have a few white fiends that don't get this . They got the shit pounded out of them several times then sent to jail . it really is simple
You write, "he was murdered by a cop". Murder is the wrong word. Murder requires intent. Nothing the cops did showed intent. Manslaughter, perhaps. Not murder.
Agree
I agree with everything you say except for the word "murder".
anyone dumb enough to swallow a fatal dose of fentanyl does indeed deserve to die.
People on this board, and most people in general, are ignoring the most active groups of Rioters that are pushing this behavior. The Democratic Socialists of America, groups of Black Block Anarchists and other Communist groups are leading most of the destruction. Their signs are at every riot and protest, but the media rarely shows them on the news. My kids roll their eyes and think I’m talking about the 50’s when I mention the DSA, but they have gotten a large amount of people elected to various public offices on both coasts - see New York and the West Coast.
That's right. People have to wake up to what is happening. Over the last 30 to 40 years they have indoctrinated kids and shaped society. All while America has been sleeping. This is purposeful undermining of the fabric of our country. This is the new front line of the Cold War.
We are seeing the Long March coming to fruition. Defund the police, Equity, BLM, CRT, Soros District Attorneys, no bail/no prosecution, Green New Deal spending are all designed to tear down the fabric of our society. The absolute meltdown over Musk allowing free speech on Twitter is another example of the useful idiots welcoming the slow creep of authoritarianism to invade the U.S. like a cancer.
antifa
The DSA is very real. I know many due to the area I live in.