While I no doubt disagree with Seneca on some issues, he sounds like a principle first guy. I would love to buy him a beer and talk about the world.
I wanted to add some condemnations of white progressives. I've written, edited, and deleted several comments. Short comments weren't nuanced enough and sounded hateful. I'll just keep it simple. To my eye, white progressives do not have to suffer the consequences of their policies. They talk to each other way too much, and only get out to the larger (some call it real) world to call folks names and preen.
Well, that comment was still not very nice, but I'll live with it.
I don't believe you will ever improve on Thomas Sowell: It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
Thomas Sowell is a World Treasure. A man whose observations will resonate through the ages. If only more would read and heed his words.
Myself, I wish I’d known of him earlier in life - but one positive by-product - for me, anyway - of all the insanity of the past few years has been being introduced to all the “new” voices and all I’ve learned from them.
"But they’re doing it on purpose because they know if rural white people and inner-city black people ever started voting together, we would be able to take our republic back.”
Truer words. The Democrat Party is the party of the globalists - who want you to own noting and eat bugs. Hang Schwab and all his craven slaves.
That’s the money shot - the combination of rural whites and inner-city blacks that threaten the existence of the so-called elites in both parties. Known by another name - the Trump coalition.
Yeah… no. Let’s have a combination of rural whites and inner-city blacks that can support a much more competent candidate. We can do better than an egotistical maniac like Trump. Rural white folks and inner city black folks deserve better.
So Alison's point was that the desired coalition already exists. You can keep hating on Trump 'til the cows come home, but that only demonstrates what Mr. Scott so eloquently discusses. . IOW you cannot get past a left-right dichotomy and as such are the problem, not the solution.
I don’t have to like Trump to be part of the solution. I agree that we need to get past the two-party system. I have actually voted for third-party candidates the last two elections. I also think that some of Trump’s policies were good. But I don’t like his character and he is not a man of integrity. Of course, neither is Biden, or Harris, or Clinton, or lots of other folks. But I refuse to play the “lesser of the two evils” game. That’s what keeps us in a two-party left-right system. Regardless, I can still think that there are much better candidates out there than Trump and that does not mean that I am feeding into the two-party system problem at all.
I agree with some of that. But you missed my point about Alison's point - that rural white/urban black coalition already exists. You are the one that disavows them because you do not like Trump. That is much like what the interviewees in this article are doing. Except you are patting yourself on the back for voting third-party. I am not asking you to like Trump. I am asking you to ask yourself why that urban/rural coalition supported him. A very real problem at this particular place in this particular time is the razor thin, 50/50 split means we are at a stalemate. Which creates an impasse regarding policies which need to be addressed. Immigration, for one example. We need a larger majority. Say 60/40 for comfort. Sitting on the fence and critiquing others doesn't help.
Like Mr. Scott, WE start by treating ourselves better and accepting the responsible agency that being a citizen of the American Constitutional Republic requires.
The best the Ds can come up with is Biden, Harris, or Newsom. None are fit for purpose. Bernie would work but the party machine won’t allow it, RFK Jr same story.
We'll die sitting around waiting. Till then, Trump is just fine with me. He showed results in his harried one term. I think the reason "they" hate him is because he proved governing isn't rocket science.
K.B., no one questions that Trump is an egotistical narcissist. Or as they call them in NY, a real estate developer. But......
* Policy or personality.
* Policy over party.
* Policy over personal virtue.
Somehow America is going to have to stay focused on POLICY. The Dem's want to prevent that, and the GOP is incapable of doing it. Regardless, Trump's policies were spot on! They put America first and lifted all boats.
Assuming the Uniparty will let him win (which I doubt), if Trump can't drain The D.C. Swamp and cleanse our government of this progressive 'woke' cancer, then this country is done. Who else has even 1% of Trump's ability to do this?? This may be the perfect job for a narcissistic NY real estate developer.
I can definitely understand the argument about policy over personal virtue, but I’m just not sure I buy it. If a person has no integrity, what’s holding them to choose one policy over another? How do I have confidence that a person of no integrity won’t change policy when it suits him/her? (Or worse, when they may be bribed to change policy.)
If we can have a candidate with both good policies and good character, then I simply think this is the better option.
How do you have confidence? Maybe you don't. I think that's my point. This voting cycle, America can not survive voting on virtues. The pressing issues before us are clear - we need someone who's not..... burdened by our many and diverse virtues, someone willing to pull the pin and throw the grenade, be damned the consequences. The world depends on it. Someone not afraid to see the bodies in the street. Stop worrying if the man jumping in your foxhole is a morale Christian, or keeps his brass buttons shinny. Gave the man a dang gun, point him at the enemy, and everyone start shooting!!! That's all I want or expect from Trump right now. I'll worry about if I want to have a beer with the man after the war.
There are times when you may need to vote for the devil you know. With Trump, what you see is what you get. He proved that 1st term. If he's honest he would admit that he underestimated The Swamp. If allowed to win, I HAVE TO trust his aim is better this battle.
I’m not remotely a Trump supporter, largely agreeing with Newcomer, but the data very much support Lynne’s affirmative response. Trump made mostly sound and often courageous decisions during his presidency. He also has the stunted ego and maturity of a toddler. Both these things can be true, and are.
How strong a vessel he is remains to be seen, but for many Trump carries the possibility for hope and a renewed America. And judging by the last American decade and his ongoing political persecution legitimate hope (not Hopium) scares the sh!t out of the DNC/CCP/Davos crowd. We're witnessing (as with the JFK assassination) the willful shattering of the American psyche, the destruction of American human moral reason and unity and its replacement by surveillance state thugs and the fascist corporatists they serve. The DNC is a criminal organization that if allowed to survive will continue the totalitarian destruction of everything Americans hold dear.
Fred Hampton was assassinated because for him, race didn't matter. In the 60's the infiltration of Black revolutionary leadership by double agents was ultimately followed, as today, by the wholesale introduction of drugs into Black communities and the creation of designated poverty stricken war zones where community dollars flow upward to the cartels and the numbered accounts of the political elite. The CIA/FBI was hip deep in all of it.
As a black professional working in Philanthropy, I'd like to add it ain't just white progressives. Black elites are a big part of the problem too, and benefit from the rhetoric while poor blacks suffer the consequences. I woke up from the fever dream in 2020, when all of the BLM money poured in and it became clear that people like me -educated, middle class- were gaining from the rhetoric while not a dime went to the real root causes of poverty and crime. Now, so many jobs depend on it that people can't seperate their values from the paycheck. Silly me, I chose this work BECAUSE I wanted values centered work.
I'll also add that people are slowly waking up, especially black people in my sector, which is the capitol of regressive policies. On my threads, more critical memes are being shared and articles like this.
So interesting to hear your perspective. Reminds me of how badly BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) backfired in South Africa. It created a new class of black billionaires and did absolutely nothing for anyone else.
I work in a policy space that's been heavily damaged by this push coming from philanthropy (and government, etc.), led by "black elites" (because as I mentioned elsewhere, the white progressives on this train have accepted that they can't lead anything anymore [because, "white dominant culture"] and that they have to do these things because this is what anti-racist "white allyship" [no wait, "co-conspirator-ship," and yes that is a thing they (formerly we; I was one for a long time) are being taught, because "you have to be willing to go to jail with me"] requires). And while this "movement" in my field has given a LOT of educated POC jobs, especially anyone who can shill "JEDI," even if they're not educated - or even competent, it's done absolutely nothing for the extremely poor, grossly disproportionately black people it's supposed to be serving.
Sadly, ironically, whatever-ly, because the white progressives (and just well-meaning white people who actually do care about racism and want to do the right thing) have been so deeply programmed around this (that any idea/perspective white people is irredeemably white supremacist), it's going to be up to black people who've seen through it (including conservative black people who've always seen through it) to give them permission to step away. I salute you!
".....while not a dime went to the real root causes of poverty and crime."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, odubc. Don't just toss the grenade into the room and run. :) Here's your chance. What, exactly, are those 'root causes?' I'm hoping I already know at least some of the answers (e.g., a black community bought and paid for through a coalition of 'black elites,' teachers unions, progressive Dems, etc) so, more importantly, how do you deal with that which I think most rational people see as impediments to real solutions?
Sorry for the delay. Had to wait for the grenade smoke to clear :).
If I can name a couple, and to focus on actionable policy, upskilling black male youth with trade skills strating in high school or earlier, and putting strict incentive based restrictions on welfare benefits are things that we can put in place.
Broader causes, like fatherhood and culture, have a less clear pathway to improvement, though I'm all ears to hear some.
I have no problem with your suggestions, but I think you’re discussing symptoms and not addressing ‘root causes.’ Unskilled black males and families becoming dependent on the government (which, of course, is what ‘they’ want) are symptoms. Addressing those without dealing with true root causes is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.
I think (e.g.) fatherhood and culture ARE among the ‘root causes.’ But merely throwing resources and money at symptoms has gotten us absolutely nowhere over the last generation. In fact, it has made things worse.
Black communities need to come into the sunlight. And that only happens when they break the bonds of their dependency on the addictive crack of worshiping black elites, government, teachers’ unions (perhaps the most significant cancer in black communities), and progressive ideology.
P.S. Since this thread started, watching the debate and push-back on DEI and the history of advancement merely by ‘checking the black box’ has been interesting. Nothing changes for the better with 'equal outcomes' versus 'equal opportunity. ' I believe MLK would be appalled to see what has happened to his equality movement.
Heard and received. But I'll ask you, what actionable steps can we take to change culture? Not every harmful cultural practice in African Americans came from the welfare state, so merely addressing that won't fix culture, in my opinion. Try as we might, we can't scold and lecture a people into 'acting right'. But I'd love to be proven wrong.
The DEI pushback is refreshing but cultural elites, black, white, and other, aren't going to give up easy.
I read an article a few weeks ago (in TFP I think) that the voter turnout in the nice Oakland neighborhoods ‘on the hill’ have higher voter turnout than the poor crime ridden minority neighborhoods. The folks on the hill support the progressive policies and politicians. However, crime is now reaching those neighborhoods too. Maybe policies will change now.
As mentioned in part in this article, if you look at polling for many progressive issues like defund the police or voter ID, the black community does not support the progressive position.
I'm a "white progressive" and I largely agree with you. I'm so fed up with the preciousness and privilege of the liberal elitism I've always been surrounded by, which is why I now prefer FP to NYT.
I might be inclined to join you both with that beer but I've become so numb to it all (once bitten, twice shy).
I high-tailed it out of Seattle just over a year ago after several break-ins and feeling safe going downtown. The absolute last straw was my 21 year old Grandson being shot coming home from a party (He's okay) but NOT ONE MENTION OF IT in the news and virtually no follow up from the police.
As in this story, they'd sure show up quickly to take away any weapons you might have to protect yourself though.
Absolutely lay blame with white progressives, but as a former one, I need everyone to know and acknowledge that they don't do ANY of this stuff without having been told it's what they're supposed to be doing by black progressives.
They (formerly we) *really believe* that anything they come up with is irrevocably tainted by "white dominant culture," so they have to let black people (or native americans, or maybe other POC as long as they're not behaving in a "white adjacent" way) lead. HAVE TO. So yes, blame white progressives, but in this case, they're taking marching orders from above.
A huge part of the emotional/psychic split in American unity is allowing ourselves to be convinced (the point of propaganda) that everyone else is/isn't, thinks/doesn't think this or that. Simply put, the point of the psyop is to talk over, subvert and prevent the healthy American national dialogue that would create the necessary vision to put solutions on the table and create the future Americans deserve.---Do we think for a hot second that the D.C. hog trough and the would be totalitarian fascists they serve spend time pursuing anything but their own self-interested agenda? Meanwhile back at the ranch the consequential chaos of their narcissism and ineptitude leaves the citizen ducking bullets and scratching his head at the chaos surrounding him.---Things are exactly what they appear to be they're not something else.
The Republic, the Constitution and the committed citizen are the only engines of survival. Mr. Scott is a good example.
Not harsh ENOUGH! Officials and elites (white liberal/leftists) control essential services and are trying to make the rest of the world look like their wet dreams, but they are not willing to live in it.
I do not think they have a vision at all other than lining their own pockets. Well maybe the pockets of friends and families tooo. Mr. Scott is right I think - we have largely elected frauds. Not all, but wa-a-a-ay too many. I have pondered how to separate them. The odious SBF may have helped though as I think it likely that anyone he funneled his dirty money to is not worthy of the public trust.
Scott's line about voting for people with Integrity...that is what we all need to do better at. Don't look at what someone says they will do or have done...look at what they actually do. If that matches what they say, then you are at least starting with someone who stands for something, even if you disagree with it.
One of the interesting things about how the left complained about Trump was when they would act shocked that he was doing or trying to do the things he said he would do. It was like they didn't understand the concept of a politician following through.
Man, if someone could sand down the giant rough edges the man has, he could be a great candidate. But I suspect that part of why he was able to do what he said is because he didn't feel the need to pander to anyone, which is likely the same attitude that also causes him to say things that make people hate him.
I’ve worked with many of the white progressives, especially women, of whom you speak. They know NOTHING of the real world in which the majority of people live. One such lady was a progressive Catholic who’s husband made enough money that she didn’t have to work, but did so anyway to pay for her daughters to attend an expensive Catholic high school. She would joke about how her husband just leased cars, instead of buying them, because - haha - he would get a new car every two years anyway. (Insert eye roll here)
The term you're looking for is "luxury beliefs." White progressives typically don't have to suffer the consequences when their preferred policies fail. Indeed, any progressive--of any race--that is in the middle class or higher is usually insulated from the failures of their progressive ideas.
Wealthy white people don’t suffer the consequences. Poor white people do. Luxury beliefs are colour blind. They hammer the poor, no matter what race they happen to be.
Reference is made in the piece about the absurdly-progressive, 'prosecution is racist' Oakland DA Pamela Price, including an ironic aside about her work vehicle being broken into on the streets of Oakland and her work laptop stolen.
Yesterday, when I heard the Price/laptop story, I laughed out loud when I read the next element in the story, that Price had called the police to report the crime and was told that - if she didn't want to wait for an LEO to show up - she could submit a report of the theft online. After waiting an hour, she gave up and filed the report online. Damn, that is just funny, in a gallows-humor sort of way.
I have a long personal and family history in the SF Bay Area. My 3L internship was with the judicial staff for the US District Court in Oakland. I continue to have relatives in the area, including a niece who works at Kaiser/Oakland. She tells me that she is on edge whenever she goes out for lunch, keeping her head on a swivel. I worry for her safety. There are no 'safe areas.' She tells me that Oakland has been a hot dumpster-fire mess for years.
“Yes, there are still many people who are homeless because they are poor, but the majority are now drug addicts and drug tourists.”
This describes the post-pandemic business districts of West Coast cities, where officials distribute syringes, pipes and straws for "harm reduction" but make no apparent effort to identify and prosecute drug dealers and distributors. Theft and violence are constant, stores are closing and the squalor is palpable.
But, hey, I got a $73 parking ticket a few months ago, my first in 10 years and right next to a public park where a meth freak was screaming his way around the otherwise empty playground. I paid the fine, of course, but I'm not sure this moved the needle forward.
It stinks that you got a parking ticket, but fortunate that the car was not broken into by the “meth freak” or stolen.
If your car was stolen, you would be forced to pay for its towing (without the catalytic converter it’s not running) and a storage fee. Maybe the policy is to notify you when the car is impounded (there is the vin number registered with DMV) but the profit motive of retaining your car and running kup astronomical fees could delay notification. You can use the car’s geo location app for finding your car on an impound lot. Please don’t have the expectation that the police will use the app to retrieve your car from the homeless camp where it is being stripped of anything valuable.
The whole experience is like being robbed twice and leaves you trying to figure which theft cost you more.
As a heads up: The "drug war" built the current militarized surveillance state. It began the criminalization of the citizen and the assault on civil rights that allowed heavily armed assault teams dressed in Kevlar, bearing automatic weapons, and riding in militarized vehicles, to become part of the American landscape. Now even your friendly IRS agent is packing heat. The illegal wire tap and the eyeball watching you through this screen had their origin in the Nixon White House. Which later admitted. The drug war had nothing to do with drugs. It was created to allow the criminalization, arrest and murder of Blacks and White radicals. ---Are we dangerous? No but our freedom is.
The "meth head" in the park carries our censure and condemnation but the clear reality is the dollars flowing upward to fill numbered political and cartel accounts. Drugs are money and money is power. The CIA/FBI involvement in the drug trade is well established fact. The mysteriously dead San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb is only one example. And prisons are also a profitable enterprise. Check out the Taibbi article on the knowing and willing central bankster's at BOA and HSBC who built special teller windows to make it easier to receive boxes of cartel cash (which they couldn't wait to launder). They walked. Cartels and fentanyl control entire sections of major American cities. But "we the people" are the criminals.----It is the job of the well paid minions of the "woke"/D.E.I. to ensure chaos, disintegration and division so that corporate fascism and the DNC/CCP/Davos grift can fill the chasms with graft and continue their looting unhindered and unscathed. Trump is arrested and assailed with manufactured charges on multiple fronts while White House- for-Sale Joe Biden, obviously neck deep in Ukranian corruption, walks.
A cartel of international criminal financiers (DNC/CCP/WEF/EU/ Davos) fully intends to impose totalitarian control over the free peoples of the world. Mr. Scott embodies the agency and courage we all need to stop it cold. GOT CONSTITUTION?
Now THAT is what I call "justice" I've read similar stories of :Defund the Police" loonies in New York actually being physically accosted and learn very quickly that just maybe they were wrong about their support of those Woke ideals. Of course they'd never publicly admit it
“I’m post-partisan. I don’t go left or right. I go up and down,” says Scott, who is not married and has no children. “Either you have integrity and solutions or you don’t.”
I used to be a hard-lined conservative, and have recently evolved into someone that finds himself somewhere in between, and I no longer have allegiance to any political party. It's difficult to find people who are eager to talk about issues and solutions, without getting into red and blue. Once you do that, you draw lines in the sand, and it becomes an argument about who is better (or worse).
After reading Seneca's story, I can now call myself a "post-partisan". We most definitely need a political revolution in this country, one that spans political lines. Here's to hope.
I feel the same. Both sides are being less principled and more tribal. In my opinion, the left is the existential threat but there’s a lot to condemn on the right.
there is definitely something happening on the left, a shift in mindset that is rather unsettling, but i also don't want the pendulum to swing all the way to the right. and perhaps that's the issue, that politics has become so divisive that it's akin to a clock, and it keeps swinging to the extremes, leaving many voters with the choice of which is the lesser of the evils. that decision is different for many, whether on one side or the other, but we shouldn't have to chose between which evil is worse. we need better options, so we can make better choices.
I agree with you Sam, but for the sake of our country going further down hill, it is going to take an election with more voting on the right. There simply isn’t enough time to form a “new type of coalition” with enough voting power to defeat the far left. We must take away their power asap, and our next opportunity will be the 2024 election. In the meantime we should be vocal and bold so that we can attract like-minded citizens, warn the left that they will lose, and remind the right what kind of pressure they will face from voters if they govern in the extreme.
i understand where you're coming from, Elizabeth, but i struggle with statements like taking "away power" from one party and giving it to the other side. the last thing i want is to wrestle power away from one group and give it to someone like Trump. the way things are going, he may very well be our next president, and perhaps that will wake people up. i don't know. part of the problem is that we've been told there are only two choices, essentially, two heaping piles of poop, and maybe one smells less than the other, but they're still piles of poop. as long as we accept there are only two choices, we'll keep getting the same poor choices. we need to dismantle the republican and democratic parties, and bring in more moderation.
Agreed. However, we keep kicking the can down the road, and both parties keep taking advantage of us. Then in 2027, we'll probably say the same thing, that we're stuck with two parties, and that won't change in 2028. It's a vicious cycle that needs to be broken.
I live in Oakland and do business as a contractor in a city that has a corrupt and inept building department that gouges the public and offers very little value for their service. Basic law and order is unevenly and ineptly enforced. Homeless encampments and massive trash piles appear everywhere. Businesses are robbed routineIy by organized gangs that drive stolen cars through their storefronts. It is routine for cash businesses to get their tills emptied during peak business hours and if they are lucky a patrol car will stop by for a few minutes. I know a company that refuses to install garage doors in Oakland after their van was stolen and the police refused to follow their very incriminating evidentiary leads regarding the organized theft ring that stole it. A mile away from my home, stores at the Foothill Square were looted during the riot summer. My majority black Oakland Hills neighborhood has always had far fewer BLM signs than the far whiter areas where I work and almost none now. Angela Y. Davis, the celebrity leftist who has written extensively to promote decarceration under the guise of "abolition" so she can steal some thunder from Frederick Douglas and company, lives in these hills, enjoying her bourgeoise retirement in one of the cleaner and safer parts of a city with a defunded police department that can't manage the basics of public safety.
“I’m post-partisan. I don’t go left or right. I go up and down,” says Scott, who is not married and has no children. “Either you have integrity and solutions or you don’t.”
This. This is what all politicians should be like.
I think they do care...they are just easily fooled. I am willing to be that most Biden supporters would say he has integrity. Of course, they would be hard pressed to actually give examples. But on the face of it, they likely think he is a man of honor.
Its like how Congresses approval rating is like at 18% or whatever. If it is that low, how do these people keep their jobs. Simple, everyone ELSE in congress sucks. But MY guy, he is a stand up guy.
D Lefko: Politicians are not the best human beings. If you have to have a government, make it as small as possible and choose the bureaucrats by lot for two year, or even one year terms. No incumbents.
"But they’re doing it on purpose because they know if rural white people and inner-city black people ever started voting together, we would be able to take our republic back.”
This line gave me goose bumps.
Love this guy. Post-Partisan Solutionary- freakin awesome. I have rich relatives who live in the Oakland Hills...uber libs who I would bet my life voted for the current mayor.
Boyle highlights the hypocrisy of both sides of the immigration debate, takes a similar look at conservation movement in "When the Killing's Done". Another must read "Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe.
I like Mr Scott for a simple reason. He is honest. I may not agree with him on particular issues but I get the feeling we are in sync on the core issues about a safe society for all. For without safety there is no society. We need more guys like Seneca who see people not identities. I hope he becomes mayor one day and proves thst reaching across racial and other lines works .
There really is something called the "social compact." It is expressed brilliantly in our Declaration of Independence. When government no longer is able or willing to perform the function for which the fruit of peoples' hard work is extorted in outrageous taxes, the compact is fractured. This goes back before our Declaration to Magna Carta. The time is now to refuse to support - or bear loyalty - to any government unit that is not doing its job. And this includes the current maladministration of JR Biden, which has subverted our immigration and civil rights laws.
Bruce Miller: I have trouble with the term "Social Compact". People use that word "social" too much. It leads to socialism, then communism, and the end of property rights and individual rights.
I never signed a contract with the State. The State is made up of lying, murdering, thieves.
Wrong! You can open carry. There is some jerk in Alameda county that has this licenses. He pulls out his gun and puts it on the table in restaurants, coffee shops, etc. When the police arrive, he starts to cry about harassment. This area sees real crime and there is real danger, this kind of showboating may not end well for him. The ability to carry a gun should also carry responsibility and his asinine attitude should deprive him of the right to carry a gun.
Just like with the first amendment, there’s always people that will behave somewhat on the fridge. That said, my guess is he doesn’t get harassed by criminals very often being that he’s open carrying. As long as he’s not twinning it if you want simply having it in a public setting shouldn’t be that concerning. Here in the south people open carry all the time and also set their firearms on a restaurant table or counter while they’re eating. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone including the police. Also, if private businesses don’t wish to allow patrons carry firearms into their establishment all they have to do is post to sign stating that. This allows them to have a person removed from the premises if they armed. We have plenty of businesses with signs like this posted in our community. To my knowledge it’s never been an issue.
There is a limit on what can be said and consequences for what is said, printed, posted. Some of the consequences like losing a job are not part of the legal system but part of the social re-enforcement for accepted behavior.
In CA, there appears to be an extraordinary number of fringe behavior, but not always without repercussions. In a time and place where business owners feel forced to protect themselves and their livelihood. The deliberately provocative behavior of displaying a weapon without being endangered could be resolved quickly.
They’re quite a few things in your statement that I could argue especially concerning speech. That said, I’m glad I’m living in the south and not in California.
Evans W: My folks lived in Savannah, GA for 20 years. When I'd visit the chiggers ate me alive. My Dad would say, "If it wasn't for the chiggers, we couldn't afford to live here."
A thing to consider is that during the riots (Ms. Harris) the DNC took the opportunity to conflate "crime" with "revolution". Things don't make sense because they're not supposed to. Chaos serves tyranny. It is, simply put, the Hitler/Maoist/Stalinist tactic (megalomaniac narcissism/hubris) employing (Marxist/DEI/"woke"/Antifa/ BLM/etc.) ideological utopianism to dismantle public institutions. This was exactly the totalitarianism that took us into WWII and the Nuclear Age.---Mr. Scott's arrest and criminalization for, as a free citizen, confronting actual criminals is object lesson fascism. You are not supposed to feel safe in home or community. Remember the fate of the subway rider who stopped an insane man who was threatening fellow passengers? How about the man who openly raped a woman on a subway and everyone was afraid to interfere? ("Avoid eye contact" and tremble. The freedom and agency of the American citizen is under direct assault and, we know who is responsible.
If my children walked into a party or establishment in the Bay Area and someone took out a gun, I would want them to get out as fast as they could. A gun doesn’t always imply safety, unless in the hands of an identified police officer. Knowing whether a person has good and bad intents is not always easy or quickly determined.
When I grew up, there were rifles in cars & trucks during deer hunting and it was so accepted that it was unremarkable. For my children that time is gone…maybe in other places that time remains.
In California, there are many gun laws and we do not need more. What we need is enforcement of the multiple gun laws on the book.Two children under the age of 7 were killed when a criminal opened fire across a freeway. Price did not bring the full power of the gun laws against either shooter. In another community in Alameda county, there was a robbery at gunpoint and a robbery by assault. Both incidents involved the same criminal. The robber still had an ankle monitor on and was on parole. Price failed to bring additional charges ie violation of parole, felon possessing a gun, etc. due to the reason that incarcerating young black men occurs to often. Not new gun laws, definitely a new DA for Alameda.
JoAnne: I don't smoke but probably not. LOL! I do yell at the school on occasion. There are two kids. We call one "The Screamer" and one "The Yeller". The Screamer is a young girl and man, she can scream and does it often.
The Yeller is a boy. He likes to be the boss of the playground. "Gimme that!"
Oaklander and huge NTO devotee here. If we can turn things around here, we can do so anywhere. We’re going to win. Unfortunately there’s been too much collateral damage and much more to come beforehand. But we’re going to win.
I work for 988. I had a suicidal caller once, from Oakland. SERIOUSLY suicidal, met the criteria for imminent risk. I called OPD to initiate rescue and was given a wait time of 45 mins - 1 hour. Dispatch literally told me "yeah we have a shooting now we'll get there when we get there." This isn't some small town, this is a city of some size. You can't do both?
I shake my head at the whole thing. Progressivism is such a mass delusion...
You know, there is a political party that is tough on crime and supports the rights of upstanding citizens to keep and bear arms.
I admire this guy, but I think a friendly takeover of the local Republican party would serve his interests far better than starting from scratch. It shouldn't be too hard: This being California, I bet the local Republican party has a ton of vacant committeemen spots, and the incumbents could be replaced with his allies if he could just get a couple hundred people to vote in a block.
Yes, he won't ever get ideological purity with either party, but he will get a heck of a lot more done. As Thomas Sowell pointed out: There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.
I'm someone who was a Democrat and will not be voting for Democrats again any time soon. But I can't bring myself to become a Republican. I understand why people support Trump, but what I see is a person of terrible character and zero integrity. I'm genuinely repulsed by him and can't join a party that believes this is what a leader looks like.
I agree with Scott. We need to get away from the two captured parties and form something new.
I can see where Trump is a big issue, and I agree that it's damaged the "Republican brand" in a major way. However, permissiveness on crime and immigration (to name just two items of many) is damaging the country in a much more major way than any one individual can. Ultimately, it may destroy the Democratic party far more thoroughly than Trump can destroy Republicans.
The problems these people are complaining about cannot be solved at the presidential level. Electing a majority of city council that agree with them would have a bigger impact on their lives even than electing a president hand-picked from their neighborhood. The only way out is for people of good values to start electing other people who share those values, regardless of the party.
While I no doubt disagree with Seneca on some issues, he sounds like a principle first guy. I would love to buy him a beer and talk about the world.
I wanted to add some condemnations of white progressives. I've written, edited, and deleted several comments. Short comments weren't nuanced enough and sounded hateful. I'll just keep it simple. To my eye, white progressives do not have to suffer the consequences of their policies. They talk to each other way too much, and only get out to the larger (some call it real) world to call folks names and preen.
Well, that comment was still not very nice, but I'll live with it.
I don't believe you will ever improve on Thomas Sowell: It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
Thomas Sowell is a National Treasure.
No, strike that.
Thomas Sowell is a World Treasure. A man whose observations will resonate through the ages. If only more would read and heed his words.
Myself, I wish I’d known of him earlier in life - but one positive by-product - for me, anyway - of all the insanity of the past few years has been being introduced to all the “new” voices and all I’ve learned from them.
Thomas Sowell is the person whom David Mamet most credits for his political move to the right.
Literally bought both Mamet’s “Secret Knowledge” and Sowell’s “Economic Facts and Fallacies” in the last week...
That pretty much sums it up.
"But they’re doing it on purpose because they know if rural white people and inner-city black people ever started voting together, we would be able to take our republic back.”
Truer words. The Democrat Party is the party of the globalists - who want you to own noting and eat bugs. Hang Schwab and all his craven slaves.
That’s the money shot - the combination of rural whites and inner-city blacks that threaten the existence of the so-called elites in both parties. Known by another name - the Trump coalition.
Yeah… no. Let’s have a combination of rural whites and inner-city blacks that can support a much more competent candidate. We can do better than an egotistical maniac like Trump. Rural white folks and inner city black folks deserve better.
So Alison's point was that the desired coalition already exists. You can keep hating on Trump 'til the cows come home, but that only demonstrates what Mr. Scott so eloquently discusses. . IOW you cannot get past a left-right dichotomy and as such are the problem, not the solution.
I don’t have to like Trump to be part of the solution. I agree that we need to get past the two-party system. I have actually voted for third-party candidates the last two elections. I also think that some of Trump’s policies were good. But I don’t like his character and he is not a man of integrity. Of course, neither is Biden, or Harris, or Clinton, or lots of other folks. But I refuse to play the “lesser of the two evils” game. That’s what keeps us in a two-party left-right system. Regardless, I can still think that there are much better candidates out there than Trump and that does not mean that I am feeding into the two-party system problem at all.
I agree with some of that. But you missed my point about Alison's point - that rural white/urban black coalition already exists. You are the one that disavows them because you do not like Trump. That is much like what the interviewees in this article are doing. Except you are patting yourself on the back for voting third-party. I am not asking you to like Trump. I am asking you to ask yourself why that urban/rural coalition supported him. A very real problem at this particular place in this particular time is the razor thin, 50/50 split means we are at a stalemate. Which creates an impasse regarding policies which need to be addressed. Immigration, for one example. We need a larger majority. Say 60/40 for comfort. Sitting on the fence and critiquing others doesn't help.
I"m not sure there are any politician's of integrity in our government today. The only one I and 90% confident is, is Mike Pence and he can't win.
Like Mr. Scott, WE start by treating ourselves better and accepting the responsible agency that being a citizen of the American Constitutional Republic requires.
The best the Ds can come up with is Biden, Harris, or Newsom. None are fit for purpose. Bernie would work but the party machine won’t allow it, RFK Jr same story.
Why do you think Bernie would work? This is someone who thinks Cuba and Soviet Russia are places to emulate.
Bernie from 2016 was running on this idea. Of course, he went back to his Communist ideology in 2020.
We'll die sitting around waiting. Till then, Trump is just fine with me. He showed results in his harried one term. I think the reason "they" hate him is because he proved governing isn't rocket science.
K.B., no one questions that Trump is an egotistical narcissist. Or as they call them in NY, a real estate developer. But......
* Policy or personality.
* Policy over party.
* Policy over personal virtue.
Somehow America is going to have to stay focused on POLICY. The Dem's want to prevent that, and the GOP is incapable of doing it. Regardless, Trump's policies were spot on! They put America first and lifted all boats.
Assuming the Uniparty will let him win (which I doubt), if Trump can't drain The D.C. Swamp and cleanse our government of this progressive 'woke' cancer, then this country is done. Who else has even 1% of Trump's ability to do this?? This may be the perfect job for a narcissistic NY real estate developer.
I can definitely understand the argument about policy over personal virtue, but I’m just not sure I buy it. If a person has no integrity, what’s holding them to choose one policy over another? How do I have confidence that a person of no integrity won’t change policy when it suits him/her? (Or worse, when they may be bribed to change policy.)
If we can have a candidate with both good policies and good character, then I simply think this is the better option.
How do you have confidence? Maybe you don't. I think that's my point. This voting cycle, America can not survive voting on virtues. The pressing issues before us are clear - we need someone who's not..... burdened by our many and diverse virtues, someone willing to pull the pin and throw the grenade, be damned the consequences. The world depends on it. Someone not afraid to see the bodies in the street. Stop worrying if the man jumping in your foxhole is a morale Christian, or keeps his brass buttons shinny. Gave the man a dang gun, point him at the enemy, and everyone start shooting!!! That's all I want or expect from Trump right now. I'll worry about if I want to have a beer with the man after the war.
There are times when you may need to vote for the devil you know. With Trump, what you see is what you get. He proved that 1st term. If he's honest he would admit that he underestimated The Swamp. If allowed to win, I HAVE TO trust his aim is better this battle.
"Trump coalition"? Are you KIDDING me?? Do you hate him THAT much that you have to blame him for white, leftist, and mostly Democrat rule?
I LOVE him - ?!?! I’m saying that his coalition is comprised of the rural white vote and the disillusioned inner city black vote.
Did those groups prosper during his presidency?
Compared to now, almost everyone did.
Yes.
I’m not remotely a Trump supporter, largely agreeing with Newcomer, but the data very much support Lynne’s affirmative response. Trump made mostly sound and often courageous decisions during his presidency. He also has the stunted ego and maturity of a toddler. Both these things can be true, and are.
How strong a vessel he is remains to be seen, but for many Trump carries the possibility for hope and a renewed America. And judging by the last American decade and his ongoing political persecution legitimate hope (not Hopium) scares the sh!t out of the DNC/CCP/Davos crowd. We're witnessing (as with the JFK assassination) the willful shattering of the American psyche, the destruction of American human moral reason and unity and its replacement by surveillance state thugs and the fascist corporatists they serve. The DNC is a criminal organization that if allowed to survive will continue the totalitarian destruction of everything Americans hold dear.
In record numbers and levels.
Fred Hampton was assassinated because for him, race didn't matter. In the 60's the infiltration of Black revolutionary leadership by double agents was ultimately followed, as today, by the wholesale introduction of drugs into Black communities and the creation of designated poverty stricken war zones where community dollars flow upward to the cartels and the numbered accounts of the political elite. The CIA/FBI was hip deep in all of it.
MR. SCOTT NEEDS A SUBSTACK. I'M IN!!
As a black professional working in Philanthropy, I'd like to add it ain't just white progressives. Black elites are a big part of the problem too, and benefit from the rhetoric while poor blacks suffer the consequences. I woke up from the fever dream in 2020, when all of the BLM money poured in and it became clear that people like me -educated, middle class- were gaining from the rhetoric while not a dime went to the real root causes of poverty and crime. Now, so many jobs depend on it that people can't seperate their values from the paycheck. Silly me, I chose this work BECAUSE I wanted values centered work.
I'll also add that people are slowly waking up, especially black people in my sector, which is the capitol of regressive policies. On my threads, more critical memes are being shared and articles like this.
So interesting to hear your perspective. Reminds me of how badly BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) backfired in South Africa. It created a new class of black billionaires and did absolutely nothing for anyone else.
I work in a policy space that's been heavily damaged by this push coming from philanthropy (and government, etc.), led by "black elites" (because as I mentioned elsewhere, the white progressives on this train have accepted that they can't lead anything anymore [because, "white dominant culture"] and that they have to do these things because this is what anti-racist "white allyship" [no wait, "co-conspirator-ship," and yes that is a thing they (formerly we; I was one for a long time) are being taught, because "you have to be willing to go to jail with me"] requires). And while this "movement" in my field has given a LOT of educated POC jobs, especially anyone who can shill "JEDI," even if they're not educated - or even competent, it's done absolutely nothing for the extremely poor, grossly disproportionately black people it's supposed to be serving.
Sadly, ironically, whatever-ly, because the white progressives (and just well-meaning white people who actually do care about racism and want to do the right thing) have been so deeply programmed around this (that any idea/perspective white people is irredeemably white supremacist), it's going to be up to black people who've seen through it (including conservative black people who've always seen through it) to give them permission to step away. I salute you!
Good comment - Linda Sasour and her gang and now kendi not helping the cause. Were they “elite” ☹️
".....while not a dime went to the real root causes of poverty and crime."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, odubc. Don't just toss the grenade into the room and run. :) Here's your chance. What, exactly, are those 'root causes?' I'm hoping I already know at least some of the answers (e.g., a black community bought and paid for through a coalition of 'black elites,' teachers unions, progressive Dems, etc) so, more importantly, how do you deal with that which I think most rational people see as impediments to real solutions?
Sorry for the delay. Had to wait for the grenade smoke to clear :).
If I can name a couple, and to focus on actionable policy, upskilling black male youth with trade skills strating in high school or earlier, and putting strict incentive based restrictions on welfare benefits are things that we can put in place.
Broader causes, like fatherhood and culture, have a less clear pathway to improvement, though I'm all ears to hear some.
Thanks for the response.
I have no problem with your suggestions, but I think you’re discussing symptoms and not addressing ‘root causes.’ Unskilled black males and families becoming dependent on the government (which, of course, is what ‘they’ want) are symptoms. Addressing those without dealing with true root causes is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.
I think (e.g.) fatherhood and culture ARE among the ‘root causes.’ But merely throwing resources and money at symptoms has gotten us absolutely nowhere over the last generation. In fact, it has made things worse.
Black communities need to come into the sunlight. And that only happens when they break the bonds of their dependency on the addictive crack of worshiping black elites, government, teachers’ unions (perhaps the most significant cancer in black communities), and progressive ideology.
P.S. Since this thread started, watching the debate and push-back on DEI and the history of advancement merely by ‘checking the black box’ has been interesting. Nothing changes for the better with 'equal outcomes' versus 'equal opportunity. ' I believe MLK would be appalled to see what has happened to his equality movement.
Heard and received. But I'll ask you, what actionable steps can we take to change culture? Not every harmful cultural practice in African Americans came from the welfare state, so merely addressing that won't fix culture, in my opinion. Try as we might, we can't scold and lecture a people into 'acting right'. But I'd love to be proven wrong.
The DEI pushback is refreshing but cultural elites, black, white, and other, aren't going to give up easy.
Asking for a friend:
-- Is "woke" Oakland mayor Sheng Thao a white progressive?
-- Is "woke" Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price a white progressive?
Perhaps the problem runs much deeper than you think.
I read an article a few weeks ago (in TFP I think) that the voter turnout in the nice Oakland neighborhoods ‘on the hill’ have higher voter turnout than the poor crime ridden minority neighborhoods. The folks on the hill support the progressive policies and politicians. However, crime is now reaching those neighborhoods too. Maybe policies will change now.
As mentioned in part in this article, if you look at polling for many progressive issues like defund the police or voter ID, the black community does not support the progressive position.
Progressives of any race who are middle class or higher are insulated from the failures of their policies.
No they said Price was black.
I'm a "white progressive" and I largely agree with you. I'm so fed up with the preciousness and privilege of the liberal elitism I've always been surrounded by, which is why I now prefer FP to NYT.
I might be inclined to join you both with that beer but I've become so numb to it all (once bitten, twice shy).
I high-tailed it out of Seattle just over a year ago after several break-ins and feeling safe going downtown. The absolute last straw was my 21 year old Grandson being shot coming home from a party (He's okay) but NOT ONE MENTION OF IT in the news and virtually no follow up from the police.
As in this story, they'd sure show up quickly to take away any weapons you might have to protect yourself though.
Sounds a bit like luxury beliefs having real world impact, by people who are not connected to the real world.
Absolutely lay blame with white progressives, but as a former one, I need everyone to know and acknowledge that they don't do ANY of this stuff without having been told it's what they're supposed to be doing by black progressives.
They (formerly we) *really believe* that anything they come up with is irrevocably tainted by "white dominant culture," so they have to let black people (or native americans, or maybe other POC as long as they're not behaving in a "white adjacent" way) lead. HAVE TO. So yes, blame white progressives, but in this case, they're taking marching orders from above.
Not ALL.
A huge part of the emotional/psychic split in American unity is allowing ourselves to be convinced (the point of propaganda) that everyone else is/isn't, thinks/doesn't think this or that. Simply put, the point of the psyop is to talk over, subvert and prevent the healthy American national dialogue that would create the necessary vision to put solutions on the table and create the future Americans deserve.---Do we think for a hot second that the D.C. hog trough and the would be totalitarian fascists they serve spend time pursuing anything but their own self-interested agenda? Meanwhile back at the ranch the consequential chaos of their narcissism and ineptitude leaves the citizen ducking bullets and scratching his head at the chaos surrounding him.---Things are exactly what they appear to be they're not something else.
The Republic, the Constitution and the committed citizen are the only engines of survival. Mr. Scott is a good example.
Bring back Civics - stat!!!
Not harsh ENOUGH! Officials and elites (white liberal/leftists) control essential services and are trying to make the rest of the world look like their wet dreams, but they are not willing to live in it.
I do not think they have a vision at all other than lining their own pockets. Well maybe the pockets of friends and families tooo. Mr. Scott is right I think - we have largely elected frauds. Not all, but wa-a-a-ay too many. I have pondered how to separate them. The odious SBF may have helped though as I think it likely that anyone he funneled his dirty money to is not worthy of the public trust.
Scott's line about voting for people with Integrity...that is what we all need to do better at. Don't look at what someone says they will do or have done...look at what they actually do. If that matches what they say, then you are at least starting with someone who stands for something, even if you disagree with it.
One of the interesting things about how the left complained about Trump was when they would act shocked that he was doing or trying to do the things he said he would do. It was like they didn't understand the concept of a politician following through.
Exactly.
Honestly, that is why he has a cult following. He said he would do X, Y, and Z and then when he was elected he followed through. Very rare these days.
Man, if someone could sand down the giant rough edges the man has, he could be a great candidate. But I suspect that part of why he was able to do what he said is because he didn't feel the need to pander to anyone, which is likely the same attitude that also causes him to say things that make people hate him.
I agree. I'd vote for anyone else on the conservative side except for Haley. I don't think we are going to get that chance.
If there is a worse insult to throw at the God-Emperor than "Pussy-grabbing rapist" it is "politician". Go wash your mouth out with soap, son.
I’ve worked with many of the white progressives, especially women, of whom you speak. They know NOTHING of the real world in which the majority of people live. One such lady was a progressive Catholic who’s husband made enough money that she didn’t have to work, but did so anyway to pay for her daughters to attend an expensive Catholic high school. She would joke about how her husband just leased cars, instead of buying them, because - haha - he would get a new car every two years anyway. (Insert eye roll here)
They have a mental disease, spreading like cancer.
Way nicer than they deserve. I’ve turned a tad surly since 2020.
The term you're looking for is "luxury beliefs." White progressives typically don't have to suffer the consequences when their preferred policies fail. Indeed, any progressive--of any race--that is in the middle class or higher is usually insulated from the failures of their progressive ideas.
The comment was very nice, not mean or pugnacious at all. And 100pct accurate.
excellent comment. Thanks for living with it
Wealthy white people don’t suffer the consequences. Poor white people do. Luxury beliefs are colour blind. They hammer the poor, no matter what race they happen to be.
Reference is made in the piece about the absurdly-progressive, 'prosecution is racist' Oakland DA Pamela Price, including an ironic aside about her work vehicle being broken into on the streets of Oakland and her work laptop stolen.
Yesterday, when I heard the Price/laptop story, I laughed out loud when I read the next element in the story, that Price had called the police to report the crime and was told that - if she didn't want to wait for an LEO to show up - she could submit a report of the theft online. After waiting an hour, she gave up and filed the report online. Damn, that is just funny, in a gallows-humor sort of way.
https://abc7news.com/pamela-price-work-laptop-stolen-oakland-crime-car-burglary/13983264/
I have a long personal and family history in the SF Bay Area. My 3L internship was with the judicial staff for the US District Court in Oakland. I continue to have relatives in the area, including a niece who works at Kaiser/Oakland. She tells me that she is on edge whenever she goes out for lunch, keeping her head on a swivel. I worry for her safety. There are no 'safe areas.' She tells me that Oakland has been a hot dumpster-fire mess for years.
“Yes, there are still many people who are homeless because they are poor, but the majority are now drug addicts and drug tourists.”
This describes the post-pandemic business districts of West Coast cities, where officials distribute syringes, pipes and straws for "harm reduction" but make no apparent effort to identify and prosecute drug dealers and distributors. Theft and violence are constant, stores are closing and the squalor is palpable.
But, hey, I got a $73 parking ticket a few months ago, my first in 10 years and right next to a public park where a meth freak was screaming his way around the otherwise empty playground. I paid the fine, of course, but I'm not sure this moved the needle forward.
It stinks that you got a parking ticket, but fortunate that the car was not broken into by the “meth freak” or stolen.
If your car was stolen, you would be forced to pay for its towing (without the catalytic converter it’s not running) and a storage fee. Maybe the policy is to notify you when the car is impounded (there is the vin number registered with DMV) but the profit motive of retaining your car and running kup astronomical fees could delay notification. You can use the car’s geo location app for finding your car on an impound lot. Please don’t have the expectation that the police will use the app to retrieve your car from the homeless camp where it is being stripped of anything valuable.
The whole experience is like being robbed twice and leaves you trying to figure which theft cost you more.
MD Greene: The Homeless is a billion dollar business for the bureaucrats in San Francisco. They don't want the gravy train to end.
“…moved the needle forward.”
🤣🤣🤣
As a heads up: The "drug war" built the current militarized surveillance state. It began the criminalization of the citizen and the assault on civil rights that allowed heavily armed assault teams dressed in Kevlar, bearing automatic weapons, and riding in militarized vehicles, to become part of the American landscape. Now even your friendly IRS agent is packing heat. The illegal wire tap and the eyeball watching you through this screen had their origin in the Nixon White House. Which later admitted. The drug war had nothing to do with drugs. It was created to allow the criminalization, arrest and murder of Blacks and White radicals. ---Are we dangerous? No but our freedom is.
The "meth head" in the park carries our censure and condemnation but the clear reality is the dollars flowing upward to fill numbered political and cartel accounts. Drugs are money and money is power. The CIA/FBI involvement in the drug trade is well established fact. The mysteriously dead San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb is only one example. And prisons are also a profitable enterprise. Check out the Taibbi article on the knowing and willing central bankster's at BOA and HSBC who built special teller windows to make it easier to receive boxes of cartel cash (which they couldn't wait to launder). They walked. Cartels and fentanyl control entire sections of major American cities. But "we the people" are the criminals.----It is the job of the well paid minions of the "woke"/D.E.I. to ensure chaos, disintegration and division so that corporate fascism and the DNC/CCP/Davos grift can fill the chasms with graft and continue their looting unhindered and unscathed. Trump is arrested and assailed with manufactured charges on multiple fronts while White House- for-Sale Joe Biden, obviously neck deep in Ukranian corruption, walks.
A cartel of international criminal financiers (DNC/CCP/WEF/EU/ Davos) fully intends to impose totalitarian control over the free peoples of the world. Mr. Scott embodies the agency and courage we all need to stop it cold. GOT CONSTITUTION?
Now THAT is what I call "justice" I've read similar stories of :Defund the Police" loonies in New York actually being physically accosted and learn very quickly that just maybe they were wrong about their support of those Woke ideals. Of course they'd never publicly admit it
All residents of Alameda County who care about making our communities safe from crime should sign the Price recall petition. ASAP.
Re the laptop story: irony is not the opposite of wrinkly.
“I’m post-partisan. I don’t go left or right. I go up and down,” says Scott, who is not married and has no children. “Either you have integrity and solutions or you don’t.”
I used to be a hard-lined conservative, and have recently evolved into someone that finds himself somewhere in between, and I no longer have allegiance to any political party. It's difficult to find people who are eager to talk about issues and solutions, without getting into red and blue. Once you do that, you draw lines in the sand, and it becomes an argument about who is better (or worse).
After reading Seneca's story, I can now call myself a "post-partisan". We most definitely need a political revolution in this country, one that spans political lines. Here's to hope.
I feel the same. Both sides are being less principled and more tribal. In my opinion, the left is the existential threat but there’s a lot to condemn on the right.
there is definitely something happening on the left, a shift in mindset that is rather unsettling, but i also don't want the pendulum to swing all the way to the right. and perhaps that's the issue, that politics has become so divisive that it's akin to a clock, and it keeps swinging to the extremes, leaving many voters with the choice of which is the lesser of the evils. that decision is different for many, whether on one side or the other, but we shouldn't have to chose between which evil is worse. we need better options, so we can make better choices.
I agree with you Sam, but for the sake of our country going further down hill, it is going to take an election with more voting on the right. There simply isn’t enough time to form a “new type of coalition” with enough voting power to defeat the far left. We must take away their power asap, and our next opportunity will be the 2024 election. In the meantime we should be vocal and bold so that we can attract like-minded citizens, warn the left that they will lose, and remind the right what kind of pressure they will face from voters if they govern in the extreme.
i understand where you're coming from, Elizabeth, but i struggle with statements like taking "away power" from one party and giving it to the other side. the last thing i want is to wrestle power away from one group and give it to someone like Trump. the way things are going, he may very well be our next president, and perhaps that will wake people up. i don't know. part of the problem is that we've been told there are only two choices, essentially, two heaping piles of poop, and maybe one smells less than the other, but they're still piles of poop. as long as we accept there are only two choices, we'll keep getting the same poor choices. we need to dismantle the republican and democratic parties, and bring in more moderation.
Well, right now politically speaking, there are only two sides. That needs to change but it won't in time for 2024.
Agreed. However, we keep kicking the can down the road, and both parties keep taking advantage of us. Then in 2027, we'll probably say the same thing, that we're stuck with two parties, and that won't change in 2028. It's a vicious cycle that needs to be broken.
Except your "All the way to the right" usually proves to be "All the way to the centre". Left of center at that.
I'm gonna use that, too!
I live in Oakland and do business as a contractor in a city that has a corrupt and inept building department that gouges the public and offers very little value for their service. Basic law and order is unevenly and ineptly enforced. Homeless encampments and massive trash piles appear everywhere. Businesses are robbed routineIy by organized gangs that drive stolen cars through their storefronts. It is routine for cash businesses to get their tills emptied during peak business hours and if they are lucky a patrol car will stop by for a few minutes. I know a company that refuses to install garage doors in Oakland after their van was stolen and the police refused to follow their very incriminating evidentiary leads regarding the organized theft ring that stole it. A mile away from my home, stores at the Foothill Square were looted during the riot summer. My majority black Oakland Hills neighborhood has always had far fewer BLM signs than the far whiter areas where I work and almost none now. Angela Y. Davis, the celebrity leftist who has written extensively to promote decarceration under the guise of "abolition" so she can steal some thunder from Frederick Douglas and company, lives in these hills, enjoying her bourgeoise retirement in one of the cleaner and safer parts of a city with a defunded police department that can't manage the basics of public safety.
Marxist "woke" is the lipstick on a pig called totalitarian criminal finance.
“I’m post-partisan. I don’t go left or right. I go up and down,” says Scott, who is not married and has no children. “Either you have integrity and solutions or you don’t.”
This. This is what all politicians should be like.
No one cares about integrity and character anymore, sadly.
I think they do care...they are just easily fooled. I am willing to be that most Biden supporters would say he has integrity. Of course, they would be hard pressed to actually give examples. But on the face of it, they likely think he is a man of honor.
Its like how Congresses approval rating is like at 18% or whatever. If it is that low, how do these people keep their jobs. Simple, everyone ELSE in congress sucks. But MY guy, he is a stand up guy.
D Lefko: Politicians are not the best human beings. If you have to have a government, make it as small as possible and choose the bureaucrats by lot for two year, or even one year terms. No incumbents.
"But they’re doing it on purpose because they know if rural white people and inner-city black people ever started voting together, we would be able to take our republic back.”
This line gave me goose bumps.
Love this guy. Post-Partisan Solutionary- freakin awesome. I have rich relatives who live in the Oakland Hills...uber libs who I would bet my life voted for the current mayor.
Although it deals with illegal immigration, the novel, "The Tortilla Curtain", by T. C. Boyle is a must read to get a view of the progressive mindset.
Boyle highlights the hypocrisy of both sides of the immigration debate, takes a similar look at conservation movement in "When the Killing's Done". Another must read "Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe.
I like Mr Scott for a simple reason. He is honest. I may not agree with him on particular issues but I get the feeling we are in sync on the core issues about a safe society for all. For without safety there is no society. We need more guys like Seneca who see people not identities. I hope he becomes mayor one day and proves thst reaching across racial and other lines works .
There really is something called the "social compact." It is expressed brilliantly in our Declaration of Independence. When government no longer is able or willing to perform the function for which the fruit of peoples' hard work is extorted in outrageous taxes, the compact is fractured. This goes back before our Declaration to Magna Carta. The time is now to refuse to support - or bear loyalty - to any government unit that is not doing its job. And this includes the current maladministration of JR Biden, which has subverted our immigration and civil rights laws.
Good point! Magna Carta was the result of King John messing things up so completely that even the nobles were fed up.
Bruce Miller: I have trouble with the term "Social Compact". People use that word "social" too much. It leads to socialism, then communism, and the end of property rights and individual rights.
I never signed a contract with the State. The State is made up of lying, murdering, thieves.
Your hoary "immigration and civil rights laws"? They themselves ARE subversion, and the product of subversion, in the first place.
What an inspiring American. Thank you, Mr. Scott. May your ideas and ideals be the future.
People who thought "defund the police" are just plain stupid. Who would think that that's okay? We are prisoners of a stupid mob.
And to think that in California you can't open or conceal carry. Now THAT'S a crime.
Wrong! You can open carry. There is some jerk in Alameda county that has this licenses. He pulls out his gun and puts it on the table in restaurants, coffee shops, etc. When the police arrive, he starts to cry about harassment. This area sees real crime and there is real danger, this kind of showboating may not end well for him. The ability to carry a gun should also carry responsibility and his asinine attitude should deprive him of the right to carry a gun.
Just like with the first amendment, there’s always people that will behave somewhat on the fridge. That said, my guess is he doesn’t get harassed by criminals very often being that he’s open carrying. As long as he’s not twinning it if you want simply having it in a public setting shouldn’t be that concerning. Here in the south people open carry all the time and also set their firearms on a restaurant table or counter while they’re eating. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone including the police. Also, if private businesses don’t wish to allow patrons carry firearms into their establishment all they have to do is post to sign stating that. This allows them to have a person removed from the premises if they armed. We have plenty of businesses with signs like this posted in our community. To my knowledge it’s never been an issue.
I mean, the alternative would be what exactly?
There is a limit on what can be said and consequences for what is said, printed, posted. Some of the consequences like losing a job are not part of the legal system but part of the social re-enforcement for accepted behavior.
In CA, there appears to be an extraordinary number of fringe behavior, but not always without repercussions. In a time and place where business owners feel forced to protect themselves and their livelihood. The deliberately provocative behavior of displaying a weapon without being endangered could be resolved quickly.
They’re quite a few things in your statement that I could argue especially concerning speech. That said, I’m glad I’m living in the south and not in California.
Evans W: My folks lived in Savannah, GA for 20 years. When I'd visit the chiggers ate me alive. My Dad would say, "If it wasn't for the chiggers, we couldn't afford to live here."
I'll stay in California.
A thing to consider is that during the riots (Ms. Harris) the DNC took the opportunity to conflate "crime" with "revolution". Things don't make sense because they're not supposed to. Chaos serves tyranny. It is, simply put, the Hitler/Maoist/Stalinist tactic (megalomaniac narcissism/hubris) employing (Marxist/DEI/"woke"/Antifa/ BLM/etc.) ideological utopianism to dismantle public institutions. This was exactly the totalitarianism that took us into WWII and the Nuclear Age.---Mr. Scott's arrest and criminalization for, as a free citizen, confronting actual criminals is object lesson fascism. You are not supposed to feel safe in home or community. Remember the fate of the subway rider who stopped an insane man who was threatening fellow passengers? How about the man who openly raped a woman on a subway and everyone was afraid to interfere? ("Avoid eye contact" and tremble. The freedom and agency of the American citizen is under direct assault and, we know who is responsible.
And I bet he doesn’t get robbed by thugs, nor do the other patrons when he is in attendance.
If my children walked into a party or establishment in the Bay Area and someone took out a gun, I would want them to get out as fast as they could. A gun doesn’t always imply safety, unless in the hands of an identified police officer. Knowing whether a person has good and bad intents is not always easy or quickly determined.
When I grew up, there were rifles in cars & trucks during deer hunting and it was so accepted that it was unremarkable. For my children that time is gone…maybe in other places that time remains.
In California, there are many gun laws and we do not need more. What we need is enforcement of the multiple gun laws on the book.Two children under the age of 7 were killed when a criminal opened fire across a freeway. Price did not bring the full power of the gun laws against either shooter. In another community in Alameda county, there was a robbery at gunpoint and a robbery by assault. Both incidents involved the same criminal. The robber still had an ankle monitor on and was on parole. Price failed to bring additional charges ie violation of parole, felon possessing a gun, etc. due to the reason that incarcerating young black men occurs to often. Not new gun laws, definitely a new DA for Alameda.
A gun owner does carry responsibility, and if they don't, they should not be a gun owner. Period. ( I am a gun owner)
JoAnne: It's still illegal to carry a gun within 100 yards of a school. My house is within 100 yards of a school. So.......
Absolutely right. School areas have special rules. Curious if you can smoke a cigarette in your yard?
JoAnne: I don't smoke but probably not. LOL! I do yell at the school on occasion. There are two kids. We call one "The Screamer" and one "The Yeller". The Screamer is a young girl and man, she can scream and does it often.
The Yeller is a boy. He likes to be the boss of the playground. "Gimme that!"
Oaklander and huge NTO devotee here. If we can turn things around here, we can do so anywhere. We’re going to win. Unfortunately there’s been too much collateral damage and much more to come beforehand. But we’re going to win.
A huge bravo to Mr Scott and the NAACP for standing and fighting for what the real citizens of Oakland want. Here is to the win!
I work for 988. I had a suicidal caller once, from Oakland. SERIOUSLY suicidal, met the criteria for imminent risk. I called OPD to initiate rescue and was given a wait time of 45 mins - 1 hour. Dispatch literally told me "yeah we have a shooting now we'll get there when we get there." This isn't some small town, this is a city of some size. You can't do both?
I shake my head at the whole thing. Progressivism is such a mass delusion...
How can readers help?
You know, there is a political party that is tough on crime and supports the rights of upstanding citizens to keep and bear arms.
I admire this guy, but I think a friendly takeover of the local Republican party would serve his interests far better than starting from scratch. It shouldn't be too hard: This being California, I bet the local Republican party has a ton of vacant committeemen spots, and the incumbents could be replaced with his allies if he could just get a couple hundred people to vote in a block.
Yes, he won't ever get ideological purity with either party, but he will get a heck of a lot more done. As Thomas Sowell pointed out: There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.
I'm someone who was a Democrat and will not be voting for Democrats again any time soon. But I can't bring myself to become a Republican. I understand why people support Trump, but what I see is a person of terrible character and zero integrity. I'm genuinely repulsed by him and can't join a party that believes this is what a leader looks like.
I agree with Scott. We need to get away from the two captured parties and form something new.
I can see where Trump is a big issue, and I agree that it's damaged the "Republican brand" in a major way. However, permissiveness on crime and immigration (to name just two items of many) is damaging the country in a much more major way than any one individual can. Ultimately, it may destroy the Democratic party far more thoroughly than Trump can destroy Republicans.
The problems these people are complaining about cannot be solved at the presidential level. Electing a majority of city council that agree with them would have a bigger impact on their lives even than electing a president hand-picked from their neighborhood. The only way out is for people of good values to start electing other people who share those values, regardless of the party.
Nobody with an R next to their name is going to get elected in Oakland. It is just the way it is.
I’d love to read more profiles of people like Mr. Scott who are fighting back and making a difference.