It’s Wednesday, April 29th, 2015…and please ignore everything above this column, as the piece of sh*t website which hosts us refused to accept the changes we made to our Quote of the Day and featured videos…despite our having made the required changes numerous times.

Now, albeit in an abbreviated format, here’s The Gouge…and a few brief thoughts on the craftily created chaos in Charm City!

First up, courtesy of the WSJ, Jason Riley presents the problem:

The Lawbreakers of Baltimore—and Ferguson

The racial diversity of local government doesn’t matter when people want to seize on an excuse to commit crimes.

“The racial makeup of city leaders, the police department and other municipal workers inFerguson, Mo., played a central role in the media coverage and analysis of Michael Brown’s death, which is worth remembering as history repeats itself in Baltimore.

The Justice Department’s Ferguson report noted that although the city’s population was 67% black, just four of its 54 police officers fit that description. Moreover, “the Municipal Judge, Court Clerk, Prosecuting Attorney, and all assistant court clerks are white,” said the report. “While a diverse police department does not guarantee a constitutional one, it is nonetheless critically important for law enforcement agencies, and the Ferguson Police Department in particular, to strive for broad diversity among officers and civilian staff.”

Broad diversity is not a problem in Baltimore, where 63% of residents and 40% of police officers are black. The current police commissioner is also black, and he isn’t the first one. The mayor is black, as was her predecessor and as is a majority of the city council. Yet none of this “critically important” diversity seems to have mattered after 25-year-old Freddie Gray died earlier this month in police custody under circumstances that are still being investigated.

Some black Baltimoreans have responded by hitting the streets, robbing drugstores, minimarts and check-cashing establishments and setting fires. If you don’t see the connection, it’s because there isn’t one. Like Brown’s death, Gray’s is being used as a convenient excuse for lawbreaking. If the Ferguson protesters were responding to a majority-black town being oppressively run by a white minority—which is the implicit argument of the Justice Department and the explicit argument of the liberal commentariat—what explains Baltimore?…”

Next, again courtesy of the Journal, the cause of said problem:

The Blue-City Model

Baltimore shows how progressivism has failed urban America.

Sorry, we thought this was the mayor’s press conference, not a casting call for a rap video.

“You’re not supposed to say this in polite company, but what went up in flames in Baltimore Monday night was not merely a senior center, small businesses and police cars. Burning down was also the blue-city model of urban governance.

Nothing excuses the violence of rampaging students or the failure of city officials to stop it before Maryland’s Governor called in the National Guard. But as order starts to return to the streets, and the usual political suspects lament the lack of economic prospects for the young men who rioted, let’s not forget who has run Baltimore and Maryland for nearly all of the last 40 years.

The men and women in charge have been Democrats, and their governing ideas are “progressive.” This model, with its reliance on government and public unions, has dominated urban America as once-vibrant cities such as Baltimore became shells of their former selves. In 1960 Baltimore was America’s sixth largest city with 940,000 people. It has since shed nearly a third of its population and today isn’t in the top 25.

The dysfunctions of the blue-city model are many, but the main failures are three: high crime, low economic growth and failing public schools that serve primarily as jobs programs for teachers and administrators rather than places of learning. Let’s take them in order. The first and most important responsibility of any city government is to uphold law and order. When the streets are unsafe and crime is high, everything else—e.g., getting businesses to invest and create jobs—becomes next to impossible.

People also start voting with their feet. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has stated that one of her goals is to attract 10,000 families to move to Baltimore. Good luck with that after Monday night…”

In a related item, as the late Paul Harvey used to say, FOX News‘ Catherine Herridge gives us the rest of the story; you know…the part you won’t find covered by any other MSM outlet:

Social media analysis suggests links between Baltimore and Ferguson violence

Finally, courtesy of Ronaldus Magnus, the solution to said problem:

Talk about a guy who had it going!

Meanwhile, other forces of evil in the world seek to take advantage of pusillanimous Progressives:

Iranian navy intercepted US-flagged ship, official says

“Four Iranian patrol boats from its Revolutionary Guard intercepted the U.S.-flagged container ship M/V Maersk Kensington last Friday in the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz in an internationally recognized maritime route, a Pentagon official told Fox News Tuesday.

The news came as Iranian Navy vessels fired shots at and boarded a Marshall Islands-flagged commercial container ship in the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday, a senior defense official told Fox News…”

Were there a bounty on these prevaricating putzes, we could shoot our limit every day from now to eternity and never miss a moment of sleep.

Finally, on the Lighter Side…

Sports fans, we apologize for our recent, repeated periods of radio silence; but when you’re up to your ass in work-related alligators, it’s hard to remember your primary responsibility is to drain the Dimocratic swamp.

Magoo