With 9 killed and 5 injured in Black-on-Black violence over the Memorial Day holiday, something tells us Trump using the backdrop of Fort McHenry to honor those who gave the last full measure of devotion is the LEAST of Baltimore’s problems. Yet that didn’t stop Jack Young from complaining, or one of those seeking his office, whiter-than-rice Mary Miller, from quickly claiming violence in Baltimore is exacerbated by, among other factors, structural racism and corruption.
Soooo, though we whole-heartedly concur on the corruption, Ms. Miller would seriously have us believe out-of-control Black-on-Black violence in a city controlled by Dimocrats since 1968, which has hada Black mayor for the last 13 years and only one White police commissioner since 2002 is somehow the result of “structural racism”. Only if Miller’s party poured the forms.
Speaking of highly-concocted claims of racism, courtesy of The Guardian via the WSJ‘s Notable & Quotable segment, one Derecka Purnell offers her politically-correct characterization of what constitutes contemporary discrimination:
“The Democratic party holds black people in an abusive relationship but says you cannot leave because the other option is more abusive. That’s why I don’t believe that a vote against Biden solely means a vote for Trump. Perhaps it is a vote against being captured by the party that makes empty promises every four years when it is election time, and delivers nothing…Perhaps it is a vote against covert and overt racism.
Biden and others will rightfully argue that Trump is worse, and I agree. But what can Biden actually deliver? Will there be fewer drones if he’s president? Maybe not.Fewer deportations? Maybe not.Less money to police departments? No. Will fewer black people die from police? Unlikely. Will black people have healthcare? Unlikely. Will black wealth increase? Unlikely. Will Palestinian lives be safer?
Unlikely. Commitments to preserving our climate? Doubtful. If black people have a hard time figuring out the differences between Trump and Biden, then that is Biden’s problem, not ours.
Joe Biden refuses to reckon with the harm that he has caused to people all over the world. His best line is that he is better than the other guy, and that is exactly how abusive relationships function. Black people—all people—deserve better than Biden and the Democratic party. And yes, we are still black.“
“Fewer drones”…”black people having healthcare”…”Palestinians”…”preserving our climate”?!? The inanity of what constitutes racism in Purnell’s tortured mind either merits no response whatsoever, or requires the devotion of an entire column. So we’re going with the former…along with one of our favorite scenes from Blazing Saddles which sums up where the trainwrecka that is Derecka’s thinking leaves us:
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, courtesy of Right and Free via Jeff Foutch, Michael Barone suggests how, with some…
“Do you remember the 1957-58 Asian flu? Or the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu? I do. I was a teenager during the first of these, an adult finishing law school during the second.But even though back then I followed the news much more than the average person my age, I can’t dredge up more than the dimmest memory of either.
I don’t have any memory of schools closing, though apparently, a few did here and there. I have no memories of city or state lockdowns, of closed offices and factories and department stores, of people banned from parks and beaches.
Yet these two influenzas had death tolls roughly comparable to that of COVID-19. Between 70,000 and 116,000 people in the U.S. died from Asian flu. That’s between 0.04% and 0.07% of the nation’s population, somewhat more than the 0.03% of the COVID-19 death rate so far.
…Fundamental attitudes can change in a nation over half a century, and the very different responses to this year’s coronavirus pandemic and the influenzas of 50 and 60 years ago suggest that Americans today are much more risk-averse, much more willing to undergo massive inconvenience and disruption to avoid marginal increases in fatal risk. (Some Americans, but far from all!)
At least some of this can be explained by different experiences. The Asian and Hong Kong flus arrived in an America amid and at the end of what I call the Midcentury Moment. That’s my name for the quarter-century after World War II when Americans enjoyed low-inflation economic growth, and a degree of cultural uniformity and respect for institutions that some yearn for today.
Midcentury Americans had living memories of World War II, with its 405,000 American military deaths. They were troubled not so much by the number of military deaths in Korea (36,000) and Vietnam (58,000) but by our leaders’ failure, after years of effort, to achieve victory.
Contrast this with the shrillness of outcries over orders of magnitude fewer military deaths in Iraq (4,497) and Afghanistan (2,216) (Primarily courtesy of a MSM out to harm George W. Bush). Yes, every death is a tragedy, but those numbers total less than the average number of deaths in America every day (7,707) in 2018. But today’s Americans, beneficiaries of a victory in the Cold War that was almost entirely bloodless, seem to blanch at paying any human price.
They seem to also expect any competent leader to come up with policies that preserve every life at any cost. Thus the high approval of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said his lockdown is worth it if it saves just one life — although if he really believed that, he’d impose and strictly enforce a 5 mph speed limit on the New York State Thruway. (And wouldn’t have ordered nursing homes to take in recovering-but-still-contagious COVID-19 patients!)
You can argue that Americans in the Midcentury Moment were too willing to accept pandemic or battlefield deaths, just as they were too willing to accept racial segregation or to stigmatize uncommon lifestyles.
But there’s also a strong argument that they had a more realistic sense of the limits of the human condition and the efficacy of official action than Americans have today — certainly more than the governors stubbornly enforcing lockdowns till the virus is stamped out and deaths fall to zero.
Behind that stance is the assumption there’s an instant and painless solution for every problem, rather than a need to weigh conflicting goals and make tragic choices amid unavoidable uncertainty.“
Actually, Mike, behind that stance is the certainty said governors now are committed to destroying as many businesses and lives as are required to take down The Donald.
For what our two cents is worth, we’re with the sentiment expressed in this meme from Balls Cotton:
And let the rest of us get on with our lives.
In a related item forwarded by Ed Hickey, writing at American Greatness, Julie Kelly affirms what this column has already repeatedly asserted, as she details…
“After a two-month trial, researchers are collecting early outcomes of the Great American Social Distancing Experiment of 2020. The results, to say the least, ain’t pretty—and the “experts” who initiated this experiment on 330 million well-meaning but unwitting test subjects are starting to admit failure.
“Wait. An experiment?” you may ask. But we have been assured by the credentialed class that keeping a distance of six feet between healthy people for weeks on end was the only tried-and-true way to prevent the deadly spread of the novel coronavirus.No way would the government shutter public schools and colleges for five months, bankrupt small businesses, send tens of millions to the unemployment line, jeopardize the nation’s food supply chain, prevent children from comforting dying parents and grandparents, and subject their fellow countrymen to soul-crushing house arrest for the first time in U.S. history if the so-called “social distancing” guidance hadn’t been carefully vetted over time, you might insist.
Certainly every variable and every side effectof social distancing has been factored into this economy-crashing “mitigation” strategy, right?
Unfortunately, and maddeningly, the answer is no…”
Keep in mind, Kelly penned this appraisal back on May 4th; the experiment’s failure is even today.
Here’s the juice: what’s the primary fact which pierces the Progressive propaganda protectively surrounding this purported pandemic?
Any questions?!?
Next up, courtesy of another forward from Jeff Foutch, an item which will surprise no one, as NRO‘s Tobias Hoonhout reveals Fredo’s older brother Sonny’s…
“The New York Department of Health has apparently deleted a March order issued by Governor Andrew Cuomo that forced nursing homes to admit Covid-positive residents.
The order, which was implemented on March 25, stated that “no resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to a nursing home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” and also prohibited nursing homes from requiring testing prior to admission or readmission. But the order is no longer visible on the state’s website.
Other outdated guidelines, including a February order stating “there is no need to cancel school or social events, and there is no need for students or school staff to wear surgical masks at school,” remain active on the site.
The New York Department of Health and Cuomo’s office did not respond to requests for comment as to why the order was deleted…”
It’s almost as if these Socialist simpletons haven’t yet realized the internet exists.
Even such has-beens as RINO George Pataki sought relevance by stating what’s obvious to everyone…
…outside the MSM…and Cuomo “Family”.
But if Cuomo had a bad day, Groper Joe may have had a worse one, as Townhall.com‘s Beth Baumann relates…
Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:
Then there’s these memes from Ed Hickey…
…a number more from Balls Cotton…
…another from Speed Mach…
…and last, but certainly not least, this instant classic from George Lawlor:
Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with yet another sordid story straight from The Crime Blotter, courtesy today of four Minneapolis police officers who’ve appeared to confuse their powerswith that of their state’s governor, as…
“Four Minneapolis police officers have been fired amid outrage over video footage showing an officer kneeling on the neck of a black man who died after being transported to the hospital in police custody.
…[Minneapolis Mayor] Frey revealed the identity of the deceased as George Floyd, whom police arrested Monday night after he “physically resisted officers” upon exiting a vehicle while under the apparent influence of an intoxicant.
“Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and realized that the suspect was suffering a medical distress,” a Minneapolis police spokesman said in a news briefing early Tuesday morning. “Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died a short time later.”
Video footage showed onlookers pleading with the officers to let Floyd breathe. A handcuffed Floyd eventually appeared to lose consciousness after several minutes, with the officer still kneeling on his neck…”
We haven’t the faintest clue WHAT these officers were thinking, let alone why the one felt it necessaryto keep his knee on the neck of a handcuffed suspect gasping for breath. But we’re also uncertain administrative leave pending an investigation wasn’t a more appropriate response than termination.
Fortunately, like everyone requesting an unmasking of Mike Flynn, we haven’t a need to know, because we live in a country of laws (excepting, of course, prominent Progressives, all of whom are above said laws!) in which specific legal processes exist to provide us the necessary answers and information.
Of two things we’re certain: (1) If the four officers had legitimate reasons for their actions, they’ve a union more than capable of pursuing redress for their wrongful termination; and, (2) Ifnot, count on the combined weight of the city, state and possibly even federal criminal justice systems being brought to bear against them.
But only after a complete and thorough investigation of the facts!
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