June 6, 2020

"Before you rule out my dream, you have to face me first. Take my life before you take my dream away."

Said Mair Maktabi, owner of the restaurant Dubai Madison, quoted at NBC15, in an article about State Street businesses damaged by the vandalism and theft of the last week.

When his windows were broken, Maktabi leapt into action wielding a sword (an antique that is, in normal times, a wall decoration). Look:



"I have to protect my business before my life. I put all my life into my business, so looters are just going to come and take my business? No, take my life before you take my business."

Dubai Madison is open for business — and it has 4 stars on Yelp. Maybe check it out if you're in town.

At the first link, you can see that they surveyed 100 businesses on State Street and 42 of them said they don't think they will be reopening.

80 comments:

Achilles said...

At the first link, you can see that they surveyed 100 businesses on State Street and 42 of them said they don't think they will be reopening.


Democrats hate small businesses.

Sebastian said...

"Before you rule out my dream, you have to face me first."

IOW, "Not on your side."

Also not into Danegeld, I guess.

gilbar said...

I have to protect my business before my life. I put all my life into my business, so Covid-19 and the CDC are just going to come and take my business? No, take my life before you take my business."

fixed it for him!

RK said...

you can see that they surveyed 100 businesses on State Street and 42 of them said they don't think they will be reopening.

I was wondering why people were so excited to have a lesbian mayor. And we have an all-female school board too. What wonderful outcomes will that produce?

Achilles said...

The backlash against these fascist fuckheads is going to be glorious.

gbarto said...

Do the people who worry about the character of the neighborhood think the disappearance of 42 businesses is merely a question of property?

I've noticed that most of the people who say it's "just property" live in places with strict zoning rules to maintain their property values.

Ken B said...

If you live in a blue city, like Madison, you should leave.

YoungHegelian said...

Oh, this is just the beginning. There's going to be hundreds & hundreds of videos like this, and this. And the burning down of the Amazon warehouse. There is ample time for them to be disseminated before the election, through means of dissemination that the mainstream media cannot control. Many will feature minorities of various kinds terrified by the mob, or defending with what courage they can muster, their lives and property.

This won't just give us more Trump in November. Oh, it'll do that. This insurrection is the Tet Offensive of the American Left. It will be spun as a victory up front, but as the smoke clears, the hard lefty networks will be rolled up, the moderates will be shown as fools who backed them, & the minorities will be left in their own burned out cities, with no sympathy from the rest of country to bail them out.

After the Tet Offensive, in spite of what the American media told us, the Viet Cong were destroyed as a fighting force, and the Army of North Vietnam had to take over. This is a turning point in American history. It will be the beginning of the end for the American Left, and the final realization that the black lumpenproletariat are a dying people.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Hey, it's only property. No big whoop. Can't he just board the place up so leftists can paint pretty pictures and trite slogans on them? Inga thinks they're just lovely, a real addition to Madison's ambiance.

Ken B said...

Old Hegelian
That is what I would have said a while ago. Now I am not so sure. Blue America is embracing destruction and iconoclasm. They feel righteous. The righteous are of course also entitled. They will be demanding federal bailouts and funding. That has already started. The only path to Red state money is a Democrat sweep.

RK said...

That's the Progressive Dane Party's idea of progress.

ga6 said...

I know all this looting and burning is bad BUT I definitely draw the line at "tirades"...

Inga said...

Brave man! I will definitely check out his restaurant when I’m in Madison next.

walter said...

But did they get some cool artwork in exchange?

Wince said...

At least they didn't steal his dreams and his childhood.

Howard said...

Blogger Achilles said...
The backlash against these fascist fuckheads is going to be glorious.


You're 100% right as usual you can see it happening in Philadelphia right now

rhhardin said...

The sponsored newscast is mightier than the sword.

Ken B said...

So, Althouse you are censoring for viewpoint now. One of my comments about Blue America did not appear.

Drago said...

Inga: "Brave man! I will definitely check out his restaurant when I’m in Madison next."

No doubt to scope it out prior to having your antifa allies burn him out.

Drago said...

YH: "After the Tet Offensive, in spite of what the American media told us, the Viet Cong were destroyed as a fighting force, and the Army of North Vietnam had to take over."

Correction: The Tet offensive was planned by the North Vietnamese and one of the specific goals of the offensive was to ensure there would be no effective South Vietnamese/VC commies around at the time of victory to challenge the North Vietnamese for control of the South.

Drago said...

This restaurant owner better watch himself before some of Howard's Heroes come in and David Dorn him.

whitney said...

Why would any business reopen? It's become clear that you have no recourse if you're a business owner. The rioters dont have to face any repercussions and some will even get celebrity endorsements.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Some people get their kicks, stompin' on a dream
But I don't let it, let it get me down
'Cause this fine old world it keeps spinning around

Good on ya, Mair! This one jihad I can back fully!

ALLAHU AKBAR!

LilyBart said...

What about the injustices of the "protesting, rioting & looting"? What about the 15 dead, many of these black people. What about the damage to the small businesses, many of them black-owned businesses?

Who will these about these people and their lives, dreams, and livelihoods?

All the politicians who support this, or even fail to condemn it, and all the media who're working to downplay the violence and destruction - and all the 'protesters' who fail to condemn it: don't speak to me about 'lives mattering' - you don't really care about lives - just politics!

Narayanan said...

YoungHegelian said...

After the Tet Offensive, in spite of what the American media told us, the Viet Cong were destroyed as a fighting force, and the Army of North Vietnam had to take over. This is a turning point in American history. It will be the beginning of the end for the American Left, and the final realization that the black lumpenproletariat are a dying people.
-------==========
are the American Left merely the Viet Cong or also Army of North Vietnam who eventually took over the South (almost Lincolnesque to coin analogy)?

Vance said...

Inga, aren't you disappointed? This man kept his small business... a definate no no. Why, small business owners are the oppressors nowadays. That's why your side burns and loots them, and you defend it, is it not? The more minority blood the small business, the more leftists burn and loot and destroy it! And the more you support the right of white antifa rioters to burn and loot minority businesses.

Laslo Spatula said...

I imagine many of these businesses have been closed for the past several months due to COVID.

Forced empty, then forcibly destroyed.

Between what government chooses to do to you, and what it chooses to allow to be done to you: you're fucked.

Detroit is looking like a Thomas Kinkade painting compared to many of these cities' Thunderdome futures.

I am Laslo.

YoungHegelian said...

@Ken B,

Remember, the insurrection didn't even scratch the Red States. The part of America that owns 320 million guns never even brought them into play. The Red firewall held "militarily", socially, and economically.

The base of Democratic power even in blue states are the cities. Many of these cities have just destroyed their economic & tax bases. They have mayors who either failed to protect property or openly cheered those who were doing the destruction. Even liberal business owners cannot fail to see the stark decisions in front of their faces.

I live outside of DC. There are areas of DC, in the "nice" northwest, that took 35 years to recover from the 1968 riots. We're about to see a repeat. The 2020 elections and after now have a motto "Vote Republican as if your life & property depended on it. Because they do!".

paminwi said...

42% not reopening again?
We will hear whiny about how no hone grown businesses occupy State Street.
The only businesses that can afford to rebuild and rebuild and rebuild are big corporations.
But, Madison hates those people.
So...maybe we can bring back the porn store that had the roll of paper towel outside the video rooms.

Screw every single one of these “protesters“. (Sarcasm alert,)

Ann Althouse said...

“ So, Althouse you are censoring for viewpoint now. One of my comments about Blue America did not appear.”

You had something with an implication that could be read as inviting harm on someone. I take that out based on physical danger, not politics. Sorry to say that directly to you but you should have taken the pushback with grace.

Dude1394 said...

You continue to get the government you elected.

Original Mike said...

"At the first link, you can see that they surveyed 100 businesses on State Street and 42 of them said they don't think they will be reopening."

Small businesses are a person's life. A huge investment in money, yes, but even greater emotional capital. The City has demonstrated that they will not protect it. How do you summon up the effort to do it all again when it can be taken from you in a flash?.

Downtown will be blighted for years. Fucking leftists.

JaimeRoberto said...

I bet he has more support from the allegedly Islamophobic GOP that he has from the diversity loving Dems. I hope his business survives.

walter said...

Looters who hit L.A. stores explain what they did

"This account is based on video reviewed by The Times, which showed a chaotic scene at the fringes of the demonstrations nearby. Despite the heavy police presence in the neighborhood, only one police car was seen in the video, apparently responding to another call. Over a half hour, the looters went unchecked.
The crowd spent more than 20 minutes trying to bust open an ATM that was snatched from a smoke shop. Two men were successful in prying loose the safe within the machine, and the smashed remnants littered Highland Avenue long afterward. Meanwhile, a psychic’s shop and a barber shop went untouched.
The looters were mostly young and male, some of them teenagers and a few of them middle-aged. There were some women in the group, which was mostly black and Latino.
One of the looters was questioned on the spot by a friend of one of the merchants: Why was everyone out looting?
Advertisement
As the camera rolled, the young man — dressed in a hoodie, with a black mask wrapped around the lower half of his face — spoke of long-simmering frustrations, of white people plundering the black community and appropriating their success.

“We’re tired of being killed,” he said. “We’re tired of laws being passed while they put drugs and guns in our community. They pass laws to lock us up.”

Asked if he was among the demonstrators peacefully protesting earlier in the day, he dismissed the idea.
“Protesting peacefully? We did that in the ‘60s. That didn’t get us nowhere.”
<
"Some shopkeepers expressed outrage over Floyd’s slaying, but felt that nothing excuses criminal behavior and that looters should face consequences.
Joe Green, owner of Broadway Wine and Spirits in Santa Monica, said he was lucky that his family-owned store experienced only one broken window. Green fended off looters, aided by his customers and neighbors. When he called the police, he said he was told that no one was coming."
---
Ah..missing some details there Times. On Glenn Beck's 6/5/20 podcast, Beck interviews Green who explains he gathered his neighbors and customers who had guns to protect the store (broken windows) from about 5pm till 4am when the National Guard arrived.
2 AR 15
1 9mm
1 12ga Biden Front Porch Special
Bats (Baseball, not Wuhan variety)

Ken B said...


Blogger Drago said
This restaurant owner better watch himself [because thugs might target him].
————

Ahem.

mikee said...

Swords are nice but juries understand shotguns better, IMHO.

Rusty said...

"42 of them said they don't think they will be reopening." That isn't just sad, it's a catastrophy. The vandals didn't just put 42 people out of business they put their employees on the street. They forced their suppliers to cut back. The city will have less revenue. The people will have fewer choices. The usual suspects and their enablers don't take these things into consideration. They look at a business owner and say to themselves,"He's rich. He can afford it." They don't have a fucking clue about the agonizing hard work and long hours that go into making and keeping a business. They probably think that government makes it all possible.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Remember, the insurrection didn't even scratch the Red States. The part of America that owns 320 million guns never even brought them into play. The Red firewall held "militarily", socially, and economically.

I wish that were true, but there was rioting in downtown Columbia. Apparently several restaurants I frequent were damaged. And as I said on another thread, the USC Alumni Association just sent out a pusillanimous BLM capitulaiton when they had absolutely no reason to get involved in a political controversy.

Dr Weevil said...

Sebastian (3:07pm):
Is your reference to 'Danegeld' a pun? I mean, if the county government raises taxes on surviving businesses to pay off the rioters and looters, that would make it Dane(County)geld, wouldn't it?

Rusty said...

"42 of them said they don't think they will be reopening." That isn't just sad, it's a catastrophy. The vandals didn't just put 42 people out of business they put their employees on the street. They forced their suppliers to cut back. The city will have less revenue. The people will have fewer choices. The usual suspects and their enablers don't take these things into consideration. They look at a business owner and say to themselves,"He's rich. He can afford it." They don't have a fucking clue about the agonizing hard work and long hours that go into making and keeping a business. They probably think that government makes it all possible.

Rick.T. said...

Ken B said...
If you live in a blue city, like Madison, you should leave.
---------------------
Just don't come here. I'm not optimistic they have really learned anything. With friends back home, we are very selective on what we say to whom about how the living is here.

Daniel Jackson said...

I'm having a problem with the optics of these events. Perhaps y'all can clarify two points:

First, if these "manifestations" (as the French call them) are directed against the pervasive vestiges of WHITE racism, why were not the White neighborhoods left unscathed?

Second, given that the ultimate targets were Minority shop owners, should these crowd behaviors be rightly called "pogroms" not "riots?" The latter implies a sort of randomness while the former applies to intent.

In no way can I see randomness and lack of intent in the behavior of what Le Bon called "mobs." There is in any way conceivable to tie Minority small businesses to institutionalized racism except perhaps these are members of the poorer Classes who have opted to enter the larger economic Class system to better themselves.

Of course, from the Marxist perspective, these small shop owners are members of the "petite bourgeoisie," which makes them rightful targets to the Revolution.

Dear me, I am confused. Your opinions please.

cubanbob said...

Eventually one of these rioters are going to find themselves getting a shotgun blast.
Then the Left will realize that not all lives matter.

WaitingToBuy said...

I can hear it now, those businesses won't reopen because their racists.

Original Mike said...

Ken B said..."If you live in a blue city, like Madison, you should leave."

We have been thinking about it for a year or so. We rented a house up north for the summer to test out the idea of leaving Madison.

Original Mike said...

Maybe Inga will mortgage her future and start up a business.

YoungHegelian said...

@Drago,

The Tet offensive was planned by the North Vietnamese and one of the specific goals of the offensive was to ensure there would be no effective South Vietnamese/VC commies around at the time of victory to challenge the North Vietnamese for control of the South.

A source for this view? I know that after the war many former Viet Cong felt they were deliberately sent into the American buzz saw by the North, but for them to think that doesn't make it true. It seems to me that the Viet Cong were the NVA's on the ground allies, and there destruction at that point in the war destroyed a great deal of the personal intelligence network they had in the South. Unless you can point to a source utilizing an NVA source saying the VC were sacrificed, I'm dubious.

YoungHegelian said...

@Narayanan,

Are the American Left merely the Viet Cong or also Army of North Vietnam who eventually took over the South (almost Lincolnesque to coin analogy)?

Simply the VC. There is no armed "Big Brother United in the Bonds of Fraternal Socialism" to help them out here. They have destroyed the bases of their power.

walter said...

It's just an alternative interpretation of opening up.
I just love the matter of fact narration.

YoungHegelian said...

@Churchy,

I wish that were true, but there was rioting in downtown Columbia. Apparently several restaurants I frequent were damaged. And as I said on another thread, the USC Alumni Association just sent out a pusillanimous BLM capitulaiton when they had absolutely no reason to get involved in a political controversy.

Columbus, SC is Democrat. It's so Democrat that it's mayor was re-elected by fiat because there was no Republican to run against him. There were riots in Austin, TX, too. Another Democratic & university stronghold.

The general principle I think still holds --- relatively little economic damage was done to the Red States.

Meade said...

"Who threw that glass in the street? Yeah, either be groovy or leave, man."

Sella Turcica said...

LilyBart said:

all the media who're working to downplay the violence

unnecessary apostrophe

Ray - SoCal said...

Anyone know of a list of how many businesses looted in this riot?

How many buildings burned?

Ray - SoCal said...

My daughter's view (Lady of Color, unfortunately the wrong color), if she were Black, she would get a full ride for her undergraduate and graduate, and have been admitted to a better undergraduate.

I have gotten a couple of emails about institutional racism. I wanted to reply pointing out the institutional racism against Asians in College Admissions.

Quote the LA Times Story:

“The real answer is everybody knows this world works for white people. They do anything and get away with it.”

He cited the college admissions scandal that has resulted in short prison sentences for wealthy white people. If that had been him, the punishment would have been more severe, he said.

Temujin said...

42% of those businesses on Main St. closing? Well, take 3 months of Wuhan virus, followed by 8 long days of protesting and rioting, just as businesses were struggling to get back open and voila- you destroy the economy. Let's say that many of these people are speaking in the emotions of the moment. Let's say it's only 25% of the businesses on that one Main St.(only....?) that close. String that out across America- New York, Detroit, Baltimore, LA, Seattle, etc.

And it's not just that businesses had to close. They were shamed into closing and further shamed into staying closed. First being hit on the head with garbage data about the virus, then with bricks coming through their windows. And if you stand up for yourself, your family, or your individual rights? Fuggetaboutit. You have no individual rights. To make it through today's society, you have to submit to the collective. Lose your business, fine. It's all about the greater good. The Borg.

Good luck, Madison. It's a shame. We hardly knew ye.

Freeman Hunt said...

Current events have been a decisive factor in whether or not I will ever live in a blue city. Looks like never.

Drago said...

YH: "Unless you can point to a source utilizing an NVA source saying the VC were sacrificed, I'm dubious."

This was the thinking of a not insignificant number of military intelligence officers and military historians under whom I studied as a graduate student at a graduate military school which I'm reluctant to identify in a public forum.

If memory serves, there is some military historian scholarship on this front but I don't recall where that was stored.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Quote the LA Times Story:

“The real answer is everybody knows this world works for white people. They do anything and get away with it.”

He cited the college admissions scandal that has resulted in short prison sentences for wealthy white people. If that had been him, the punishment would have been more severe, he said.

6/6/20, 6:28 PM

Let's get O. J. Simpson's opinion on this.

Mark said...

Meanwhile the white management of the Washington Post is running stories that black business owners are willing to sacrifice their looted businesses for the cause.

Kirk Parker said...

Young Hegelian @ 6:00pm,

It's good to be somewhat skeptical, but please remember that's one of the oldest plays in the Left's playbook.

Not that the modern left invented it; I'd ask Uriah but unfortunately he's now one of the "Honored Dead".

Birkel said...

Democratics do not hate small businesses or their owners.
Rather, Democratics hate those who will not submit to Democratics' power.

Achilles is right about the net affect.
But wrong about causality.

Birkel said...

Oh, Freeman Hunt, just a few months ago you were cheering destruction of monuments.

And I warned you that the people pulling down monuments had no reason to stop; they want destruction. And you couldn't see the slope. And you couldn't see it was slippery. And now you won't live in the cities you encouraged to start fucking themselves?

How brave!

Are you ever going to allow yourself to see what the other side is?
And that your "muh principles" cry rings hollow?

Freeman Hunt said...

"I wish that were true, but there was rioting in downtown Columbia"

Columbia is blue if you're going by the last presidential election.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Freeman Hunt, just a few months ago you were cheering destruction of monuments."

No, not the destruction of monuments by mobs. The lawful removal of monuments honoring traitors and the cause of slavery. I am still 100% in favor of their removal.

You should probably accept that I don't agree with you on this at some point and let it go.

Birkel said...

Freeman Hunt,
No, that you refuse to see that giving an inch means accepting their taking a mile is a personal fault of yours.

Your principles are a concession to the mob whether you want them to be or not.

Good intentions count for fuck all.

Birkel said...

Or let me put it another way:
Anybody who does not stop this shit dead in its tracks but instead negotiates on "principles" with a mob is complicit.

Mayors.
Police chiefs.
Legislators.
DAs.
Judges.

And private citizens.

But you'll make a fine Green Grocer.

Ken B said...

Wisconsin will demand federal money to cover the damage. As will every blue state and every blue city. And the money will bail out state employee pension funds.

Kirk Parker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birkel said...

"Demand"

By what threat?
By what right?

They will beg.

iowan2 said...

42% of those businesses on Main St. closing?

University of Missouri was unavailable for comment.

This is how the dnc scribes control the masses. No reporting on the aftermath of the phony race protests at Mizzu. The next freshman class was a fraction of past years. Undergrads abandon the school to get degrees from any University that is not tainted by the idiocy of Mizzu administration that appeased the race hustlers.

Now almost half of the business in a booming college town area are shuttered. All those business don't employ Blacks. But what does it matter. Honest work has no part of Black Culture.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Ken B said..."Wisconsin will demand federal money to cover the damage. As will every blue state and every blue city. And the money will bail out state employee pension funds."

Hey, canuck. Educate yourself about the Wisconsin pension system.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Freeman, Birkel is right about this.

You say it's OK to take down one piece of history, because those statues represent Evil. A few years down the line, and now they're removing Texas Ranger statues. He represents Evil now too. Civil War monuments in Madison and Boston were defaced because the people who howled for the removal of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues really don't draw any distinctions between Lee and Jackson and the Hegg statue in Madison and the "Glory" monument in Boston.

They want it all erased. Many mild-mannered people like you don't grasp that.



walter said...

Ken B said...Wisconsin will demand federal money to cover the damage. As will every blue state and every blue city. And the money will bail out state employee pension funds.
--
If given without restriction, yes.
But you know how fed monies have a way of being engineered.
We'll see.

Regarding monument-al change, see weeping Nikki Haley, the tough cookie of GOP.

Greg the class traitor said...

Freeman Hunt said...
Current events have been a decisive factor in whether or not I will ever live in a blue city. Looks like never.

Hell with "live there". I'm not planning on even visiting any Blue City that "cancels the cops"

Freeman Hunt said...

"No, that you refuse to see that giving an inch means accepting their taking a mile is a personal fault of yours."

When other people adopt a position you've had for decades, that's not you giving an inch. If you want to change your positions when people you disagree with on many other things suddenly agree with them, be my guest. Not my jam.

Why you obsess over this pointwhere we disagree, I have no idea. It has now been years, yes? Get a grip.

buwaya said...

"Unless you can point to a source utilizing an NVA source saying the VC were sacrificed, I'm dubious."

There was some discussion of this point in "A Better War", Sorley
You may want to start there.

Thistlerose said...

Bribery to the "correct" causes will just become another cost of doing business. Target, who closed all Minnesota stores because of the rioting understands this. Here is what they have agreed to pay so far to stay open.

A $10 million investment from Target and the Target Foundation to support long-standing partners such as the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum. We will also add new partners in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and across the country.

If you're a small business that can't afford the cost that you don't get to reopen.

Daniel Jackson said...

So. It really is a POGROM. Extracting money from the victims.

Bilwick said...

"No, not the destruction of monuments by mobs. The lawful removal of monuments honoring traitors and the cause of slavery. I am still 100% in favor of their removal."

Beacuse if there's one thing "liberals," "progressives" and other State-fuckers are for, it's liberty! Right?

Kirk Parker said...

Freeman Hunt @ 2:20am,

"... a position you've had for decades..."

More evidence that the 19th was a big mistake.