June 4, 2020

Down on State Street here in Madison, every ground floor window is covered in plywood, and there's an effort to turn it into something good by painting murals.

A small procession...

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"Silence is complicity"...

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"Silence is violence"...

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That's at the art museum, but the award for the best painting goes to...

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Walking with coffee...

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Controlling the narrative...

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The iconic Triangle Market...

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And the beloved Paul's Books...

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Nonsense... this was on the credit union...

C49A13E3-A66B-4C73-B25E-FFA150A971B6_1_201_a

"Inclusion" — It's Sugar....

E08E0863-2F3D-4AE3-B979-71EE5E65BCC3_1_201_a

"UNITY"...

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Imagine not leaving Ragstock alone!

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Background: "For three nights, business[es] on and around State Street in Downtown Madison have been sitting ducks for those who have taken advantage of the uproar over the killing of George Floyd to vandalize and steal their property. Almost every business on the street, from new ventures to those that have been around for decades, has been hit by graffiti, broken windows or looting. Above most of these properties are apartments occupied by residents, many of them terrified of what the nightly raids might bring. While the owners are weary of the damage, support for the cause behind the protests is nearly unanimous" (Wisconsin State Journal, with interviews with shopowners).

194 comments:

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Oh, isn't that lovely. Has a real 3rd World feel to it.

PM said...

Nice sentiments. Translation: Don't burn me.

n.n said...

#DiversityBreedsAdversity #DueProcess #BLM #HateLovesAbortion

Yancey Ward said...

Broken plywood fallacy.

MadisonMan said...

I wonder if they'll be saved when windows return. Might be a worthy project.

Yancey Ward said...

The question will be this- will it still be plywood a year from now? I bet it will be. Glass is expensive, and insurance isn't going to be available going forward unless something changes in these city governments.

Ann Althouse said...

These stores already had their windows broken and their merchandise looted.

Ann Althouse said...

Notice that most of these buildings are stores on the ground floor but apartments above. Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places.

Mr. O. Possum said...

When Princeton University built an underground addition to Firestone Library adjoining Nassau Street, the town's main street, a local group invited local children and artists to each paint one of about 100 plywood boards that blocked view and access to the construction site.

The result was beautiful.

Then came the invasion of Cambodia. SDS spray painted all the art, defacing everything.

These Madison paintings have the lifespan of a butterfly.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I had to look up ACAB.

Wikipedia:

"A.C.A.B. is an acronym meaning "All Cops Are Bastards". ... The term refers to the police as an institution, and does not necessarily reflect upon the individual law enforcement officer.

Nice try at sanitizing the message Wiki. Don't scare the squares, man.

And speaking of riot lingo. Isn't "Fuck 12" strange. Is that from Adam-12 old TV show? How old are these looters? 70?

AllenS said...

It's graffiti, and nothing more. I doubt if it would look any better if it was painted on the Althouse house and garage, or maybe burned into the lawn. Oh, and don't forget the sidewalk in front of the house.

If you don't want any graffiti on your house, take the time to think that maybe others don't want their property defaced either.

This isn't really that difficult to figure out.

I'm Not Sure said...

How many ways can you say "We're on your side"? Too bad the guys playing beer pong didn't think of putting up some plywood.

Kyzer SoSay said...

Great, instead of nice big attractive storefront windows to see the comings and goings of people and the display of goods for sale, we get crudely drawn propaganda by/for children and childlike adults. Reminds me of old Soviet posters, just a tad more color saturated. The mountain landscape is halfway decent but then they ruin it with banal sloganeering. Can Leftists get anything right?

tim maguire said...

I love how they all pretend to be down with the rioters. Haven't they yet figured out that "Dude! We're on your side!" won't protect them from anything?

walter said...

I love the photo of the gal with her coffee looking like she's wondering if Paul's is open. Maybe a secret door.
Museums closed so these will have to do.
So..how will they go about removing them?

Yancey Ward said...

"Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places."

Yes, they were wondering, "Where are the fucking police?"

Ralph L said...

Think of all the fossil fuel they'll save in the heating season!

SteveB said...

After the fact virtue signaling.

Like the guy yelling out his window at the one throwing the rock: "Hey! WE'RE ON YOUR SIDE!!

Ann Althouse said...

On the Capitol Square, on the 2 blocks adjoining State Street, the windows are boarded up, but on the other 2 blocks, the windows are exposed and unbroken. I'd like to read a description of how law enforcement worked. The protection on Capitol Square must have been different from on State Street, where there are some glitzy all-glass building fronts.

Unknown said...

Purty plywood murals. It assumes a) the looters tonight can read and b) that they care.

Kyzer SoSay said...

"Notice that most of these buildings are stores on the ground floor but apartments above. Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places."

Welcome to the Arab Street. Brought to you by deep blue politics and our collective unwillingness to begin the painful national conversations about race by going Ross Perot and pulling out a posterboard with a chart of crime stats and rates of fatherlessness. Like a kid with a plate of broccoli, sweet corn, and steak, America needs to knuckle up and get the painful part over with first - because if we get honest results from those conversations, that will also help provide the answers to "how do we move forward".

Otherwise nothing will change. Crime and broken families are the biggest issues. Most everything else stems from those.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

The question will be this- will it still be plywood a year from now?

Can the business owners take down the "murals"? Wasn't there just some case in NYC where the developer was sued when he took down some graffiti covered walls?

Dude1394 said...

The democrat party is a clear and present danger to you, me and this country.

Francisco D said...

They have the slogans down pat, but will it quell the fascist mob?

Silence is violence - only a true Postmodernist could think of that one.

AZ Bob said...

Ann,
Are you asking how government picks winners and losers?

wild chicken said...

Think they're doing that in Missoula. Big portraits of black martyrs, for us to worship. Like Comrade Stalin.

Nothing the left does is original.

Ann Althouse said...

"If you don't want any graffiti on your house, take the time to think that maybe others don't want their property defaced either."

Look closely. These murals are an effort to make the best of a bad situation. There is also some graffiti... and I'll show you some more in another post... but the owners of the property are involved in this painting.

reader said...

Tribute in the form of visual media?

Wikipedia

To be called "tribute" a recognition by the payer of political submission to the payee is normally required; the large sums, essentially protection money, paid by the later Roman and Byzantine Empires to barbarian peoples to prevent them attacking imperial territory, would not usually be termed "tribute" as the Empire accepted no inferior political position. Payments by a superior political entity to an inferior one, made for various purposes, are described by terms including "subsidy".

BarrySanders20 said...

Vandals should adorn the bookstore plywood painting with "I Can't Read"

n.n said...

These stores already had their windows broken and their merchandise looted.

What lies beneath.

Yancey Ward said...

"On the Capitol Square, on the 2 blocks adjoining State Street, the windows are boarded up, but on the other 2 blocks, the windows are exposed and unbroken."

I am looking at the map (never been to Madison). Which streets on/near the Capitol Square still have their windows- I am looking at Mifflin and Carrol streets as a reference.

Thistlerose said...

I don't understand why you are blaming law enforcement for the damage. They didn't break the windows and loot the stores. That was done by the oh so noble 'protesters'.

Thistlerose said...

I don't understand why you are blaming law enforcement for the damage. They didn't break the windows and loot the stores. That was done by the oh so noble 'protesters'.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I liked it better when property could exist with the expectation it would not be destroyed, and political speech wasn’t compelled in order to prevent that destruction.

Brody Oaks said...

When the lockdowns over COVID started, I thought then that the actual virus would be footnote to the larger events that it triggered, much in the way the 1929 stock market crash has become a footnote to the Great Depression. I'm feeling much the same way about the death of George Floyd and the unrest that event triggered. Buckle up, folks, we ain't seen nothing yet. It's going to be a long, hot summer with a national election in November. We're all living through history, and it's going to be ugly.

chuck said...

As a riot rater, I give these 3/10. Madison can do better.

YoungHegelian said...

All art must be made to serve the Revolution.

Think about just how Soviet the series of photos you posted are!

mccullough said...

Homer Simpson looks like he lost a lot of weight. No donuts and beer during The Shutdown

Achilles said...

Ann Althouse said...

Look closely. These murals are an effort to make the best of a bad situation. There is also some graffiti... and I'll show you some more in another post... but the owners of the property are involved in this painting.

The owners are being attacked by tyrannical oppressors. This is mob violence and repression.

The roving mobs are just Red Guards or Brown Shirts.

If the business doesn't bend the knee their business will be destroyed.

This is the definition of political violence. These leftist shits will never stop because racial justice isn't what they are after.

They are after tribal power and domination.

Michael K said...

Blue cities are going to look like cities in Mexico with no yards and high walls on the street topped with broken glass. Inside those walls will be nice living spaces but the common areas will be war zones.

The police are under siege and soon there will be only the dregs who can't get better jobs. Baltimore will be the model. The rich will hire private security, at least those who don't already have it. The Republican cities and towns will remain peaceful and heavily armed.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I also completely reject this “silence is violence” bullshit. I saw enough of that on social media to make me sign out for good. I refuse to be press-ganged into your political speech. Whether I agree with the message or find it virtuous is beside the point - even God gives me a choice as to whether I accept and whether I share the Good News. This new religion is violent and coercive and I won’t be a part of it. Nothing that’s a good idea organically requires force.

Mike Sylwester said...

I don't get it.

Suppose another Black person gets killed while evading or resisting arrest.

Then the social justice warriors will want to protest by stealing stuff out of stores.

Because all of this plywood, though, they won't be able to protest.

Real American said...

"Silence is complicity"

"White people, sit this one out"

Same fucking people.

MayBee said...

The best of a bad situation, aka don't destroy my building because look at this beautiful inclusive art.

To be honest, I don't love the "best of a bad situation"/"This owner understood why he had to be looted" stories filling the news any more than I loved the "look at people singing for the healthcare workers" COVID stories.
Being under the thumb of the government or under threat from your fellow citizens are really sucky situations, and I don't like it being turned into A Beautiful Experience.

Achilles said...

Ann Althouse said...
Notice that most of these buildings are stores on the ground floor but apartments above. Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places.


Probably something like what the Jews felt in Germany.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Tim, I’m sure the people who make these decisions are in fact down with the protests and maybe also the rioters. People in the grip of religious fervor do weird things.

BarrySanders20 said...

I like the Bernie sign in the window above the August business now adorned with UNITY.

Lewis Wetzel said...

If you are not black, and you want to avoid all this nonsense (riots, lynch mobs, etc.), the smartest thing you can do is avoid black people and black neighborhoods. Don't move someplace where there is a significant population of black people, and if your own neighborhood begins to have a significant population of blacks, move somewhere else.

Achilles said...

"The Red Guards were denounced as counter-revolutionaries and radicals by the school administration and fellow students and were forced to secretly meet amongst the ruins of the Old Summer Palace. Nevertheless, Chairman Mao Zedong ordered that the manifesto of the Red Guards be broadcast on national radio and published in the People's Daily newspaper. This action gave the Red Guards political legitimacy, and student groups quickly began to appear across China.[5]"

buwaya said...

A form of whistling past the graveyard.

wendybar said...

And the businesses may never come back, but at least the building are pretty!!!

Expat(ish) said...

"ACAB" - honey, those ACAB is why ya'll can walk around safely in a group of three girls wearing revealing clothing and be perfectly safe. During daylight hours these days in certain towns.

-XC

Rick.T. said...

Gobble, gobble crocodile.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Bullshit. The murals ARE defacement, propaganda and pathetic pandering in the hopes that there won't be further destruction of their private property, business and lives.

The murals and plywood are a slap in the face to freedom and a futile plea for safety from the mad rioting. They are a concession that those people are living in fear in a WAR zone and that they have just given up.

Yassah Massa! I shorely do agree with you and here is my kowtowing effort to show you how repentant I am for trying to have a life without your permission. I be sorry Subjugation comes in all colors and accents don't it?

I can't believe and anyone would think that THIS is a good thing.

Drago said...

Althouse: "Look closely. These murals are an effort to make the best of a bad situation"

Uh oh.

Althouse is calling this a "bad situation".

Can you imagine what an army of Inga's and Freders and Howards and BLM and ACAB and antifa can do with that comment?

Better stock up on plywood Althouse.......

Serious question Althouse: when the mob comes to you, and they will eventually, and demand you hit your knees and admit complicity and that you engage in your own little struggle session, what do you intend to do?

I am assuming you have already given that some serious thought.

Todd said...

Is that Simpson character wearing a Hawaiian shirt?!?!?

roesch/voltaire said...

James Mattis says nice effort to bring about unity.

Quayle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joanne Jacobs said...

One mural talks about protecting black girls, another about protecting black women. Why? Surely, males are more at risk from law enforcement.

rehajm said...

Look closely. These murals are an effort to make the best of a bad situation.

After looking closer it definitely looks like Dude we're on your side.

Maybe you should look closer...

Bill, Republic of Texas said...


but the owners of the property are involved in this painting.



“I, the greengrocer XY, live here and I know what I must do. I behave in the manner expected of me. I can be depended upon and am beyond reproach. I am obedient and therefore I have the right to be left in peace.”

Yancey Ward said...

The cities will eventually reach the point of nothing left to loot, break, or burn.

I am increasingly pessimistic this week. At this point, were I a policeman or a national guardsman, I would say, "Fuck it," and leave the cities to be looted and burned to the ground. I would feel sorry for the residents, but you eventually reach the point where people who won't help themselves aren't worth helping at all.

sparrow said...

The rioting will accelerate the closing of physical stores, just as COVID19 did.

TD said...

The 12 in "Fuck 12" refers to drug enforcement. Local, state or federal.

narciso said...

Its about papering over lawlessness,

John Marzan said...

hoping the thugs appreciate their virtue signalling. liberal cities are at their mercy.

tcrosse said...

There was a porno book store on Lake St in Minneapolis, the side of whose building kept getting graffiti'ed. So the clever owner covered the building with feminist slogans. Problem solved.

Mark said...

every ground floor window is covered in plywood

Because none of them really believe that this is "peaceful" protest.

richlb said...

Protesters and looters did in one week what Covid tried months to do.

elkh1 said...

The intimidated dares not to disagree.

Eleanor said...

Look no further than here if you want to understand battered woman syndrome. Yes, he beat me, but I love him. Maybe if I show him how much I love him and tell him I understand and forgive him, he won't beat me again. But he always does, and she forgives him and tries to appease him. Over and over under he kills her or she kills him.

stan said...

Is anyone aware of any liberal commentator willing to decry the slanders which inflamed and caused these riots? Is there even a single one interested in truth? Willing to call out the nasty, vicious slanders of all cops?

I haven't found a single honest commentator on the left yet on this issue. Still looking.

MadisonMan said...

Imagine living at the Loraine through all this.

Beach Brutus said...

Nothing says urban blight like plywood murals.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Yancey Ward said...
"Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places."

Yes, they were wondering, "Where are the fucking police?"

6/4/20, 12:12 PM

If the leftists get their way, there won't be any police. Minnepolis and LA are both voting to defund their police departments. I'm surprised Madison isn't leading the way here.

When you hear someone breaking into your house, you'll have to call the nice social workers, who will explain to you that cracka, you had it coming.

Darkisland said...

Did the owners of the businesses or buildings do the paintings? Hiring approved BLM phartists?

If they did, how much did they pay and how did they find the phartists? Did BLM come to them and shake them down to hire the phartists?

Do they have some sort of code that tells rioters "Hey, this one paid. Leave them alone. Vandalize one that did not pay the Danegeld.

Or did the businesses put up the plywood and community organizers saw an opportunity?

It is too well done and too consistent to be spontaneous. IMHO.

As someone else said, it is not art or even phart. It is just grafitti.

John Henry

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

These murals are an effort to make the best of a bad situation. There is also some graffiti... and I'll show you some more in another post... but the owners of the property are involved in this painting.

6/4/20, 12:21 PM

Yeah. Just like cops taking a knee is an effort to make the best of a bad situation.

"I'm woke! I'm not racist! Please don't hit me!"

Sonny said...

Very pretty.
They should probably leave them up forever.

effinayright said...

For a few seconds, I thought Althouse had resumed showing us her Google Streets "Shitholes of the World" series from a few years ago.

Nahhh...it's just Madison after peaceful protests.

hombre said...

“Protect black women?” Not too long ago black women were mostly threatened by black men. I doubt that has changed.

effinayright said...

Radical left: "We need to have a national conversation on police brutality".

Appeaser: "I agree. ALL lives matter."

Radical left: "RAAAAACISS! Shut the fuck up!!

YoungHegelian said...

Look at those signs -- "Silence is Violence", "Silence is Complicity".

We will be made to assent to the Party Line! You won't even be able to live in silence.

These people are evil. These are the ideological heirs of regimes that murdered tens of millions of their own people. You think for a minute they wouldn't murder tens of millions of us?

If you're reading this and you haven't already, arm yourself. Sadly, you may need it sometime in the not too distant future.

Laslo Spatula said...

The "Inclusion" piece is remarkably sly: the yellow shape at the top / center-left obviously represents Trump's hair in profile.

Make Madison Great Again.

I am Laslo.

Darkisland said...

I've read about the ACAB all cops are bastards but it has always been English, not American. It is apparently a popular tattoo in England and has been for a long, long, time. Since before WW2, at least. Wikipedia says 1920s.

I've never seen it in the US before.

Could be:

a) Ignorance on my part
b) Adoption of English gang slang
c) Imported organizers.

There is a 1972 British crime drama called "All Coppers are" probably because they could not fit bastards on the marquee.

John Henry

robother said...

At some point, as the Democrat "Defund the Police!" policy is fully implemented, owners will need to replace those flammable plywood store-fronts with steel accordion roll-downs. That's when you can tell you have finally entered the Progressive Promised Land. (NYC in the early 70s, good times.)

M Jordan said...

Just kneel and apologize. It’s working.

Sebastian said...

"While the owners are weary of the damage, support for the cause behind the protests is nearly unanimous"

Ah, the "cause." The cause behind the protests behind the damage.

Questions for the useful idiots: Do protests that "devolve" into damaging actions help or hear the cause? If they help, do they help at all costs, or is there a point of diminishing returns? And pray tell, what part of the damage in Madison, WI, was caused by white nationalists?

"Protect Black Women."

Questions for progs: how come systemic racism leaves black women mostly alone--aren't they black enough to be systematically hurt? and if we are going to do more to protect black women, who should we protect them from--the people mostly likely to hurt them?

Howard said...

You people are losing the moment, Bigly.

Darkisland said...

Yesterday I saw some presstitute comparing President Trump to Bull Connor. Connor was the Birmingham AL police chief who personally supervised setting National Socialist Shepherd dogs on civil rights marchers.

I wanted to scream NO! There is at one key difference. Bull Connor was a Democrat. Not just any Democrat either. He was a National Committeeman.

John Henry

Doug said...

Store owners or residents ... they voted for this nonsense over and over again. Now they're getting it ... good and hard.

Ann Althouse said...

"Which streets on/near the Capitol Square still have their windows- I am looking at Mifflin and Carrol streets as a reference."

W. Main Street and most of N. Pinckney. The end of Pinckney near E Mifflin does have some boarding -- notably The Old Fashioned.

And some things on Carroll are not boarded up -- notably the storefront that is for lease (previously a camera store).

Drago said...

roesch/voltaire: "James Mattis says nice effort to bring about unity.

James Mattis has brought about unity between obama and Trump.

Both obama and Trump fired Mattis....and Mattis wants back into the DC pay circuit so he knows what to do in the lead up to November.

Quite frankly, I fully expect to see just about every senior member of the establishment to go all in prior to November because at this point its all hands on deck to stop Trump from disrupting the Washington DC gravy train at the expense of the rest of the country.

I have already predicted that prior to November the Bush's themselves will make public statements that align with the democrats.

Yesterday's Hitler's will know its in their best long term interests to join the left in attacking today's Hitler.

Not Sure said...

The hostage video as wall art.

Bay Area Guy said...

Wisconsin demographics:

86% white, 6% black

Further, Trump publicly denounced the killing of George Floyd.

Further, Trump had the guts to denounce the looting, arson, and murder spree (about 10 cops killed so far) that followed.

Further, AG Barr is marshalling evidence against the coordinators of the attacks, Antifa and other trouble-makers.

Where I live and work, an innocent African-American federal officer, Patrick Underwood, was murdered by a gun shot on the night of the protests, which merged into riots.

Drago said...

Howard: "You people are losing the moment, Bigly."

LOL

No, the biggest losers, once again, are minority business owners in democrat controlled areas.

But that's been that way for about 150 years now, hasn't it?

I should also add the other biggest losers are the retirement/nursing home elderly who had the misfortune of living in democrat controlled states where democrat governors essentially catapulted infected people into their living arrangements, including young 20 year olds who were then allowed to beat the elderly with their fists.

I guess that probably beats being shot in the back of the head by one of Howard's Heroes.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Howard said...
You people are losing the moment, Bigly.

6/4/20, 1:21 PM

We're losing because Madison looks like a shithole?

Drago said...

"Protect Black Women."

Except for those 2 teenage girls that were machete murdered by Inga's "spark of divinity" MS13 illegal alien Heroes in New York.

The democrats wouldn't even look at the parents of these girls because those girls, as Howard can fully explain, are just anecdotes and thus, don't count.

Not even a little.

Bay Area Guy said...

Between "Silence is Complicity" and telling athletes, such as Drew Brees to "Shut the Fuck up on this one" I'm sensing conflicting signals from our "peaceful" friends on the Left.....

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"Silence is Complicity"

"Shattered glass means -> YOU CARE!"

Jim at said...

Silence is also not giving a shit as leftist thugs burn down their cities.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

btw- where were all the white supremacists --> looting, burning, and raging when a black guy killed a 14 year old girl?

rehajm said...

You people are losing the moment, Bigly.

From a new Emerson poll:

looting and destroying property as a means of protest
17% approve
76% disapprove

minneapolis police precinct being burned down
22% justified
65% not justified

Not Sure said...

Silence Is Complicity + Free Speech Is Violence = Just read your lines.

FullMoon said...

Fuckin' artists, always with the micro aggression against those of us not born with that talent.

BTW, how come ancient Egyptian artists didn't paint in perspective? Build civilizations, skull drilling to relieve pain astronomy, and they couldn't draw a 3d box?

Inga said...

During one of the nights of rioting and looting in Madison, texting with my daughter who lives in Madison, I lamented “poor Madison”, my daughter said no don’t worry Madison will be OK. Seeing the murals and beautiful expressions of unity I see she is right, Madison is still OK and life goes on. Hopefully better for the all who live there, work there, study there. My hope and the hope of millions is that the rest of our cities will be OK too. Hopefully we can never see another human being’s life be taken by those who are there to serve and protect, because I don’t know if our nation will be OK if it does.

cubanbob said...

Ann Althouse said...
Notice that most of these buildings are stores on the ground floor but apartments above. Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places.

6/4/20, 12:07 PM"

I believe the people in those buildings were wondering where are The Rooftop Koreans and The Truck Monkeys.

https://youtu.be/l8oPVVGYQ40

Achilles said...

Howard said...
You people are losing the moment, Bigly.

I think Howard may be right.

This lawlessness thing looks kinda neat.

There are actual racists who are in power and not little store owners. There are some mansions that need to be remodeled. Some newsrooms. Some politician homes.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga's daughter is as stupid as Inga.

hstad said...

AA - these slogans are the 'Du Jour' slogans of the day. But as others have pointed out they are pure propoganda. For example, "Silence is Complicity" sounds nice, but if you open your mouth and have a different viewpoint you're singled out and followed with 'invectives' and physical visits from your favorite ANTIFA 'Black Shirts' [similar to Brown Shirts]. It just exhibits a lack of self-awareness and loss of common sense by the protesters. These riots will again prove that help in 'minority areas' will again be lost after over 20 years of progress. It took 20 years for decent services to come back to the Watts area of L.A. Some never returned - for what - BLM - which is pure B.S.

hstad said...

Inga said..."Hopefully we can never see another human being’s life be taken by those who are there to serve and protect, because I don’t know if our nation will be OK if it does."6/4/20, 1:52 PM
Nice propoganda piece, since the term of "All Lives Matter" doesn't seem to resonate with the Liberal/Leftist propoganda.

Craig said...

Hopefully we can never see another human being’s life be taken by those who are there to serve and protect, because I don’t know if our nation will be OK if it does.

Indeed Inga, the coddling and encouragement of these looters and rioters has set the table so that if ONE officer ever again makes ONE mistake in an incredibly tense and stressful situation, our country is over. Nice work, media and Dems.

Josephbleau said...

The Viking business model never fails to be profitable:

1. Plunder the village.
2. Wait a few years until the hard work of the village produces more wealth.
3. Plunder again.

Once you pay Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane.

Kevin said...

These windows are just religious offerings to the riot gods.

If this doesn't work, white virgins must be scarified.

Narayanan said...

isn't BLM also acronym for Bureau of Land Management - which harasses ranchers and "rightwingers"

so it is a twofer with BlackLivesMatter since Blacks also YOLO - so take good care

Kevin said...

You remember when Trump went to the church and held up the Bible?

That "was the moment when the rise of the [riots] began to slow and our [nation] began to heal ..."

walter said...

"my daughter said no don’t worry Madison will be OK"
As she was lifting some cool boots at shoos.

Josephbleau said...

“Hopefully we can never see another human being’s life be taken by those who are there to serve and protect, because I don’t know if our nation will be OK if it does.”

Yet there is no sympathy when those who serve and protect are murdered, the Lawyers who try to murder them get bailed out of jail by Democrats. Democrats think the nation will be ok if they murder police. The result will be no one who serves or protects. Why do Democrats want this? So they will have a monopoly on violence.

gilbar said...

stand up.
listen.
speak out.
donate!
OR ELSE!

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

metaphorical "lamb's blood" over the door

...by Egyptians who lost their firstborn the other night.

As effective as the "We're on your side!" thumbs up to the rioters on the street.

Just curious-- were any stores that sell cleaning/maintenance supplies looted?

Michael K said...

Trump has an intuitive pattern-recognizing thought process; he can put together diverse pieces of information–such as unemployment, the opioid crisis, and the offshoring of manufacturing to China and other places.

Absolutely. Mattis thought he would hit the jackpot with Theranos but, like others of his level of savvy, he got fleeced. Now, he wants back on the DC=China gravy train.

Maybe Biden would hire him, or whoever would be telling Biden what to do. Xi, maybe?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

nga bleats......I see she is right, Madison is still OK and life goes on. about the murals

Sure....as long as you lead the life that the rioters approve of. Step out of line and your house/property/life will be forfeit. Comply and obey or else. Unify with us or die. Do what we say. Think what we want you to...or at least pretend to and maybe....just maybe...you might be allowed to live

If that is what you consider a beautiful life...well...you are welcome to it.

Howard said...

Drago and friends: We'll see in November who's better at reading the casting of the runes.

Drago said...

Inga: "Hopefully we can never see another human being’s life be taken by those who are there to serve and protect, because I don’t know if our nation will be OK if it does."

David Dorn doesnt even rate a mention.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

would a hyper-realism trompe l'oeil of a Nike's display

...be a cruel prank?

Michael K said...

Lewis Wetzel said...
If you are not black, and you want to avoid all this nonsense (riots, lynch mobs, etc.), the smartest thing you can do is avoid black people and black neighborhoods. Don't move someplace where there is a significant population of black people, and if your own neighborhood begins to have a significant population of blacks, move somewhere else.


This is next. Obviously, blacks have decided integration means your stuff is available for when something happens to piss them off. Not all blacks but the ones the NY Times has on it's staff.

Howard said...

Moon: Perspective wasn't really mastered until the camera was invented. See David Hockney's theory.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

would a hyper-realism trompe l'oeil of a Nike's display

...be a cruel prank?

Michael K said...

Howard said...
Drago and friends: We'll see in November who's better at reading the casting of the runes.


Oh, yes. Richard Nixon is not available for comment.

Howard said...

We're still waiting for you and your obesity opioid army, Achilles. It's like you keep approaching the jumping off point going half way each time with your threats so you can get close like the clock on the bulletin for atomic scientists but it'll never strike midnight.

Birkel said...

All those Green Grocers are a sad lot.
They're getting what they deserve, good and hard.
And I cheer it.

Rick said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...
Comply and obey or else. Unify with us or die.


Right. Pogroms created a shared religious experience which was quite unifying. As long as you never consider the Jews it's a beautiful solution.

Richard Dolan said...

"While the owners are weary of the damage, support for the cause behind the protests is nearly unanimous."

Par for the course in lefty loony-land. "Weary" -- that's the best they can muster? And "protests" don't require boarding everything up. Didn't see that when folks were protesting against restrictions on 2 Amendment rights, or the overboard covid lockdowns.

As one sage commentator noted years ago in NYC, if the first attack wasn't enough to get them to see what's right in front of them, they need to be mugged again (and again and again) until reality finally breaks through the narrative. In Madison (like NYC), that's likely to be a long process.

Temujin said...

I love the dissonance of a boarded up building with the word "unity" painted across what used to be windows.

Ann Althouse said...

“ Imagine living at the Loraine through all this.”

That’s about exactly what I said as we biked past it.

I would have also been there for the anti-Walker protests.

Wince said...

Reminds me of Lago in High Plains Drifter: a town full of corrupt cowards who betrayed their sheriff, now without protection, waiting for the Stacey Bridges and the Carlin Boys to be released from that territorial prison.

Might as well paint the town red and throw a picnic with a sign "Welcome Home Boys!" because like Clint, the cops who you've all maligned (e.g., ACAB) ain't coming to your rescue.

You could have made this about best police practices and not race, but the corrupt Democrat establishment couldn't harsh the narrative.

Sad.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

a thin veneer of Plywood Propaganda

... is no substitute for viable, hard-won enterprise

Inga said...

“Inga's daughter is as stupid as Inga.”

Hopefully your daughter isn’t as hateful and ugly as you are, maybe she isn’t because she wasn’t raised by you, thank God.

walter said...

Drago said...David Dorn doesnt even rate a mention.
--
"Wrong side of History".

cacimbo said...

This couple lived above a store in Rochester, NY.They tried to get rioters to stop, the woman was afraid they would set the store on fire. Instead the group of male thugs beat her with 2x4s.

https://streamable.com/ibwexe?fbclid=IwAR3Kmn22FzFgxAHTxNfiu5LOtYYpW0hOnRB5xUaoUVevxe9D8QD0U3Csv-s

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

If the collective left can use the tragedy of a man's death to pursue their blood-lust and power-lust - then yeah...all the destruction, property damage 0f innocents is worth it.

Leftists unconcerned with a death that doesn't benefit them politically.

Who is David Dorn?

Leftists do not care. Why?- leftist are the real racists.

narciso said...

yes he's at the cohen group, working for qatari china interests, like rich higgins suggests, he had his security clearance pulled by mcmaster and purged by the security counsel,

Jon Ericson said...

Darkisland/John Henry @ 1:07
You get it.

walter said...

cacimbo,
Wood-working is in vogue:

By NBC15 Staff |
Posted: Tue 6:58 AM, Jun 02, 2020

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Two men who tried to stop a looter in downtown Madison early Tuesday morning were brutally attacked.
According to the Madison Police Department, just before 2 a.m., two men who were taking part in peaceful protests downtown attempted to confront a woman who was causing damage to property and looting at the intersection of Gorham Street and Henry Street. That's when the pair were attacked with 2x4's and possibly a crowbar by several looters.
One of the men had to get twelve stitches on his face, and the other suffered multiple broken bones.
The Madison Police Department is reviewing camera footage of the incident to identify the attackers.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

old: 'Broken Window Theory'

new: 'Painted Plywood Theory'

Mark said...

Every piece of plywood is itself a message to the protesters that says, "We don't trust you not to be a bunch of thugs that will smash our store and loot."

effinayright said...

Josephbleau said...
The Viking business model never fails to be profitable:
*************
Something like the Poverty Pimp/Justice Advocate business model:

* complain that poor neighborhoods are "underserved" by businesses like pharmacies, supermarkets, gas stations and the like

* entice such businesses to invest in and open up in the poor neighborhoods

* watch silently as BLM, Antifa and feral black kids loot and burn down said businesses

* a year later, complain that poor neighborhoods are "underserved" by businesses like pharmacies, supermarkets, gas stations and the like

chickelit said...

Four nights in a row? Madison PD must be on stand down orders.

Shameful!

chickelit said...

The entire Madison Police force is at home “ reviewing video footage.”

Paavo Soglin is out protesting on the streets again after a 50 year hiatus.

Narayanan said...

Ann Althouse said...
Notice that most of these buildings are stores on the ground floor but apartments above. Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places.
-----------============
are they still called loft apartment?

imagine what it would have been like if Korean shopkeepers lived in those apartments

lofty Koreans

chickelit said...

Law enforcement is not to blame for breaking the windows but rather for allowing it to happen without consequences for the looters. Thus they are complicit.

gerry said...

support for the cause behind the protests is nearly unanimous

The supporters are getting it good and hard.

The Althouse riot-porn graffiti tour is fun! You could've really done well with Watts or Hiroshima.

cubanbob said...

Inga: "Hopefully we can never see another human being’s life be taken by those who are there to serve and protect, because I don’t know if our nation will be OK if it does."

Has the possibility ever occured to you that cops ultimately prevent criminals from getting lynched? If the cops were defunded then citizenry will arm itself and shoot vandals, looters, muggers, rapist and arsonists among others. Street justice.

Known Unknown said...

It's too easy.

Jon Burack said...

"While the owners are weary of the damage, support for the cause behind the protests is nearly unanimous"

What cause? The cause of diverting blacks tragically into the dead-end of focusing on the cops rather than on the real sources of misery in their communities? That cause is triumphing. But on whose behalf is it a cause?

I recall socialist prof Maurice Zeitlin in about 1969 warning student radicals sitting in at the Peterson building pleading with them NOT to make the cops the target, as the cops were working class men whose sons were doing the dying in Vietnam. Did anyone listen? No, it was back into the streets with mindless slogans about offing the pig. Not much is new, is it?

buwaya said...

Mattis is an old man and out of touch.
There is no "unity" to be had, anymore.
You are split, broken, forever.

It takes old people a long time to adjust to changes like that. They cling to a nostalgic vision of things.

Paco Wové said...

"...support for the cause behind the protests is nearly unanimous"

Like they had a choice.

AllenS said...

chick @ 2:59, they are only following orders from the boss... the Mayor.

Matt said...

I want nothing to do with these pathetic whites who bow and abase themselves to the people who destroy their city out of some asinine assumption of collective guilt.

The narrative is a lie. Do the research into crime stats, cop killings, the studies of police reaction time to simulations with black/white perps. The numbers do not support the narrative.

Get off your knees. Reject the assumption of guilt over things you had nothing to do with. Stop treating as legitimate a group dedicated to black lives that ignores 90% of the violence that claims black lives.

Go to church if your life needs meaning. Don't tear down society just because your life is empty and you need something to believe in.

Chris N said...

One problem, Inga, isn't that you continue to attach your hope and moral sentiments to your ideas, and frankly, your ideology.

It's how you've made bedfellows with radicals who admit the possibility of violence, make speech=violence, and make their enemies evil, uniting against an enemy.

This will ultimately consume you once all 'enemies' are perceived to be vanquished. THis logic will be used against those who don't share your hopes, ideas and moral sentiments, and ultimately you.

You may not have all the truth and knowledge you need (we all don't) but you are burning the bridges.

Leland said...

I thought silence was just following the CDC guidelines.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

The entire Madison Police force is at home “ reviewing video footage.”

Work from home. We're in the middle of a pandemic doncha know.

bagoh20 said...

Nobody could be honest enough to just write "Fuck You"?

wendybar said...

Yancey Ward said...


I am increasingly pessimistic this week. At this point, were I a policeman or a national guardsman, I would say, "Fuck it," and leave the cities to be looted and burned to the ground. I would feel sorry for the residents, but you eventually reach the point where people who won't help themselves aren't worth helping at all.
6/4/20, 12:46 PM


I agree. Time to let the cities fend for themselves. They are so ungrateful, why bother??

FullMoon said...


The horrible virus outbreak following this will allow the fanatics to blame it on the armed freedom protestors as well as the vote in person fiasco.

Timing close enough to spin it.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I' too, wonder how long it will take for Madison to come out from under its plywood. There used to be a time in San Francisco when the plywood went up for "riot-type" situations, but then back down again; now most of Market St. is permanently barricaded, businesses long since gone. It's been that way for literal decades, and, yes, a lot of the plywood has now been replaced by the steel roll-top doors someone mentions above. It looks like a war zone after the cleanup crew has gone through and removed the more obvious evidence of explosions.

Yancey, in asking for the police to be abolished you have honest-to-God allies on the Left. I don't mean secret allies, but also those who say so openly. Yesterday I was listening to a local program on OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) and heard from a young woman who trains "activists" and bills herself an "abolitionist," as in of the cops -- all cops, everywhere. She advises all police to turn in their guns and quit their jobs outright. Why, you ask? Well, because she's a Black indigenous transgender I-forget-what-else, that's why. Who answers 911 if you call it, once her proposal is carried out? Alas, we don't know, because she wasn't asked.

I would really like to know who the ten people were who were killed in Chicago on Memorial Day weekend (a little over average for a holiday weekend in Chicago, but not much), and the 39 wounded. (There was a time when seven people dead in one day was so terrific a calamity that the event -- the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" -- remains known close to a century later. Now it's just your typical weekend in Chicago.) Were they all white? I think not. Did their lives "matter"? Not so's you'd notice.

FullMoon said...

Mattis is an old man and out of touch.

Gets all his news from MSM and his friends, who get info from same place.

Everybody here must know more than one intelligent person who is ignorant of opposing facts. Not talking about lib commenters here who deny the facts, talking about people who have never heard anything contrary to MSM. People who believe the news does not lie.

RK said...

"We rise by the lifting of others"

Dog whistle for the patronizing.

mikee said...

Austin , TX, has two levels of grafitti. Murals are often used by commercial establishments.
https://austinot.com/best-murals-in-austin Jeremiah the bullfrog is a favorite of mine.

And regular tagging by the Bloods (PIRU) and MS-13 (MS-13) and Antifa (circled A) and college kids (CAN I GO HOME NOW?) and just kids (Cookie Monster nomming a book, EXISTENCE WILL EAT YOUR PHILOSOPHY!).

We now have a few relevant tags: Class War = Essential! by Antifa, and of course the ever popular "FUCK 12" and "BLM" for those without time to complete a sentence.

Michael K said...

Has the possibility ever occured to you that cops ultimately prevent criminals from getting lynched? If the cops were defunded then citizenry will arm itself and shoot vandals, looters, muggers, rapist and arsonists among others. Street justice.

Of course not ! History begins anew every day for Inga.

Jupiter said...

My AR-15 came last weekend. The ammo came today, but it's only 100 rounds. It is getting very hard to find cheap ammo, and 300AAC is hard to find at any price.

Jupiter said...

I wonder if those Koreans ever actually shot anyone.

John henry said...

Howard said...

Moon: Perspective wasn't really mastered until the camera was invented.

Not my field but I seem to recall that perspective was invented in the 1500s or so in Venice or Florence or somewhere.

The artist used a "camera" Italian for chamber or box and projected the image of a piazza onto the back wall through a pinhole.

I think he then painted over it to get the perspective.

So a camera, but not a film camera.

John Henry

Lurker21 said...

I'm still trying to figure out the "Inclusion" graffiti. Does the fact that it's so weird and puzzling make it good, or bad?

ccscientist said...

There were about 19 unarmed black men killed by police last year (Washington Post) in a country of 325million. That is not genocide. Most of the shootings of black men by police involved the "victim" having a gun and pointing it at police or shooting at them or trying to run them down with a car. More whites were killed by police than blacks. It is politically useful to gin up a race war. It gives headlines to the media and attention to activists.

chickelit said...

@AllenS: I'm not blaming the rank and file officers but rather their leadership. Is Madison a tiny dictatorship wherein just one whiter woman gets her way? That's pathetic.

chickelit said...

I mean, not even Trump has that kind of authority.

Fernandinande said...

... this was on the credit union...

That's the only one which didn't make me throw-up in my mouth a little bit.

walter said...

Lurker21,
Might depend on whether it's viewed as akin to melting pot, which is very triggering.

tcrosse said...

Kristallnacht, 1938 Compare and contrast.

Rick said...

Inga said...
Hopefully your daughter isn’t as hateful and ugly as you are


Pot, kettle.

Leora said...

Toni Morrison changed my mind about black violence - until I read Song of Solomon I thought it was the product of ignorance and want, but after I realized it was nihilism encouraged by the educated. See also Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.

Anonymous said...

@Howard: You people are losing the moment, Bigly.

I think you are more gravely mistaken about that, Howard, than anything you have posted here before. Which is saying something.

Butkus51 said...

not to self, avoid Madison in the future

effinayright said...

When I see those pics, I see Mogadishu, not Madison.

Althouse, you have reaped what you have sown.

Enjoy your New Normal.

Quaestor said...

...and there's an effort to turn it into something good by painting murals.

Is it? Art is not an unconditional good, nor are the motives of the artist necessarily good. Althouse makes a claim she cannot defend with evidence or argument.

Is beauty intrinsically good? If something or some object is judged sublime by the beholder is it beautiful? Yes, by definition. However, no beholder's opinion is authoritative.

This is very much like this because the powers than inspired them brook no dissent.

JAORE said...

Imagine what it was like for the people living in those places."

Oh how heart less. Don't you know their fear pales in comparison to the anguish caused by racism. They should be happy to have been terrorized.

Pardon my ire. I see statement after statement that riots are not bad in comparison to the loss of Mr. Floyd's life. Ignoring the long term pain for minorities in the affects areas, what about the frickin' deaths due to the riots. Cops are ONCE AGAIN being assassinated.

IT IS NOT JUST BRICK AND MORTAR YOU GOBLINS.

Sorry, folks, I have LEOs in my family and I'm scared and I'm pissed off.

JAORE said...

Muslims commit acts of terror - we must not blame all for the acts of a few.
MS-15 commits brutal murders - we must not judge immigrants ...
Black men commit crime far in excess of their percent of the population - we must not...

Well, sure we can all agree on that.

Cop kills unarmed man - All Cops Are Bastards. Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em up like bacon....

You lost me there brother.

Charlie said...

Just wait until the building owners try to take down these plywood murals and scrub off political graffiti. The local art commission will throw a fit in the name of preserving history.

Jamie said...

Murals on plywood over shop windows are still plywood over shop windows. The very definition of trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Man, I'm glad I love in noon-Austin Texas right now.

Dr Weevil said...

Yancey Ward (12:46pm):
When you wrote "were I a policeman or a national guardsman, I would say, 'Fuck it,' and leave the cities to be looted and burned to the ground", you touched on a very important point that needs more emphasis.

There would be less police brutality if we had better policemen, but the more people say things like "All Cops Are Bastards", the harder it is to recruit decent people to be policemen. It's a vicious circle, where lower quality of police leads to more incidents of brutality or incompetence, which leads to increased contempt for police, which further lowers the quality of police by attracting fewer good recruits and pushing more good ones into quitting, and so on. And the fools who blame all policemen for the crimes and bad behavior of some are making the vicious circle spin faster and go lower. My next-door neighbor, who lived in my spare room for ten years, was giving me that line recently, and I asked her how she could say that when we've never had any problem with our local small-town force. For instance, when an asshole in a rental car was threatening her, the police were totally professional and helpful. (She had just parked her car and hadn't gotten out, he almost hit her backing into the space in front, she beeped her horn to let him know she was there, and he got out and threatened to hurt her - apparently just for embarrassing him.) She didn't have a good answer, but I don't think she's stopped tweeting it to the world, even if she avoids saying it to me.

cyrus83 said...

The angle being ignored by the newspaper is that a number of these businesses are now done for good after this, with the NBC affiliate reporting 1 in 4 aren't going to come back. Stores generally don't carry insurance on their merchandise, and to the extent there's insurance on the building, those payouts are probably going to the building owner, not the business leasing the space.

The future seems to look like a retail desert for cities that had destructive riots, which the residents will have to deal with long after the media, celebrities, and politicians move on, which ironically hurts the poor residents most. There are always complaints that stores won't open in urban locations. After this last week, what business in their right mind would want to when it's been made crystal clear the authorities will let the mob run wild?

wbfjrr2 said...

The people in the apartments above these stores are liberal cucks if they truly support the barbarians who attacked them. They’re not worthy of any policeman’s effort to protect them.

Reminds me of sitting not far from the door of a restaurant having lunch with a friend who leads a transborder drug cartel interdiction team here in Tucson. He had trained me in tactical shooting and we both were carrying concealed. Out of curiosity I asked him what we should do if somebody in the back of the restaurant started shooting people. He surprised me by saying “get out the door and get away then call 911”.
I asked why we wouldn’t try to stop it. He said “Those people being shot chose to be defenseless by being unwilling to be in position to defend themselves, so why should we risk our lives to do it for them?”

At the time I thought that was pretty cynical. I no longer believe that. Mostly because of attitudes like these pitiful (not pitied) Madison shop owner cucks.

Today I brought two of my neighbors to a great gun store here. They had asked me to help them buy their first guns for self defense. Both ended up buying Glock48s for concealed carry and AR15s in case the shit really hits the fan. We’re going to the outdoor range Monday to start their training and familiarization. Most of my neighbors are armed and willing to use force to protect themselves and their families. People with bad intentions would be wise to stay away. This is not uncommon in Arizona.

JeanE said...

Inga said
Hopefully we can never see another human being’s life be taken by those who are there to serve and protect, because I don’t know if our nation will be OK if it does.

I think it would be wonderful if we never again saw a young woman raped and killed, or a store owner beaten and killed by robbers, or a child killed by a drunk driver. While I hope none of these things ever happens, I realize that prophets, philosphers and kings have been unable to bring an end to these crimes, and I must be prepared to deal with reality. When one of these tragic incidents occurs, I hope there will be someone with the knowledge and skill to investigate the crime and find the perpetrator. I hope that when the suspected perpetrator is found, that the community will withhold judgement until a group is able to come together to hear the evidence and listen to the individual's defence. When that group determines the suspect is in fact guilty, I hope they will temper justice with mercy when they pass down the punishment for the crime. Finally, I hope that someone will take responsibility for carrying out the punishment without subjecting the individual to cruel or unusual treatment. A criminal justice system that acts with integrity at every level can keep our communities and our nation together much more effectively than wishful thinking.

Rusty said...

For Howard. "The first known picture to make use of linear perspective was created by the Florentine architect Fillipo Brunelleshi (1377-1446). ... The linear perspective system projected the illusion of depth onto a two dimensional plane by use of 'vanishing points' to which all lines converged, at eye level, on the horizon."

Called a "camera obscura", john