Althouse: Outrageous pessimism at the NYT: "On the Future, Americans Can Agree: It Doesn’t Look Good."

June 12, 2020

Outrageous pessimism at the NYT: "On the Future, Americans Can Agree: It Doesn’t Look Good."

That's the headline — "On the Future, Americans Can Agree: It Doesn’t Look Good."

Hell, no. I won't agree.

This is a column by Lisa Lerer, a reporter, and David Umhoefer, a former reporter (and faculty member at Marquette University).

They say "The American experiment is teetering" and quote a random white man who says "It’s all screwed. It seems to me that we’re pretty close to a fall."

Further down in the column, they quote another random white man: "A lot of people are overreacting. We’ve been through tough times, and people thought it was the end of the world, but people come through." Yeah, that's closer to what I think. It's noted that this white man was "walk[ing] through Rittenhouse Square, a wealthy area," so we're prompted to think he's got the "white privilege" affliction and he's got it bad.

156 comments:

rehajm said...: Soros propaganda. That democracy thing was a fun experiment but now it's time to submit to the will of the elites so they can tell you how bent your banana must be....; 6/12/20, 8:24 AM
tcrosse said...: Now is the summer of our discontent.; 6/12/20, 8:25 AM
Big Mike said...: The Times does its best to tear the country apart, then weeps crocodile tears that it's being torn apart.; 6/12/20, 8:25 AM
Clark said...: I've seen a lot of bums in Rittenhouse Square.; 6/12/20, 8:27 AM
Anonymous said...: Obviously none of these snowflakes had been around in 1968. Now *that* was a teetering year.; 6/12/20, 8:29 AM
narciso said...: Since when does the times believe in the american experiment.; 6/12/20, 8:32 AM
Kevin said...: Right now the country is overwhelmed with white noise.

Why don't white people collectively stop talking about racism and see what signals remain?; 6/12/20, 8:33 AM
RK said...: The second guy owns a gun. The first guy doesn't.; 6/12/20, 8:33 AM
tjl said...: Outrageous pessimism?
At the moment we seem to be re-enacting the last days of the Weimar Republic.
Mass unemployment? Yes. Economic ruin? Yes. Rioting in the streets? Yes. Disfunctional political culture, with extremes of left and right overwhelming the center? Yes.
All that's missing is hyperinflation, and we'll get that too as an aftereffect of the trillions worth of government handouts.

Right now the far left seems ascendant, with the media and politicians doing all they can to appease. But don't discount the far right, especially since their side has most of the guns.; 6/12/20, 8:36 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: I'm optimistic that our Attorney General William Barr will provide to the public an excellent accounting of the RussiaGate affair. That will provide some healing for our politics, which have been poisoned for the past four years by false accusations that Donald Trump and his campaign staff colluded with Russian Intelligence to win the 2016 Presidential election unfairly.

Soon the US public will be informed that, for example, Joseph Mifsud was in fact NOT an agent of Russian Intelligence. Rather, Mifsud was working to entrap George Papadopoulos on an assignment that originated from CIA Director John Brennan.

Let our society's healing begin!; 6/12/20, 8:36 AM
tjl said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/12/20, 8:37 AM
rcocean said...: Don't worry, if Trump is defeated in November, then the MSM will start reporting about the "New Day in America" where the birds sing and the sun always shines. They've done it before when a Democrat defeats a Republican President.; 6/12/20, 8:40 AM
tim maguire said...: In my lifetime alone, I've lost count of how many times the American Century has been declared over. Thumb-sucking pieces like this aren't worth the electrons they take up. It's just a major media outlet doing the only thing major media outlets still do well--stir up fear and dissension.; 6/12/20, 8:43 AM
traditionalguy said...: From the Obama Muslim Marxist State’s POV things have never been worse. Those damnAmericans have a brilliant leader who wins and wins and wins. It ain’t fair. We had it in the bag with the MSM running cover and ready to finish off the USA until Comrade Clinton blew the 2016 election. But the next five months will be our Battle of the Bulge. We will either destroy Trump this time or flee to Argentina.; 6/12/20, 8:45 AM
gilbar said...: Outrageous pessimism?
At the moment we seem to be re-enacting the last days of the Weimar Republic.
Mass unemployment? Yes. Economic ruin? Yes. Rioting in the streets? Yes. Disfunctional political culture, with extremes of left and right overwhelming the center? Yes.
All that's missing is hyperinflation, and we'll get that too as an aftereffect of the trillions worth of government handouts.

not Everyone is pessimistic !
The Future belongs To Me; 6/12/20, 8:45 AM
Bob Smith said...: You Boomers sure have a lot to answer for.; 6/12/20, 8:48 AM
tim maguire said...: tjl said...At the moment we seem to be re-enacting the last days of the Weimar Republic.
Mass unemployment? Yes. Economic ruin? Yes. Rioting in the streets? Yes. Disfunctional political culture, with extremes of left and right overwhelming the center? Yes.

This is "Hitler was a vegetarian" level thinking. People typically exaggerate the importance of whatever is happening right now. It's a well-known psychological phenomenon known as the recency fallacy. The health of a democracy is judged not by whether these things exist (all of those things come and go even in the healthiest democracies), but by whether the democracy survives them. It's too soon to tell for sure, but all current evidence says we'll be just fine.; 6/12/20, 8:48 AM
Howard said...: This is the most optimistic I have felt about the United States of America and the state of the world since I can remember.; 6/12/20, 8:51 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: I'm optimistic that our country's justice system will exonerate police officer Derek Chauvin from the false accusation that he executed counterfeit-money-passer George Floyd.

Chauvin will be tried and acquitted -- the same as happened with police officer Darren Wilson and neighborhood-patrol participant George Zimmerman.

In fact, Floyd died of atrial fibrillation. When Floyd was arrested for passing counterfeit money, he realized that he was going to be imprisoned for the rest of his life. His blood full of drugs that affected his heart rhythm, his heart began to spasm and so could not pump blood effectively. The oxygen in his blood diminished, and then he lost consciousness.

The police officers pulled him from the police car while waiting for a police ambulance to arrive. Chauvin effectively minimized Floyd's physical movements, but nevertheless Floyd died soon.

The public explanation of Floyd's death and the exoneration of police officer Chauvin will be important actions in healing our society's current angers.; 6/12/20, 8:52 AM
rehajm said...: I'm optimistic that our Attorney General William Barr will provide to the public an excellent accounting of the RussiaGate affair

A genuine certified bona-fide full-scale audit report, yes. Just don't expect any indictments...; 6/12/20, 8:53 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Whether or not they actually believe this, if there was a Democratic President running for reelection, they would not have written this.; 6/12/20, 8:55 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Glen Loury has a good column on blacks and racism:

https://www.city-journal.org/racism-is-an-empty-thesis; 6/12/20, 9:02 AM
Fernandinande said...: "It’s all screwed. It seems to me that we’re pretty close to a fall."

A liquor store guy was standing outside having a smoke and we briefly spoke of current events, starting out with "Do you guys still require masks?"; he thinks that "there's something big coming down" because of the bogus cootie-shutdowns and because the real George Floyd died three years ago and both the guys in the heart-attack video are actors who have been present at a lot of demonstrations and he knows this because a lawyer in Houston sent out pictures of them at those demonstrations.; 6/12/20, 9:04 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: I'm optimistic that in November, Donald Trump will be re-elected by a landslide in the Electoral College and that the Republicans will win safe majorities in the Senate and House.

As a result, the Democratic Party will moderate itself significantly -- as happened after that party's landslide defeats in the 1972 and 1984 Presidential elections.

During Trump's second term, the economy will boom and he will become broadly popular and respected.

During the next half-decade, Our society will enjoy much healing.; 6/12/20, 9:04 AM
robother said...: "Obviously none of these snowflakes had been around in 1968..."

On the other hand, in 1968, major elements of the Establishment (blue collar unions, the Jackson/Daley Democrats, the heads of Fortune 500 companies, even the NYT) had not thrown their lot in with the SDS and radicals who claimed the whole American system was inherently unjust. Now we see BLM funded by corporations (not just Soros) to the tune of billions. The NYTimes is promoting its 1609 Project claiming that the US founding was primarily to protect and perpetuate slavery. Slogans that were yelled by the most extreme elements at anti-war protests in 1968 are now accepted wisdom on every media outlet in the USA; indeed, it is career suicide to question them. And don't get me started on the effective castration of Republican types like Romney.

The message of despair is obviously important to the success of the radical takeover, and I don't want to reinforce it. But we need to be clear-eyed about how dangerous this moment is.; 6/12/20, 9:05 AM
Jamie said...: My husband and I are split on this point. He is terribly pessimistic, and I am cautiously optimistic. The greatest reason for my optimism is probably that there are at least two sides to every story now, even if it still takes some work to get to the side not supported by the media. The greatest reason for his pessimism is probably that he is a pessimist.; 6/12/20, 9:08 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Let me guess, the only way to unite and heal the country is to elect Dementia Joe.; 6/12/20, 9:08 AM
Nonapod said...: Pessimism during a time of plenty seems odd. The current problems we face are largely self inflicted. They're not based on anything that is either irreversible or unfixable. They're mostly based on perceptions. Some people percieve our country to be systemically racist. Some people don't. But one thing is certain, at different points in our history we've faced far worse division.

But if you believe that we've reached some sort of point irretrievable cultural dissolution, what exactly do you think makes it so? What has changed? What exactly is so different now?; 6/12/20, 9:09 AM
buwaya said...: I am thoroughly pessimistic about you.
I have often given my reasons, but here they are as a list -

- You have lost, in most places, that independent spit-in-your eye spirit. You are, more than ever has been, a race of cowed functionaries.
- Your economy has almost completely sidelined your innovators. High tech consolidation has crushed innovation and "creative destruction" doesn't happen. You are treading water, with just a few exceptions. The intense tech churn of the 1970's to 1990's is over. There is no quivering energy in Silicon Valley. Even Apples' "Spaceship" HQ is a bit dingy - as of last June, when I was there last.
- Large company thinking is no longer about products but about regulatory compliance and manipulation of legal issues.
- As we can see, daily now, your universities have become completely worthless. There no longer is a functional national brain.
- Your elite is decadent and failing, and every day more at war with the rest of you. But you cannot push them aside and replace them.

You are still rolling forward on historical momentum, but the engine has stopped.; 6/12/20, 9:12 AM
traditionalguy said...: The new inventions in communication, computing, medical cures, and Space Weapons are ushering in a big boom in growth in a time of world peace. No wonder the globalists want to take over The governance and claim credit for the new stuff while they party with the trafficked children. But That Bad Orange Man with Q and the Deplorables are blocking them.; 6/12/20, 9:13 AM
West Texas Intermediate Crude said...: The worse, the better.
At least until the next Dem president is inaugurated.; 6/12/20, 9:15 AM
Lance said...: This is the most optimistic Vladimir Putin has felt about the United States of America and the state of the world since he can remember.; 6/12/20, 9:16 AM
rehajm said...: Shit, this thing's been rolling for 243 years give or take. At what point does it cease to be an experiment?; 6/12/20, 9:21 AM
Carol said...: The greatest reason for his pessimism is probably that he is a pessimist.

Mine is the same. Pessimism is a cheap and easy position to take. It always makes you look smart because who's to say something terrible isn't just around the corner?

I grew up pessimistic, but got over it after the Soviet Union fell. Just that one event. Who on earth expected that? No one.

Nobody knows anything.; 6/12/20, 9:23 AM
buwaya said...: You aren't at Weimar. Much more like Spain in 1935-1936. One election away from when your two sides set upon each other for real. In Spain it was when the leftist Frente Popular won, in a disputed election, and the left took it as a sign to start persecuting the right. The right, of course, took the message to be that the constitutional order was void, and started organizing a coup. A poorly planned coup, alas.

The other parallel is that mutual popular hatred was being drummed up by the new high tech mass media, the radio.; 6/12/20, 9:24 AM
Greg the class traitor said...: Looks like the NYT is really afraid that Trump will win in Nov; 6/12/20, 9:28 AM
Michael K said...: Well, New York City is certainly pessimistic.

Rents in Manhattan have crashed.

Manhattan had its worst May in a decade for new rental leases, falling 62%, according to a new report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman.
May also saw the largest year-over-year increase in new listings in nearly four years, with the number apartments listed for rent in Manhattan jumping 34%, to 7,420.
The rising inventory suggests prices could be under pressure when the real estate industry reopens, likely in late June or early July.; 6/12/20, 9:30 AM
Sebastian said...: "Hell, no"

I am pleased to see cruel neutrality gone.

Now, it's a matter of seeing what you are observing.

Part of which is that progs deliberately aim to divide and destroy. Pessimism is a tool.; 6/12/20, 9:32 AM
buwaya said...: "The current problems we face are largely self inflicted."

They usually are, in such cases.

"Pessimism during a time of plenty seems odd."

Spain, 1936. Recovering, finally, from the Great Depression.; 6/12/20, 9:34 AM
Gusty Winds said...: If Biden and the Dems get complete control of Washington, the NYTs is correct.; 6/12/20, 9:34 AM
Kai Akker said...: - You have lost, in most places, that independent spit-in-your eye spirit. You are, more than ever has been, a race of cowed functionaries. Please check the White House resident.

- Your economy has almost completely sidelined your innovators. High tech consolidation has crushed innovation and "creative destruction" doesn't happen. You are treading water, with just a few exceptions. The intense tech churn of the 1970's to 1990's is over. There is no quivering energy in Silicon Valley. Even Apples' "Spaceship" HQ is a bit dingy - as of last June, when I was there last. Those are your opinions. Cycles will always occur. Big Tech overdue for its down cycle. Then we'll see where innovation stands.

- Large company thinking is no longer about products but about regulatory compliance and manipulation of legal issues. Corporate America needs a shakeup after being spoonfed for a decade by the Federal Reserve. I agree with your view here.

- As we can see, daily now, your universities have become completely worthless. There no longer is a functional national brain.Another sector already in its down cycle. Academe can only improve from current levels. We differ because I believe it will improve.

- Your elite is decadent and failing, and every day more at war with the rest of you. But you cannot push them aside and replace them. 5 months.; 6/12/20, 9:40 AM
Martin said...: Things always look bad at the NYT in an election year with a Republican in the White House.

2018, 2006, 2004, 2002, 1992, 1990, 1988, 1986, 1984, 1982, 1976, 1974, 1972, 1970... a litany of horrors before election day, and depending pn the outcome, sometimes after.; 6/12/20, 9:48 AM
MD Greene said...: Ben Rhodes had it right: They are 27 years old, and they literally know nothing.

On the plus side, they are full of righteous certitude.

Today's Wall St. Journal has a devastating examination of how the city's healthcare system, chaotic and corrupt in the best of times, was utterly inept in its handling of this coronavirus.; 6/12/20, 9:50 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: The pessimism is nonsensical and amnesiac. Compared to where America was in the early ‘70’s we’re cooking with gas. Especially ridiculous is all the hype about the Red Guards destroying the fabric of American society and it’s institutions. With the possible exception of academia, American institutions have become steadily more conservative, even reactionary, during my lifetime. It costs nothing, changes nothing, when Amazon puts a BLM message on it’s home page. It’s not a surrender. It’s a shuck, a kiss-off, go-away-and-play. The same dumbshow is being aired across the country but only the willfully self-deceived give it any credence. The gap between what social media is saying and what people are saying in person is incredible. The Left is crumbling, not rising.; 6/12/20, 9:51 AM
gilbar said...: i was just watching footage from CHAZ, i noticed somethings
a) they SAY that america is a fascist brutal land; where the POLICE can do anything they want
b) they ASSUME, that the ABSOLUTE WORST the Police will do to them; is pepper gas and citations

does anyone see a dichotomy there?
IF we WERE living in a Totalitarian Fascist Police State.... Would those protesters be breathing?
The protesters seem Quite Confident, that Men With Guns; Are NOT going to come striding in
WHY?
IF America is a Totalitarian Fascist Police State; why aren't the protesters scared?; 6/12/20, 9:54 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: NYT: "On the Future, Americans Can Agree: It Doesn’t Look Good."

Heh - go fuck off, NYT. How does this help, a wise soul once asked. You're the ones making journalism not "look good" and the country.

AA: "Hell, no. I won't agree."

Hell yeah, that is right. Gotta fight back against the leftist wave of destruction and pessimism and creeping censorship, wokeism and totalitarianism.; 6/12/20, 9:56 AM
Francisco D said...: This is a column by Lisa Lerer, a reporter, and David Umhoefer, a former reporter

They should interview J. Farmer who comes to the same conclusion, but from a much different perspective.; 6/12/20, 9:59 AM
Charlie Eklund said...: The future’s so bright we’ve gotta wear masks.; 6/12/20, 10:04 AM
jaydub said...: I am convinced the schism in the country cannot be solved by other than a civil war, and I am actively preparing for that eventuality while praying it doesn’t happen. I suspect the ultimate flash point will be the election unless the Dems decide they are going to lose and step up the insurrection through their radical left proxies before then, or, more likely miscalculate and accidently precipitate a national calamity from which retrenchment is not an option for either side. That is not to say they are not actively trying to foment the next flash point as well as trying to goad the federal government into some event they can call an overreaction. If they do that, I don't believe we will even get to the election, nor should we. After seeing what has been going on in the past month or so with the full support and assistance of the Democrats, the media and the bureaucracy, does anyone really want to live under a Marxist government that eschews personal freedom and property rights and demands the citizenry lick their jack boots in order to survive? That’s where we are headed and it boggles the mind how quickly we’re getting there. So I guess that qualifies me as a pessimist although I believe I’m just a realist.; 6/12/20, 10:10 AM
stlcdr said...: Any ups and downs can be pretty much ignored (well, minimized) if you have personally put everything in place to take care of yourself.

There is (of course) a lot of blame placed on Trump but here-s the thing - he cannot actually effect anything, or quite little from a domestic standpoint: it has to go through congress, then he has the power to sign or veto.

(Of the things he has had the power to do, I've yet to see any net negative effects).

People (the media) interpret Trump-Tweets as policy; well ain't that just cute.; 6/12/20, 10:11 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Althouse is the NYT's uber Karen. Whatever they say or do she is disappointed. But not just disappointed. Rather than simply cancel her subscription, an outcome they would no doubt infinitely prefer, she feels a strong need to tell them exactly how disappointed she is, every day, sometimes multiple times per day.; 6/12/20, 10:11 AM
Ken B said...: Easy. Pessimistic people don’t vote Trump.; 6/12/20, 10:11 AM
Sam L. said...: The NYT? I despise, detest, and distrust the NYT. The WaPoo, too!; 6/12/20, 10:12 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: On the future of the New York Times, most Americans agree that it doesn't look good. And most would agree that the NYT deserves the future it's gonna get--good and hard!; 6/12/20, 10:14 AM
TobyTucker said...: As the NYT is running a very aggressive FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) campaign against the American system, this is more of a situational report. "The plan is working".; 6/12/20, 10:18 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: They keep confusing "Americans" with "Democrats".; 6/12/20, 10:21 AM
Gk1 said...: Well yeah, things are gloomy for the liberals electoral chances this fall, that's easy enough to understand. Where this is going all wrong is making a sweeping assumption the rest of the country feels that way too or the same existential dread that things have irredeemably gone off the rails. Not even.; 6/12/20, 10:23 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Nope, not pessimistic in the least. This is the left once again trying to will reality into being by insisting it is so. I don't think any of this is nearly as bad as what happened during the late 1960's.

What's more, the radicals back then were much more grounded in reality and displayed a greater level of maturity that the temper-tantrum throwing brats of 2020. This will all pass and wind up no more than an infrequently viewed page on Wikipedia.; 6/12/20, 10:27 AM
Michael K said...: Today's Wall St. Journal has a devastating examination of how the city's healthcare system, chaotic and corrupt in the best of times, was utterly inept in its handling of this coronavirus.

I was once an expert witness in a med-mal case against the city hospital system. Interesting experience.; 6/12/20, 10:42 AM
Michael K said...: she feels a strong need to tell them exactly how disappointed she is, every day, sometimes multiple times per day.

Actually, I think she does it to have stuff to blog about. Traditional comedians used current events to riff on in their comedy. Mort Sahl was good at that. God knows current events have a lot of comedy material.; 6/12/20, 10:45 AM
Krumhorn said...: so we're prompted to think he's got the "white privilege" affliction and he's got it bad.

Our hostess has a sense of humor! That was funny.

Buwaya, I always read your comments carefully, and usually with approval. This is an area where your distance from our shores betrays you. There is an inner warp and woof that you cannot know merely by watching John Wayne movies. For example, an ABC poll out today says that well over 60% of Americans do not support defunding the police or reallocating money to social programs. That should tell you something important given the surface noise we all hear that sounds like a deafening roar. It’s just the leftie media in their noise machine.

Lets say that 500,000 recently went to the streets to protest and loot. Just to be generous, let’s call it 1,000,000. In a country of 330 million, that’s one-third of 1% of the population. There are many times that number of Bernie Bros...and that is still a very small percent of the population. Not even enough to beat Sleepy Joe for the nomination. And Joe immediately said he wasn’t in support of defunding police. He’s sad, but he knows.

While the current rabid mob Cultural Revolution in this racedemic is fear-inducing if you are a public figure or a professor or a major brand, for the rest of us, this will all be sorted out in November. One thing that Americans can always be counted on to do is to stand up to the fucking bullies one way or the other...eventually.

Churchill said it best, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.”

- Krumhorn; 6/12/20, 10:46 AM
Narayanan said...: So the gleeful undertones of NYTimes are well concealed and not detectable by Professora

does it still qualify as schadenfreude? or freudenschade?; 6/12/20, 10:46 AM
mikee said...: It is NOT pessimistic to use one's experience, rational thought, knowledge of history, and other resources to say, "People doing these stupid things will have a bad outcome." It is simply predictive, and in fact a prediction optimistically based on previous examples of the same.

I prefer to see the sign on the mountainous highway reading "Watch for Falling Rocks" and, like Uncle Fester in the famous New Yorker cartoon, smile expectantly.; 6/12/20, 10:49 AM
Bilwick said...: From the NYT ("a former newspaper," as Andrew Klavan likes to add), part of the statist Hive, which is working overtime to ensure us all a bleak future.; 6/12/20, 10:51 AM
rehajm said...: As a result, the Democratic Party will moderate itself significantly

One could see the the results of recent races and suggest it's happening already. A flat out rejection of Bernie Sanders by voters. AOC is being primaried by Michelle Caruso Cabrera, an economic literate with libertarian tendencies. Rumors are AOC is in trouble. Absentee balloting is going on and we'll know in a few weeks...; 6/12/20, 10:56 AM
Wince said...: Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
Althouse is the NYT's uber Karen. Rather than simply cancel her subscription...

There's an infinite difference between the tradition of informed media criticism, as mastered by Althouse, and manipulative demands based on threatened reports to authority.

I for one appreciate her coverage so I don't have to pay to know what the NYT is up to.; 6/12/20, 10:57 AM
bagoh20 said...: Most everything has gotten better, especially recently. The 20th century was the real disappointment with human nature, and it was almost entirely one thing doing the damage: Totalitarianism driven by the demands of collectivism. The mass murder, war, domination, starvation, and destruction of cultures from Nazi Germany, the Soviets, the Communist Chinese, Koreans, Cubans, Vietnamese, and the endless warfare in both Latin America and Africa were all demanded by a relatively small number of people who insisted on making all the decisions for millions of others by force. You could argue that Carl Marx did more damage to mankind than any human in history.

This century we have so far avoided most of that ugliness, partly because so many of the resistance were already killed, but that ideology remains, and still eats away at the best of humanity, which is our cultures, values, and ideas developed over thousands of years of trial, error, struggle and work. The conflict and dangers we face today still emanate from the same forces: a few people insisting on total control they believe necessary for their idea of utopia, and their's alone.

Any optomism comes from the fact that we seemed to be moving past it, having seen it's failure, but the pessimism comes from the fact that we clearly have not, and the younger people moving into control of the world seem to have been so poorly educated that they don't even know what happened, so they don't value the good nor understand the evil and how it works from within.; 6/12/20, 11:09 AM
Static Ping said...: I'm not sure what to think at the moment.

If you follow the news and the Internet, we are seeing outright Maoist struggle sessions in real time, large corporations and the media engaging in censorship, open insurrection, attempts to erase various parts of the country's history, and the ongoing effort to destroy the police and with it law and order. Many Democrats are actively supporting this, including state governors. I never thought I'd see the day.

On the other hand, as far as my day-to-day life is concerned basically nothing has changed. I live in the suburbs and there's almost nothing. There's a couple of BLM signs in front of expensive houses owned by white people. I have run across people across the racial spectrum and you wouldn't know anything had happened at all. Everyone is getting along just fine. It's like this is a non-issue outside of the cities and social media. And, trust me, I do not live in a red area. Not even close.; 6/12/20, 11:10 AM
narciso said...: four years ago, a islamist terrorist, murdered 50 people, and most media at best sought to obfuscate his origins, the bureau under mccabe was out of touch, at best, the incident only merits a sentence, of course the perpetrator's father was an fbi informant, his enabler was a still well connected imam, his trainer a bodyguard for the sheikh,; 6/12/20, 11:12 AM
bagoh20 said...: The good news is that we have been through all this before and the last time it was us, and mostly just as stupid and destructive. The violence was a mistake and a weakness both then and now.

It was orderly democracy that kept it in check with a mix of values exchanged back and forth moderating each with the other over time. The key was acceptance of the people's verdict by both sides. That has not been the case lately with one side trying to reverse an election though endless law-fare and lies. Screwing with that key value is the most dangerous thing we do.; 6/12/20, 11:19 AM
Butkus51 said...: The fact that many Americans are still thinking about who to vote for is all the proof I need that these are going to be considered good times a few years from now.; 6/12/20, 11:21 AM
Kyzer SoSay said...: I'm feeling a mix of pessimism for where civil discourse is headed and optimism for where the country as a whole is headed. It has to get worse before it gets better, I think, and this is still the downslope of the overall cycle. As far as predictions of civil war go, if it happens, I'm ready to defend my family, but I won't be joining any roving militias. Patrol my neighborhood? Sure. Man a roadblock in town? Sure. But I'm not looking for a fight, just to keep my family and town safe. Incredible violence can and may be visited on any who threaten either, but until that happens, the plan to hunker down and weather the storm remains.; 6/12/20, 11:34 AM
Bilwick said...: NorthoftheOneOhOne writes: "What's more, the radicals back then were much more grounded in reality and displayed a greater level of maturity that the temper-tantrum throwing brats of 2020."

This observation strikes this Baby Boomer as true. For one thing, if you one of the college radicals I encountered in the late Sixties and early Seventies, they were going to college when a college education still meant something; so if you at least showed up to class and halfway paid attention, you could get a basic knowledge of history (albeit taught by "liberals" and some Marxists), which today's radical-Leftists seem blissfully ignorant of. Even the "liberals" and Marxists were smarter than today's blithering idiots, such as Howard.; 6/12/20, 11:36 AM
Unknown said...: Re "Much more like Spain in 1935-1936. One election away from when your two sides set upon each other for real. In Spain it was when the leftist Frente Popular won, in a disputed election, and the left took it as a sign to start persecuting the right. The right, of course, took the message to be that the constitutional order was void, and started organizing a coup. A poorly planned coup, alas"

and

"This is the left once again trying to will reality into being by insisting it is so. I don't think any of this is nearly as bad as what happened during the late 1960's"

In both cases the left were offering a Soviet paradise. Remember that's what the NYT was reporting at the time. There was an obvious alternative to solve the 'crisis of capitalism'. What are they offering us today? Without Lenin there would have been no Hitler or Spanish civil war.; 6/12/20, 11:41 AM
I'm Not Sure said...: It's the same as with the corona bug. New Yorkers look around and conclude that what they see there is what everybody else sees everywhere else. No sense at all that there's anyplace that matters that's not New York. If they weren't so full of themselves, they might eventually figure that out, but I sure won't be holding my breath waiting.; 6/12/20, 12:04 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Rittenhouse Square is almost smack in the middle of downtown Philly and many people walk through there. It has some high priced homes there and a lot of ordinary retail stores and office bldgs too so a random man is not necessarily wealthy.

I could not access the NYT article btw.; 6/12/20, 12:06 PM
Richard Dolan said...: Once again, the NYT wants to bring about what it claims has already happened. The history (sorry, in NYT-speak that would be herstory) of the US includes periods when the American experiment was teetering, but this is not one of them. If they are looking for herstorical analogies, a better one would involve a comparison of the NYT-audience (prosperous, educated lefty whites, mostly) with their European confreres. It seems that the NYT audience has caught a bit of the European disease, in that both sets of elites have lost any faith in the culture, values or institutions that made their societies so productive and dominant.

What the world needs now is a Tom Wolfe for this age, since mockery of this generation's inane vanities (as Wolfe did with Lenny's cocktail party for the Panthers) is the surest way to puncture their balloon. The Bee is good at that, but hasn't gotten past the short jab -- essentially, an extended one-liner. What's really need is a more extended treatment, in the nature of Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.; 6/12/20, 12:07 PM
Steve from Wyo said...: I do not agree.; 6/12/20, 12:15 PM
Kai Akker said...: "The Left is crumbling, not rising." --TheCrackerEmceeRef

Yes, I think you're right. We are watching its desperation, acted out. And I sure hope you're right.

What I wonder is whether a big bear market on Wall Street will renew the Left and bring on new plagues, worse than the PC conformity. The market cycle was pushed so far out in time and price by the Fed that the inevitable down part of the cycle will be much more painful, as a result. Poorly managed cities and states will be in great distress whenever that occurs. The Left will use all that as an accusation that free-market capitalism has failed and only socialism will work. People whose finances would have been damaged, in this scenario, could be susceptible to any other nostrums no matter how worthless history has proven them.

The Fed has so much to answer for. They held down wages but magnified equity returns; huge inequalities resulted. They incentivized debt and punished savings. Most people don't even know yet. On this particular aspect, the financial cycle, I am pessimistic.; 6/12/20, 12:16 PM
J Severs said...: Internal NYT polls probably showed downturn for Dems.; 6/12/20, 12:19 PM
Bill Peschel said...: Not pessimistic at all. I'm convinced global warming is a scam, and that bad actors are deliberately destabilizing the system to sow fear and hatred and to keep Trump from getting re-elected.; 6/12/20, 12:23 PM
cubanbob said...: The Crack Emcee said...
They keep confusing "Americans" with "Democrats"

Crack nailed it. Notice all this Big City doom and gloom are in big cities where Democrats have been power for decades. Philly has been Democrat for decades, Chicago even longer. NYC always had massive Democrat control in the City Counsel. See how quick it took De Blasio to screw up the City. Right now the Democrats on the left of the party are cultist Marxists and the so-called center are organized criminals.; 6/12/20, 12:35 PM
John henry said...: The future's so bright I've got to wear shades.

I've been wandering this earth fo more than 70 years. I can't remember a time I've felt more optimistic about the future.

Just today the state health department announced that they had recalled to life 57 kung flu victims.

Last week 200 people total had died.

This week, 143. It's a Festivus Miracle! 6 months early.

These are the years of our lives and getting better

John Henry; 6/12/20, 12:35 PM
Gahrie said...: In a way I am optimistic. If we can just hold things together another fifty years, a lot of our problems will be solved. Fifty years from now, a new frontier will have opened up, the largest and richest yet for humanity. It will be possibly to create new communities again, a chance to start over and build new nations on Enlightenment ideas. It's not an accident that space is being opened up by private companies and not governments. This will continue.

In other ways, I am not so optimistic. We have to maintain a political and economic environment that will allow the Musks and Bezoses to thrive.

The election in November will basically set the course for the rest of my life. If there is a red wave, as I hope and believe there will be, I will remain an optimist. If there is a blue wave I will become an amalgam of Oscar the grouch and Marvin the robot for the rest of my life.; 6/12/20, 1:07 PM
effinayright said...: Howard said...
This is the most optimistic I have felt about the United States of America and the state of the world since I can remember.
*************

Yes, I'm sure that the CHAZ phenomenon puts a spring in your step. Just imagine all of America being like that!

SNORT; 6/12/20, 1:26 PM
Ralph L said...: The public explanation of Floyd's death and the exoneration of police officer Chauvin will be important actions in healing our society's current angers.

I'll have some of whatever Mike Sylwester is taking.; 6/12/20, 1:30 PM
RichardJohnson said...: buwaya
You aren't at Weimar. Much more like Spain in 1935-1936. One election away from when your two sides set upon each other for real. In Spain it was when the leftist Frente Popular won, in a disputed election, and the left took it as a sign to start persecuting the right. The right, of course, took the message to be that the constitutional order was void, and started organizing a coup. A poorly planned coup, alas.

Good points. Most of the histories of the Spanish Civil War deal much more with the events of the war rather than on what caused it. According to the most accepted narratives, the "democratically elected" government was toppled by right-wingers unwilling to accept the results of the 1936 election. - i.e. the decisions of a democracy.
Books by Stanley G. Payne - especially Collapse of the Spanish Republic - showed me that narrative lacked accuracy, insofar that the leftists in power in 1936 strayed far from appropriate conduct expected in a democracy. What stuck in my mind were the killings of priests, nuns and other Roman Catholic clerisy, and government police kidnapping and killing José Calvo Sotelo, the leading right-wing member of Parliament. The government's refusal to arrest those responsible for Calvo Sotelo's death and kidnapping- and they were well known- sent a rather strong message to the right "that the constitutional order was void," as you put it.; 6/12/20, 1:33 PM
Michael K said...: Notice all this Big City doom and gloom are in big cities where Democrats have been power for decades. Philly has been Democrat for decades, Chicago even longer.

Yup. I think I can remember a Republican Mayor but I'm only 82.; 6/12/20, 1:35 PM
Jamie said...: "- Your elite is decadent and failing, and every day more at war with the rest of you. But you cannot push them aside and replace them. 5 months."

Hang on, I've been assured that Trump is (and his supporters are) the very opposite of "elite."

Or were you saying that in 5 months we can vote out the Dems in the House and Senate? If so, hear hear!; 6/12/20, 1:37 PM
I'm Not Sure said...: "Yes, I'm sure that the CHAZ phenomenon puts a spring in your step. Just imagine all of America being like that!"

Probably not going to happen.

COEUR D’ALENE, IDAHO STANDS UP…ANTIFA STANDS DOWN!

If you ventured to downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho last night you would think you had entered a Militia family reunion. No one has an accurate count of how many heavily armed citizens came out to support peaceful protestors and protect local businesses and citizens against shipped in ANTIFA members but it was certainly HUNDREDS, perhaps over a THOUSAND.

“We just drove downtown Coeur d’Alene. It is packed with armed citizens. I’ve never seen so many AR-15s in my life. There’s at least a thousand armed citizens walking on the sidewalks and the streets are packed with cars and trucks with guys in the back with AR-15 and American flags everywhere. We saw two protesters wearing their little black clothing and black masks and sitting on a step quietly with their little poster board sign saying “our system sucks!” Guess why they’re being so polite.”~Keith Gibson, Coeur d’Alene resident.

What was witnessed last night, 06/01/20 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was PROOF that Good Guys with guns keep bad guys with evil intent away. There was unity in a cause to protect the community. There were young people, old people, individuals from all walks of life out patrolling the community and believe it or not, EVERYONE, except the ANTIFA creeps felt extremely safe!

https://buildingblocksforliberty.org/2020/06/coeur-dalene-idaho-stands-upantifa-stands-down/; 6/12/20, 1:42 PM
FullMoon said...: Paraphrasing a black woman chastising protesters:

"You fuckers do this every four years. Get out of my way so I can go home, or suffer the consequences"; 6/12/20, 1:43 PM
Jamie said...: Gahrie, I'm with you: 50 more years and we're golden. But I say that not because of space exploration (though I think that's both the coolest and one of the most important things we could be doing), but because my public-school-educated daughter, just now graduating high school and fully steeped in and largely accepting of the Leftist ideologies of such places (as you know well), thinks that:

- it's high time the lockdown ends everywhere because the aim was never to prevent everyone from getting CV19 but rather to ensure that our hospitals weren't overwhelmed by too many people's getting it at once;

- people who vandalize and assault are not protesters but rioters, and to rob the police of all tools to suppress mob violence will only lead to more mob violence; and

- as confirmed by her friends, the great majority of whom are young people of color (she was known as "the white girl in multivariate calculus" and is frequently the only white girl in whatever group she's hanging out with), "People of my generation just don't see racism the way your generation does. We just want everybody to have the same chance, and then the best person or the person who's the best fit should get the job or whatever. When Biden [for whom she'll certainly vote, despite our best efforts] said he was going to pick a black woman VP, we all said that was stupid because now whoever she is, people will think he only picked her because she was a black woman. She'll always have an asterisk by her name."

And 50 years from now, her grandkids will be reaching adulthood. So yes, I see lots of room for optimism. But the first part, making it through the next 50 years - there's the rub.; 6/12/20, 1:51 PM
DanTheMan said...: >>The public explanation of Floyd's death and the exoneration of police officer Chauvin will be important actions in healing our society's current angers.

>>> I'll have some of whatever Mike Sylvester is taking.

"Ask your doctor if Crazytown is right for you...."; 6/12/20, 2:03 PM
n.n said...: Just today the state health department announced that they had recalled to life 57 kung flu victims.

Counting twice and thrice, and mischaracterization of cause and effect, with motive, incompetence, or convenience.; 6/12/20, 2:07 PM
n.n said...: "The public explanation of Floyd's death and the exoneration of police officer Chauvin will be important actions in healing our society's current angers."

I'll have some of whatever Mike Sylwester is taking.

He's optimistic. There is reason, despite the widespread warlock judgments ("protests"), to be cautiously optimistic. Americans are not as diversitist as commonly portrayed, and causes are routinely conflated to amplify their effect.; 6/12/20, 2:09 PM
Larry L said...: Some of us were around for the worldwideriots of 1968. We're still here.; 6/12/20, 2:10 PM
Alex said...: I keep hearing that we've never had it so good. Why then do I feel like it's the worst of times? In my whole life, I've never seen all of corporate America fall in line for a radical left agenda like this. I go on LinkedIn and see this #BLM virtue signaling all day long. It's pure insanity.; 6/12/20, 2:13 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: "As we can see, daily now, your universities have become completely worthless. There no longer is a functional national brain."

I don't know why more parents aren't speaking with their wallets. I know I will be. No, I will not pay a quarter of a million dollars for four years of social "justice" summer camp. Also, no "elite" institution that stands against free speech is actually elite.; 6/12/20, 2:21 PM
Jim at said...: We'd be in a lot better shape if some people could've simply accepted the results of the 2016 election and moved on to the next one.

But that time has passed. Long ago.; 6/12/20, 2:21 PM
DanTheMan said...: >>Some of us were around for the world wide riots of 1968. We're still here.

I have a suspicion that Jacksonville this year will look a lot like Chicago in 1968. It will be a giant magnet for every Antifa, BLM, and other assorted riotous type. Why any mayor would want this convention in their city during this crazy time is inexplicable to me.

And, of course, there will be somebody will be hurt/shot/run over by the police, captured on a dozen cell phones, and this will be replayed every 15 minutes by the networks. It will also conclusively prove that Republicans are to blame for riots.

And the national burning and looting parties will start all over again.; 6/12/20, 2:29 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Michael K said...

Yup. I think I can remember a Republican Mayor but I'm only 82.

Off topic, but are you safe and sound? I heard that they were evacuating parts of Oro Valley and the Catalina Foothills due to the fires.; 6/12/20, 2:33 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Much more like Spain in 1935-1936. One election away from when your two sides set upon each other for real."

Pre-Civil War Spain makes a poor analogy for modern America. Where the springs of power (especially the ability to project force) are doesn't remotely line up with Republican Spain.

Remember, everything you've seen in the last couple of weeks was an exercise in sufferance. It could have been put down in hours absent that sufferance. And one of these days, if necessary, it will be absent.; 6/12/20, 2:41 PM
readering said...: The future looks good for AA. She's got a public pension, lives in a nice house in a nice area with no mortgage, I dare say. Seems to have her health, a happy marriage, and a good relationship with her adult kids, who seem to be doing fine from her blog reports (an unusually fulfilling retirement avocation).

The actuarial tables and climate models say she and will not see the effects of climate change and inevitable financial pressures on her pension fund, social security and medicare. Maybe she worries for her kids.

Meanwhile, the prospects for a solution to coronavirus remain dim, without which the national and global economies cannot recover. The free money propping up the economy and stock market [what the hell does Trump have to complain about Powell and Pelosi?!?] will run out and then what? Many lack even a dream of AA's financial security. Many are not in good health and physical condition even without the virus. I don't believe it will just go away like a miracle, although her favorite comic reassures us.

Meanwhile, we're going into a cold war with the world's biggest economy (based on ppp) and are in danger of hot wars with rogue nations in a situation where Trump has been busy burning bridges with all our allies. More on that from Bolton shortly.

But at least we have more originalists on the bench, and things are looking up for those who want to use organized religion to justify what their baser instincts are pushing them to do.; 6/12/20, 2:43 PM
iowan2 said...: This inconsequential kerfuffle is a sign of things going great. The masses have zero real problems. All are well fed, healthy, the plague was far less deadly than the experts predicted. We had the lowest unemployment since WWII era. Peace dominates the globe. A few people are working overtime to be relevant, and with all going well, the media is hyping things to the nth degree, in order to sell advertising, and trying anything they can think of that would harm the Presidents 2cnd term.

In retail agriculture the worst time is February, not enough work to keep everyone busy enough that they don't look for imaginary things to be mad about. Lots of backbiting, and ladder climbers attempting to gain stature. Working 14 hours a day seems to help everyone working to a common cause getting along.; 6/12/20, 2:55 PM
RMc said...: "The American experiment is teetering"

It always is.; 6/12/20, 3:02 PM
RK said...: My first reading was: "Get out of my way so I can go home and suffer the consequences"; 6/12/20, 3:19 PM
Kai Akker said...: --- Or were you saying that in 5 months we can vote out the Dems in the House and Senate? If so, hear hear! --Jamie

Yeah, that one! : )

The Economist currently gives Trump a 1-in-6 chance of winning the electoral college over Biden. And only a 6% chance of winning the popular vote. Repeat, over Biden!

So you know he's golden. The Democrats have almost five months left to make even more people fear their insanities.; 6/12/20, 3:20 PM
FullMoon said...: Internet makes a world of difference in organizing protests, riots, or terrorists. Protests happening in small cities due to facebook and twitter and other social media posts. In the past, had to be a poster hung up, or phone calls to arrange something . Now, immediate reaction possible. San Francisco Bay Area, gangs show up in fifty cars to hit and run shopping malls,or auto dealerships.; 6/12/20, 3:21 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: We've been in world wars and had our own civil war. Why would anyone think we teeter on the now? Soft.; 6/12/20, 3:37 PM
Iman said...: The NYT and their crocodile tears... fuck them and the horses they minced in on.; 6/12/20, 3:51 PM
hstad said...: Yep, we've been through tougher times and so have I - try the 'Vietnam War'[for me] and the Detroit Riots [for the residents and Federal Army]. Go back to the 'Draft Riots' of NYC., etc.

This is a vetting process and a lot of the 'Narrative' water carriers will be out of employment soon.

I read one comment which I liked as a great analogy from 'The Godfather'when Michael asked Clemenza 'how bad will the war become: - "...Probably all the other Families will line up against us. That's all right. These things gotta happen every......ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one. You know, you gotta stop them at the beginning. Like they should have stopped Hitler at Munich, they should never let him get away with that, they was just asking for trouble...."

Good advice, from a 'fictional gangster' too!; 6/12/20, 3:51 PM
Iman said...: Blogger Larry L said...
Some of us were around for the worldwideriots of 1968. We're still here.

Yes... 1968 without the assassinations and excellent music.; 6/12/20, 3:56 PM
Howard said...: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho "LAPD North"; 6/12/20, 3:56 PM
Howard said...: wholelottasplainin: don't sweat the small stuff. CHAZ will burn itself out. you really should lose some weight, it'll help with all that sleep apnea snorting; 6/12/20, 3:58 PM
Jim at said...: As far as predictions of civil war go, if it happens, I'm ready to defend my family, but I won't be joining any roving militias. Patrol my neighborhood? Sure. Man a roadblock in town? Sure. But I'm not looking for a fight, just to keep my family and town safe. Incredible violence can and may be visited on any who threaten either, but until that happens, the plan to hunker down and weather the storm remains.

Yep.; 6/12/20, 4:03 PM
Rabel said...: Who would be a more competent alternative to Donald Trump as President:

A. Joe Biden
B. Raz Simone; 6/12/20, 4:15 PM
effinayright said...: DanTheMan said...
>>Some of us were around for the world wide riots of 1968. We're still here.

I have a suspicion that Jacksonville this year will look a lot like Chicago in 1968. It will be a giant magnet for every Antifa, BLM, and other assorted riotous type. Why any mayor would want this convention in their city during this crazy time is inexplicable to me.

And, of course, there will be somebody will be hurt/shot/run over by the police, captured on a dozen cell phones, and this will be replayed every 15 minutes by the networks. It will also conclusively prove that Republicans are to blame for riots.

And the national burning and looting parties will start all over again.
******************

Most sensible people will ask themselves WHY every Antifa, BLM and other assorted riotous types came to Jacksonville in the first place.

The obvious answer will be, because they were looking for trouble.

Good luck trying to blame the GOP for that. If anything, it will be a reminder of the choice Americans will be facing when they vote: anarchy, or law and order. America's adult and elderly voters won't be siding with the former, that's fer damn sure.

And when Trump wins, we can expect the riotous types to return to their Democrat-machine run shitholes and resume burning them down.

An old saying comes to mind: people generally get the government they deserve. Malcontents and totalitarians made their feculent beds: now they can lie in them.; 6/12/20, 4:34 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Many lack even a dream of AA's financial security. Many are not in good health and physical condition even without the virus."

So, the same as it's been every single day of human existence? The sky is falling!; 6/12/20, 4:48 PM
Greg the class traitor said...: DanTheMan said...
>>Some of us were around for the world wide riots of 1968. We're still here.
I have a suspicion that Jacksonville this year will look a lot like Chicago in 1968

Nope.
1: It is very straightforward for someone who gets a carry / concealed carry permit in their State to also get one for FL. And a lot of people do that, because FL has reciprocity with a lot of States, so having a CC for FL gets you ~25 other States, too, IIRC. So there's going to be a bunch of GOP convention-goers there who can legally carry concealed, and who will have no problem dealing with attacking fascist thugs.

Many of whom will have Go-Pro cameras on their chests, ready to set the record straight

2: 1968 Democrats wanted the votes of people who liked the thugs. GOP doesn't. So the cops will be under orders to protect the convention-goers, and crush antifa.

3: None of the convention-goers will be on the thugs side, this time; 6/12/20, 4:53 PM
Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said...: I usta work at 22nd & Walnut (my last "day job"), a coupla blocks from Rittenhouse Square. (And I hung out at 'MMR quite a few times throughout the decade, the studio of which literally overlooked RS.)

It's the Philly version of posh. They try, bless their hearts.; 6/12/20, 5:19 PM
hombre said...: Of course they are pessimistic. Look at who they hang around with, the causes they support and the way they conduct themselves. They are amoral losers.

Imagine if the best you had to look forward to from your perspective is a Biden Presidency with Demented Joe and a bunch of grifters trying to put the country back together. It’s one thing to share a bankrupt ideology with Democrat leaders. It is quite another to pretend they are capable of competent governance, particularly during trying times. At least with Obama he was glib enough to facilitate the pretext.

If the NYT had really intended to fuck up the country what would they have done differently?; 6/12/20, 5:25 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Freeman Hunt said...

We've been in world wars and had our own civil war. Why would anyone think we teeter on the now? Soft.

They've never been taught any real history. World War I, World War II, the Great Depression, the Civil War are things that they've vaguely heard of and the only in relation to their effects on 14% of the population.

Hell, they can't even be good revolutionaries! They had a dumpster fire in the CHAZ a couple of nights ago. Did the brave comrades put it out themselves? No, they called Seattle FD!

They are spoiled brats and when they tire of this it will fall apart. We can only hope that they will have to face consequences.; 6/12/20, 5:28 PM
Mark said...: Minneapolis City Council resolves to replace police with community-led model

(Reuters) - The Minneapolis City Council on Friday unanimously passed a resolution to pursue a community-led public safety system to replace the police department following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the city’s police.

The move comes days after a veto-proof majority of the council voted to disband the police department after the country erupted in protest over the killing of Floyd, a black man who died when a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protests-reform/minneapolis-city-council-resolves-to-replace-police-with-community-led-model-idUSKBN23J2W5

Whitesplain again how "defund the police" does not really mean abolishing the police department.; 6/12/20, 5:29 PM
hombre said...: Blogger Mike Sylwester said...
“I'm optimistic that our Attorney General William Barr will provide to the public an excellent accounting of the RussiaGate affair. That will provide some healing for our politics....”

No offense, Mike, but I’m pretty sure the Democrat leaders and their mindless minions are not interested in a factual accounting of the Russia hoax. Also, it is certain that the leftmedia will spin Barr’s work in favor of Trump’s enemies.; 6/12/20, 5:36 PM
I'm Not Sure said...: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho "LAPD North"

Yes, I'm aware it's a popular retirement location. So- there are retired cops in Coeur d’Alene. You know what's not there? Busted out storefront windows covered with plywood "Don't beat me again" murals.

I guess if you like the murals, Coeur d’Alene isn't for you.; 6/12/20, 5:37 PM
Krumhorn said...: There is no question that the Boomers have much for which to answer. However, the Millennials have proven to be the worst parents ever, on average. Their spoiled spawn to whom nobody had the stones to say "NO" (and mean it) and who have dresser tops full of participation trophies are the screaming hysterical neck-snapping scolds. There is nobody more dangerous than someone who is unwavering certain of their monopoly on virtue.

That's who we are seeing in the streets worshiping a drugged up felon who was convicted of home invasion after holding a pistol to the belly of a pregnant resident. In a word: Howard.

- Krumhorn; 6/12/20, 5:42 PM
DanTheMan said...: >>Meanwhile, the prospects for a solution to coronavirus remain dim, without which the national and global economies cannot recover.

Nonsense. We will learn to live with this virus, just like we do with countless other communicable diseases.; 6/12/20, 5:51 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Carol,

"...after the Soviet Union fell...Who on earth expected that? No one."

Jerry Pournelle and his coauthors did. Plus some of us who listened to them.

So did Ronald Reagan (who was among the listeners): "We win; they lose."

Krumhorn,

You're not a newcomer; why does your 10:46am sound like you're unaware that Buwaya lived and worked in the US for a very long time, up until recently, and has offspring that still live here?; 6/12/20, 5:57 PM
Howard said...: That's the spirit, Krumhorn. Dead-eye Dick blowing up Strawmen from El Toro to the Chocolate Mountains. Before the pandemic, everything was roses, milk and honey. Shouldn't we blame the boomers for all that success?; 6/12/20, 5:59 PM
Big Mike said...: Let me guess, the only way to unite and heal the country is to elect Dementia Joe.

Well, since November 2016 the Democrats have been fussing and carrying on and doing their petulant best to disrupt the American economy and tear apart the American social fabric, all the while calling for “unity.” The subtext is that there will be no unity until there is no Trump, and his deplorable voters accept their second-class status. Otherwise ... DOOM!!!; 6/12/20, 6:23 PM
DanTheMan said...: >>Nope.
1: It is very straightforward for someone who gets a carry / concealed carry permit in their State to also get one for FL. And a lot of people do that, because FL has reciprocity with a lot of States, so having a CC for FL gets you ~25 other States, too, IIRC. So there's going to be a bunch of GOP convention-goers there who can legally carry concealed, and who will have no problem dealing with attacking fascist thugs.

You can't be serious. You think that Republican CCW holders pointing their pistols at Antifa and BLM types will result in a peaceful convention?

As to having video proof, you assume facts matter. They don't.

I'll write the headline for you, in advance. "White GOP delegate guns down unarmed black protester"

No matter what the facts are, that's the story.; 6/12/20, 6:32 PM
DanTheMan said...: >>And when Trump wins,

Biden wins. The *only* reason Trump is president is that everybody knew Hillary was going to win in a landslide. So the Dem fraud machine wasn't called up.

They won't make that mistake again. The fraud will be massive and barely hidden. I would not be surprised to see Biden win PA, FL, MI, OH, and WI.

Trump may well fight like hell, but it won't matter. Facts no longer matter. People in Michigan could vote three times in alphabetical order in every precinct, and it won't matter.

It will be 24x7 "Trump tries to overturn election, become dictator for life"; 6/12/20, 6:49 PM
Michael K said...: Blogger Howard said...
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho "LAPD North"

Actually, you ignorant dipshit, it's Sand Point. Cour d Alene is getting expensive and has too many creeps from Boston around.

My daughter's 5 acres are near Sand Point. Very nice. I told her that Ruby Ridge is just over the hill. I don't think she remembers it.; 6/12/20, 6:56 PM
Michael K said...: The actuarial tables and climate models say she and will not see the effects of climate change and inevitable financial pressures on her pension fund, social security and medicare. Maybe she worries for her kids.

Nobody will and the rest of your worries are middle aged Karen type worries.; 6/12/20, 7:08 PM
Josephbleau said...: A useful approach to technology is, make a list of your problems, pick the top three, when you have solved them you have earned the right to solve three more.

The problem with the US today in a macro sense is that the list of problems is too small, so we have earned the right to solve small stupid problems, like, I eat better than anyone in the third world, but, I am not as rich as NFL/NBA stars and Musicians, so I will go crazy.

In reality, I think the recent violence is just a dominant male breeding ritual, unrestrained by proper policing and societal shaming (where are the minority females on this issue, majority females, especially Asian pseudo white females, do this very well).; 6/12/20, 7:18 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Time Magazine: “In a single eighteen-month period during 1971 and 1972 the FBI counted an amazing 2,500 bombings on American soil, almost five a day.”

Let me know when we get to that point and I’ll pay more attention.; 6/12/20, 7:26 PM
Michael K said...: Boy the moderators took the day off.; 6/12/20, 7:48 PM
Drago said...: More from the Blue/dem/lefty/LLR-lefty "paradise" of Minneapolis:

"18.6% of Minneapolis’ total real estate listings have popped up for sale in just the last 7 days"

https://twitter.com/comparethemedia/status/1271529015095046146

I know what you are thinking: Who can it ONLY be 18.6%.

Good question. I'm going to do out on a limb and say it will reach 25% before the month is out.

So many people wanting to flee the People's Democrat Paradise of Police-Free Minneapolis. I guess those are just the bourgeoisie kulak wreckers.

"'Droves' of people are fleeing New York City permanently to live in the suburbs or smaller cities - sparking questions of how the city will bounce back once coronavirus lockdown is lifted"

What?! More lefty paradises experiencing people "voting with their feet"?!

Goodness. What's wrong with those people? Don't they want to live in a happy democrat land where armed police show up at orthodox Jewish playgrounds to harass moms and children while their city is looted and burns with no repercussions?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8242679/Droves-New-Yorkers-looking-flee-city-permanently.html; 6/12/20, 7:50 PM
Michael K said...: I keep telling you that U Haul is behind this.

More blogger bullshit; 6/12/20, 8:12 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: "They won't make that mistake again. The fraud will be massive and barely hidden. I would not be surprised to see Biden win PA, FL, MI, OH, and WI."

The Dems fraud machine is successful in close elections, like the one that sent Stuart Smiley to the Senate. Or the Evers election.

If there is a 50,000 vote gap, it's a lot harder to find enough missing ballots in the trucks of cars to make up the difference.; 6/12/20, 8:18 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: "Time Magazine: “In a single eighteen-month period during 1971 and 1972 the FBI counted an amazing 2,500 bombings on American soil, almost five a day.”"

Can that be accurate? If so, where the heck was I ? Summers of 1971 and 1972 pretty much drunk every weekend in Wildwood, NJ.; 6/12/20, 8:28 PM
Krumhorn said...: Shouldn't we blame the boomers for all that success? I would say that many Boomers have succeeded in spite of the rest of the Boomers. The 60's and 70's hippies migrated into the public employee unions such as teachers and social workers. They systematically poisoned the well water for all of the kids who were told early that Columbus was guilty of genocide and that capital markets are evil. In a word: Howard.

We're living with the results of that cancer, and their spawn are rioting in the streets screaming foul profanities at the police and looting Reebok and Target for Air Jordans and big screen TVs.

- Krumhorn; 6/12/20, 8:39 PM
Drago said...: Howard, why do you think your rough and tough Howard's Heroes of New York are so very very spring-loaded to "courageously" harass orthodox Jewish moms and their small children while allowing everyone else basically to roam around attacking cops, burning buildings and looting stores?; 6/12/20, 8:56 PM
n.n said...: harass orthodox Jewish moms and their small children while allowing everyone else basically to roam around attacking cops...

Progress.; 6/12/20, 9:32 PM
Ken B said...: I think there is a very real chance of each of these by November

A Democrat landslide, led by the hard left

A Republican landslide, after several blue cities implode

A quarter million dead

Most likely: the first. Least likely: the second.

So I am close to buwaya, but not that far yet. The left simply hates the rest of you too much, and I don’t mean the fringe left.

If you live in a blue city, get out. Move.; 6/12/20, 9:37 PM
Ken B said...: Soup
It is accurate. See the book by Brian Burrough.; 6/12/20, 9:38 PM
buwaya said...: I have lived 34 years in the US, in California, though I have visited several states, some fairly often, mainly Texas, Nevada and Washington, for business reasons. I never really got the chance to do a "grand tour" as circumstances never seemed to line up, being something of a workaholic I guess.

We have been out of the US for seven months now.; 6/12/20, 9:44 PM
buwaya said...: The mode in which your conflict is likely to break out is not going to be like that of Spain in 1936. Every polity has its distinctive failure mode, the expected way things break down, a fault that has a history. In Spain it was an attempted military coup. This is because Spain had a long history of military revolts in the 19th-early 20th century, and up to 1936 several short-lived military dictatorships. These are the direct but long term results of the anarchy and chaos of the Napoleonic guerrilla wars and the semi-independent juntas of the time. Spain never really recovered from 1808, until the long reign of Franco.

Yours almost certainly won't be that, or not initially.

Spain also had very tight control of civilian weapons going back to the middle ages. In 1936 the public was entirely disarmed, until the mobs looted military arsenals. Which is why the military had to crack apart, in the course of the failure of the coup, in order to get the war going. The civilian armament in the US is something of a joker card there. It has not been of much direct political significance (other than as the gun control issue, just one among many politico-cultural fault lines) for a very long time. But the recent (post @2005) massive re-arming of the citizens changes this. How, I don't know.

The details of the ideological faiths differ too. Yours also will be a "war of religion", but with very different religions.

And then there are minority ethnic interests that complicate things, which Spain also had. But yours are geographically very much more complicated, and frankly the minorities in question in 2020 have no ability to organize as cohesive, effective entities.

Something is going to happen. How exactly it will go down I don't know. The stresses are extreme. It will be bound up in your election, which one way or another will fail, in that it cannot be seen as legitimate by whichever faction loses. And the winners will be obliged to use their elected power to destroy whatever power or capability to oppose that remains to the losers, such is the state of things. So much, anyway, seems very likely.

What the recent unrest tells me is that your upper politico-economic caste (the "high" party in your caste cold war) is thoroughly incompetent, which means that they are likely to make huge errors in a crisis. That means that things are more likely to proceed as a chaotic cascade of failures.; 6/12/20, 10:24 PM
Birkel said...: Some notes on foolishness, as expressed above:

1) readering believes the Chinese bull shit economic statistics because readering is stupid, and
2) Howard is a jack ass with nothing useful to say, and

3) Freeman Hunt understands why universities do not present value. It is a shame she cannot see that giving any inch to that who would do her harm is a bad idea.; 6/12/20, 10:27 PM
buwaya said...: Anyway, I am a pessimist, and in my own way a "prepper". But the best way to prep is not to build a cabin in the woods with years of rations and an arsenal, to wait out the time of troubles in a picturesque romantic fantasy, but to own the right passports and funds abroad.; 6/12/20, 10:30 PM
Greg the class traitor said...: Blogger DanTheMan said...
1: It is very straightforward for someone who gets a carry / concealed carry permit in their State to also get one for FL. And a lot of people do that, because FL has reciprocity with a lot of States, so having a CC for FL gets you ~25 other States, too, IIRC. So there's going to be a bunch of GOP convention-goers there who can legally carry concealed, and who will have no problem dealing with attacking fascist thugs.

You can't be serious. You think that Republican CCW holders pointing their pistols at Antifa and BLM types will result in a peaceful convention?

As to having video proof, you assume facts matter. They don't.

I'll write the headline for you, in advance. "White GOP delegate guns down unarmed black protester"

1: Antifa is whiter than a snowy day in Anchorage Alaska
2: I'm saying that after the first 20 - 30. Antifa thugs get shot, the rest of them are going to either
A: Decide to go elsewhere or
B: Engage in the kind of mass assault that wins Trump 40 States in November, and crushes the Democrats in the House and the Senate; 6/12/20, 11:54 PM
wildswan said...: The size of the American middle class and the size of America, east to west, north to south, is what makes comparison to Russia and Spain and Germany invalid. In the 20C you had the revolt of the masses; in the 21C you have a revolting elite which is quite likely to be victorious over itself. We'll all breathe a sigh of relief when that happens but it won't be the Fall of the West. The elite and their interests are becoming utterly insignificant in reality, while to themselves all they do is becoming unbearably portentous. But it is their own fall they are dimly seeing, not that of America. Take CHAZ. Only in America would anyone set up an "autonomous" zone and immediately post messages asking the outside to donate food and shelter to the autonomous citizens; and asking the city for toilets for the autonomous zone and getting them; and calling 911 for fires in the zone and the city fire department comes; and asking for laundry bags so the autonomous can send their dirty clothes home to Mom; and posting desperate appeals for ice and soft drinks and sunburn lotion. "Help us, Obi Wan Kenobi, send ice and soft drinks, you are our only hope." And after exposing their childishness, only Americans would still call their zone "autonomous" and only to the NYT would it seem a significant social experiment. CHAZ is just summer camp by another name, a trick by the young to escape lockdown. Someone is going to get hurt or several someones because the camp is poorly run, so it's no joke, and yet it is.; 6/13/20, 4:34 AM
MayBee said...: I remember when Obama thought America was ungovernable.
This is obviously something the Democrats think they want.; 6/13/20, 6:19 AM
Rusty said...: Buwaya. The left is trying very hard to inflict a stress riser in the wrong place. Blue cities in blue states. Things will bend, but they won't break. Plus.They are,at heart,soyboys.playing at revolutionaries. They don't have the will, the stamina, or the courage to truly remake our society. They are beta reolutionaries. They have no idea how this machine actually works. How things get done. How the things they rely on get made. They don't even know their own history. How we got here. To them, like all the usual suspects, history started when they opened their eyes this morning.; 6/13/20, 7:42 AM
Kirk Parker said...: More from Reagan: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!".; 6/13/20, 1:22 PM
Gahrie said...: This is obviously something the Democrats think they want.

At some point in the not too distant future, if this shit keeps up, the Left is going to convince White people that they're White, and that it matters.; 6/13/20, 5:25 PM