One happened in MY little town!!! Two masked men (at least we were safe from covid) ran into our Kohls department store and started smashing the jewelry cases, taking the jewelry. Some male shoppers in the store subdued one of the perps till the cops came. The other ran away. I wonder if that will cause others who want to copycat lawless behavior to think twice before coming more often to Wisconsin. First Kyle and now early black Friday shoppers! Yay!
I didn't see that one, but the recent story about 80 people breaking into Nordstrom's and smashing up the store, stealing stuff and even attacking the sales people . . . that, to me, suggests the craziness found everywhere these days has taken a radical next step.
Politicians have told the police to stand down. Activist attorneys general have told folks they won't bother prosecuting such crimes. Everything from a certain party is meant to destroy the fabric of society.
I don't know if one party can be solely blamed for the polarization seen today (although I'd say they are the bigger offender, yes). The people themselves are polarized, it has been growing for many years, and although it probably seems like an American issue, the same weird irrational polarization seems to be happening worldwide (except in countries where it is not tolerated, which is a bad thing as well).
Polarization has been ongoing but I was thinking since the Cosby show, even all in the family, people were starting to see race in a different but better way. There are upwardly mobile blacks if they work at it. Biden, however, as a Senator, removed the father figures from black families as a prerequisite for getting assistance. I see this as one of the biggest problems to final assimilation between blacks and whites. Hillary playing the sex card was divisive. But the media, where it had been helping, is now hurting keeping everyone at odds for no real reason. Yes, Police should not use excessive force. But many of these fatherless young black men find their identities elsewhere and can be dangerous. (Police also shoot at white perps, btw) Disjointed factoids?
From a purely American view, I think the continued aggregation of power in Washington DC taken away from the states is a big factor. Suddenly, the politics of the voters in the other 49 states directly affected everyone else...our system was never meant to be that way. Then issues were contrived so as to "demand"intrusion. Sure, there are other factors, but I believe that's a big one.
I think someone here (you?) pointed out that Go Fund Me would not permit money to be raised for Rittenhouse, but they are for the SUV killer who has a long rap sheet.
The type of prosecutor who prosecuted Kyle Rittenhouse would have charged these shoppers with illegally detaining the perp.
Agreed. I see internal trouble as well at state level with states like Washington and Oregon where the majority, solidly left, is all on the coast in the cities while the heartland of the states, conservative farmers, is in the farmlands to the east. That kind of population inequality guarantees those two states will never see anything but a 'progressive' governor in place, and anybody watching Seattle's train wreck a few years back during the 'summer of love' (as dubbed by Seattle's mayor) riots has seen just what the far left's idea of 'progress' produces. I write 'progressive' with quotes because the über-left have embraced it as their own (using it ad nauseam) when, in fact, it is the last thing they are. In fact, they're making 1984 a reality.
Progressive refers to the fact that leftists, unlike those on the right, are continuously moving everything to the left, advancing their agenda progressively. On the other hand, those on the right are constantly compromising. Republicans, for example, are nearly always on the defensive, and they consider it to be a win when they can keep the Democrats from getting everything they want. Meanwhile, the ball is continually moving to the left. Even when Republicans hold all three branches of government, the best they can accomplish is to slow the progress of the Democrat agenda.
THAT'S another issue I don't know how to surmount. There are very few states that have a universal ideology. Many states are controlled by masses of people living in densely populated areas. I follow this in my state (Virginia), where about 50% of the population lives in 5% of the land area (the majority of them where I lived outside of DC), and the rest of us are subjugated to their political will. "Freedom" is a frightening concept when you live in crowded conditions. I think that's what drives a lot of NYC politics. Perhaps this is a normal thing. But all sense of "universality" seems to have been trashed. Our sitting governor (Ralph Northam) unfairly accused his opponent of being a racist during the election. Soon after taking office, this picture from his personal page in his college yearbook made the rounds: His initial statement was that he "could not recall which of those two he was." Then his handlers got hold of him and reminded him that because of his party affiliation, the press would not make a big deal of it, and it would just blow over. All he had to do was lay low and mutter words to the effect of "Lessons learned," and it was as though this never happened. It makes me sick. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the mid-year elections, he frees convicted felons and then asks for more Dept of Corrections funding because he's gonna pass a bunch of new gun laws and anticipates locking up the new criminals those laws are gonna create out of the most honest class of citizen there is...just because they are the enemy of his party. The Left does not have ideals they wish to promote...they use the force of government to militate against citizens they personally despise or who are the most politically expedient to use in that moment solely for power. They always have, and the media is on their side. I am no died-in-the-wool Republican. There are sins of commission and sin of omission. Republicans line their pockets just as much as Democrats do. But there is no open warfare and corruption of our systems against their "enemies." I long stopped judging the average German for not doing more to stop Hitler...what could they do. What can I do?
So well said, John. And the blackface reference reminds me of Dear Leader here in Canada who practically had a fetish for blackface, and who, for reasons I will never understand, has managed to get away with it without so much as a scratch. Seems the left is forgiving of pretty much anything as long as the sinner is on their team.
Progressive is a word I've learned to be wary of, as it inevitably means something that is going to annoy the hell out of me. For example: AOC. I'm not at all sure that things are turning more to the left, although time will tell. It seems to me that the Democrats have a pretty shaky hold on things at this point?
It's not a matter of who holds offices. Democrats advance their agenda when they have the power, and Republicans don't reverse what they have done when they regain the offices.