These notes coincide with the faltering flames of Palestinian protests (it’s funny how all of the people who claim that doing ANYTHING but focusing on the ‘genocide’ in Gaza immediately return to real life once their sleepover ends… almost as if it’s all one big melodramatic and sloppy performance). They include the Trump verdict. I’ve seen unrestrained glee on the Left (sometimes disguised as pseudo-legal arguments for why Trump is just another guilty defendant, standing before the impartial arbiter of justice… which absolutely no one believes), frustration and anger on the Right… and fear and dismay in the Center. Interesting.
The world continues to turn. I’m experiencing organizational upheavals at work, which has reduced my output. Subscribe and share for more. As always, thank you very much for reading…
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.-William Butler Yeats, ‘The Second Coming’
The image below contains a few quotes from top Hamas figures. There are far more I could have chosen.
People who said nothing, or took to the streets to cheer and chant when these frothing jihadists carried through on their promises to commit a genocidal pogrom against Jews and Israelis, are now claiming to oppose ‘war’ and ‘Israeli aggression’. And large parts of the media and ‘activist’ class lap it up. Don’t fall for it.
You don’t get to wage a supremacist war of expansionist, murderous aggression, celebrate and vow to continue it, and at the same time hold yourself out as an innocent victim when the Jews whose children you just shot in cold blood retaliate. You don’t get to make excuses for jihadists who openly state that they want to wipe Israel off the map and whose fighters recorded themselves boasting of ‘killing 10 Jews’ (direct quote) then claim to be a peace activist who ‘opposes violence.’
Or at least, you shouldn’t be able to without being laughed out of the room.
What’s happening in Gaza is a nightmare. I’ve said over and over - I do not think Israel is whiter than white by any means. I’m unsure but probably side with calls for a ceasefire myself as I just can’t bear witnessing the suffering of the innocent kids (although I am uncomfortable with Jews being asked to essentially sit back and ‘take it’ if armed antisemitic groups kill us for fun).
But the idea that Hamas, and their supporters among the Palestinian population (remember, they were elected (initially) and polls suggest they’re supported by something like 75% of Palestinians), shouldn’t be front and centre in any discussion of who’s to blame is almost comical. This is a regime that continues to hold, rape and mutilate hostages, continues to launch rockets from within Rafah, continues to hide behind civilians, continues to vow to carry out Oct 7-style antisemitic mass murder over and over…
Not talking about that group, or holding them up as victims of random Israeli ‘colonialism’, is as mental and unforgivable as it would be to talk about the deaths of German civilians in WW2 without seriously mentioning or discussing the Nazis, the Holocaust or the invasion of Poland.
No amount of gaslighting should be allowed to obscure the fundamental fact that Islamic extremism and conspiratorial Jew-hatred motivated the attack on Israel, and caused this war. Its proponents and apologists do not hold the moral high-ground.
For a more in-depth analysis of these issues, subscribe and check out my numerous essays on the topic. Thanks.
There's not enough opportunity in those communities.
That's what the new mayor of Chicago said.
Okay, I'll get on that bandwagon.
Let there be more opportunity for people who are marginalized.
I'm for that.
Now that we're finished with that sermon, what are you going to do to raise those kids, to inculcate in them orientation patterns of behavior, values and norms, expectations, and the internalization of restraints that makes it possible for them to actually avail themselves of any opportunity that might otherwise be provided?
What are you going to do about the schools?
What are you going to do about early childhood education?
What are you going to do about order and law?
In this country of 330 million people, which is remaking itself every decade.
If we don't somehow address the failure manifested by these kinds of violent, antisocial behaviors that are pathological.
I repeat myself.
I'm not afraid to say it.
Cancel me if you want to, but I'm going to stay in touch with reality.
“It’s like, you float out at sea then one day you find a port, say, 'I'm gonna stay a few days'. A few days becomes a few years. Then you forgot where you were going in the first place. Then you realize you don't really give a shit about where you was going, cause you like where you at.”
-George Stone (Dave Chappelle)
A Star is Born (2018)
“Since Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies on May 30, 2024, I’ve read hundreds of people who either hated Trump or were, at best, lukewarm towards him declare their support for his campaign, often posting screenshots of receipts for donations they’ve made to his campaign in the wake of the verdict.”
More from
:
The media narrative is of a righteous coalition of ‘BIPOC’ folks and hard-working proletarians resisting entrenched financial and political power. This is the story that the Left tells themselves.
Instead, the biggest broad demographic factors which predict if a voter is ‘very liberal’ (progressive) are (in order):
1.) Being college-educated
2.) Being white
3.) Being female