Where is the outrage against the so-called leaders who are telling poor misguided souls such as Ms Good that it is their prerogative, nay duty, to interfere with armed law enforcement officers WITH THEIR VEHICLES? Spencer Tracy (or even his secret girlfriend Katharine Hepburn) would have given her better advice than that.
Eloquent, captures the mood and feeling of so many of us, that the America we knew is gone. I know that Trump supporters feel the same way, for different reasons, of course. The glue that once held the country together is being melted, ripped apart (pick your metaphor) day by day, with Trump applying the blowtorch. I struggle to be optimistic, that this too shall pass, as have so many other bad periods in our history. But the question that gnaws on me, what if it doesn't pass, just because we made it through in past episodes doesn't mean history will repeat. Maybe this is the sharp juncture where history takes a much different direction. But where to? That's why any sane person today has to be anxious
> "The glue that once held the country together is being melted, ripped apart (pick your metaphor) day by day, with Trump applying the blowtorch."
That was done by leftists, who are not to be confused with left-liberals. When the United States was founded secular deists of the Enlightenment and devout Puritans could both affirm the Declaration of Independence's statement on human rights and the proper role of government. But leftism - derived from Rousseau and running through Marxism, Critical Theory, and postmodernism - has rejected the Enlightenment as oppressive.
1. The left rejected free speech.
Europe arrests people for social media posts, the US has cancel culture, and agencies like the FBI and DoJ censored social media. This comes directly from leftist philosophy. Herbert Marcuse calls this "liberalizing tolerance" and free speech and public debate is called "repressive tolerance". A revealingly Orwellian turn of phrase!
2. The left rejects individual rights
We see this most clearly with affirmative action and DEI. It's a rejection of Enlightenment impartiality (which itself has Biblical roots - Leviticus 19:15: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.”) It is a fundamental principle of both Critical Theory and postmodernism that groups are the fundamental unit of society and politics becomes a battle for group rights.
3. The left rejects national sovereignty
The borderline insurrection over ICE is the left adopting the borderless world of communism. Also the complains about "international law" after capturing Maduro. International law does not exist. Americans haven't yielded a portion of their natural rights to life, liberty, and property to international organizations. Treaties that the US Government enters into, sure, but international law is fundamentally illegitimate to Enlightenment liberalism.
Thanks for this post. While terribly depressing, it is right on target. As the first generation after WW II, we always believed we were better than this. We truly believed that it couldn’t happen here and that “Never Again” was a reality. We didn’t understand how Germany accepted Hitler or why Russians submitted to communist overlords. We are painfully learning that we are not different, not better, not morally superior but simply human. It is horribly sad.
We were sitting next to a couple from Minnesota the other night, and when I told them I once lived in Minneapolis, they immediately started to bemoan how the city was up in arms. Ah yes, the shooting, I said. I can’t blame the folks there. Her take: If Renee Good didn’t comply with the officer’s orders, then, oh well. I asked if she’d seen the video. (Let alone the NYT’s excellent video analysis that synchronized several videos from other bystanders.) Nope. Yet she was all too willing to accept the administration’s heartless (at best) version (and or lies.) Under any circumstance, the ICE officer used excessive and unnecessary force. She wasn’t driving fast enough to hurt the officer. And given her and wife’s demeanor during their an exchange before the shooting, they had no intent to hurt anyone. This goes down as yet another case of the Trump Administration’s morally devoid use of its power, now a daily occurrence. I hope we’ll see the day when we hold our own domestic version of the Nuremberg Trials. Talk about the banality of evil.
Your last line reminds me of something I’ve been thinking about a lot: Where can I go to escape? I used to think I was lucky to have been born in this country, and I couldn’t understand why anyone would leave. Now, I wish I had dual citizenship (yes, that IS possible) so I could escape. Who will liberate US?
The mid-terms are ahead of us, hurray! No greater force than the possible loss of an election, will move the Republicans, depending on their district, more and more to do what is . Not because it is right, but because it will get them re-elected. There are far worse causes for virtue.
Wonderful column. Lots to think about. For one - my own reaction to the fact that Renee Good was twice married, I don't know if she married her partner. My immediate reaction -- I was outraged at her murder, but now that I know she was twice married, etc. she wasn't the type of person I would have wanted to know. My hypocrisy stunned me. Thank you.
A comment unrelated to today's column. I pay a lot of attention to Joe's book recommendations. He has very good, very eclectic and often obscure taste. I'd like to urge any SC reader to get one of his recent recommendations, The Hour of the Predator. I'd never heard of the author. His background has allowed him to be in the room during intense, high level behind-the-scenes political goings-on. It's an eye-opening work. The author's prior book, The Wizard of the Kremlin, while called a novel, seems to be based on first-hand knowledge about Putin's rise and current term. Essential in understanding what the world is dealing with, especially when it comes to Ukraine. Keep surprising us, Joe.
[TDS in action is that large segment of the opposition that does not want Trump to act in Iran because . . if the action succeeds . . . it would help Trump. That's to put the cart before the horse, a metaphor that actually does not do justice to how lunatic the inversion of values is.
I am a Trump opponent and will remain so, but of course I hope that the US intervenes in Iran and that it is successful; that the reorganization of Venezuela improves the lot of Venezuelans; that the fragile truce in Gaza holds up; and that - as improbable as it seems - a peace between the Ukraine and Russia can be brokered. If Trump succeeds in all these, or even partially, of course he'd win the Nobel Peace Prize. Who else?
And he will still not get my vote, because he undercuts all this with a deliberate taunting and narcissistic personal style intended to create anger and frustration. He gloats and sneers. It's the worst Presidential style imaginable.
But I want him to succeed because the world will be far better off he does. There are an increasing number of idiots (no other word) that would like to see all these efforts fail because . . . if they succeed . . . IT'LL HELP TRUMP! Er. . . help him do what, exactly? Opposition to Trump has become an end in itself, and the means is the failure of all sorts of promising schemes, so much the better.
That's the essence of Trump Derangement Syndrome.]
And I post this on Sanity Clause because I like the tone and feel - a lot. But you are in great danger of inverting style and substance. Trump's absolutely puerile tweets and utterances are actually at great variance in most cases with the actual policy of the Administration, which is far more conventional.
> "I hope that the US intervenes in Iran and that it is successful; that the reorganization of Venezuela improves the lot of Venezuelans; that the fragile truce in Gaza holds up; and that - as improbable as it seems - a peace between the Ukraine and Russia can be brokered. If Trump succeeds in all these, or even partially, of course he'd win the Nobel Peace Prize. Who else?"
So if Trump: (1) ends theocracy in Iran, (2) ends decades of violence in Gaza, (3) successfully rebuilds Venezuela, and (4) brokers a peace that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then Trump should win the same prize that was given to Obama simply for existing.
Joe, this is real life, not a movie. Anyone in the US illegally is not "innocent". The US population is predominately center right. Your democrat party who can’t get a majority vote from us with their big government/socialist/communist/woke policies created this illegal immigration problem in order to manufacture new voters. Alejandro Mayorkas, the most lying, sadistic, US government official in history, should be brought up on charges (starting with perjury). There are estimates that the dumpster fire Biden administration let into the country without any vetting around a million criminals of the worst kind.
It entertains me when you try to say what President Trump thinks, because you aren’t intelligent enough to understand what he thinks. He obviously campaigned on ending illegal immigration, which he has accomplished. Now it’s time for all the illegal immigrants to leave and go through the process to come back legally. That is what we voted for, and the Trump administration and ICE are carrying it out.
It is also entertaining when you say that Renee Good was merely meandering through life with two failed marriages and then following all the woke encouragement to find herself to be a lesbian. I’m not challenging her right to a sexual preference, merely pointing out that her decision making was poor and she was easily influenced by the progressive left. If she hadn’t been there, this would never have happened. It’s a shame when anyone loses their life, but what the f was she thinking when Police told her to get out of her car and instead she weaponizes her car against a law enforcement officer. And Joe, you are literally exposing your mental retardation trying to make the argument that “officer, Jonathan Ross, badly wounded in a similar traumatic confrontation six months ago” …should not… “be allowed back on the street with a gun so soon.“ You should seek professional treatment.
It is also obvious that it is not the Trump administration, but the progressive left, who is ginning up their low IQ followers, like Good, hoping to create another martyr like they did with the convicted criminal, drug addict George Floyd who died from asphyxiation because of a drug overdose while resisting arrest. We’ve seen this rodeo before and it’s not going to work. We are not putting up with this scam any longer. We have zero tolerance.
Concerning Venezuela, I’ve already commented in another string:
Where is the outrage against the so-called leaders who are telling poor misguided souls such as Ms Good that it is their prerogative, nay duty, to interfere with armed law enforcement officers WITH THEIR VEHICLES? Spencer Tracy (or even his secret girlfriend Katharine Hepburn) would have given her better advice than that.
They are self-righteous, destructive, anachronistic fools.. I think I've said that before.
Eloquent, captures the mood and feeling of so many of us, that the America we knew is gone. I know that Trump supporters feel the same way, for different reasons, of course. The glue that once held the country together is being melted, ripped apart (pick your metaphor) day by day, with Trump applying the blowtorch. I struggle to be optimistic, that this too shall pass, as have so many other bad periods in our history. But the question that gnaws on me, what if it doesn't pass, just because we made it through in past episodes doesn't mean history will repeat. Maybe this is the sharp juncture where history takes a much different direction. But where to? That's why any sane person today has to be anxious
> "The glue that once held the country together is being melted, ripped apart (pick your metaphor) day by day, with Trump applying the blowtorch."
That was done by leftists, who are not to be confused with left-liberals. When the United States was founded secular deists of the Enlightenment and devout Puritans could both affirm the Declaration of Independence's statement on human rights and the proper role of government. But leftism - derived from Rousseau and running through Marxism, Critical Theory, and postmodernism - has rejected the Enlightenment as oppressive.
1. The left rejected free speech.
Europe arrests people for social media posts, the US has cancel culture, and agencies like the FBI and DoJ censored social media. This comes directly from leftist philosophy. Herbert Marcuse calls this "liberalizing tolerance" and free speech and public debate is called "repressive tolerance". A revealingly Orwellian turn of phrase!
2. The left rejects individual rights
We see this most clearly with affirmative action and DEI. It's a rejection of Enlightenment impartiality (which itself has Biblical roots - Leviticus 19:15: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.”) It is a fundamental principle of both Critical Theory and postmodernism that groups are the fundamental unit of society and politics becomes a battle for group rights.
3. The left rejects national sovereignty
The borderline insurrection over ICE is the left adopting the borderless world of communism. Also the complains about "international law" after capturing Maduro. International law does not exist. Americans haven't yielded a portion of their natural rights to life, liberty, and property to international organizations. Treaties that the US Government enters into, sure, but international law is fundamentally illegitimate to Enlightenment liberalism.
Thanks for this post. While terribly depressing, it is right on target. As the first generation after WW II, we always believed we were better than this. We truly believed that it couldn’t happen here and that “Never Again” was a reality. We didn’t understand how Germany accepted Hitler or why Russians submitted to communist overlords. We are painfully learning that we are not different, not better, not morally superior but simply human. It is horribly sad.
Rich--I remember listening to West Side Story for the first time at your house. What a revelation. Thanks!
We had little appreciation of the bubble we inhabited, but we sure do appreciate it in hindsight.
We were sitting next to a couple from Minnesota the other night, and when I told them I once lived in Minneapolis, they immediately started to bemoan how the city was up in arms. Ah yes, the shooting, I said. I can’t blame the folks there. Her take: If Renee Good didn’t comply with the officer’s orders, then, oh well. I asked if she’d seen the video. (Let alone the NYT’s excellent video analysis that synchronized several videos from other bystanders.) Nope. Yet she was all too willing to accept the administration’s heartless (at best) version (and or lies.) Under any circumstance, the ICE officer used excessive and unnecessary force. She wasn’t driving fast enough to hurt the officer. And given her and wife’s demeanor during their an exchange before the shooting, they had no intent to hurt anyone. This goes down as yet another case of the Trump Administration’s morally devoid use of its power, now a daily occurrence. I hope we’ll see the day when we hold our own domestic version of the Nuremberg Trials. Talk about the banality of evil.
Your last line reminds me of something I’ve been thinking about a lot: Where can I go to escape? I used to think I was lucky to have been born in this country, and I couldn’t understand why anyone would leave. Now, I wish I had dual citizenship (yes, that IS possible) so I could escape. Who will liberate US?
I'm not going anywhere.
Only ourselves and only if we wish to be so.
Really good. As usual.
We need Nuremberg style trials for Trump and his cronies. Not "truth and reconciliation" as I will not reconcile with any of them.
"I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
Thanks. You really piss me off at times, but you nailed this one. Keep at it.
The mid-terms are ahead of us, hurray! No greater force than the possible loss of an election, will move the Republicans, depending on their district, more and more to do what is . Not because it is right, but because it will get them re-elected. There are far worse causes for virtue.
Great, evenhanded piece. I wish that everyone would stop exploiting this tragic situation for political purposes, but that is what people do today.
I wish we the electorate would give those who exploit these situations the heave-ho but I do not think it will happen.
Wonderful column. Lots to think about. For one - my own reaction to the fact that Renee Good was twice married, I don't know if she married her partner. My immediate reaction -- I was outraged at her murder, but now that I know she was twice married, etc. she wasn't the type of person I would have wanted to know. My hypocrisy stunned me. Thank you.
A comment unrelated to today's column. I pay a lot of attention to Joe's book recommendations. He has very good, very eclectic and often obscure taste. I'd like to urge any SC reader to get one of his recent recommendations, The Hour of the Predator. I'd never heard of the author. His background has allowed him to be in the room during intense, high level behind-the-scenes political goings-on. It's an eye-opening work. The author's prior book, The Wizard of the Kremlin, while called a novel, seems to be based on first-hand knowledge about Putin's rise and current term. Essential in understanding what the world is dealing with, especially when it comes to Ukraine. Keep surprising us, Joe.
Thank you for humanizing both of the tragic figures involved. I hope decent men and women step up to lead us.
I'm with you all the way, but this is not a movie.
It will be, just like Scopes and Nuremberg
From a note I posted:
[TDS in action is that large segment of the opposition that does not want Trump to act in Iran because . . if the action succeeds . . . it would help Trump. That's to put the cart before the horse, a metaphor that actually does not do justice to how lunatic the inversion of values is.
I am a Trump opponent and will remain so, but of course I hope that the US intervenes in Iran and that it is successful; that the reorganization of Venezuela improves the lot of Venezuelans; that the fragile truce in Gaza holds up; and that - as improbable as it seems - a peace between the Ukraine and Russia can be brokered. If Trump succeeds in all these, or even partially, of course he'd win the Nobel Peace Prize. Who else?
And he will still not get my vote, because he undercuts all this with a deliberate taunting and narcissistic personal style intended to create anger and frustration. He gloats and sneers. It's the worst Presidential style imaginable.
But I want him to succeed because the world will be far better off he does. There are an increasing number of idiots (no other word) that would like to see all these efforts fail because . . . if they succeed . . . IT'LL HELP TRUMP! Er. . . help him do what, exactly? Opposition to Trump has become an end in itself, and the means is the failure of all sorts of promising schemes, so much the better.
That's the essence of Trump Derangement Syndrome.]
And I post this on Sanity Clause because I like the tone and feel - a lot. But you are in great danger of inverting style and substance. Trump's absolutely puerile tweets and utterances are actually at great variance in most cases with the actual policy of the Administration, which is far more conventional.
> "I hope that the US intervenes in Iran and that it is successful; that the reorganization of Venezuela improves the lot of Venezuelans; that the fragile truce in Gaza holds up; and that - as improbable as it seems - a peace between the Ukraine and Russia can be brokered. If Trump succeeds in all these, or even partially, of course he'd win the Nobel Peace Prize. Who else?"
So if Trump: (1) ends theocracy in Iran, (2) ends decades of violence in Gaza, (3) successfully rebuilds Venezuela, and (4) brokers a peace that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then Trump should win the same prize that was given to Obama simply for existing.
Joe, this is real life, not a movie. Anyone in the US illegally is not "innocent". The US population is predominately center right. Your democrat party who can’t get a majority vote from us with their big government/socialist/communist/woke policies created this illegal immigration problem in order to manufacture new voters. Alejandro Mayorkas, the most lying, sadistic, US government official in history, should be brought up on charges (starting with perjury). There are estimates that the dumpster fire Biden administration let into the country without any vetting around a million criminals of the worst kind.
It entertains me when you try to say what President Trump thinks, because you aren’t intelligent enough to understand what he thinks. He obviously campaigned on ending illegal immigration, which he has accomplished. Now it’s time for all the illegal immigrants to leave and go through the process to come back legally. That is what we voted for, and the Trump administration and ICE are carrying it out.
It is also entertaining when you say that Renee Good was merely meandering through life with two failed marriages and then following all the woke encouragement to find herself to be a lesbian. I’m not challenging her right to a sexual preference, merely pointing out that her decision making was poor and she was easily influenced by the progressive left. If she hadn’t been there, this would never have happened. It’s a shame when anyone loses their life, but what the f was she thinking when Police told her to get out of her car and instead she weaponizes her car against a law enforcement officer. And Joe, you are literally exposing your mental retardation trying to make the argument that “officer, Jonathan Ross, badly wounded in a similar traumatic confrontation six months ago” …should not… “be allowed back on the street with a gun so soon.“ You should seek professional treatment.
It is also obvious that it is not the Trump administration, but the progressive left, who is ginning up their low IQ followers, like Good, hoping to create another martyr like they did with the convicted criminal, drug addict George Floyd who died from asphyxiation because of a drug overdose while resisting arrest. We’ve seen this rodeo before and it’s not going to work. We are not putting up with this scam any longer. We have zero tolerance.
Concerning Venezuela, I’ve already commented in another string:
(https://josephklein.substack.com/p/going-caracas/comment/194987366)
that “Once again President Trump has done what is best for the American people and made fools of all his detractors.”
For not being George Bush, to be precise.