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A few thoughts:
- These were three genuinely bad guys, convicted of bad things, seeking to commit mayhem during civil unrest. These weren’t protestors as they’re generally defined.
- Kyle Rittenhouse faced a media onslaught (as did the Covington kid, and others) who desperately seek white supremacists where they generally don’t exist. The number of actual white supremacists in this country is a very small number compared with the “white = white supremacist” narrative of certain media and interest groups in this country.
- If the verdict had been anything other than not guilty on all counts, I fear what would become of our collective ability to defend ourselves and our property. It was such a ridiculously obvious outcome, yet there are numerous elements who are shocked, aghast, etc., when really they prefer anarchy and they certainly don’t want citizens to own firearms or for there to be a Second amendment.
- Those same interest groups and media keep using the term “crossing state lines” as if that’s somehow derogatory. Nothing illegal about crossing a state line. He had the gun legally, procured it in the state, and the interest groups are implying or stating that he went hunting for legitimate protestors.
- When I was 14, a friend of mine and I were walking in downtown Santa Cruz, one of the street kids took umbrage to our looks, and attacked my friend with his skateboard. The kid was never the same, had to drop out of school. It’s a big, heavy, edged weapon that should be treated as such.
- The fact that Grosskreutz was wearing a paramedic hat and the fact that his hands were in the air meant that he was disguising his intentions with the gun. He clearly tried to get the drop on Rittenhouse. Why this hasn’t been reported (or charged) is a mystery.
- The media keeps referring to Rittenhouse as “this kid,” essentially stating or implying that he’s too young to be a protective force in the middle of a riot, excuse me, a peaceful protest. 17 year olds enlist in the military. About 6% of enlistees are 17 (with parental permission), so there’s 5,000 – 7,000 17 year olds in the U. S. military at any time. They’re old enough.
- Part of the argument in favor of guns is that it levels the playing field. A much smaller or outnumbered person has protection…as did Rittenhouse.
My family’s in the prune business, a business that my grandfather (Stanford, ’42) started and ran successfully through three generations. It exists today, and still has offices in Santa Clara Valley, though the operations are about three hours north.
A few decades ago, John Cleese was approached by representatives of the prune industry, thinking that he would be a terrific spokesperson in advertisements and so forth. Apparently, Cleese was really keen to do it (after all, it is the most humorous all fruits…), but his manager talked him out of it with some version of a “you’re-not-getting-any-younger-and-people-already-think-you’re-old-and-this-prune-thing-will-put-you-over-the-brink.” Too bad…
It’s amazing that with all the criticism of Trump being a pariah internationally, the U.S. was actually taken seriously with him at the helm. I don’t think anybody takes Biden seriously. Even his staff. It’s one of the strangest, weakest leadership profiles that I have ever seen outside of a family business. China may be thinking “now’s our chance.”
So that raises the realistic, non-partisan question: who was the last President that was broadly respected as an international player? Probably not Trum. Not Obama. Not Bush II. Clinton? Maybe. Bush I? Definitely.
The Virginia Governor’s race is generally considered to be a harbinger of the midterm elections. I know it’s two years away, but the All-Progressive-all-the-time philosophy just isn’t working. Catering to the Far Left is backfiring. Who knew?
Our Navy is still vastly superior. And when you throw in our allies — China’s only major ally is North Korea — we outdistance them quite spectacularly.
And Biden’s approval rating dips further:
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/
He started at 57% approval, now at 42% approval…
https://news.gallup.com/interactives/185273/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx
Biden’s approval rating dumped. Again. Down to 38% from 49% six months ago, and down 1% from last month.
He’s very, very unpopular.
[quote quote=5380]A Gallup poll from a couple weeks ago confirms the KFF survey:
There are also other studies correlating counties that voted for Trump with having much lower rates of vaccination. Similarly, counties in California that voted to recall Newsom had much lower rates. Why are Republicans hesitant? I’m sure there’s some “my freedom” element and some correlation with not trusting the government. But as I said several months ago, there’s also a lot of anti-vax propaganda coming from right wing media — and not just the fringe, but mainstream conservative media like Fox. Long story short, I don’t really care what Biden or Psaki have to say about it at this point. I’m sure you can nitpick about things they could have done better, but if I suggest, ask, or beg you to do something — and you have ample time and opportunity to do it — and you still refuse, the fault is not mine.[/quote]The first two politicians that I saw that flat out stated that they wouldn’t get vaccinated were Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Biden during the “town hall.”
My father in law (Stanford, ’53 and ’57) is 85, and his aging has been painful to watch. He was an engineer at NASA (materials science, worked on Mercury and Gemini), worked on Galileo, a number of other large scale projects. Very funny guy, great with a crowd, superb public speaker, and in fact NASA ended up having him in that role.
Today, my wife goes over everything he writes, because it’s 60% mistakes. She has two sisters, one who is incapable of fending for herself, much less her parents and the other has two toddlers (kids at age 50, go figure) and sits on Fortune 500 boards. So it all falls on my wife, to take care of both of her parents. Really difficult to watch. They fight the lack of capacity, and don’t believe that their mental acuity has waned, even as the evidence is right in front of them, along with the expected physical changes.
And then there’s COVID. Sucks getting old.
Someone from the NFL took these e-mails and leaked them. Not sure if there’s a protective order (there should have been). I guess in this day and age, there aren’t going to be any repercussions from taking something produced pursuant to an internal investigation into sexual harassment / misconduct by the WFT and turned against someone who wasn’t working for them at the time (and hasn’t been accused of sexual harassment / misconduct). There are 650,000 e-mails, as the two commenters have said. I wonder who else’s e-mails will get leaked. Anyhow, Jon Gruden should be on the phone to a lawyer.
When I hear about these things, I think about Donald Stirling’s girlfriend, who recorded his comments and replayed them which are against California law (Stirling neither knew about nor consented to the recordings).
I don’t believe that his mistress, V. Stiviano (born María Vanessa Perez, a/k/a Monica Gallegos, a/k/a Vanessa Perez, a/k/a Maria Valdez) was ever charged or prosecuted with a crime, despite having recorded his private comments without his permission.
There have been 2x as many American COVID deaths on Biden’s watch as on Trump’s watch (dating from election results). 242,303 up to the 2020 election, 485,407 afterward (and counting). Waiting for a White House reporter to ask Jen Psaki to confirm that.
And just in case the Republicans remain obstreperous in their efforts to prevent the Democrats from spending the country into submission, the Dems are about to mint a (no kidding) $1 trillion coin. I think I’ll invite Janet Yellen over for dinner on the off chance the coin falls in between the sofa cushions…
