He is unlikely to survive, but whether he does or not, it is not a coincidence that there have been assassination attempts on Kirk and Donald Trump while the Democratic Party and “the resistance” has claimed and is claiming that conservatives now place democracy at risk, with Democratic leaders calling for violent opposition, and large swathes of the political Left cheered the assassination of an insurance executive.
If this is not what the Left really wants, it is still what they have encouraged with their irresponsible fear-mongering and reckless rhetoric.
It seems incredible, but Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska’s murder on a Charlotte light rail train was not the most disturbing aspect of her murder by a deranged man who just decided to kill her for no discernible reason. Nor is the fact that the killer had been arrested 14 times and turned back into the streets as part of the Mad Left’s urban “de-incarceration” agenda the worst aspect of the story, or even the deliberate burying of the event by the mainstream media, which felt that the public didn’t need to know this occurred because it undermines so many Axis narratives (gun control, how safe Democrat-run big cities are despite all evidence to the contrary, “Black on white crime? What black on white crime?,” the virtues of public transportation). And it isn’t the fact that so many Americans have been brainwashed that many (including commenters on this blog) have defended the media’s censorship of inconvenient reality.
No, I have concluded upon watching the various surveillance camera videos that the worst aspect of the incident is that even after the young woman was stabbed and was bleeding out in her seat, not one of her fellow passengers lifted a finger to try to save her life.
That’s some community you have there, Charlotte. Be proud…
The Supreme Court this week overturned a federal judge’s order prohibiting ICE agents in Los Angeles from stopping people and questioning them about their immigration status based solely on factors like their ethnicity, their appearance, their language or accents and their places of work. If this isn’t “racial profiling,” which courts have found to be a breach of the 4th Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches an seizures, it sure is awfully close.
The 6-3 decision wasn’t signed and had no majority opinion. Justice Sotomayor, predictably (joined by the two other progressive women on the court) said in her typical dissent that “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.” And…
” After today, that may no longer be true for those who happen to look a certain way, speak a certain way and appear to work a certain type of legitimate job that pays very little. Because this is unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation’s constitutional guarantees, I dissent.”
“We’re all people of religion, but there are evil people. And we have to confront that. I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed this morning or last night in Charlotte by a madman.”
—President Trumpyesterday in remarks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., referring to the horrific random knife murder in Charlotte that was not considered newsworthy by the Axis media because it didn’t involve a gun, which would have been exploited to make more gun control demands, and didn’t involve a white person killing a black one, which would have bolstered the “America is racist” narrative.
I want to note that an “Ethics quote” is not the same as an ethical quote, but rather a statement that raises ethical issues that are worth pondering. This one raises many. Such as…
1. As one wag on Instapundit said this morning, “I guess now the legacy media will have to cover the story.” And, I hope, try to explain why an event with so many hot button issue touch points was deemed unworthy of national news for two weeks.
2. Issues include Black on white crime. Democrat-run big city violence as Trump raises the issue of federal force bolstering law enforcement. Lack of security on public transportation. Society’s handling of the mentally ill. The victim was a legal Ukrainian refugee, as the Left’s support of the Ukrainian (hopeless) war continues in the absence of logic and reality. The social activist-driven revolving door system of arrests, releases and mild or no punishment to reduce “over-incarceration.” And more…
Republicans and conservatives have “pounced” on the fact that a brutal black-on-white murder in Charlotte, North Carolina that occurred on August 22 and was recorded on security video has received no publicity on Axis mainstream media outlets. (That’s how the event will be reported when the progressive, Democratic propaganda media organs finally have to mention the story.) August 22: that’s more than two weeks ago. The clip above captures the moment right before a career criminal, Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, who had 14 arrests on his record, slashed the throat of Iryna Zarutska, 23, on a light rail train in Charlotte, killing her almost instantly.
But it wasn’t news. Huh.
Charlotte embargoed the crime as long as it could, keeping the video secret. This is how the violent and insufficiently policed Democrat-run cities claim that violent crime is decreasing, I guess. Even after the horrific murder became (well, sort of) public, the NY Times, Washington Post…oh, you can name the rest by now, I hope…didn’t find that it was news fit to print or that darkness over the crime would harm democracy. Rasmussen reports wrote yesterday,
The United States Tennis Association asked broadcasters of the U.S. Open to censor any protests or negative reactions to President Donald Trump’s appearance at the men’s singles final today between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. The President, an avowed tennis fan, was loudly booed when he last attended a match at the Open in his first term
“With respect to Broadcast Coverage, the President will be shown on the World Feed and the Ashe Court Feed during the opening anthem ceremony. We ask all broadcasters to refrain from showcasing any disruptions or reactions in response to the President’s attendance in any capacity, including ENG [Electronic News Gathering] coverage.”
There is no problem with the USTA making it clear to attendees that such demonstrations will, for example, result in removal from the stadium, but telling broadcasters not to report what, if anything, happens during their broadcasts is censorship, as well as asking the broadcasters to be complicit in a lie. The broadcasters, all of them, should tell the association to bite them.
The USTA will show Trump during the National Anthem, which “Bounce,” the tennis substack that is clearly infected with the Trump Derangement Virus and that first reported the memo, calls the playing of the anthem “one of the noisiest and bombastic portions of Sunday’s events” —nice—and describes the USTA’s request as “further complicity in broadcasting Trump’s desired stagecraft for his first appearance at the U.S. Open in a decade.”
Isn’t everyone sick of this attitude? The President of the United States has always engaged in public appearances that emphasize the importance and significance of the office, as well as embracing POTUS’s traditional role as “a human flag.” This isn’t “Trump’s stagecraft” nor is honoring the U.S. at a sporting event “bombastic” except to anti-American progressives like Ben Rothenberg, the writer of “Bounces.”
Sure, people like Rothenberg are the reason we have so many citizens who so revel in hating the elected President of the United states that they cannot be counted on to be civil when their nation’s leader appears in public. Nevertheless, journalists—and broadcasters of sports events are allegedly reporters—are ethically bound to report what happens no matter who it embarrasses or reveals to be an asshole.
The incident that has “gone viral” from the stands at a Phillies-Marlins game in Miami is covered in the videos above. Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader hit a home run into the left field seats. The ball hit the bleachers and rolled around as four fans tried to nab the souvenir. A man appeared to win the battle, returned to his seat and gave the ball to his young his son, who rewarded him with a hug.
Enter Cruella DeVille. A woman who had been scrambling for the ball, wearing Phillies gear, confronted the man and demanded the ball, claiming she had a hold of it before he got it. The father complied, taking the ball out of his son’s glove and handing it to the woman. Of course the incident was filmed and posted on social media, with the unidentified woman being quickly dubbed “Phillies Karen.”
Sensing a public relations opportunity, the staff at the Marlins’ LoanDepot Park (another horribly named baseball park: money isn’t everything, guys!) wanted to make things right, so they sent a stadium employee to give the son and his sister a goody bag full of baseball stuff.
Awwwww…
The villain in this incident was not the horrible woman. (She doesn’t know her baseball ball-chasing rules, incidentally. In those scrambles for bouncing balls, whoever gets a firm grip on the ball first wins fair and square. I have been in many of these tussles, one of which featured a little old lady snatching the ball from me —a Mickey Mantle foul!—just as I thought I had it in my grasp….) No, the villain was the weenie father.
What a disgrace. This guy gave up in the face of an unjust and unreasonable confrontation because he didn’t have the guts to tell the woman to buzz off, de-gifting his son of a prize—it was his birthday!—in the process. In that moment, he taught to boy many things, none of them good. Don’t fight for what’s yours. Let bullies win. Avoid unpleasant confrontations at all costs, even when it means letting unethical tactics prevail.
He also taught his son that his father is a weenie. Good to know, I guess.
1. To start off, let’s survey today’s headlines and anti-Trump spin at the President Trump Jeering Society, aka. The New York Times:
Many Cities Say Yes to Federal Police Help, but No to ‘Occupation’
Grand Juries in D.C. Reject Wave of Charges Under Trump’s Crackdown
How Trump’s Blunt-Force Diplomacy Is Pushing His Rivals Together
Three Opinion Writers on Whether Congress Can Rein in Trump [Note: All three are vocal anti-Trump pundits]
Will Trump’s Caesarism Last? [Quote: “Barack Obama and George W. Bush were far more successful at consolidating presidential power, and Trump 1.0 mostly demonstrated that an inexperienced, incompetent president could still be pinned down like Gulliver….” Response: Well yes, when two partisan impeachments and a lengthy investigation weaponized by his Democratic predecessor effectively made it difficult for him to govern…]
Will Trump Have to Run From the Economy?
Second Weak Jobs Report Undercuts Trump’s Claims of a Booming Economy
There are no positive stories about the Administration in the Times at all. A few are arguably straight reporting, like “What Has the Trump Administration Gotten From Law Firms and Universities?”
Here is how Fox News reported on the massive ICE raid at a Hyundai factory in Georgia:
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced the arrest of 475 illegal migrants during a major immigration enforcement raid on Thursday at a Hyundai electric car battery factory in Georgia.
HSI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Steven Schrank noted that while the raid was at a Hyundai facility, not all the migrants worked for the parent company. Some worked for subcontractors at the site.
“We are sending a clear and unequivocal message that those who exploit our workforce, undermine our economy and violate federal laws will be held accountable,” Schrank said during a news conference on Friday.
The Axis is so consistent in condemning everything President Trump does that it is becoming difficult to define what is really right and wrong. “Who did it” is not a valid or reasonable basis for making the distinction, but I swear, the Left has been so relentless with its warping of language and standards that even I am getting confused.
The current question is this: “Is there anything wrong with re-naming the Defense Department the Department of War, or the War Department, which is what it was called for before 1947 without the mountains falling and the seas boiling?”
As usual, there is a substantial chance that this is Trump Trolling, as he tries to make people’s head explode. I can also conceive of some value to the name change. I see nothing wrong with the U.S. projecting an image of strength and of a nation that is not going to tolerate international outrages because it’s reluctant to use military force. Yet focusing on “defense” has its advantages too.
They are two sides of the same metaphorical coin, one seeming more aggressive (oh-oh! That pesky testosterone again!) and the other more typically feminine: making the priorities accommodation and compromise over conflict and violence.
Is there any basis for ruling Trump’s branding decision unethical? I don’t see one.
Ethics Alarms 