The ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Plot Line and the Wicked Travesty of ‘Justice’ in New York

Posted on | January 27, 2024 | Comments Off on The ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Plot Line and the Wicked Travesty of ‘Justice’ in New York

I watch CNN (so you don’t have to) and they were practically peeing their pants in excitement Friday over the jury’s verdict in the ridiculous defamation suit against Trump. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I was enraged by this, and perhaps for personal reasons, considering my own experience with bogus lawsuits (“Sue Me Again, You Evil Liar”).

Here’s the thing: In 2019, E. Jean Carroll, a former sex-advice columnist, made a literally incredible accusation against Trump, which no reasonable person could possibly believe. This was all about selling a book (What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal), and the story was completely implausible: Carroll claims that in 1995 or 1996, she just happened to bump into Trump while he was walking into the Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue. This chance encounter eventually led to him sexually assaulting her in a dressing room, she said. To which any reasonable person would reply, “Are you kidding me?”

World-famous real estate mogul just happens to be out doing some shopping — by himself, walking down Fifth Avenue, he decides to pop into Bergdorf Goodman — when he randomly encounters a sex-advice columnist, asks her advice on his gift purchases, then takes her into a dressing room and rapes her. Did I mention (because it certainly seems relevant to me) that, at the time of this alleged incident, E. Jean Carroll was 53 years old? What adjective should I use here? Mere words cannot express the extremity of my doubt toward the claim that Trump, whose three wives were all models and younger than him, would be accosting this woman, who was three years his senior. And that he would have done this while out shopping at Bergdorf Goodman!

After Carroll went public with this preposterous claim — which, I repeat, was part of the promotion for her 2019 book — it was pointed out that this tale of being raped in a Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room was suspiciously similar to the plot of a 2012 episode of Law & Order: SVU.

To me, that was the definitive proof that Carroll was lying. First, there was the implausible scenario of her just happening to bump into Trump who, despite his wealth and notoriety, was allegedly strolling down Fifth Avenue when he headed into this department store to do some shopping. Right, and Al Pacino sodomized me in the bargain basement at Filene’s — you get my drift here? But then there was the problematic fact (which I hesitate to point out for fear of offending Women of a Certain Age™) that at the time of this alleged encounter, E. Jean Carroll was long past her prime. She had been a cheerleader and beauty pageant contestant in her youth, but at age 53? To quote our President: “C’mon, man.”

That was two strikes against Carroll’s veracity, but when we learn that her tale repeats the plot of a primetime TV drama? Three strikes.

You may notice, by the way, the less-than-coincidental resemblance between Carroll’s story and what happened to Brett Kavanaugh (“Democrats Pull the Sleaziest Smear in Their Long History of Sleazy Smears”). Come up with a story of a heinous sex crime committed decades earlier by the targeted person (who, just coincidentally, happens to be someone that Democrats are desperate to destroy) and then pretend that the mere accusation is sufficient to conclude that the person must be guilty. No matter how preposterous the claim may be, the media will automatically defend the accuser: “Oh, it takes so much courage for the survivor of such a traumatic incident to come forward and tell the truth!”

Christine Blasey Ford got this Courageous Survivor™ treatment. Anyone who doubted her unsubstantiated slander was accused of being a misogynistic rape apologist, and let’s not even get started on how the media tried to drag Kavanaugh’s high school buddy Mark Judge into this orchestrated partisan smear. If someone in the media establishment ever asks why nobody trusts them anymore, just tell them to ask Mark Judge.

The problem, as it regards the verdict against Trump, is that there is no justice in New York. The entire state has become a latter-day Gomorrah, a Third World hellhole where no honest man would dwell. In May 2022, the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature passed the Adult Survivors Act, which allowed “alleged victims of sexual offenses for which the statute of limitations has lapsed to file civil suits for a one-year period, from November 24, 2022, to November 24, 2023″ (emphasis added). Do you think the passage of this law was entirely coincidental?

Creating a one-year window, waiving the statute of limitations for one specific type of lawsuit? Gosh, I wonder if the Democrats who control the New York legislature might have had a certain lifelong New Yorker in mind? But that’s just a crazy conspiracy theory, I guess.

Returning to the narrative, after Carroll went public with her story lifted from the plot of an NBC primetime drama, Trump naturally called her a liar and she then sued him for defamation. How crazy is this? You accuse somebody of rape, and when they deny it, you claim that their denial is tortuous defamation! This lawsuit lingered until after Trump left the White House, and the Democrats in New York then (coincidentally) waived the statute of limitation for sexual assault lawsuits, then Carroll sued under that law and — because it’s New York — in May 2023 a jury agreed Trump was guilty of assaulting her. After the verdict, Trump continued to assert his innocence, which is what led to the jury awarding Carroll $83 million (!!!) for defamation in Friday’s verdict.

Did I mention that in 2016, Hillary Clinton got 87% of the vote in Manhattan? Because I think that fully explains this Manhattan jury’s verdict. It’s pure partisan political vengeance and yet the idiot talking heads on CNN were calling the verdict a triumph for “the rule of law,” which is the insult that sent me into a towering rage that not even a thousand-word rant is sufficient to quell. The only way I can get this out of my system is to pronounce judgment on the State of New York, to issue a dire prophecy of apocalyptic doom. Very bad things are going to happen to New York, and if there are still any truly innocent people living there, I feel an obligation to warn them to leave as soon as possible. Every citizen of New York is complicit in the manifest evil of this travesty of justice, so that when the Divine Wrath comes pouring down upon you, there can be no appeal to mercy. None shall escape this retribution. Migrant hordes, mass shootings, fentanyl overdoses, subway crashes, bridge collapses, natural catastrophes — when these plagues befall you, New Yorkers, do not expect any sympathy from the rest of America.

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin — “You are weighed in the balance and found wanting,” and the eternal destruction of Hell awaits you.

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Category: Crime, Donald Trump, New York, Sex

In The Mailbox: 01.26.24 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | January 27, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.26.24 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts -double-scoop Rule 5 Sunday this weekend to make up for last weekend.
Pete’s Continual Draft League has some openings – hit him or me up, we’ll get you on board for the 1972 season.
Your reminder that today is Friday in California.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Michael E. Mann v. Mark Steyn: The Trial of the Century Continues, also, Michael E. Mann and Hide The Decline Parody
Twitchy: John Fetterman Lets His ~~Freak~~Israeli Flag Fly To Taunt Pro-Palestine Yahoos, Biden Tries Trolling Trump But It Goes Badly Wrong, and Merrick Garland Awakens From Dogmatic Slumber & Realizes DC Has A Crime Problem
Louder With Crowder: Elderly Millennial Taylor Lorenz Is Freaking Out Because Of Mass Media Layoffs And It’s Hilarious, also, Millionaire Alyssa Milano takes to X to beg YOU to pay for her son’s Little League team
Vox Popoli: They Dug Too Deep, A Mystery in Portugal, and Science Sans SSH
According To Hoyt: Small, Private Tragedies, Those Who Fear, and We’re Still Standing
Monster Hunter Nation: Enter for a chance to win 5 autographed books in this giveaway
Gab News: Why Gab AI Is The Perfect ChatGPT Replacement

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Substack – If it’s Free then You are the Target, Animal Rights for Slugs, The Story of Neanderthals Strengthens my Faith, and America is Herpes
American Conservative: EXCLUSIVE: Senate GOP Meeting Devolved Into ‘Embarrassing Exhortations’ for Ukraine Aid, Preparing for the Big One: Should America Battle China Over Taiwan? and Texas Rallies the Red States Amid Immigration Crisis
American Greatness: Nikki Haley’s Strategies? also, Greg Abbott Defies Supreme Court, Will Continue Securing Border at State Level
American Thinker: Why Does Manufacturing at Home Really Matter? ‘Europeans Will Succumb to Islam,’ Says Former Intelligence Chief, Is Biden Poison-Pilling Trump? and The Left Had Better Watch Its Fani
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday, Animal’s Daily Haley News, Animal’s Hump Day News, Animal’s Red Thursday News, and Rule Five American Rome Friday
Babalu Blog: Dozens of Cubans remove snow from Moscow streets for 9,000 Cuban pesos a month ($375 USD), ‘Fidel Castro had to know’, Teenage baseball prospect escapes communist Cuba to seek Major League career, Mexicans marching against AMLO, and Vatican to Cuba’s aging bishops: No retirement for you!
BattleSwarm: George Soros Trying To Buy More Texas Elections, Chinese Commies Think They Own British Public Spaces, “A Mass Extinction Event For Startups”, and LinkSwarm For January 26
Behind The Black: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographs SLIM on the Moon, Ingenuity’s final resting site on Mars, NASA’s useless safety panel once again sticks its nose where it isn’t qualified to go, Lucy’s upcoming travels leading to its exploration of the Trojan asteroids, Northrop Grumman writes off $100 million on its fixed-price Lunar Gateway contract, African lawfare to take control of space, and Major donor to Cornell pulls funding, demands firing of university president
Cafe Hayek: The Principal Peddler of Corporatism Is Trump, No to Rent Control, and The Best Protective Tariff Rate Is Zero (But Perhaps Not So for Revenue Tariffs)
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Chicago Boyz: Say Goodbye to Hollywood, An Idyllic Home on the Edge of Hell, and Retrotech: Lofting and Machining Components for the T-38 Supersonic Trainer, 1958
Da Tech Guy: After Calling for Bill Belichick’s Head for Months Boston’s Sports Hosts are Shocked SHOCKED that Nobody Hires Him, It is well past time for the States to tell the Federal Government to pound sand, Breakfast With the Man Who Wasn’t There, The Most Important thing We Learned From the Kari Lake Jeff DeWitt Conversation That We Heard Here, The #Unexpectedly Chronicles – Democratic Socialists Support Hamas’ Oct 7th Attacks and then wonder where the (Liberal Jewish) Money Went, and Musings from a longtime journalist
Don Surber: A world war, not a civil war
First Street Journal: Look to your own house! Sorry, Sarah Jones, but journalism really is a business just like any other, and You have been taxed to help kill Americans!
Gates Of Vienna: Salafist Termites Infest the Socialist Party in Hesse, Do the COVID-19 Vaccines Demonstrate the Collapse of Science? Hans Georg Maaßen: This is Not a Coincidence, But a Planned Action, Culture-Enricher in Turin Bangs His Head Against the Plexiglas Barrier on a Bus, Time to Take Off the Rose-Colored Glasses, Freezing Out the AfD in Hesse, and We’re Here, You’re Kafir, Get Used to It
The Geller Report: Georgia Senate Ethics Committee Passes Bill to Remove Corrupt Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger from the Board of Elections and Investigate Him For Election Law Violations, Muslims Burn, Ransack, Attack Christian Villages in Nigeria, Another 55 DEAD, and Republican Lawmakers in Pennsylvania Sue Biden and Democrat Governor For Unconstitutional Seizure of Election Powers, Removal of Voting Rules
Going It Alone: hello it’s me
Hollywood In Toto: David Mamet: Trump Was Best President Since Lincoln, Adam Carolla: Biden Is a ‘Senile, Corrupt Old F***’, Ben Shapiro – Conservative Pundit, Author…Rapper? and TIME Calls Jon Stewart’s Return a ‘Bad Omen’ for Late Night TV
The Lid: HOMAN: Biden The First ‘President’ To Unsecure The Border… On Purpose
Legal Insurrection: CA Senate Debate: Ex-MLB Star Steve Garvey Reminds Adam Schiff the House Censured Him for Lying About Trump, British Scientist Admits Climate Change Committee’s ‘Net Zero’ Goals Based on Insufficient Data, Average IQ of College Students Has Dropped 17 Points Since 1939, Supreme Court Declines to Stop Nation’s First Execution by Nitrogen in Alabama, It’s Cornell Trustees Time For Choosing Whether To Rescue The Cornell Brand From The DEI Downward Spiral, Biden’s EPA Planning to Ban Methylene Chloride, an Industry-Essential Chemical, and State Dept. Pauses UNRWA Funding Amid Allegations Employees Participated in Oct. 7 Massacre
Nebraska Energy Observer: Monday, again, What! You Again? Treason of the Intellectuals, Moving On, and Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Lia Thomas Fighting Secret Legal Battle While Eyeing Spot On Women’s Team For 2024 Olympics, Riley Gaines Announces New Children’s Book On The Way, Colorado Football Team Works Out With Marines, Gets Quick Reality Check, Atlanta Falcons Pick Raheem Morris As Next Head Coach, Leaving Bill Belichick In Limbo, Jim Harbaugh Replacement: Michigan Leaning To OC Sherrone Moore – But While Staff Promotions Are Safe, They Often Don’t Work Out, NFL Announces ‘A Night Of Pride’ During Super Bowl Week In Partnership With Organization That Supports ‘Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’, and Adult Film Star Jesse Jane, Oklahoma Sooners Superfan, Dead At 43
Power Line: Blazing Saddles History Month, Treason of the intellectuals, American edition, From the Wuhan lab, and Thoughts from the ammo line
Shark Tank: DeSantis Pushes For Parental Rights Over Social Media Ban For Kids
Shot In The Dark: Metaphorical Perfection, Never Been Better, I Come Not To Praise The Atlantic But To Pelt It With Rocks & Garbage, and For Want Of A Strongly-Worded Sign
STUMP: ESG & Public Pensions – What’s The Fiduciary Duty When The Money Runs Out?
The Political Hat: Identifying As A Robot: From Playing Pretend To Valid Gender, also, Kentucky vs. Critical Race Theory
This Ain’t Hell: The US and Iraq to negotiate end of US-led military coalition, Mexico is calling for an investigation into how US military grade weapons ended up in cartel hands, Not sure that’s how it works? Valor Friday, The US military is ‘weak’, Every Republican attorney general in the US rebuts efforts to shut down ammunition manufacturer, and Marine Awarded Purple Heart. Finally
Transterrestrial Musings: Gay Science, Goodbye To Davos, and The LA Times
Victory Girls: Liquid Natural Gas Now In Biden’s Climate Change Crosshairs, Biden Nominee Adeel Mangi: Kick This Radical To The Curb, and Chicago Mayor Calls for Gaza Ceasefire While His Own City Needs One
Volokh Conspiracy: Remembering Lenin—the First Great Communist Mass Murderer, Nice Dig at Qualified Immunity by Judge Don Willett (5th Cir.), and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Doubles Down On Dangerous Claim that Immigration is “Invasion” [Only a LOLbertarian could pen something this asinine. -WS]
Watts Up With That: Biden Team Reportedly Took Step Toward Killing Natural Gas Project After Meeting With 25-Year-Old TikTok Influencer, In 2024, Americans Must Decide What Energy Costs Mean to Their Vote, Four of Britain’s Top Institutions Have Made Erroneous Estimates of the Cost of Net Zero, Energy: At Least We Have Some Coal Left, and Andrew Montford: Does the Climate Change Committee understand the energy storage problem?
The Federalist: Gov. Abbott Is Right: Texas Has The Right To Defend Itself And Secure Its Border, Break Up The GOP Consulting ‘Blob’ Before Another Campaign Bites The Dust, Mitch McConnell Is Mad Trump And GOP Voters Won’t Let Him Pass An Open Borders Amnesty Bill For Biden, Report: America’s Weak Military Is Unable To Juggle Multiple Regional Conflicts At Once, What To Make Of The Dual Legacies Of The Dueling Andrew Jackson, Pennsylvania Lawmakers Sue Biden, Shapiro For ‘Unconstitutionally’ Changing State Election Procedures, and Biden’s Natural Gas Shutdown Won’t Help The Environment, But It Will Make You Poor, Cold, And Miserable
Mark Steyn: What Is This Thing Called Love? Gervaising Davos, Family Feud: Barbara Stanwyck in Anthony Mann’s The Furies, Week Two Begins, and What is Good for the Goose

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 01.26.24 (Afternoon Abbreviated Punditry Edition)

Posted on | January 26, 2024 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 01.26.24 (Afternoon Abbreviated Punditry Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Internet was down all week. I’m not even going to pretend to try and catch up, but here’s a selection of the good stuff from this past week.
Thanks to everyone who e-mailed to make sure I wasn’t dying or something.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

Essex has opinions on Taylor Lorenz and other whiny journalists.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Shit Just Got Real – Walt Disney Company Edition, also, DOJ Finally Issues Report On Failures At Uvalde
EBL: Arizona State GOP Chair Jeff DeWitt Resigns (after audio of him offering Kari Lake money not to run for office), also, Charles Osgood, RIP
Twitchy: WH Climate Advisor Turns Into Babbling Mess Spinning How Biden’s Insane Energy Policy Won’t Help Russia, WH Wants To Stop Gov. Abbott From Securing Border Because Biden “Cares About The People Of Texas”, and Chaya Raichik Wrecks “Privileged Oppressor” From NBC Writing Hit Piece On Her, And It’s Perfect
Louder With Crowder: Globalists found something else they want to take away from you, CJ Stroud doubles down on his love for Jesus Christ despite being censored by NBC Sports, “People are fed up”: Crowder explains the importance of UFC’s free-speech stance, and WEF’s Klaus Schwab Wants To Take Away Your Right To Vote
Vox Popoli: Retreat From Syria, No Help From Beijing, The Draft Comes Back, Cartoon Villains, No French Mercenaries in Ukraine, and Of All the Glowies That Ever Glowed
Upstream Reviews: After Moses, Honor At Stake, and Cloak & Stola
Draw & Talk: Which Is Better – Making $100 vs. $7000?,
Postcards From Barsoom: There’s A Crown Lying In The Gutter
Stoic Observations: The Ruck
L’Ombre de L’Olivier: Embrace The Chaos, also, DIEing In Nice Red Tape
Ammo.com: America’s Stolen Guns -A Silent Contributor To Gun Crimes

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
CDR Salamander: Questioning The Carrier, Where Is Taiwan’s Cherbourg? So Does The USA’s Iron Triangle Frustrate You? and See The Pacific From Red China’s Perspective
Dana Loesch: DeSantis Is Out, Trump Wins NH Primary, and The Movement To Sway The GOP Primary,
Don Surber: They Should Have Just Let Him Win, Look Who Protects Free Speech, Zelensky The War Bore, and Ohio Stands Up To Medical Profiteers
Glenn Reynolds: The Coldest Place
Going It Alone: Finding Joy
STUMP: Academia – Credentialism vs. Education, Alternative Assets In Public Pensions, and U.S. Lightning Strike Death Totals For 2023

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Category: Linkagery

‘Don’t Ever Take Sides With Anyone Against the Family Again. Ever.’

Posted on | January 26, 2024 | Comments Off on ‘Don’t Ever Take Sides With Anyone Against the Family Again. Ever.’

Honestly, I’m surprised Dana Pico, our source on all things Philadelphia-related, has neglected this stunning story:

The father-son duo behind the iconic South Philadelphia cheesesteak spot best known as Tony Luke’s were sentenced to nearly two years in prison Thursday on tax fraud charges — the conclusion of a long-running prosecution and messy family row that now threatens the future of the operation.
Lawyers for Anthony Lucidonio Sr., 84, and son Nicholas Lucidonio, 57, said there is no one else the men trust to run the business. If they both end up behind bars at the same time, the attorneys said, they’d likely have to shutter the storefront in the shadow of I-95 from which they’ve slung their signature sandwiches for more than 30 years. . . .
Lucidonio Sr. opened Tony Luke’s at Oregon Avenue and Front Street in 1992 and has since grown it into a global franchise with more than a dozen locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Maryland, Texas and Bahrain.
Nicholas ran day-to-day operations at the original storefront for many of those years, while his brother Anthony Jr. became the face of the brand and the man who led its expansion.
Anthony Jr.’s business relationship with his family members soured in 2015, and he was fired.
A lawsuit followed and the company split in two — The Original Tony Luke’s, which operates the Oregon Avenue store, and Tony Luke’s franchises, which are run by Lucidonio Jr. and business partner Ray Rastelli.
The litigation later forced the family to change the name of its original location to Tony and Nick’s Steaks in 2022.
Anthony Jr.’s two sons — Anthony III and Michael, who were also employed at the sandwich empire — followed him out the door, taking copies of the company’s financial records with them and turned them over to federal investigators.
Those documents revealed that Lucidonio Sr. and Nicholas Lucidonio hid the success of their business from tax collectors by keeping two sets of books almost from the day the sandwich shop opened.
They purposefully kept cash profits out of their business bank accounts and developed a complicated method of paying their workers partly in cash to avoid having to pay taxes.
Only a portion of employees’ hours would be reflected on the checks they received each payday.

A brilliant scam, ruined because their own flesh and blood betrayed them to the feds! What part of omerta do I have to explain to these kids?

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Category: Crime, Pennsylvania

The New Hype-Shire Primary UPDATE: Trump Wins, CNN and Haley Lose

Posted on | January 23, 2024 | Comments Off on The New Hype-Shire Primary UPDATE: Trump Wins, CNN and Haley Lose

UPDATE 8:25 p.m. ET: Well, that didn’t take long — CNN called it a victory for Trump about 8:15, so that all their pro-Haley hype was just so much wasted airtime, I guess. And now on to South Carolina, where Nikki will lose again.

*** PREVIOUSLY ***

Today the TV in my office was tuned to CNN — I watch CNN, so you don’t have to — and it’s just incredible how they’ve been hyping up Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire primary. If you knew nothing else except what CNN told you, you might believe (a) there’s actually a chance Haley will beat Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and (b) winning New Hampshire is part of how she’s going to do it. Well, start by forgetting about (a), because that ain’t happening. Go look at the Real Clear Politics average — nationally, Trump’s been leading the GOP primary field by a massive margin for months. It doesn’t matter whether you love Trump or hate Trump, the reality is that a majority of Republican voters want him to be the candidate, no matter what the media says and no matter how many Democratic prosecutors indict him. If Trump was sitting in a prison cell right this minute, he’d still win the Republican nomination. And I’d say there’s a pretty good chance he’ll also win the New Hampshire primary, which would basically kill the Nikki Haley campaign, because if she can’t win New Hampshire, where’s she going to win? Her home state of South Carolina, maybe?

Not likely. The latest polls show Trump leading by 30 points there. There is no “path to victory” for Haley, just like there was no “path to victory” for DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, or any of the other candidates who showed up in the TV debates that Trump didn’t even bother with, because why should he? He is basically running like an incumbent and, not to stoke anyone’s conspiracy theories, but c’mon, man — 81 million votes? Does anyone really believe that? How is it that Biden supposedly got elected in a nationwide landslide, yet he is less popular than syphilis?

OK, that was unfair. Nobody hates syphilis as much as voters hate Joe Biden. Joe’s approval ratings are a toxic dumpster fire, and yet there are people who think Biden could somehow beat Trump in a rematch. Why do they think that? Maybe they’re watching CNN, which is one of the few places where Joe is slightly more popular than syphilis.

Anyway, the polls will close in New Hampshire in a little while, and it probably won’t be long before I’ll be able to report that Trump has won in a landslide. Or maybe not. But either way, this “campaign” is almost over.

UPDATE 7:25 p.m. ET:

Less than 5% of the vote reported so far, and these numbers are certain to wobble a lot, but you see Trump’s still winning.

UPDATE 8 p.m. ET:

Still less than 20% of the vote counted, but the lead for Trump has remained steady around 8 or 9 points. If Haley gets over 40%, she’ll call that a “moral victory,” and the hype train will roll on.

Category: Election, New Hampshire

Democratic Socialists of America Now Planning Layoffs Amid Financial ‘Crisis’

Posted on | January 22, 2024 | Comments Off on Democratic Socialists of America Now Planning Layoffs Amid Financial ‘Crisis’

What? You’re telling me that socialists are not good at managing finances and budgets? I’m shocked — shocked! — by this revelation:

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are facing an internal bloodbath as they beg staff members to volunteer to lose their jobs amid a funding crisis.
The organization said Bread & Roses members on the National Political Committee (NPC), which functions as the board for DSA, asked for volunteers among staff and directors to step down and take a severance payment. The organization says it’s a “necessary but hopefully temporary measure” to keep the DSA afloat.
The DSA said they “should be thriving,” but they instead are seeing a “decline in revenue, membership, and overall excitement.”
“We’re living in a moment when revived labor struggles and the fight for a free Palestine are galvanizing so many Americans,” the organization said, adding it’s “treading water” and things will continue to be tough.
The DSA accused “top directors” of mismanaging “our dues by withholding essential information from elected leaders for years and imposed their own political objectives that would keep DSA in the model of a progressive non-profit rather than a mass party that is capable of getting us closer to a rupture with capitalism.”
“No one would be considering layoffs if the deficit weren’t so extreme,” the organization continued. “But now that we are in this crisis, we can’t fix it by hollowing out the organization.”

If only we could view this as a metaphor, or something.

Category: Progressivism

No More Statues of White Men?

Posted on | January 22, 2024 | Comments Off on No More Statues of White Men?

William Penn statue in Philadelphia

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania was in an uproar after the Biden administration announced it was “planning to permanently remove a statue of William Penn from Philadelphia’s Welcome Park to provide a ‘more inclusive experience for visitors.'” In only a matter of days, however, the administration reversed the decision — Pennsylvania is a swing state, and it’s an election year — but only now are we starting to get some explanation of what led up to this incident:

The National Park Service’s proposal to remove a William Penn statue from a historic site in Philadelphia –- quickly withdrawn amid a backlash — wasn’t a priority for some of the Native Americans the agency was required to consult with as it prepared to renovate the deteriorating plaza.
Uprooting the statue of Pennsylvania’s founder from Welcome Park also wasn’t a major point of discussion as park service officials and tribal representatives met to plan the renovation over video last year, said Jeremy Johnson, director of cultural education for the Delaware Tribe of Indians.
Rather, what tribal representatives had envisioned for the plaza is an exhibit that would highlight the culture, history, traditions and perceptions of the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years before Penn arrived, Johnson said.
“We do still speak highly of William Penn,” Johnson said. But tribal representatives, he said, “were really just focusing on our culture and our history and that, in a way, he was an important part of it, but … it was a small interaction compared to our overall history.”
A park service spokesperson hasn’t responded to repeated questions about the abandoned proposal. . . .
A top state Republican lawmaker, Bryan Cutler, said removing Penn’s statue to “create a more inclusive environment takes (an) absurd and revisionist view of our state’s history.” Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro pressed the Biden administration to keep the statute in its “rightful home.”
The park service said it consulted with representatives of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, whose ancestors were displaced by the Pennsylvania colony. Such consultation with the federally recognized tribes is required under the National Historic Preservation Act.
But leaders of the Shawnee Tribe and the Eastern Shawnees, both now based in Oklahoma, like the Delawares, said they hadn’t had any discussions about it. Ben Barnes, chief of the Shawnee Tribe, said his tribe hadn’t received a customary “dear chief” letter from the agency — and he objects to removing the statue.
“William Penn was an ally of the Shawnee,” Barnes said. “As long as he lived, he kept his promise. As long as he was able to speak on behalf of the colony in western Pennsylvania, the Shawnees had a home there. … Of all the terrible human beings that inflicted tragedy upon native peoples, I don’t put William Penn in that category.”

Wait a minute — in order to renovate a park in downtown Philadelphia, the feds are required by law to consult tribes that live in Oklahoma? What the actual fuck is going on here? Personally, I have no grievance with the Shawnees, but can somebody explain to me why they should be given a de facto veto over these park plans? If this is actually required by law, then the law needs to be changed. My suspicion, however, is that this whole controversy happened because Joe Biden is president, and the people he put in change of the park service have decided that the rule should now be “no more statues of white men.” The fact that nobody at the park service is answering questions is highly suggestive of a cover-up.