Why are so many blue cities committing suicide?
Stories like this about New York City’s decline may cause you to say “Remind me why I should care.” But they make me sad, because I still find it hard to wrap my mind around the suicide of a city such as New York, my home town and still the putative residence of many people I know. I remember times when New York was a wonderful place to live or to visit.
I realize that the city’s current slide began with the election of unrepentant far-leftist Bill de Blasio as mayor. But still – and despite the fact that because of term limits he’s not up for re-election – his destructive moves somewhat puzzle me.
He reminds me of a homeowner who can’t pay his mortgage, and so when his house is foreclosed on he seizes the opportunity to trash it prior to leaving. Is de Blasio merely having a nihilist and vengeful fit of pique? Or is he just too stupid to know the effect of his actions?
Or – and this is my leading theory – does he think that, before leaving office, he may as well move the Overton Window as far to the left as possible (policy-wise), because he thinks that from this time forward the New York voters will never again vote the left out of office? New York has a history of doing just that, of electing a Giuliani-type when the city sinks too low. Maybe de Blasio thinks some sort of critical mass of leftist voters has been reached, in which that can never happen again.
Whatever de Blasio is doing and for whatever reason, it seems that it’s catching. New York is not the only city that seems to be committing suicide. Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle are not far behind, with Chicago in there somewhere as well. And then there’s the state of California.
Neo–I don’t get it either.
Do these Democrat politicians and appointed officials believe that–after their cities and the “quality of life,” and the absolutely essential feeling of “safety” in them are destroyed due to their deliberate actions/and lack of actions–and after a good portion of the populace (and tax base) flees, many likely permanently, for safer parts–that those left to stare out over the smoking rubble will forget who these guilty politicians are, and what they’ve done?
(I note, in passing, that U.S. cities that have suffered similar large scale riots and looting in the past have taken decades to rebuild and, in some cases, have never been able to regain what was destroyed–neighborhoods, shopping and business districts, stores that just never rebuilt, or returned to the vibrant life they used to contain.)
Or, do these office holders think that–no matter what the damage, or it’s scale–when their side wins they can just rebuild, and everything will just be “okeydoke.”?
See the paragraph above.
They are expecting a federal bailout from a Biden administration so why not go all in on the leftism.
In my little hometown, which will remain nameless, and is located somewhere in the Adirondacks, there is a crazy real estate boom happening, unlike any in recent memory, perhaps even in my lifetime:
-Homes selling for far above their value.
-Buyers having bidding wars before the house is officially listed.
-Buyers waiving home inspections.
-Buyers buying sight-unseen.
Right now, a Real Estate agent I know said that the average time on the market is less than 24 hours. He contacted my wife and I to ask if we had any thoughts on selling our home because, as the market is going, we stand to make 75-100K (before taxes and fees) on the sale.
Almost all of the buyers are people fleeing NYC as fast as they possibly can. Their money goes so much further up here and, having been used to NYC real estate prices, can afford to pay these inflated prices and then fix the house up, if needed, and its still a steal for them.
Fractal Rabbit, the only problem is that those fleeing the city have to sell their property there. Who’s going to want to buy it? This can’t keep up.
Cloward and Piven – overwhelm and collapse the system
Kate,
No, it can’t keep up. Which is why we’re seriously considering taking advantage of the situation right now. I’m happy with our present home and property. I’m not happy with the political situation of my state or with my city. It used to be staunchly conservative. The past 5-6 years though, it has shifted dramatically. Now its going to shift even more so. I’m reminded of an old proverb (Hungarian, I believe):
“Grab opportunity by the beard for it is bald behind.”
We’ve been considering leaving the People’s Republic of New York State for the past few years and this might be the perfect time to do so.
Fractal Rabbit and Kate: The horrible results of this is:
1) They drive out younger natives who can’t added the hyperinflated houses.
2) They still vote blue, and start voting in the same sort if idiotic policies that destroyed the place they fled from.
I have seen it happen in Boise with the $@#¥%© Californians who have moved there.
Are there any Republicans or conservatives in New York City who are well known enough to win and rebuild it? I haven’t heard of any. Are there any Democrats who will buck the trend to return it to glory? Very doubtful.
I agree, they are hoping to run out the clock for a Biden win to get an influx of money to rebuild NYC better than before, in their socialist imagination.
The Curley Effect.
The mayors and Blue Elite can profit and grow rich in the chaos and corruption, so the collapse doesn’t matter.
It actually helps. Why? From a paper on the Curley Effect:
James Michael Curley, a four-time mayor of Boston, used wasteful redistribution to his poor Irish constituents and incendiary rhetoric to encourage richer citizens to emigrate from Boston, thereby shaping the electorate in his favor. Boston as a consequence stagnated, but Curley kept winning elections. We present a model of the Curley effect, in which inefficient redistributive policies are sought not by interest groups protecting their rents, but by incumbent politicians trying to shape the electorate through emigration of their opponents or reinforcement of class identities. The model sheds light on ethnic politics in the United States and abroad, as well as on class politics in many countries including Britain.
Because they’re assholes.
It’s known as “The Curley Effect”,
“ James Michael Curley, a four-time mayor of Boston, used wasteful redistribution to his poor Irish constituents and incendiary rhetoric to encourage richer citizens to emigrate from Boston, thereby shaping the electorate in his favor. Boston as a consequence stagnated, but Curley kept winning elections. We present a model of the Curley effect, in which inefficient redistributive policies are sought not by interest groups protecting their rents, but by incumbent politicians trying to shape the electorate through emigration of their opponents or reinforcement of class identities. The model sheds light on ethnic politics in the United States and abroad, as well as on class politics in many countries including Britain.”
https://www.nber.org/papers/w8942.pdf
You’re assuming that the only way for a politician to succeed is by governing that increases the prosperity and quality of life of a city. If the only goal is power, replacing the current population with one that is slavishly attached to you, then what DeBlasio is doing might work.
Remember that every big city slum in the US is a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of the Democrat Party and has been for at least half a century. Nothing gets better, but the blacks vote 100% Democrat and get bought off with welfare. The elected officials prosper as do all the union members and the welfare workers who get well paid to administer all the programs.
As Berthold Brecht said,
After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts.
Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Whoops, SultanOfSwing beat me to it.
Neo,
You ask, “Why are so many blue cities committing suicide?”
It’s the Curley Effect:
“James Michael Curley, a four-time mayor of Boston, used wasteful redistribution to his poor Irish constituents and incendiary rhetoric to encourage richer
citizens to emigrate from Boston, thereby shaping the electorate in his favor.
As a consequence, Boston stagnated, but Curley kept winning elections”
Even though mayors might be limited to two terms, it is important to keep The Cause alive. Once you’ve eliminated the competition, the home team has a clear running field. They would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven…
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/glaeser/files/curley_effect_1.pdf
What if deBlasio just doesn’t care? He’ll still have his millions & can bug out with the rest & to hell with those stuck in the sinking ship.
AND…like 0, spend the rest of his days blaming President Trump.
The 2016 loser has made blame a nice career since then.
Trump needs to declare the country is in a state of insurrection, and move the army in and stop the riots. Then he needs to arrest those mayors for treason and hang them. They are doing what are doing because they can. Who’s going to stop them?
Waidmann
Hilarious. Three posts on the “Curley Effect” within 12 minutes. Never saw the first two. Great minds think alike or something.
The Democratic mayors of these cities are evil. It is that simple. If you don’t believe evil exists, then how do you explain sociopathy, people like the very intelligent Ted Bundy, who murdered a houseful of young nurses because he enjoyed it?
How do you explain letting your citizens be oppressed and ruined by looters and arsonists? Because you, the mayors, are evil. And because you wish the middle class to disappear, like kulaks.
Why does Bowser (who is aptly named, like a cur), have Black Lives Matter painted boldly on a major public street in Washington, D.C.? Those streets really belong to us all! She’s black (uncapitalized; I refuse) and D.C. is 80% black Democrats, so she really does not need to play to the voters. She did that to give the rest of us the finger.
These mayors have no sense of public duty, none. They are of course “essential”, with guaranteed security and incomes. They are smaller Pelosis.
The woman who is running against Wheeler in Portland is worse than he is!
As to rescuing the Leftist cities, I’m dead against. Portland has been looney, a magnet for the scruffy young, for so very long. Before it got looney, it was corrupt. Read about Goldschmidt, the corrupt mayor of the 1970s, who promoted light rail, with his insider buddies buying the land at the planned train stops, reaping great profits from subsequent development though the businesses did not, because traffic was not as anticipated. He refused to widen the I-5 bridge over the river despite the fact that 95% of Portlanders commuted by car, trying to force them to use his light rail.
Why stop with questioning mayors?
Look at Newsom, CA governor, whose state cannot afford the $200/wk unemployment subsidy that other states can and will, in conjunction with the continuing Federal “benefit”. Why can CA not afford that? Because he refuses to reduce expenditures to match the decline in tax revenues, or shift from the oh-so-good present budget allocations. He is betting on a Biden win, and then Kentuckians will get to help out the so-poor CA people.
I love that poem by Brecht. Should be more widely known given that it describes perfectly what is being done to many of us in so many Western countries at present. I post it from time to time in various forums when the topic of mass immigration comes up and am rewarded by the gentle lowing of cattle, the sound of crickets, and the screeching of the one or two full-on leftists present who know what’s up.
The man was utterly odious though and supported the Berlin Uprising crackdown *in writing* whilst it was going down. Later, after Stalin was safely dead and things had cooled down, he slipped this bit of slither into the record and today it’s pretty much what he’s known for in English. You don’t see people hungrily devouring the Caucasian Chalk Circle on street corners.
Sort of a metaphor to start: Years ago, my primary care doc had gone into practice back when local physicians took turns covering the local ER. There were few or no ER specialists.
His first bad was so bad he “froze”. That is, he said, there is a template to what the human body is supposed to look like. This was so far out of the template that…he froze for a moment.
(For the in-group, he caught up later. Hollingsworth thought surgeons should go with the maneuver units. “If you have to be one…..”)
I’m kind of seeing the same thing. We have a template as to what a big city, especially New York should look like. At my age, you’ll have seen movies from the Thirties at odd hours on television. And contemporary films. And news. Parades, catastrophes, celebrities, firsts of any number of types. Visited. Lived there. There are Blue Bloods and any number of other shows set there. Law and Order and its offshoots total how many episodes?
Is New York going to be outside the unconscious template we have? Will there be some kind of social and political “freeze?”
I really don’t care what mental illness or IQ problem the mayor has. The reptilian governor has twice (that I know of) stated that conservatives are “not welcome in his state”. I am a conservative. I wish NYC and the state of NY and the voters who put them in office the very worst. I want to see the police defunded because its unconscionable to send the police out to deal with murderous thugs without institutional backing. So the murder rate is way up. Its a start! I look forward to a rapid rise. I look forward to the lamentations of their women.
President Trump has been attacked relentlessly since day one of his administration, precisely to encourage his pugnaciousness to focus in on personalizing the election.
Meanwhile, the real battle is not against Biden, who is only a stalking horse. It is for the House, the Governorships, the Secretaries of State, the District Attorneys, and the Mayorships that can deliver the urban US into the control of the international left. That’s the league DiBlasio is playing in, and the team he is playing for.
President Trump needs to help America understand this reality, but first he must completely understand it himself. He is indeed the Necessary Man, but he is not an Army of One.
Neo,
I think its pure and simple graft. Keep things chaotic. It distracts from the systems they are putting in place to enrich themselves. Chase away those with the most knowledge and shred of ethics that would oppose you.
I watched it happen during the Coleman and Kilpatrick regimes as Detroit mayors. They filled the city ranks with corrupt higher ups. And used them to obfuscate all the money that disappeared. Oh and scream at the top of their lungs “racist” if anyone got close or questioned them.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2020/05/26/ex-detroit-mayor-kwame-kilpatrick-not-released-prison-early/5259845002/
Here is the aforementioned Kilpatrick. Still in prison to this day.
And there is still the open question of who murdered his mistress on the street outside the Mayor’s official residence.
Yes, this is very sad. New York is my hometown as well, and it depresses me to see this happen. What upsets me even more is that I know there isn’t a thing in the world that can be done about it. As always, Neo, your point is well made. There are now even more New Yorkers whose only wish is to ride the gravy train, and it is likely they now make up the majority. What a pity.
I want to point out a phrase probably coined by Victor Davis Hanson, and repeated in many of his columns over the years: “They are largely immune to the consequences of their ideology.”
This goes not only for mayors, but also for the liberal elites. Silicon Valley techies, Old Line lawyers, government employees, etc. They can believe and advocate anything that makes them feel good (because that’s what it’s all about), no matter how little their beliefs conform to economic law, because any consequences really won’t affect them. The externalities of their ideology fall on the middle class, the poor (and they’ll just take another handout), just someone else. Not them.
They’re not like our host; they’ve never been mugged by reality. I wonder at this point how bad of a mugging it would have to be to make them open their eyes.
They’re not like our host; they’ve never been mugged by reality.
Mitch Strand: This drove me crazy at the prog Episcopalian church I attended in the 2000s. They insisted that the playground or the Harry Potter books were appropriate contexts for discussing the Iraq War.
I felt like I was talking to people who had grown up in some happy suburban bubble and never encountered evil beyond a teacher who was mean to them.
As best I can determine, the motive is the joys of vandalism. The issue made reference to by the ‘protesters’ is utter humbug and the organizations promoting these causes scheming and malicious.
Keep in mind that the menu of complaints offered in contemporary progtrash politics have little to do with the problems in living of ordinary wage-earners qua ordinary wage-earners. The exceptions to that observation would be concerns about the security of medical benefits and the spectre of student loan debt. Of course, they never advocate anything to address these problems that does not incorporate escalating socialization of costs without much of a rationing system.
NB, diBlasio never concealed who he was. Neither does Ilhan Omar. Electorates who have nothing to gain from what these creatures advocate voted them into office. What’s up with the voters in these loci?
Did you see the guy who posted a blog piece
It struck me that Neo “Overton Window” idea connects directly to the ‘left wing Hegelian’ idea of the inevitability of progress that arose out of the Enlightenment. You know, that overly optimistic take on the very real success of Reason solving any and all problems leading to the notion that progress is a one way process and cost free leading to perfection, and therefore operates like a ratchet – once progress is made it can not go backwards.Belief in the inevitability of progress has become a kind of collective ego-inflation that characterises our entire Modern age but is particularly ungrounded on the left. They don’t seem to see the Second Law of Thermodynamics – that everything devolves toward less order – entropy. For them progress cannot be reversed. Remember Obama’s great Arc of History? They really suffer from the ratchet problem and truly believe that once they get some of their agenda in place that nothing can reverse the onset of an earthly Millenium such as Universal Brotherhood of the French Revolution, or the Worker’s Paradise of Marxism, or Neo Marxism’s triumph of Trans Women winning gold medals. So yes, because they were interrupted in their great wok by The Donald, they are going to make sure to make as much progress as possible on their way out the door. Just like the Jacobins they don’t see that their ideal of social justice leads to chaos and tyranny – not heaven on earth. I do quite bit of volunteer work with Cambodians who fled Pol Pot because I feel comfortable with people who do not suffer this delusion.
The Curley effect. Wow, something I hadn’t considered. Might be the motive. Or, maybe VDH is right. They just don’t see the consequences of their actions. Things to ponder. I’d like to be a fly on the wall of De Blasio’s office.
Might get some insight. 🙂
A fellow had a blog post about reasons for not dating tattooed women. Mainly he posited that women with tattoos are mentally unstable. He received death threats. A blog called “The Other McCain” regularly runs a column called “Crazy People Are Dangerous”. The leftist running blue cities are like tattooed women with hair of bizarre colors are crazy. Being crazy they are dangerous. Leftist are much more likely to commit suicide than religious right.
Havard did a large, longitudinal study on women and religion. Attending weekly services markedly reduced suicide rates. Women who attended Mass more than once a week had an absolute suicide rate of zero. Not one of the more than once a week women committed suicide.
Snow on Pine,
By now, every democrat politician has to know that liberal democrat voters will continue to vote for them, as Detroit, Chicago and Baltimore make absolutely clear.
Paul in Boston @ 7:04 pm has the right of it. So don’t expect Portland and Seattle to regain sanity.
Waidmann,
“Trump needs to declare the country is in a state of insurrection, and move the army in and stop the riots. Then he needs to arrest those mayors for treason and hang them.”
I’m confident that upon reelection Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act and nationalize the National Guard. I’m much less certain that absent Martial Law, he’ll arrest, try and imprison, much less execute these treasonous politicians.
I’m uncertain that he realizes that even if reelected… once his second term is over, the left will be looking to crucify him.
IMO, the democrat leadership is sitting upon a tiger of their own making that they now can’t control.
If however attained, the democrats gain the Presidency, I foresee Civil War because they’ll impose tyranny and effectively end the American Republic. Our choice will then be a binary one; kneel to 1984 style tyranny or conduct “politics by other means”.
If Trump is reelected I think the violence will escalate, with a good chance of even further escalation after Trump invokes the Insurrection Act. Escalating violence will legitimize Trump declaring Martial Law and that’s when he can permanently disembowel all of the left; media, academia, financiers, politicians and military. Every institution must be cleansed. He’ll have to be ruthless, very thorough and strategically clever. Once Martial Law is declared, he must leave them with no opening and not let them get back up off the ground.
Perhaps even more critically, after the dust clears, he must hold an Article V Convention and ensure that comprehensive reforms are passed that will prevent totalitarian ideologies from ever gaining another foothold in America again.
The growing ever more sagely Douglas Murray has at least three new hour long interviews up at YouTube. There’s one with New Culture Forum, PoliticalJoe, and the one I just took in, from the two comics turned Video Bloggers, Triggernometry.
This is Murray’s fourth interview with the lads, the sequel to contrast with Covid-19 lockdown last spring. This time it’s August and the summer violence to reflect on.
Here’s a taste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t97HfUZMEQA
It is a profound, deep dive that Murray gives us, between laughs of perhaps callous recognition of the summer of hate.
I wonder what else Douglas Murray has that’s completely eviscerating, cold, and cutting to the quick?
Geofrey Britain has the consequences we face during our Weimar summer: this path of the Madness of Crowds, as Douglas Murray entitled his latest book, end in war.
What would this mean? This is the topic for the second half of Murray’s interview at Triggernometry (LINK above).
I like the scenario Geofrey outlines. Things can indeed get worse and keep getting worse, especially if he Madness of Crowds goes unchecked and coddled.
For example, the Fifty Days Siege at the White House begins on the 17th, next week. (Occupy Wall Street Redux.) Counter-protests are planned. Clashes will occur.
Will blood and violence be inevitable? Highly likely.
I think Cicero means Richard Speck
New Yorker here.
Occam’s Razor obtains:
DeBlasio is stupid and selfish. And corrupt.
And like a goldfish, does not see the ideology he swims in.
Kevin, Yes, but Bundy did kill a couple of co-eds at a sorority house in Florida, so he’s kinda close.
It’s the Curley Effect. The strategy is to effectively chase out those constituencies (the middle class, the affluent, etc.) that might vote against DeBlasio and his allies, leaving those remaining more likely to depend on public assistance or be part of the class charged with doling out help from the public coffer. Counterintuitively, if he can blame those leaving for the city’s problems, misrule actually makes their political position stronger.
Why are they doing this?
They are religious fanatics, and Marxism is their faith.
In a perverse way, you have to give them credit. When leftists take over a state, a city, a media outlet, a sporting league, a church…they will impose a total leftist takeover, no matter what the cost.
How much have Hollywood and the sports league lost in viewership and dollars by being leftist? How much membership have the Protestant churches lost? How many students have colleges driven away with their Communism?
Do they care? No.
Fractal Rabbit and Kate – the wave of people coming up to the counties within 100 miles or so of NYC now is mostly made of up two groups: (1) the ones who have plenty of money and can afford to get out before they sell coops and condos in NYC and (2) young renters with good incomes, able to continue to work remotely, who hadn’t saved enough to buy in the city or the near suburbs, but can afford the down payment in the ex-urban areas upstate in NY or CT.
The people who are increasingly trapped are those who have bought coops or condos in Manhattan or the boroughs (esp. Brooklyn and Queens) who would need to get their money out to be able to put down 25-30% equity and get a mortgage to close on a property upstate.
We have been looking at places in Columbia County as an Summer alternative to our current undisclosed commutable Fairfield County location as we are relocating to an undisclosed no income tax state with better winter weather. We’ve seen prices escalate, and places go for asking within days. We’re waiting at least a year, maybe two, before buying.
T J, yes, Murray is a very interesting mind. Do you watch every one of his interviews? I haven’t followed him that fanatically, but often find myself wishing I did. Sounds like I have some catching up to do.
But I don’t find him cold – a subdued form of warm, maybe, but it’s definitely there. His interview with Peter Robinson from a couple of years ago showed that, I thought. “Attitude of gratitude” – ahh, I thought, he rhymes! And I’ve seen few other interviews whose final sentence is as elegant as that one; that great little smile on his face when he said it. In other words, I think not to look to Murray as to a bulldog, but rather for a little breath of fresh air, even though I’m sure there are points on which he and I probably disagree.
Anyway, if Murray is viewing this whole anti-whiteness business as a big rewind of the clock on the subject (among the various other thoughts that he brings), it confirms my own perception.
Why are so-called “Blue cities” committing suicide?
They’re not. They are assuming that we don’t have the nerve to watch them croak and that we are going to bail them out.
We call to mind that scene in the comedy film, “Blazing Saddles,” in which a character controls a mob by threatening to shoot himself.
I agree with one exception. The decline of New York City began under Mike Bloomberg. I would go further to say that Mike Bloomberg’s second term as an Independent and his ridiculous policies made New Yorkers, who are not by nature skeptical of government in the first place, even more passive to boutique policy ideas. De Blasio’s inept mismanagement of the city didn’t seem like the catastrophic shift that it would have had it proceeded from the mostly successful Guliani administration. Not that blame is important now, but De Blasio was not elected as a 21st century John Lindsay, but a natural progression from Bloomberg.
I purpose something else. Hillary clearly lost because of the Electorial college. How to change that? Move the leftist base out of the cities into Red states and change them to Purple at least. Redistribution of leftist voters into Conservative states. What could go wrong?
Not to mention, resetting property values, and allow leftist investors to purchase real estate they could have only dreamed of before. Win-Win in the long run
Think about Detroit. It lost about half of its population, but the Democrats stayed in power. For politicians it’s all about power. They’d rather be in charge of a depopulated hell hole than be out of power in a healthy city. Ruining the city can help then stay in power if they force out the people who would vote them out of office.
I don’t think they DO realize that they are committing suicide…they think they are stretching a spring that will snap back, and they don’t understand about the yield point of metals.
And in any event, most of these politicians care more about personal power than about the welfare of residents. “Better to reign in Hell than to service in Heaven.”
These people believe their ideology with a religious fervor. Its constant failure to improve the living conditions of its supposed beneficiaries has no impact whatsoever on the belief system because the system has an internal defense-mechanism that makes it non-falsifiable. That mechanism is wrapped up in the totalitarian nature of the system itself, i.e. it won’t work unless we’re all onboard without reservation. So, it’s only the resistance to the system from reactionaries, saboteurs, white supremacists etc. that is frustrating its ability to provide the utopian outcomes that it self-evidently will. What kind of hideous, morally deformed person would try to prevent us from reaching that glorious promised land? You, that’s who.
” They’d rather be in charge of a depopulated hell hole than be out of power in a healthy city. Ruining the city can help then stay in power if they force out the people who would vote them out of office.”
More variations on a theme. Connecticut, where many people disparage of the current economic state, still vote for Democrats…the very definition of insanity. Now add in those NYCer’s escaping to Fairfield and Litchfield county who, despite the hell they are escaping from, I guarantee will vote D in the next CT election.
I had read articles in City Journal (I think they were by Joel Kotkin) about how Federal money had allowed places like Detroit to chase out their businesses, starting in the 1960s. Didn’t know, or had forgotten, the “Curley effect” moniker. But it occurs to me that the exact same m. o. was used in the universities, starting in the late 1980s with all the super impenetrable deconstructionist texts, to drive out all but the most conformist. Those texts were eventually replaced by overt political propaganda once there was nobody left to object.
I don’t think the Blue Cities intended to crash and burn the way this is unfolding, this protest stuff started out in Minneapolis with what appeared to be the tragic death of a black man, taking over eight minutes, by a white police officer and liberals with good intentions took to the streets because they believed in the BLM cause. They thought their protests would make enough noise in the press to damage Trump’s chances this fall and they were well funded. What happened was the Antifa and professional BLM’s along with the liberal whackos and sociopaths got a taste of blood and the Blue City politicians decided that for political reasons they would lose power if they came out against the cause.
This whole riot summer has been similar to a vehicle take coming into a curve extremely fast, if the tires are good and the driver is skillful they will make the turn and keep on moving, this time around it appears they have flown off the road and crashed and now they are burning. Using this analogy they may have totaled their cities.
As others have touched on: The voters in these cities will continue to vote for the same political leaders who are destroying their cities. We can explain the “reasons” for this all day long, but it remains baffling. Another Giuliani?? Perhaps, but I suspect that’s wishful thinking…love to be wrong though.
Before the wuhan flu crisis and disastrous response, the majority of New York state population loss had come out of counties which had supported President Trump. Similarly for years California had seem demographic shift with middle class conservative people leaving. Blue cities and states have the greatest income inequality. Demographic distortions remove reality buffering. The left destroys everything it touches, individuals, cities, and states.
“…committing suicide…”
Sorry, I don’t agree with the premise (even though it does seem, from certain angles, to hold water).
That is, it is NOT the cities that are “committing suicide”. It is their governments and leaders, mayors, municipal councils—practically all (if not all) Democrats to a person—that are murdering them. (This along with the support for the destruction proffered by the hyper-partisan MSCM.)
So the question then becomes, “Why are these municipal leaders murdering the cities they are supposed to be governing in good faith?”
(Which could be followed up by, “…and why do so many seem to agree with them?”)
I was puzzled at this for a while, as well, believing at the time that there had to be an answer based on reason (even if flawed). Certainly, it seems that encouraging your city to be destroyed would not exactly resonate with voters on the local level (or at least most of them). Nor would encouraging cities (and society for that matter) to be destroyed—as demonstrated by the Democratic Party’s collusion on this issue on the part of mayors, governors and POTUS and VPOTUS candidates—seem to be good politics on the national level.
So I rationalized my puzzlement by concluding that they in fact believed—COUNTER-INTUITIVELY—that encouraging this destruction was EXCELLENT POLITICS—and THE way (along with maniacal insistence on write-in balloting) that they were going to win in November. That it would be the most successful way (since the Russia hoax imploded and the impeachment farces crashed and burned) to DEFENESTRATE Trump. Yes, this was the way they to go, especially since they were constantly BLAMING TRUMP and his supporters for the violence, the rioting, the looting, the chaos and the mayhem; which sounds about as insane—not to mention EVIL—as one can get…and yet, and yet with the active participation of the MSCM and its amplification of the insanity, well—who’s to say it wouldn’t work…
But over the past several days, it’s dawned on me that such a rationalization of the on-its-face inexplicable is no longer necessary for the Democrats (or anyone else). In fact, the need to rationalize it is SIMPLY and TOTALLY IRRELEVANT.
(No doubt the need to FIND A REASON for every little thing is a feature of WHITE SUPREMACY on the one hand and WHITE FRAGILITY on the other!… No doubt, no doubt).
The reason for this EUREKA realization
(there I go again, trying to find A REASON, trying to EXPLAIN!!…) is:
Democratic behavior, words, deeds, antics simply DO NOT MATTER.
No matter what happens, the Democrats will contest the election—violently, vociferously, blatantly, illegally. With the support of their shock troops in Antifa, in BLM and in the MSCM….and no doubt multitudes of the disappointed faithful.
If they win the elections, well, things will likely quiet down.
But if they lose the election (which they may well be expecting to do), they will never concede that they lost, opting instead to open—and keep open—the gates of hell.
And this is why they don’t care that the cities are currently burning: They don’t believe they will pay a price—and they will never concede.
Why the Civil War they have been fomenting since November 2016 will continue to rend the country apart….
Why they have a dementia-addled POTUS and an VPOTUS whose forte is sheer hypocrisy, wicked incitement and questionable ethics….
Why they will roll in the gutter telling lie after lie, slander after smear and smear after smear….
Why they will declare that facts are unimportant even as they invent “facts” and then broadcast them around the world….
Because it doesn’t matter. None of it matters.
They don’t believe they will pay a price.
They will never concede.
Because better that the country should detonate than they admit to losing the election.
As Professor Jacobson explains:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/09/somethings-happening-here-democrats-laying-foundation-for-action-with-their-post-election-day-doomsday-warnings/
Petigru about South Carolina in 1860.
“too small to be a republic, too big to be an insane asylum.”
and many more
but taking the hit will be businesses in cities that rely on suburban foot traffic. sports teams, events, restaurants, mid-scale hotels. face the music, close and move.
“Because it doesn’t matter. None of it matters.
They don’t believe they will pay a price.
They will never concede.”
Hillary has said this twice now in a week and half. They definitely are laying the groundwork for Nov 4, which will be the start of CW2 if Trump wins. At that point maybe the price will be paid….I dunno.
Have people seen this video?: https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1302807915519258624
I’m just a bit younger than that couple, but I would have stood up and just dared one of those thugs to touch me, and I would have responded. I would also have probably ended up in the ICU or dead. But what they were doing to that couple made my blood boil. When do we respond?? Didn’t anyone ever learn the lesson of the school yard on how to handle bullies?
I think of this in the same way that I saw the political monks in S.E. Asia protesting through self-immolation over the last 6 decades.
The city oligarchs decided they *must* help stop the growth of the power of people who voted for Trump, the people who did not care that all the academically certified oligarchs opposed him, because they realized that academic certification had ceased being a useful indicator of competence. The oligarchs are immolating their city’s future, in order to stop “Trump” through pointing to the horror of what they claim Trump caused, as though we cannot see these oligarchs caused or allowed the destruction themselves.
All of you have failed to mention the vast demographic changes that have resulted from both legal and illegal immigration. Not only has this phenomena turned once reliably conservative states into blue ones, it has provided the population base to foment these radical ideas. Does anyone really believe that if this massive population change had not occurred, we would be looking at this unrest and violence?
Native NYer here now living in the North Country. @FractalRabbit, you are so right, and our little cottage on Lake Ontario is just that much more price-enhanced.
Unfortunately, I have noticed the influx of city refugees here as well who sadly bring their pernicious voting habits with them. In a state like NY, it really doesn’t matter since it doesn’t affect statewide, but still an incentive to relocate to a redder state entirely.
Also, do not expect a GOP mayoral savior in NYC next time around. The days of Rudy Giuliani (or even Michael Bloomberg in his original incarnation) in NY and Frank Rizzo in Philly are long gone, thanks to a truculent imported Third World electorate. Soon coming to the White House.
Maybe after Trump loses the presidency via mail-in voting, he’ll run for mayor of NYC
@Susie Green:
Yes. But many here shy away from the demographics is destiny stuff. CivNattery dies hard. Not that Demographics will shy away from them and theirs by a long shot…
Some mention of Douglas Murray above. I enjoy watching his YouTube appearances but he is just a tad reptilian. A trip through Eton and Oxford during one’s formative years does seem to do bad things to a person in recent times. What we have here is a hyper-intelligent make no bones about it homosexual. This is a guy who laments the Left spreading racial divisions and Transperversity because he just wants to be able to blend in and do his own thing without it becoming overly political. That’s all very nice, but it’s got nothing to do with poor old despised “Legacy Britons” and I see no evidence that he’s doing much to defend them against GloboHomo… but then why would he, he’s got no genetic stake in the future.
Again, I quite like some of his commentary. Don’t dislike or despise him… but it’s important to grasp who/what he is and where he is coming from and what his likely motivations and ultimate loyalties might be.
I’m convinced that the George Floyd incident triggered the people behind this to jump the gun. If a manufactured incident had set this off now, by Election Day we would still be at the ‘mostly peaceful protests’ meme. Also, as the weather cools down, nightly rioting is a lot less appealing. There would have been some damage but not the extent of destruction we are seeing in the cities now. Riots were intended; loss of control and extensive destruction were not.
I’m told that Despair is a Sin. The late great Jerry Pournelle used to mention this often.
In that vein, here is something to give us hope:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2020/09/fishing-with-shotguns.html
In the long run, what hope do bepierced Antifa weirdos have against guys who snap shoot jumping carp?
@John Fisher:
Probably was said in relation to those pesky Bolsheviks in mid 1917. Alexander Kerensky could not be reached for comment. In fact he ended up having to marry a social-climbing furniture store heiress from the sub-tropical backwater of Brisbane Australia. I kid you not. Probably the reason Stalin never bothered ordering his assassination — would have been an early release 😛
Ain’t over till it’s over. Hope you’re right, but the wheel is spinning and the ball is bouncing and the croupier hasn’t called time yet.
Zaphod – Believe me I don’t think this is over. It is going to get worse before it gets better. A large amount of money and organization has to be behind what is happening. My point was simply that if this had kicked off 3 months later the cities would have self inflicted wounds by Election Day but not figurative gunshots to the head.
The Berkeley Free Speech Movement in ‘64 and the Peoples’ Park Movement in ‘69 and dozens of intervening riots and protests in the sixties served to turn downtown Berkeley permanently into a gritty and flaky neighborhood with endless crime and a high homeless population. It used to be quite nice…like Westwood near UCLA or New Haven, Conn. near Yale. After over fifty years, this seediness has remained. I am amazed at how much long term effect this has had. The Peoples’ Park is still there and filled with homeless and drugs. Stores are low quality, half-closed and dirty. People are living in their cars and campers.
I guess the way to explain this is that investors and entrepreneurs are simply never going to take a chance on Berkeley again. They have made up their minds.
My point was simply that if this had kicked off 3 months later the cities would have self inflicted wounds by Election Day but not figurative gunshots to the head.
John Fisher: Agreed. Last January we heard that Sanders’ organizer via Project Veritas:
_______________________________________
So, if Trump gets re-elected, what–
Kyle Jurek: F******* cities burn. Yeah, I mean we don’t have a lot of time left. We have to save like human civilization.
“Project Veritas released video of Sanders’ field organizer ranting about burning cities”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC3V2vTTrx4
_______________________________________
At the time I wasn’t sure if this was typical revolutionary fantasizing or something more substantial. We now know the answer is the latter.
Today’s radicals already had the riots and burning spring-loaded and Floyd’s death set them off arguably too early.
If Floyd’s death had been an October Surprise, it might well have been fatal to Trump’s re-election.
‘Hilarious. Three posts on the “Curley Effect” within 12 minutes.’
I’d never heard of it before (and thanks for the thumbnail sketches). But I had intuited that was the intended result: change the demographics to skew toward the voters I need.
Also, those with more money are probably a little bit more conservative than those with less. Thus the occasional Guliani type mayor.
As for the property they leave behind, I’m going guess that while they’ll take bath on them, the results will be a better life for them. And there’s always a price point where it will sell, even if it is to a speculator.
DeBlasio has been quite explicit in saying he wants to rid NYC of the wealthy. Not including himself of course, as he has enriched himself quite nicely through corruption. Making hotels in expensive neighborhoods into homeless shelters serves both purposes: He rewards his big donors with lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts (the owner of that Lucerne Hotel got a cushy deal and is a big DeBlasio funder); and he ruins a wealthy neighborhood.
huxley:
Yes, according to the Project Veritas video they had it planned for the week of the conventions. But Floyd’s death was too perfect an opportunity for them to pass up. Initially they got a ton of goodwill and an enormous amount of money, so it hasn’t been a total loss. However, they overplayed their hand.
Another important post from Michael Anton, which addresses many of the excellent points raised by Neo and the local Commentariat.
Read it and weep.
https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/28/a-tyranny-perpetual-and-universal/
Slightly tangential:
I always look up neologisms to see if they have somehow transmogrified under my radar into some kind of double entendre or blatantly changed meaning.
This was an interesting article on “Commentariat”, and, although it does not definitively demonstrate that the author coined the word, he does use it in the same evolved sense that I do:
https://medium.com/wonk-bridge/https-medium-com-wonk-bridge-introducing-the-commentariat-7d2e9b9b4129
Etymology:
https://www.lexico.com/definition/commentariat
NOUN
North American
Members of the news media considered as a class.
‘the commentariat exuded recriminations when the air attacks were called off’
Origin
1990s blend of commentary and proletariat.
Zaphod…don’t know how accurate this story about Mrs Kerensky is, but it’s certainly an interesting one….
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-22/nell-tritton-alexander-kerensky-saved-from-stalin-hitler-history/12472416
They don’t care as much about the reality of their cities as they do about “moral superiority”, as shown by ostentatious virtue-signaling. The Dems actually wanted huge Huge peaceful protests, like MLK 60’s civil rights.
But sociopaths and organized violent alt-Fa (alternate fascists; with their fake anti-Fa name) pushed the violence.
They mostly have irrational and unreasonable hatred for Trump – but it’s not too different from their hatred for Republican Americans.
They were brought up with Critical Theory. There’s a new book about it Cynical Theories, which Askblog discusses (Arnold Kling). He summarizes 5 points from it, here’s #1:
http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/the-gist-of-cynical-theories/
1. Liberalism and Theory are incommensurate. Liberalism presumes that we should pursue truth objectively, using logical deductions and empirical observations. From the liberal perspective, some of the propositions held by Theorists, concerning sex for example, are false and even ridiculous. Theory presumes that truths are contingent on identity, so that a white male may hold to a different “truth” than a black female. From the Theory perspective, liberal concepts of logic and empiricism are primarily tools used to perpetuate the privileged in a power structure. They are not necessary or sufficient for the pursuit of truth.
Identity is more true than objective truth.
The previous week had an excellent reference to an essay by Hazony about the Marxist roots of the anger:
http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/should-they-be-called-marxists/
https://quillette.com/2020/08/16/the-challenge-of-marxism/
The Marxists who have seized control of the means of producing and disseminating ideas in America cannot, without betraying their cause, confer legitimacy on any conservative government. And they cannot grant legitimacy to any form of liberalism that is not supine before them. This means that whatever President Trump’s electoral fortunes, the “resistance” is not going to end. It is just beginning.
They cannot grant legitimacy to any form of “liberalism” that disagrees.
They want the Moral Superiority, and prefer it without the violence, but won’t give up their Moral support to BLM, aka Marxism, to oppose violence.
And the Dems won’t oppose violence except to avoid losing an election. But their current mild opposition to violence is clear lip-service. Which might be seen if they get re-elected locally, with Trump nationally, and the violence continues.
There’s realistic fears of civil war, especially with mail-vote fraud.
These are very scary times, I do not want to see a civil war and this time if it happens it will not be defined exactly by regions but by counties and communities who hold different values. If Trump loses they might try to take away some guns and that will not be a good time and if he wins they might try to destroy more cities and that will not be very good. We are sitting on a powder keg of explosive stuff and when our wonderful nation became a nation we, those folk at that time, knew it was a delightful risk for people to have the freedom to make their own decisions without bowing to a king.
As the years have gone by we don’t want to kneel down to any rulers for any reason because we are citizens and not subjects and we a free to make up our minds and be as objective or subjective as we wish when we vote.
Things are very different from the 1960s riots. Then, you often had ten thousand marching in the streets. There are not nearly so many in the “peaceful” protests this time around. But the key is the hard core rioters. They number in the low hundreds. They’re organized to a degree; they plan, share resources, and communicate effectively. The mask requirement works in their favor.
But what has really worked for them is George Soros’ funding of district attorney races. In Portland, the same rioters are arrested over and over, even on felony charges. Some are merely cited. This allows them to return to the scene night after night.
The reluctance of mayors and governors to take action against them works also. If police cannot take those who assault the police off the streets, then what’s the risk?
The media do their part. Any story that makes Democrats look bad is downplayed or ignored, or actively denied. We Have To Stop Trump after all.
This is the result of our cities being abandoned by the businessmen who used to run things. Chain store managers replaced them, and chain store managers have no investment in civic life. Owners of businesses in Minneapolis tell of bureaucratic obstacles to cleanup and rebuilding. They talk of emails to council members never answered. And when council members are asked about these problems, the reply is that rampant capitalism is the evil. And the reporter never asks: What good are you if you cannot help your constituents?
So the murder rate is way up. Its a start! I look forward to a rapid rise. I look forward to the lamentations of their women.
If you are trying to activate your LIZARD serpent DNA, well this is how you do it.
How about we just BURN IT ALL DOWN?
Did people think it was a joke or something here?
Your economy, your currency, your government, your police, your services, your country.
How about I burn it all down in front of you and show you what is really going on?
When do we respond??
When I tell you when you can, then you can respond with violence. Until then, stand down.
The War is already over or perhaps being fought by invisible factions few of you can see.
@Old Texan and Barry Meislin – reading through the thread, your comments stood out for me. In my mind they fit together – when you go into a skid the whole world of ego control changes – goals, intent, reasons – everything – and I think Barry has gotten inside the heads of the Democrats. Barry’s comment helps me see why they have been reacting this way all along – the minute they started calling for the Electoral College electors to be unfaithful and vote for Hillary. And all the hoaxes that have followed. They have never for one moment accepted the results of 2016 and they cannot concede. And Barry is right – it has nothing to do with reasons. The skidding car metaphor only goes so far. What Barry gets at is more like the dynamics of a fight where the chaos sends the participants off in unexpected directions and they find themselves doing all sorts of crazy stuff which is not causal. What started as a disagreement suddenly turns into the necessity of gouging your opponents eye out. Even though it all can still be seen as political theatre, the animal instincts have become engaged and that is dangerous. Barry’s recognition that our attempt to find reasons is beside the point. Whatever happens on election day the sun will come up the next morning, but this fight for the soul of the nation isn’t over.
The “Blazing Saddles” image is probably relevant. The cities are machines for dispersing graft. The population is a hostage composed of defectives who can’t conceive of escape. The “Elite” are betting that the nation doesn’t have the will to let it crash and burn so they can steal their last handfulls. In Compton, the “Beaner Banditos” took control and both California and the Federals allowed the replaced gangsters to just melt away with the loot. Compton was a Hellhole and still is a Hellhole. It is just business. Everyone gets to grab theirs and run. The “politics” is just theater. Fees for consultants, “do-nothing” contracts, “do-nothing” jobs, is where it is at. The “last guy” is safe because the “new guy” is working the same scams.