RUTHFULLY YOURS

It’s hard to separate the double-talk from the double standards in these days of double trouble, especially since the double trouble is itself doubled.

The pandemic trouble has a double nature, consisting of a public health problem (which, miraculously, has evaporated—but we’ll get to that in a bit) and the economic trouble.

Simultaneously we have that other problem that could be put under the polite heading of “civil unrest.” This is also twofold, if not more-fold. We have peaceful protests calling for political reforms of a largely unspecified nature (we’ll get to that later, too), and on the other hand, we have organized rioting.

All this has our political class and the presstitutes they love serving up double helpings of double-talk.

We have now reached peak 2020. We can now see, with perfect vision, what the Democrats want for us should they ever take power.

“No Justice, No Peace” For All

What they call “new normal” is an upside-down world.

People who work are ordered to stay home, and those who object will be shamed as selfish for wanting to take care of themselves and their families.

People who block streets, burn buildings and loot stores can go out, and those who do so will be lauded as caring about society—and paid by taxpayers.

Astute politicians who arrest moms for taking their kids to the playground will handcuff cops who would disperse looters.

And there will be plenty of room for moms, business owners, and non-mask wearing citizens in jail because the perverts, pushers and predators have been pardoned.

The felons are free to roam the streets, but there is nowhere to go since basketball courts, beaches, and clubs are closed.

Helpfully, “mass gatherings” are now allowed, and in the upside-down world these have been redefined. Those once legal—family reunions, block parties, barbeques—are illegal, and those activities once illegal—riot, looting, assault—are now essentially legal.

Thanks to the progressive politicians and their no-cash bail “reforms,” any rioters who happen to be arrested won’t spend any time in jail—they’re given desk appearance tickets (a.k.a. “disappearance tickets”) and immediately released. Don’t expect a Judge Moyé to demand these lawbreakers apologize or be immediately remanded to jail!

The new rules ensure a new kind of equality—there will be “No justice, no peace” for all Americans.

The New Pandemonium

It’s been said that the basic question of politics is “Whose side are you on?” and as we move from one crisis to the next, from pandemic to pandemonium, the sides and the whos have changed.

Those eager to enforce 24-hour stay-at-home orders in the pandemic are hesitant to say “stay at home” to those taking part in the pandemonium—embracing the concept only reluctantly, maybe, possibly, perhaps beginning at 11 p.m., after the fires and crowds are well-lit.

The anti-lockdown forces aren’t as conflicted. They’re not likely to be on the streets in large crowds at night, and certainly not to be used as human shields by lawbreakers. If they do leave home in the pandemonium after dark, it will be to guard their businesses. Unlike certain mayors and governors, they understand that confining law-abiding citizens to their homes cedes the streets to the lawless.

Of course, the whole thing could be settled by calling in the National Guard—to enforce social distancing.

And remember how politicians were so eager for tracking and tracing and apps back during the pandemic? (It seems so long ago, doesn’t it?)

Consider how that would work now with the pandemonium.

Let’s say a man from the Bronx tests positive, and his cell phone app reveals he traveled to certain very crowded Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton stores in Soho between 1 and 3 a.m. Sunday morning, May 31. That requires authorities to contact and test everyone who was within six feet of him. Those who test positive must be forcibly quarantined for two weeks. Fun times!

Maybe the infected person voluntarily will tell the “tracer army” who was with him in Soho that night? Maybe not, and the health enforcers will seize and search the phone. Or perhaps at that point our COVID-19 positive friend will have Al Sharpton accuse the tracers of racial profiling? Or ask the Legal Aid Society to sue the city over the tracking program. Maybe the only way to get this resolved is have Mike Bloomberg who (really) paid the tracer army call George Soros who (not really) paid the rioters to find out who exactly was exposed.

I imagine no one panting over the pandemic tracking project will be as eager to enlist in the pandemonium tracking project.

Political Incompetence on Parade

No one better embodies all the foolishness and falsehoods, all the double talk and double standards perpetuated by the feckless Democrats than New York Governor Andrew “Emperor Nero” Cuomo. He fiddles with masks and PowerPoints while the city burns.

Nero wants us to believe he is the post-politics politician. In the pandemic, he claims to be guided by “science,” not politics. What he called “science” was in fact McKinsey & Company pseudo-science fueled by computer-generated fantasies.

In the pandemonium, he claims he won’t let politics enter into his decision-making, just facts. Nonsense. Cuomo won’t call in the National Guard because he can pass the buck to the incompetent New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio—a purely political play.

And when Cuomo isn’t using DeBlasio, he isn’t dunking him, he’s jousting with straw men—as when he oh-so-righteously dismisses “those who say the peaceful protestors and the rioters are the same, there’s no difference,” as no one ever said. This is a tried and true rhetorical device of politicians.

Where we had “science” in the pandemic we have “morality” in the pandemonium. Under the cover of morality comes the package labeled “systemic racism.” It is one that should be returned to sender—this is a time bomb that will blow up in the face of anyone who takes delivery.

Accept the premise of systemic racism and eventually, you must concede we can’t fix racism until we fix the system.

Let’s be clear about what constitutes the racism-harboring “system” to which those proffering the term are referring. Take your pick: private property, America, capitalism, borders, police and jails in any form, citizenship, nationhood . . . all of the above. The radical Left has said that’s what they want to undo, and you’re buying into all of that once you accept the term “systemic racism.”

Collective guilt is another stowaway in the “morality” cargo hold. Beware: this is a poison tree from which sprouts such noxious fruits as collectivism, anti-Semitism, and racism. Do not bite on it.

But this entire “no room for politics” shtick is not merely a fraud and a lie, it’s also plainly wrong. You can’t take politics out of politics. And you shouldn’t.

Politics is the art of balancing competing interests. In the pandemic, we had competing interests of health and economy, old and young, big business and small, industry and finance, public and private sectors, national interest and international strategy.

The pandemic is precisely the type of problem you don’t want to relegate to siloed experts—you need politics.

The same is true in the pandemonium. We have considerations of law, race, policing, collective bargaining, civil order, federalism, and home rule.

Anyone who tells you his solution is politics-free is giving you a line of double-talk.

Run away—double time!