HANDS UP! EDWARD CLINE

https://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2020/08/hands-up.html

A group of young Black Lives Matters protesters (mostly white) harassed several white diners in Washington, DC, on Monday night for not raising their fists in “solidarity” with BLM. As you can see, here and here and here, several diners raised their hands. But one woman refuses to submit to the mob that surrounds her while yelling at her. There was another woman in a blue sweater, but the exchanges between them and the protestors are inaudible, as it is with the first woman.

Had I been there I would have given them an Italian salute, and shouted back, “BLM is evil. You want trouble? All you get from me is the finger. Come and get it, thugs!”

I see no difference between the raised hands and the disgusting sight of whites kneeling in collective guilt and deference to blacks in Houston (there are several videos of other pleadings from around the country of white shame and forgiveness on the Internet, too many to cite here).  Paying obedience or symbolic agreement and support to thugs who threaten your life is not a guarantee of one’s life. It is not a guarantee of anything. It is nihilism, and destruction for the sake of destruction.

At another restaurant, In another instance a black woman berates a couple having an outside dinner for not raising their hands in support of BLM.

BLM Mafia. Edward Cline

https://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2020/09/blm-mafia.html

One term the BLM has deserved is that it is in the extortion racket.

Definition of extortion

1: the act or practice of extorting especially money or other propertyespecially : the offense committed by an official engaging in such practice

2: something extorted especially : a gross overcharge

Extortion legal definition of extortion

Under the Common Law, “…extortion is a misdemeanor consisting of an unlawful taking of money by a government officer. It is an oppressive misuse of the power with which the law clothes a public officer. Most jurisdictions have statutes governing extortion that broaden the common-law definition.”

A better description is (for once) offered by Wkileaks:

Extortion – Wikipedia

“Extortion (also called shakedown, and, in a legal sense incorrectly, exaction) is obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offense; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest form of extortion.”

Why limit the practice of extortion to government? but exclude BLM? After all,   Extortion is the act of extorting —using violence, threats, intimidation, or pressure from one’s authority to force someone to hand over money (or something else of value) or do something they don’t want to do. There are instances of BLM demanding “protection” money from businesses and promising not to destroy or loot them them. The description here certainly fits the actions of BLM (working with Antififa),  and BLM’s extortion racket is nationwide (from Louisville to Seattle, to the Fortune 500.

Switching the code for social harmony Our shared culture is being divided by boiling resentment Melanie Phillips Sep 1

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/switching-the-code-for-social-harmony?

Last week, BBC Radio Four broadcast a programme about “code-switching”.

This term started life in linguistics, where it means alternating between two or more languages during a conversation. 

Now, though, it’s become a weapon on the identity politics battleground. Black culture warriors complain they feel under pressure to “code-switch” in order to conform to white society in language, tone, dress, body language and behaviour.

The BBC programme was presented by Lucrece Grehoua, who was born in Britain but whose parents came from Ivory Coast. She claimed that she and other black people were required to “code-switch” in order to be accepted into middle-class white culture with which, she claimed, they had little in common.

Really? Precisely which bit of this culture was alien to her? The middle-class bit, or the white bit?  Come to that, what exactly is “white culture”? Or is it just that white people are allegedly all middle-class, or all middle-class people are allegedly white? 

Anyway, poor Grehoua had been forced to undertake an “unending journey into poshness, pronouncing all my words in a different way” and adopting a “high-pitched voice” to sound more “accommodating”.  

It wasn’t possible, she said, to be “black and direct”. People like her had to shed their “Multicultural London English”, known as MLE, which featured neologisms such as “innit” instead of “isn’t it”. This effort was, apparently, exhausting.

I listened to all this astounded. Quite apart from the anti-white racism and risible equation of “white” and “middle-class”, she was racialising and anathematising something that just about everyone does at one time or another.

The Democrats’ Mental Problem: Joan Swirsky

https://canadafreepress.com/article/the-democrats-mental-problem

Leftists rationalize that they care more, have more empathy, sympathy, etc. Don’t be fooled. They suffer from an untreated mental condition that no amount of windmills, high taxes, open borders, third-term abortions, and street anarchy will ever cure

It’s not a recent observation on my part; it goes back decades, so I’ve had a long time to figure out the meaning of this peculiar phenomenon. Specifically, it’s that Conservatives like me seem to enjoy the lion’s share of being in a good mood, feeling optimistic, trusting that the many forms of rugged individualism can solve most problems, smiling easily and often, and generally seeing both the present and future as glasses half full. 

Not one of these things can be said of leftists, and nothing brought that truth more vividly alive than watching the Democrat and Republican conventions in August.

DEMOCRAT DOOM….

On the one hand was the virtual presentation of a pitifully diminished candidate, propped up by a long line of speakers who had only bitter, nasty, negative and of course pessimistic things to say about our country. Did I forget racist? Here, writer Thomas Gallatin discusses Michelle Obama’s unfortunate presentation and the irony of a “party that loves to claim for itself the mantle of ‘diversity’ and ‘anti-racism’ [being] the same party that promotes racist identity politics.”

Not a single smile in four days––only relentless negativity. And not one word––from candidate Biden, VP candidate Kalamity Harris, the speakers, or their leftwing media whores––about the nearly three-month, non-stop rampaging destruction by the communist group Black Lives Matter and the anarchists of Antifa in committing daily and nightly acts of:

Arson, 
Tearing down both black and white businesses, 
Destroying historical statuary
Widespread grand theft, 
Violent assaults, 
Murder.

Silence About the Violence By Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/silence-about-the-violence/

Biden and his enablers can’t decide whether the mayhem helps or hurts his candidacy.

 I t is not just conservatives at the recent Republican National Convention who wonder why the Democratic Party and its media appendages have not without qualification decried the looting, arson, violence, and occasional killing that have swept the nation’s cities.

Recently even left-wing CNN’s incendiary Don Lemon wondered out loud why Joe Biden and the Democratic powers have not at least tried to square the circle of deploring police overreach while at the same time going through the motions of condemning the utter lawlessness that often breaks out at dusk in Chicago, Portland, and Seattle, and now in smaller cities such as Kenosha, Wis. What Lemon praised in June, he now seems terrified about in August. But for that matter, most retired generals and media anchors who assured us in June that there were only a “small” number of violent protesters have long grown silent after the occupation of Seattle and the Alamo siege of the police precinct in Portland.

This fight of voter backlash about crime has infected the entire Democratic elite — glued to volatile internal polls that do not lie — whether it is Nancy Pelosi’s demanding no debates, Michelle Obama’s obsessing with “Vote! Vote! And Vote!” or Hillary Clinton’s urging Biden to never “under any circumstances” concede the election that apparently she now believes he could well lose.

There are lots of answers (and none are mutually exclusive) that explain the silence about the violence.

Vernon Jones accuses ‘liberal media’ of supporting ‘violent mob’ that attacked him and other Trump supporters by Carly Ortiz-Lytle,

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/vernon-jones-accuses-liberal-media-of-supporting-violent-mob-who-attacked-him-and-other-trump-supporters

Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones accused the “liberal media” of ignoring the attacks on him and other guests while leaving President Trump’s Republican National Convention nomination acceptance speech.

“Where is the liberal media? Why haven’t they reached out to me and the others and allowed us to share our experiences of the threats that we experienced so the American people can see first hand what happened? But they won’t because they support, with the Democrats and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, destruction of our cities.” Jones said in a video posted to social media.

Sitting in front of a backdrop that read “Democrats Failed Blacks,” Jones said that he was met by a “violent mob” of Democrats, Black Lives Matter and antifa, and supporters of Biden and Harris.

“They want to see it demolished so they can blame it on Donald Trump. If this had been the other way around, and Biden supporters were attacked by Trump supporters, it would have been all over the network.”

Trump’s approval rating with Black voters soars by 60% during RNC: poll HarrisX-Hill survey finds Black support increases from 15% to 24%

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/aug/31/trumps-approval-rating-black-voters-soars-60-durin/

President Trump’s approval rating among Black voters jumped by 60% during the Republican National Committee even as Democrats and progressives sought to brand the Republican president as racist.

A HarrisX-Hill poll released Friday showed Mr. Trump’s net approval with Black voters from Aug. 22-25, which included the first two days of the RNC, rose to 24%, up from 15% in the pollster’s Aug. 8-11 survey.

The poll also found his approval rating among Hispanic voters during the same period increased slightly from 30% to 32%, while his support among White voters decreased by the same margin, ticking down from 54% to 52%.

The president’s overall approval rating remained underwater at 44%, but the surge of support from Black voters may reflect Mr. Trump’s outreach to minority communities as well as the convention’s showcasing of conservative Black lawmakers and luminaries.

Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, was featured prominently Monday, the first night of the RNC, while Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron gave a speech Tuesday challenging some of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s pronouncements on race.

Joe Biden’s Three Risky Choices By Charles Lipson –

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/01/joe_bidens_three_risky_choices__144106.html

Joe Biden’s quick trip to Pittsburgh and his speech there Monday condemning urban violence show Democrats now recognize they made a major mistake in ignoring the problem at their convention. They’ve read the polls and finally realize voters care about the arson, shootings, and looting — and their own safety. That’s a problem for the Biden campaign, which had almost nothing to say about the violence all summer. Now, they are doing “cleanup on Aisle 6” and there’s a lot of broken glass around.

“Rioting is not protesting,” the Democrats’ presidential nominee told the Carnegie-Mellon University audience. “Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. … It’s lawlessness, plain and simple.” That’s true, but it was no less true two weeks or two months ago. Even now, Biden’s main thrust is less against the violence than against President Trump for “fomenting it” and “sowing chaos.” As Biden put it, “The simple truth is Donald Trump failed to protect America. So now he’s trying to scare America.”

That Biden was willing to leave home on short notice, fly to a swing state, and speak out about the rioting is the clearest indication yet that the election is tightening. Discussing the violence is one of three big, difficult decisions Biden faces as the campaign heats up. Each entails significant risks for a candidate who must hold together a fractious coalition and avoid major gaffes.

Philip Wegmann: It’s Trump vs. Biden in the Age of Mob Politics

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/09/01/its_trump_vs_biden_in_the_age_of_mob_politics__144110.html

They are the constituency no one wants, the crowd of “peaceful protesters” who aren’t all that peaceful. The one that does more to hurt than help even as both major political parties worry incessantly about how they can turn out voters ahead of an election billed, yet again, as “the most important in U.S. history.”

Maybe it is because they have a bad habit of looting liquor stores, torching businesses, and throwing rocks at cops. They are the mob, an amorphous rabble that has destroyed blocks’ worth of buildings from Minneapolis to Portland this summer, rioting and looting and turning November into a referendum on mob politics.

This disturbing factor in an already complex election environment has Joe Biden exasperated. The Democrats’ presidential  nominee has denounced violence in assorted statements and speeches, always defending the right to peacefully protest while also condemning the destruction of property and attacks on the police. His campaign still worried that the message wasn’t sticking, especially as Republicans ratcheted up their criticism, so on Monday the former vice president gave a full-throated rebuttal.

“You know me, you know my heart, you know my story, my family story,” Biden said from the floor of a Pittsburgh steel mill. “Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?  I want a safe America, safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. Let me be crystal clear, safe from four more years of Donald Trump.”

He views the violence as wanton destruction, Biden insisted, and worse — a wasted opportunity for reform. Trump, he argued, looks at the exact same carnage “and he sees a political lifeline.” Four hours later, the president responded.

NeverTrump ‘Conservatives’ Have Incited Political Violence These turncoats are as much to blame the current climate as the news media or the Democratic Party. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/31/nevertrump-conservatives-have-incited-political-violence/

As their preferred candidate crashes in national polls and the race tightens to a dead heat in Joe Biden’s must-win states, NeverTrump “conservatives” are once again taking their marching orders from Democrats. The death, destruction, and mayhem besieging Democratic-run cities across the country, NeverTrump dutifully recites, is all Donald Trump’s fault.

Team Biden crafted the inane talking points to deflect concerns that the violence in cities such as Portland and Kenosha rapidly was backfiring on Democrats; scenes of angry mobs attacking Trump supporters, including Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his wife, leaving the White House late Thursday night after the president’s speech accelerated those worries.

But rather than condemn Antifa and Black Lives Matter or devise a legitimate plan to work with Democratic mayors to end the chaos, the Biden campaign decided to blame the president—so NeverTrumpers from Bill Kristol to the frauds at the Lincoln Project are piling on. 

“Democrats will not win by cowering in fear that Trump will blame them for the violence he provoked,” Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post’s faux conservative, advised in her Monday column. “They win by making the case that Trump has made America more violent and increased racial tension for his own political benefit.”

But the dangerous political environment now threatening to derail Biden’s shot at the White House is precisely what NeverTrump has cultivated for more than four years. The consequences of NeverTrump’s nonstop gaslighting against the president, his family, Republican lawmakers, and regular Trump supporters are playing out in real-time with real damage and real lives at risk; the timing couldn’t be worse for NeverTrump and their Democratic allies.