Bernie Kerik: War Is Being Waged on Our HomelandIn short: Eric Garner had it coming, and you mooks better be nice to the cops or "America will look more like a wasteland than the greatest country in the world in just a few short years."
Next issue, Time will have an essay by Justin Volpe on community policing.
UPDATE. In comments LookWhosInTheFreezer asks, "Was Mark Furhman unavailable?" Could be -- like his fellow felon D'Souza, he's a regular guest on TV and radio shows.
John Edwards, onetime Democratic Party nominee for Vice-President, merely cheated on his wife (in spectacular manner, I must admit) and as a result he's an unperson; the idea of him doing regular commentary a la Kerik, Furhman, and D'Souza is absurd. Yet conservative criminals are immediately rehabilitated via talk show therapy, where they pontificate about the very subjects on which they've disgraced themselves. I would love to hear an explanation of this phenomenon from the people who are always going on about the liberal media.
War is being waged in our homeland! And of course when war is being waged in America, Bernie Kerik's first question is how he can use this to get laid. Which apparently he now thinks to do by penning whiny editorials written in second grade English.
ReplyDeleteI can almost sort of understand why major media outlets are still giving attention to Rudy Giuliani; he may be a boring malignant asshole with nothing to contribute, but he was once mayor of New York and then he ran for President, so okay, he is important forever. But Bernard Fucking Kerik? WHAT? I don't understand. Is this just Time's way of expressing contempt for anyone who is still reading Time?
ReplyDeleteHey, why not G. Gordon Liddy while we're at it?
ReplyDeleteNo shit Que Pasa New York?And j'accuse Nixon & J. Edgar Hoover of inciting Mark David Chapman to shoot John Lennon.
ReplyDeleteAs ever, Rudy can't be everywhere so his attack dog is there to parrot all his points but sound dumber and meaner. Which might be actually kind of useful if people make the connection between the two of them.
ReplyDeleteLike mother, like son, I guess.
ReplyDeleteTime has been in notable decline for more than seven decades--at least since they made Hitler their man of the year--so it's no surprise that, at this late date, they're giving space to an authoritarian pinhead like Kerik. Geez, Giuliani is a jerk, but Kerik's a jerk and a moron.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this creep could find I-95 if he were run over on it, but, all of a sudden, Time magazine thinks he's a seer? No wonder Dorothy Parker thought Clare Booth Luce was a self-important twit.
Kerik puts the Queens into drama queens.
ReplyDeleteBernard Fucking Kerik?
ReplyDeleteDear Time magazine,
ReplyDeleteLoofah sales are really soft this holiday season and as a stall-to-stall loofah salesman I'm hoping to jack up business with some well-placed news stories highlighting my sensational products, especially the loofah mitt. We've developed a real dandy, the Billy O'Reilly model ("Billy says, "put 'er right in there, slugger!""), and I know this will be real home run for us if we can just get the word out.
The reason I'm reaching out to you guys is simple - it's apparent that you've ceased becoming a news magazine in any way, shape or form and I thought since we've already got a Claire Booth Luce Loofah Mitt ("A woman's best protection is a little loofah of her own!"), and since she was once married to the guy that founded your little enterprise, and since you've now been reduced to blowing shitstains like Bernie Kerik out your ass as voices of reason, well, I just figured we may as well take the gloves off, as it were, and replace them with loofah mitts!
I've got a million ideas for a national campaign - the Screechy-Scratchy Sarah Palin Loofah Mitt can defoliate from across the room! - so if you want to get in on the stall floor of this 100% American-made Success Story I suggest a cleverly placed "news" story in your pages extolling the virtues of Loofah Mitts! And maybe you can get a quote for the piece from that nice Mr. O'Reilly?
What have you got to lose?
Falafels,
keta
War is being waged in our homeland
ReplyDeleteExactly! This is what we've been saying all along.
Wait. What? He's not talking about the rash of cops and wanna-bes killing black people at the merest provocation with total impunity??
I heard that flame finally burned through his hand
ReplyDeleteI thought he meant Republican economics trying to drown the government in a bathtub, so I guess I was way off
ReplyDelete"Bernard B. Kerik served as the 40th Police Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (2000-2001) and is Founder and CEO of The Kerik Group."
ReplyDeleteQuite a selective little bio there, Time Eds. How could you not mention the jail time, the gig as Iraqi Minister of the Interior, and the illegal nanny?
i fucking quit
ReplyDeleteme too, dex.
ReplyDeleteThe mere fact that any national publication would give a sociopath like Bernie Kerik a platform speaks volumes about how much trouble this country is in, Just look at who the NYPD has elected as the leader of the police union, Another Bernie Kerik, without a record. (As of yet.) If Rudy Guliani were a black man, conservatives would be calling him Al Sharpton's brother. See, it's not law enforcement that has anything to answer for, it's the liberal white mayor and the leaders of the black community and the protesters who incited some deranged black guy that executed two NY police officers. (And don't leave out Obama and Holder. As you well know, everything is Obama's fault.) The NYPD has effectively rendered the mayor's ability to govern the NYC impossible. Just as in '92 when the cops went on a lawless show of public
ReplyDeleteWar is being waged, and the enemy appears to be the entire non-cop population.
ReplyDeleteKerik is the poster asshole for IOKIYAR. Caught boffing a reporter in a taxpayer-funded lovenest while ostensibly working to protect NYC after the greatest terror attacks in American history--and then sent to prison on a variety of felony charges. The word "disgrace" doesn't begin to cover it. Yet, here he is, being tapped by Time and various other news outlets for his opinion.
ReplyDeleteThere is literally nothing a conservative can do--not even being caught with a dead girl or a live boy--that will lead to their being ejected from the public discourse.
It's been this way for quite a while. When Bush declared that the jihadis "hate us for our freedoms," he and a lot of other authoritarians took that to heart and began doing away with our freedom.
ReplyDeleteFirst up was free speech, which became confined to "free-speech zones" for the average human citizen, but was vastly expanded and protected for corporations.
Next, they finally did away entirely with that pesky Fourth Amendment. Police, DHS, TSA, and any number of other security-type agencies can now search you, your person, your files, your home, your car with absolute impunity on any pretext whatever--or for no reason at all.
The Fifth Amendment is next on the list. Antonin Scalia is already on record endorsing the idea that you can be tortured into a confession because the Constitution specifically prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and if you haven't been convicted yet, then the torture to gain your confession isn't punishment. Of course, you still have the right not to speak--for as long as you can endure the torture.
The First Amendment has proved a thornier one to get rid of, but there's still a growing movement to allow the state to define what are considered "proper" religions and so enforce our "Christian heritage" on everyone.
But I guess we should be happy that the most powerful lobbying group in the nation is working hard to protect the Second Amendment. After all, if the streets weren't awash with cheap handguns, we wouldn't have so many excuses to deep-six the rest of the Bill of Rights.
Since we have guys like the police union head stopping just shy of calling for Diblasio to be assassinated, I think "undermining his authority" is a mild way to put it.
ReplyDeleteWell sure. But Kerik is a mere piker compared to the Bush-Cheney war criminals.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Washington Post, amongst others, have featured the opinions of those fine fellows over and over since 2009.
~
(It's times like this I most miss Gilliard.)
ReplyDeleteTotally truth-free advertorial (because that's how I see it, a pretend tough guy looking for a job). And of course Time published it; that could have been written by John Mitchell. (Or Efrain Rios Montt.)
I'm looking forward to Bernie Madoff's appearance pleading for financial deregulation because all those laws are getting in the way of innovation.
ReplyDeleteHe's not talking about the rash of cops and wanna-bes killing black people at the merest provocation with total impunity?
ReplyDeleteAre you crazy? That's like saying it's class war when the one percent appropriates everything we make. War is when you complain about it.
Maybe he came cheap.
ReplyDeleteTed Nugent's next.
ReplyDeleteUpvoted for Gilliard. Why the fuck do WE lose so many good ones while the turds of the right continue to float to the top and prosper?
ReplyDeleteTime: No clickbait too rank to put on the hook.
ReplyDeleteThere's also the bit where he he took over the police force in Baghdad's Green Zone for the exact duration of his house's remodeling back in the states. And even before this mess, he was starting to show up in various places (including HuffPo, yet another reason to shun it) to pontificate about what should be done about ISIS.
ReplyDeleteSomeone--maybe here, maybe LGM--pointed out that cops were merely aping the treatment that US forces have been giving the Iraqi and Afghan population for over a decade. Plus, of course, getting their surplus equipment.
ReplyDeleteMore like stinkbait amirite?
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't really Bernie Kerik writing that for Time. That was North Korean hackers writing an Onionesque piece, just to see if they could get away with it.
ReplyDeleteIf David Curtiss Stephenson were still alive he would never want for platforms from which to share his thoughts on politics, race relations and women's issues.
ReplyDeleteYou must have missed Madoff's turn as NYSE chair. But that's understandable since, at the time, Bush appointee Christopher Cox was chair of the SEC. At his confirmation hearing, Cox told the senators that he believed the SEC had no role in regulation or oversight. That left everyone free to "innovate" ways to screw their clients and the country out of every dime that was invested with them.
ReplyDeleteThe Sunday showz would only have him on to "keep the debate balanced." As counterpoint to him, they'd have on David Duke for the centrist point of view, and Pat Buchanan for the left.
ReplyDeleteShorter Kerik: "*Brooklyn accent* Nice country yez got here. (snif) Shame if sumtin'... happened teh it."
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, that lobbying group will cheerfully tell you that those guns that they push are your only real defense against losing your freedoms (for "freedoms" read 2nd and 10th Amendments; others, not so much).
ReplyDeleteWas Mark Furhman unavailable?
ReplyDeleteif he were run over on it
ReplyDeleteInterest, newsletter.
"oooh, something smells like dinner!"
ReplyDeleteExcept the police operate without any rules of engagement other than KILL! KILL!! KILL!! or the threat of punishment.
ReplyDeleteEh, maybe they'd like to enforce that 3/5 compromise bit, too.
ReplyDeleteWhy not just go right to David Duke?
ReplyDeleteToo bad William Dudley Pelly and Father Coughlin are dead. They could have done a roundtable discussion.
I love reading this site but it really frustrates me. I'm going to Amsterdam on vacation and if I read any more like this, I may just never come back.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to hold this comment's hand while it airs its grievances.
ReplyDeleteThey could have done a roundtable discussion.
ReplyDeleteI believe the correct term is "circle jerk."
At least the soldiers don't get all pissy and start threatening insurrection if you talk about the Geneva Conventions and civilian oversight.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.meh.ro/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/meh.ro4827.jpg
ReplyDeleteThis explains it nicely:
ReplyDeleteEric Garner was selling cigarettes illegally. He was violating a law
ReplyDeletethat was written by some of the very politicians who criticize the
police for taking police action. There was a complaint made to the
police and they responded. Unfortunately, Mr. Garner resisted arrest and
died as a result.
Can I throw up., now?
And it's interesting that Kerik's mushmouthed grammar turhs Mike Brown's supposed shoplifting into a "strong armed robbery", as if Brown had held up the store with a shotgun for the cash register instead of supposedly grabbing a few cigarillos. (If he was "armed", y'dumbass, why'd he have needed to take Wilson's gun? Huh? HUH? Cretin.)
Yes, they have plenty of Frightened Chairbornes to do that for them.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I seem to recall that during Obama's first term there were useless fucks who liked to hint that the military would rise up if Obama didn't watch his step (all soldiers being staunch Republicans, you see).
I guess the police are the new Great White Hope.
Kerik isn't the first to state that any violation of any law can and should result in a summary execution, even if the officer uses means that have been specifically banned by the police department to do so.
ReplyDelete(But so far as I know, he's the first convict to say it.)
In fact, I seem to recall that during Obama's first term there were
ReplyDeleteuseless fucks who liked to hint that the military would rise up if Obama
didn't watch his step (all soldiers being staunch Republicans, you
see).
Don't forget the recent calls to the generals to refuse orders, step down, and carry out a military coup to "restore freedom".
TIME also went to Howard Safir for his enlightened and insightful contribution to the present national dialogue:
ReplyDeleteWhen Ismaaiyl Abdulah Brinsley brutally executed Officers Ramos and Liu
he did so in an atmosphere of permissiveness and anti-police rhetoric
unlike any that I have seen in 45 years in law enforcement. The rhetoric
this time is not from the usual suspects, but from the Mayor of New
York City, the Attorney General of the United States, and even the
President. It emboldens criminals and sends a message that every
encounter a black person has with a police officer is one to be feared.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
He's willing to admit, though, that occasionally police do wrong things, and, when they do, they should be held accountable for them.
Does that mean that there are not serious incidents of police abuse or
misjudgment? Of course there are. When they take place we should
investigate them thoroughly and prosecute and punish those who committed
the wrong doing. We should not burn down buildings and murder police
officers.
Oh, how kind of him. Problem is, though, we're at this point because the prosecutions and punishments aren't fucking happening.
"Doc, I can't breathe!"
ReplyDelete"Son, I'm afraid you may be suffering from arrest resistance. An unpredictable condition."
I guess Kerik's convictions on eight felony counts add up to weak-armed robbery.
Is arrest resistance related to draeptomania?
ReplyDeleteI hear you; I felt the same way when I was in Ecuador recently. When an LDC is looking better than your first world exceptionalist paradise, well....
ReplyDeleteBy the way, peeps, I am on a campaign to stop referring to police benevolent associations as "unions" http://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2014/12/brooks-big-lie.html Though they act as bargaining agents for their members they are completely independent of the labor movement and generally opposed to it and it just gives unions a bad name they don't deserve.
ReplyDeleteWhat really pisses me off is the calculated use of this word "Homeland."
ReplyDeleteThis is a herrenvolk term, meant to subtly conflate race (skin color) with national belonging in an attempt to otherize nonwhites.
Prior to 9/11 this term was all but unknown in the United States except among skinheads and proponents of Aryanism. It has never, ever been a part of our national parlance. We have always used the words "country" or "nation" or simply "America" to describe ourselves because these words are apt, inclusive when referring to a multicultural state, and they tie America to ideas and principles, not skin color or national origin.
"Homeland," by contrast, connotes land tied a specific tribe of people - in this case, whites , whom Kerik is insinuating are under siege by blacks. It's most famous historical promoters were the Nazi party (also made up of whites), who in a frenetic attempt to fabricate a myth about allegedly superior humans (German, and white) arising from a particular spot on earth attached this term to to the names of just about every civil and military entity they could.
We are not Nazis. We should not aspire to be Nazis. Or German. Or tribal. Or a police state. We are Americans, a nation of immigrants aspiring to ideals of equality and freedom and accountability. Let's fucking act like it. Part of disentangling ourselves from the suite of bullshit that has resulted from the awful terror of 9/11 needs to be ejecting bullshit pseudo-Nazi language that not only reflects but contributes to the militarization of the state.
Thanks, I've never heard of that and it's amazing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania
ReplyDeleteHas Garner's widow apologized to the NYPD yet for the discomfort her husband's death has caused them? Surprised they haven't demanded that apology yet.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is all different iterations of "Look out, darkies! Race war's acomin'!"
ReplyDeleteVeiled Morning Joe reference?
ReplyDeleteWe are not Nazis. We should not aspire to be Nazis.
ReplyDeleteBut, alas, far too many of us do aspire to be Nazis. Certainly Republicans really and truly want a fascist Nazi-style state. They been cultivating the marriage of state and corporation for more than a century now, and the recent Supreme Court rulings and basically set that in stone. Meanwhile, Republicans are also always pushing for ever more state intrusion on people's private lives (ban abortion, ban birth control, ban many consensual sex acts, etc.) while constantly pushing policies and laws that result in America having the highest incarceration rate on the planet. In short, they want to get government out of the boardroom and into the bedroom.
And way too many average Americans buy into all this. They think protestors should be shut down, that unions should be banned, that free speech needs to be tightly controlled, that voting rights need to be curbed, that state surveillance of every citizen is necessary to ensure freedom, that cops should never be questioned about anything they do.
We are not Nazis. Yet.
The NYPD hates us for our freedoms.
ReplyDeleteIf you find you can't breathe, you may be suffering from GOPD.
ReplyDelete"America will look more like a wasteland than the greatest country in the world in just a few short years."
ReplyDelete1. Significant portions of America already look like a wasteland. But, thanks for noticing.
2. All that "greatest country in the world" stuff is already in our rear-view mirror. The reason it still plays as major a role in our national consciousness as it does is because the mirror isn't trustworthy and the objects in it are further away than they appear.
3. And, Dinesh? A case could be made (a good one) that the slop you peddle played a major role in America's downfall. But in fact we don't have to go that far: let's suppose that the slop you peddle played no role in America's downfall; if we suppose that, we have to acknowledge that, at the very least, your nonsense did nothing to hasten America's downfall or to prevent it, and in that case, sir, at best, you are a distraction, nothing more.
There is a term, and I can't think of it now, for the "unusual" tendency for arrestees to get injured in police custody; the police having NOTHING to do with it, of course, ahem ahem chiz chiz.. Also c.f. the "falls from a height" that occurred with regularity to detainees in the South African jails.
ReplyDeletecarry out a military coup to "restore freedom".
ReplyDeleteHow very Syrian, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Honduran, Colombian and Chilean of them
That would explain those Spiriva ads....
ReplyDeleteOkay, time for me to go re-read It Can't Happen Here.
ReplyDeleteCUT TO:
ReplyDeleteINT. BAR
DRUNK BERNIE is talking to BORED LOOKING WOMAN
DRUNK BERNIE
"In times of danger, the proper man of action is most alive and sexually potent; there's nothing like a woman after killing a man." [LIGHTS CIGARETTE, LOOKS INTO THE DISTANCE] "Ah 9/11, it was a bad time, but it was a hell of a time to be alive. Now we're at war again. In Our Homeland. You know I have an apartment near here, right?"
Big thing about fascists is not only their obsession with power, but their contempt for small-L liberalism and the "chaos" of democracy. And you see that SO clear these days with the GOP - as I keep saying, they love the image of democracy, but don't want to take the risk of actually having it mean something. People are too stupid, after all, to be trusted with their destinies. Which doesn't sit well with the populism they like to pretend to support, but, then again, Hitler was perfectly ready to use populist appeals and toss them away when they were no longer useful.
ReplyDeleteAh, but the cheating can't be the reason that John Edwards is excluded. Rudy Giuliani cheated on his wife flagrantly in public. I think the trait the conservatives share is a complete and utter lack of shame. Of course, it's easy to be shameless when the media continues to tongue-bathe you after your spectacular failures.
ReplyDeleteWe are not Nazis. Yet.
ReplyDeleteWhat will be the point that pushes us over the edge?
We seem to be a proto fascist state at the moment, filled with a population quivering with fear that seemingly without hesitation is interested in acquiescing to authority. The othering has been running apace for quite some time now and apparently, as with torture a majority of the population is cool with that.
Godwin's Law has been tied up, beaten nearly to death, thrown in a dumpster and left for death.
Could have done without "tounge-bathe" thank you very much.
ReplyDelete...
Can you imagine the reaction if Obama had said that? Well, I mean it's easy enough to imagine that reaction, because SKREE is what they do, but goddamn.
ReplyDelete...they love the image of democracy, but don't want to take the risk of actually having it mean something.
ReplyDeleteA simulacrum of democracy is all they need to convince whatever name it is they give reasonable people (soccer moms, etc.) who would otherwise be horrified by their true nature that they are "jes plain folks."
Kudos for this. It expresses what bugged me the first time I heard "homeland" used w/ regard to the U.S. What next? "Mother America"?
ReplyDeleteI think the answer is exactly the same reaction if a bunch of dew-rag wearing brothers decended a suburban cleveland mall sporting ar-15's...
ReplyDelete...
"When defenders of the police say that cops do the work ordinary citizens are afraid of, they are correct. The criminal-justice system has been the most consistent tool for making American will manifest in black communities. The tool for exercising that will is not the proliferation of ice cream socials. I suspect, we would like to know as little about criminal justice system as possible. I suspect we would rather the film of Eric Garner's killing not exist. Then we might comfort ourselves with the kind of vague unknowables that dogged the killing of Michael Brown. ("Did he have his hands up? Was he surrendering? Was he charging?") Garner, choked to death and repeating "I can't breathe," trapped us. But now, through a merciless act of lethal violence, an escape route has been revealed. This overstates things. To the extent that this weekend's murders obscure the legacy of Eric Garner, it will not be due to the failure of protests, nor even chance. The citizen who needs to look away generally finds a reason." http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/blue-lives-matter-nypd-shooting/383977/2/
ReplyDeleteOr, "They only call it class warfare when we fight back," as a sign at a rally put it, for the ages.
ReplyDeletemuch like the glaive guisarme, you ignore IOKIYAR at your peril
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that calling people 'fascists' has gone out of fashion on the Intertrons. "Oh, that's a violation of Godwin's Law, you're always calling people fascist." Motherfucker, if they would stop acting like fascists, I could stop naming them. But now, because it can't happen here, it's cliche, and uncivil, to call people fascists, even though their behavior is unchanged.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, calling folks "commies" and "socialists" has never really gone out of style on the other side, and all without a Concern Brigade to point out the inaccuracies.
There's a certain talent required to get so much oil out of the same snake for years on end.
ReplyDeletePlease tell me you actually sent this.
ReplyDeleteKerik is proof that scum rises to the top.
ReplyDelete'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
ReplyDeleteReplace salary, with peace of mind, sanity, or any value of "I'm not in any way culpable."
...
For me it was "Lebensraum." And I started wondering what the US equivilent of the Sudentenland was.
ReplyDelete...
I would love to hear an explanation of this phenomenon from the people who are always going on about the liberal media.
ReplyDeleteDiscussions of all things police and race with GOP-voting family the past couple days have confirmed that the minute Al Sharpton comments on an issue, the side he favors is to be ignored and derided. In fact, he's been to the White House, and that says a lot (all bad) about our president. Sharpton's a man whose fame, they point out, is built 100% on lying about racism to stoke anger -- and you know? I agree with that. After a year of Sharpton's rage-stoking, Tawana Brawley admitted she lied, and the preacher, too committed to his lies by then, insisted it was all real enough. The media has never really called him on that. It is kind of shocking!
But so anyway, I've had basically this discussion with conservatives -- you can list half a dozen conservative offenders treated as BFDs by the media going back to G Gordon Liddy, and what you get back is not an admission that you have a point about the actual non-liberalness of the media or the value of anything those BFDs say; no, you get "Sharpton is worse, so the media is a liar and I win, why are we even discussing this." That is not exactly an explanation! But it explains a bit.
No, I mean his forthcoming post-jail comeback performance.
ReplyDelete"The right of persons of African descent to keep and bear arms shall be infringed by forty percent."
ReplyDelete"To challenge the police is to challenge the American people, and the
ReplyDeleteproblem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that we
are majoritarian pigs. When the police are brutalized by people, we are
outraged because we are brutalized. By the same turn, when the police
brutalize people, we are forgiving because ultimately we are really just
forgiving ourselves. Power, decoupled from responsibility, is what we
seek. The manifestation of this desire is broad."
Old "Life in Hell" cartoon (of course I can't find it) has one character shooting another: "I neutralize you in the name of freedom"
ReplyDelete"The right of persons of African descent to keep and bear voting rights shall be infringed by eighty percent."
ReplyDeleteFixed
Hey, can anyone actually tell me what DeBlasio said that makes him to blame for the cop-killing? In the past 48 hours I've twice had conservatives tell me his quotes have made things worse or are directly responsible, but when I ask what quotes they mean, in both cases the cons replied only, "I can't give you the exact quote, but Google it, you'll see."
ReplyDeleteI think it is somehow tied at least very tenuously to his admitting to "having the talk" with his mixed race kid about the cops. The NYPD went apeshit over the admission.
ReplyDelete...
I've mentioned this before, but I think I'll have to put this down every time I read about "loose cigarettes". Garner was murdered by cops after they were called to the scene because of a different disturbance -- Garner, by all accounts had just broken up the fight. The cops knew Garner because of PREVIOUS times he was selling loose cigarettes, but since there was a complaint of a disturbance, the police focused on the guy they already knew, despite the fact that the crowd surrounding the cops were telling them he had just broken up a fight.
ReplyDeleteOf course, conservative talk radio had nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, to do with the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah bombing by Timothy "Darren Wilson look alike" McVeigh. For Bill Clinton to have suggested toning down the white-butthurt rhetoric of Flush Blimpbog and his countless imitators and wanna-bes, is a curtailment of their free speechifying under the 1st amendment.
ReplyDeleteYet somehow, advocating for the police to wear body cams, and maybe not shoot unarmed black men and children as a reflex is A DIRECT CAUSE OF THE MURDER OF THOSE 2 COPS IN NYC.
I think that conservatives are to blame for the cops deaths, if we're playing this game. The shooter was obviously mentally ill. If they would have supported legislation for better health care, making it easier for poor people with mental illness to get treated, this man may have been treated, and not turned a gun on other people and himself. There are probably other reasons the Cons are to blame: The institutional racism that exacerbates mental illness of a minority person; the utter contempt racists (not all conservatives are racists, but most racists are conservative) have for both mentally ill people and non-whites.
Ah, yes! The Bernie and His Jets world tour. My guess is that he'll be booked on the talk shows to discuss best charities for destitute widows and orphans.
ReplyDeleteRight. DeBlasio's admission of having the talk is WAY more inflammatory than a cop using an illegal choke-hold on a person suspected of committing a misdemeanor.
ReplyDeleteThese tiresome fucks are either too cynical to care about the obvious absurdity of their skree, or too stupid to know what "absurd" means.
I think Kerik and Rudy are legit fascists. I think a lot of the other assholes are nominal authoritarians — until the authority is doing something they don't like, then they fantasize about being armed insurrectionists. But the ones that are currently dabbling in the rhetoric of real authoritarianism because to score political points against liberals are REALLY playing with fire. Sincere or not, the abject cynicism with which they are flirting with fascism in support of police brutality will suck them in too. They just are too craven to know it yet. We're at another dangerous time. And this time we don't have a lot of people on our side.
ReplyDeleteI think that conservatives are to blame for the cops deaths, if we're playing this game. The shooter was obviously mentally ill. If they would have supported legislation for better health care . . .
ReplyDeleteOr, say, taking even elementary steps to keep our streets from being flooded with cheap handguns for sale on every corner. But pointing that out would be politicizing these deaths. And we can't have THAT now, can we?
No need to speculate--just remember the reaction to two Black men being at a polling place. It was "OMG!!! Black Panthers intimidating that little ol' White lady! She's so terrified, she's texting!!!"
ReplyDeleteThat was my guess. But it seemed so tame, I couldn't see any way to get from that to "blood on your hands." I asked if this was the quote and was told he "just didn't support the police at all." So it remained unclear.
ReplyDeleteA discussion did follow that was interesting -- it probably boils down to: If you're the mayor, is it your responsibility to discuss touchy issues honestly (eg, saying you gave your son The Talk) to effect progress, or is it your job to reinforce a picture of the republic as 99.9 Percent Good to prevent chaos?
When I complete my synthesis of the Archimede's and Peter principles I'll let you know.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Simply saying something like "I think people who are ill should be able to get medicine" brings out the chorus of "You're a goddamned socialist!"
ReplyDeleteWith today's Christians, Jesus would not have survived beyond the Sermon on the Mount--they'd have hauled him off to GITMO two paragraphs into it.
It has been interesting. The choke hold is against policy, not illegal, btw -- but in my discussion here, I was told it *used to be* policy (so it is okay?) and how else can you subdue a guy bigger than you? I said look, they banned that hold because it leads to fatalities, so a cop uses it and it leads to a fatality -- how is that cop still a cop? I was told A) he won't be, they'll get rid of him quietly, and B) if Garner had just done what the cops said, he'd be alive. I mean obviously A is not guaranteed and B might open other questions, but the main point I kept coming up against was: I would not resist arrest. I am polite and obedient to cops (largely true) and I don't break too many laws, and that's all you need to do. That is actually hard to argue against; the fatalities are out of proportion to the "crimes" committed... but each case did start with some kind of scofflawing. The larger points I have tried to raise and breaking on these rocks. The consensus among my conservative family and friends is that anyone who physically resists arrest is headed for rough treatment, black or white, so Garner etc should not be seen as a race issue.
ReplyDeleteI keep forgetting the breaking up a fight detail, that shit needs to be thoroughly documented and shouted from the barricades.
ReplyDeleteIt would also explain the "not this time" initial response.
...
I wish that I could upvote this comment more than once.
ReplyDeletePretty much the rest of the globe.
ReplyDelete... conservative criminals are immediately rehabilitated via talk show therapy, where they pontificate about the very subjects on which they've disgraced themselves
ReplyDeleteA lot of our country's troubles with fascism & authoritarianism can be traced back to the negating of the Fairness Doctrine along with allowing all of our "news sources" to be owned by huge corporations, with Fox the very worst of a really bad bunch. Our media is now a propaganda arm for conservative 'values': racism, sexism, religious bigotry, hatred of the Other Tribe... you name it, Fox runs it.
And all the while convincing Americans that the media is 'Liberal'!
Interesting to see what would happen if Murdoch & Ailes and the Kocks and Waltons and a hundred other billionaire racketeers were to suddenly vanish. Would a new set of picaroons' (thanks Thesaurus!) just move in and take over, or would the world situation (climate change, racism & murder by police, shitty health care,etc.) maybe get better for a while?
'Yet conservative criminals are immediately rehabilitated via talk show therapy, where they pontificate about the very subjects on which they've disgraced themselves.'
ReplyDeleteBecause conservatives don't regard them as criminals at all. The Ollie Norths and Conrad Blacks and Bernard Keriks of this world are martyrs, persecuted by the liberal establishment which runs America.
Exactly what I've felt about the use of the term since its post 9/11 deployment. I've always been puzzled by its (apparently) near universal acceptance by both the general public and the chattering classes, but figured it was just another of the myriad ways I'm out of sync with Life These Days. Nice to finally know it's not just me...
ReplyDeleteNo they are planning on arresting her
ReplyDeleteMight as well listen to it and read it at the same time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svdrAHn_LGo
ReplyDeleteAnother Xmas wk. grand jury finding dump:
ReplyDeleteHOUSTON -- A Harris County grand jury on Tuesday cleared an HPD officer in the shooting death of Jordan Baker, 26, last January.
Same old "He went for his waistband & I had to plug him" story; surprise, nothing in the victim's "waistband".
I literally could not believe that Americans would put up with that "homeland" shit when it first came out. Obviously, I was wrong. What a fucked-up nation we are.
ReplyDeleteIn comments LookWhosInTheFreezer asks, "Was Mark Furhman unavailable?" Could be -- like his fellow felon D'Souza, he's a regular guest on TV and radio shows.
ReplyDelete(bouncing up and down and clapping excitedly) Ooooh, my first official Roy shoutout. And on my birthday!! How did you know?
Sadly, I was already aware that Furhman is doing the wingnut circuit as I saw him recently opining on some Fox show. Seeing him weighing in on police matters and being greeted with a straight face by the hosts was almost as surreal as the time I saw him at a party in Silverlake. A party that I was invited to by a guy who was later caught trying to do some not-so-nice things on To Catch A Predator and is now doing a lengthy stint in a CA penitentiary.
In Bush's brain (Cheney), the American Sudetenland was Iraq. "Liberated" by American forces so that American oil companies could liberate its petroleum reserves.
ReplyDeleteI guess the only problem I have with this is that diBlasio can't unsay the things he said re the Garner controversy, and an apology at this point will only make him look weak for backing down in the face of pressure. I think he has to point out something to the effect that the NYPD is overwhelmingly made up of dedicated public servants who are tasked with the huge responsibility of keeping the citizens of New York secure, and who take their responsibility seriously. They also have been granted a lot of power and leeway to enforce the law, which they must use thoughtfully and responsibly, because even a momentary lapse of judgement, as in the Garner case, can have huge and tragic repercussions. In other words, he's got to figure out a way to throw a bone to the NYPD while making it clear that the Garner case was a tragic lapse that must never happen again, and if he can do that, he's a better communicator than I am.
ReplyDeleteBaker, an HCC college student, struggled, ran away, and then allegedly
ReplyDeleteput his hands in his waistband and charged toward Officer Castro. That's
when Castro shot and killed him.
I hope that's not the cop's official story. People don't usually move very well with their hands in their waistband, unless they want to imitate someone in a straightjacket, or certain dance moves.
Needless to say, it's no surprise to learn that the cop's victim is black. But then race has nothing to do with it, it's just a coincidence.
/slaps forehead
ReplyDeleteOf course!
...
"Clickchum"?
ReplyDeletePower decoupled from accountability = fascism, at least in part.
ReplyDeleteAn elephant shitting on an American who's ill. Seems right.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course the petroleum reserves would stand in for the German speakers in Czechoslovakia...
ReplyDeleteNow to cut my own self some slack, homeland came before Iraq, though at the time I had read more than I wished of "Rebuilding America's Defenses" from PNAC...
One case where I will listen to the podcast rather than read the whole thing.
ReplyDelete"We must re-unite the American-speaking oil molecules trapped under Iraq w/ their relatives in our refineries!"
ReplyDeleteVery, very opportunistic fascists:
ReplyDeleteTHE KERIK GROUP offers years of combined experience in military, federal and local law enforcement. Our vast network of worldwide contacts and resources assure satisfaction in our specialized fields of National/Homeland Security, Risk Management, Crisis Response and Disaster Recovery and Law Enforcement Assessments and Reforms.
---
Giuliani Security & Safety (GSS) offers corporations, individuals, and governments a full platform of security, investigative and crisis management services.
Worth repeating: Breslin's nailing of Giuliani in eight words: "A small man in search of a balcony."
..."A small man in search of a balcony."
ReplyDeleteHow about a lamp post?
Why do black people always charge into armed police fire? What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteJoe Lieberman mouthing it added to the surreal quality of it for me.
ReplyDeleteHow many times must a man be harassed by the police before he gets to stand up for his rights?
ReplyDeleteIs that a Dylan/Marley mash up quote?
Seemed to me like the Defense Department needed a new image, like it had in the minds of the people who pay for it, reverted to its old War Department image and left a gap in the national imagination. If DOD fights wars in other places (to Americans, all wars are other places), who's to protect ME here in my fragile ickle cocoon of a continent?
ReplyDeleteBut he can't do any of that, Satch, definitionally, because 1) he's a democrat, 2) he's got a black son, and 3) any reference to the duties of the police, as opposed to their privileges/honors is considered an attack on the police by the police and their supporters. There's simply no space in this discussion for, well, discussion-- no space for
ReplyDelete"Naturally I support the police when they act thoughtfully, lawfully, with care in the pursuit of their duties. And equally naturally I caution the police to act carefully to preserve their privilige to hold the badge and the gun and to act for the city of New York by refraining from wanton act of agression, unlawful abuse of power, or (say) threatening a sitting mayor and citizens employing their first amendment rights who are discussing a matter of public importance."
Jesus, if I could go to Amsterdam on vacation I'd never come back. But when I did go I found I could still get alicublog on line. So there's that.
ReplyDeleteThis is also true for people who mysteriously die while being tasered.
ReplyDeleteRebuilding America's Defenses
ReplyDeleteAmerica! We are the greatest, bestest, richest, strongest nation the Earth has ever known and will ever know!
Except for those guys in the caves wearing rags and waving AK-47s around--they could easily wipe us the fuck out. In fact, America is weak. Terribly, tragically, dangerously weak. Which is why we need to double or treble the defense budget which is currently bigger than that of all other nations combined.
And we're rich! The richest nation on Earth! Except when it comes to healthcare. And infrastructure. And feeding the hungry. And educating our kids. Can't afford any of THAT socialist stuff!
Cognitive dissonance is to wingnuts what Mozart is to sane people.
I get that (white) people believe that--honestly believe that "resisting arrest" or "causing the cops trouble" will get both black and white people a beat down. But its just not true and anyone who thinks it is true just hasn't been paying attention to e.g. the Cliven Bundy's of the world, the innumerable old fart white guys wandering around with their guns drawn, who are handled gingerly (if at all) or given every chance to just wander home safely without being shot on sight like poor Tamir Rice or the guy in Walmart. Even though there was apparently some secondary backlash against it #crimingwhilewhite was very educational.
ReplyDeleteI blame Obama.
ReplyDeleteThey're all hopped up on the illegal drugs, obviously. That's what made Michael Brown superhuman.
ReplyDeleteThe right makes vigorous use of agents to work the bookers and editors of "mainstream" media to get material accepted and prominently placed. This service apparently extends when needed to generating the content in the first place if, say, Mr. Kerik is too busy stealing to sit down and write a correctly messaged piece.
ReplyDeleteThe left leaves it to individuals. It's not done for them; they're not herded toward the practice; the costs are not born by George Forgot My Check Again This Month Dammit Soros. (The nation truly suffers as a consequence - see, for instance, Climate Change Deniers.)
And why would the media accept Kerikky content? Maybe they're young or forgetful and just dimly know the name rings a bell, or maybe they're afraid of showing they're biased toward reality, or maybe they're actually in tune with the content (Fred Hiatt comes to mind).
How many times must a man be harassed by the police before he gets to stand up for his rights?
ReplyDeleteThe answer, my friend, is "Only if he's White." The answer is "Only if he's White."
So is the lamp post.
ReplyDeleteWeird shit from The Kerik Group LLC site:
ReplyDelete"About" - Born in Newark, New Jersey, from unusually humble
beginnings, at the age of 3, he was abandoned by his mother, who was
found beaten to death when he was 9 years old.
"Speaking" - THE KERIK GROUP has an extraordinary selection of speakers that are available... [except only Kerik is named here or on the About page].
Hear his personal story of regret, betrayal,
justice and injustice, and the lessons he has learned about overcoming
adversity. Learn how to transform your own self-disappointment,
frustration, pain, and anger, into a fuel that gets you to your next
destination.
"Services" - Sniper training.
Welll... I didn't say it'd be easy...
ReplyDeleteThat IS strange, but not nearly as strange as people shooting themselves in the head while handcuffed in the back of a police car.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/another_handcuffed_young_man_manages_to_shoot_himself/
Why do they keep doing that?
"Picaroons" is my new favorite word.
ReplyDelete(I admit that I had to look it up...)
Oh, I think we CAN have that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we should.
If the tiara fits...
ReplyDeleteAlso, too...
ReplyDeleteI blame the hippity hops and the snoopy dogs.
ReplyDelete"They're all hepped up on goofball chief Wiggums"
ReplyDelete-Ned Flanders
(or at least how I member it)
...
AHR, tis my new favorite word too.
ReplyDeleteMy bad.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nominedeus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/175px-Benito_Mussolini_Death.jpg
From the link...
ReplyDeleteIn the case of slaves "sulky and dissatisfied without cause" – a warning sign of imminent flight – [Dr. Samuel A.] Cartwright prescribed "whipping the devil out of them" as a "preventative measure". As a remedy for this "disease," doctors also made running a physical impossibility by prescribing the removal of both big toes.
Yes, it all makes sense if you limit your evidence. I mean the person I was talking to today even said the police often treat blacks differently -- but this was then qualified by discussion of middle class neighborhoods vs dangerous underclass hoods. I compared Tamir Rice to Bundy and got "I didn't see the video of the Tamir shooting but supposedly it was bad," and "you can't compare Bundy carrying a gun to that because people have a right to defend themselves from police wanting to come onto their land without a warrant." I just didn't know enough about the warrant situation in the Bundy case to counter it -- I tried to bring it back to a general statement of look, to a lot of people, it looks like the white guy Bundy gets his friends together with a bunch of guns and the authorities back off, versus a black kid gets shot without even being offered time to comply and the white shooter walks without trial or is found not guilty despite alarming video evidence, going back to Rodney King, so it looks like a sustained pattern. I was told King antagonized the police, Bundy didn't shoot anyone, and there's a big difference between using guns to prevent the govt from enforcing a law (Bundy) and using guns to break a law. My whole point was, But you understand to the protesters it looks like a pattern, and the reply was always to raise the alleged specifics of each case individually and disappear into the minutae thereof. It was a more difficult discussion than I thought it would be -- I seemed to be angering people by not conceding Garner would be alive if he wasn't breaking laws and insisting the question to a lot of people is instead why are the cops able to kill Garner with impunity. So I got regretful we were in this discussion cuz man o man, christmas is in 2 days and I just want the world to hold hands like it's a coke commercial.
ReplyDeletedoctors also made running a physical impossibility by prescribing the removal of both big toes
ReplyDeleteOh, hey, and I thought the subject was as sick as it could be, and here's a whole new level of evil!
But, you know, those slave owners valued their property and cared for it! *gag*
Many happy returns, LWITF.
ReplyDeleteSo we get the shootings during the summer, and the lack of grand jury indictments in the fall/winter.
ReplyDeleteSo nice that I can plan my calendar adequately.
They'll have to make a new edition of Pulp Fiction where Marvin shoots himself.
ReplyDeleteif Murdoch & Ailes and the Kocks and Waltons and a hundred other billionaire racketeers were to suddenly vanish.
ReplyDelete.
.
.
.
.
Oh, 'scuse me, I was just enjoying the image.
They're trafficking in authoritarianism with the (possibly unfortunate) assumption that they'll be the ones on the outside of the barbed wire when it happens.
ReplyDeleteProtip - when it happens, nobody's on the "outside".
Case in point: http://crooksandliars.com/2014/12/white-sovereign-citizen-full-body-armor
ReplyDeleteI am not sure who coined the term of art "emboldening the enemy", but D'Souza had a chapter of that name in his book "The Enemy at Home" about liberal treason. Now the term is enjoying a resurgence, but the enemy being emboldened are, well, anyone not in uniform.
ReplyDeletethey'd have hauled him off to GITMO two paragraphs into it
ReplyDeleteSwarthy bearded Palestinian man saying upsetting and possibly subversive things? In a heartbeat.
And bizarre that the quote he chooses to highlight about his outstandingness at the NYPD is by ... the King of Jordan. How TF would he know?
ReplyDeleteCan I hide in your luggage?
ReplyDeleteJimmy Buffet - yet another thing of South Carolina I will not miss one bit.
ReplyDeleteAs my friend Mark used to say, "the only thing that trickles down is yellow".
ReplyDeleteWould a new set of picaroons' (thanks Thesaurus!) just move in and take over...
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. You must remember that for a lot of these folks that blather and pundit and pluck what they call "facts" out of their anal cavities, the right wing ideology is just a product to sell. And man oh man does it sell well.
Some of the truly mercenary, like Beck and Limbaugh et al., have made millions and millions of dollars selling bullshit to the credulous. The hucksters know it's snake oil, but they know even more keenly that there's never a shortage of gullible fuckwits that will lap it up, and that you can almost never make the elixir too outrageous.
Suppurating syphilitic scabs that they are, right wing mouthpieces aren't the root of the problem; it's the populace that heeds their hucksterism, that lives on a steady stream of the projectile vomit of fear and hate and nonsense, that's what cripples the United States. They can never get enough, and they will never go hungry.
While handcuffed?
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing: that wouldn't make a believable movie plot, yet we are asked to believe it in real life.
Is this a visual representation of the GOP Health Care Plan I've been so eagerly waiting to learn more about?
ReplyDeleteHave a, uh, coffee for me, wouldcha'? Bulldogs has good stuff, I hear.
ReplyDeleteMan, you are so spot on with this comment, that I might just print it out, frame it and hang it on the wall.
ReplyDeleteI've also thought that this usage of the word "Homeland" was creepy. It sure does have that Nazi-like ring to it, and the media should be ashamed that they ever adopted it.
I did! Those super people at Time include their email contact info at the bottom of every turd, helpful dears.
ReplyDelete"Democracy" means "rule by the people."
ReplyDeleteRightwingers do support that idea so long as they get to define who is and who is not a person.
the idea of him doing regular commentary a la Kerik, Furhman, and D'Souza is absurd
ReplyDeleteet Alia North.
First name that popped into my head, too. Then Chuck Colson. Dammit, I have GOT to get a new head..
ReplyDeleteOT, but -
ReplyDeleteHow to Christmas the Ayn Rand Way
And if it wasn't Molly Ivins who said that first, we can be excused for thinking so.
ReplyDeleteWhat the police association wants is a blanket mea culpa from DeBlasio. No nuance. (Which sort of throws civilian control of the police into the wastebasket. The cops want none of that, thank you very much.)
ReplyDeleteJust as with civilian control of the military, the object is to let the authoritarians know that they aren't right all the time, and that they can't do whatever the fuck they want. Experience alone shows that such forces in society do not police themselves, and generally have little respect for the Constitution they are sworn to uphold--it's the nature of authoritarianism to believe that superior force is always right.
If DeBlasio doesn't want to be a puppet of the police, he's got to be able to say, in effect, "I can support the police without defending bad cops, and I won't defend bad cops as a condition of supporting the good cops."
That's the civilian control the bad cops don't want.
I HATE, absolutely HATE, the word "Homeland" ---
ReplyDeleteI bought that record in 1966, simply on the basis of the cover ---
ReplyDeletecops should never be questioned about anything they do
ReplyDeleteAs long as they are doing it to The Other. When they take on the Cliven Bundys of the world, they are the worst people ever.
But there are doughnuts in Homerland.
ReplyDeletedooooooughnut.... aaaaarraaaaauuuullgh...
ReplyDeleteState security forces shooting at blahs = noble defenders of law'n'order
ReplyDeleteState security defenders not shooting at sovruns = jack-booted thugs of the Socialist usurper
Send MoDo some candy.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure at some point they've made they're Evil Obama ventriloquist dummy say it before bashing its head in.
ReplyDeleteMan, I wouldn't want to be the sucker who bet against them.
ReplyDeleteand carry out a military coup to "restore freedom".
ReplyDeleteWhat does that mean when you translate it from NewSpeak?
I wonder how they figure they're gonna tabulate the votes of all those fetuses?
ReplyDeleteI suspect that we'll next see Republicans claiming their proxies.
Ah, but who were the biggest anti-communists evah? (Isn't that how so many of them escaped Nuremberg through Operation Paperclip, thanks to our staunch anti-communists?)
ReplyDeleteNazis.
We seem to be a proto fascist state at the moment, filled with a
ReplyDeletepopulation quivering with fear that seemingly without hesitation is
interested in acquiescing to authority.
If Bin Laden hadn't existed, it would have been necessary to create him.
No, I'm under no illusions as to the originality of that statement...
If O'Reilly is so het up about the War on Christmas why doesn't he go after this guy?
ReplyDeleteI've been calling it Der Fazzerland since I first heard that name. I wonder how many WWII vets heard it, and felt a little frissom of dread, and went, oh, god, here we go again...
ReplyDelete"67, same reason. Sure hadn't heard it on the radio.
ReplyDelete