Make no mistake. Anyone with Mangione as a screen saver on their phone, even as a joke, is a whole different kind of mess. Revering a murderer on any level, in any way, is sick.
yet there are those who want to get into power and those that have already who see murder as acceptable if they believe it will help them achieve their goals. and if they ever rise to power, then what will you do......when all your legal and non-violent ways to redress grievance are gone.......if it would ever come to that. we dodged a big bullet with Trump getting in, but we were getting very close to having to confront such a sutuation...and at some point, will have to do so again.
100% Exactly what I came here to say. What else is murder, besides murder? A mercy killing? A way to make the world a better place? Virtue Signaling of the Third Kind?
At its core, the narrative around this cold-blooded execution is just another variation of Identity Politics. Downtrodden patient vs. corrupt capitalist pig. Whose side are you on? The suffering victim or the fascist oppressor?
The rising generation has been marinating in this ideology for years now. They don't even understand what "cold-blooded murder" means. They have no moral compass outside the victim/oppressor paradigm.
Identity Politics is poison. "The content of our character" is now a trite, sentimental cliché. My heart breaks for the young ones who are inheriting our benighted planet.
I have a couple of Dem friends, both over 50 years old, who hate Biden, voted for Trump, and enthusiastically condone the murder. It's appalling. The woke mind virus works in mysterious ways. I don't know if there are a lot of people like them.
I think as more emerges about both Mangione and Thompson, people's attitudes will change. What strikes me is the complexity of it. It's a lot more than "man shoots down unarmed stranger."
It isn't a condoning of murder for me to say that I couldn't have lived with myself if I had found myself in Thompson's position. At the same time I think that Mangione should accept the legal penalties which he is subject to. I do think the federal charges are absurd, and will be dismissed.
I think that if he's found guilty on the state charges, Mangione should serve life in prison. The evidence is that notwithstanding his being a husband and father with a nice smile, photogenic blue eyes, and hip stubble, who worked his way up from country boy to the cutthroat suite, Thompson was nobody's ideal of a heroic figure unless you do, indeed, support a fascist economic model, but I can't hope for jury nullification.
Mangione's court appearance the other day should have finished Luigimania once and forever. I do not recall having seen self satisfaction on a murderer's face to such an undeniable degree since Lee Harvey Oswald's brief flame appeared, burned so brightly, and was extinguished so thoroughly. ( Anyone who doubts Oswald's guilt should look at the mugshots made of him shortly after midnight on November 23, 1963. If you don't see insolent pride in that countenance, it's a miracle you can make it through a day without being somebody's victim. )
He's relishing his celebrity, that's clear, which makes his portrait as selfless young avenger harder to sustain. His attorney should make it clear to him that he needs to take a lesson from Bryan Kohberger: look poker faced and for God's sake shave every day.
Which brings to mind something I have heard no one mention: as the lunatics who maintain it's not Mangione in the hostel photo retreat in embarrassment, I wonder why Mangione didn't grow a full beard and mustache before he went to New York City? It would have made him much harder to identify from any CCTV photos. After the murder and a shave, the transformation would have enabled him to travel with much greater likelihood of evading the cops indefinitely.
And why did he spend the next five days looping his way around northern Pennsylvania? It does support the notion that he intended to kill someone else, but I think a likelier explanation is that having done the thing, he was overwhelmed by something like existential bafflement.
Those who resort to criminality are usually not that smart (thank goodness). Thompson didn't pass any laws. He followed them. People die every day. Everybody dies. Healthcare is a limited commodity that will be rationed. People need to get out of fantasyland.
I take it that you haven't experienced much in the way of adversity, let alone, medical suffering. I admit that I don't know the solution, but so many millions of seething people probably have a point.
"Seething" may be appropriate, because we've all been wronged. We're all familiar with bad diagnoses, callous treatment, poor organization, incompetence, frustration, and exorbitant prices for little return within the health care system.
More broadly, everyone has experienced adversity.
The satisfaction of revenge on the part of the public may provide a cultural orgasm, but like all orgasms, the pleasure is fleeting. A cold-blooded murder has never inspired positive structural change on the part of capitalist health care systems working in cahoots with governmental bodies, and it's not going to happen as a result of this heinous crime.
The narrative encouraged by the media; i.e., that this murder was justified because people can relate to Mangione's frustration, will only lead to more of same.
I'm officially old, so I've seen and experienced a fair amount of death, suffering, and adversity, including my own. This is not because I'm downtrodden or special. It's because I'm human. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that suffering is likely to continue until the end of time.
The questions remain: is vengeance justified? Is an eye-for-an-eye going to make the world a better place? I happen to be an atheist, but it doesn't take a Bible to answer those questions.
"The narrative around this cold-blooded execution is just another variation of Identity Politics. Downtrodden patient vs. corrupt capitalist pig. Whose side are you on? The suffering victim or the fascist oppressor?" That is an excellent summation of the entire woke nightmare. This identity nightmare keeps repeating itself throughout human history, and we have to keep beating it back. From the KKK (white is right) to BLM (black is purity), from the days of males wolf-packing (with their handmaidens' support) to destroy a female who stepped out of line, to Me-Too and everything in-between.
The kid came from a millionaire family. Not downtrodden by any stretch. Just another kid raised without morals or convictions and his life has no meaning at the moment.
People that have this cowardly killer on their phone and hold him up as a hero have a strange brain disease. There are people that like Hitler because he liked dogs, dismissing the fact that he was a mass murderer. Same with Manson and the Boston Marathon Bomber. Aren't these the same morons who advocate for gun control? Except when it serves their purpose? These people's thought processes are extremely flawed to say the least. Is this what wokeness morphs into? I hope this weird line of thinking disappears like the dinosaurs when meteorites hit the earth. Eradicate this shit!
Floyd was absolutely made into a hero.... dare I say almost a Saint of benevolence to some people. He put himself into the sitution, might I say, multiple times. Chauvin knew Floyd, hell he'd probably already arrested him before; If you think Floyd wasn't venerated by the usual lefty suspects, you weren't paying attention. Either intentionally or just by not bothering to read past the headlines.
I had Christmas dinner at one of my friend's house. We've been friends for 30 years. He's always been a good Massachusetts liberal. His extended family was there, all New England transplants. I've gotten to know them over the years from holiday gatherings: a couple of lesbians, an uncle that I've watched transition to an aunt over the last 10 years and his/her wife of 30 years (does that make 4 lesbians? kinda confusing), an aged aunt and uncle that are very much hippies, and a smattering of other friends. The dinner conversation did turn to politics eventually. I heard "insurrection" muttered, the trans gentlemen said he and his community were resigned to becoming invisible again, the aged hippy aunt said she was turning off the news and focusing on gardening the next 4 years. The lesbian couple was thankful they were in CA where their rights would not be diminished despite what will surely be Trump's persecution of the gay community. I of course kept my mouth shut, just listened. Overall, there was a general air of resignation. Nobody lingered on politics, the conversation moved on, the high cost of housing, sub-optimal healthcare, the fact that labor cost for my buddy who is a successful restauranteur has gone up 40% in the last 2 years and he is barely hanging on. But the cynical me couldn't help thinking that as a 3rd generation Californian, this is exactly the kind of imported mind-rot that has destroyed our state. And they keep voting for it.
I for one am happy to have the transgender / gay lifestyle community go more invisible if that means they’ll stop pushing their beliefs onto our kids & into my life. Demanding that I accept their obnoxious ( in some cases) behavior. To each their own - we don’t need to know your bedroom habits.
I said similar to my adult son recently and then he said, mostly trolling me, that I was a "homophobe", to which I replied (paraphrased) - "Listen, I have dry cuticles and sometimes I pick them (to remove the dead skin) until they bleed. Not good, as a habit, for my body, which I'm aware. But how stupid and insane if I were to insist there were TV shows and movies about it, with graphic details, by way of close up camera views!".
I'm not sure I would have been able to sit quietly. I think I would have had to get up and I dunno... clear dishes, use the restroom, refill drinks... something. I have T shirt that says, "I have the right to remain silent, but being Irish, I don't possess the ability."
So I'm impressed with your prowess!!
I think Thomas Sowell has a saying about facts and Liberals. Will have to go hunt that down.
Unfortunately, many of us are unable to move. We are fighting back, and the last election shows that things are changing. The biggest problem is the way the election process is conducted. It is a priority to make changes that will prevent fraud from taking place. That is why so many insane elected officials survive; It's not that the electorate wanted them.
As a mid 60 year old native Californian, I love the geography and climate of California. I have been fortunate to live most of my life in Southern California within 2-3 miles of the ocean. I am appalled by the leaders of the city, county, and state, and the crime and homelessness that they have not only allowed, but have seemingly encouraged. 60% of the voters continue to support these politicians and apparently these policies. But that means 40% don't , and many like me stay because they feel California is worth saving and are hopeful that like an alcoholic, maybe the state has to hit rock bottom before finally changing. Also I fear if I move to another state, although it may have values and a political climate I am more aligned with today, if those things change (see Colorado) than I don't even have the good climate that I enjoy in California. If we elect another Newsom clone as Governor, that may finally destroy my hope and push me out.
It is my belief that California will not change until Silicon Valley companies start leaving for other states and in great numbers. The revenue from Silicon Valley is what keeps California afloat.
Jane, you have your finger directly on the pulse of the matter. When we review the "GDP" distribution for California, we begin to see where the "casino economy" enables the extremism driving the state's policies.
Sadly, many of those who ruined CA have moved to other states. Arizona was a liberal state when I was a kid. Very much a you do you and leave me alone kind of a place. Now, Phoenix and Tucson have become deep blue and their populations will soon be making the rules and laws for the rural areas, just like what happened in CA.
Sounds like a creepy bunch of people with mental illness and victimhood. I can see why you kept your mouth shut. To engage in conversation with these weirdos would get nowhere and just be exhausting to hear their feelings of victimization. 🤮
Eh, they're all humans with feelings. We had good laughs, drank good wine, ate good food. I'm not out to change anybody's point of view, unless somebody specifically asks me what I think anyhow. As Jonathan Swift once said, "it is useless to attempt to reason somebody out of something they were never reasoned into in the first place."
You’re much better than me. I couldn’t pretend long enough to be around some guy dressing as a woman and thinking he shares my ‘identity’ when my womanhood is much more than an identity for some mental case to grab onto. Kudos to you though.
Good quote, but I think some HAVE been "reasoned into" their positions and situations in the first place' they are just unaware. An asst. producer on the show "Friends" wrote in a book that he was on set once and the producer was clear that the purpose of "Friends" was to "liberalize" America. Thus, the episodes making fun and legitimizing the consistent watching of porn, etc.
"But the cynical me couldn't help thinking that as a 3rd generation Californian, this is exactly the kind of imported mind-rot that has destroyed our state. And they keep voting for it."
There's room for a bit of compassion, Jrod; at least, that's how I view it. What we see all 'round, is a triumph of deceitful salesmanship. It's not always inappropriate to feel as though many who succumbed to sales tactics deserve to be fleeced, but most are guilty of little more than ordinary heedlessness and susceptibility to guile.
I, too, avoided discussing these things with my "true-believer" loved ones during the holidays, and that's okay. Love may not necessarily "conquer all" in every instance, but allowing others to retain certain cherished illusions during holiday celebrations can be an act of love, a gift of compassion, from one heart to another.
This is a weird family. God help us if they are remotely construed as normal. What happened to the concept of young people growkng up, finding a mate, marrying and producing children. And staying together. intergenerationally.
Yeah, it feels as if The Spell has been broken... a calm feeling of relief appears to be the dominant emotion, even among many on the Left. If I may quote Leonard Cohen: hallelujah!
As for all the luigi love: Leftists are now people who both condone and pardon cold blooded killers. Not exactly a good look. But not surprising.
The left condones and celebrates killing babies why not cold blooded killers? Seems like a logical progression. What I think it comes down to is not valuing life.
Is that why they love defending multiculturalism? The majority of third world countries don’t value life. Seems like they are of the same cloth since most dems hate people that don’t see the world as they do.
We can moan about the adoration of Luigi all day long, before we acknowledge the thousands of victims of UHC’s *policies* of denying care.
My take is that moralizing about the murder without equally framing the cold processes of UHC and the industry in general, is in the end an exercise in futility.
Two things:
The murder happened.
And people are celebrating it.
These two facts demand that we read the room. It doesn’t matter if they are “wrong” for celebrating. They are celebrating.
People of conscience who have the urge to lecture about the morality of the murder will do well to include the morality of (indeed, the lack of) a system that creates profit off of human suffering.
You can beat your chest all day long about Brian Thompson’s murder, and you’d be in the right the whole time you’re doing so.
Meanwhile UHC continues to make life and death decisions for people who you will never read about in headlines, whose suffering or death will never be the subject of your well thought out argument or heartfelt admonition, whose dire plight will never be protested by your voice.
The Weathermen is an apt comparison. They were children of upper middle class, if not downright wealthy, parents who had been living lives of immense privilege.
I’m trying to figure out how the kids reconcile the irreconcilable. They fetishize Luigi as the modern day Clyde from Bonnie and Clyde, but are also convincing each other he couldn’t be the shooter. My 23 year old daughter is telling me that TikTok has become the “evidence exchange” and the latest revelation is that Luigi could not have gotten from the hostel to the site of the shooting in six minutes (see date stamps on video).
Pretty sure one of the stacks I read receive recently cited a study out since the assassination found something like 44% of the under-30 demographic endorsed the assassination, so yeah, they're actively condoning murder. Not that that's anything new on the Left, this is just the new Che T-shirt, but let's not pretend that the Left doesn't consistently treat violent radicals as fashionable.
Just what I was going to say. The veneration of Luigi parallels that of the Argentinian commie mass murderer Ernesto Guevara. Except that Luigi is much closer to home.
And isn't ironic that the passage of Obummercare was supposed to make health care more equitable and accessible. How did that work out, progressives? And you can be sure that these murderer fans still think Barry Soetoro is the cat's meow.
There was a little bit of politics here and there among friends but I largely ignore it and it goes away quickly. One thing I’ve learned is that reminding folks that if Biden pardons Fauci, Cheney, and other “conspiracy players” that it’s likely no longer a conspiracy. That quiets folks quickly. As to family, nothing gets in the way of that. And we have a wide variety of political beliefs in my family.
Good stuff. I appreciate your brothers' view. I am the son of immigrants who came to our great country during the 1950s. They were legal migrants who came, not for handouts, but for the ability to benefit from hard work. They both came from countries that were crime-infested and run by oppressive regimes. They sought freedom and believed in the American dream and worked extremely hard in their effort to reach it. For them and their unimaginable sacrifices I am forever grateful. The Biden illegal migration ploy has my mom and dad turning in their graves.
I’m glad to hear those divisions in your family are closing. I have three close family members; one supported Trump, one didn’t vote for either candidate and one is a far left progressive. The progressive has already once threatened to shun me because I referred to “trans women” as biological men in a discussion over women’s rights in sports. Politics is practically verboten in discussion with him and I, and others, have to walk on egg shells in conversation around him. Having escaped a far right fundamentalist church, I see all the signs of a radical religion in progressivism. If you stray in the least from the “orthodoxy”, you are subject to being shunned and excommunicated.
Wokeness is definitely a religion, you are so right about that. I say woke and not progressivism because if you got in a room with a hundred self-identified progressives ten years ago and asked them if men could be women, all of them would say no, what are you, crazy? Wokeness went from virtually non-existent to the fastest growing religion in the country, and embodies religion at its worst: religion without spirituality.
I wish that people would stop looking to humanity as their objective truth. If we want to understand what is *good and right* we need to look to the Messiah Jesus. His Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew, chapters 5-7 in the New Testament (especially the section called the Beattitudes), show us how to live out the life God calls us to live. It gives us the heart and mind position that rightly orients us towards our heavenly Father and to our fellow man. We just celebrated His First Coming into the world… and we look to His Second.
Christ said: "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. On this, hangs all the laws and the prophets" and "Be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove" (which personally, I think can't be done with any consistency if a person doesn't have God's spirit. The indwelling of the spirit happens by way of faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God).
I was at a party right before Christmas with some neighbors. I’m one of the few conservatives in my neighborhood in WNC. A discussion came up about politics and a funny comment was made about the Aunt of the hostess being Republican, and how could it be worse? 🙄 someone at the table spoke up and said she could be a Democrat. I almost spit my wine across the room laughing. It was unexpected. Later in the discussion the hostess, who is definitely left leaning, said she had changed her view of Republicans since Hurricane Helene that she noticed that the ones that were most helpful and kind during the disaster were here Republican neighbors not her Democrat neighbors. Maybe many’s eyes will be opened over the next 4 years to how misinformed they have been about who we are. Anyway, I have hope! Great post Sasha!!
I, for one am glad you had a peaceful Christmas, Sasha. On my dad’s side of the family, they’re dealing and accepting the reality in their own ways. Very Tejano/Chicano.
With my wife’s family, everyone is conservative or center-right but for one: Chad. He didn’t take the loss well at all. My wife told me that her sister would text and ask for prayer for her husband Chad for Chad came off verbally unhinged and possibly suicidal the night of November 5th. Chad was talked back down from the proverbial ledge. I looked at his fb posting and woof, he believes in all the lies. So sad.
I’m rating now🙄
My point is he’s out numbered at family gatherings so he doesn’t start anything but I will lovingly challenge him. No yelling. We have a peaceful conversation but I’m never able to convince or persuade him. But still, I like Chad. He’s a decent man.
Anyway, as always keep up with The Lord’s work, Sasha. You make a difference😉👍🏽
Optimism? An assassin as a hero? The left advocates for killing innocent unborn children. It’s not difficult that they now will condone another murder. This purp only did what women have been doing by the millions over 50 years.
Mangione wasn't particularly pro-Democrat in his political views. From what we know about him, he was an unaffiliated populist, the largest plurality view in the country.
Some are sick of the left because they became buddy-buddy with Cheney Sr. and Liz.....which is coo coo, since they have always hated those 2 war-mongers (and so have I and I'm a constitutional conservative and have been for decades). They also tapped into the rich and famous to do their bidding and some think they caved to Israel....
I have a close family member who is a doctor who believes healthcare “is a right”… When I explained that a true “right” comes at a cost to NO ONE… That “free” healthcare would effectively make her a slave… She understood grudgingly and before she had time to offer a rationale, I felt the time was right to test a theory I’ve held for many years…
So I said to her: “When people say ‘Healthcare is a right’, do you know what I think people REALLY trying to say?” I could tell she was intrigued but also sensed a trap…
She asked semi-sarcastically: “What? What am I REALLY trying to say?”
I replied: “Most people think “health” is a right, even though they say ‘healthCARE’… That it’s not fair that some people get sick while others don’t…”
I could tell I struck a nerve… She was quiet at first and then said: “Wow… That’s really interesting…”
And it's not fair, but as a nation, we're built on Christian values and thus, don't leave those with bad health from genetics or demographics, to lay in the streets to die. Local and state communities, including governments, need to help. Never from the federal government though, because that is not its job or role - and it messes everything up when it wanders away from its Constitutional mandates. John Adams said "This Constitution is for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate for the government of any other" (because moral and religious people will do the work that the Constitution/federal government can't do/isn't allowed to do) and "Avarice will break this Constitution like a whale breaks through a net" (because a people who are consumed and obsessed with possessions and wealth above all else, won't be generous, giving, and help out their fellow man).
“ I don’t think she, or anyone in her generation, condones murder.”
But that’s exactly what they are doing, by trying to turn him into some kind of hero.
Just as they did with the drug-addled felon George Floyd. How’s that worked out for us?
It is a screwed up mentality bordering on a very dangerous precedent that is not good for anyone, no matter how much lipstick you try to paint on it.
Make no mistake. Anyone with Mangione as a screen saver on their phone, even as a joke, is a whole different kind of mess. Revering a murderer on any level, in any way, is sick.
yet there are those who want to get into power and those that have already who see murder as acceptable if they believe it will help them achieve their goals. and if they ever rise to power, then what will you do......when all your legal and non-violent ways to redress grievance are gone.......if it would ever come to that. we dodged a big bullet with Trump getting in, but we were getting very close to having to confront such a sutuation...and at some point, will have to do so again.
Yes. They regularly treat tragedies as moralistic tools. Fuck them.
Absolutely agree. Crazy world we are living in with morally corrupt individuals :(
100% Exactly what I came here to say. What else is murder, besides murder? A mercy killing? A way to make the world a better place? Virtue Signaling of the Third Kind?
At its core, the narrative around this cold-blooded execution is just another variation of Identity Politics. Downtrodden patient vs. corrupt capitalist pig. Whose side are you on? The suffering victim or the fascist oppressor?
The rising generation has been marinating in this ideology for years now. They don't even understand what "cold-blooded murder" means. They have no moral compass outside the victim/oppressor paradigm.
Identity Politics is poison. "The content of our character" is now a trite, sentimental cliché. My heart breaks for the young ones who are inheriting our benighted planet.
I have a couple of Dem friends, both over 50 years old, who hate Biden, voted for Trump, and enthusiastically condone the murder. It's appalling. The woke mind virus works in mysterious ways. I don't know if there are a lot of people like them.
Wow. They voted for Trump but still think Democrat? That really is appalling.
Ideology, when extreme, produces tribalism. And tribalism produces violation of rights, thru the attitude known as "The end justifies the means".
I think as more emerges about both Mangione and Thompson, people's attitudes will change. What strikes me is the complexity of it. It's a lot more than "man shoots down unarmed stranger."
It isn't a condoning of murder for me to say that I couldn't have lived with myself if I had found myself in Thompson's position. At the same time I think that Mangione should accept the legal penalties which he is subject to. I do think the federal charges are absurd, and will be dismissed.
I think that if he's found guilty on the state charges, Mangione should serve life in prison. The evidence is that notwithstanding his being a husband and father with a nice smile, photogenic blue eyes, and hip stubble, who worked his way up from country boy to the cutthroat suite, Thompson was nobody's ideal of a heroic figure unless you do, indeed, support a fascist economic model, but I can't hope for jury nullification.
Mangione's court appearance the other day should have finished Luigimania once and forever. I do not recall having seen self satisfaction on a murderer's face to such an undeniable degree since Lee Harvey Oswald's brief flame appeared, burned so brightly, and was extinguished so thoroughly. ( Anyone who doubts Oswald's guilt should look at the mugshots made of him shortly after midnight on November 23, 1963. If you don't see insolent pride in that countenance, it's a miracle you can make it through a day without being somebody's victim. )
He's relishing his celebrity, that's clear, which makes his portrait as selfless young avenger harder to sustain. His attorney should make it clear to him that he needs to take a lesson from Bryan Kohberger: look poker faced and for God's sake shave every day.
Which brings to mind something I have heard no one mention: as the lunatics who maintain it's not Mangione in the hostel photo retreat in embarrassment, I wonder why Mangione didn't grow a full beard and mustache before he went to New York City? It would have made him much harder to identify from any CCTV photos. After the murder and a shave, the transformation would have enabled him to travel with much greater likelihood of evading the cops indefinitely.
And why did he spend the next five days looping his way around northern Pennsylvania? It does support the notion that he intended to kill someone else, but I think a likelier explanation is that having done the thing, he was overwhelmed by something like existential bafflement.
Those who resort to criminality are usually not that smart (thank goodness). Thompson didn't pass any laws. He followed them. People die every day. Everybody dies. Healthcare is a limited commodity that will be rationed. People need to get out of fantasyland.
I take it that you haven't experienced much in the way of adversity, let alone, medical suffering. I admit that I don't know the solution, but so many millions of seething people probably have a point.
"Seething" may be appropriate, because we've all been wronged. We're all familiar with bad diagnoses, callous treatment, poor organization, incompetence, frustration, and exorbitant prices for little return within the health care system.
More broadly, everyone has experienced adversity.
The satisfaction of revenge on the part of the public may provide a cultural orgasm, but like all orgasms, the pleasure is fleeting. A cold-blooded murder has never inspired positive structural change on the part of capitalist health care systems working in cahoots with governmental bodies, and it's not going to happen as a result of this heinous crime.
The narrative encouraged by the media; i.e., that this murder was justified because people can relate to Mangione's frustration, will only lead to more of same.
I'm officially old, so I've seen and experienced a fair amount of death, suffering, and adversity, including my own. This is not because I'm downtrodden or special. It's because I'm human. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that suffering is likely to continue until the end of time.
The questions remain: is vengeance justified? Is an eye-for-an-eye going to make the world a better place? I happen to be an atheist, but it doesn't take a Bible to answer those questions.
Any attempt by anyone to pin even a smidgen of blame on Thompson is wrong - period.
"The narrative around this cold-blooded execution is just another variation of Identity Politics. Downtrodden patient vs. corrupt capitalist pig. Whose side are you on? The suffering victim or the fascist oppressor?" That is an excellent summation of the entire woke nightmare. This identity nightmare keeps repeating itself throughout human history, and we have to keep beating it back. From the KKK (white is right) to BLM (black is purity), from the days of males wolf-packing (with their handmaidens' support) to destroy a female who stepped out of line, to Me-Too and everything in-between.
The kid came from a millionaire family. Not downtrodden by any stretch. Just another kid raised without morals or convictions and his life has no meaning at the moment.
And BLM’s burning and profiting, how’s that helped?
Just a reminder that Ted Bundy married and fathered a child with one of his groupies while he was on death row.
Charles Manson was also viewed by some leftists as a hero when he and his groupies brutally slaughtered six people in 1969.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/11/charles-manson-1960s-radicals-loved-him/
Hah!
I’m going to put Chuck Mangione (look it up Millennials and Gen Z) as a screen saver on my phone to show what a retrograde I am.
People that have this cowardly killer on their phone and hold him up as a hero have a strange brain disease. There are people that like Hitler because he liked dogs, dismissing the fact that he was a mass murderer. Same with Manson and the Boston Marathon Bomber. Aren't these the same morons who advocate for gun control? Except when it serves their purpose? These people's thought processes are extremely flawed to say the least. Is this what wokeness morphs into? I hope this weird line of thinking disappears like the dinosaurs when meteorites hit the earth. Eradicate this shit!
And what about aborting babies after they're born. That's murder too!
Noone made Floyd out to be a hero. He was murdered by a policeman who knew him from a side job they did. He
Floyd was another victim.
Her family member is just a new version of Squeaky Fromme though.
Statues and portraits of Floyd where popping up everywhere. And, he wasn't murdered. He committed suicide by drugs and resisting lawful arrest.
Floyd was absolutely made into a hero.... dare I say almost a Saint of benevolence to some people. He put himself into the sitution, might I say, multiple times. Chauvin knew Floyd, hell he'd probably already arrested him before; If you think Floyd wasn't venerated by the usual lefty suspects, you weren't paying attention. Either intentionally or just by not bothering to read past the headlines.
I had Christmas dinner at one of my friend's house. We've been friends for 30 years. He's always been a good Massachusetts liberal. His extended family was there, all New England transplants. I've gotten to know them over the years from holiday gatherings: a couple of lesbians, an uncle that I've watched transition to an aunt over the last 10 years and his/her wife of 30 years (does that make 4 lesbians? kinda confusing), an aged aunt and uncle that are very much hippies, and a smattering of other friends. The dinner conversation did turn to politics eventually. I heard "insurrection" muttered, the trans gentlemen said he and his community were resigned to becoming invisible again, the aged hippy aunt said she was turning off the news and focusing on gardening the next 4 years. The lesbian couple was thankful they were in CA where their rights would not be diminished despite what will surely be Trump's persecution of the gay community. I of course kept my mouth shut, just listened. Overall, there was a general air of resignation. Nobody lingered on politics, the conversation moved on, the high cost of housing, sub-optimal healthcare, the fact that labor cost for my buddy who is a successful restauranteur has gone up 40% in the last 2 years and he is barely hanging on. But the cynical me couldn't help thinking that as a 3rd generation Californian, this is exactly the kind of imported mind-rot that has destroyed our state. And they keep voting for it.
I for one am happy to have the transgender / gay lifestyle community go more invisible if that means they’ll stop pushing their beliefs onto our kids & into my life. Demanding that I accept their obnoxious ( in some cases) behavior. To each their own - we don’t need to know your bedroom habits.
I said similar to my adult son recently and then he said, mostly trolling me, that I was a "homophobe", to which I replied (paraphrased) - "Listen, I have dry cuticles and sometimes I pick them (to remove the dead skin) until they bleed. Not good, as a habit, for my body, which I'm aware. But how stupid and insane if I were to insist there were TV shows and movies about it, with graphic details, by way of close up camera views!".
I'm not sure I would have been able to sit quietly. I think I would have had to get up and I dunno... clear dishes, use the restroom, refill drinks... something. I have T shirt that says, "I have the right to remain silent, but being Irish, I don't possess the ability."
So I'm impressed with your prowess!!
I think Thomas Sowell has a saying about facts and Liberals. Will have to go hunt that down.
Here you go - a whole bunch of quotes from Thomas Sowell: https://lizlasorte.substack.com/p/get-in-the-ring-karl-marx-v-thomas?r=76q58
👍
I’d be right there with you 👍🏼
…or go mow the lawn. 😂
Indeed they keep voting for it.
That’s why I moved out of CA four years ago.
Born and raised in Los Angeles. 68 years old.
No amount of nice weather could keep me in a place that does not respect individual freedoms .
Legislation that cares more about non-citizens than they do about citizens.
Leaders who care more about criminals than law abidingcitizens.
Californians. Enjoy enjoy your nice weather. Keep voting in a liberal people and policies.
But please do not leave California. Stay where you’re at.
Unfortunately, many of us are unable to move. We are fighting back, and the last election shows that things are changing. The biggest problem is the way the election process is conducted. It is a priority to make changes that will prevent fraud from taking place. That is why so many insane elected officials survive; It's not that the electorate wanted them.
Voter ID is top of the GOP agenda once they're back at it.
As a mid 60 year old native Californian, I love the geography and climate of California. I have been fortunate to live most of my life in Southern California within 2-3 miles of the ocean. I am appalled by the leaders of the city, county, and state, and the crime and homelessness that they have not only allowed, but have seemingly encouraged. 60% of the voters continue to support these politicians and apparently these policies. But that means 40% don't , and many like me stay because they feel California is worth saving and are hopeful that like an alcoholic, maybe the state has to hit rock bottom before finally changing. Also I fear if I move to another state, although it may have values and a political climate I am more aligned with today, if those things change (see Colorado) than I don't even have the good climate that I enjoy in California. If we elect another Newsom clone as Governor, that may finally destroy my hope and push me out.
It is my belief that California will not change until Silicon Valley companies start leaving for other states and in great numbers. The revenue from Silicon Valley is what keeps California afloat.
Jane, you have your finger directly on the pulse of the matter. When we review the "GDP" distribution for California, we begin to see where the "casino economy" enables the extremism driving the state's policies.
Sadly, many of those who ruined CA have moved to other states. Arizona was a liberal state when I was a kid. Very much a you do you and leave me alone kind of a place. Now, Phoenix and Tucson have become deep blue and their populations will soon be making the rules and laws for the rural areas, just like what happened in CA.
Yes!
Sounds like a creepy bunch of people with mental illness and victimhood. I can see why you kept your mouth shut. To engage in conversation with these weirdos would get nowhere and just be exhausting to hear their feelings of victimization. 🤮
Eh, they're all humans with feelings. We had good laughs, drank good wine, ate good food. I'm not out to change anybody's point of view, unless somebody specifically asks me what I think anyhow. As Jonathan Swift once said, "it is useless to attempt to reason somebody out of something they were never reasoned into in the first place."
You’re much better than me. I couldn’t pretend long enough to be around some guy dressing as a woman and thinking he shares my ‘identity’ when my womanhood is much more than an identity for some mental case to grab onto. Kudos to you though.
Good quote, but I think some HAVE been "reasoned into" their positions and situations in the first place' they are just unaware. An asst. producer on the show "Friends" wrote in a book that he was on set once and the producer was clear that the purpose of "Friends" was to "liberalize" America. Thus, the episodes making fun and legitimizing the consistent watching of porn, etc.
"But the cynical me couldn't help thinking that as a 3rd generation Californian, this is exactly the kind of imported mind-rot that has destroyed our state. And they keep voting for it."
There's room for a bit of compassion, Jrod; at least, that's how I view it. What we see all 'round, is a triumph of deceitful salesmanship. It's not always inappropriate to feel as though many who succumbed to sales tactics deserve to be fleeced, but most are guilty of little more than ordinary heedlessness and susceptibility to guile.
I, too, avoided discussing these things with my "true-believer" loved ones during the holidays, and that's okay. Love may not necessarily "conquer all" in every instance, but allowing others to retain certain cherished illusions during holiday celebrations can be an act of love, a gift of compassion, from one heart to another.
This is a weird family. God help us if they are remotely construed as normal. What happened to the concept of young people growkng up, finding a mate, marrying and producing children. And staying together. intergenerationally.
Haven't you heard the saying, "You can't choose your relatives, but you can choose your friends."
Yeah, it feels as if The Spell has been broken... a calm feeling of relief appears to be the dominant emotion, even among many on the Left. If I may quote Leonard Cohen: hallelujah!
As for all the luigi love: Leftists are now people who both condone and pardon cold blooded killers. Not exactly a good look. But not surprising.
The left condones and celebrates killing babies why not cold blooded killers? Seems like a logical progression. What I think it comes down to is not valuing life.
Is that why they love defending multiculturalism? The majority of third world countries don’t value life. Seems like they are of the same cloth since most dems hate people that don’t see the world as they do.
Nope not surprising.
We can moan about the adoration of Luigi all day long, before we acknowledge the thousands of victims of UHC’s *policies* of denying care.
My take is that moralizing about the murder without equally framing the cold processes of UHC and the industry in general, is in the end an exercise in futility.
Two things:
The murder happened.
And people are celebrating it.
These two facts demand that we read the room. It doesn’t matter if they are “wrong” for celebrating. They are celebrating.
People of conscience who have the urge to lecture about the morality of the murder will do well to include the morality of (indeed, the lack of) a system that creates profit off of human suffering.
You can beat your chest all day long about Brian Thompson’s murder, and you’d be in the right the whole time you’re doing so.
Meanwhile UHC continues to make life and death decisions for people who you will never read about in headlines, whose suffering or death will never be the subject of your well thought out argument or heartfelt admonition, whose dire plight will never be protested by your voice.
The Weathermen is an apt comparison. They were children of upper middle class, if not downright wealthy, parents who had been living lives of immense privilege.
I’m trying to figure out how the kids reconcile the irreconcilable. They fetishize Luigi as the modern day Clyde from Bonnie and Clyde, but are also convincing each other he couldn’t be the shooter. My 23 year old daughter is telling me that TikTok has become the “evidence exchange” and the latest revelation is that Luigi could not have gotten from the hostel to the site of the shooting in six minutes (see date stamps on video).
Patty Hearst comes to mind..
Or MKUltra- mind control
Pretty sure one of the stacks I read receive recently cited a study out since the assassination found something like 44% of the under-30 demographic endorsed the assassination, so yeah, they're actively condoning murder. Not that that's anything new on the Left, this is just the new Che T-shirt, but let's not pretend that the Left doesn't consistently treat violent radicals as fashionable.
As did Hillary and Obama….
Just what I was going to say. The veneration of Luigi parallels that of the Argentinian commie mass murderer Ernesto Guevara. Except that Luigi is much closer to home.
And isn't ironic that the passage of Obummercare was supposed to make health care more equitable and accessible. How did that work out, progressives? And you can be sure that these murderer fans still think Barry Soetoro is the cat's meow.
If only Pelosi would have read the bill before it was passed…
There was a little bit of politics here and there among friends but I largely ignore it and it goes away quickly. One thing I’ve learned is that reminding folks that if Biden pardons Fauci, Cheney, and other “conspiracy players” that it’s likely no longer a conspiracy. That quiets folks quickly. As to family, nothing gets in the way of that. And we have a wide variety of political beliefs in my family.
Ditto
I believe it’s that way in most families.
Good stuff. I appreciate your brothers' view. I am the son of immigrants who came to our great country during the 1950s. They were legal migrants who came, not for handouts, but for the ability to benefit from hard work. They both came from countries that were crime-infested and run by oppressive regimes. They sought freedom and believed in the American dream and worked extremely hard in their effort to reach it. For them and their unimaginable sacrifices I am forever grateful. The Biden illegal migration ploy has my mom and dad turning in their graves.
To think Mangione is a”hero” is a sickness, I don’t care if you’re left or right. What a world :/
I’m glad to hear those divisions in your family are closing. I have three close family members; one supported Trump, one didn’t vote for either candidate and one is a far left progressive. The progressive has already once threatened to shun me because I referred to “trans women” as biological men in a discussion over women’s rights in sports. Politics is practically verboten in discussion with him and I, and others, have to walk on egg shells in conversation around him. Having escaped a far right fundamentalist church, I see all the signs of a radical religion in progressivism. If you stray in the least from the “orthodoxy”, you are subject to being shunned and excommunicated.
Wokeness is definitely a religion, you are so right about that. I say woke and not progressivism because if you got in a room with a hundred self-identified progressives ten years ago and asked them if men could be women, all of them would say no, what are you, crazy? Wokeness went from virtually non-existent to the fastest growing religion in the country, and embodies religion at its worst: religion without spirituality.
I wish that people would stop looking to humanity as their objective truth. If we want to understand what is *good and right* we need to look to the Messiah Jesus. His Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew, chapters 5-7 in the New Testament (especially the section called the Beattitudes), show us how to live out the life God calls us to live. It gives us the heart and mind position that rightly orients us towards our heavenly Father and to our fellow man. We just celebrated His First Coming into the world… and we look to His Second.
Christ said: "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. On this, hangs all the laws and the prophets" and "Be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove" (which personally, I think can't be done with any consistency if a person doesn't have God's spirit. The indwelling of the spirit happens by way of faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God).
Indeed.
I was at a party right before Christmas with some neighbors. I’m one of the few conservatives in my neighborhood in WNC. A discussion came up about politics and a funny comment was made about the Aunt of the hostess being Republican, and how could it be worse? 🙄 someone at the table spoke up and said she could be a Democrat. I almost spit my wine across the room laughing. It was unexpected. Later in the discussion the hostess, who is definitely left leaning, said she had changed her view of Republicans since Hurricane Helene that she noticed that the ones that were most helpful and kind during the disaster were here Republican neighbors not her Democrat neighbors. Maybe many’s eyes will be opened over the next 4 years to how misinformed they have been about who we are. Anyway, I have hope! Great post Sasha!!
I, for one am glad you had a peaceful Christmas, Sasha. On my dad’s side of the family, they’re dealing and accepting the reality in their own ways. Very Tejano/Chicano.
With my wife’s family, everyone is conservative or center-right but for one: Chad. He didn’t take the loss well at all. My wife told me that her sister would text and ask for prayer for her husband Chad for Chad came off verbally unhinged and possibly suicidal the night of November 5th. Chad was talked back down from the proverbial ledge. I looked at his fb posting and woof, he believes in all the lies. So sad.
I’m rating now🙄
My point is he’s out numbered at family gatherings so he doesn’t start anything but I will lovingly challenge him. No yelling. We have a peaceful conversation but I’m never able to convince or persuade him. But still, I like Chad. He’s a decent man.
Anyway, as always keep up with The Lord’s work, Sasha. You make a difference😉👍🏽
To steal a line from Monty Python…”Chads a loonie!”
That made me chuckle. Unfortunately Chad is dealing with very bad anxiety.
Optimism? An assassin as a hero? The left advocates for killing innocent unborn children. It’s not difficult that they now will condone another murder. This purp only did what women have been doing by the millions over 50 years.
Nothing brave or heroic about shooting a guy in the back.
They’re sick of the left but love Mangione? Make it make sense.
Mangione wasn't particularly pro-Democrat in his political views. From what we know about him, he was an unaffiliated populist, the largest plurality view in the country.
Some are sick of the left because they became buddy-buddy with Cheney Sr. and Liz.....which is coo coo, since they have always hated those 2 war-mongers (and so have I and I'm a constitutional conservative and have been for decades). They also tapped into the rich and famous to do their bidding and some think they caved to Israel....
There is no sense here, which is why I am questioning Sasha’s motives…
I have a close family member who is a doctor who believes healthcare “is a right”… When I explained that a true “right” comes at a cost to NO ONE… That “free” healthcare would effectively make her a slave… She understood grudgingly and before she had time to offer a rationale, I felt the time was right to test a theory I’ve held for many years…
So I said to her: “When people say ‘Healthcare is a right’, do you know what I think people REALLY trying to say?” I could tell she was intrigued but also sensed a trap…
She asked semi-sarcastically: “What? What am I REALLY trying to say?”
I replied: “Most people think “health” is a right, even though they say ‘healthCARE’… That it’s not fair that some people get sick while others don’t…”
I could tell I struck a nerve… She was quiet at first and then said: “Wow… That’s really interesting…”
And it's not fair, but as a nation, we're built on Christian values and thus, don't leave those with bad health from genetics or demographics, to lay in the streets to die. Local and state communities, including governments, need to help. Never from the federal government though, because that is not its job or role - and it messes everything up when it wanders away from its Constitutional mandates. John Adams said "This Constitution is for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate for the government of any other" (because moral and religious people will do the work that the Constitution/federal government can't do/isn't allowed to do) and "Avarice will break this Constitution like a whale breaks through a net" (because a people who are consumed and obsessed with possessions and wealth above all else, won't be generous, giving, and help out their fellow man).