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Good morning,
My old and busted iPhone has started doing the thing where it refuses to hold a charge. It’s a funny coincidence how that always seems to happen just before Apple releases a new, more expensive model, isn’t it?
Lots of feedback from our discussion these last couple days about crime. And the story of this stabbing in Charlotte has developed exactly like everything does in the Trump era. It’s so exhausting. President Trump and the MAGA media see the story as being politically advantageous, which causes Democrats and the progressive media to negatively polarize against it. I really don’t know how we as a country get out of this doom loop, because it is very difficult to make any actual progress in such an information environment.
After Trump weighed in on the killing of Iryna Zarutska, sharing his heartfelt condolences in a post that he also managed to turn into an endorsement for the Republican running for senate in NC, all his minions made sure to get a piece of the action too. Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, says he’ll pull funding for any “soft on crime” public transit systems. Just another way for the admin to wage war on blue cities, where all the public transit actually is. Kash Patel said the FBI is “investigating” the murder, as though there is some big mystery behind what happened.
Meanwhile, all the elected Dems in NC have now recognized this as being perilous to their jobs, so they’re splashing around with their own idiotic statements and ideas. Josh Stein, the new governor, said the killing shows why “we need more cops on the beat” which, conveniently, he has asked for in his budget. But the issue here is not that this guy somehow got by the police. He was arrested 14 times! It’s what happened afterward, once he was in the system. Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles made sure to pass the buck, saying it was a “tragic failure by the courts and magistrates.” That appears to be true, but for God’s sake take a little responsibility for what happens in your city, lady.
I’m hesitant to keep talking about this story. There is plenty else going on. We’ve got new wrinkles in the Epstein saga, a SCOTUS that is now fully in the pocket of the chief executive, an economic picture that is looking increasingly ominous. But at the same time, crime is one of the few issues that makes everything else secondary. People need to feel safe in their communities. James Carville famously said “It’s the economy, stupid!” But that assumes safety as a given. Only once you feel confident of not being murdered on your way to the supermarket can you worry about the price of groceries.
One way I think Democrats can thread the needle here is by focusing more on mental health. Not in the soft way liberals usually talk about it. The first thing Mayor Lyles said about this horrific murder was that Decarlos Brown “appears to have suffered a crisis.” No kidding? If I ever get stabbed in the neck by a paranoid schizophrenic on the subway, please make sure no one ever refers to my murderer as being “in crisis.” It’s nothing like the crisis I’m in as I bleed out on the floor! What I am suggesting is that these local pols take a harder line in support of institutionalizing people, such as Brown, who have shown themselves to be incapable of functioning in society.
We got rid of all the mental institutions back in the ’60s and ’70s and never really figured out what to do with all the folks who should be in some form of long-term or permanent protective custody. I wonder how much damage One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — which came out in 1975, at the height of this de-institutionalization craze — did to the national perception of these institutions.
I’m sure plenty of the old asylums were indeed horrific, but that doesn’t mean they have to be! A guy like Brown should have been in a padded room, heavily medicated, eating Jell-O and watching TV until he either died or proved he is well enough to function in society, whichever came first. If you just did this with the small number of repeat violent, schizophrenic offenders who terrorize our cities, it would have an outsized impact on public safety. The Supreme Court made this hard to do, via their decision in O’Connor v. Donaldson (1975, same year as Cuckoo), which limited the state’s ability to confine individuals who were not a danger to themselves or others. But the Court is now just a political tool for Trump, and surely he could get them to overrule this misguided precedent, right?
As for those who aren’t mentally ill but just straight up criminals, bring back the Three Strikes laws. After a certain number of violent offenses, you are no longer welcome to contribute to our society. Period. If that’s not enough, institute harsher penalties for gun crimes. Carrying a gun illegally? Automatic year in jail. Using a gun in furtherance of a crime? Five years. All I am saying is, we don’t have to live like this. There are political solutions, we just need politicians with the cojones to take them on.
Just kinda thinking out loud today. Tomorrow we can move on to other issues, I promise.
White House Reacts to Revelation of Alleged Trump Birthday Card to Epstein
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to new reporting by The Wall Street Journal analyzing the text and drawing the outlet alleges were penned by President Donald Trump in a 2003 birthday book gifted to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire ‘Birthday Card’ story is false. As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” she said in part.
The report came on the same day that the House Oversight Committee obtained files from the Epstein estate as part of its ongoing probe into the DOJ’s handling of the case against the disgraced financier. Read more.
Also happening:
Operation Midway Blitz: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has forcefully denounced the Trump administration’s new immigration crackdown in Illinois, describing it as an unconstitutional escalation that disregards due process. Johnson said the city did not receive notice about the initiative, and raised concerns about ICE’s links to human rights abuses. Read more.World: The United Arab Emirates could pull out of a peace deal it signed five years ago to normalize relations with Israel, a senior Emirati official warned twice this week, as Israeli plans to annex the West Bank spark backlash in the region. “The future of Palestine continues to be the cornerstone of a peaceful future for the Middle East,” Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s assistant minister for political affairs, said. Read more.
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