Wednesday Potpourri

First, a few words about the chaos that is engulfing once-Great Britain. Since prior Tory governments had manifestly failed, the British people voted in a new Labour government, led by one Keir Starmer.

Now, the country is undergoing Labour pains. It is suffering a long and difficult labour.

Douglas Murray commented on Twitter:

 

Mass illegal migration turns high-trust societies into low-trust ones. It turns coherent societies into incoherent ones. You can’t just address the backlash to that. You have to address the cause. Unless our leaders do that this will get infinitely worse.

Second, the Labour government has declared that Muslim migrants can do no wrong while everyday Brits can do no right. It is two-tiered justice, the sort that we have seen in America.

Tyler Durden explains on Zero Hedge:

Wherever conservative, nationalist or "right wing" protests arise in the west the full force of government power is applied to frighten the public into compliance.  It might be to enforce covid mandates or it might be to prevent the populace from questioning open border policies.  In the UK The mask has truly come off.  The message? You will accept mass immigration from the third world, or else…

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's recent announcement on the government response to British protests are highly revealing.  To summarize, indigenous and "right wing" Brits are not allowed to take to the streets (or online) because their ideology is "wrong."  Armed Muslim migrant gangs and leftists are apparently free to do whatever they please.

Keep in mind, a teenage child of Rwandan migrants went on a killing spree at a children's dance recital in Southport last week and this is what triggered the civil unrest to begin with.  After a decade of relentless unvetted immigration, rising crime and rape gangs, the British are finally fed up.  Yet, Starmer and the UK government made no statements addressing the continuing problems caused by mass immigration from third-world countries.  They have treated these numerous incidents as coincidental and denied any relation to the criminal's ideology.  Native Brits feel utterly unrepresented by their own political leadership.

Migrant gangs, calling themselves the 'Muslim Defense League', stalk British cities with impunity.  Few if any police are in sight when these gangs are engaging in criminal activity.  When police do encounter the gangs, they reassure the migrants that the authorities are "there to protect them."

Third, among the curiosities of the situation is that the man who murdered three young children in a knife attack is not a migrant. He was not seeking asylum. 

He was the son of Rwandan refugees. Denouncing people for calling him a migrant is a bit rich.

Fourth, naturally we all want to know what Julie Burchill thinks about the civil war that is currently unfolding in once-Great Britain. 

Here she is, from the New York Sun:

You’d have to go back to the English Civil Wars of the 17th century to find an example of internecine violence here. Our national self-image is one of extreme stoicism; “Musn’t grumble,” my parents’ generation replied when asked how they were, which infuriated me as a teenager but for which I yearn now.

Lately it seems like there’s a new combination of conflagrations every week — a fresh riot every night. The climate of unrest started with the October 7 massacre in Israel, after which central London became a no-go area for Jews each weekend as angry Muslims demanded “jihad.”

We’ve also had a Black customers versus Asian shopkeepers ruckus, an intra-Bangladeshi scuffle, a Roma riot and, since the stabbing of three little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dancing class in a seaside town by the son of Rwandan immigrants, violent protests in London and beyond.

The country is like a melting-pot, yes — but a melting-pot of molten anger. The government has laid the blame with everyone from “the far-right” to “the Russians” but this is to woefully and willfully misunderstand the unprecedentedly fractious and factional nature of modern Britain.

The problem is multiculturalism. The problem is also the tendencies to blame white people for their privilege. And naturally, a criminal justice system that does not treat people fairly has aggravated the problem,

This is exacerbated by the two-tier policing we have had for some time here. When non-whites riot, police tend to retreat, whereas when whites riot, police tend to charge. Prime Minister Starmer’s first in-office nickname is “Two-Tier” Keir — not an auspicious start for a man who promised to bring national unity.

White working-class boys are currently the most likely to fail at school and the least likely to succeed in life, yet they are told that their skin color confers “privilege.” Now they’re being told by the liberal establishment that their riots are the “wrong” kind of riot — but after applauding the riots of Black Lives Matter, it’s hard to put the genie back into the bottle just because he’s paler than they would prefer.

The election of the Labour government will only make matters worse; they have already reframed illegal immigration as “irregular migration,” leading to suspicions that the boats carrying thousands of young men (rarely children, women, or the old, which you generally find in genuine waves of refugees) will be turning up on our beaches even more frequently, thus making an already fraught situation worse.

Fifth, all testimony suggests that Kamala Harris is notable for being a thoroughly incompetent executive. And you thought that her problem was that she did not know how to think.

Peachy Keenan reports on the experience of a family member who worked for Harris in the San Francisco DA’s office:

A close family member, an attorney, worked for Kamala in the SF DA office and is still traumatized. Everyone lived in terror of her. Everyone thought she was a disaster: a nincompoop and a petty b*tch. When she went on vacation, they could relax and they dreaded her return. Another woman there worked for her Senate campaign, was a true believer, and was treated so badly she quit law and is now 100% for Trump.

When you got your job for reasons that have nothing to do with your limited skills, you are likely to be highly insecure, even suspecting that you are an imposter. In that case you will beat up on your staff in order to hide your own insecurities.

Sixth, you would think that Switzerland is a beacon of sanity in a crazy world. In fact, you would be wrong. Recently, a court removed a child from her home because his parents refused to have him put on puberty blockers. These are the same puberty blockers that most serious European countries have eliminated.

Tyler Durden on Zero Hedge reports on the situation in Switzerland:

Children cannot consent.  They are incapable of consenting legally or consenting cognitively.  They are not mature enough emotionally or intellectually to make sweeping decisions regarding their personal health.  This is common sense and has been the standard of child protection in western society for hundreds of years.  Only in the past decade has this obvious rule been abandoned in the name of appeasing the trans movement.

Though the pendulum has been swinging back recently in parts of Europe and in red states in the US, the woke cult has so permeated some societies like a malignant cancer that it's almost impossible to get rid of them.  If you have a morbid sense of curiosity and want to know what life would be like under total woke authoritarianism you could move to California, or look no further than Switzerland.

Here is one family’s story:

Swiss parents seeking to remain anonymous have recounted their legal horror story after their 13-year-old daughter proclaimed herself "a boy."  The parents uncovered evidence that their child had been groomed by her teachers, school councilors and even doctors to adopt trans beliefs and began referring to her as a boy with a new male name in the classroom.  When her parents discovered this they complained to school officials, only to have the child taken from them at age 16 by the Swiss Government.

The parents have responded:

“Not only has the state separated us from our daughter because we objected to her ‘transition,’ but we are now being threatened with criminal charges if we do not aid in her ‘legal transition’ by handing over legal documents."  

“The state should not have this power. If this can happen to us, it can happen to other parents. We will not give up trying to protect our daughter and will seek to appeal this decision.” 

Seventh, speaking of weirdness, the derisive epithet that has become legal tender for Democrats, I am old enough to remember when Texans in Austin were marching behind banners that read: Keep Austin Weird.

Go figure.

Eighth, Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz to be her running mate.

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, larged believed to be a better choice, lost out because he was Jewish. The anti-Semitic side of the Democratic Party got its way.

Ninth, now that Democrats are thrilled to be able to pick apart the pronouncements of J. D. Vance, they have just given Republicans an opportunity to look at the record of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Did you know that Walz favored gender affirming care, that is, mutilating children?

And did you know that he signed a bill putting tampon dispensers in boys locker rooms.

The least we can say is that Tim Walz knows weird.

Tenth, naturally we care to know what a true Minnesotan thinks of Tim Walz. So we turn to John Hinderaker of the Powerline blog, who hails from that state:

As an American, I am horrified at Walz’s selection. He is small-minded, mean-spirited man. In one way, he will fit in with the Harris ticket: he ran a basement campaign for re-election in 2022, refusing to show up for debates with Republican Scott Jensen after the first one went badly. So Jensen was left debating an empty chair.

Walz’s character defects are considerable, but let’s leave it at this: he was largely responsible for the George Floyd riots that devastated Minneapolis and other cities, because he dithered for days rather than calling out the National Guard. By his own admission, he held off out of sympathy for the rioters’ cause.

Also, from a contributor to the Powerline blog, Scott Johnson writes this in the Wall Street Journal this morning:

…under Mr. Walz Minnesota has become a high-crime state. Student achievement has tumbled as spending on schools has skyrocketed. Per capita gross domestic product has fallen below the national average. Minnesotans have joined residents of New York, California and Illinois in fleeing their home state.

Surely, Kamala was thinking that it is better than choosing a Jew.

Eleventh, from Lisa Schiffren on Facebook, Walz is not merely a qualified Democrat for not being Jewish. He has staunchly supported notorious anti-Semite Ilhan Omar:

From the Republican Jewish Committee (RJC): Of particular concern for the American Jewish community is Governor Walz’s embrace of the most vicious anti-Israel and antisemitic Member of Congress, Ilhan Omar. Walz has endorsed and supported this notorious Squad member for years, championing her as a “progressive leader” in Congress. This is the same disgraceful Ilhan Omar who has trafficked antisemitic conspiracy theories, falsely accused Israel of genocide and apartheid, and voted against funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system that is currently protecting countless innocent civilians in Israel from terrorist rockets.

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