Victor Davis Hanson: Crimes of Exactly What?

Ka-chung, ka-ching

Victor Davis Hanson // PJMedia ... "Racializing crime is a serious business, because it breaks society apart along tribal lines. It is all the more dangerous when elected officials like the president and attorney general are sometimes the worst offenders, given their racialist slurs like “nation of cowards,” “punish our enemies,” and “typical white person” and cheap editorializing in the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases. So on their cue, are we to look at lurid fatal crimes in the news and s
ee them not as matters of individual evil acts, but rather as collective tokens of larger racial hatred? And are we to detect some sort of state culpability that suggests shared guilt for the violence?"

...
... "If we were to embrace the abjectly racist worldview of Eric Holder or Al Sharpton, where would the racialization of crime end? Who would decide which interracial crimes illustrated premeditated racial hatred — or criminal laxity on the part of the state — and deserved national attention? Which adjudicator could or would declare that one interracial incident was idiosyncratic without transcendent significance, but the other typical and thus representative of collective pathology?

"What exactly has this country stooped to, when our officials and public figures traffic in politicizing the end of human lives? We are becoming not just a sick country, but an amoral one as well. What Ferguson wrought will not end well."

If You Strike Bill Maher Down, He Shall Become More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine

The Federalist   "Last week Maher was tapped as the commencement speaker for the University of California-Berkeley’s December graduation. Stung by the news they might be addressed by a man whose views deviate in the slightest from the modern orthodoxy, Berkeley’s Social Justice Warriors sprang into action:" ...

The original idea of a university:
"It seems a quaint notion in the 21^st century, but at one time it was thought that a university might assist its students by exposing them to challenging ideas, to be tested in the fires of debate, and thereby to arrive at something approximating an education." ...
...
"A liberal curriculum that shields its students from opposing views serves them poorly indeed. Outside the groves of academe, in the real world of horrible jobs, the best and brightest of Berkeley won’t be protected from such heresy. They’ll have to engage with the Bill Mahers of this world as best they can, and they might as well learn to do so in college, by wallowing in such ideas."

And it all seems to have started with this debate over Islam: 

The Atlantic: The Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations Is Officially Here

U.S.-Israel relations teetered on the brink Wednesday after Obama officials were quoted in the Atlantic calling Benjamin Netanyahu a coward and chicken excrement. Israel is very mad. Susan Rice immediately went on a talk show and blamed the attack on a Mel Gibson video.    -Argus Hamilton 

 Kerry phones Netanyahu to apologize over 'chickens---' slur
... “ 'That’s a completely normal course of events: Someone tells the truth, and then because the truth isn’t diplomatic, they have to say the y weren’t authorized to speak,” Goldberg said. “The level of frustration [in the White House] is incredibly high, possibly higher than ever, from the Washington side, and people are boiling over.' ”

 

The Atlantic  The Obama administration's anger is "red-hot" over Israel's settlement policies, and the Netanyahu government openly expresses contempt for Obama's understanding of the Middle East. Profound changes in the relationship may be coming.

 

 

... "The fault for this breakdown in relations can be assigned in good part to the junior partner in the relationship, Netanyahu, and in particular, to the behavior of his cabinet. Netanyahu has told several people I’ve spoken to in recent days that he has “written off” the Obama administration, and plans to speak directly to Congress and to the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached. For their part, Obama administration officials express, in the words of one official, a “red-hot anger” at Netanyahu for pursuing settlement policies on the West Bank, and building policies in Jerusalem, that they believe have fatally undermined Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process."...

However...
Mideast Chickens Coming Home to Roost   "The Obama administration is incapable of imagining that it might be wrong."

... "What is striking is that the reality is not just generally the opposite, but almost precisely the opposite. In each of the matters for which they fault Netanyahu, it is the Obama administration, not Netanyahu, that has been unreasonable. Only months into his presidency, Obama demanded that Israel cease building settlements, foreshadowing his absurd determination to withdraw Israel to its pre-1967 borders. Despite three decades of saber-rattling from Iran’s mullahs and obfuscation about its nuclear program from government authorities, the Obama administration has put limitless faith in Iran’s noble intentions. And, of course, it is laughable for this White House to scorn someone else for prizing political self-interest." ...
...
"It is not simply that Obama created the crisis in U.S.-Israel relations. It is that neither he nor his representatives are capable of taking stock and realizing it. That is a much deeper problem than diplomatic infelicities."
 

Double-Check Your Final Ballot When You Vote!

NRO   "Stories like this are just pouring gasoline on a fire:

The [Maryland Republican] party said Tuesday that it has received complaints from about 50 voters in 12 Maryland counties who say machines at early voting centers “flipped” their Republican votes to count toward Democratic candidates.
Marsha Epstein of Pikesville said she ran into the problem when she went to vote at the Reisterstown Senior Center’s Hannah More campus. She said she tried to vote for Republican Larry Hogan for governor but the machine recorded a vote for Democrat Anthony G. Brown.

 Full article

Democrat Voter Fraud? That’s Unpossible!

American Glob
"Remember back in 2008 when The Simpsons implied that voter fraud favored Republicans?"

 

"Good times.
"In real life however, it’s Democrats who benefit from voter fraud.
"Michael Warren of The Weekly Standard…

Video: Votes for Republicans Switched to Democrats in Illinois
Two Illinois voters say their attempts to vote early for Republicans on an electronic voting machine were registered as votes for Democrats—and they say have the video evidence to prove it.
The voters are 18- and 19-year-old Moline residents who asked to remain anonymous. They say they went to their polling station on Monday, October 28, at the Moline Public Library. Both say they were aware of recent news stories that other early voters in their area had experienced difficulties voting on electronic machines. The complaints have been widespread.
The Republican House candidate for the area, Bobby Schilling, claims 20 supporters have called his campaign to say that their attempts to vote for him were switched to his opponent, Democratic congresswoman Cheri Bustos.

Living proof:

 

"Read more from Jim Geraghty at National Review.
"If Republicans win next Tuesday, it will be in spite of rampant corruption on the part of Democrats.
"Here’s hoping."