Comedy’s Long, Slow March

A good joke comes as a revelation, exposing a truth that is suppressed by social convention or just missed out of negligence. The laugh is a convulsion of surprised delight when a well-timed reveal springs that truth on us like a jack-in-the-box. The degree to which that revelation is unexpected, meaningful and shows itself underappreciated–hiding in plain sight–is the degree to which the joke works. The joy for us is in our momentary liberation from stifling convention or obscuring ignorance.

The stand up comedian, if he’s doing it right, is a chauvinist for his in-group of one–himself. His personal bias which, as the Left insists (and has willed into social reality) cannot exclude race, gender, ethnicity and on, is his basic tool, his soldier’s rifle. In the friction between this supremacist of the self and all else–his intolerance–is the comedy and, theoretically at least, the truth. Tolerance has no place in his routine. Tolerance is the death of comedy.

The stand-up is paid to notice things. Presumably he’s granted an exception to offend. But this right is meaningless if it isn’t the right to offend the prevailing order, whether it be political, social or cultural.
I can’t imagine the concept of a counterculture arising at all without comedy’s tendency to become sanctioned transgression, filling the vacuum created where expression is repressed.

Needless to say, things have changed. Mainstream comedy–the only kind that will be available to you if the Left achieves its wildest fantasies and clamps down on the Internet–has become the open defender of the prevailing order, which it sees as just. At the same time, it hacks away at the old legacy orders, sexual morality, modesty, patriotism, et cetera as if they weren’t in steep decline. It’s as if the old formidable warlord is now the cultural left’s captive, and they bring him out nightly, dress him up to look fierce, hand him a clay sword, and present him to their gullible children as the monster who rules over them.

In its absent-mindedness the counterculture offered alternatives to the conventional order that, depending on their political usefulness to power, coalesced to become today’s conventional–if chaotic–order of competing identities and outrages.

Mainstream comedy lumbers on a pack of zombies, bled of their lifeblood, bias, animated only by our cynical materialism, greed and anomie. The money is in pushing the establishment line, and broadcast and cable television retain the technical and professional prowess, so the zombies keep coming, just like in the movies. So too comedic films and television have a hollow and joyless feel no matter how well made they are, lacking as they do the two essential elements: relevance and truth. A thousand perfectly structured jokes taking as their basis, say, the persistence of white racism, are just a handful of beads without a string passing as a necklace.

It would been the worst thing to say of comedy before that it was harmless, that it threatened no convention or power, that no one would be offended by it. Now the professional comedian, hemmed in by pc restrictions that somehow rob him of both the objectivity with which he might juxtapose and expose the absurdity of the “white racism” myth and the subjectivity, or bias, that, as intersecionality demonstrates, is inherently problematic.

Noticing is essential to comedy. Noticing is also the essence of intolerance.

Portland’s Weekend

 

Joey Gibson’s “Trump Free Speech Rally Portland” was permitted for Terry Schrunk Plaza directly across from Portland’s City Hall. To its north is Chapman Square, where the hardcore masked and black-clad antifa were massing as if for an assault. Here police clear them out with flash bangs. That’s the bronze statue The Promised Land, commemorating the Oregon Trail, draped in red flags. Chapman Square was originally intended as a women’s only park–a safe space.

All week the city had been preparing in tandem with national and international media by framing this all in light of the commuter train stabbing of two good Samaritans by a local lunatic who had turned up at an earlier pro Trump rally draped in a flag and flashing Nazi salutes. He appears to be more crazy than political–and more left than right politically.
Myself I don’t understand the logic of the argument, such as it is, that says the existence of a fatal extremist on my side somehow negates all my concerns and objective analysis. But the city indulged itself, at least in the media, and people seem genuinely unable to see the obscenity of political manipulation in all the competing outrage.

Before Chapman Square was cleared, demonstrators had been taunting each other across Madison St for hours. Before this police warned of slingshots in Chapman Park–but the fruit landed here is the only projectile I saw thrown. Looked like a kiwi:

  

There was speculation within the Trump camp that antifa would attack individuals and small groups as they left. Here Trump supporters cheer as antifa are driven out by police.

 

Schrunk Plaza was boxed in on three sides by counter-demonstrations. To the east, in front of the federal building, massed labor activists. This is the view from there:

 

Here I arrive and toward the end stroll through Chapman Park, camp of the antifa, about two hours before scheduled start of the Trump event. Antifa can be heard rallying for action:

Clashes between rivals after the event were rare. There were a few confrontations as demonstrators on both sides hung about after the end of the rally. Here a woman is pepper-sprayed:

 

Black BLM protesters arrive late (of course) and block a street briefly. You can see me getting harassed by a dindu of the political variety and his masked antifa whitefriend. Luckily for me they weren’t nuffin (trying to figure out how to retrieve the sound).

 

Searching for Hillary

Something propelled Hillary Clinton along all this time, something that doesn’t translate on television and isn’t documented in history, something more than cunning and Bill Clinton, some genuine ability. Other pols and media hacks have often claimed to come away impressed with her intelligence.
It could be that the Real Hillary is wise and farsighted, and this shows through. I suspect it’s really because Hillary’s real knack is for backroom politics despite being an awful candidate for all the technical reasons: voice, appearance, vibe. I imagine Hillary Clinton is really good in the room (as I like to think of it), that is in small groups formulating strategy. This impression is likely magnified in the minds of her peers and toadies, dutifully as feminists, genuinely as fellow political hacks, hopefully as opportunists: “yes, she’s brilliant!”

This is the impression I had watching her corner Trump on the tax return issue in the first debate:

CLINTON: Third, we don’t know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn’t want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody’s ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax.
TRUMP: That makes me smart.
CLINTON: So if he’s paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. And I think probably he’s not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are, because it must be something really important, even terrible, that he’s trying to hide. And the financial disclosure statements, they don’t give you the tax rate. They don’t give you all the details that tax returns would. And it just seems to me that this is something that the American people deserve to see. And I have no reason to believe that he’s ever going to release his tax returns, because there’s something he’s hiding.

Watching this I was impressed at how Hillary seemed to relax into this line of attack, growing perceptibly less stiff, less shrill, relishing the play and enjoying the game. This is Hillary Clinton, I thought. Hillary revisited this mode in her bizarre defeat lap the other day (repeating a genuinely fake news item):

“Who is behind driving up Trump’s Twitter followers by the millions?” she said. “We know they’re bots. Why? I assume there’s a reason for everything. Is it to make him look more popular than he is? Is it to try to influence others on Twitter about what the messaging is?”

But she can’t be that good. As an anti-feminist, I delight in the thought that Hillary’s campaign failed in large part because she led it, and the errors in judgement she made were female errors–most comically, the promotion of Alicia Machado, an outrage only women of a certain age and diminishing number seemed able to feel. Add the sexually ambiguous sidekick with the caddish husband and–well, Hollywood’s Soviet-caliber ideological discipline is unfortunate. What a great story to write, cast, shoot. That they leave it on the table shows you it’s not all money–and it’s not even all fame. Maybe it’s not even all power. But not for Hillary.

Of course if I’m right about her in the room skills, I suspect the real tragedy of Hillary is that she leveraged that relatively modest level of political skill and, more importantly, understanding, through cunning, the brand her husband created and her elite coterie into just-missing capturing the White House. And here I fear we see not the convulsions of a corpse but the slasher film monster rising from the flames, plodding toward us, armed with its inextinguishable will-to-power:

“I take responsibility for every decision I made but that’s not why I lost. I think it’s important we learn the real lessons of this campaign. So I think it’s important we learn the real lessons of this campaign. The forces we are up against are not just interested in influencing our elections and our politics, they are going after our economy, and they are going after our unity as a nation, so, yes, back in 98…I have been watching this and I have been the target for a number of years…

But even in the field of crazy videos, Hillary is bested yet again by a flamboyant, charismatic guy:

Luke Ford speaks with Greg Johnson

Luke Ford interviews Greg Johnson of Counter Currents on his new book, In Defense of Prejudice.

Johnson talks about his journey to white Zionism, white etho-masochism, why the Jewish Question can’t be ignored and other things.

Mr Johnson notes how the same peculiarly European universalist assumptions rationalizing colonial oppression in the past rationalize our oppression in the present.

Indeed, now in condemnation of its past form and deeds, spouting Enlightenment phrases it has hollowed out, Hydra-like in name, Diversity, Multiculturalism, Vibrancy, but–just as in its colonial past, with commerce the driving force, good old aggregated individual human greed and gluttony, as always–this dark undercurrent of Western history turns inward, nowhere left to go, nothing left to level.

But what was the mechanism by which this assumption of human commonality beneath a surface veneer of socialization lead first to our conquest and now to our surrender?
Through failure. When peaceful attempts at civilizing others failed genocide followed and now we condemn ourselves for the genocide, and we tell ourselves it isn’t because we failed to see how different peoples are, but because we failed to see how they are all the same. We didn’t believe hard enough in human equality, but we’ll rectify that.

But this doesn’t arise of itself. This has to attach itself to something. Ideology is the rationalization mechanism by which commerce and power effect their will (maybe it always is). The problem is our rationalization mechanism–Multiculturalism, Globalism–unlike, ironically, most religious systems, is inflexible and unalterable.
The faith in human equality it demands of us rivals Islam in its severity and finality–like Islam, Progressivism claims itself the rightful end of history. Into this crude mechanism (I imagine it steampunk-like in appearance, without any of the charm) we put humans of different types–barely more flexible and alterable than the mechanism which, just to add to the confusion, is the very assumption they are infinitely flexible. We’re corralled into a closed system of understanding by an elite and the global ethnic lynch mob they employ.

Straight From the Horse’s Server

Sometimes the content of a leaked document is so on the nose in confirming your assumptions you have to wonder if it isn’t a hoax. Which was the first reaction I had reading this document from Wikileaks’ Hillary Clinton email archive, before I realized the archive was obtained directly from the State Department via FOIA request. Still, it’s posted without

Iran’s nuclear program and Syria’s civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. For Israeli leaders, the real threat from a nuclear-armed Iran is not the prospect of an insane Iranian leader launching an unprovoked Iranian nuclear attack on Israel that would lead to the annihilation of both countries. What Israeli military leaders really worry about — but cannot talk about — is losing their nuclear monopoly. 

An Iranian nuclear weapons capability would not only end that nuclear monopoly but could also prompt other adversaries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to go nuclear as well. The result would be a precarious nuclear balance in which Israel could not respond to provocations with conventional military strikes on Syria and Lebanon, as it can today. If Iran were to reach the threshold of a nuclear weapons state, Tehran would find it much easier to call on its allies in Syria and Hezbollah to strike Israel, knowing that its nuclear weapons would serve as a deterrent to Israel responding against Iran itself. 

Back to Syria. It is the strategic relationship between Iran and the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria that makes it possible for Iran to undermine Israel’s security — not through a direct attack, which in the thirty years of hostility between Iran and Israel has never occurred, but through its proxies in Lebanon, like Hezbollah, that are sustained, armed and trained by Iran via Syria. 

The end of the Assad regime would end this dangerous alliance. Israel’s leadership understands well why defeating Assad is now in its interests…

Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel’s security, it would also ease Israel’s understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly. Then, Israel and the United States might be able to develop a common view of when the Iranian program is so dangerous that military action could be warranted. Right now, it is the combination of Iran’s strategic alliance with Syria and the steady progress in Iran’s nuclear enrichment program that has led Israeli leaders to contemplate a surprise attack — if necessary over the objections of Washington. With Assad gone, and Iran no longer able to threaten Israel through its, proxies, it is possible that the United States and Israel can agree on red lines for when Iran’s program has crossed an unacceptable threshold. In short, the White House can ease the tension that has developed with Israel over Iran by doing the right thing in Syria. [emphasis added]

That Israel and “tension” in the relationship drive policy and override our own national interest is a given. The prospect of refusing Israel outright is unthinkable. On our side it’s all about negotiating a better deal in our share of improving Israel’s position, as determined by Israel. In the case of Iran and Syria, that position is Israel’s nuclear “monopoly”–why Pakistan doesn’t count I don’t know.

And we negotiate poorly, to say the least. Here we are on the verge of intervening directly in Syria after having provoked its civil war as part of the broader neocon project (“seven countries in five years)–Hillary’s own contribution being the Libyan disaster, which is cited approvingly in this email from 2012–ultimately just to dissuade Israel from going off too soon on Iran, and setting off a broader war in the region, attacks on US troops and terrorist attacks in the US and Europe. The irony is that it’s Israel’s aggressive tendencies that threaten US interests and lives.

Anarcho-resistance

Local free weekly Willamette Week reports on ICE coming after criminal “dreamers” in Portland:

The largest reported deportation sweep in the U.S. under President Donald Trump of previously sanctioned immigrants known as “Dreamers” took place last weekend in the Portland area. In the last week, federal immigration agents arrested three people who had been given limited amnesty under President Barack Obama, according to multiple sources. 

The three people had at one time all registered with the U.S. government under an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to legally remain here. 

One, Luis Gerado Zazueta, had not renewed his DACA paperwork, says his immigration attorney, Maria Zlateva. Another, Emmanuel Ayala, had gone in for fingerprinting to renew his DACA three days before his arrest, as first reported by local Spanish-language talk show Cita Con Nelly. 

The arrests of the Dreamers added to a growing sense that the White House is targeting so-called “sanctuary cities” like Portland for crackdowns on undocumented immigrants. Two of the DACA arrests came Sunday morning, a day before U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared his Justice Department would no longer award millions of dollars in grants to sanctuary cities that decline to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

I’ve never seen it mentioned but doubt it escaped Latino activists that daca means “hand it over” in Spanish. One of the dreamers detained because of a drunk driving conviction is a local activist with Latino Network, a city of Portland program to train Latino activists, indoctrinate city employees in Theory and steer city contracts. From the city’s website:

Latino Network’s (LN) mission is to provide transformative opportunities, services and advocacy for the education, leadership and civic engagement of our youth, families and communities. LN’s Diverse Civic Leaders Academy works with young emerging Latino leaders to build leadership skills, organizing capabilities, and develop capacity. Trainings focus on the systems of oppression; gender justice; leadership skill building; conflict resolution;economic, environmental and social sustainability; civic engagement; and community organizing techniques such as volunteer recruitment, base-building, meeting planning, turn-out and facilitation. Workshop trainers from government, the non-profit, and private sector provide expertise and give participants the opportunity to learn first-hand from those with real-world leadership experience.

Additionally, participants work with the Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO) and their PILOT immigrant and refugee participant group on a series of co-trainings to build a cross-cultural coalition. Puentes, or Bridges in Spanish, is an organizing project where we build capacity and develop leadership opportunities for low-income Latinos to be leaders who advocate for the health, well-being, safety, and quality of life of their community. Trainings are on civic engagement, capacity building, leadership development, and involvement in local government, such as testifying to City Council and participating in city and county commissions and boards. Additionally we hold Living Room Dialogues whereby communities work together to dissolve stereotypes, gain deeper understandings and increased collaboration. Dialogues take place between Latinos and members of the police force and between Latino immigrants and the Anglo community. Discussions took place with government officials on the ways to meet the community’s employment and contracting goal. This resulted in government agencies requiring interested prime contractors to attend a mandatory prebid meeting in the Cully neighborhood, the first time a mandatory prebid meeting has been held to support local hiring and minority business contracting.

Room for one more just opened up at the Diverse Civic Leaders Academy, at least. The activist’s arrest moved the already worked-up ACLU and others to louder protests, but at this point their histrionics–it’s amazing what happens with a little change in policy–can only fortify the deterrent effect of real enforcement:

Romeo Sosa, director of the Portland Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project, which runs the day labor center on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., says the increase in reported ICE activity in public places spreads fear and encourages self-deportation. “It’s an intimidation tactic,” he says. By making its agents visible on the streets, ICE hopes “people will be afraid, and they’ll pack their stuff and leave the country.” Some, Sosa adds, have already done so.

Of the three arrested the activist has a drunk driving conviction, one has a minor weapons charge (brandishing a knife it appears) and one has a marijuana possession charge. It appears about a quarter of those arrested nationwide have no particular conviction cited by ICE. Recall President Trump seemed to soften on “dreamers” early on.

The Weekly:

ICE now labels Multnomah and Washington counties as “non-cooperative jurisdictions” and intends to publish a weekly report of how many immigrants wanted by the agency were not handed over by county jailers as a result of sanctuary policies approved by state and local elected officials. 

The first such report, released March 20, was a mess of jumbled statistics and drew swift criticism from local officials in counties labeled “non-cooperative.” The ICE report named Washington County as one of the “highest volume” sanctuary jurisdictions, as it received seven ICE “detainer” orders demanding the transfer of immigrants in local custody during the week of Jan. 28 through Feb. 3. 

This seemed to imply the county protected seven foreign criminals from deportation that week—even though not all of those individuals had been convicted of a crime, nor had their immigration cases been adjudicated. The report also noted that because local law enforcement does not typically inform ICE when denying a detainer, the numbers essentially represented guesswork by ICE personnel. [emphasis added]

Well then, no shit, as they say, it’s guesswork. It’s also notable that before Trump the feds had simply given up issuing detainers to uncooperative jurisdictions in an environment of non-enforcement, making it a mystery just how many criminal aliens have been released by preening local authorities much less their impact. And it’s beyond me what the point is in the following paragraph:

Two immigrants held in the Multnomah County Jail on charges of assault and amphetamine possession were listed in the report—although their alleged crimes were not necessarily any more serious than those of the approximately 1,200 other inmates in county custody on any given day.

And the city wants to help those mere muggers and meth heads:

City officials have taken actions, from creating a training program for city employees to providing $50,000 toward the legal defense of immigrants’ cases. 

But that isn’t enough for the sort of activists the city is employing at the Diverse Civic Leaders Academy:

But advocates argue the city could go further—by making fewer arrests for low-level offenses, for instance.

Law and order will have to be suspended until this law and order craze blows over.