Criminal law, Politics

It is Not “Karma,” It is a Crime: The Curious Silence Over Political Violence in New York

Yesterday, there was a curious aspect to the coverage of the video of a woman attacking a young man for wearing a MAGA hat. Ignored by many mainstream outlets, conservative news sites described the woman as a “Karen” who got “karma.” The video below was viewed as a funny payback as the woman fell while chasing the man from the New York subway car. However, the incident is not karma but a crime. This is political violence perpetrated on the New York subway, and yet no one in New York seems to be calling for the arrest of this person.

If you watch the video, the woman starts by harassing the young man in the subway car. She is shown yelling, “If you f—-ing voted for Trump, you’re a racist!… He’s a racist!”

One can dismiss the verbal attacks as an exercise of free speech. However, she then grabs and comes into contact with the young man (around the 45 second mark) as she chases him from the car:

I get the sense of karma as the woman does a face plant on the subway platform while trying to continue her attack on the fleeing individual.

However, this should be neither funny nor acceptable. It is political violence and the woman appears to believe that she has a license in New York City to assault anyone wearing a MAGA hat.

This is where what I call “rage rhetoric” turns into political violence. As I wrote in my book, “The indispensable Right,” that is the curious aspect of rage:

“What few today want to admit is that they like it. They like the freedom that it affords, the ability to hate and harass without a sense of responsibility. It is evident all around us as people engage in language and conduct that they repudiate in others. We have become a nation of rage addicts; flailing against anyone or anything that stands in opposition to our own truths.

Like all addictions, there is not only a dependency on rage but an intolerance for opposing views. The difference between rage and reason is often one’s own views. If one agrees with underlying grievance, rage is viewed as passion or justified fury at injustice. If one disagrees with those views, it takes on a more threatening and unhinged quality. We seem to spend much of our time today raging at each other. Despite the amplification of views on both sides, there is also an increasing intolerance for opposing views. Those views are treated as simply harmful and offensive—and, therefore, intolerable. Indeed, to voice free speech principles in a time of rage is to invite the rage of the mob.”

There should be zero tolerance for political violence like this on New York subways. Answer me this: if this was a man chasing and assaulting a woman from a subway car for wearing a Harris-Walz hat, would there be the same relative silence in terms of an investigation and criminal charges?

When this person moved from verbal assaults to actual physical assaults, it became a crime, not karma.

The problem is that New York only has an assault law, not a battery law. You can pursue battery as a civil tort in New York, but few Trump supporters would have faith in receiving a fair hearing before a New York jury on such a case.

The New York assault law allows for third degrees of assault charges. However, even the lowest charge of assault in the third degree requires that the individual intentionally or recklessly causes physical injury to another person.

§ 120.00 Assault in the third degree.

A person is guilty of assault in the third degree when:
1. With intent to cause physical injury to another person, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person; or
2. He recklessly causes physical injury to another person; or
3. With criminal negligence, he causes physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument.
Assault in the third degree is a class A misdemeanor.

This could be established by the fact that she appears to grab and possibly strike the victim. However, the law is vague and prosecutors could claim that the touching was insufficient to bring a viable case.

There is also criminal harassment under Penal § 240.26:

§ 240.26 Harassment in the second degree.

A person is guilty of harassment in the second degree when, with intent to harass, annoy or alarm another person:
1. He or she strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects such other person to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same; or
2. He or she follows a person in or about a public place or places; or
3. He or she engages in a course of conduct or repeatedly commits acts which alarm or seriously annoy such other person and which serve no legitimate purpose.
…
Harassment in the second degree is a violation.

I have always had qualms about some of this language in terms of vagueness and free speech, particularly subsection 3. However, subsection 1 clearly applies to physical assaults for the purpose of harassment.

The point is that police have the ability to charge this type of political violence. Yet, there is nothing but crickets from Democratic New York politicians and prosecutors. A video shows a citizen being struck and chased from the subway for wearing a MAGA hat and it is either ignored or treated as another humorous event on the New York subway system.

When did political violence become just a cost of riding the subway for conservatives or libertarians? The lack of outrage shows how this age of rage has dulled our senses to such extreme conduct. This is about conduct not speech. When this person went from raving to assault, she crossed over into the criminal code. The problem is that such protections are only meaningful if New York prosecutors and police are prepared to enforce them.

I hope that the NYPD will take this seriously and announce a search for this culprit. Otherwise, the enforcement of the criminal code becomes little more than a matter of fleeting karma.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

400 thoughts on “It is Not “Karma,” It is a Crime: The Curious Silence Over Political Violence in New York”

  1. Jonathan: Must be a slow news day at the NY Post, noted as a salacious tabloid by most New Yorkers, when it publishes an article about a woman trying to grab a MAGA hat from another subway passenger. What is funnier is is that you decided to write a whole column abut the incident–probably as a teaching tool for your law students about the law of “assault” in NY. But for the rest of us we would prefer a discussion of more serios issues and consequential issues–like DJT’s continuing “assault” on our democratic freedoms.

    Yesterday I posted a comment (“Turley to testify” @ 10:54pm) about the real threat we face–the censorship by the DJT regime. A subject you have studiously avoided. Today we have another example of how DJT is using EOs to target and threaten law firms with sanctions.

    So yesterday DJT issue another EO, this time targeting the law firm of Jenner & Block. Why that firm? It’s because Andrew Weissman, a vocal critic of the DJT regime, once worked at J&B. Weissman left the firm in 2021 and now is a legal analyst with MSNBC. Doesn’t matter that Weisman no longer works for J&B. DJT says Weissman is a “bad guy” and “the main culprit with respect to this firm”. In the EO DJT says big law firms “take actions that threaten public safety and national security, limit constitutional freedoms, denigrate the quality of American elections, or undermine bed rock American principles”. Translation: A petty and vindictive “convicted felon” is seeking retribution against law firms and lawyers who try to hold him accountable for his crimes.

    And it’s ironic that DJT would claim J&B and Weissman are a threat to “national security” when his own national security team was using Signal chat to talk about war plans against Yemen. The principals in that chat chain violated every top secret national security protocol.

    DJT’s latest EO is an attempt to threaten and bully another law firm whose clients and lawyers DJT doesn’t like. It’s also about extortion. That tactic worked with the law form of Paul Weiss. They caved and are giving DJT $40 million. DJT thinks the same extortion racket will work with J&B this time. Let’s hope J&B stands up to DJT’s threats like Perkins and Coie.

    1. Must be a slow day for you too. In fact, every day must be too slow for you, -like clockwork, here to spend hours filling up space with your latest topics of interest that no one bothers to read past your first sentence or so.

    2. You truly need some intense TDS detox treatments, it appears that your brain is dissolving quicker than most TDS sufferers, seek help immediately to see if there is any grey matter worth saving.

    3. Dennis says: It’s because Andrew Weissman, a vocal critic of the DJT regime

      Dennis, you forgot to mention that Weissman is an unindicted felon who committed multiple felonies AND was referred for prosecution. Also, Jonathan’s fellow Democrat lawyer and member of the Washington DC Bar Association – and yes, an unindicted felon, just like The Oval Office House Plant on work-release probation that he worked for.

      Yes, the same Andrew Weissman who perjured himself alongside his last boss, Robert Mueller, as they stood in Judge Boasberg’s FISA courtroom, lying that Obama’s illegal “Trump-Russia Dossier” was 100% verified intelligence agency product. All in order to get illegal spy warrants in order to strip THOUSANDS of Americans of their civil rights.

      Boasberg predictably first allowed Obama and Biden to send their DoJ and FBI capos to the FISA courtrooms that he controlled and turn them into Democrat perjury factories.

      And then when Boasberg could not conceal the serial felonies he had allowed Weissman, Mueller, Lynch, Comey, Yates, McCabe et al to commit in front of him, he merely declared the spy warrants he issued to be illegal. NOT the felonies! And he didn’t drag Weissman or any of the others back into his courtroom to send them to jail for their repeated felonies. Dennis: Weissberg got one of those Hunter Biden special amnesties!

      So here you are Dennis, once again defending unindicted Democrat felons… and still believing there’s time left to put up posts like this, in hopes of winning the 2024 election!

      Dennis… is it a sexual thing with you posting here? You come off as the avatar of what a bull dike thinks the perfect son would be like!

    5. Weisman is a “bad guy” and has a long reputation for abusing federal power.

      Weis did not give Trump $40M. They committed to balanced partisanship in their pro-bono work.
      A commitment that is not worth the paper it is written on.

      But they KNOW they are under scrutiny and can lose their security clearances.

      Biden yanked security clearances all over. These lawfirms are among those who abused their clearances to advance garbage claims.
      They are among the lawfirms that targeted Republican lawyers for defending Trump or other conservatives.

      A security clearance is not a right. The Weis firm caved – because fighting this is oing to cost a great deal of money and they are going to lose.

      This is not censorship. It is consequences for abuse of government power – that power is being taken away.

    6. Dennis rhese EO’s are not about lawfirms that Trump dislikes.

      It is about Lawfirms that missued government power that they held as a priviledge and therefore are no loosing that priviledge.

      Some of these firms may fight this.
      But they will lose. Security clearances are a pure executive power, and really pretty much not reviewable by the courts.

      I am Troubled by Trump’s use of them – but Biden started this , and these lawfirms abused the federal power conveyed to them through this.

      I do however think it is reasonable for a president to say that if you want a security clearance from the government. you will NOT get involved in partisan action. MOst of The conduct of those in Perkin’s Coi was legal. But it was not moral or ethical. Law firms that do not meet high moral and ethical standards should not have security clearances.
      There are plenty of lawfirms int he country.

      You can participate in the political weaponization of the law – but not if you wish to have the priviledge of the use of Govnrment power through security clearances.

      1. “Law firms that do not meet high moral and ethical standards should not have security clearances.”
        What did they do that was immoral or unethical?

        Their job is to represen their clients and having a security clearance allows them to defend their clients or review evidence required to properly defend a client. So what does morality and ethics have to do with a security clearance?

        It’s not about privilege, It’s about the right to a fair trial and you can’t have that when the government has an advantage when they claim their evidence is classified. It’s a serious constitutional issue.

    7. Dennis, you do understand that the left has used government power to bully their political enemies so much – that no one cares ?

      Trumps approval remains above 50% – I beleive it is 52 today. it has only varied a few points since the election. The rendline is steady.

      Those of you on the left have not dented Trump’s support.

      The right/wrong track numbers have not been this good since Reagan.

      Several Left leaning polls are reporting Trump numbers that are better than any president has seen in decades.
      Conversely democrat approval is very near its floor. It may not be able to go lower.

      Further the Democratic left despite its failure maintains control of the party. Democrats can probably 100% count on 15-20% of the country – so long as they continue to be far left. But they are having a great deal of trouble getting the support of the other half of the democratic party and even more difficulty getting half of independents.

  2. Imagine EXACTLY the same behavior with a white woman trying to get a black guy’s HARRIS hat.

    Then it will be a crime.

    NYT, WSJ, WAPO, CNN, NBC, etc screaming MAGA racism, etc etc for a couple weeks.

    Calls for life imprisonment maybe.

    You know that is what would happen.

    But burn down a couple cities by the oppressed folks and ‘just mostly peaceful protests’ in their view. No big deal.

    No wonder the country has had its fill of ‘The Establishment’, including the judges.

  3. Apparently Elmo has been secretly selling stakes in Spacex to China, and actively taking steps to conceal the investments by routing the transactions through third parties in the Caymans and the Britisfh Virgin Islands.

    Elon Musk’s aerospace giant SpaceX allows investors from China to buy stakes in the company as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore secrecy hubs, according to previously unreported court records.

    The rare picture of SpaceX’s approach recently emerged in an under-the-radar corporate dispute in Delaware. Both SpaceX’s chief financial officer and Iqbaljit Kahlon, a major investor, were forced to testify in the case.

    In December, Kahlon testified that SpaceX prefers to avoid investors from China because it is a defense contractor. There is a major exception though, he said: SpaceX finds it “acceptable” for Chinese investors to buy into the company through offshore vehicles.

    “The primary mechanism is that those investors would come through intermediate entities that they would create or others would create,” Kahlon said. “Typically they would set up BVI structures or Cayman structures or Hong Kong structures and various other ones,” he added, using the acronym for the British Virgin Islands. Offshore vehicles are often used to keep investors anonymous.

    Experts called SpaceX’s approach unusual, saying they were troubled by the possibility that a defense contractor would take active steps to conceal foreign ownership interests.

    Kahlon, who has long been close to the company’s leadership, has said he owns billions of dollars of SpaceX stock. His investment firm also acts as a middleman, raising money from investors to buy highly sought SpaceX shares. He has routed money from China through the Caribbean to buy stakes in SpaceX multiple times, according to the court filings.

    The legal dispute centers on an aborted 2021 deal, when SpaceX executives grew angry after news broke that a Chinese firm was going to buy $50 million of the company’s stock. SpaceX then had the purchase canceled. In separate testimony, the rocket company’s CFO explained that the media coverage was “not helpful for our company as a government contractor.” SpaceX’s business is built on those contracts, with the U.S. government paying the company billions to handle sensitive work like building a classified spy satellite network.

    Company executives were concerned that coverage of the deal could lead to problems with national security regulators in the U.S., according to Kahlon’s testimony and a filing from his attorneys.

    Really ?????

    Elmo knew this would be a big problem for national security !!!!

    He went ahead and did it anyway.

  5. Well, it’s not just assaults on subways, Professor. The hostility is becoming like a fog that envelopes everything.

    Almost all of my relatives are over-educated liberals. My relatives were merely scolding me about Trump when the Democrats were running D.C. and engaging in:
    (1) using lies about “stopping the spread” to justify destroying their critics
    (2) using lies about the origin of the virus to hide gross malfeasance by health officials
    (3) telling parents to f*** off while liberals redefined child sexuality
    (4) flooding the country with immigrants to cancel out future conservative votes
    (5) publicly trolling conservative leaders in Congress by an intemperate, liberal general
    (6) framing conservative leaders to jail them, bankrupt them, and manipulate elections
    (7) using offices of the federal government to stonewall questions about shameless liberal corruption
    (8) using offices of the federal government to stonewall questions about obvious liberal dementia
    (9) suborning federal institutions to launder taxpayer money into liberal vanity projects
    (10) bumbling the world into wars due to a curious combination sanctimony and fecklessness.

    Now that Trump has won, the above notwithstanding, my liberal kin have decided that I–and I alone–have destroyed democracy. The scolding is getting worse and more constant but only if they communicate at all. Most have stopped talking to me completely. Understand that I rarely responded to the scolding because I knew they would shun me if I spoke up. I rarely provoked their outrage.

    I love my relatives, but I have had enough. Thanksgiving will be lonely but better lonely than bullied by juvenile hypocrisy.

    1. Diogenes – thanks for this. Not just the list, but the testimony. It’s good to know one is not alone. I too come from a family of overeducated liberals, including Ivy League faculty members. I only have one conservative relative, an uncle, and I’ve learned more from him than the rest combined. It helps that he is actually the most intelligent relative I have – by far. He used to be a law school professor, but then he became a federal appellate judge (one of the good ones). Discussing legal topics with him was a legal education all by itself.

    2. Diogenes-The increase of some solitude time can be very beneficial. Families, well they can be trying even in the best of times. Having been a physician over 46 I have heard and witnessed some of the most awful things that people have done to their own families. Communicate with those who can be civil and reasonable. Tell the rest to pound sand until they can learn some perspective.
      I love most of my family but some I would not allow in my house and there are others that I would call out the sheriff to have them removed.

      1. I totally get it, GEB. Families are the best of friends and the worst of friends 🙂

  6. Yes. TDS is a real mental illness as we all have known for quite some time. And now, we have yet another example, on video, of how serious the ‘D’ in TDS is. The real problem is those afflicted with TDS actually believe, as this woman has displayed, that her actions are some how justified. And Democrats and MSM continue to not call out this violence, will only embolden those with TDS to act out even more violently. Of course if the man in the video were to react in self-defense, Democrats and MSM would be screaming about it for days. Democrats and MSM in their silence are complicit in ratcheting up this age of rage.

  7. Yes, it’s a crime. And yes, it’s business as usual in New York City.
    If you can stand around and watch as a young woman is immolated, you’ve lost your soul.
    God bless you, Daniel Penny.

  8. Having dealt with several people who were either alcoholics and/or drug addicts, there will be no solution to the progressive ideology that is killing this nation until each one of these brainwashed fools admits that they are clinging to an ideology that is pathological and lethal and they admit that they want to end this relationship with delusion and escape from reality. Simple as that, these cultists are addicted to the utopian dream of a progressive ideal in much the same manner as an islamic jihadi clings to his vision of 100 virgins. Neither will materialize but the crazed desire to ignore reality and place complete faith in a dream will destroy many in their attempts. One of them used bombs and airplanes the other side had been using lawfare but now they are using fear and terrorism but neither will prevail against the natural, intelligent, human spirit that craves freedom and self-determination.

    1. There is a remarkable correspondence between the psychologies and methods of communism and jihadism.

      1. I see your point, Diogenes. I’m interested in your words saying there is a remarkable correspondence between the psychologies and methods of communism and jihadism. Could you explain a bit more what you mean by that? In what ways do you see that correspondence playing out?

        1. Allen, first of all, for both the ends justifies the means. Thus, these ideologies attract criminally-minded people who just want an excuse to act out.

          Second, one is a secular religion and the other is a religious ideology. Thus, both have absurd articles of faith to justify their actions.

          Third, both depend on acquiescence by fellow believers who are not themselves violent. The green light that makes it all possible is, “I wouldn’t do that myself, but I could understand why somebody else might.” Whether it’s Antifa or Hamas, too many decent people make indecent excuses for the misbehavior of others.

          Finally, both are futile. They introduce absurd ideas that damage other legitimate beliefs and concerns. It’s ok to be concerned about the poor, but murdering the Kulaks is not justifiable. It’s ok to believe in Allah, but using Allah to justify terrorism is taking God’s name in vain. Better people see through this and reject it.

          2. Diogenes,
            Well said. Yesterday I posted a link to a X video of attendees at a AOC/Sanders rally in Denver, CO. The one young lady the news outlet spoke to said she would not commit violence herself but would understand those who would against the Trump admin, illustrating your third point.

          3. Diogenes, good observations all around. The one point on which I would respectfully dissent is the concept that Allah is God’s name.

            Allah is a god, but not God. People become like the god they worship. I think we can all figure out who Allah is. We should not make the “Tashlan” error from CS Lewis’s The Last Battle.

            1. Kansas, I hope I don’t shock you too much, but I am Muslim. I’m actually a Quranist. Without going into specifics, my views are not as susceptible to jihadism as others. Not all Quranists will agree with me, but I feel Quranism gives me a certain freedom of outlook.
              That outlook explains my love of America’s constititionalism. Peace 🙂

              1. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised. But I’ve never heard of Quranism. I’m sure there’s a lot to it. Regardless, I do enjoy your contributions to this blog, which are invariably well reasoned.

              2. Diogenes- I have had multiple Muslim friends and colleagues over the years who would seem to exhibit your same approach. Most are extremely rational and pious, excellent colleagues and outstanding physicians. One of these colleagues just made a major find in diagnosing a 1 1/2 years problem a family member had been dealing with. He took charge, was focused and made the leap that was necessary to achieve a major change for the better. I was happily impressed.

                1. His tolerance and hard work are a credit to the faith. We need more like him.

              3. Kansas, I hope I don’t shock you too much, but I am Muslim.

                I am not surprised at anyone who has the courage to say they are Muslim these days – aside from the vicious hajjis we see in groups like Hamas and associated with those groups who are proud of their butchery and violence.

                I learned a lot about the people who follow Islam during deployments to Bosnia and Somalia in the early 1990s. One of the first things I learned (or perhaps more accurately realized) was that just like the other Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Judaism, Islam has different branches of it’s faith.

                To cut to the chase, I learned fairly early while surrounded by Muslim believers and Islam, that the violent Safalist/Wahaabist group of Islam is only a small percentage of that faith, with their obsession of the Caliphate and obsession to subjugate the world to their sect’s religious views.

                I still remain agnostic, but I believe that many Muslim channels of belief, like those in Christianity and Judaism, hold a lot of potential for personal betterment and a better world.

            2. Diogenes impressively and thoughtfully responded to my question. Then you dug into the essence of worship emphasizing that it lies more in one’s heart and actions than in the rituals of religion. This is true, yet it raises an important question: how do the beliefs we hold in the sacred texts, which are meant to guide us on our spiritual journey, fit into this understanding?

              The Torah accompanied by the Talmud is very much a book about morality and ethical living. What the other books say is something for others. Both one’s heart and the books are intertwined, for ritual maintains attention to what is said.

              1. To me, Allen, faith is complicated. That is why I try to remain humble before God, recognizing my limitations of interpretation. I appreciate your faithfulness. It is a pity that people of faith don’t always realize there is a common threat to the wisdom held by all faiths.

                1. To S. Meyer and Diogenes,
                  A fascinating conversation. Thank you for allowing us to witness it and have somethings to ponder on.

                2. You mention above, Quranism. I am minimally acquainted with the term but do not understand how it relates to certain phrases in the Quran. Obviously your writing on this blog indicates a person of faith who looks toward goodness. I have met others of your Islamic faith with good hearts but none ever discussed Quranism. I can only guess that it might be looked down on by others of the Islamic faith, so I never brought it up to those people.

                  Maybe you can tell us more. What prominent individual categorizes himself as a Quranist?

                  1. Wikipedia actually has a fair description: “Quranism is an Islamic movement that holds the belief that the Quran is the only valid source of religious belief, guidance, and law in Islam. Quranists believe that the Quran is clear, complete, and that it can be fully understood without recourse to the hadith and sunnah.”

                    Much of the statism in Islam comes from the hadith and sunnah. They tend to be more strict about other faiths than Quranism.

                    1. Diogenes, I could not find your response where you mentioned Wikipedia. I will respond here.

                      Diogenes, my understanding of Islam is limited, and even more limited of Quranism. I came across Quranism only because they hold tightly to monotheism, much like religious Jews, and consider certain traits similar to idolatry.
                      My knowledge of Islam centers around its belief in one God, the Torah, and at least some of the prophets, though interpretations might differ. It is known as a religion of peace, but that stands alongside Islamist aggression that is apparent to all, where the differentiation becomes difficult.

                      The Hamas Charter quotes the Quran and uses words from the Quran in their war against the Jews. Numerous passages in the Quran, like 2:191 and 3:85, exist, causing grave concern. There are many, but I only listed the numbers, not the text, so the discussion doesn’t go astray. If this part of the discussion is uncomfortable, I will immediately cease. I find you a most honorable and intelligent individual who might be able to help others better understand the Islamic religion and the tensions between nations.

                      I understand that a Quranist is peaceful and individualistic, so the interpretations of Quranic passages differ from a literal understanding, but you know where my concerns lie.

              2. . . . ritual maintains attention to what is said.

                Excellent point. I believe it’s both-and: rituals as well as the disposition of the heart, and one’s actions. I also believe one’s actions can meaningfully affect the disposition of the heart. If you don’t like someone, treating them the same way as if you liked them can cause affection to grow where there was none before. I’ve experienced that in my own relationships.

          4. I see. You were looking at their methodology and absolutism rather than their culture and history. Both are despicable and represent the worst of humanity. Both lead to death and destruction.

          5. Diog, I agree with what you say , but I wonder if we all missing something, some sort of common root. Imagine if you will, a root system, and in some places, the root pops up little purple flowers, and in other places, yellow flowers, and in other places, white flowers. None of the flowers looks the same, and some have 3 leaves on the stem, and some have four, and some have more petals than others. But, they are all poisonous, and you can not make a tea from any them.

            Focusing on the ways to identify the poisonous flowers is both useful and necessary, BUT it is the root system that is the basis of the problem. Because it where all the flowers come from. What is the root?

            1. Floyd, some might claim Zoroastrianism, but that would start a huge argument from every direction 😉

              1. No, I don’t think the kind of car you drive is the problem, but more of an underlying structure in our psyches. Take cognitive dissonance – it pops up everywhere from UFO cults, to religious quacks like the Millerites, to the Democrat partisans, to Republican partisans – about everywhere. Some people seem to have difficulty admitting that they are wrong, despite ample disconfirmation.

                Is the root of that, the same root that makes people express TDS, or blow themselves up in a market place – something in the human psyche that can not tolerate differences of opinion, and then combines that with an OCD-like control freakery?

                2. Floyed, in the extreme cases, mental illness is usually a factor. There’s at least one root.

                  1. Diogenes and Floyd:
                    In the crown area of my head (and temples) more white hairs are coming in (I am naturally blonde.) I don’t want to color my hair, but I have been tossing in a little temporary rinse-in, rinse-out (Fanciful brand, “Frivolous Fawn,” close to my natural color) to blend in those areas.
                    —but no flowers are coming out at all, no purple, yellow, or white….Does this mean that I am brain dead from poisonous roots? yours truly, lin.

                    1. (or maybe I can get away with just mental illness.) Hey guys, my level of knowledge does not go much farther than Descartes, Kierkegaard, Hegel, etc., so if you bring up Zoroastrianism, I’m just having fun getting enriched by your exchange!

    2. Actually they’ve admitted they want the USA burned down, destroyed. They don’t care if they suffer for it.

      I’m sorry for so many young lives being wasted with such ill will. They should be healthy and happy instead.

  9. There’s a reason that ditch pigs like that Bolshevik Bytch don’t try that crap in the vast majority of towns and cities in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, etc.

    They know there’s a good chance they’d end up spitting chiclets all over the sidewalk – including if they attempted it with a woman. And/or, the local police will jail their violent Soviet Democrat asses.

    Which is why Black Liars & Marxists and their members like Franke, Gigi, George, etc did their rioting, pillaging, looting and burning elsewhere in the 2020 election season.

  10. What % of Americans are this steeped in “rage”? It’s likely well below 1% based on the behavior I see in public every day. The media floods the airways with the most outrageous behavior they can dig up that news cycle. I a nation of 340M, that’s not hard to find.

    JT: “We have become a nation of rage addicts.”

    Really? If civility were newsworthy, you might come to a different conclusion altogether. As it turns out, reality is that which is too ordinary, unremarkable and boring. Reality is what the media DON’T cover.

    What the media chooses to cover represents a highly manicured, warped dystopia designed to grab your attention.
    It is too statistically insignificant to be taken as an accurate picture of reality, though less savvy media consumers mistake it for “how Americans are”.

    1. I think there’s some truth to what you write, but see my comment at 10:58 AM. If one has a lot of strident liberals for friends or family, it may not become assault, but it’s unpleasant all the same.

      1. Diogenes-The media feed on discord and rancor. As they used to say “If it Bleeds it Leads”. I rarely looked for reasoned discussion from the media. One of the best developments I have seen is when a person can sit down with podcasters like Mr Rogan and have a conversation that is free ranging and informative. That tells me more than a debate or the nightly news or a campaign event. I find that a hopeful sign.

        1. “actually, Jasmine Crockett would also agree–having just said in the last few days that “punching” out opponents was acceptable, and that “it’s Ted Cruz.”

          Well to be fair, even Republican congressmen have stated that Ted Cruz does have that punchable face. He’s like the Barney the Dinasour of the Republican party everyone just wants to punch him out because he elicits that reaction from anyone.

          Let’s not forget that Trump enouraged his supporters to “rough up” protesters at his rallies and he would gladly pay for a lawyer to fight the assault charges if they were arrested. Turley didn’t say much about that.

          The idea of beating up libs at his early rallies was universally accepted. Not really condoned, but tacitly acknowledged that it wouldn’t be condemned if it happened.

            1. Lin,
              The few times I read anything the slow and dumb one comments on, it is usually in response to one of your comments. Then you, as always, take him down with just a few words or sentences. It is like watching a toddler try to beat up a grown adult.
              How marvelous!

              1. Toddlers learn, George doesn’t. Gen Z sees George for what he is and run in the opposite direction.

                1. S. Meyer,
                  What is the definition of insanity? Repeating the same action over and over, expecting a different result.
                  I recall reading a The Free Press article about how and why so many Gen Z were voting for Trump. What was so interesting was of all the Gen Zs they interviewed, they fell into two camps. The first, they were early to mid teens during Trump’s first admin. They recall things were much better than under Biden. They said Trump offered something better than the Democrats, Biden/Harris. Second, mostly females, were very against biological males in women’s sports, locker rooms and bath rooms. Another interesting part was The Free Press interviewed half of those who’s parents were registered Democrats or Identified as liberals.

                2. S. Meyer. It appears your Gen Z info is a bit…outdated.

                  “President Donald Trump’s favorable rating among Generation Z voters has dramatically fallen since the 2024 election, according to a poll. A survey from The Economist/YouGov released Wednesday revealed the president’s net favorability rating among those aged 18-29 is minus 18 points. This is a drop from the plus 19 favorable rating he scored among this demographic in the days following November’s race.“

                  https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-gen-z-popularity-favorable-rating-yougov-2030595

                  This one shows that Gen Z is fickle. They are now leery of Trump’s economic failure.

                  1. Gen Z might be a bit fickle, but their voices led to a Trump victory. It did wane in the recent polls, though one questions by how much. That is to be expected when one is not comparing Trump to the Democrat candidate instead of the mythical one that people use when responding to such a poll. It is a comparison of one real candidate to another that has real meaning.

                    George Svelaz, you are ignorant about these things which makes it fun to see how shallow you are.

                    1. S, Meyer,
                      Well said. I would also note, based on the amount of money being spent, the on-shoring of manufacturing plants, those Gen Z who are in college now, will be seeing job opportunities that did not exist during the Biden admin.

            2. Just pointing out a fact. Ted Cruz does have a punchable face. Even his congressional colleagues mention it in passing.

              You didn’t dispute the fact that Trump did encourage his supporters to “rough them up.” He knew they were intent on beating liberal protesters up and he was ok with it. Am I wrong?

              1. You tried hitting Lin in the face, missing and hitting the wall while you watched your pussy fist crumble.

                1. S. Meyer – I read maybe one in 20 comments written by George. Usually the short ones. He declared to everyone the other day that he was not to be taken seriously when he said Hillary’s intentional criminality with the unsecured server and bleach-bit and sledge-hammering hard drives was trivial next to a careless, but unintentional, error of texting while a “journalist” was in the group chat.

                  1. OldmanfromKansas,

                    Intentional criminality? When was she convicted? Tried? Charged? Republicans couldn’t find anything criminal. Yet you seem to know more than they do. Strange.

                    She was found to be reckless in handling classified information. Many on the right demanded she be sent to prison for it including Trump.

                    Now we have the heads of the CIA, NSA, Department of Defense, and the Vice President using a private app on very likely personal phones to discuss classified information while a reporter mistakenly inclued in the discussion and demonstrating recklessness and incompetence. Based on right-wing logic all of them should be in prison or fired.

                    They keep saying the infomation is not classified. If that’s the case then Goldberg should publish the entire thread including the…unclassified military plan to attack the Houthis. Including the timing, weapons, and targets and positions of military assets used. Right? Goldberg wouldn’t be liable for prosecution because it’s all unclassified info.

                    1. Hillary was guilty of evidence tampering. That is criminal. Waltz admitted the mistake and the Trump administration is trying to make things better instead of trying to work around the law.

                      You stupidly cannot see the difference. Gen Z folk can.

                2. Hitting Lin in the face? Huh? Lin made a serious mistake yesterday and I pointed it out. Clearly he knew it and wisely chose to not say anything else.

                  1. what was the “serious mistake” that Lin made? I don’t remember seeing any.

                  2. “Lin made a serious mistake yesterday and I pointed it out. ”

                    What mistake? You are ridiculous as are your repetitive comments that are invariably wrong.

                  3. Are you too dumb to answer the question asked by more than one. What mistake did Lin make?

    2. Yep, the unhinged genocidal Congressional Anti-Semitic Socialist Sisterhood – Ilhan Omar, Tlaib, etc… white as the driven snow!

      And then there’s Maxine Waters!

      Yes indeed: what’s up with that!

  12. Leave her alone. She was on her way to the Capitol Building in Washington DC to protest the election. Trump’s got her back.

    1. Leave her alone: she was on the way to take part in the assault on the White House that hoped to be able to murder Trump before the election.

      And the FBI had her back on that one, which is why she’s still walking free. Just as they had her back when she was one of the rioters who burst in on Senate confirmation hearings. Not of an electoral college vote – but of a SCOTUS nominee named Kavanaugh.

      Democrat Marxist Useful Idiots and their veteran rioters hope normal Americans don’t remember anything before their official date for history starting: January 6th.

  13. I don’t know what the problem is. It’s not as if we have any historical evidence that shows how tolerance of minor verbal and/or physical assaults of a certain group of people ever led to say, genocide. Gosh, so much hysteria over arson at Tesla dealerships. Harassment of Jewish students on campuses. Kristallnacht? Seriously, that only happens in other countries. sarc/off

  14. The “Assault” on M.A.G.A. happens on Capitol Hill. It’s the Framework that enables Politicians to spend without rescission accountability to entitlements and other programs, particularly the behind closed doors Military spending. Fix Capital Hill by making Kicking the Can down the Road a ‘criminal act’, and re-focus on honest spending on Americans again.

    David Stockman: If It Doesn’t Cut To The Bone, DOGE Won’t Succeed
    Adam Taggart | Thoughtful Money
    [Also see: The Comments make interesting counter-points]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2aNCcQ4-Cw

    Ref: 16% Trimmed-Mean Consumer Price Index
    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TRMMEANCPIM158SFRBCLE

  15. The reality is that as a woman, she gets a 90% handicap of no accountability.

  17. I don’t know if it’s assault and battery or just Karen karma, but it shows once again that Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real mental illness – one that is on full display in this comment section every day.

    1. NotSoOld: yeah, I saw where she is up for censure. But the sad news is that, IMO, when we try to be inclusive (at least affirmative action originally resulted in selection of highly-qualified persons, but then devolved over the years into DEI), we end up with Crockett on one side and MTG on the other….

      1. I’m not an MTG fan, but Lin I have to disagree with you comparing the two of them. MTG hasn’t, to my knowledge, said any of the vile and violent things that the Dems newest loser has said. MTG doesn’t pretend to speak like a poor uneducated person for effect.

        Crockett will laugh at a censure, she needs to be stripped of her committee seats for the VIOLENT language.

        If this were the shoe on the other foot Hakeem Jeffries would be asked about his congressional member every day but instead it is crickets for Crockett.

        1. Hi there hullbobby. Did you just hit me with a puck? I accept your gentlemanly assault and battery, BUT>>>
          (1) take a look at this, e.g.
          https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-democrats-violence/index.html

          (2) Also see, e.g.:
          “In another 2020 Facebook post prior to her election, Greene posted a picture of herself holding an assault rifle next to pictures of Reps. Rashida Tlaib (R-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-MInn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) with the caption ‘Squad’s Worst Nightmare.’ That history of violent rhetoric and imagery was part of the reason Democrats voted to remove her from committees in 2021.”
          https://theweek.com/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-controversy

          1. Lin, your reply may have sent me to the penalty box, but I do think that MTG’s violent rhetoric was more subtle and ambiguous than that of Crockett.

            As you stated the Dems voted to strip her of her committees and yet there has been no such move on Crockett. I like Mike Johnson, but there needs to be more reaction to the latest outbursts of the current crop of losers in the Democrat party.

            1. hullbobby: thanks for responding.
              Naw, I wouldn’t send you to the penalty box for an honest opinion
              (MTG might subtlely and ambiguously loosen up the laces on your skates; whereas crockett might just punch you out).

              I expect more from both of them (crockett and MTG).
              This is the best of the best, representing our country? yikes.

      2. I am not even close to being a fan of MTG. But equating her to Crockett’s words and actions is a miserable failure as a moral equivalency.

          1. see my reply to hullbobby, supra

            Yes lin, I saw that, including your choice of claiming she was holding an “assault rifle” – which is not what Green was holding. An “assault rifle” is the M4 and M16 fully automatic rifles that we issue and carry in the infantry. Unless Green has been willing to pay the astronomical prices for such a rifle (when those wanting one can find one for sale, they start at around $15,000), that’s just another semiautomatic rifle, which have been sold to Americans since about 1908, and the AR-15 since the 1950’s.

            You may see that as just semantics in your world; it is an enormous difference in the world of Americans who choose to own firearms.

            But for people who see the sight of The Evil Baby Killer AR-15 as threatening, what they don’t see is MTG showing she stands in defense of the Second Amendment. Doing so beside pictures of Democrats that are demanding Americans be stripped of their 2nd Amendment rights and those rifles confiscated as The DEI Hire had been vowing she would do as president.

            So it’s threatening if you see MTG as threatening because you see that perfectly legal firearm that has been in civilian hands since the 1950’s as threatening. With about 30 million of them in legal ownership in America by now, if The Evil Baby Killer AR-15 were actually a problem, would have known that decades ago.

            [and as an aside, and if they “totally destroy a deer” as Dennis McIntyre claims, Americans would have stopped hunting deer and other game with them decades ago]

            While I shake my head at MTG’s rhetoric and am happy she isn’t my Congress Critter (that wouldn’t get her elected here in Montana) – just as I do some of Trump’s bloviating – do you have anything other than that image with MTG holding that semiautomatic rifle that you see bringing her to a moral equivalency with the viciousness and racism of Crockett?

            Firearms and activities involving firearms are a central part of normal family and community life in many parts of America; other parts of America can’t understand that, just as we can’t understand their phobias about firearms.

            BTW, if pictures of elected politicians with firearms in their hands is a disqualifier for you, our current governor, one of our senators, and one of our two Congress Critters are already disqualified in your mind. Ditto for next door in Idaho (and Wyoming as well, I believe).

            1. Clown 2.0, don’t see where she said anything like that at all, looks like she only posted links to PUBLISHED articles and news. Go back to sucking your thumb when someone calls you out.

      3. Lin, it’s worth it. Better to have free speech and get lunatics we can freely criticize than the alternative.

        “For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors and to laugh at them in our turn.” -Mr Bennett in Pride & Prejudice

    2. She’s a shallow attention seeker who is shouting loudly for her 15 min of infamy. She probably saw how a dull witted bartender from New York leveraged her anger into a multimillion dollar payoff and is aiming to do hybrid same.

      If this continues, we will fulfill the what is depicted in the movie Idiocracy. It is a race to the bottom.

  19. “However, she then repeatedly grabs and strikes the young man as she chases him from the car:”
    Yikes. I do not and never practiced criminal law per se, –but what do you have to do to make it “battery?”

    (it looks like NY Penal Code (e.g. S. 120) makes no mention of battery?)

    1. Ooops. Already addressed by the good professor: “The problem is that New York only has an assault law, not a battery law.:
      apologies for my quick perusal before commenting….

  20. Funny coming from the person totaly cool when the MAGAs did a violent attempted coup.

    3. How did I miss the “violent attempted coup?” When and where was that?

    4. What ” violent attempted coup?” When did that happen? I do not recall anyone getting arrested and charged with insurrection.

    5. Franke didn’t think it was a violent attempted coup when she joined the Democrats street thugs who assaulted the White House with the attempt to murder Trump just a few weeks before the 2020 election.

      After all, you can’t elect a dead man, right Franke? But as they didn’t succeed – Franke says – IT WASN’T A VIOLENT ATTEMPTED COUP!

      50 Secret Service agents wounded in White House riots as Trump is taken to nuclear bunker
      https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11752998/trump-secure-bunker-friday-george-floyd-protests-white-house/

Comments are closed.