As NYFC seems to be about to crash and burn, and given that the situation seems to be echoing in other large, similarly-Democrat-governed cities and states around the country, it raises rather an interesting discussion point.
Should the federal government even get involved? (That explains the hidden Nero reference in the title, by the way.)
In the first instance, we all know that as a federal republic, the states have a great deal of autonomy when it comes to various policy initiatives and experiments — the famed laboratories of democracy of which USSC Judge Louis Brandeis once spoke. Logically speaking (I know, I know), should a state like New York have no problem with abolishing the NYPD, should it not be regarded as such an experiment? Ditto Seattle, where Pantifa seems to have created an enclave within the city and declared it a Soviet collective or something. In both cases, the attitude of these states’ respective governors is best characterized by a “boys will be boys” laissez-faire response.
My question is: in the absence of any state action, is there a compelling reason for the federal government to step in and end such experiments?
I’m not sure there is. And yes, there’s a certain degree of Schadenfreude involved, in that I know that this foolishness will end in tears; but at the same time, I also have a kind of Let Africa Sink attitude towards the whole thing — as long as when the cities implode, the federal government is not expected to be part of either the deconstruction of said stupidity, nor the mini-Marshall Plan that will be required to rebuild the fools’ paradises.
The question arising from the above, therefore, is: as the nation’s economy has greatly decentralized away from the large urban centers, are cities still that important to our country? Strip away the romantic public relations veneer, and I think we can find that they aren’t.
Take Wall Street, for example. With the growth of the Internet and the ability to conduct stock trades remotely, i.e. away from the actual floor of the NYSE, I can think of no compelling reason why the stock exchange should occupy any real estate at all. The importance of New York as a financial center is not what it was, say, in the 20th century, and if the Wuhan virus has taught us anything, it is the degree to which the Internet has taken away the need for such centralization.
I know, it sucks for those fools wealthy people who plonked down $5 million for that 2BD 2BA condo on the Upper West Side, and who would have to pull up the drawbridges against hordes of rampaging looters every night; but quite frankly, I don’t think there’s going to be a great deal of sympathy for these people in the population at large — even though The Donald is one of those same people. (His hotels, for one thing, are going to go under in such a scenario, but the vagaries of fortune of overpriced urban real estate investments are not, as a rule, the concern of suburbanites and country folk in Ohio, Missouri or Utah.)
So, to quote a one-time quasi-revolutionary: “You say you want a revolution?” Go ahead, have fun. Just don’t expect taxpayers from Texas, South Dakota or Arizona to bail you out when it all goes pear-shaped; because while you’re screwing around with anarcho-socialist communes (which have always — always — failed in the past), we Deplorables in Flyover Country will be too busy making America great again to have the time or money to waste on helping you out. And contrary to your expectations, American greatness does not depend solely on places like Seattle or NYFC anymore.
well said.
let them stew in the shit of their own creation.
Problem is you can’t make stew unless you turn up the heat. These *&^#$%^ anarchists and looters need some consequences, like shut off water, electricity, cell service, trash collection, 911 in the affected areas.
Yup. Seal the border, shut off power and water…and wait.
How long you wait is up to you. I’m ticked off enough to recommend 30 days.
One of my best friends and a long time shooting buddy is a lawyer in Dallas where he was a senior partner, over 30 years in, in a large old time law firm, corner office type lawyer. His firm had offices in various cities and several years ago they merged with a large national firm and kind of shifted gears. My buddy got himself bought out and went on his own with one other lawyer in his speciality and the first year worked out of their homes and then rented what he calls a closet with a door in Preston Center in Dallas where they can sit at a table and meet clients.
My friend told me that it is so refreshing not paying staff people to tell him to get more billable hours and paying for several floors in one of the landmark office towers in Dallas. Working from home is working for a lot of professions and there is a possibility that in the future large office buildings in major metro areas with huge amounts of traffic flowing morning and evening will become a thing of the past. The old downtown retail stores in many cities faded years ago and now the need for law libraries and conference rooms, secretarial staff areas and impressive, expensive, reception areas with the mandatory knock out gorgeous receptionist may fade out too.
Such a trend would destroy the aspirations of mid-level gorgeous girls to improve themselves to knock-out gorgeous…….Plastic surgeons hardest hit.
I sent you a short video of the boarding up of Manhattan’s shopping district. Tiffany’s boarded up, Saks 5th Ave. boarded up. I don’t think that Harry Winston was hit. It’s storefront is across the street from Tiffany’s and built like a bank, but that’s a story for another day.
Kim,
I am struggling with this question of whether the federal government should step in or not as well. It’s obvious that these protests and downright disrespect for life and liberty have not yet ended. At what point do we reach “Enough Already”?
On the other hand, watching these bastions of liberal-think destroy themselves as hapless mayors and governors “fiddle” is somewhat satisfying – until the realization that the ones who will pay the highest price for these actions are unwilling innocents ( unless of course they voted these feckless assholes into office – then too damn bad).
Geezus I need a drink – and it’s only 8:07 AM.
Another excellent post, Kim.
I’m in the same boat. Last night I was in high dudgeon wondering when the feds would clean the place up. But this morning, even before Kim’s excellent essay, I was wondering, “It’s Seattle FFS. Why bother? You can’t fix stupid, and it will just be on to some other cockamamie problem of their own making. The Mayor seems almost proud of them, calling them ‘Patriots'”
I mean, the BEST solution would be for about 100 local citizens with guns go in and clean house, leaving the bodies in dumpsters for ease of cleanup. But you might have trouble finding 100 people in Seattle with guns. Hell, maybe the whole state for that matter.
Fuck ’em. They like living there, let them stew in it, as you suggest. The only problem is they’ll freak out at the lack of response and lawlessness and move to Idaho, that’s the real danger. Maybe the feds should restore order only because it might make the loonies feel safe and they’ll go back to loving living there and leave the rest of us alone.
It’s a quandary, to be sure.
There’s a decent number of us with guns even on this misbegotten side of the Soviet of Washington. (Mountain range divides the state both in climate and politics.)
I don’t, however, feel any need whatsoever to drive to the other side of the lake and do anything for Seattle. Hopefully, the idiocy can stay in that city a few more years until I can retire and GTFO.
It would not be unreasonable to have Federal guards around the Frick, the Cloisters, and other such sanctuaries. Maybe the Apollo Theater, too.
.Just waiting for Black Losers Mutter to demand that the Chicago Art Institute take down Sargent’s Egyptian Girl.
.
The left is already starting to eat their own in Seattle. Witness:
https://komonews.com/news/local/some-say-black-lives-matter-message-hijacked-by-emergence-of-chaz
I confess a huge Schadenboner from watching the lefties eat each other for not being woke enough. And as far as I am concerned they can drown in their own shit.
I think its a terrible idea for the .gov to bail them out or intervene in this in any way. This is such a chickens coming home to roost moment. Your comments on the increasing irrelevancy of the metro areas is hopefully intriguing as well.
That all said, we out here in the Rural Districts have been getting our stuff (roads, electricity, irrigation, etc.) subsidized by the metro areas for years too. So we cant be as self righteous about it as I would like.
Sadly these places have political influence. So they will never face the consequences of their idiotic ideologies, until we are all equally destroyed.
I grew up about 15 miles from New York City and long ago reached the conclusion that big cities like NY, Chicago, and LA are ungovernable and uninhabitable. It seems like the inmates of those prisons are starting to reach the same conclusion but 50 years too late. My major concern is that great liberal diaspora (I’ve wanted to use that word online ever since Al Gore invented the Interwebz) will turn good red areas and states at best purple and probably solid blue. When the refugees from Manhattan sell their million dollar 1000 square foot condos and find out what that kind of money buys them in rural Pennsylvania or the hills of North Carolina, I’m afraid it won’t be to the betterment of the over mountain people (as they were called in the colonial days). The plague of liberalism spreads like an incurable disease. Short of throwing a wall around NYC – however appealing that idea might sound – probably the only thing we can do is slow the spread of the free lunch plague.
If it were up to me, I’d build the barriers up to about the 12-15 foot level, and I sure wouldn’t be sending in Porta-Johns or collecting the trash. No foreign aid for CHAZistan!
To borrow a term from Stephen “Vodkapundit” Green, my Schadenboner has reached low-earth orbit.
I’m of two minds on this. Because the other side of the argument is that a government whose writ does not run throughout the land ISN’T a government. Authority must be either exercised or forfeited.
The bad guys don’t believe in Federalism except when it is convenient.
We will never be safe in the same country with them. Time for the National Divorce.
Nobody believes in Federalism except when it’s convenient.
Just improves my point. I certainly don’t believe in it except when it’s convenient. I do think there are some on the Right who actually do believe in it as a principle. I consider them idiots.
My hunch is that PDJT is giving the Gov’s all the rope they need to hang themselves, and when it turns into a total shit-fest with complete abdication of control by the Mayor’s and/or Gov’s, he will utilize the Insurrection Act, send in the “Marines” and whomever else is required and cordon off the area so that they guilty can be filtered out from the un-guilty, and then arrest the relevant city and state officials for their aiding and abetting of the insurrection.
The lawyers will come out of the woodwork and bleed everyone dry.
If I’m in error, I’ll be very disappointed in the collapse of The Republic, but I’ll try to stay safe in my newly autonomous zone out here in the sticks.
Send the Federales in to protect Federal assets, otherwise let it burn.
> With the growth of the Internet and the ability to conduct stock trades remotely,
> i.e. away from the actual floor of the NYSE, I can think of no compelling reason
> why the stock exchange should occupy any real estate at all.
High Frequency Trading.
This doesn’t mean that it has to be in NYC, and I don’t know *all* the details, but I’ve interviewed with trading firms, and with computerized high frequency trading it is literally the case that microseconds matter, and inside the datacenter where the trading *physically* takes place they take a lot of care to make sure that *all* of the cables from the main NYSE computers to the computers of the trading firms are *exactly* the same length because timing matters *that* much.
So there is a need for a physical location, but the NYSE could easily become the Omaha Stock Exchange.
Let the Blue Bastions sink.
I’m surprised you haven’t said it already. Let the Dems own it forever. No other party should even ever run for office. This will avoid the eternal cycle that shows up in some places like PA and NJ where the GOP cleans up the mess every few cycles only to set the stage for the next tax looting.
Don’t forget California.
And I AM calling this down on my own coordinates because the Dems are essentially inside the line here, and there’s no other way to stop them with any degree of permanence as you suggest.