The Verdict And The Lessons

 

The verdict is in for Kyle Rittenhouse – not guilty on all counts.  Some are celebrating, and some are disappointed.  Some are even angry.  I personally am none of those things.  I guess you could say that I am reflective.  I am hoping that everyone in this great country can learn a lesson from this entire experience.

For Kyle Rittenhouse, I am hoping that he and those like him have learned that showing up at violent riots with a gun strapped to your back is not a good idea.  This time, he was lucky.  He wasn’t killed back in August of last year, and he is not going to spend the rest of his life in jail.  If there was ever to be a “next time”, he might not be so lucky.  Trying to replace authorized and trained law enforcement officers is, at best, unwise and at worst criminal.

If you are an angry, violent person who wants to take advantage of a chaotic situation to let off steam and destroy property, don’t do it.  I doubt that Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz even knew who Jacob Blake was.  They weren’t “protestors”, they were rioters.  The lesson people like them should learn is that violent situations, even those of your making, can turn on you in an instant with tragic results.  Take your meds and stay at home and watch it on TV.

For the mainstream media who has forgotten their role in our society, don’t convict before the actual trial takes place.  Afterwards, you are all trapped into defending your pre-trial condemnations.  This will placate some, anger others and continue to slowly evaporate your viewership as your constituencies get tired of the anger and divisiveness you promote.

Politicians should learn a similar lesson in terms of prejudging any trial and then being trapped into justifying their premature missteps.  They have an additional responsibility to protect The Constitution of The United States, which they vowed to defend.   Inaccurate public statements absolutely defile the concept of due process, and the fact that it comes from people elected to protect it is extremely disappointing.  Politicians!  Hold your tongues and do your job to advocate for due process and promote the concept that Americans on trial are “innocence until proven guilty”.

And finally, and most importantly, I hope our federal, state and local governments learn that they cannot relinquish their responsibility to protect the lives and property of their constituencies.  As I stated in my last article, when they do, they create a void that will be filled by an unsanctioned and unqualified crowd on one side and an out of control, violent and angry mob on the other side.  The damage, injury and death that results is on their heads.  Some of those things will happen no matter how effective law enforcement is, but an absolute abdication of that responsibility will only serve to maximize it.

The final lesson is for all of us.  12 people (seven women, five men and one person of color) listened to all of the evidence, deliberated for four days and unanimously delivered this verdict.  We can agree or disagree.  We can debate and discuss, but we must do so respectfully and then honor this jury’s decision.

The Verdict & The Lessons

                                                            The View from the Middle 

The verdict is in for Kyle Rittenhouse – not guilty on all counts.  Some are celebrating, and some are disappointed.  Some are even angry.  I personally am none of those things.  I guess you could say that I am reflective.  I am hoping that everyone in this great country can learn a lesson from this entire experience.

For Kyle Rittenhouse, I am hoping that he and those like him have learned that showing up at violent riots with a gun strapped to your back is not a good idea.  This time, he was lucky.  He wasn’t killed back in August of last year, and he is not going to spend the rest of his life in jail.  If there was ever to be a “next time”, he might not be so lucky.  Trying to replace authorized and trained law enforcement officers is, at best, unwise and at worst criminal.

If you are an angry, violent person who wants to take advantage of a chaotic situation to let off steam and destroy property, don’t do it.  I doubt that Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz even knew who Jacob Blake was.  They weren’t “protestors”, they were rioters.  The lesson people like them should learn is that violent situations, even those of your making, can turn on you in an instant with tragic results.  Take your meds and stay at home and watch it on TV.

For the mainstream media who has forgotten their role in our society, don’t convict before the actual trial takes place.  Afterwards, you are all trapped into defending your pre-trial condemnations.  This will placate some, anger others and continue to slowly evaporate your viewership as your constituencies get tired of the anger and divisiveness you promote.

Politicians should learn a similar lesson in terms of prejudging any trial and then being trapped into justifying their premature missteps.  They have an additional responsibility to protect The Constitution of The United States, which they vowed to defend.   Inaccurate public statements absolutely defile the concept of due process, and the fact that it comes from people elected to protect it is extremely disappointing.  Politicians!  Hold your tongues and do your job to advocate for due process and promote the concept that Americans on trial are “innocence until proven guilty”.

And finally, and most importantly, I hope our federal, state and local governments learn that they cannot relinquish their responsibility to protect the lives and property of their constituencies.  As I stated in my last article, when they do, they create a void that will be filled by an unsanctioned and unqualified crowd on one side and an out of control, violent and angry mob on the other side.  The damage, injury and death that results is on their heads.  Some of those things will happen no matter how effective law enforcement is, but an absolute abdication of that responsibility will only serve to maximize it.

The final lesson is for all of us.  12 people (seven women, five men and one person of color) listened to all of the evidence, deliberated for four days and unanimously delivered this verdict.  We can agree or disagree.  We can debate and discuss, but we must do so respectfully and then honor this jury’s decision.

Kyle Rittenhouse - Rush to Judgement

                                                        The View from the Middle 

After watching most of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and all of the closing arguments, I have come to the conclusion that this entire situation has been a year-long perfect storm of incompetence, barbaric behavior, bias and delusion, ending in a tragedy for at least four people.  Let’s start with the absolute abdication by the state of Wisconsin and the city of Kenosha of their duty to govern and provide protection for their citizens.  

When you decline to govern and maintain order, that creates a void that is going to get filled by something, and in this case it was filled with lawless rioters on one side and untrained and unauthorized protectors of life and property on the other.  This is a recipe for chaos, destruction, injury and even death, and that is exactly what was delivered.  Even the prosecutor described the atmosphere on the night of August 25^th, 2020 as dangerous and hostile.  Do you know who I did not see in the chase and attack scenes?  The police or the national guard.  It appears that Wisconsin and Kenosha adopted the Baltimore Maryland strategy to give the rioters “space to destroy”.  That strategy didn’t work well in Maryland and it led to disaster in Kenosha.

And then, rather than let the dust settle from this chaotic situation, politicians and the lamestream media decided to jump in and make presumptions about the defendant.  Then candidate and now President of the United States, Joe Biden, described Kyle Rittenhouse as a white supremacist, militia member in one of his debates over a year before any evidence was delivered in the trial.  Squad member Ayanna Presley called Kyle a white supremacist and a domestic terrorist one day after the riots.  Those accusations have all since been disproved.  Then, during the trial Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York said that the court should. “lock up Kyle Rittenhouse and throw away the key”.  These are all politicians who have sworn to uphold our Constitution which includes the presumption of innocence which is a fundamental element of “due process” which is specifically mentioned in that document.

And if the political rush to judgement wasn’t enough, the lamestream media were quick to jump on and supply their bias.  For over a year, Joy Reid of MSNBC has been maligning Rittenhouse, calling him a vigilante.  ABC news has repeatedly referred to Kyle as an “alleged white supremacist” even though that has been disproven.  And CNN’s Jim Acosta didn’t limit himself to smearing Rittenhouse.  He accused the judge of being prejudice against the prosecution despite the fact that I have heard a multitude of actual lawyers indicate that Judge Schroeder has been reasonable and balanced.  Finally, Jeffrey Toobin of CNN called Kyle Rittenhouse “an idiot”.  Demonstrating his expertise in firearms, Toobin said that Rittenhouse took a “giant” gun to the riots.  Giant Gun?  What does that mean?  He also suggested that Kyle was planning to “scrub off graffiti with his AR-15”, struggling to turn a very positive story about this young man into a negative.  Nice try!  Also, Jeffrey Toobin has surrendered his right to call anyone an idiot after his zoom call fiasco that got him temporarily suspended from CNN.  He should have been fired.  All of these comments, from politicians and professional journalists (I’m being generous there) has tainted the jury, a tragedy in and of itself.

Then we have the boy scout rioters, all of whom were chasing and assaulting Kyle Rittenhouse.  Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man who was shot, was an angry, out of control serial child rapist who actually asked another person to shoot him early that night.  Anthony Huber, the man who attacked Rittenhouse with his skate board and tried to take his gun, was a violent man who struggled with mental health issues his entire life.  At one point, Huber threatened to burn down his house and kill his mother and siblings.  Gaige Grosskreutz, the man who pulled a gun and pointed it at Kyle Rittenhouse, has a long list of misdemeanor and felony charges against him for domestic abuse, disorderly conduct and burglary.  He was carrying his gun illegally, because his conceal carry license had expired.  There is more disparaging data on these three men, but the point is made.  All three of these men were angry, disturbed and violent.  They were not saints or heroes.  They were members of a violent mob intent on destruction and mayhem.

And finally, we have Kyle Rittenhouse.  Should he have even been in Kenosha?  I don’t know.  Should he have been carrying an AR-15 or wearing body armor?  That should have probably been a clue that he should have stayed home in Antioch, Illinois (which is only 24 miles from Kenosha, not on the other side of the country) and watched the riots on TV.  He was 17 and had a relatively normal mix of teen angst, savior illusions and super hero delusions.  Is that a good ingredient to sprinkle into a chaotic, angry, violent mob?  Probably not!

But this is what you get when the government, be it local, state or federal, refuses to govern.  When any government refuses to support and utilize the police and declines other available resources, like the national guard, the vacuum will be filled with volatile and even explosive ingredients, as was the case in Kenosha.  I predict that Kyle Rittenhouse will be found not guilty because he was being pursued and attacked when he fired his gun during a chaotic situation.  Did he fear for his life?  I would have, so I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.  If he is found guilty, it will be because the jurors feared for their lives.  Another perversion of justice.  The losers here, however, are many, including Kyle Rittenhouse, whose life will never be the same.  Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz are also victims - of an impotent government.

How Much is a Trillion?

 The View from the Middle 

I’m not an Einstein, but I was always pretty good at math in school.  Maybe that’s why I am shocked at how often TV commentators and even politicians confuse millions with billions and billions with trillions.  Given that, I thought I would give my readers a quick illustration of just how much a TRILLION is.

Not long ago we used to think that a million dollars was a lot of money, but to make my point, let’s talk about Millions, Billions and Trillions as time instead of money. For example:

 

A Million seconds ago was just 12 days ago.  That’s not even two weeks.

 

A Billion seconds was 32 YEARS ago.  That was 1989, and Ronald Reagan 

was still President (in January). That’s because a Billion is a thousand Million.

 

A Trillion seconds was 32,000 years ago, and Cro-Magnon man was still 

walking the earth and that’s because a Trillion is a thousand Billion.

 

Hopefully, this will help you understand how much money our Congress is spending with these massive bills.  

Just one bill, the Biden Build Back Better bill, will actually spend over three Trillion dollars.  If those dollars were seconds, that would be almost 100,000 years ago.  That’s a lot of seconds, and should remind us that if we keep spending money like this, we’ll run out of time to save our country for our children.

And right after I wrote this article my grandson asked me, “what comes after a Trillion?”  I hope he never has to find out.

Who's Afraid of Virginia...

 The View from the Middle 

I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but last night there were at least three shots fired that were head around the world, or at least around the United States.  Republican Glenn Youngkin actually won the Virginia race for governor despite being down by eight points in the polls back in August.  He defeated Terry McAuliffe, who is the closest thing to an incumbent you can have in term limited Virginia.  If that wasn’t enough, Virginia elected the first black woman to win a state-wide office in that state when they also voted in Republican Winsome Sears as Lieutenant Governor.  And then, just to pile on, they elected Virginia’s first Latino Attorney General, Republican Jason Miyares.

The Second shot was fired in New Jersey where Republican Jack Ciattarelli is currently in a dead heat with Phil Murphy, the incumbent Democrat Governor.  This is noteworthy because Ciattarelli was down by 26 points in the polls back in June and eight points down on the day before the election.  That’s an amazing surge and comment on recent Democrat governance.  The third shot was fired in Minneapolis where a proposal to eliminate the police department and replace it with a “Department of Public Safety” (whatever that is) was soundly defeated with strong support in the black community.  A September survey in Minneapolis found that 75% of blacks did NOT want to reduce the amount of police in their neighborhoods.

Certainly, there are lessons to be learned from these shocking events, but my fear is that Democrats and the mainstream media are learning all the wrong lessons.  I believe that the message being sent in Virginia, New Jersey and Minneapolis is that Americans are tired of the divisive, hateful rhetoric of personal destruction and its cancel culture cousin.  Whether the racist, bigoted CRT (Critical Race Theory) is technically taught in Virginia is irrelevant as long as its tenants of “all whites are oppressors and all blacks are victims” are being rejected.  

Another point being made is that people want Democrats and Republicans to work together to create compromise solutions that will not only maintain the Republic but enable our citizens to thrive and succeed.  Joe Biden ran on the idea that he would unite the country, but since his inauguration he has completely ignored his “friends” on the other side of the aisle with countless executive orders, 51 vote bills in The Senate and totally partisan 51% votes in The House.

If you really think about it, there was a mandate delivered in 2020 and on November 2^nd, 2021, and that was a mandate for compromise and cooperation.  In 2020 there were 75 million votes placed for Donald Trump and his policies, and all of those 75 million votes were cast by American citizens who just think differently than Democrats.  They aren’t stupid.  They aren’t racists.  They aren’t terrorists, and the sooner Democrats realize that, the sooner this country can come together and become the best it can be.

But on Wednesday morning, Joy Reid of MSNBC suggested that anyone concerned about “education” were just white racists who don’t want to teach history.  Of course, she offered no numbers to prove or any evidence to support that statement.  She’s going to have to add Latino’s to her list of racists, however, since Glenn Youngkin captured 54% of the Hispanic vote in Virginia.  And since about 15% of blacks also voted for Youngkin she needs to add them to her personal basket of deplorables.  Finally, Van Jones of CNN, compared Youngkin to a disease (the delta variant of Covid-19), and there certainly are no facts or evidence to support that.  

So, while the lesson leaned should have been that we need to come together and respect each other and actually listen to each other, the mainstream media seems to have heard that they need to continue to ignore and insult anyone who disagrees with them and continue their practice of division, character assassination and intense hatred of half of their fellow American citizens.

I can only hope that the Democrat Party actually learns a different lesson.  Maybe they should listen to the new Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Winsome Sears.  In her victory speech she said, “I have won my race as Lieutenant Governor and I’m not going to be representing only Republicans.  No.  I’m representing Republicans, Libertarians, Green Party, Reform Party, Democrats, everybody.  We’ve got to learn to live together and get along so that we can have peace.”  Wise words from a wise woman.