I have followed Glenn and John's exploration of the George Floyd murder with great interest, as I live in Minnesota. Ellison took a highly predictable position by defending the Chauvin trial, but Ellison was blatantly incorrect in claiming the defense could call any expert they wanted ( not true), and that they had a fair and impartial jury. In fact, the jury was never sequestered, they were forced to walk past crowds which included prominent blacks like Maxine Watters, chanting "convict, convict", and so the jury was clearly intimidated. It took them no time at all to decide to convict.
As for "defund the police", the Minneapolis City Council is radically progressive and they DID push to defund. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed, but the Mpls cops are still under severe scrutiny and their morale is lower than a crippled cricket.
The best way to understand what really happened to George Floyd is to watch all four of the cops' body camera footage. Chauvin may well be guilty of some version of manslaughter, but not murder. The long period that Floyd was on the ground with three cops restraining him was entirely due to the fact that an ambulance was on its way and was expected literally any second, but it got lost and went to the wrong place. Chauvin had experience with that restraint and had never had an adverse event using it before. He is not a murderer. Ellison never misses a chance to insert himself into a gaggle of reporters with cameras.
Ellison's opinions were entirely predictable, and his rudeness in talking over Glenn and John was distracting and unprofessional. Continually bringing up the history of slavery and lynching and segregation resolves exactly nothing regarding crime in Minneapolis. Ellison's stint as AG for Minneapolis will not be a game-changer.
I'm not usually a commenter, but amongst the criticism you're getting for having folks like Ellison on I want to raise my hand and say thanks.
One reason I subscribe and have listened for so long is that I know coming here I'll hear substantive conversations from a wide range of perspectives. I also know that though I may disagree with some of the opinions on offer at the end of the day, they are coming from a sincere and earnest place. That's invaluable.
Honest, good-faith, open-minded conversation on controversial topics is in short supply these days. Thank you!
I would appreciate transcripts of the lectures. Life is short when you’re an octogenarian. It is quicker to read a long piece than to listen to it. Also, it is easier to evaluate in print without the emotional stress from voices. Please consider more transcripts.
Two thumbs down… I have been disappointed with Glenn’s substack especially pushing Keith Ellison’s brand. I subscribe to many different authors to gain perspective, but like other comments above it seems Glenn has turned to lecturing on issues rather than discussing issues. If I want to be lectured on the issues I would watch MSM like MSNBC.
I think Ellison is reasonable on this issue, even though I don't exactly disagree with him. He seems like a sensible politician who realizes foreign affairs are complicated. If this is where the center left position is on Israel, I'm not that worried for the immediate future.
In a world of Absolutes -- in which there is either Progressive Utopia (a place filled with DIE unicorns, zero emissions, and whirling windmills in which everyone is equal in every way always) OR Existential Doom -- is there ever really a choice?
Welcome to the Kafka Trap!
Either we agree with Progressive Dogma & the Leftist Green Anti-Israeli Agenda (to name but a few of its Hydra-like heads) .... and endorse Biden for President & Savior of Democracy & the Polar Bears... OR we are tarred & feathered as Fascist Planetary Threat. There is nothing else....as per AG Ellison, et al.
To object to the rhetorical algorithm.... to say, in the extreme, that we support Israel's destruction of Hamas...or we think a Trump Presidency could return us to some dim form of normalcy... or to suggest that the so-called Climate Science is by & large bunk....is to suicidally embrace that very same Existential Demise (and thereby prove we are still just a part of the same Doom problem with Deplorables).
It's ludicrous.
As ludicrous, in fact, as the expectation that Hamas' use of civilian shields in their genocidal persecution of the Jew should actually work to convince the World to protect them Israel's continued push to end them.
In any case it's obvious that Keith's nominal Islamic loyalties (and his crocodile tears of Gazan sympathies) take a far back seat to this political ambitions as they center around the 'Weekend at Bernie's propping up of the hollow, headpiece-filled-with-straw Biden.
"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
Now we begin to understand the Left's must fundamental agenda...now we begin to understand AG Ellison.
Ellison stated Trump stated Muslims celebrated 911. First of all, Muslims did celebrate. Second of all, they also celebrated the Hamas massacre in Israel, a most disgusting and brutal attack possible: killing and raping women and killing babies. He should have been challenged on this.
And Trump is not an existential threat to democracy. And the reason for this is not because of Trump, but because presidents, relatively speaking, do not have that much power. And that was the brilliance of our forefathers. They knew and understood the Trumps of the world and that's why they thankfully mitigated their power.
In little more than 20 weeks, there will be a Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Netanyahu will still be bombing the sh*t out of Palestinians, and there will be anti-war riots at the convention that will be every bit as destructive as the 1968 convention in Chicago, which destroyed a whole generation of Democratic leaders (including H. H. Humphrey, one of the most decent politicians in American history). Trump will be the 'New Nixon'. That's a best case scenario - Netanyahu may well have instigated a shooting war between the U.S. and Iran, before then.
I get the impression that Glenn would like to put the discussion of the Gaza war and cease fire petitions behind him but he just can't resist an opportunity to query someone like Ellison on his views.
I still think it would be worthwhile to get someone like Bari Weis or Douglas Murray on the show to get their views. They've each spent considerable time on the ground reporting in depth on the war and its' effects.
It would have been better to do more homework and confront this jackass on the advertised issue, rather than on more facile points. One question that keeps nagging me is why nobody ever mentions Daniel Shaver's name and asks people to watch the gruesome video of his murder by the cops, who had nothing happen to them, and then ask about the contrast, and what we make of that. And what we make of the fact that this hateful ideologue gets a seat in Congress and an AG appointment and then the red carpet on this show, all on the basis of crimes committed in previous centuries. Why do we still tolerate such insulting nonsense?
The whole episode was very disappointing. Glenn and John, whose work I almost always enjoy a great deal, were seemingly cowed by Elliison’s non- stop lecturing and dissembling. I guess it’s not easy to stop someone intent on filibustering, but a better effort was required and an opportunity for a real discussion was squandered. Too bad
I have followed Glenn and John's exploration of the George Floyd murder with great interest, as I live in Minnesota. Ellison took a highly predictable position by defending the Chauvin trial, but Ellison was blatantly incorrect in claiming the defense could call any expert they wanted ( not true), and that they had a fair and impartial jury. In fact, the jury was never sequestered, they were forced to walk past crowds which included prominent blacks like Maxine Watters, chanting "convict, convict", and so the jury was clearly intimidated. It took them no time at all to decide to convict.
As for "defund the police", the Minneapolis City Council is radically progressive and they DID push to defund. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed, but the Mpls cops are still under severe scrutiny and their morale is lower than a crippled cricket.
The best way to understand what really happened to George Floyd is to watch all four of the cops' body camera footage. Chauvin may well be guilty of some version of manslaughter, but not murder. The long period that Floyd was on the ground with three cops restraining him was entirely due to the fact that an ambulance was on its way and was expected literally any second, but it got lost and went to the wrong place. Chauvin had experience with that restraint and had never had an adverse event using it before. He is not a murderer. Ellison never misses a chance to insert himself into a gaggle of reporters with cameras.
Ellison's opinions were entirely predictable, and his rudeness in talking over Glenn and John was distracting and unprofessional. Continually bringing up the history of slavery and lynching and segregation resolves exactly nothing regarding crime in Minneapolis. Ellison's stint as AG for Minneapolis will not be a game-changer.
I'm not usually a commenter, but amongst the criticism you're getting for having folks like Ellison on I want to raise my hand and say thanks.
One reason I subscribe and have listened for so long is that I know coming here I'll hear substantive conversations from a wide range of perspectives. I also know that though I may disagree with some of the opinions on offer at the end of the day, they are coming from a sincere and earnest place. That's invaluable.
Honest, good-faith, open-minded conversation on controversial topics is in short supply these days. Thank you!
I would appreciate transcripts of the lectures. Life is short when you’re an octogenarian. It is quicker to read a long piece than to listen to it. Also, it is easier to evaluate in print without the emotional stress from voices. Please consider more transcripts.
Two thumbs down… I have been disappointed with Glenn’s substack especially pushing Keith Ellison’s brand. I subscribe to many different authors to gain perspective, but like other comments above it seems Glenn has turned to lecturing on issues rather than discussing issues. If I want to be lectured on the issues I would watch MSM like MSNBC.
Well, for starters he’s not a MOC, he’s Atty General. And he was rambling and lecturing; avoiding dialogue, facilitated by G and J
I think Ellison is reasonable on this issue, even though I don't exactly disagree with him. He seems like a sensible politician who realizes foreign affairs are complicated. If this is where the center left position is on Israel, I'm not that worried for the immediate future.
In a world of Absolutes -- in which there is either Progressive Utopia (a place filled with DIE unicorns, zero emissions, and whirling windmills in which everyone is equal in every way always) OR Existential Doom -- is there ever really a choice?
Welcome to the Kafka Trap!
Either we agree with Progressive Dogma & the Leftist Green Anti-Israeli Agenda (to name but a few of its Hydra-like heads) .... and endorse Biden for President & Savior of Democracy & the Polar Bears... OR we are tarred & feathered as Fascist Planetary Threat. There is nothing else....as per AG Ellison, et al.
To object to the rhetorical algorithm.... to say, in the extreme, that we support Israel's destruction of Hamas...or we think a Trump Presidency could return us to some dim form of normalcy... or to suggest that the so-called Climate Science is by & large bunk....is to suicidally embrace that very same Existential Demise (and thereby prove we are still just a part of the same Doom problem with Deplorables).
It's ludicrous.
As ludicrous, in fact, as the expectation that Hamas' use of civilian shields in their genocidal persecution of the Jew should actually work to convince the World to protect them Israel's continued push to end them.
In any case it's obvious that Keith's nominal Islamic loyalties (and his crocodile tears of Gazan sympathies) take a far back seat to this political ambitions as they center around the 'Weekend at Bernie's propping up of the hollow, headpiece-filled-with-straw Biden.
"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
Now we begin to understand the Left's must fundamental agenda...now we begin to understand AG Ellison.
Keith Ellison has become a fount of knowledge for Glenn and John. We are sliding downhill faster than I thought. Very disappointing.
Listen to Coleman Hughes's brilliant talk about Gaza on Joe Rogan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNYtG8iZ71E&ab_channel=PowerfulJRE
starting at 1:46:15
Ellison stated Trump stated Muslims celebrated 911. First of all, Muslims did celebrate. Second of all, they also celebrated the Hamas massacre in Israel, a most disgusting and brutal attack possible: killing and raping women and killing babies. He should have been challenged on this.
And Trump is not an existential threat to democracy. And the reason for this is not because of Trump, but because presidents, relatively speaking, do not have that much power. And that was the brilliance of our forefathers. They knew and understood the Trumps of the world and that's why they thankfully mitigated their power.
In little more than 20 weeks, there will be a Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Netanyahu will still be bombing the sh*t out of Palestinians, and there will be anti-war riots at the convention that will be every bit as destructive as the 1968 convention in Chicago, which destroyed a whole generation of Democratic leaders (including H. H. Humphrey, one of the most decent politicians in American history). Trump will be the 'New Nixon'. That's a best case scenario - Netanyahu may well have instigated a shooting war between the U.S. and Iran, before then.
I get the impression that Glenn would like to put the discussion of the Gaza war and cease fire petitions behind him but he just can't resist an opportunity to query someone like Ellison on his views.
I still think it would be worthwhile to get someone like Bari Weis or Douglas Murray on the show to get their views. They've each spent considerable time on the ground reporting in depth on the war and its' effects.
It would have been better to do more homework and confront this jackass on the advertised issue, rather than on more facile points. One question that keeps nagging me is why nobody ever mentions Daniel Shaver's name and asks people to watch the gruesome video of his murder by the cops, who had nothing happen to them, and then ask about the contrast, and what we make of that. And what we make of the fact that this hateful ideologue gets a seat in Congress and an AG appointment and then the red carpet on this show, all on the basis of crimes committed in previous centuries. Why do we still tolerate such insulting nonsense?
A 2 State Solution led by a reformed PLA is ridiculous. How do you get to meaningful reform from what we have now: a PLA that pays for slaughtering Jews and shows no inclination to stop. Read this if you want to know what the PLA is about: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/how-much-is-dead-jew-worth
The whole episode was very disappointing. Glenn and John, whose work I almost always enjoy a great deal, were seemingly cowed by Elliison’s non- stop lecturing and dissembling. I guess it’s not easy to stop someone intent on filibustering, but a better effort was required and an opportunity for a real discussion was squandered. Too bad