And who pays?

"What is happening now in so many of our big blue cities is the opposite of "broken windows" policing. It is simply permissible rioting." 

Back in the 1980's, when I worked for a large Minnesota based company in Bloomington, I was part of a product team which did a lot of entertaining. Lunches, dinners and so forth. All to get deals made with domestic and foreign customers. A standing joke when the bill came, was who is going to pay? Marketing? Program Management? Or yours truly in Contract Management. It was kind of a game, as ultimately the company paid. However, on those rare occasions I got stuck with the bill, my boss (who I liked a lot, but was tighter than bark on a tree), would chide me about learning to negotiate better. 

Why bring that up? It was an example of the old axiom - somebody has to pay. I have been thinking about that quite a bit this year. Not so much with the cost associated with the virus, but the growing costs associated with the damages caused by the rioting mutts and butt-heads. 

The illustration I used for this article is of the US Bank Stadium. Defaced. I own part of that stadium. If you live here, you own part of that stadium. We did not have a choice, but we now all own part of it. Who is going to pay to have all that crap cleaned up? It better not be us!

Think of Chicago. Each year, every year, it is a shooting gallery. This year, the numbers are staggering. Even higher than last year, which was horrible. About 2,000 people have been shot, 400 of them fatally. The 1,600 who were shot and lived, probably had huge medical bills. Who paid them? That number is probably in the millions of dollars. Should the taxpayers pay? Like with anything else in life, somebody has to pay. Somebody has to pick up the tab.

Portland is on the cusp of sixty straight nights of violence, looting and burning. The mutts who are causing this carnage are indiscriminate. They don't care if what they burn is a private business, a state building, or a federal building. The ineffective Mayor of Portland, a lifelong Socialist Democrat, is fine with what he calls "peaceful protests". Who should pick up the tab? Why Donald Trump of course! These riots (peaceful protests), are after all, his fault!

Many of the business owners in Minneapolis are still waiting for someone to bail them out. Pay the tab, so they can resume business. The city and state leaders are asking both the state and federal government to pay the bill. Taxpayers however, are turning a jaundiced eye to those requests. Just like the signs you might find in an antique shop, "you break it, you own it", taxpayers want the mutts to pay for the damage they caused.

My feeling is this - these protests (while spreading), are about to cross a Rubicon of a different sort. The violence has escalated to a point right now, we are very close to exchanging lethal gunfire. The rioters are big talkers when they say, "we will fire back". When the professional federal police and US Marshals are forced to fire their weapons in anger into the crowd, the other side will not fare well. Who will I blame? The Mayors and city leaders. Each and every one of them are as guilty of omission as they would be of commission. #FACT.

I give the President quite a bit of credit for being as measured as he as been so far. I don't know if I would have been, if I were in his spot. What is happening now in so many of our big blue cities is the opposite of "broken windows" policing. It is simply permissible rioting. Permissible, because the clueless morons who have been elected to govern, cannot see it as such. The prism they are looking through, shows only a bunch of kids, peacefully demonstrating against the country's past sins. In reality, these mobsters are highly organized, well funded enemies of the state. Their only goal is the destruction of our government, and our way of life.

Who pays? If we continue to let this carnage continue, the bill will be too high for anyone to pay. Then the bad guys win. Think about that. Especially if you live in one of our big blue cities.