Dissecting celebrity evil             

The Trump White House recently used an excerpt of Sabrina Carpenter's "Juno" in an ICE video. Predictably, the woke Pop warbler and erstwhile Disney personality lashed back.

"Inhuman" and "evil and disgusting" were among epithets she spat re the law enforcement agency. (And not the "criminals, rapists, and murderers ICE is arresting for deportation," noted Breitbart.)

Carpenter's subversive spectacle recalls that many show business, news media, and far-left political personages cheered the murder of Christian conservative Charlie Kirk. 

So, too, have entertainment-industry has beens, in desperate grabs for contemporary relevance. None will be named by this writer, who doesn't wish to aid miserable lost souls' quests.

I believe there are two reasons some celebrities acquit themselves so despicably.

First, unfortunately, a hatred market exists. And just as there are garbage-hearted people with wallets, there breathe conscienceless graspers with big eyes. Whether someone is selling a candidacy, movie ticket, TV program, recording, or any other commodity, market-viability is surely a consideration. 

No matter the sorrowfulness of Charlie's assassination (and prior attempts on President Trump's life), status hunters prioritize profit in grubby calculations. Potential sales-chart downturns from foul public brayings would be negligible. 

A star's audience yesterday likely already knew his leanings. New anti-American rants might heighten ardor in desired precincts. 

Persons previously outside a celebrity's base - well, they were already not in the equation. Save for this: Non-fans who vocalize criticism play as much of a role in stoking celebrity as do rah-rah fanatics. Controversy means headlines. Headlines mean sales.

"Why do you think Frank Sinatra punches some driver in the mouth?," Alice Cooper manager Shep Gordon asked writer Bob Greene, in the seventies. "To get into the straight press - which is hell of a lot harder than getting into the entertainment press."

From Gtreta Garbo donning slacks in the 1940s, to the Sex Pistols cursing on 1976 UK television, to current Pop and Rap annoyances hurtling toward cameras to bellow blueprinted hatred against goodness, celebrity has often been a schemed contrivance, not an organic product.

Too, audiences want to believe they and a celebrity are as one. That the person on screen, stage, or stump shares their opinions. Surely, that is especially the case for callow enthusiasts. Their generational contrarianism is a knee-jerk animal. Many, I suppose, are eager to shout or do absolutely anything to antagonize the world at large. To feel significant. 

They will spend monies on whoever claws most attention-gettingly at existing mores. 

Important to remember is that entertainment names may say one thing in public - to curry fan approbation - but seize opposite voting levers when in a booth's secrecy.

Of course, there is second possible explanation for celebrities' stated terribleness: They may truly be terrible people.

Havoc peddlers                                                                       

Late liberal author and Village Voice writer James Ridgeway once remarked, perhaps admiringly: "Democrats are the meanest sons of bitches I've ever come across." Recent years' grisly happenings have validated Ridgeway's pronouncement to an ubermalicious degree, unimagined when he spoke those words.

A recent meme asked: "If Trump is a hatemongering, evil man like the media constantly tells us, then why aren't his followers the ones killing cops, destroying property, looting stores, assaulting innocent passersby..."

While musing over that valid question, consider this:

In dirty precincts, lawbreaking and hatred of our country are selling features. Brutality has become woke Democrats' native tongue. 

Remember that then-Vice President Kamala Harris encouraged nationwide bail donations for rampaging thugs properly arrested during 2020's George Floyd riots.

Recall, too, pedestrians and police were violently attacked in that rancid episode; an estimated two billion dollars' worth of destruction was perpetrated across America; and criminal hordes thronged American streets. They spewed poison, torched neighborhoods, and generally wrought animalistic fury against civilized order.

Other familiar examples include two attempted assassinations of President Trump; the savage murder of Christian conservative Charlie Kirk; and numerous mass shootings (including in schools) perpetrated by "trans" deviants.

Making headlines are ragged mob efforts to prevent officers from upholding duly enacted immigration statutes. These crude and criminal bids are cultivated by unscrupulous, rabble-rousing politicos. Elected liberals like J.B. Pritzker, Brandon Johnson, Gavin Newsom, and Karen Bass are among those inciting obstruction of American law enforcement. 

Last month brought elected Democrats' videotaped encouraging of soldiers and intelligence personnel to perpetrate insurrectionist wrongdoing. Soon thereafter, the guilty office-holders were dubbed the "Seditious Six." 

Their subversive stuntery doubtless had several fathers, including election-tactical and propagandistic ones. In the present, foul Mamdani atmosphere, ballot advantage of a sort can be got by appealing to increasingly unsavory progressive voters.

In a Truth Social rejoinder, President Trump wrote: "THE TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW, NOT ROAMING THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THAT WHAT THEY SAID WAS OK. IT WASN’T, AND NEVER WILL BE! IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID!"

Contemporary crusading away from classical liberalism and toward communistic barbarity surely shakes the resolve of honest long-term Democrats. Even a James Ridgeway might create a reproachful meme.

Letter of mine recently published by Waterloo [IA] Courier

Democrats frequently castigate "billionaires." They would have credulous supporters believe success is somehow sinful, and that they want nothing to do with it.

But when they inveigh against billionaires, here are ones they never cite: George Soros, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Illinois Democrat Governor JB Pritzker, Mark Cuban, Neville Roy Singham, Jeff Bezos, and Reid Hoffman.

Why not? Because those and others of their ilk bankroll woke progressive Democrats and anti-American causes dear to Marxist hearts. 

(Sen Bernie Sanders used to kvetch about "millionares and billionaires." But once he, himself, banked millions, the socialist thunderer vented fury exclusively about "billionaires.")

I'll believe Democrats' rhetoric re wealth when they rail against the billionaires cited above - by name.

Something's rotten in Minneapolis

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara seems to have learned a bad lesson from the Seditious Six.

Per Breitbart: "When asked how his officers were expected to respond to excessive force from the federal agents, the outlet [MS NOW/MSNBC] quoted O’Hara as saying, 'If unlawful force is being used by any law enforcement officer against any person in this city and one of our officers is there, absolutely, I expect them to intervene, or they’ll be fired.'"

O'Hara is aping the senators and congresspeople who recently issued a videotape, in which they implored military and intelligence personnel to disobey any unconstitutional instructions from superiors.

Neither they nor Chief O'Hara cited any such orders. But the clear insinuation was that such were likely potential. And the speakers were plainly cultivating rebellion in the ranks.

(Why else would the subversives restate already-understood matters at this particular moment, were they not seeking to foment chaotic uprising?)

One might reasonably expect O'Hara to attend to his proper duties, rather than strongarming officers to obstruct federal law enforcement. 

During an early December interview on local television, O'Hara claimed ICE officers are "terrorizing" neighborhoods. He referred to "Americans," presumably (and wrongly) including illegals in that group.

Tom Homan correctly noted O'Hara has devolved from policeman to mere pandering politician.

Gone are times when Democrats supported law and order, popularly selected authority, rules, electoral outcomes, and basic propriety.

From Minnesota Governor "Tampon" Tim Walz turning a blind eye to billions in Somalian corruption, to Mini-Apple Mayor Jacob Frey spewing Somali - and numerous national-level Democrats hurling brickbats at law enforcement and shaking pom pons for criminality - a terrible season of darkness seems afoot in America.

The rot is even evident in the Minneapolis police chief's office.