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Doc Thompson: NYC Mayor de Blasio among those putting "overheated rhetoric that angers and divides people" in wake of NYPD shootings

December 22, 2014
Wilson

Writer

TheBlaze Radio’s Doc Thompson and Skip Lacombe took over The Glenn Beck Program this morning and started things off with a look at one of the weekend’s biggest stories - the execution of NYPD police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. The killings were done seemingly in retaliation for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. With tensions between police and the communities they serve so strained, are leaders like NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio doing more harm than good?

Below is a rough transcript of this segment

DOC: I was leaning against the wall waiting for my smoothie. The lady about 60, 65, says to me, excuse me, sir. Are you in line? And I said, no, no, I'm sorry. I'm waiting for my smoothie. And she said, oh, okay, thank you. Merry Christmas. And she walked over and got in line with what I assumed was he grandson. She's Christmas shopping on Saturday. This was a black woman. And I thought to myself, having just gotten a text message minutes earlier about the huge protests that were going on at the mall of America over the Ferguson and Eric Garner cases out of New York and St. Louis. This woman didn't have a problem with me because I'm white. She didn't assume the worst. I didn't assume the worst about her. It was two people going through their lives respecting one another and saying, are you in line? No. I'm sorry. Line is right over there. Okay, thank you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. It was a pleasant exchange. Because we were individuals. We weren't a white guy, a black lady. We weren't being divided up by that -- at that moment by the race baiters who seek to divide us for their own good. About 20 minutes after that, I was standing in the middle of this mall in Dallas where they have a huge like three-foot, two-foot pool of water. And as an attraction, kids can get inside these inflatable balls and they run in them on the water. And there's like four or five of them running and they'd fall down inside the ball and the water splashes up around it. It was really brought entertaining. I stopped with my wife and we're watching them, laughing at the kids. And a couple came up, stood next to me. They didn't have any kids that were playing. And started laughing at the kids as well and talking about it and said how much fun it looked and I engaged them in a conversation. And I they really need to make some of these for adults.

SKIP: I was going to say. I've seen the bouncy things on the water. They look like fun.

DOC: And the man, a black man and his wife, I was just telling her the same thing. And we engaged in a pleasant conversation the fun the kids were having a Saturday before Christmas. And it wasn't a black guy or a white guy trying to keep each other down, yelling at each other. We wrapped up the conversation by wishing each other a Merry Christmas. And this is what I experienced all day Saturday. And I kept thinking in my mind, juxtaposing that with all of the reports I'm getting out of New York in the Mall of America and other protests everywhere else. And I'm just walking through the mall going, why? And it comes down to what I said a few moments ago, and that is because when we think in those terms about what's going on in New York with the cops being shot and the protests and everybody upset, we're thinking in terms of groups of people. We're actually doing some of the very things that we're critical of people like Al Sharpton. We're thinking in groups. We say, stop segregating us, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Stop race baiting. But if I allow them to do to to me, I'm doing the same thing. I'm thinking in terms of those people are marching because they're ticked off about something, instead of looking at each person as an individual. That's the key right there. Is unfortunate he all across our approximately all across our society we don't look at individuals. The courts don't. What happened to looking at each case and saying, you know what, there's mitigating circumstances here. It's not just three strikes and you're out. Looking at each case judging them based on the actions of that person and that case. That is the fail right now. We're allowing these race baiters like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Eric Holder and President Obama to do this to us. We're allowing Mayor de Blasio to do this to us. If you're not familiar with the story there, were two police officers who were shot execution style point blank by some nut with a gun. And he made references to shooting pigs, killing comes to, as some sort of retaliation for Ferguson and also Eric Garner. That's where we're at right now. It reached that level. Just days before Christmas that's where we're at. My name is Doc Thompson, along with my cohost Skip LaCombe, pinch-hitting for Glenn today. We're regularly heard on the radio six to nine eastern time. You can get it on I-Hart radio and the apps as well for it. Skip, what are the names of the Officers? The two officers that were shot, and this is really important, that we say their names. I don't know their names off the top of their head but Michael Brown, I know Eric Garner. We know their names. But we don't know the Officers off the top of our head.

SKIP: It was Rafael Ramos and then Wenjian Liu. I know I'm slaughtering the names.

DOC: These officers were just doing their job. Out on patrol. And as critical as I am over the race baiting -- it's important you remember, yeah, they may have contributed to the anti-cop sent minutes that some people have. They may have ginned some people up, gotten some people excitable. But this is not a fire in a movie theater situation. Did they contribute to it? Maybe. But the ultimate blame for what happens is on this nut who shot them. He has a history of mental illness. It is ultimately his fault. What I find so frustrating from the race baiters is how they started back pedaling and saying, oh, wait a minute. I -- categorically deny or categorically reject that this should have happened. The president said I categorically condemn the shooting of these police officers and it certainly wasn't necessary.

SKIP: Of course they are going to come out and say this. They can't give a quick little nod and say, yeah well, that's what happens.

DOC: It's unfortunate in a time of great tragedy, some would resort to irresponsible overheated rhetoric that angers and divides people. This is the criticism you should be heaping on President Obama and de Blasio and Eric Holder. See, everybody is failing at this. It's not just the cops being shot. It's not just Michael Brown. It's not just Eric Garner. It's all of it. And everybody is failing somewhere. There's enough fails in getting this wrong to go around. They're all missing this. President Obama did not pull the trigger. Did he gin some people up? Yeah. His biggest fail is by now back pedaling and saying, unconditionally condemning the murder of the two New York police officers and there's no justification for the slayings. Yes, there is a justification for the slayings if you listen to everything else Obama has said in the past. If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. He talks about the fails. He supported the wearing of the "I can't breathe" shirt by people like L e Bron James. What is that saying, then?

You're saying that it's true. You're saying if -- by supporting LeBron James wearing the t-shirt and the other protestors out there, you're saying it's true, that police officers are shooting black kids. And it's epidemic.

SKIP: Indiscriminately.

DOC: Right. And you know how you know? Because that's what the protestors have said. You cannot as president separate yourself from the protesters and say, well, I believe in some of what they say but all the other stuff is comploong.

SKIP: He likes to come around and say in a round-about way I'm not going to go and comment on these types of things but he will come out and talk about Lebron James wearing the "I can't breathe "shirt or people holding their hands up coming out of a football game. So he is come, saying I do stand with you and the supports. I can't breathe either or whatever.

DOC: There's no justification in the slayings? No, based on what Obama said. I there is justification. But he obviously does. When you stand with the protestors and say there are cops killing black kids and it's epidemic, which is part of their mantra, you can claim you want peaceful demonstrations all you want but who is going to say it's not justified to stop people even using deadly force if you believe they're going to kill people. Case in point. You're at your home sleeping. Minding your own business. A guy breaks in your house tonight. And attempts to kill you. Are you justified in using deadly force to stop him?

SKIP: Absolutely.

DOC: Absolutely. If cops are out there randomly shooting black kids, isn't it justified to stop them? With deadly force? Again, if you buy in to this crap President Obama and Eric Holder and others are saying. That cops are killing black kids simply because they're black. De Blasio is even worse. De Blasio said if it's unfortunate that in a time of great tragedy, some would resort to the irresponsible overheated rhetoric that angers and divides people. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Overheated rhetoric? What did de Blasio say? What did de Blasio say after Eric Garner? Do you remember? Both in press conference and in interviews, official interviews, he said, that he has warned his son to be careful.

That cops may shoot him because he's black.

SKIP: It's different for the black kids out there. You know, it's different if you're going out there. I'm worried about sending my kid out there with the horrible Officers -- this is from the mayor. The mayor of New York is saying the NYPD officers are indiscriminately attacking black people. What do you expect is going to happen? That is dangerous talk.

DOC: Mayor de Blasio said, police officers are shooting black kids. Or are inclined to shoot black kids simply because they're black. That's what he said. So who is really putting overheated rhetoric that angers and divides people? It's not me. I'm the one who said, reasonably, if you resist arrest, police are going to use force to arrest you and what happens? Sometimes it ends up being deadly. It's not pleasant. It's not fun. I feel bad for anybody who suffers. And their families as well. But the fact is both of those men resisted arrest. That's it. It's tragic. Maybe you need some better training. I don't balk at that. But you know who else needs training? Not just the police. Citizens.

SKIP: People, absolutely.

DOC: All people.

SKIP: Eric Garner and Michael Brown would still be alive today if they did just one thing. Listen. Listen to instructions from a police officer. If a cops tells you to do something, do it. Take them back in the legal court next year if it's some sort of a problem and you think they're in the wrong and you're in the right. Hell, the ACLU will probably help defend knew that case. But if a cop tells you to do something, you do it.

DOC: Right. Did he tell his son, did de Blasio tell his son that? Just listen to police officers? Did he tell white kids that? Because what, they're going to let off white kids if they resist arrest? It's asinine.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.