Lost in the Jussie Smollett hate crime and then hate hoax saga was the fact that Chicago is covered far and wide with surveillance cameras. Much is made of the London eyes watching all, but few Americans pay attention to the cameras all around them. This network of cameras is another private sector system that is doing the work we would never allow the government to do.

What do you think happens at a robbery especially one of a business? The cops pay attention to the location and time and then seek the surveillance camera recordings for all businesses not only at that intersection or location but along the roads that lead away from it. Have you thought up the perfect crime? You will not get away with it. Add this tech to the dumb jury phenomenon and reasonable doubt is not going to save you from grainy video footage.

If you do not believe me, look up the trial of Sean Fitzpatrick who was convicted for killing his lover’s husband Michael Zammitti. There was circumstantial evidence but nearly all of it was explained away. The killer maybe had a 10 minute window to drive to the location, murder the victim, clean everything of all residue and blood (man was killed with a shotgun blast to the torso), and what was the crucial evidence? Surveillance video of a dark colored truck that looked like the defendant’s neighbors’ truck passing by the murder location.

There was reasonable doubt but come on, this is an American jury. It is selected for not knowing what reasonable doubt is. Do all of these cameras keep us safer? No. Ask mini-mart store clerks. Many just carry live feeds to security firms. They are evidence collectors. These cameras, London’s network included, are part of the sales pitch by the left’s elite that we can let criminals out early, we can let violent foreigners into our lands, and we can go light on first time offenders because we have the technology to keep us safe. It is all cope. On to the links…

Dalrymple on Houellebecq – A great review of Houellebecq’s new novel but it is an opportunity for Dalrymple to review our greatest living novelist. I disagree with his description of Houellebecw’s sex scenes as mechanical and only satisfying brief impulses. Wrong. Houellebecq describes some sex in this manner but if you read his books, you will note how he has true pairing of real love enjoy sensual and passionate moments. If you look on Foseti’s old blog, you can find him reviewing a Houellebecq novel and in the comments I reviewed Platform, covering this very idea of rediscovering sensuality that is missing in Westerners’ lives.

Sources of the West’s Decline – This writer admits that the problem is within. The challenge from Russia and China is only because our elite have grown apart and unresponsive to the mass of natives. I did laugh at this bit, “challenge to the West runs in parallel with the apparent determination on the part of China to supplant democratic governance with a system built around authoritarianism, framed around a party elite“. Tell me, how is this different from America?

Maybe Aristotle was okay – This is one of those, ‘everyone before us is so unenlightened’ pieces. The joyful bit is reading how these thinkers might be good enough to overcome their sexist and racist ideas. These fools have no clue how pedophobic and speciest they will be viewed in 15 years.

Matt Bruenig Doesn’t Like MMT – Some far libs have been mentioning modern monetary theory as a useful way to print ourselves things like the Green New Deal. Matt Bruenig of all people thinks it is a dead end. Read up on the MMT, but note the sneaky thing here. Bruenig still wants government spending at 50% of GDP. There is a big problem these guys do not realize. Taxation and debt are dependent on the ability to generate value, and a future America (all trends holding) is one of lower human capital, lower productive value and a restrictive federal government stopping innovation and conceptual breakthroughs for new industries.

Red Guards with knitting needles – The folks at Vox shame and name the knitting ladies for not being woke enough. Folks, this will end with knitting needles stabbed into the eyes of Ezra Klein and Dylan Matthews if they push hard enough.