Cori Bush: I deserve protection, but the little people don’t
Cori Bush has trampled on the preferred Democratic narrative, stating her opinion in no uncertain terms in a CBS interview:
I’m going to make sure I have security because I know. I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do there, too many people that need help right now for me to allow that. So, if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend 10 more dollars on it – you know what? I get to be here to do the work. So suck it up and defunding the police has to happen, we need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets.
Security is not for the little people, it’s for important ones like Cori who are doing important work. The CNN article I linked takes the “Republicans pounce” attitude, with observations such as this:
Democrats have spent the last few months insisting that the dangers of “defund the police” movement are overblown because their party’s elected officials don’t even talk about it anymore – that the only people talking about it are Republicans.
[Cori] Bush’s pronouncement on Thursday puts lie to that idea. And hands Republicans a clip that they can wedge into dozens of attack ads linking swing-district Democrats to a deeply unpopular policy coming out of the month of a Democratic member of Congress.
Actually, it’s not just that she’s in favor of defunding the police, although that’s certainly part of it. It’s that the whole quote – and I’m not sure how many people will actually see or hear it – is an almost textbook example of the sort of sentiment for which Leona Helmsley was excoriated long ago: “We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes” (a statement Helmsley denied ever having said, by the way).
But Cori Bush’s statement is far worse than Helmsley’s. Bush is a public servant, for starters. Her inflated self-importance and sense of entitlement is coupled with a contempt for those who would criticize her and a denial of their need for the same sort of protection. And all of this is couched in nasty and juvenile language like “suck it up.”
There was more to what Bush said:
“I have private security because my body is worth being on this earth right now. I have private security because [of] the white supremacist, racist narrative they drive into this country,” she said.
“My security is not to keep me safe from the people of St Louis … it is to keep me safe against the racist attempts on my life.”
Cori Bush has every right to hire security. And I don’t doubt that people have threatened her – as they’ve threatened so many people in government and elsewhere in these days of social media. No doubt some of the threats come from people who actually are racist, but it’s also highly possible to detest her, just for her policies and the things she says, without being a racist. But for her to protect herself as a Very Important Person and to deny others – including her constituents – the protection of the police is towering elitism and hypocrisy and disdain. The apocryphal Marie Antoinette quote “Let them eat cake!” can’t even begin to compare.
And not only that, but Cori Bush doesn’t think people should defend themselves, either, even in the absence of police. And they certainly shouldn’t defend themselves against a crowd of which she is part (the link is from August of 2020):
Bush, a nurse and pastor, was among the marchers who encountered the McCloskeys on June 28 when they entered Portland Place, a gated, private city street in the Central West End. The protesters were on their way to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s residence, and the unexpected confrontation with the McCloskeys, which was recorded, went viral.
So Cori Bush was in that crowd and in fact, according to the McCloskey’s, was the leader with a bullhorn:
“The Marxist liberal activist leading the mob through our neighborhood stood outside of our home with a bullhorn screaming ‘you can’t stop the revolution.’” Mark McCloskey said. “That Marxist revolutionary is now going to be the congresswoman for the 1st District of Missouri.”
The revolution.
In response, Bush said the following:
“They [the McCloskeys] just put a target on my back that was bigger than the one that I had,” Bush said. “They just made it really difficult for me to navigate, move around, simply because there are people who are looking at me — especially people who are white supremacists — as if I am a danger.”
So this is her modus operandi. Do something provocative, play the victim card (and in particular the victim of racism), and then accuse your critics of wishing for you to be attacked physically. It’s an extremely useful way to deflect criticism in this day and age, as Bush has learned (did she learn it from the master?).
[NOTE: Also, Bush said, “I have had attempts on my life.” If actual attempts have occurred in the past, I certainly can’t find anything about it in the news.]
@ Neo “So this is her modus operandi. Do something provocative, play the victim card (and in particular the victim of racism), and then accuse your critics of wishing for you to be attacked physically. It’s an extremely useful way to deflect criticism in this day and age, as Bush has learned (did she learn it from the master?).”
Well, he did promise to transform America, and Mrs. O stated* that His Highness was going to make everyone work harder, so, yeah, probably.
I had forgotten that Rep. Bush (D-Ancien Régime France) was the ringleader of the McCloskey Riot.
*People have kind of forgotten part of that mandate, because it gets in the way of the Agenda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0Gl8aMOpcg
UCLA on Febrary 18, 2008:
“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”
And of course he meant that they were to be engaged in Leftist activism, involved in Leftist causes, and informed by Leftist propaganda.
So that part worked out okay for them.
If actual attempts have occurred in the past, I certainly can’t find anything about it in the news.
Domestic arguments. Supposedly two children by her baby-daddys. I bet both eventually ran screaming across the state line.
Supposedly, she passed the examinations necessary for a nursing license. She also founded a religious congregation. You wanna guess histrionic and hopelessly self-centered?
The homicide rate in St. Louis City now tops 60 per 100,000. It’s a third lower in Detroit. Note, suburban homicide rates in this country are generally somewhere around 2.5 per 100,000. What does it tell you that St. Louis political class throws up this broad and Kim Gardner and the electorate chows down?
Got a TWANLOC problem.
How does someone like this stay in public office? Really!
Isn’t it great that the important people will remain safe to continue to direct the lives of the remaining unimportant people?
“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Jack,
“How does someone like this stay in public office? Really!”
Former Czech President Vaclav Klaus comment about Barack Obama equally applies to the electorate that voted for Cori Bush.
“The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.”
Of course that applies to every elected official on the left. Half of America is composed of the deluded and/or fools.
She worries so much about “Racist and White Supremacist” that she should maybe read a little History about the Pretorian Guards.
Baldilocks dropped in with a comment a couple of days ago on the post Neo referenced above.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/08/05/looking-back-how-obama-used-race-in-a-way-thats-become-very-familiar/#comment-2568621
I went over to check current posts on her blog and found a link to this older piece.
https://baldilocks-talking.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-illegal-andor-unconstitutional.html
All of the New Democrats learned the value of crying “Racist” from the master.
The Old Ones were always just as venal, but more circumspect about it – what they learned is that they don’t have to pretend anymore.
Relevant comment (substitute Biden for Obama):
“I recall being stunned by the executive actions in the first six months of Obama – until it dawned on me that these items had been created, cross referenced, and imprimatured by the inner circle long before he swore in”
And this exchange.
Bonus comment, because I’ve seen similar observations over the years.
There is indeed nothing new under the sun
That claim about Bush vs Obama EOs is true, by the way.
I had wondered.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/executive-orders
However, you need to put it in context by looking at the entire record – Teddy started the massive output quite abruptly from preceding presidents, and recognizing that some EOs have more impact on people and the economy than do others. There should be at least a two-part division into felony and misdemeanor politicking.
So she wouldn’t mind a non-racist attempt on her life? How odd.
How does someone like this stay in public office?
Stay? She’s only been in office for seven months.
Too funny not to share.
https://babylonbee.com/news/cori-bush-hires-mercenary-army-to-beat-up-anyone-who-doesnt-want-to-defund-the-police
Papa Spears should start a conservatorship for the Burning Bush.
Be interesting if an election were held in the next month and see if she’s reading her district correctly.
Odds?
Stay? She’s only been in office for seven months.
The odious DA in St. Louis was re-elected last year. She’s just as bad. Note, counterparts of the odious DA have been returned to office in Philadelphia and Baltimore too. There’s a constituency for vicious and perverse behavior by public officials.
“We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes” (a statement Helmsley denied ever having said, by the way).
Years ago, Ted Koppel did a Nightline segment which included a reporter who covered the trial and included one of the jurors. The reporter yapped about how that bit of testimony was a dramatic moment and how that turned the jury. Koppel asks the juror. No, he says, that did not influence the jury. They all scanned copies of her tax returns and having digested them it did not take much deliberation to convict her.
And it is doubtful Helmsley ever said that. Helmsley was prosecuted for paying $55 million in taxes one year instead of $57 million. You have to wonder why the matter was not settled out of court.
There is definitely a pattern with politicians on the left. Lecture us about climate change, while they live in mansions and travel around the world. Defund the police while they have private or even government security. Attack “ whiteness” then retreat into white neighborhoods.
We had better come to grips with the fact that blacks are only 13% of the population and that the average black IQ is 85 (normal, I remind you, is 100). So I do not care what they as a minority think or do.
The low average IQ makes blacks the most herdable of minorities.
There are wonderful exceptions, though. God bless Clarence Thomas and Dr. Ben Carson. And of course Thomas Sowell. And my Duke-trained neurosurgeon!
The low average IQ makes blacks the most herdable of minorities.
All the Caribbean islands have vigorous multi-party politics. So does the Dominican Republic. So does Colombia’s Pacific coast.
Art Deco:
I find if difficult to believe that anyone on the jury actually understood the ins and outs of the tax returns of a person making that sort of money in a complex business and paying taxes at that level. I very much doubt I would have understood them, and I’m pretty good at math and did my own tax returns for years.
What’s the saying?
“For every problem there is an easy simple solution, unfortunately it is generally wrong.”
But, but, melanin is the answer (or the problem)!
Be interesting if an election were held in the next month and see if she’s reading her district correctly. Odds?
Pretty good, unfortunately. Her district was specifically created as a majority minority district out of St. Louis city and the inner St. Louis County suburbs.
She knocked off William Lacy Clay, Jr., who held the seat for 20 years, in the Democratic primary. William Lacy Clay, Jr. had succeeded his father, William Clay, who had held the seat for the 32 years prior.
I see no reason that Cori Bush won’t achieve similar longevity.
I find if difficult to believe that anyone on the jury actually understood the ins and outs of the tax returns of a person making that sort of money in a complex business and paying taxes at that level.
He named for Koppel the precise form that influenced the jury’s decision.
AH, such, such are the joys of universal suffrage.
How do you “not pay taxes”? You send the feds $55 million. They send you a letter saying you owe another $2 million. You say, screw you.
Or you lie to the feds which would, if they don’t discover it, save you maybe 4% of the total bill. And you get a top-end accounting firm to sign off on it. For a premium.
Or you write off things which are not deductible, but they must be plausible, or even arguable. Obviously not eligible won’t work. So you have a dispute about the thing and you tell the feds, “Come and get it, chumps!”
If you get busted, you say, “oops. my bad, how much was that, again?”
Were I a juror on such a case, I’d want the prosecution to produce a note-to-self that the perp’s New Years resolution was to cheat on taxes with details as to how, and the case reflects the details in every detail. And, considering how prosecutors produce such things, I’d vote to acquit.
To be less insouciant, given a bit of professional background in the thing, I’d be inclined to recall some instructors explaining how ten different accountants would come to twelve different conclusions about a lot of things at issue.
But that’s not my issue here. She was known as The Queen of Mean. Might have been true, might have been a meme among those with too little to keep themselves occupied. There can be few things simultaneously as boring and infinitely detailed as a complex tax trial. But, it was reported, people would go out of their way to see Helmsley coming and going to the trial. Weird. Sick.
From which one might conclude the local constabulary was seeking to entertain the GMA crowd with a toothsome take down of somebody we’re all supposed to hate on a matter where the big shots don’t pay, it is said, their fair share. Details no relevant.
Which, among other things, would give them cover to ignore more egregious cases among those with more influence and less public hostility.
How do you “not pay taxes”? You send the feds $55 million. They send you a letter saying you owe another $2 million. You say, screw you.
If I understand correctly, tax practice incorporates a great deal of negotiation with the authorities. I cannot imagine how the matter landed in a criminal proceeding unless the US Attorney was out to get her. IIRC, the issue was that expenditures on home renovations were booked as business expenses.
What makes it believable she’d self consciously bilk the government for the sum is that is that she had a history of mistreating people over sums of money that were to her sofa change. After her son dies, she sues his widow for a six figure sum (< $200,000) she contended was a loan she'd extended him. One of Koppel's participants was a contractor of hers who ceased business relations with the Helmsley corporation. The reason? LH arrived at a meeting one day and announced she was cutting their compensation by 2/3. (No clue why there was no breach of contract suit). Koppel asks the contractor what the reason was and the contractor (the principal of an advertising agency) reports "She said she needed the money". Her estranged daughter-in-law said some years later "to this day, we don't know why they did it [sued us]". Her will left nothing to family members. Just a trust to provide for the care of her dog. She was one peculiar piece of work.
AH, such, such are the joys of universal suffrage.
St Louis has had universal suffrage for > 3 generations. The source of the problem is the character of people living in our time today. BTW, if you’re toying around with suffrage screens, please recall that nearly all post-secondary faculty would pass through them and that the Democratic Party has a decided advantage among people with post-baccalaureate degrees. Mr. Cicero can blather all he wants about IQ; the reality is that in certain ranges, IQ is positively correlated with being stupid about human beings.
Art Deco. I’d heard things like that. Rough on her employees, too. Which is why I think it was entertainment, and with the purpose of political optics and to cover for, which is to say distract, allowing more favored people go uncharged.
As I say, it is hard to figure somebody so stubborn as to tell the feds to piss off when they came looking for money which they figured they were owed because you LIED and got your accountant to sign off on it.
They tell you your deduction here is not allowable and you owe more money. Do you simply refuse to comply? Does garnishment not apply? Civil suit?
She said, there were “attempts on my life”; not threats as I have received in the past. I want evidence of those attempts, there has been no one I have heard ask her about that.
Leona Helmsley was the definition of stuck up bitch. I once worked for a law firm that represented her. I doubt that there are any modern day royals around the world who behave as badly as she did.
Her elderly husband slept poorly one night. She demanded that the mattress company replace all 16 mattresses in the house for free. They did. They knew she would refuse to buy any more of their product for her hotels if they didn’t.
The taxes line is exactly what one would expect of her. If she didn’t say it, there are plenty of other comments as bad or worse.