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Will Alvin Bragg quietly whisper “nice work” to the UHC killer?

Andrew McCarthy finds himself on the horns of a dilemma:

Now that “person of interest” Luigi Mangione has been apprehended in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel on Wednesday morning, we have a dilemma — or, at least, I do.

Can Alvin Bragg — the paragon progressive prosecutor who seems to regard the streets of New York as if they popped out of Howard Zinn’s revisionist American history textbook — be trusted to prosecute a radical leftist for carrying out a “direct action” against a capitalist oppressor?

Two things. First, there's no evidence that Mangione was a radical leftist. He appeared, at most, to bear "some" ill will toward corporate America. Aside from that he was an avid gamer. He had successful spinal fusion surgery a couple of years ago. A friend said he "leaned toward the political left on some issues, and aligned with the right on others." For some reason he thought health insurance companies were "parasites." He wasn't registered with any political party. And he was apparently fairly sociable and normal until he abruptly withdrew from the world last summer.

Second, and more to the point, give me a break. Alvin Bragg is not a "paragon progressive prosecutor" and, in any case, even progressive prosecutors handle premeditated murder cases the same way any prosecutor does. I'm willing to bet McCarthy a thousand dollars that Bragg will prosecute Mangione vigorously and win an easy conviction.

Hell, make it a million dollars. It's easy money.

This is why I've long thought McCarthy is a lunatic. My recollection is that he used to be relatively level-headed, but then went off the rails sometime during the Obama administration. He now spends his time seeing radical lefties around every corner and inventing pretzel-bending logic to justify whatever position gets triggered by his paranoid imagination. It's too bad since unlike many similar folks, he really does seem pretty knowledgeable.

36 thoughts on “Will Alvin Bragg quietly whisper “nice work” to the UHC killer?

  1. kenalovell

    Kevin is right about McCarthy going nuts.

    It's also true that he was one of the consistently slightly rational voices on the right warning the frenzied lynch-mob demanding the "Biden Crime Family" be locked up that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing that would justify prosecutions.

  2. megarajusticemachine

    These people will say anything at all, facts be damned, I don't think there's much worth in trying to parse any of it. It's just bullshit all the way down.

  3. Solar

    "but then went off the rails sometime during the Obama administration"

    About 40% of the US population went completely batshit crazy and turned into slobbering idiots when the US elected its first Black President.

    It's only gone downhill since then.

    1. Salamander

      If -- and it's a definite IF and not WHEN -- a female type person is elected President, think of what that backlash will be like.

  4. KenSchulz

    It's a good thing sometimes to have 'stretch' goals, but 'I'm going to stir up outrage over something that not only hasn't happened, but won't happen' is not a good choice.

  5. D_Ohrk_E1

    It's all Trump's fault, if you think about it. He's the one who has rhetorically (a) pushed gun rights absolutism, (b) claimed the power of populism, and (c) sells people on the righteousness of violence and retribution.

    He's been doing this for 8+ years now, which is a big chunk of many people's lifetimes. If what most of what you've known is Trumpism, well shit, you might be turned into a self-righteous killer, you know?

  6. memyselfandi

    ""He had successful spinal fusion surgery a couple of years ago." It's pretty clear the spinal surgery was extremely unsuccessful. And hatred of health insurance companies is probably at least as prevalent, if not more so, amongst the maggot base.

    1. Heysus

      I honestly believe this young man was left, post operative lay, writhing intractable pain and he may have been using pain pills to no avail.

    2. Art Eclectic

      There's also the radicalization of young men in general. They're tuning in to all sorts of poor role models, we all saw that impact five weeks ago. Notice that nearly all mass shootings involve a young male and the Trump assassination attempt was another young male. I will be not surprised if another high profile figure gets targeted in the near future. At some point, Wall Street needs to get the message that people are fed up with having their lives shortened and pockets picked in order boost investment returns.

      What I don't understand is how someone plans something so well and then goes home like he won't eventually be found. He could have been across the Canada border within hours of offing a parasite CEO and on a plane to anywhere within a day.

      1. HokieAnnie

        I think we're going to find out that he wanted to be caught and to be some sort of anti-hero rallying against the evil insurance CEOs.

  7. memyselfandi

    "My recollection is that he used to be relatively level-headed" Kevin must have missed all of his columns on the Clinton email controversy. For the last decade at least, everything hes written has had the sole purpose of deceiving his readers and he usually accomplishes that by flat out lying about everything and anything.

  8. Dana Decker

    Andrew McCarthy is doing the important work of putting out the notion that Bragg favors "leftists" assassinating the rich (and probably the not-so-rich, including YOU). Let's have the conversation! Put the question out there - but never do anything to resolve it since merely asking is an attack on the character of Bragg ... which IS the objective.

  9. Crissa

    This is the same lies they've trotted out at every non-conservative prosecutor anywhere in the country. They lie that Portland or San Francisco stopped prosecuting criminals, and then that's picked up everywhere - they never care that it's a lie, and never get penalized for lying...

    ...because to contradict conservatives (or fake liberals) is to 'take sides' even if their citations and shouts are flatly false.

    1. Atticus

      So your position is that liberal cities (e.g. San Fran and Portland) did not increase leniency in prosecuting many crimes in the last four or so years? It's all lies?

      1. aldoushickman

        I'm pretty sure you're aware of the difference between "stopped prosecuting" and "increase leniency in prosecuting."

      2. iamr4man

        Let me know when you think San Francisco didn’t have a reputation for being lenient in prosecuting crimes. Wasn’t that what Dirty Harry was about? When did those movies come out? Did you know that SF’s crime rate has gone down? And the homicide rate is the lowest since the 60’s?

      3. chumpchaser

        Yes, you blithering dumbshit. Portland did not become more lenient for prosecuting crimes. The DA in 2020 told cops to stop arresting protesters for bullshit like curfew violations or "impeding police" and they threw a fit. But you failed to list your "many crimes" because you're a liar and a racist piece-of-shit troll, and you deserve to be told that to your face. The world will be a better place when you're pushing daisies.

  10. Five Parrots in a Shoe

    If Kevin wanted to he could fill this blog entirely with excerpts from the National Review documenting exactly how that magazine has gone insane. They update their website daily, and put out a new print edition monthly, and both outlets are target-rich environments for anyone hunting for insanity.

    But what would be the point of doing that? If someone wants to engage with sane, responsible conservative ideas they can look at the Economist or the Bulwark. People who look at other conservative outlets nowadays are just dumpster-diving.

  11. Chip Daniels

    "...he used to be relatively level-headed, but then went off the rails sometime during the Obama administration. "

    Describes virtually every Republican in America.

    Obama broke them.

    1. Five Parrots in a Shoe

      "Obama broke them."

      I've been inclined to think that sometimes too, but for one strong counterpoint: Obama was elected *twice*, with a mandate both times. Ergo, those people who were broken by Obama cannot be very numerous. But are such people overrepresented in the commentariat? Maybe, though it's hard to explain why that would be.

    2. kennethalmquist

      My impression is that Republicans started to tailspin with Reagan. When it turned out that tax cuts didn’t pay for themselves and didn’t trickle down to any significant degree, Republicans could have abandoned their commitment to tax cuts for the wealthy and switched to policy proposals that would benefit at least 50% of the electorate, rather than just the wealthy few. Instead, they started treating voters as marks to be conned.

      People who are in the conservative movement don’t seem to see it this way, perhaps because when you are inside the movement it is hard to see the forest for the trees. What happens to people like McCarthy is that they are rewarded for becoming more detatched from reality. Fox News contributor earnings are quite variable, starting at around $30,000 per year but often much higher; John Bolton was paid $569,423. If all McCarthy offered Fox News viewers were accurate factual analysis, he would be at the low end of the compensation range, or would be dropped entirely. To move up to the middle of the range, he needs to offer Fox News viewers some red meat that will keep them watching Fox News.

      The election of Obama may have been a turning point for McCarthy, but if there weren’t a large market for crazy the incentive would have been for him to recover his balance rather than becoming increasingly crazy.

  12. Gary Goldberg

    The Republicans are exceedingly good at framing the debate. Luigi Mangione may or may not be a "radical leftist" but if they repeat it enough he will be.

  13. jdubs

    In the permanent culture war, bonding the angry, racist MAGAs with the health insurance CEOs is a big win.

    The liberals and their crazy black lawyers are coming for you, your wife and these poor defenseless CEOs! We must unite behind these estate tax cuts and subsidies for private insurers in order to defeat the liberals!

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