Paragraph to Ponder

Rayshard Brooks.

“The police were called to the scene initially because Mr. Brooks had fallen asleep on* the drive-through line of the restaurant. The video shows Officer Brosnan waking Mr. Brooks in the driver’s seat of a car and asking him to move the car to a parking space. Officer Brosnan appears to be unsure whether to let Mr. Brooks sleep there or to take further action.”

Unsure whether to let Mr. Brooks sleep there. In his car, in a parking lot. I don’t understand.

*one is “in” a line, not “on” it

Bolton Rips Trump

Getting reelected was the only thing that mattered.

It continues to be.

Bolton and Trump deserved each other. Mike Quigley on Bolton:

“At the time the country needed him most, and history will reflect, he chose to sell books,” said Rep. Mike Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “It wasn’t a question in his mind of whether or not he should talk about it. It’s whether or not he should profit from talking about it. Not exactly ‘Profiles in Courage.'”

Profiles in Cash Money. Boycott the book.

Dave Chappelle—8:46

A friend, whose politics are different than mine, recently asked me to “keep an open mind”.

He can do the same by spending 27 minutes listening to Dave Chappelle’s June 11th YouTube vid.

Raw. X-rated. Because it will definitely offend some, I chose not to embed it. You can easily find it.

An African-American acquaintance of mine tweeted about it this way:

“Feel how you feel about Dave Chapelle. He isn’t above critique. But this…stand up(?) he just released on YouTube is nothing short of genius.”

I wonder, what will my friend think?

Rethinking Policing

Patrick Skinner’s policing philosophy deserves a national audience. Here it is, in short:

“We all matter, or none of us do.”

Related. Unbundle the police. Take two. 

“The roles of warrior cop, traffic patroller, and tax collector are bound up in a way that practically guarantees a large number of violent encounters between armed police and civilians. The United States has about 40 percent more police officers per capita than England or Australia, but adjusted for population, U.S. law enforcement kills 20 to 100 times more people.”

Thursday Assorted Links

1. What happens to Powell’s Books when you can’t browse the aisles? Rethinking the books business.

“Do you have any advice you for someone considering opening an independent bookstore of their own right now? Don’t do it. Um, that’s not good advice. I don’t mean that. It is really a lovely line of work. My only advice is that it will always be challenging. You know, don’t get into the business thinking that if you sort of get a few things right in the beginning that then it will just work and I don’t have to think about it again. The work of book selling is always challenging. There’s always something new, whether it was the big box stores in the ’90s, and then Amazon and now this. There’s always something.”

2. Major landside destroys 8 homes in Northern Norway. Do not miss the embedded vid.

3. Falwell’s blackface tweet brings racial dissent to (anti)Liberty University.

“’It has become obvious to many that your heart is in politics more than Christian academia or ministry, so we would encourage you to leave the position of school president and pursue politics full time,’ said an open letter signed by 36 prominent African-American alumni, including several National Football League players. ‘Your statements hurt the ability of Liberty alumni to obtain jobs and have a voice in the culture. Having the school’s name on a résumé can be a liability to many of our graduates.’ The letter was turned into a petition on change.org, signed by nearly 37,000 people as of Monday.”

4. The TikTok house wreaking havoc next door. More counter evidence for American exceptionalism.

 

Trump Puts Nation on Alert for Terrorists Posing as Peaceful Seventy-Five-Year-Olds

Trump is keeping Andy Borowitz busy:

“Trump listed some ‘telltale signs of Antifa,’ in order to help Americans identify septuagenarian terrorists in their midst.

‘If the person appears to be seventy-five or older, with white hair and a peaceful demeanor, call the authorities immediately,’ Trump said.

He warned that Antifa terrorists are infiltrating American society ‘everywhere,’ even on Zoom.

‘If you are on Zoom with your family and an elderly person suddenly appears with a friendly smile, a string of pearls, and the nickname ‘Grandma,’ you have been attacked by Antifa,’ he said.”

 

Tuesday Assorted Links

1. Unbundle the police?

“It’s an unacknowledged peculiarity that police are in charge of road safety. Why should the arm of the state that investigates murder, rape and robbery also give out traffic tickets? Traffic stops are the most common reason for contact with the police. . . . Many of the police homicides, such as the killing of Philando Castile happened at ordinary traffic stops. But why do we need armed men (mostly) to issue a traffic citation? Don’t use a hammer if you don’t need to pound a nail. Road safety does not require a hammer.”

2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes as well as he played basketball, and I contend, he may have been the best ever. #UCLA.

“I don’t want to see stores looted or even buildings burn. But African Americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer. Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you’re choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands. But we have to stay vigilant, because it’s always still in the air.”

3. When it comes to Presidential leadership, Mexico just can’t win.

“The numbers were startling: In March, Mexico’s government said, the country’s emergency call centers were flooded with more than 26,000 reports of violence against women, the highest since the hotline was created.

But Mexico’s president brushed aside his own cabinet’s announcement, suggesting, without evidence, that the vast majority of the calls for help were little more than pranks.

‘Ninety percent of those calls that you’re referring to are fake,’ said the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, when asked about the surge in calls at a recent news conference. ‘The same thing happens with the calls the metro gets about sabotage or bombs.'”

For shit’s sake. This from a leftist populist, who won the presidency more than a year ago by promising to transform Mexico into a more equal society. Fool me how many times?