The dog at the end is like "What were you, raised by wolves?" https://t.co/8p0AEFKTiW
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) May 27, 2022
(To be fair, that golden gives his human the same look, sometimes… )
by Anne Laurie| Leave a Comment
This post is in: Civil Rights, Open Threads
The dog at the end is like "What were you, raised by wolves?" https://t.co/8p0AEFKTiW
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) May 27, 2022
(To be fair, that golden gives his human the same look, sometimes… )
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Healthcare, Open Threads
U.S. COVID update:
– New cases: 141,078
– Average: 110,515 (-698)
– States reporting: 32/50
– In hospital: 26,080 (+180)
– In ICU: 2,826 (+13)
– New deaths: 424
– Average: 364 (-11)More data: https://t.co/ohnVKtNdM3 pic.twitter.com/AYZ4ovuQqq
— BNN United States (@BNNUS) May 28, 2022
Covid-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, May 27-28Post + Comments (19)
This post is in: Nature & Respite, Open Threads, Popular Culture
Something for practically every taste!
A remastered concert film of an epic March 1985 performance by Prince & The Revolution in Syracuse, New York, will be released next week.
“The next generation needs to see this because this is what it was all about," says Revolution member Lisa Coleman. https://t.co/cXWgNzkOws— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) May 23, 2022
Friday Evening Pop-Cult Open Thread: Boomer OptionsPost + Comments (59)
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics
This journalist was denied access, despite having credentials. So instead he covered the protests. I think his time was better spent there. Click on any of his tweets to read his full report.
I've been escorted out of the NRA convention by police for asking why my application was rejected.
"It's full. We are at capacity."
I asked what capacity means.
"That's proprietary."
I asked the officer if anyone else has been escorted out.
He said no. pic.twitter.com/tb9caUzK7T
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) May 27, 2022
Protesters chase away impotent white NRA supporter:
Here at the anti-NRA protest in Houston, I just witnessed North Texas based right wing provocateur who goes by the name Chet Goldstein get ejected by the crowd for trying to disrupt the event pic.twitter.com/PkW7tLQs7p
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) May 27, 2022
Friday Late Afternoon Open Thread: NRA ProtestsPost + Comments (47)
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics
… On If The Party Ejects And Then Resets Before Britain Elects. Part III (and last, for the moment) of this Letter from Brexitannia installment:
It was always, absolutely, definitely going to happen. The very nature of the beasts involved made it an exercise in Pavlovian inevitability, but by the citrus-flavoured kisses of the Man from Delmonte, literally the only way they could have been more blatant about it is if they’d tattooed “Laws R 4 Loozerz” on their shaven taints and performed this dance of the seven bullshits via the medium of naked synchronised swimming.
I speak, of course, of the decision made by the London Metropolitan Police Force, popularly known as The Met, the Order of Paramilitary Freemasons, Those Wacky Whitewashers, or just The Filth, to shit with great force and infinite contempt upon the very concept of blind justice by concluding Operation Hillman – their half-arsed ‘investigation’ into multiple incidents of alcohol fuelled rule-breaking at Number 10 Downing Street during the 2020 Lockdowns – with a final blast of Fixed Penalty Notices addressed to various low-level civil servants and nameless petty officials while somehow sparing any further embarrassment to that globulous splat of lardy vileness whose house it (currently) is, namely our esteemed (Sub)Prime Minister, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
Now, you may ask, how is it even possible that 126 FPNs could be issued to people identified by The Met as being present at one or more of the 12 illegal gatherings they claimed to be investigating, but Flobalob, who was at 6 of them, only got a single FTN, and that for the “ambushed by a cake” surprise birthday party organised by his tardily legitimised [Spermbaker Apparent]… err, Wife Mark#3?
That’s a very good question, and so’s this one.
How could The Met justify fining, say, a junior assistant to the Prime Minister’s Permanent Private Secretary for being at the same illegal gathering as the Prime Minister without also fining the Prime Minister? How does that work, exactly? If the gathering is illegal, attendance is illegal. If all are equal before the eyes of the Law, how can some attendees be given fines while others (the hosts, in fact) escape unscathed?
Basically, because it’s The Met, baby. Protecting those with Establishment cred is what they do. Effectively it’s all they do. There’s nothing else. If you’re not wired into the In-Crowd by birth, wealth or patronage then The Met couldn’t give a single solitary fuckadoodle about you. In fact, if you’re not in the In-Crowd, then as far as they’re concerned, you’re nothing more than a potentially illegal trespasser within their metropolitan demesne who deserves, nay, demands, to feel the full majesty of the Law Unbound manifest around your head, neck and exposed kidneys in the form of an enthusiastically wielded truncheon, and that’s if they don’t just shoot you dead for being flagrantly brown. They’re not so much corrupt as they are misnamed. It’s not a Police Force per se, it’s a publicly funded private security militia with occupation duties over a city of 9 million sullen natives and a duty to serve and protect only the ‘right’ kind of people.
Because of that, it’s not like any of this is in the least bit surprising. Indeed, Flobalob knew and boasted back in April that he would only be investigated for 2 out of the 6 illegal gatherings he was known to have attended and had been assured he would only get one FPN. It was in the papers and everything.
So, who told him that, then?
This post is in: Open Threads
All through this nightmarish week, the timeline authorities in Texas offered for the police response to the school shooting kept falling apart. It’s normal for early accounts of what happened in a chaotic situation to evolve, but the changing story in this case seemed like ass-covering, and this catastrophic press conference basically confirms that:
On 40 minute delay in police engaging the suspect inside Robb Elementary School, officials say, "a decision was made that this was a barricaded subject…there was time to retrieve the keys."
"From the benefit of hindsight…it was the wrong decision." https://t.co/q812K5OQTv pic.twitter.com/59SMt32ElZ
— ABC News (@ABC) May 27, 2022
Earlier, video emerged of frantic parents being treated like criminals for questioning the cops’ strategy of standing around outside the school. One woman, Angeli Rose Gomez, heard about the shooting while at work and drove 40 miles to the school to see about her second- and third-grade children. Here’s more of her story from the anti-cop, commie WSJ:
Ms. Gomez, a farm supervisor, was also waiting outside for her children. She said she was one of numerous parents who began encouraging—first politely, and then with more urgency—police and other law enforcement to enter the school sooner. After a few minutes, she said, U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, telling her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation.
Ms. Gomez said she convinced local Uvalde police officers whom she knew to persuade the marshals to set her free…
Ms. Gomez described the scene as frantic. She said she saw a father tackled and thrown to the ground by police and a third pepper-sprayed. Once freed from her cuffs, Ms. Gomez made her distance from the crowd, jumped the school fence, and ran inside to grab her two children. She sprinted out of the school with them.
The U.S. Marshals deny cuffing Ms. Gomez, but who’s credible here? The people who keep changing the story? I believe her.
JFC. I know we need law enforcement, but seriously, what the fuck are we doing? Even aside from the atrocity in Texas and the occupying force mentality most cops display toward “civilians,” complete with summary beatings and executions that fall disproportionately on people of color, what are we getting for our massive police investment?
The average “clearance rates” are godawful for all categories of crimes nationwide. Is this true in other countries too? I honestly don’t know. But dumping money and military equipment on police forces here doesn’t seem to be working.
Open thread.
Maybe the “Defund the Police” people are right…Post + Comments (84)
by TaMara| 54 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
From one of the best presidents ever:
Do you remember this photo?
I sure do.
In 2009, Carlton Philadelphia, a National Security Council staffer, brought his wife and two sons to the Oval Office for a departure photo. Carlton’s older son, Isaac, asked me a few questions about policy, but a more surprising question came from his younger brother, five-year-old Jacob.
“Is your hair like mine?” he asked.
It wasn’t the kind of question a president gets every day.
So, I bent down and told him, “Go ahead, touch it.”
He replied, “Yeah, I think that’s pretty much what I’ve got. ”
White House photographer Pete Souza captured that moment and for years the photo hung in the halls of the West Wing. It was a reminder of one of the reasons I first ran for president: that if I were to win, young people—Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who may not have always felt like they belonged—might see more possibilities for their own future.
It’s hard to believe 13 years have passed. Today, Jacob will graduate high school and continue on to the University of Memphis to study political science. And I couldn’t be more proud of him.
Congratulations, Jacob, and best of luck to the Class of 2022.
—Barack
Just a reminder there are good things, good people, and hope in the world. Some days it’s hard to remember.
My new morning reminder:
This is an open thread
Friday Open Thread: Good Things, Obama EditionPost + Comments (54)