Three more police officers were killed today, in Baton Rouge. Three injured. The same word used as in Dallas— “ambush.” The fear and despair I’m feeling right now are mostly due to three beliefs: that such killings a) might have been inevitable, b) will certainly only make things worse, and c) may well happen again..
The NYPD’s ‘Work Stoppage’ Is Surreal. Matt Taibbi describes the strange twist of New York’s Police Benevolent Association (which becomes a more and more ironic title by the minute) deciding to start making arrests “only when they have to” in order to try and stick it to Mayor Bill de Blasio by depriving the city.
Let me count the ones I see. 1. Obey the law, and you have nothing to fear.2. Break the law, and you deserve to be tortured to death.3. Rules #1 and #2 are applied equally to all Americans.4. Police never break the law themselves.5. When they do, they are never protected in ways civilians wouldn’t.
Exhibit A: You might make as big a fool of yourself as Lawrence O’Donnell did. See, there is this video making the rounds of a reporter from Reason magazine talking to Matt Damon (the actor) about incentives to perform one’s job, comparing actors to teachers. But much more important than this exchange was O’Donnell’s reaction.
New Hampshire Tea Partiers’ opinions of gay marriage range from apathetic to vaguely supportive. I wonder how many of those people are members of the Free State Project. Check out the guy at 42 seconds in. Iowa, Florida, and Minnesota are trying to ban covert photography of factory farm operations. I would’ve thought that unauthorized.