Crazies Corralled by Cops

Body cam videos of George Floyd’s behavior leading up to his death are on the Web, perhaps you’ve viewed them. They portray a badly disturbed individual flailing about, disconnected from reality. It’s likely he is very high on something, perhaps slowly dying from an overdose. 

This footage is a good impetus to talk about whether it was a good idea to turn over to police dealing with the mentally disturbed. The “guys in white coats” who were humorously pictured with butterfly nets haven’t existed for 50 years. 

In our society, police get to deal with those out of touch with reality, those hallucinating because they are disturbed or “on” some drug. I believe you can be certain it isn’t popular duty. 

I’m sure the cops would be the first to tell you they aren’t especially good at it. To be good they’d need a paramedic in every second or third police cruiser, and that isn’t going to happen. 

With the advent of psychoactive meds for psychosis, our society opted to turn its back on the mentally disturbed and the ‘chemically’ disturbed. Our behavior, if not our words, sent the message “If we ignore it, it will go away.” Needless to say, it didn’t, it won’t. 

Perhaps some city or state will come up with a more rational approach?

What Do You Believe?

A consequential presidential election happens in just under three months. Much is at stake. What you do then, how you vote and why you do it is important.

If you like riots and urban mess, see the police as the bad guys, think government does things better, want every campesino from Latin America as a neighbor, and believe you are the reason some Black Americans’ lives are bleak, by all means vote for Joe Biden. He agrees that our country is a bad place and will try to deliver the life you seek.

If, on the other hand, you believe people should behave, cops are mostly good guys (and gals) doing a tough job, know the private sector does most stuff better, want immigration limited to those who add to our stock of skills and productivity, and believe that most of our poor are that because of bad choices they made, vote for Donald Trump. He agrees our country is basically good and will help us make American normal again.

I’ve described two very different visions of our nation. I know which works for me, which works for you?

Famed Comics Pan Biden

Steven Hayward of Power Line has video of Johnny Carson panning Joe Biden for plagiarism back in 1987. After you watch that, check out Robin Williams making fun of Biden in 2012. 

Biden has been dishonest, a doofus and a figure of ridicule for decades. Plus he used to hang out with the Senate's segregationists - talk about "baggage." If nobody else votes for him, the comedians will.

Most Blacks Oppose Defunding Police

There's a new Gallup poll out which asked people about how much policing they wanted where they live and work. The findings may surprise you.

When asked whether they want the police to spend more time, the same amount of time or less time than they currently do in their area, most Black Americans -- 61% -- want the police presence to remain the same. This is similar to the 67% of all U.S. adults preferring the status quo, including 71% of White Americans.

Meanwhile, nearly equal proportions of Black Americans say they would like the police to spend more time in their area (20%) as say they'd like them to spend less time there (19%).

Asian Americans are the most likely to want less police presence where they live, with 28% saying this. That contrasts with 12% of White Americans, 17% of Hispanic Americans and 19% of Black Americans.

If I may be permitted a modest interpretation, some 81% of Black Americans want the same or more police presence where they work and live. On the other hand, Black Americans and Asian Americans have higher levels of concern (compared to Hispanic and White Americans) that an interaction they might have with police can turn ugly. 

The notion that Asian Americans want less police presence is surprising. It may be based on additional vehicular scrutiny. A LEO of my acquaintance has shared cop lore concerning "driving while Asian."

Snarky Tweet Storm

I don't often post links to Twitchy, today I'm making an exception. They've posted a Tweet by journalist S.E. Cupp and a series of replies by somebody who styles himself Hammerjack. 

Cupp posts a list of what her ideal presidential candidate would be like. Her clear intent is to denigrate Trump. Hammerjack takes her list apart with surgical precision and leaves it and her looking foolish. Here's his conclusion responding to her last item which was "accepts defeat":

Honey, Trump hasn't been defeated in anything yet. In fact, in spite of all the crap that the Dem establishment and NeverTrump nincompoops like @secupp have thrown at him, he has nevertheless persisted.

If anyone hasn't accepted defeat, it's them.

The "Honey" may be ill-advised, but the rest is on-target. The collection is snarky fun and largely truthful too. 

No Stinkin' Tests

See video of presidential wannabe Joe Biden at Twitter being interviewed by CBS News where, in answer to a question about taking cognitive tests which look for dementia, Biden replies:

No, I haven't taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test? C'mon man. That's like saying you, before you got in this program, if you take a test where you're taking cocaine or not, what do you think huh? Are you a junkie?

You almost know what Joe means. Note to Biden: Lots of people have to pass drug tests to get hired, maybe including this reporter. 

I labeled him "Word Salad Joe" and it really fits. You think Trump's sales pitches are bad? Imagine listening to Biden's semi-coherent babble for four years. Hat tips to Power Line for the link, and to The Treasure of Sierra Madre for the title.

The Zero Sum Game

Power Line's Paul Mirengoff wraps up yesterday's primary elections noting that several far left candidates won Democratic slots in districts considered "safe" for Dems. He concludes:

It’s sad to see odious, America-hating far leftists enter Congress and, despite their small numbers, gain influence in the Democratic Party. However, their presence and influence are a minus for the Dems, and therefore a plus for the GOP. As always, partisan politics is a zero sum game.

As long as the U.S. remains a de facto two party system, the "zero sum game" descriptor is accurate. Voting strategies become much more convoluted in multiparty systems.

Trump, Likely Voters Agree

Paul Mirengoff of Power Line cites the Rasmussen Reports which asked Americans whether the federal government should be involved in forcing low-income housing into suburbs where most current residents are not low income. They find:

A poll released Tuesday by Rasmussen Reports found that 73% of likely voters thought the federal government should not play a role in deciding where people can live. 65% of respondents said it is not the government’s job to diversify neighborhoods based on income..

56% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans said it is not the government’s job to diversify neighborhoods. 68% of unaffiliated voters said the same. . . .

52% of black respondents and 71% of white respondents said it is not the government’s job to diversify neighborhoods. 53% of non-black minority respondents said the same.

The poll shows substantial majorities agree with the stance President Trump has taken, in cancelling AFFH. On the other hand, presidential wannabe Joe Biden promises to enforce Obama's AFFH with vigor, a view popular with slightly over a quarter of the electorate.

Good News ... Maybe

Post-Brexit, the U.S. is quite important to the Brits, so this from Power Line isn't surprising. As the British have somewhat reduced betting on Europe and shifted their focus to us, the direction of our politics has become more important to them.

Britain’s Sunday Express is doing polling in the U.S. in conjunction with the Democracy Institute, a right-leaning Washington think tank. The most recent results, as published in the Express, look great for President Trump.

The Express/Democracy Institute Poll finds President Trump leading Joe Biden 48/46 in national popular vote. This includes leads for Trump in a long series of swing states that includes Minnesota, where Trump leads 46/45. This poll, assuming the same results on Election Day and disregarding voter fraud, sees Trump expanding on his 2016 winning margin.

The poll sees Trump getting 20% of the black vote and 38% of the Hispanic vote, winning numbers for him.

It also finds a wide enthusiasm gap in favor of President Trump, and a wide partisan difference in willingness to express political opinions.

One robin doesn't mean spring has arrived, and as author Hinderaker notes, one poll can be an outlier. We need to see if other polls start trending in this direction. 

Libertarians vs. Puritans

I remember when the cops patrolled lovers lanes checking parked cars for teens screwing, when police busted gays. When all sex was private and between unwed people, very private. When bigamy or polygamy was prosecuted. None of this has been the case for some years now. Transexuals, once laughed at or treated for mental illness, are now celebrated.

Pedophiles are still hunted and prosecuted, I wonder how soon that too will be remembered as "the bad old days" when people were unaccepting? Now this from Taki's Magazine:

SOMERVILLE, Mass.—Under its new domestic partnership ordinance, the city of Somerville now grants polyamorous groups the rights held by spouses in marriage, such as the right to confer health insurance benefits or make hospital visits. —New York Times, July 5, 2020

Maybe soon nothing will be illegal. I mean, people want to defund the police. Why bother with police if any and all human behavior is acceptable, at least to some? 

Burn down a police station? Sure. Sex with animals? Why not? Sex in public as a performing art? We're almost there now. How about sadists actually tearing up masochists as entertainment? How long before we go there?

Why not gladiatorial games with real deaths guaranteed, blood on the sand? We simulated the heck out of this in Game of Thrones. How about suicidal people selling tickets to their auto de fe'? Or maybe arranging in advance to donate all one's organs and dying peacefully on the operating table as one is disassembled?

All behavior now seems okay, but we're cracking down on opinions, on speech. We've learned to call that crackdown "cancel culture." 

You can do anything, but you sure as blazes can't say anything. "Saying" or "writing" are acts with which you need to be darned careful if you have a job or position in society to lose.

Our society is becoming too weird; ideas are dangerous, behaviors aren't. Behaviorally the libertarians have won, ideologically we're in the grasp of Puritans. Time was when the exact reverse was true, and frankly that time made more sense, at least to this old guy.

Adolescent Political Behavior

We wrote recently about the link between mental health difficulties and progressive liberalism. As one does, I let this thought ricochet around in my mind and came up with the following connection.

Many have noted runaway idealism in the young, which in most individuals mature into a more pragmatic recognition of the wisdom of many of our long time institutions. Perhaps, as so often the case, Winston Churchill said it best:

Anyone who was not a liberal at 20 years of age has no heart, while anyone who was still a liberal at 40 has no head.

My insight: Those who remain liberal/progressive at and beyond age 40 are cases of arrested development, a refusal (or inability?) to grow up. In short, some form of mental health difficulty. And for those younger than 40, well they’re just acting their age and, one hopes, with normal maturation will grow out of it.

‘Guvment’ Didn’t Shine

The Washington Examiner writes about all the various ways government failed to cope effectively with the corona virus epidemic. The agencies - CDC, HHS, FDA - specifically tasked with health crises have repeatedly failed to do what their mission statements say they should be able to do. 

The Congress has been conventionally hapless, the epidemiologists have been behind the curve, and the “science” concerning Covid-19 is all over the place contradicting itself. Plus the World Health Organization has shown itself to be in China’s pocket.

Nobody comes out of this looking good. Everybody is guessing and too often they guessed wrong. Various governors sent Covid sick seniors into nursing homes where the results were thousands of deaths.

One thing has become clear - if someone who hated humans wanted to build a mechanism that would turn a local disease outbreak into a worldwide epidemic killing millions, he or she would come up with something a lot like our network of airlines. These can transport disease vector/passengers anywhere in the world in 24 hours, while infecting their fellow passengers en route. The only reason we didn’t get a world Ebola epidemic is because the poor people who caught it never fly.

He’s a Titan

Writing in of all places the Washington Post, Hugh Hewitt lists what President Trump has accomplished in his first term. The list is impressive and very much worth reading.

Trump has confronted China’s efforts to diminish us, appointed nearly 200 federal judges, cut federal regulations and boosted the economy (before the Chinese virus torpedoed it), increased military spending, stopped tilting toward Iran and resumed tilting toward Israel, ended ISIS as a ‘country,’ killed several leading terrorists, cleaned up the Veterans Administration, gotten nearly 300 miles of border wall built, and outed the media as operatives of the Democrats.

He did all that in the face of, in spite of, the most ferocious opposition any president has faced in recent decades. Did it while fending off a politically motivated impeachment. Did it while carrying on a series of petty feuds via Twitter.

A hyperactive guy, he’s done all that and seemingly had a good time in the process. Like his populist predecessors Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt, his style has grated on those with genteel sensibilities.

Too. Damn. Bad. 

Imagine what he can get done in another four years. The mind boggles.

The Claim Disproves Itself

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), House Majority Whip, speaking on CNN, as quoted by Ed Driscoll writing at Instapundit. Clyburn speaks of Donald Trump.

I feel very strongly that this man has taken on a strong arm tactics and I feel very strongly that he is Mussolini, Putin and Hitler.

Rep. Clyburn's living presence on CNN renders his claim ludicrous. Were Trump any one of those tyrants, Rep. Clyburn would have long since been buried in a landfill, and CNN would be a distant memory.

Sunday Snark

Headline from the satirical website The Babylon Bee:

Biden Campaign Says He Is So Close To A VP Pick He Can Smell Her

Rumors are starting to circulate that Dems are thinking about a replacement for Word Salad Joe. 

The Left Is Loony

We've wondered whether progressives are entirely sane, now there is some evidence our concerns were justified. Power Line's Steven Hayward posts research results mostly rounded up by Zach Goldberg at Georgia State University. 

White progressives are more likely than White conservatives to report having had a medical diagnosis of a mental health condition (38% vs. 11%). In another study, the very liberal report higher depression and stress scores than conservatives (+0.43 vs. -0.20). 

A Pew study found almost a third of very liberal White men were not very masculine (32%), while few conservative White men were in this category (5-8%). And a Cato Institute study found that conservatives and the educated were more fearful of revealing their political opinions lest they "lose their job or miss out on job opportunities" if their opinions were known.

An anomalous finding, Hispanics are more fearful of revealing their opinions than either Whites or Blacks. Perhaps it's because, as recent immigrants, many are likely to work for conservative Whites?

It's too bad they didn't ask how many progressive women are not very feminine, don't you think? Dysphoria appears common on the left.

Hypocrisy

Sites I monitor are carrying links to a variety of articles pointing out the hypocrisy of demanding social distancing and crowd avoidance of everyone except those protesting in support of Black Lives Matter or attending funerals for Black civil rights leaders. 

In fact, one tells of a reporter trying to get Dr. Fauci to say on the record that, from a purely health standpoint, such large gatherings shouldn’t happen. Fauci wouldn’t do it - instead equivocating - apparently fearful of ... cancel culture.

Does anybody believe the gottverdammt Chinese coronavirus gives a hoot about the righteousness of one’s cause? That allegation is risible on its face. The virus doesn’t care, but the public health officials certainly appear to care a lot about their “perceived righteousness.” 

These are deeply hypocritical times. The zeitgeist coerces many in public life to act in ways that have them appearing unserious, foolish and undeserving of our respect. 

Claims about new clothes to the contrary notwithstanding, the ‘emperors’ of our public life are naked. I propose to keep calling attention thereto.

Groups Within Groups

The New York Post reports allegations of violent gangs operating within the enormous (ca.10,000 deputies) Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. One wonders if this is an early emergence of the sort of police vigilantism we wrote about recently. Unsurprising, if true.

Sports and Politics

NBA, NFL, and MLB players are reported as taking knees for the National Anthem at opening games. NHL players stood proud for the National Anthem at their opener. 

What do you think is the variable that caused three leagues to go one direction and a fourth to go the opposite direction? If you haven't thought about the answer to that question, you should.

You might arrive at a very non-PC answer. In an era of "cancel culture," I advise being very careful sharing your answer with others.

An Opportunity Lost

His recent speech at the funeral of Rep. John Lewis reminds us that we gave Barack Obama the opportunity to become America's Nelson Mandela. Instead he chose to be our Robert Mugabe.