“Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide”

What’d you think you were paying them to do, Slate?

The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane.

“At least one instance.” But probably more, right? Cops were likely hunting for opportunities to shove old people down stairs, too.

Longtime readers know that I have long held a dire view of American policing; I’d like to see all SWAT-type units disbanded, all military weaponry reassigned, and the police move back to a more traditional “peace officer” rather than “law enforcement” model. Certainly the police in Minneapolis behaved disgracefully, and many others have over the years. There’s a lot to criticize.

But come on. They could have been clearing streets with fire all weekend. Overall the response has been remarkably restrained.

Home delivery favorites, lockdown-style

We haven't ordered any home-delivery meals during the lockdown, mostly because practically no one around here will deliver to our location in the boonies.  It's interesting to see what's trending in different states.  I confess I had never heard of "Bubble Tea," a favorite in three states.  Apparently it's an iced tea-based drink with milk and tapioca pearls, sort of milk-shakey.  Spam musubi also was a new one on me, as were boo buns (sweetened bread rolls).  Poke bowls (sushi salad) look good, but I've never encountered one.

Everything else on this map is something I'd seriously consider ordering if I were in a city where it was available and I was stuck in a hotel room or something, without room service, which is more and more often the case these days.  Hamburgers, chicken wings, Asian food of various sorts, sure.

Crawdads were a Texas favorite, though not with us.  I mean, I like crawdads, but it wouldn't occur to me to order them for home delivery.

All depends what you're angry about

Protest the lockdown?  Expect to be arrested, because no matter how angry you are, safety first.

Protest the murder of George Floyd?  Expect to be coddled, because we understand how angry you are.  Also because we don't want you to burn the city down, which we can be pretty sure those anti-lockdown types won't do.

If DeBlasio wants to make it 100% clear it's about the control, not about public health, he's doing it right.

Riding Free

We may have fewer things under our control than we’d prefer, but not none. Here are some of the things I managed make happen today.

This breakfast of beef ribs I started to make happen the afternoon before so they could slow roast all night. Finished under the broiler with butter to give a nice crust. Fresh guacamole, aged chili.

Lady Luck saddled up.

Mushroom found along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Lone Bald Overlook.

UPDATE:

Stone sculpture of a mushroom. The base stone was quite challenging, but I finally managed to lift and carry it. 

Minneapolis goes down the tubes

And Los Angeles, Columbus, Louisville, New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte are trying to follow.

Free Americans

So the other night we saw the video with the guys who came down to protect protests and ended up preventing looting. At one point one says “If it was more than just four of us, we could go stop” looting.

However, the video only shows two.

Up the militia. Supporting each other’s natural rights, life, liberty, and property, without regard to the narrative that we ought to be defined by our differences. When the police fled and the state failed, free Americans together did right.

So the Army Wanted to Haul Some Stuff in the Arctic

The Drive has an interesting article on the history of this beast.

Twitter is . . . oh, you know already

"Looters will be shot" is glorifying violence and must be screened from a delicate public.

Minneapolis is . . . oh, you know already.

Word Has Gotten Around

So that tobacco store that didn’t get burned down last night like everything else, because the two “rednecks” guarded it with rifles?  The community appears to have learned the lesson.

Is Such A Thing Even Possible?

A new study suggests that the authoritarian personality type can sometimes be found on the left. 

On the upside, replicating this finding shouldn’t be a problem.

H/t: Titiana McGrath.

Bill of Rights Suspended by 9th Circuit

This is unacceptable.

The "constitutional standards that would normally govern our review of a Free Exercise claim should not be applied," wrote the two judges in the majority opinion.

"We're dealing here with a highly contagious and often fatal disease for which there presently is no known cure. In the words of Justice Robert Jackson, if a '(c)ourt does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact,'" according to the opinion.

It’s hardly a suicide pact to allow low risk people to choose to attend services given that the fatality rate is apparently under one percent. Most won’t choose to go anyway. Less burdensome options like education have already persuaded most people of the wisdom of that.

Meanwhile in Maryland, a local government has banned the Eucharist.

Another Gunfighter Ballad

This ballad is highly implausible on many points historically, but it's very much fitting the cowboy culture of the 1950s Westerns -- especially on television. It's a nice piece anyway.

Rapier vs. Katana

This is a South Korean school playing with a Japanese vs. HEMA martial art match, first at 4/5ths speed and later at full speed.



I'll give you an interpretive hint: this match is going to be rapier all day. The rapier is better steel, it is longer, and it is deadly at the point. The katana has to work mostly on slashing motions that require the shorter blade to use a longer part of the overall blade length to generate killing force. The rapier guy taps his wrist a few times to indicate contact, but he's got a basket hilt that will have limited the force the katana can deliver to his wrists: he's indicating cuts. His blows are deadly penetrating stabs.

Watch how he holds the center through the whole match, his opponent always driven to the periphery. It's objectively a better weapon, a better style.

The rapier is not a joke, even though in our movie culture it's generally treated as a toy, and the katana (following Japanese cinema) as if it were a magic weapon.

It is possible to beat a longer stabbing weapon with a shorter slashing one, but it requires going outside the rules of formal fencing.

Rednecks with AR-15s, Or, "Free Americans"

What are they doing at the riots? Supporting the protests but also protecting stores from being looted, if you take them at their word. Worth watching.

Fake News Today

BB: Time Magazine names Karen ‘Person of the Year.’

Karen will be joining Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bill Anders, and Hitler as one of the most important and newsworthy people of the last 100 years.

So Not Super Professional?

An analysis of the Crossfire Hurricane basis.

In a normal, legitimate FBI Electronic Communication, or EC, there would be a "To" and a "From" line. The Crossfire Hurricane EC has only a "From" line; it is from a part of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division whose contact is listed as Peter Strzok. The EC was drafted also by Peter Strzok. And, finally, it was approved by Peter Strzok. Essentially, it is a document created by Peter Strzok, approved by Peter Strzok, and sent from Peter Strzok to Peter Strzok.

On that basis alone, the document is an absurdity, violative of all FBI protocols and, therefore, invalid on its face. An agent cannot approve his or her own case; that would make a mockery of the oversight designed to protect Americans. Yet, for this document, Peter Strzok was pitcher, catcher, batter and umpire.

Keep in mind as you read the rest that the Flynn investigation, Crossfire Razor, was a spin-off of this one. Also, that it cleared him.

Crisis in NYC

If the Big Apple doesn't get buckets of federal tax dollars, they'll have to make painful changes in how they do things.

Why don't they just raise taxes on the rich?

It's best for them if they don't get the money.  It's awful to think of the anguish they'd have to endure, considering how they despise the source of the largesse.

Men in space

If the weather holds, we may have a private manned space launch today:

Wednesday’s launch ... will be the first time a commercially built vehicle carries NASA astronauts into orbit and the first time that SpaceX attempts to ferry human passengers to the space station.

Witnesses

They just straight up killed this guy.  If there had been no store video, we'd have been left with the official account:

"After he got out, he physically resisted officers,” police spokesman John Elder told reporters early Tuesday. “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and officers noticed that the man was going into medical distress."

Yeah, no. You can't see anything in the video that looks like resisting arrest, and the guy died on the pavement with a knee on his neck for about 8 minutes. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, but he was dead on the pavement.  That's what they meant by noticing that he was going into medical distress, as if it were a coincidence:  oh, look, he's not breathing for some reason!  Pro tip:  a red flag was his repeated cries of "I can't breathe," before he got really still and quiet.

There were lots of witnesses, but it's the video that will be believed.

Advance notice

This is interesting, if it's not just someone cherrypicking: