Of course, Charles's religious intolerance is exclusive to Christianity, but what I don't understand is how an independent book store does not have an element of hope.

A love song in war-time. That was a good briefing CM.

Have on the briefing from the governor of Minnesota on MSNBC. The sign language interpreter is putting on just a brilliant performance. To make a reference I myself don't quite fully appreciate, she's like the Amy Cooper of sign language interpreters. If there were an Emmy for sign language interpreters on gubernatorial briefings--she'd win hands down.

No way this chick could ever get the same gig in NY. That bastard Cuomo wouldn't want her to upstage him.

I don't check who wrote the AM news, I like to read it and then guess. I can tell the Charles ones from the first two or three sentences (which means I don't bother to read further).

As far as the political ramifications of these civil disturbances goes, you could look at it two ways-
The more conventional view would be that Middle America is horrified by what they see and scared to death of a descent into anarchy. Republicans are much better poised as the party of "law and order" to benefit.
On the other hand, here we have the first President in our history whose response is not to appeal to calm but to pour gasoline on the fire.
As a bigot he is simply unable to consider civil rights concerns of Black Americans as having merit. we all know this.
The threat is that another 4 years of this and the country gets ripped apart and E Pluribus Unum dies an ignominious death.
Previously, Trump apologists made the argument maybe Trump is an idiot but the economy is good and nothing bad has happened.
Well now something bad is happening and his response of shoot to kill might very well NOT be what Middle America wants to hear.

@5, this is a good analysis. I just hope that Biden and co. are not stupid enough to take the bait and come across as apologists for the looters and other anarchists who have hijacked these protests and done their part to pour gasoline on the fire.

Biden has to be able to present enough nuance that, to use an analogy, if you're not on Bolsonaro's side, then you've got to take the side of the gangs in the favelas. The GOP agenda has sort of descended into Make America Brazil Again. And voters might be willing to listen to Biden saying something along the lines of Make America America again.

Oh, and my inner left-wing troll has a response to my comment @3: "So a black man was lynched by police and Minnesota is on fire and all you can do is gush over a sign language interpreter?! Have you no shame?"

Hey, forgive me for trying to take some good away from a horrible tragedy. And yeah, my inner left-wing troll is a total shithead.

Rephrasing @6: Biden has to be able to present enough nuance that, to use an analogy, HE DOESN'T GET SUCKED INTO THE FALSE CHOICE THAT if you're not on Bolsonaro's side, then you've got to take the side of the gangs in the favelas.

I see Klobuchar's going to be on TV soon. Interested to hear what she has to say.

@ 5,

The Despicables voted for Prezirapist AntiChrist because of his racism and vows of ethnic cleansing and to grab 'em by the pussy. They hate us and want us dead. Threats of mass murder are exactly what they want; if anything, this will increase white America's support.

On a positive note, if he manages to take down soulless, greedy, sleazy, oligarch accomplices like Fuckerberg and @Jack, at least something good will come out of this grotesque national nightmare.

GermanSausage @8, you're one to talk. I'm afraid all the police departments in the country couldn't kill 1% of the African Americans you want to kill with this herd immunity garbage you've been peddling on these threads for weeks now. At least George Floyd didn't have to spend weeks experiencing the feeling of "I can't breathe" before he perished, as you might have preferred.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/27/as-us-coronavirus-deaths-cross-100000-black-americans-bear-disproportionate-share-of-fatalities.html

Disclaimer: This comment is unfair, and not the sort of rhetoric I would normally engage in. I will say, though, it is fun to occasionally troll the trolls.

And with that, I think I've said all I have to say in this thread.

Black people take a knee to protest the murder of black people by cops and they are threatened by Trump and his ilk as being unpatriotic. They are forced to not take a knee (obey) or they lose their jobs, are thrown out of their schools, and are vilified as hating this country.

Black people, angry and fed up with the endless and relentless murder of black people by cops and the constant policing of their lives by white people from birth to death - as they are harassed for existing every single day in every conceivable way, erupt in anger and use the only language this country, especially white people, understand - violence - and they are vilified and the racist shitgibbon in the WH calls for their execution.

It is honestly beyond time that this entire country be burned to the ground. White people are the people who have to dismantle and destroy the system of white supremacist terrorism. White people need to stop the assault on humanity. White people have continuously refused to do so. Everyone else (including some white people, but obviously not enough) are fed up. Fed up with white male murderers being treated as kind, misunderstood people, while black people are murdered for existing, for breathing, for living.

White America only understands violence. It uses it every day in a non-stop assault against others. And then White America has the nerve to get all uppity and outraged when other people use their own language of violence in response to the inhumane injustice White America foists on everyone else.

Fuck White America. White America is why this country is currently in catastrophic chaos, loss, and destruction due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump had to destroy everything Obama did in order to make sure that White America was placated for the anomaly of Black President. White America would literally rather destroy itself than evolve.

White America only has itself to blame. It will deny, obfuscate, misdirect, blame, and lie to avoid all responsibility. Just like the shitgibbon in the WH that it put there.

White America needs to be brought to its knees and executed because the rest of us have had enough. White America must be dismantled and destroyed by any means necessary in the name of saving humanity. If White America will not acquiesce, then it will be brought down the hard way, with its own language, and when it is finally done, the world will be at peace.

The local bookstore was untouched because lawless rioters want the TVs, entertainment systems, DVDs, appliances, clothing, food and other goods available at Target. They don't have any use for the books available at the bookstore. QED

@11 - Please chill dear.

@1) my mistake. i meant: To be honest, it would have been better if they looted the bookstore and not the Target. The former has the element of hope, the latter does not.

Thank you Charles!

I do enjoy getting challenged by your provocative prose, btw.

Minny cop's been arrested.

Only one of the cops was arrested? Sounds like another precinct or three needs to burn.

@21 Forsooth on the science, but "herd immunity" in a context like this can only mean letting the vulnerable die and then the remaining herd will have resistance by default. That would be very scientific, but I for one don't think it would be good policy.

Normally in a public health context, "herd immunity" refers to a situation where you have a vaccine. Individuals who cannot, for whatever reason, receive the vaccine will benefit from the immunity in the vaccinated population. A set of circs that, obviously, has nothing to do with C19.

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Matthew 6:5-6

@26 Why are you involving me in your ridiculous commentary war? Using me as fodder to backup your absurdity is bullshit. You are making shit up and spewing it out as fact.

Every single place in this country and abroad that opened May 1st is now having to close down again. You continue to bleat on about herd immunity and other BS that has been repeatedly decried by scientists and medical professionals. I don't want the hospital beds all for myself, asshole, I want them (all 25 of them) for the nearly 7,000 people that live here and all 50 in the county for the 40,000 people who live and work in the county.

Two seafood processing plants have had outbreaks here on the northern Oregon coast and most of the people who work in those plants are not white. More cases announced daily (one this morning). As soon as the coast is flooded with people (and to be clear, just as many show up from WA as they do OR) there will be an untenable situation with too many sick and not enough resources to serve them. But we should, what, let them come here and do what they will and get sick and die on the streets? Your "plan" is no plan at all.

Vancouver, WA (Clark County) is shut down after a huge outbreak (including another food processing plant - frozen fruit) and their outbreak affects Portland, OR because of all of the people who commute for work and/or cross the river for whatever reason to go to Portland - OHSU is the largest employer in the area, in the state of OR in fact. Multnomah County, which includes Portland, is not yet open due to the high number of cases there.

Wanting people to get sick and/or die so you can get back to your life is deranged.

@32 You are projecting, 100% and your warped interpretation of my words is about you,
---- not me!

I find this report from the medical examiner very suspicious:

The medical examiner found no findings that support diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation, the complaint says. Instead, it says that Floyd had coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease and “the combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.”

@32: Yeah no. Everything xina said in her comment is factual and sound. You have a weird thing about "herd immunity" fine, clutch that straw, I get that you want things to get "back to normal" but the data doesn't support it.

"On the other hand, here we have the first President in our history whose response is not to appeal to calm but to pour gasoline on the fire. "

You forgot about Nixon. Trump is not smart. He is not original. Even his impeachment was basically the same thing (breaking the law to get elected). Trump is just a stupider version of Nixon.

@39: Yeah, it seems to be putting the cart before the horse. Heard immunity is a result of natural conditions that probably was never meant to be artificially created.

@37: Yes. yes David It has already been established that you are an awful human being. Honesty were the boogaloo to occur I've no doubt you'd be right out there shooting "the wrong kind of people" on the weekends and then back to work on Monday like that Serbian dentist in the 90s.

@44: She probably describes it using a different adjective.

Imagine another country starts a war by invading. One way to end the war would be to unconditionally surrender to the invading force. Let's call this the French Option.

Herd immunity is the French Option for disease.

@27, sorry, i have a problem with the belief that an ape created the universe. sorry, i just cant get around that.

34 - Again, the question you must ask yourself and that a jury will ask themselves is: Would he have died had the cop not been kneeling across his throat? I know the answer to what I believe is beyond reasonable doubt. I bet a jury will, too.

An excellent read

America Returns to Its Violent Normal
Violence is only permissible here when it’s state-sanctioned
Hanif Abdurraqib

https://gen.medium.com/america-returns-to-its-violent-normal-d6828edbd27d

@47: You need to look past the cartoonish facades of religion, and dig deeper in the understanding of faith, to see why you don't get it.

@50,

Whether or not he "gets" issues of faith is irrelevant. His stance that idiots shouldn't be going to church is what's at issue, and he's absolutely correct in saying that they shouldn't, and saying this doesn't in any way make him a bigot. 27 is the stupidest motherfucker on slog since John Bailo.

I'm like 99% sure that the leaf blower in that video is a battery-powered, electric model. Notice how there was no putt-putt engine noise, just the whine of an electric motor?

@37

"The policy makers of the white society have caused the darkness; they created discrimination; they created slums; they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society. When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also declare that the white man does not abide by law in the ghettos. Day in and day out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions for civic services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them but do not make them any more than a prisoner makes a prison.

Let us say it boldly that if the total slum violations of law by the white man over the years were calculated and were compared with the lawbreaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man."

Dr. Martin Luther-King Jr, 1967

@54 -- the very Natiure
of systemic racism.
Thank you.

Those with
Blinders need
daily Reminders.

Points for Bananarama.

@53 - Sorry, but if we responded to a call and someone showed us video of a drunk straddling another drunk's neck until the 2nd drunk passed out, and the 1st drunk continues pressing his neck for several minutes after responsiveness is lost, and the 2nd drunk dies, yes, we would arrest the first drunk for Manslaughter...which sounds similar to Minnesota's 3rd-degree Murder.

Oh, and given that officers are trained repeatedly of the danger of improper neck restraints and positional asphyxia, yes, he should have known what could happen. I would bet you money he is convicted, good lawyer or not. Juries aren't giving cops the benefit of the doubt they once did, as many recently convicted cops can attest.

OK, finally have a chance to hop back on this thread.

I must say I am impressed not only by GermanSausage's energy and persistence but also by the mental gymnastics he has to go throw to get to proclaim himself as Mr. #BlackLivesMatter and at the same time go all in on his quest for American herd immunity, even if it must be over the graves of hundreds of thousands of African Americans. He just has to give the excuse "Well, it's not my fault our health care system is the way it is."

Gee, by that standard you can justify all kindsa killin' of black folk in America. It's not my fault our law enforcement system is the way it is.

Now you could call all this cognitive dissonance. I prefer to call it "trying to have your cake and eat it too"--if that cake were a cake of death.

Not that one should expect anything coherent from someone who wishes that cops would be burned to death. Oh, excuse me. GermanSausage, was that a joke @23, or were you just channeling your inner MLK?

Whether or not Charles (or anyone else here) believes that an ape created the Universe, or that aliens were shot out of nuclear volcanoes and occupy our bodies, or that we can understand and predict our futures by knowing the karmic potential of any given spot in Earth's orbit is not the point.

The point of the First Amendment is that the Founders were sick of idiots killing each other over religion. They set us up as a religiously neutral nation in an attempt to avoid that, and we have (at least to a larger extent than mot other places in history) managed to avoid that.

Part of that is that government needs to be especially careful when making rules that affect the practice of religion. In that light, you need an especially good justification to restrict religious gatherings.

Having said that, the coronavirus pandemic is a pretty damn good reason, and the people who are packing into churches ARE idiots. But they are idiots because of their actions that will result in greater spread of the virus, not because they may or may not believe in ape creation or nuclear volcano spirits.

@11 xina for the WIN!
@13: xina tells it like it is, Rainy.
@37: Wow. That must be one helluva bald spot your MAGA cap's covering, Doofy.
Now if you could just lose the Belly That Budweiser Built.