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O.K., cheat blog, it’s late and I don’t have much to rant about, so I’m just going to talk about a couple of programs I’ve been binge-watching lately. Away is just going to be one season, so I’ll probably be through with that in a couple of days. When I watched the series Mars, I used to think ‘this would be better if they left out the documentary bits’ and it’s like the writers of Away were reading my mind. Of course, in this one, they are on their way to Mars and not setting up a colony, but there’s still lots of science and life aboard a spacecraft, with a real flavor. Nonetheless, this is a prequel to all Star Trek prequels. I’m enjoying it. A good series for space nerds.
Also, I’m watching House of Cards. A lot like Scandal, I’d say, as far as level of darkness. Well written, well acted. I’m probably going to watch it to the end, but that, right there, is a sign that I watch too much television.

The murder of Daniel Prude is one of those black deaths at the hands of the police that I hadn’t even heard of until now, the steady drumbeat of one every couple of days in the news over the last several years has been so great. The police are saying there is no cover-up, they are investigating the incident thoroughly. But, he was murdered on March 30th. That’s plenty of time for an investigation.
The reason Prude’s murder is in the news now is that the family have finally been given access to footage from police cameras, and they are mad as hell.
Here’s the story from the New York Times, and here’s how I understand it: Daniel Prude was a crazy dude and that’s actually why he called the Rochester, NY, police to say “Hey, heads up guys, my brother just ran out into the streets and he’s kind of crazy and high on all sorts of drugs, I just don’t want anybody to get hurt” or something like that. I’m sure he didn’t say “Could you please come out here and murder my brother” because that is what they did.
When they found Daniel Prude, he was naked and being crazy and shouting up a storm so once they had him cuffed and all they threw a hood over his head. At which he freaked out a bit, understandably. Somebody puts a hood over your head, it either means they’re taking you to their secret hideout or they’re going to kill you. It’s in all the movies. He tried to stand, the police say he made a grab for one of their guns, but since he couldn’t see, they still had the drop on him. So, they threw him down on the ground and a bunch of cops were surrounding him with guns and that’s where I guess their predatory herd instinct, their primal racism kicked in.
One of them did the old knee on the neck bit and pretty soon he was dead.
Truly, I think the U.S. would be a better place if they just fired all the cops and started over.

It was a very bad day for Nancy Pelosi today. First, it was a good day for progressives as Ed Markey not only beat Joe Kennedy the XIV or whatever, he kicked his rich, DNC backed ass. Identity politics took a pasting.
Pelosi, of course, had backed Kennedy, because he has the looks, the famous name, and the complete lack of policy positions or concern for the voters that is so important to the Democratic leadership. Totally hypocritical, of course, as she’s been bashing any progressive who mounted a primary challenge against a Democrat, as if it were against the rules or something. And now she’s got egg on her face. Good.
On the other hand, shame about Alex Morse losing his primary. So maybe it isn’t totally a watershed day for progressives, but rather the old political rule: incumbents usually win.
The other thing is the great hair salon scandal. I hadn’t even heard about this until ten minutes ago, so it wasn’t the hair salon thing per se, but that her apology for it was so lame.
The deal was, she was photographed in a hair salon (which isn’t even supposed to be open, due to the Corona), not wearing a mask. I’m glad she’s drawing flak, because I see her as the enemy, but this doesn’t really strike me as a big deal.
Then, the apology: It was a setup. I apologize for falling for it.
It reminded me of Marion Barry.

There is a comment going around social media, perhaps you have seen it. It’s from a writer named Adam Troy-Castro and it is in response to a Trump supporter’s question, “Why do liberals think we’re all stupid.”
Well, his answer is brilliant. He recounts a list of all the horrible, racist, sexist, insensitive things Trump has done and said and then concludes with (I’m paraphrasing) ‘Stupid is the generous assessment, because if you aren’t stupid you are seriously some sort of heartless monster.’
Despite the unquestioned brilliance of his response, I have a different one, because I’m contrarian like that.

Of course we think you are stupid. Sorry, but it’s true, and you probably know it, too, deep down. All those report cards in school when you got 4’s and 5’s and most of the kids were walking home with 1’s and 2’s and maybe a couple of 3’s, did you think that made you smarter because you got a higher number? And how do you think we know you got bad grades in school? Because you still can’t spell and you make basic mistakes in grammar. When you’re called on it you say it doesn’t matter, but the truth is intelligent people can look at what you have written and take a reasonable guess at your IQ, or at least your educational level, from that.

A smart person can spot a stupid person as easily as a sober person can spot a drunk. Of course, there are ways you could mask your stupidity. Don’t talk too much about things you don’t understand, like science, or politics, or great literature. If you write, use spell check (the squiggly red line) it will catch about 50% of your mistakes.
It’s not a crime to be stupid. It doesn’t make you a bad person. But don’t think nobody can tell.

As usual, I blame the media. It’s been a day and a half since a man was killed in Portland, and the press has released nothing but the muddiest of details. There were clashes between BLM protesters and Trump supporters. Shots were fired. One man is dead.
They haven’t released his name. It also took them several days to release the names of Kyle Rittenhouse’s victims. That should really be a reporter’s job #1, to find the names of the victims and release them. These are people. They have families. That’s the story.
They don’t do a really good job of describing the scene. There were clashes. Yeah, big surprise. That really puts us in the middle of the action.
They’ve even been hesitant to describe the victim as a Trump supporter, although they said he was wearing the hat of a right wing group (Patriot Prayer) so, it’s pretty clear that he was.
The significant part of this story, the way I see it, is (beyond just being a tragedy because somebody died) that this is the first time it was one of them instead of one of us.
Not that I’m celebrating that. It was probably inevitable, though. Peaceful protest has been ignored. Peaceful protesters have been assaulted, harassed, and intimidated. Peaceful protesters aren’t so peaceful any more.
It’s a bad thing. If this winds up leading to a Civil War in America, it’s not likely the left, the 99%, the good guys will win. Certainly, lots of people will die.
We are good people, good at having good ideas, good at writing memes, good at polite, civil discussions, but very few on the left are good with weapons or military tactics, and very few on the left are eager to die. We are not, as a general rule, violent people.
So, we should can the talk about civil war. It’s rhetorical, it’s metaphorical. I know I, for one, don’t really have the stomach for it.