DL Open Thread Monday, March 18, 2024

Donald Trump continued his Dotard America tour over the weekend, promising a “bloodbath” if he’s not elected. Supporters are trying to pretend that he was talking about the auto industry, but everybody knows what he actually meant. He isn’t arrested for inciting violence because the country is run by a bunch of cowards who are afraid of MAGAts with guns.

North Americans think of South American countries as banana republics, but when Jair Bolsonaro made plans to stay in power after losing a presidential election, two top military officials told him they would arrest him if he tried it. Contrast that with what happened in this country and tell me again which one is the banana republic.

Why do police shoot so many unarmed people, or people who pose minimal risk to their safety? Mainly because they’re trained that way, and not by the state. Police unions have a nasty habit of hiring violent, racist ex-cops to “train” them to do just that. All but four states allow this. The subhed on this story encapsulates the problem:

A recent report by the New Jersey Comptroller’s office found that a company called Street Cop trained police to shoot indiscriminately at people, medically experiment on the injured, and treat virtually anyone who isn’t a white, straight, cisgender male with open disdain.

This training is what led to the death of George Floyd and hundreds of others, especially people suffering mental health episodes.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, the openly Christianist federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, who Republicans turn to whenever they want a Democratic policy overturned, upheld a Texas university’s ban on drag performances, and the Supreme Court let the decision stand, for now. This is why doddering Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter to Fifth Circuit judges to ignore a new rule meant to discourage judge shopping. The fact that they’re not even pretending to respect democratic principles anymore is, I suppose, progress of a sort.

The floor’s yours.