Zachary Wester, whose career in law enforcement came crashing down in 2018 after the allegations came to light, was indicted last year on a total of 52 counts, including charges of racketeering, official misconduct, perjury, fabricating evidence, false imprisonment and possession of drugs. The charges stemmed from Wester’s arrests of 11 different people.
Last month, prosecutors filed an amended information charging Wester with two dozen additional counts involving five more of his alleged victims. The charges stemmed from traffic stops in 2017 and 2018 in which drivers or passengers were arrested on drug charges including possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.
………………………….
Wester broke into Christmas song after stopping Chris Fears on June 3, 2018, in Marianna. He and another deputy searched his Tahoe, supposedly finding a plastic container with meth inside, while Fears and his wife stood next to a patrol car.
“Looky there,” Wester said.
“What the hell?” said Fears, clearly stunned by the discovery.
“I’ll explain that in just a minute man, just put your hands behind your back for me,” Wester said as he cuffed him.
“I do not do drugs,” Fears said. “I do not do drugs.”
Using a field kit, Wester tested the substance, which came up positive for meth.
“Man this is bull—-,” Fears said. “I didn’t do nothing. All I do is take my ass to work.”
Fears was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and held in jail overnight, bonding out the next day. On July 10, then-Assistant State Attorney Christina Pumphrey, who helped bring the Wester allegations to light, dropped the charge against him.
“Based upon the available, competent evidence, the charge cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” she wrote in a court filing.
Fears, who is among more than two dozen people suing Wester and the Sheriff’s Office in federal court, said he couldn’t discuss his case in detail because of the litigation. However, he acknowledged Wester’s arrest completely upended his life.
“When he arrested me, I lost my job and I had to pretty much sell everything I had that was worth anything to keep a roof over my head,” Fears said. “I couldn’t find a job because nobody wanted to hire somebody with a fresh meth arrest. Me and my wife split up for a while over that because it was just so damn stressful.”
I’ve got a Xmas song for him:
Zach’x nuts roasting over an open fire
Cell mates snipping off his toes…
@OzarkHillbilly:
I hope Fears and his co-plaintiffs get a huge payday. When he was returning home from college, my brother used to fear–no pun intended–driving a car with Mass. plates through any deep southern state.
“Someone is always going to have to subsidize rural America,” he said.
Truer words were never spoken.
I guess as a liberal, I should suggest some sort of plan to assist our fellow citizens, but, you know, I’m just not feeling it. Maybe their guns will help them.
Man, the national statistics certainly reflect what I’m seeing anecdotally. My elderly conservative relatives are flat refusing to get the vaccine and repeating every bullshit anti-VAX lie out there.
From an article at CNN The President also had the good fortune to inherit an effective vaccine development program from Trump
It looks like the Trumpers and the “Sensible Media” are well on their way to ret-conning the whole vaccine development story. For the record, Operation Warp speed provided money to a number of companies to help fund research and ramp up manufacturing, and provided purchase guarantees for any vaccines that achieved good results. Many other countries did the same thing, although the US provided the most funding. If OWS provided anything other than the money and the purchase guarantees, they have kept it secret.
It’s also worth noting that Trump appointed a former GlaxoSmithKline executive to head up the effort, and the largest chunk of money went to that company. That vaccine was essentially cancelled last December after it showed poor results.
@Sleeping Dog:
“Someone is always going to have to subsidize rural America…”
Rural America…Isn’t this the place that brags about being self-sustaining? Self-supporting? The only true America, where all real patriotic Americans dwell?
Federal Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging allowing transgender students from participating in sports for the gender they identify with.
The main reason for the dismissal of this lawsuit is that the two transgender students who were the focus of this suit had graduated, making the case moot.
The effect is that Connecticut’s law allowing trans students to take part in sports for the gender they identify with
Representative Tim Ryan announced he is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman. I didn’t know much about Ryan during his Presidential run, and frankly didn’t know much about him after his run. But in the time since he’s upped his media game and has become a bit of a firey orator on the House floor.
I don’t know much about Ohio’s politics other than they seem to be trending more ‘red’ with each election cycle. But Sherrod Brown seems to have figured out a winning formula of economic populism and ‘working class’ outreach. It looks like Ryan is trying to find the same groove.
Yes those independent, industrious people who take care of their own, but who won’t pony up the taxes for ambulance service. Guess they figure it will be someone else who needs the transport.
As O’Toole notably said, “Murphy was an optimist.”
I spent two years of my technical career doing large road show technology demos in places like hotel ballrooms, public television production studios, and the occasional convention center. Two years spent constantly outwitting the trickster god Murphy, successfully. I have a recurring nightmare about answering my front door and there’s a cheerful red-headed man there who sticks out his hand and says, “Name’s Murphy. Nice job those two years. Payback time!”
My county was one of the ones mentioned in the article….our ambulance service was saved because of the vote for the Critical Access Hospital last November. It was very contentious, locally, the usual fellas screaming about “The poors are gonna bankrupt the new hospital and taxpayers are gonna have to pay for it!”
There are some sane ones, they just don’t get the urban/suburban media coverage. Back when I was a permanent staffer for the Colorado state legislature, I happened to be walking past in the hall when one of the sane ones was telling one of the crazies, “You have got to stop saying those rotten things about the Front Range urban corridor and its war on rural Colorado. We’re asking them for millions of dollars next week to keep the ambulances running.”
To be somewhat fair, his was a rural district with tax rates comparable to anything in the urban corridor. What they didn’t have was the insane property values, incomes, and retail sales the Front Range did to be a base for those taxes.
As of 2006, 19% of rural residents in the United States were from racial or ethnic minorities.
54% of Native Americans live in rural areas.
14% of Black Americans live in rural areas.
12% of Hispanic population in the US lives in rural areas.
At 15.1%, the disability rate in rural America is higher than the country as a whole (11.7%).
16.3 percent of the rural population live in poverty. Rural African Americans have the highest poverty rates of almost 34 percent.
2.9-3.8 million LGBTQ people live in rural America.
Following up on yesterday’s barrage of 100 days polls, a new Pew poll puts Biden’s job approval at 59% and gives him very high marks on handling the pandemic.
Averaging thr five polls together Biden’s job approval stands at 54.8%.
Did anyone else watch the Oscars? Halfway through I was ready to pull up an old Iron Chef rerun. So boring, so suffocatingly earnest and humorless. Does Hollywood not understand that their primary job is to entertain? Do they think after the year we’ve all had, the five years we’ve all had, that a night of endless solemn lectures was the ticket?
Sense a common thread here? THE DAMN TRAFFIC STOPS. We could make some tremendous headway by severely constraining the type of traffic stops cops could make and what could be done on those stop. These people were stopped for essentially safety violations–a safety citation should be the only thing authorized for the cops to issue.
If there happens to be suspicious of another crimes short of say–kidnapping or human trafficking–the person contact information should be forwarded to their local police department for development of a real case with warrants issued by a judge.
BTW–This stretch of I-10 between Tallahassee and Pensacola is essentially drive through country. There hardly even a place of the Interstate you’d want to stop for gas.
Supreme Court agrees to hear major 2nd Amendment case aimed at challenge New York’s very restrictive concealed carry law. This is the first major gun case the Court has taken in ten years.
The case will be heard in the new SCOTUS term that begins in October’s but it may not be until June 2022 that we get a decision.
@Michael Reynolds:
There are many obvious exceptions, but the average Hollywood actor is miserably self-conscious about his or her relative lack of education. And a lot of them feel guilty about being paid vast sums of money to play pretend, which most of us do for free as kids. So when they’re afforded the opportunity to pontificate and sound like an, ahem, serious person, they seize it greedily.
@Jim Brown 32: And too often the reason for the stop is pretextual, simply a made up reason to conduct a search of the vehicle. The next step after the stop is a claim that the officer “smelled marijuana”. I can’t count the times heard that one.
We could make some tremendous headway by severely constraining the type of traffic stops cops could make and what could be done on those stop. These people were stopped for essentially safety violations–a safety citation should be the only thing authorized for the cops to issue.
Additionally, many safety citations shouldn’t even require a stop. There are alternative methods to delivering that citation.
Since I rarely see the movies which get the big nominations, I watch mostly the red carpet beforehand for the fashions. This year I put the show itself on while I was busy catching up on aviation blogs, it made for good background noise.
@Jim Brown 32:
From day one of fugitive life I realized the single biggest threat, by far, was a traffic stop. So I did not get behind the wheel of a car for two decades, until I was in the clear. Then I bought a brand-new Mercedes S-Class, making up for lost time.
@Kathy: Ditto on Laura Dern’s gown, though I saw it described as a black turtle neck and a skirt. Mildly curious as to which was correct. Reminded me of some awards show where Sharon Stone rocked a black t-shirt as part of some more appropriate outfit.
@CSK: That’s a good article at the Bulwark. I appreciate that he sees Trump as a symptom, not the disease. But there’s nothing new or insightful. Basically it’s a long, detailed exposition of conservatives demonstrating the truth of everything liberals have said about them.
Danish authorities charge priest with killing wife, body missing. Hydrochloric acid and caustic soda was found in their home and computer searches for “sea depth,” “oil barrels,” “suicide,” “disappeared” and “cleaning” probably didn’t help his case
Later today we will get preliminary results from the 2020 Census and the likely impact on reapportionment of Member of Congress.
It is expected that states in the South and West will gain seats and states in the north and Midwest will lose seats This will benefit Republicans most especially becaus8e they control the legislature and Governor’s Mansion in states that will gain seats.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish Lutheran priest on Monday was charged with murdering his wife, even though her body has never been found.
I grew up and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and am aware of other Lutheran denominations in the USA and abroad.
In my 73 years this is the first time I have ever heard of a Lutheran clergyman referred to as a priest.
I wonder if this is exclusive to the sect being the “state Lutheran church”.
@CSK: I’m thinking about crisis points—what happens in 2024 or 2028 if the Democratic presidential candidate wins by say 7 million votes, but a GOP legislature overrides a state’s electoral college votes and the Republicans ’win’? For example.
I need some suggestions. My stupid processed food diet has finally led me to hypertension. Tomato-based sauces such as non-pasta or chicken or something I don’t want to give up. I had a roommate 20 years ago who made his own pasta sauce because he said oh yeah I’m hypoglycemic and the stuff in the cans have way too much sugar and sodium for me, they’re basically like eating a Coke.
So I went to the grocery store yesterday and I got 2 28-ounce cans of no salt added tomato sauce, and 2 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes. I know I need to add some salt and some sugar and probably like some garlic and onion powder and stuff but I was wondering if anybody here makes there own sauce and can give me like an approximate recipe to start. I’ve also got a can of tomato paste somewhere.
@Doug Mataconis: At some point the census numbers are going to be contested. And in a year where taking the census was difficult and by most accounts, politically interfered with, I wonder if there will be a constitutional challenge to the census. Basically saying, if the census is constitutionally mandated, is there a point where the botched census is ruled unconstitutional and has to be reaccomplished?
I mix tomato puree, similar to tomato sauce, with sauteed onions, and garlic, then add dry oregano (I crumble it between my palms first), fine herbs, pepper, paprika, and a pinch of cinnamon.
@Teve: speaking for myself, I would not consider the Republican a legitimate President. I would consider anything that individual did to be done with no backing authority and so null and void. Tens of millions would feel the same way and I think massive rioting would ensue.
Caramelized onions instead of sugar (they counter the acidic “sour”). No salt. Sauteed garlic, basil, oregano, rosemary (all fresh if you can, but dried works).
I usually toss in one or two chilis (cayenne) for a little kick.
For variations, just look at what’s available in jars at the store, and copy that.
@CSK: KCl, I’ve got a different brand of that but it’s not a one to one substitute with sodium chloride. It has a metallic taste so I just kind of blend the two.
Judge Drops The Hammer On MAGA Rioter Who Punched Cop In The Face Published 3 hours ago on April 26, 2021 By Carl Anthony
A Trump supporter who was indicted on 12 charges last month, including assaulting a federal officer during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, was denied bail and ordered to remain in jail.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Friday that Scott Fairlamb must remain jailed over his role in the January 6 insurrection due to his habit of punching people in the face.
In his ruling, Lamberth said that he agreed with prosecutors that the 44-year-old gym owner and MAGA rioter showed no remorse for storming the Capitol and had a history of criminal violence.
“In other words,” Lamberth ruled, “the defendant’s history of punching people in the face suggests he may punch people in the face again.”
Fairlamb was arrested after multiple tipsters alerted the FBI about spotting him in videos from the insurrection, which showed the gym owner carrying a collapsible baton he picked up during the riot.
“What (do) patriots do?” Fairlamb said during the riot, according to prosecutors. “We f*cking disarm them and then we storm the f*cking Capitol.”
True to form, according to prosecutors, Fairlamb punched a police officer in the face during the melee.
@Teve: Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce is crazy easy and very good.
2 cups tomatoes, in addition to their juices (for example, a 28-ounce can of San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes)
5 tablespoons butter
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt
That’s it for the ingredients.
Salt is a pinch or so, not a lot. Throw everything BUT the salt in a pot–onion goes in just cut in half–and simmer for 45 minutes. Fish out the onion halves, taste and add a pinch of salt if it needs it.
@Jen:
Where do you get your San Marzano tomatoes? I’ve been finding them hard to obtain. The Muir Glen are a very good substitute, particularly the fire-roasted.
@Jen: I watched a YouTube video yesterday of an Italian family making their tomato sauce the old family recipe, it was remarkably simple. Four different kinds of tomatoes, boil them for a while, peel them and strip the seeds out with an antique looking machine, pinch of salt spoonful of sugar and a sprig of basil per jar and good to go.
Like in ‘16 when Trump lost the popular vote and 2000 when W lost the popular vote and the EC (assuming an honest election in FL) but won the Supreme Court?
Sorry. Republicans are assuming Ds will go to the courts, not the streets, and are confident they’ve rigged SCOTUS. And if we do go to the streets, what’s it get us?
@CSK: I’ve found Cento San Marzano tomatoes at my local Hannafords–they are one of the few brands that I’ve read are actual San Marzano. I haven’t had a problem finding them (but probably will now that I’ve said that, LOL).
@Teve: Yes–most Italian tomato sauce recipes are usually pretty straightforward. It’s considered a base sauce–you can always dress it up by adding things, but if you have a flavorful filled pasta or similar, a simple sauce allows the other ingredients to shine.
Over at Lucianne.com, headquarters for the adoring Trump multitudes, they’re celebrating Melania’s 51st birthday, honoring the most beautiful, gracious, elegant, accomplished, and intelligent First Lady we’ve ever had. Step aside, Dolley Madison, Abigail Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, Michelle Obama! You’re not in the Slovenian Sweetie’s class.
You missed an epic train wreck at the end of the Oscars: the ceremony producers were convinced Chadwick Boseman was going to win a posthumous Oscar for best actor and wanted to make that into a thing, so they designed the whole ceremony as a build up to that, even rearranging the awards so that Best Actor would be last instead of Best Picture as normal.
And then when the moment came, Anthony Hopkins won instead, and what’s worse, he wasn’t at the ceremony either in person or remotely, so Joaquin Phoenix was left standing there with a statue and no one to give it to and just has to kinda go “well, good night everyone” and then the credits roll.
@Jen: well we’re on the subject of Italian food, one thing that I could share with everybody is that while the olive oil market is notoriously corrupt and most of the olive oils you buy in the grocery store are adulterated with cheaper oils, according to the people at America’s test kitchen, one of the very highest rated olive oils according to their tasting panel is California Olive Ranch, which you can buy for $10 at freaking Walmart.
So I went to the grocery store yesterday and I got 2 28-ounce cans of no salt added tomato sauce, and 2 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes. I know I need to add some salt and some sugar and probably like some garlic and onion powder and stuff but I was wondering if anybody here makes there own sauce and can give me like an approximate recipe to start. I’ve also got a can of tomato paste somewhere.
Tip for tomato sauce: instead of sugar, peel a whole carrot, cut it into three big pieces, and dump that into the pot with the tomatoes and then fish the three pieces out after its done simmer.
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 onions, chopped
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
(3) 28-ounce cans DOP San Marzano tomatoes
2 large stems fresh basil
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into three pieces
1. Heat olive oil in the pot until shimmering – add garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until soft.
2. Add onions and tomato paste, sauté until onions are translucent.
3. Deglaze with wine, making sure to scrape up all the fond on the bottom of the pot.
4. Pour in tomatoes, crushing with a spoon.
5. Add basil and carrot, and bring to a bare simmer.
6. Let sauce simmer on low heat for about 4 hours total, stirring and scraping the bottom occasionally
7. Discard carrots and basil stems
@Jen:
I just checked online, and apparently my local Market Basket is stocking Cento and Pastene San Marzanos.
@Teve:
Sad she never really mastered English after nearly 25 years living in New York.
@Stormy Dragon:
Or you can grate or finely chop the carrot and leave it in the sauce.
the ceremony producers were convinced Chadwick Boseman was going to win a posthumous Oscar for best actor [..]
I actually thought that’s what was going to happen.
At least they didn’t give an Oscar to the wrong movie this year, as far as we can tell.
BTW, what was really odd was the absence of clips of the movies nominated.
After every awards season, some movies are re-released* to theaters and advertised as Oscar Winner films. One thing that helps get people to see them is watching the clips at the Oscars first.
*In this second year of the trump pandemic, perhaps released to theaters to begin with.
Since this article from the local paper is behind a paywall, I’ll quote liberally from it.
From Hampton Beach to the White Mountains, employers are raising wages as part of their recruiting tactics to compete for employees in a state with a significant labor shortage.
New Hampshire’s official minimum wage may be $7.25 an hour, but more and more employers are raising the stakes to stay competitive in the current labor market. Recently, to attract job seekers, a Seabrook Wendy’s franchise offered $15 an hour to start, plus benefits like meals, sick and vacation leave. Other similar local establishments are following suit.
According to Trent Colford, Wendy’s franchise manager for the region that includes Seabrook’s restaurant, the company has raised entry-level wages and benefits for a number of years. One reason, he said, is the competition the region faces for qualified employees given New Hampshire’s proximity to Massachusetts.
“Massachusetts minimum wage is $13.50 an hour, and it will soon go up to $14.25,” Colford said. “In today’s environment, to get the quality of employee we want at Wendy’s to serve our product, we need to offer $15 an hour.”
Why is it hard to find workers?
Manzi’s words are echoed by David Juvet, senior vice president for public policy at the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association. Filling entry-level positions may be posing the greatest challenge to the state’s employers right now, he said, but no company appears to be immune from the problem.
After a conference call with a dozen members of the BIA this week, Juvet said filling vacancies is causing headaches across the board, in all parts of the Granite State. Whether seeking engineers, accountants, administrative, medical, manufacturing, construction or hospitality employees, things are tough all around.
Before the pandemic shutdown, the Granite State had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at only 2.7 percent – only about 2,000 people – in February 2020, according to the NHDES statistics.
That changed drastically after the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. By April 2020, more than 90,000 people applied for unemployment compensation, according to NHES statistics.
But as of last month, the state’s unemployment rate is way down again to 3% when seasonally adjusted, 3.2% when not seasonally adjusted. That’s half of the United States’ rate of 6% and 6.2%, respectively.
Housing part of the problem
Another problem facing the Seacoast is the lack of affordable housing, temporary or year-round, he said. Over the years the housing issue presented such a substantial hurdle, Rage (a seasonal business owner) decided to provide housing for most of his summer staff.
The article goes on to point out that NH does a poor job of keeping young adults who grew up here in the state. To that point it doesn’t help that the instate tuition for the university system (very little state support) is nearly as high as the out of state tuition in other New England states.
So in the end I didn’t want to make another trip to town for extra ingredients so I mixed the no salt tomato sauce with no salt diced tomatoes, after browning a pound of hamburger meat sautéed some garlic in olive oil and added a bunch of onion powder and a wee bit of sugar and salt, just a hint, and maybe half a teaspoon of fish sauce for a little extra umami.
It’s very tasty and I am now waiting on some large seashells to cook and then I’m going to add ricotta.
@Doug Mataconis: So the data is nuanced. IF a person is killed by police–they are more likely to be white. However, if you interact with the police and are black–you are more likely to be killed than a white person.
Why?
Overall, the FBI data on police interactions (haven’t looked it up in a few years and too lazy to find it) show that police interact with whites far more than blacks by a good order of magnitude. This explains why, overall, more whites are killed by police than blacks. However, despite lower interaction numbers with blacks, police kill enough blacks to make our interactions with police more prone to lethal violence than their interactions with a white citizen.
I actually think the key statistic that deserves scrutiny is the number of police interactions with blacks vs whites that result in incarcerations. How to you get to 60% of the prison population being minority(and mostly black) when police interactions with whites are orders of magnitude higher?
THIS IS SYSTEMIC RACISM. PERIOD.
From a systems perspective, police killing are an infrequent event based on ~1000 occurrences per year in 40+ million police interactions. Keep in mind that many of these killings are “justified”. 20% are in the gray area and only a portion of those are egregious crimes.
I personally believe that the only legislative prescription for this system is to lower interactions–very little else will work legislatively. Policy wise–there are some additional tools that can be employed but there is a tradeoff. I do not think the answer is to make all police meter maids. If the police were busting the heads of the actual troublemakers in poor communities–nobody would complain. But they dont and won’t–they shoot up motorists and peons who are pawns in broken systems.
@Jim Brown 32:
Your aunts probably haven’t had two decades worth of facelifts plus God knows how many Botox injections. If that woman has more work done her eyes will be on her temples.
On the topic of sodium and sugar in general, one of the best words of wisdom I’ve received from a doctor was to point out that most, nearly all, Americans excess sodium and sugar intake comes from pre processed food. If you are cutting out that junk in general, you can probably cook with a normal amount of sugar and salt yourself without any worries.
@Sleeping Dog: Yes, and everything in that article has been an issue here for YEARS. This isn’t a surprise to anyone paying attention.
I do think that our retention of young people has improved somewhat, if I remember an article I read recently correctly. But that’s threatened by two things: cost of housing and a lack of diversity.
@Doug Mataconis: maybe i can get A low-cost flight to Tuscany. On second thought, maybe not. Those relatives who hang out all day on gun discussion forums and used to FWD: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: me obvious scam emails are probably not spending the summer eating ciabatta and sipping espresso in the piazza.
@Neil Hudelson: that is true, it’s just so damn convenient and tasty 😛
If i can switch to things like roasted chicken and veggies, and less Tombstone and Doritos I’ll be much better off.
The only serious dietary improvement I’ve made is that many years ago I cut out soft drinks almost completely. I think I’ve had about seven or eight in 2021.
@Jen: They’re losing their talent and their future tax base because they don’t want to allow low-cost housing to be built, because that would decrease their property values.
Also, in as much as youngun’s are often looking to live in urban areas, NH doesn’t have much to offer. Manch-vegas doesn’t cut it.
The huge housing issue in NH is lack of multi unit rental property or even condos and townhouses. Except for the beach district, I don’t know when the last multi unit project was built in happy Hampton that isn’t a 55 and older community. From the looks of the apartment buildings that are available, they all look like they were built in the 70’s. Most towns are afraid that if multi family housing is built, the school district will be flooded with kids.
At least HH is allowing single family homes to be built on 60′-75′ wide lots, unlike North Hampton and Rye where it is a minimum 2.5 acres unless it’s a tear down or previously zoned for a smaller size.
3. Tomato sauce can be the easiest thing in the world.
It doesn’t make sense when you read the recipe. How can a can of tomatoes, a halved onion, and a few tablespoons of butter, simmered together in a pot, become one of the best tomato sauces ever conceived? We definitely saw plenty of that skepticism when we shared a video of the recipe. But rest assured, Marcella’s recipe works wonders, especially on the laziest weeknights.
It didn’t quite suit my palate, but it’s a good place to start. The next time I’m adding a bay leaf and some garlic. I suspect I’ll want some Oregano the time after that.
I used to eat tomato based sauces all the time but have wandered away from them. Not sure why.
@Michael Reynolds: The little I saw was just amazing. All the talk was about how wonderfully diverse the movies were — as if anyone anywhere has ever gone to see a movie because it’s diverse.
Diversity is a good thing — but it’s not the same as entertainment. The focus shouldn’t be “Look, Minari has all these Koreans, so we’re proud of it.” It should be “Here’s why Minari is such a fabulous, wonderful, entertaining movie that you will love — oh, and by the way, kind of cool that it was made by Korean-Americans.” Or maybe just let that be the subtext when you show a clip — something they chose not to do.
There was also no sense of selling the product. You watch the Tonys and the Grammys and the nominees are out there performing — showing the world what they can do and why they are worthy of notice. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, after they say nice things about the inductees, they come up on stage and play and remind us why they got in. We were supposed to be in awe of this crowd apparently because really skinny people come in all colors.
I get that it was a hard year for the biz. All the big, loud, fun movies simply got held back from release, and the only ones to nominate were the little serious indies. But why not point out that even little serious indies can make for a good night of entertainment? Not every movie has to be a plotless, dreary slog like the first half of Nomadland. (I assume the second half is more of the same, but since I fell asleep I’ll never know…)
Basically, who told Steven Soderbergh that people watch award shows for the awards?
NH loves them old folks. Lots of retirees and second home owners here. In my neighborhood about half the houses are closed up for the winter as the owners either went south or at their primary residence.
@OzarkHillbilly: recipes usually have a few important variables, so in my trial and error version of cooking I’ll usually fuck up a recipe badly at least the first several times, and I’m lucky if it’s edible. This came out darn tasty on the first shot and I didn’t really stick with any of the recipes I read. It wasn’t perfect but it was maybe a seven out of 10. So tomato sauces must just be pretty resistant to failure.
Suppose instead of giving the vaccine away, the government charge $5.50 for it, but with a twist: After you get your shot, you’d receive $5 for every person you recruited to be vaccinated, and they’d receive $5 for every person they recruited, who’d receive $5 for every person they recruited, etc.
Yes, I know this is a multi-level marketing system, or more properly a pyramid scheme. But there’s no inventory to buy or maintain, and the entry fee is ridiculously low. That is, no one goes broke or grows rich with it.
I’ve got my Excelsior app and I’ll be heading to the Netherlands in the early fall… and the fact that non-vaccinated yahoos will not be allowed on the plane will be a bonus.
@Jax: Well, if you gotta pee, stop at a gas station. Don’t wait until you get out of “town” which isn’t quite outside the city limits. Seriously, they are mining people.
Out of curiosity, what caverns show are you seeing?
@Teve: Sort of…but it’s not really that cut and dried. There are a lot of issues at play in the housing market in NH. The sheer lack of housing has caused everything to increase in price.
For example, Dover (a progressive community) wanted to encourage lower-cost housing. They thought they could get there by limiting square footage for single-family construction. Thought being, well, people won’t pay more than $xxx,000 for a 1400 square foot home. What has happened is that those houses are getting bid way up, and that 1400 sqft home is selling for upwards of $490K…and you are prohibited from finishing the basement, increasing its square footage but you CAN turn it into an in-law apartment (so, considered separate square footage for dwelling purposes).
New construction ground to a halt in 2008 with the market crash, and since then it’s slowly crept back, but then we had the tariffs on Canadian lumber and then the pandemic. We’ve had a whole bunch of people with second homes basically relocate, putting huge pressure on school systems, along with people from MA moving here. Meanwhile, with no income and no sales taxes, school systems are funded mostly through property taxes, which is putting pressure on seniors…frankly, it’s a mess.
@Teve: I’m a fair cook but a lousy chef, so I always follow the recipe to a ‘t’ the first time out. Then if I like it but think it can be better suited to me, I’ll start adding and subtracting, but only 1 or 2 items at a time. Otherwise, with my dingo palate I have a hard time knowing what I liked or didn’t.
@OzarkHillbilly: The Dead South and Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. It was supposed to happen October of last year, re-scheduled for this year. I’ll have to check my email, but I think my hotel is called the Smokehouse? Are you familiar with it?
recipes usually have a few important variables, so in my trial and error version of cooking I’ll usually fuck up a recipe badly at least the first several times, and I’m lucky if it’s edible. This came out darn tasty on the first shot and I didn’t really stick with any of the recipes I read. It wasn’t perfect but it was maybe a seven out of 10. So tomato sauces must just be pretty resistant to failure.
Except for baking, most recipes are pretty forgiving. The biggest part of become a good cook is realizing that you don’t have to get everything exactly right and 9 times out of 10, no one will notice.
@Stormy Dragon: I hope that holds true tonight! I’m making savory piroshki’s with cabbage and beef, and last time I knocked it out of the park. I’ll be disappointed if they’re not as good this time.
@Stormy Dragon: Yep! Although both cooking and baking have some science involved (Maillard reaction applies to both), it’s far more involved with baking.
I’ve actually had to learn chemistry for some baking and sugar work. (Fun fact, sugar actually decays, chemically speaking.)
@wr:
About halfway in we realized we were liking the ads a little too much. The lack of clips was just strange. I get that this was supposed to be a pared down, back-to-awarding-awards kind of deal, but people want their movie to be seen. Where else are they going to get this kind of reach for what will amount to a carefully-cut ad? I do admire the technical skill that must have been involved in producing this, though.
Did you see that guy, the president or whatever, doing a shout-out to the Indians who owned the land before, you know, Americans and Mexicans stole it? ‘Hey, just wanted to say we’re having a great time on the land our ancestors took by force. . . what’s that? Give it back? Hah hah hah, very funny. . . Go do what to myself?’
And what does this show says about Soderbergh’s instincts. Covid’s getting under control, Trump’s gone, and he thought we wanted lowkey, painfully earnest solemnity? Hello, Busby Berkeley? Jesus Christ, is humor just no longer a thing? Along with fun?
CNN’s Rick Santorum: “We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture”
@Teve: How much is Kasichian levels? Is it like just enough so that she’ll be disappointed and bitter when she discovers that she can’t win at the support level she has?
@Just nutha ignint cracker: The first thing the Republican base is going to do online is call her Lez Cheney. Tucker Carlson will show deepfakes that she was an active black panther in the 60s and by the end of the week she’ll be in hiding.
@Michael Reynolds: @Stormy Dragon: So I take it that it didn’t turn out as my daily Atlantic newsletter predicted a couple of days ago?
In a year without the usual Hollywood pomp and circumstance of glitzy red carpets and champagne-fueled afterparties, most awards ceremonies have tried to make the show go on with scaled-back, Zoom-dependent productions. But this year’s Academy Awards is “not going to be like anything that’s been done before,” its producers, including the Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, teased.
They want the telecast to feel like a movie in and of itself, rather than an awards show. In lieu of a traditional host, A-list presenters will make up the “ensemble cast” telling the story of the film industry’s resilience and community. Preshow interviews will also be incorporated, potentially as montages, to help divide the broadcast into “chapters” and make the audience feel more connected to the nominees, presenters, and below-the-line artists. Attendees, including nominees, their guests, and Academy members, will be scattered in small groups across multiple locations, giving the night a more “intimate” feel than usual. They won’t be required to wear face coverings while on camera, though masks, Soderbergh said, will play “a very important role in the story.”
@Teve: I don’t do it often (and I don’t peel the tomatoes either, but one should) but when I make sauce with fresh tomatoes in it, the don’t need any sugar in them (although I don’t put in any sugar to begin with anyway) to “cancel” the sour. If you’re in an area of Florida where you can get decent vine ripened tomatoes, there’s no reason to do canned when tomatoes are in season.
Heck, I live in the Pacific Northwest on the western side of the mountains and I can buy good enough tomatoes at the supermarket to make decent enough sauce. Also, “cancelling the sour” is overrated in pasta sauces.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: no I meant that they were not on the planes to Tuscany to begin with, the demand isn’t going to drop when they are not on the planes this summer.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: I actually live 40 miles north of the Klee Lab. (I got some seeds from them several years ago but I happened to plant them in an area where there were lots of nematodes and it was very unsuccessful. And yeah the vine-ripened tomatoes here are really good.
Andy Gelman deserves much higher status and widespread acclaim. He is a role model for rigorous thinking and critical analysis. A taste of his latest:
This is just a statistical mistake, but I wonder if there’s a political component too. There seems to be a debate about whether coronavirus is a big deal or not, epidemiologically speaking. I think coronavirus is a big deal: an increase of 15% in the death rate is a lot! But for some people, that’s not enough; it has to be the biggest deal of all time, or at least bigger than the 1918 flu. Hence you get this sort of headline. I have no reason to think this is deliberate political manipulation; rather, it’s just that when people make a mistake that yields a result that aligns with their preconceptions, they don’t always notice. Or maybe I just made a mistake and I’m misunderstanding everything here. Could be; it’s happened to me before.
Tucker Carlson is now telling his audience to harass people who wear face masks outside.
If they see children wearing masks, Tucker says the response should be no different than when you see a kid being abused — “call the police immediately, contact child protective services”
@Mimai: One of the worst things about the “death statistics” from COVID is that it’s so far removed from being able to see/hear/touch the idea that every single one of those dead people meant something to someone.
In my county, our death total stands at 7 (6,000 total “residents”, many of who have second homes here, or are inhabited at our quite large nursing home/Senior apartments), with probably 10 long-haulers, 1 kid and 9 over 50 or so. The 7 who died were in nursing homes. None of the people here feel like it affects them. It’s affecting their empathy, I mean…they really have it in for Liz Cheney and our Governor, Mark Gordon. Between Cheney voting to impeach Trump and Gordon shutting the state down, they’d happily tar and feather them in the public square if they could.
I hear ya’. We’ve been so overly focused on social/physical distancing that we’ve lost sight of the long-term psychological distancing and what that is doing to our humanity. In the short run, psychological distancing is healthy and adaptive. In the long-run, not so much. And when that long-run occurs in the context of social fracture, well, we don’t have a good model for that. But it ain’t gonna be pretty.
I watched the first minute or so of the Carlson clip and something caught my eye. It was something about a Pew survey from March 2020 that showed that 64% of white liberals answered yes to the question, “Has a doctor or other healthcare provider ever told you that you have a mental health condition?”
I googled it, and found all the usual suspects on the first page of google–Washington Times, Breitbart, etc. But I noticed that a bunch of the capsules in the results referenced Evie Magazine. I am sorry to say I now know this publication exists.
I looked at two pieces from Evie. The one about the Pew survey quoted Lyle Rossiter extensively. It was worded strangely.
Dr. Lyle Rossiter, a board-certified psychiatrist who’s treated mental disorders for over 30 years, agrees and adds that white liberalism thrives on supposedly championing
The word “adds” was a link to a blog post excepting Rossiter’s book…from 2009. Oof. And yet…
The other piece I read argues that fact checkers are biased. The example used was a Philip Bump WaPo piece that I think was discussed here. I seem to recall it being the subject of a post, I think Taylor. But I may be wrong.
Bump took issue with Trump’s claim about the 20 most dangerous cities being run by Democrats. Her point was that Bump nitpick Trump, because Trump claimed all the cities when it was all but three.
But that wasn’t Bump’s point. He was pointing out that for a couple different reasons, metros are overwhelmingly run by Democrats, and:
“Since there’s a correlation between size and amount of crime and between size and propensity to vote Democratic, it’s problematic to draw a causal relationship between crime and Democratic leadership. ”
There is more to say, especially about the Pew study. But I can’t do it tonight. I have other things to do.
@Mimai: It ties in a lot with how conservative media has fanned the flames for hating “other”. It doesn’t matter who the “other” is….it could be race-based, it could be those who died of COVID. I see a lot of “Well, I had it, and I’m still alive, so fuck those people, they must’ve had it coming”.
@Kurtz: i’ve seen Rossiter mentioned before by creationists, they claim that Rossiter showed that conservatism is so obviously correct that in order to be a liberal you have to have a mental disorder. It sounds like a really high-quality psychology thesis.
@Teve: So if someone harasses my kids because they’re wearing masks outside, I can just shoot them, right? I mean, that’s the world Tucker Carlson apparently WANTS.
@Teve: The fun part is my county is also dealing with some unruly teenager’s who like to play “cops and robbers”. The “robbers” have apparently been running through private property and banging on people’s houses after dark. They’ve been confronted by pissed off 2A legal firearm owners and told to knock it the fuck off, but their Mom’s think it’s funny to post on the local yard sale page that their kids are being threatened by crazy people.
I was astounded by how Rossiter was referenced in that piece–the third person present linking to a book excerpt from 2009. It seems like an easy catch for an editor.
Rossiter reminds me a bit of Park Dietz. At some point, expertise takes a back seat to business branding. Or perhaps a simpler explanation, previously held beliefs overwhelm professional process. Either way, it’s a serious issue for credibility.
. IF a person is killed by police–they are more likely to be white. However, if you interact with the police and are black–you are more likely to be killed than a white person.
Why?
Overall, the FBI data on police interactions (haven’t looked it up in a few years and too lazy to find it) show that police interact with whites far more than blacks by a good order of magnitude. This explains why, overall, more whites are killed by police than blacks. However, despite lower interaction numbers with blacks, police kill enough blacks to make our interactions with police more prone to lethal violence than their interactions with a white citizen.
I actually think the key statistic that deserves scrutiny is the number of police interactions with blacks vs whites that result in incarcerations. How to you get to 60% of the prison population being minority(and mostly black) when police interactions with whites are orders of magnitude higher?
Yup, this gets to the difference between disproportionality and disparity. That’s why it’s so important to control for populations.
Its true that police, overall, disproportionally interact with white folks when compared with Black folks. But when you control for the relative sizes of populations (whether at the national, state, or local level), you see that there are significant disparities that lean towards increased interactions with Blacks and other minorities. That’s before we get to outcomes of those interactions and the racial disparities increase and significantly higher rates.
Basically, while it is true that whites have a greater number of police interactions, it’s also true that if you are white, you are far less likely to ever have a police interaction in your life than if you are Black (or Latino/ex, Native American, etc.).
I’ve got a Xmas song for him:
Zach’x nuts roasting over an open fire
Cell mates snipping off his toes…
Did Jack Black’s Mom Help Create Abort System That Rescued Apollo 13 Astronauts?
Yes.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I hope Fears and his co-plaintiffs get a huge payday. When he was returning home from college, my brother used to fear–no pun intended–driving a car with Mass. plates through any deep southern state.
The story behind ‘Strange Fruit’ is well worth the 8 minute watch.
Rural Ambulance Crews Have Run Out of Money and Volunteers
Truer words were never spoken.
I guess as a liberal, I should suggest some sort of plan to assist our fellow citizens, but, you know, I’m just not feeling it. Maybe their guns will help them.
Man, the national statistics certainly reflect what I’m seeing anecdotally. My elderly conservative relatives are flat refusing to get the vaccine and repeating every bullshit anti-VAX lie out there.
Thanks, Neil Hudelson. I have always been impacted by that song, but also assumed Holiday wrote it. It’s actual provenance is way more interesting.
She never returned a copy of Sabrina the teenage witch on VHS. 20 years later she is facing a felony.
The DA, who should be slapped in the face by the Baliff on orders of the judge, is now dropping the felony embezzlement charge.
@Sleeping Dog:
Let them pray harder.
If Jesus can’t help them, what could you possibly do?
35 years ago today, the Chernobyl disaster began
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-56864709
From an article at CNN The President also had the good fortune to inherit an effective vaccine development program from Trump
@Sleeping Dog:
“Someone is always going to have to subsidize rural America…”
Rural America…Isn’t this the place that brags about being self-sustaining? Self-supporting? The only true America, where all real patriotic Americans dwell?
94,000,000 Americans have received a vaccine but almost 10% have skipped getting a second shot where required
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/25/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html
This piece by Richard North Patterson is worth a read:
http://www.thebulwark.com/the-gop-delenda-est/
@Doug Mataconis:
I think it’s time to let the whole population of the world know that further attempts to falsify Murphy’s Law are simply counterproductive.
Federal Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging allowing transgender students from participating in sports for the gender they identify with.
The main reason for the dismissal of this lawsuit is that the two transgender students who were the focus of this suit had graduated, making the case moot.
The effect is that Connecticut’s law allowing trans students to take part in sports for the gender they identify with
https://www.courant.com/sports/high-schools/hc-sp-hs-transgender-case-dismissed-20210425-twgpmkmsrvhnhl64u2tr32tg3y-story.html
Representative Tim Ryan announced he is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman. I didn’t know much about Ryan during his Presidential run, and frankly didn’t know much about him after his run. But in the time since he’s upped his media game and has become a bit of a firey orator on the House floor.
I don’t know much about Ohio’s politics other than they seem to be trending more ‘red’ with each election cycle. But Sherrod Brown seems to have figured out a winning formula of economic populism and ‘working class’ outreach. It looks like Ryan is trying to find the same groove.
@Kathy:
I should have thought to mention that I’d send my thoughts and prayers.
@CSK:
Yes those independent, industrious people who take care of their own, but who won’t pony up the taxes for ambulance service. Guess they figure it will be someone else who needs the transport.
Florida cop accused of planting drugs on Defendant during traffic stops
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2020/02/10/accused-drug-planting-deputy-slapped-two-dozen-new-charges/4670519002/
@Kathy:
As O’Toole notably said, “Murphy was an optimist.”
I spent two years of my technical career doing large road show technology demos in places like hotel ballrooms, public television production studios, and the occasional convention center. Two years spent constantly outwitting the trickster god Murphy, successfully. I have a recurring nightmare about answering my front door and there’s a cheerful red-headed man there who sticks out his hand and says, “Name’s Murphy. Nice job those two years. Payback time!”
My county was one of the ones mentioned in the article….our ambulance service was saved because of the vote for the Critical Access Hospital last November. It was very contentious, locally, the usual fellas screaming about “The poors are gonna bankrupt the new hospital and taxpayers are gonna have to pay for it!”
@Sleeping Dog:
There are some sane ones, they just don’t get the urban/suburban media coverage. Back when I was a permanent staffer for the Colorado state legislature, I happened to be walking past in the hall when one of the sane ones was telling one of the crazies, “You have got to stop saying those rotten things about the Front Range urban corridor and its war on rural Colorado. We’re asking them for millions of dollars next week to keep the ambulances running.”
To be somewhat fair, his was a rural district with tax rates comparable to anything in the urban corridor. What they didn’t have was the insane property values, incomes, and retail sales the Front Range did to be a base for those taxes.
From Wikipedia:
As of 2006, 19% of rural residents in the United States were from racial or ethnic minorities.
54% of Native Americans live in rural areas.
14% of Black Americans live in rural areas.
12% of Hispanic population in the US lives in rural areas.
At 15.1%, the disability rate in rural America is higher than the country as a whole (11.7%).
16.3 percent of the rural population live in poverty. Rural African Americans have the highest poverty rates of almost 34 percent.
2.9-3.8 million LGBTQ people live in rural America.
Following up on yesterday’s barrage of 100 days polls, a new Pew poll puts Biden’s job approval at 59% and gives him very high marks on handling the pandemic.
Averaging thr five polls together Biden’s job approval stands at 54.8%.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/04/15/biden-nears-100-day-mark-with-strong-approval-positive-rating-for-vaccine-rollout/
Did anyone else watch the Oscars? Halfway through I was ready to pull up an old Iron Chef rerun. So boring, so suffocatingly earnest and humorless. Does Hollywood not understand that their primary job is to entertain? Do they think after the year we’ve all had, the five years we’ve all had, that a night of endless solemn lectures was the ticket?
@Doug Mataconis: @OzarkHillbilly:
Sense a common thread here? THE DAMN TRAFFIC STOPS. We could make some tremendous headway by severely constraining the type of traffic stops cops could make and what could be done on those stop. These people were stopped for essentially safety violations–a safety citation should be the only thing authorized for the cops to issue.
If there happens to be suspicious of another crimes short of say–kidnapping or human trafficking–the person contact information should be forwarded to their local police department for development of a real case with warrants issued by a judge.
BTW–This stretch of I-10 between Tallahassee and Pensacola is essentially drive through country. There hardly even a place of the Interstate you’d want to stop for gas.
Speaking of Rural America, did anyone catch Sen. Tom Cotton’s speech about DC statehood?
Supreme Court agrees to hear major 2nd Amendment case aimed at challenge New York’s very restrictive concealed carry law. This is the first major gun case the Court has taken in ten years.
The case will be heard in the new SCOTUS term that begins in October’s but it may not be until June 2022 that we get a decision.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/04/court-to-take-up-major-gun-rights-case/
@Michael Reynolds:
There are many obvious exceptions, but the average Hollywood actor is miserably self-conscious about his or her relative lack of education. And a lot of them feel guilty about being paid vast sums of money to play pretend, which most of us do for free as kids. So when they’re afforded the opportunity to pontificate and sound like an, ahem, serious person, they seize it greedily.
@Jim Brown 32: And too often the reason for the stop is pretextual, simply a made up reason to conduct a search of the vehicle. The next step after the stop is a claim that the officer “smelled marijuana”. I can’t count the times heard that one.
@Jim Brown 32:
Additionally, many safety citations shouldn’t even require a stop. There are alternative methods to delivering that citation.
@Michael Reynolds:
Since I rarely see the movies which get the big nominations, I watch mostly the red carpet beforehand for the fashions. This year I put the show itself on while I was busy catching up on aviation blogs, it made for good background noise.
I liked Laura Dern’s gown.
According to CNN, Indian hospitals have run out of oxygen, and bed space for new Covid patients. The U.S. and U.K. have pledged supplies and aid.
@Jim Brown 32:
From day one of fugitive life I realized the single biggest threat, by far, was a traffic stop. So I did not get behind the wheel of a car for two decades, until I was in the clear. Then I bought a brand-new Mercedes S-Class, making up for lost time.
@Kathy: Ditto on Laura Dern’s gown, though I saw it described as a black turtle neck and a skirt. Mildly curious as to which was correct. Reminded me of some awards show where Sharon Stone rocked a black t-shirt as part of some more appropriate outfit.
@Kathy: You’re gonna have to explain that. I don’t get it.
@CSK: That’s a good article at the Bulwark. I appreciate that he sees Trump as a symptom, not the disease. But there’s nothing new or insightful. Basically it’s a long, detailed exposition of conservatives demonstrating the truth of everything liberals have said about them.
Fark headline
https://apnews.com/article/europe-religion-copenhagen-denmark-7250296f0510718233a9064140d127be
I read this and thought well the guy’s probably like 78 and just has no idea about how computers work. Nope. 44.
Facts don’t lie.
You are more likely to be killed by a cop if you’re an African-American Male.
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793
Later today we will get preliminary results from the 2020 Census and the likely impact on reapportionment of Member of Congress.
It is expected that states in the South and West will gain seats and states in the north and Midwest will lose seats This will benefit Republicans most especially becaus8e they control the legislature and Governor’s Mansion in states that will gain seats.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/550234-census-bureau-to-release-congressional-apportionment-numbers-as
@Teve:..Danish authorities charge priest…
I grew up and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and am aware of other Lutheran denominations in the USA and abroad.
In my 73 years this is the first time I have ever heard of a Lutheran clergyman referred to as a priest.
I wonder if this is exclusive to the sect being the “state Lutheran church”.
Test post to try and bring up EDIT key.
Test failed after several page reloads.
Correction for post at 1324:
I wonder if this is exclusive to the sect being the “state Lutheran church”?
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NOW the EDIT key appears!
@CSK: I’m thinking about crisis points—what happens in 2024 or 2028 if the Democratic presidential candidate wins by say 7 million votes, but a GOP legislature overrides a state’s electoral college votes and the Republicans ’win’? For example.
I need some suggestions. My stupid processed food diet has finally led me to hypertension. Tomato-based sauces such as non-pasta or chicken or something I don’t want to give up. I had a roommate 20 years ago who made his own pasta sauce because he said oh yeah I’m hypoglycemic and the stuff in the cans have way too much sugar and sodium for me, they’re basically like eating a Coke.
So I went to the grocery store yesterday and I got 2 28-ounce cans of no salt added tomato sauce, and 2 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes. I know I need to add some salt and some sugar and probably like some garlic and onion powder and stuff but I was wondering if anybody here makes there own sauce and can give me like an approximate recipe to start. I’ve also got a can of tomato paste somewhere.
@Doug Mataconis: At some point the census numbers are going to be contested. And in a year where taking the census was difficult and by most accounts, politically interfered with, I wonder if there will be a constitutional challenge to the census. Basically saying, if the census is constitutionally mandated, is there a point where the botched census is ruled unconstitutional and has to be reaccomplished?
@Teve:
@Teve:
I mix tomato puree, similar to tomato sauce, with sauteed onions, and garlic, then add dry oregano (I crumble it between my palms first), fine herbs, pepper, paprika, and a pinch of cinnamon.
I cook without any sugar, and very little salt.
@Teve: speaking for myself, I would not consider the Republican a legitimate President. I would consider anything that individual did to be done with no backing authority and so null and void. Tens of millions would feel the same way and I think massive rioting would ensue.
@Teve:
Caramelized onions instead of sugar (they counter the acidic “sour”). No salt. Sauteed garlic, basil, oregano, rosemary (all fresh if you can, but dried works).
I usually toss in one or two chilis (cayenne) for a little kick.
For variations, just look at what’s available in jars at the store, and copy that.
@Teve:
You don’t have to do so. There are many salt-free commercial tomato-based pasta sauces, if you want to start with those.
You might want to experiment with a container of Nu-Salt, a salt substitute.
My father was a on very low salt diet, and he lived well past 94. He never gave up the pre-dinner vodka martini.
@CSK: KCl, I’ve got a different brand of that but it’s not a one to one substitute with sodium chloride. It has a metallic taste so I just kind of blend the two.
LOL
@Teve: Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce is crazy easy and very good.
2 cups tomatoes, in addition to their juices (for example, a 28-ounce can of San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes)
5 tablespoons butter
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt
That’s it for the ingredients.
Salt is a pinch or so, not a lot. Throw everything BUT the salt in a pot–onion goes in just cut in half–and simmer for 45 minutes. Fish out the onion halves, taste and add a pinch of salt if it needs it.
@Jen:
Where do you get your San Marzano tomatoes? I’ve been finding them hard to obtain. The Muir Glen are a very good substitute, particularly the fire-roasted.
@Scott:
I expect there will be a lot of challenges but the fact that the Census was taken during a pandemic is not likely to invalidate the numbers.
Liz Cheney 2024?
Given the position she’s taken on Trump, this would be interesting to watch.
https://nypost.com/2021/04/26/rep-liz-cheney-not-ruling-out-2024-presidential-bid/
@Jen: I watched a YouTube video yesterday of an Italian family making their tomato sauce the old family recipe, it was remarkably simple. Four different kinds of tomatoes, boil them for a while, peel them and strip the seeds out with an antique looking machine, pinch of salt spoonful of sugar and a sprig of basil per jar and good to go.
@Doug Mataconis: I expect she could reach Kasichian levels of support 😀
@MarkedMan:
Like in ‘16 when Trump lost the popular vote and 2000 when W lost the popular vote and the EC (assuming an honest election in FL) but won the Supreme Court?
Sorry. Republicans are assuming Ds will go to the courts, not the streets, and are confident they’ve rigged SCOTUS. And if we do go to the streets, what’s it get us?
@CSK: I’ve found Cento San Marzano tomatoes at my local Hannafords–they are one of the few brands that I’ve read are actual San Marzano. I haven’t had a problem finding them (but probably will now that I’ve said that, LOL).
@Teve: Yes–most Italian tomato sauce recipes are usually pretty straightforward. It’s considered a base sauce–you can always dress it up by adding things, but if you have a flavorful filled pasta or similar, a simple sauce allows the other ingredients to shine.
Reuters just said after a federal safety review the US is going to try to share up to 60 million Astrazeneca doses with other countries.
Over at Lucianne.com, headquarters for the adoring Trump multitudes, they’re celebrating Melania’s 51st birthday, honoring the most beautiful, gracious, elegant, accomplished, and intelligent First Lady we’ve ever had. Step aside, Dolley Madison, Abigail Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, Michelle Obama! You’re not in the Slovenian Sweetie’s class.
@Michael Reynolds:
You missed an epic train wreck at the end of the Oscars: the ceremony producers were convinced Chadwick Boseman was going to win a posthumous Oscar for best actor and wanted to make that into a thing, so they designed the whole ceremony as a build up to that, even rearranging the awards so that Best Actor would be last instead of Best Picture as normal.
And then when the moment came, Anthony Hopkins won instead, and what’s worse, he wasn’t at the ceremony either in person or remotely, so Joaquin Phoenix was left standing there with a statue and no one to give it to and just has to kinda go “well, good night everyone” and then the credits roll.
@MarkedMan:
If one or more R legislatures overruled the state(s) voters, the interesting person to watch would be the R candidate to see what they would do.
@Jen: well we’re on the subject of Italian food, one thing that I could share with everybody is that while the olive oil market is notoriously corrupt and most of the olive oils you buy in the grocery store are adulterated with cheaper oils, according to the people at America’s test kitchen, one of the very highest rated olive oils according to their tasting panel is California Olive Ranch, which you can buy for $10 at freaking Walmart.
@CSK: don’t forget she is fluent in 87 languages. 😉
@Stormy Dragon:
If you are to believe the reviewers, by the time that they got to watching best actor, only the press was watching.
@Teve:
Tip for tomato sauce: instead of sugar, peel a whole carrot, cut it into three big pieces, and dump that into the pot with the tomatoes and then fish the three pieces out after its done simmer.
@Scott:
The fact that the Census was conducted during a pandemic is unlikely to be a successful lifeline of attack
My tomato sauce recipe:
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 onions, chopped
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
(3) 28-ounce cans DOP San Marzano tomatoes
2 large stems fresh basil
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into three pieces
1. Heat olive oil in the pot until shimmering – add garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until soft.
2. Add onions and tomato paste, sauté until onions are translucent.
3. Deglaze with wine, making sure to scrape up all the fond on the bottom of the pot.
4. Pour in tomatoes, crushing with a spoon.
5. Add basil and carrot, and bring to a bare simmer.
6. Let sauce simmer on low heat for about 4 hours total, stirring and scraping the bottom occasionally
7. Discard carrots and basil stems
@Jen:
I just checked online, and apparently my local Market Basket is stocking Cento and Pastene San Marzanos.
@Teve:
Sad she never really mastered English after nearly 25 years living in New York.
@Stormy Dragon:
Or you can grate or finely chop the carrot and leave it in the sauce.
@Stormy Dragon:
I actually thought that’s what was going to happen.
At least they didn’t give an Oscar to the wrong movie this year, as far as we can tell.
BTW, what was really odd was the absence of clips of the movies nominated.
After every awards season, some movies are re-released* to theaters and advertised as Oscar Winner films. One thing that helps get people to see them is watching the clips at the Oscars first.
*In this second year of the trump pandemic, perhaps released to theaters to begin with.
@CSK:
Yeah, but that makes it more like a meatless bolognese than a marinara.
Since this article from the local paper is behind a paywall, I’ll quote liberally from it.
The article goes on to point out that NH does a poor job of keeping young adults who grew up here in the state. To that point it doesn’t help that the instate tuition for the university system (very little state support) is nearly as high as the out of state tuition in other New England states.
@Stormy Dragon:
It can be pureed.
Internet Outage in Canada Blamed on Beavers
So in the end I didn’t want to make another trip to town for extra ingredients so I mixed the no salt tomato sauce with no salt diced tomatoes, after browning a pound of hamburger meat sautéed some garlic in olive oil and added a bunch of onion powder and a wee bit of sugar and salt, just a hint, and maybe half a teaspoon of fish sauce for a little extra umami.
It’s very tasty and I am now waiting on some large seashells to cook and then I’m going to add ricotta.
@Doug Mataconis: So the data is nuanced. IF a person is killed by police–they are more likely to be white. However, if you interact with the police and are black–you are more likely to be killed than a white person.
Why?
Overall, the FBI data on police interactions (haven’t looked it up in a few years and too lazy to find it) show that police interact with whites far more than blacks by a good order of magnitude. This explains why, overall, more whites are killed by police than blacks. However, despite lower interaction numbers with blacks, police kill enough blacks to make our interactions with police more prone to lethal violence than their interactions with a white citizen.
I actually think the key statistic that deserves scrutiny is the number of police interactions with blacks vs whites that result in incarcerations. How to you get to 60% of the prison population being minority(and mostly black) when police interactions with whites are orders of magnitude higher?
THIS IS SYSTEMIC RACISM. PERIOD.
From a systems perspective, police killing are an infrequent event based on ~1000 occurrences per year in 40+ million police interactions. Keep in mind that many of these killings are “justified”. 20% are in the gray area and only a portion of those are egregious crimes.
I personally believe that the only legislative prescription for this system is to lower interactions–very little else will work legislatively. Policy wise–there are some additional tools that can be employed but there is a tradeoff. I do not think the answer is to make all police meter maids. If the police were busting the heads of the actual troublemakers in poor communities–nobody would complain. But they dont and won’t–they shoot up motorists and peons who are pawns in broken systems.
@CSK: 51? I have 70+ year old Aunts that look younger than her.
It looks like you will be able to visit Europe this summer but you’ll have to have proof of being fully vaccinated.
Vaccine Passports are inevitable.
https://news.yahoo.com/european-union-let-vaccinated-americans-215851504.html
@Mu Yixiao:
Leave it to beavers.
@Jim Brown 32:
Your aunts probably haven’t had two decades worth of facelifts plus God knows how many Botox injections. If that woman has more work done her eyes will be on her temples.
@CSK:
Her husband didn’t, either, despite a much longer time living in New York.
@Teve:
On the topic of sodium and sugar in general, one of the best words of wisdom I’ve received from a doctor was to point out that most, nearly all, Americans excess sodium and sugar intake comes from pre processed food. If you are cutting out that junk in general, you can probably cook with a normal amount of sugar and salt yourself without any worries.
@Kathy:
They’re well-suited, aren’t they?
@Sleeping Dog: Yes, and everything in that article has been an issue here for YEARS. This isn’t a surprise to anyone paying attention.
I do think that our retention of young people has improved somewhat, if I remember an article I read recently correctly. But that’s threatened by two things: cost of housing and a lack of diversity.
@Doug Mataconis: maybe i can get A low-cost flight to Tuscany. On second thought, maybe not. Those relatives who hang out all day on gun discussion forums and used to FWD: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: me obvious scam emails are probably not spending the summer eating ciabatta and sipping espresso in the piazza.
@CSK: Someday maybe I’ll tell you about Monteagle, TN. It is summed up best by “ATM! ATM!”
The numbers are in.
Overall it looks like Republican will benefit from reapportionment but the gains will be somewhat marginal.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/politics/us-census-2020-results/index.html
@Neil Hudelson: that is true, it’s just so damn convenient and tasty 😛
If i can switch to things like roasted chicken and veggies, and less Tombstone and Doritos I’ll be much better off.
The only serious dietary improvement I’ve made is that many years ago I cut out soft drinks almost completely. I think I’ve had about seven or eight in 2021.
@OzarkHillbilly: Should I be scared? I think Monteagle is where my hotel is for that Caverns show!!
@Jen: They’re losing their talent and their future tax base because they don’t want to allow low-cost housing to be built, because that would decrease their property values.
Short-term smart, long-term disaster.
@Jen:
Also, in as much as youngun’s are often looking to live in urban areas, NH doesn’t have much to offer. Manch-vegas doesn’t cut it.
The huge housing issue in NH is lack of multi unit rental property or even condos and townhouses. Except for the beach district, I don’t know when the last multi unit project was built in happy Hampton that isn’t a 55 and older community. From the looks of the apartment buildings that are available, they all look like they were built in the 70’s. Most towns are afraid that if multi family housing is built, the school district will be flooded with kids.
At least HH is allowing single family homes to be built on 60′-75′ wide lots, unlike North Hampton and Rye where it is a minimum 2.5 acres unless it’s a tear down or previously zoned for a smaller size.
@Teve: From 16 Things Marcella Hazan Taught Us About Cooking
It didn’t quite suit my palate, but it’s a good place to start. The next time I’m adding a bay leaf and some garlic. I suspect I’ll want some Oregano the time after that.
I used to eat tomato based sauces all the time but have wandered away from them. Not sure why.
@Michael Reynolds: The little I saw was just amazing. All the talk was about how wonderfully diverse the movies were — as if anyone anywhere has ever gone to see a movie because it’s diverse.
Diversity is a good thing — but it’s not the same as entertainment. The focus shouldn’t be “Look, Minari has all these Koreans, so we’re proud of it.” It should be “Here’s why Minari is such a fabulous, wonderful, entertaining movie that you will love — oh, and by the way, kind of cool that it was made by Korean-Americans.” Or maybe just let that be the subtext when you show a clip — something they chose not to do.
There was also no sense of selling the product. You watch the Tonys and the Grammys and the nominees are out there performing — showing the world what they can do and why they are worthy of notice. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, after they say nice things about the inductees, they come up on stage and play and remind us why they got in. We were supposed to be in awe of this crowd apparently because really skinny people come in all colors.
I get that it was a hard year for the biz. All the big, loud, fun movies simply got held back from release, and the only ones to nominate were the little serious indies. But why not point out that even little serious indies can make for a good night of entertainment? Not every movie has to be a plotless, dreary slog like the first half of Nomadland. (I assume the second half is more of the same, but since I fell asleep I’ll never know…)
Basically, who told Steven Soderbergh that people watch award shows for the awards?
@Teve: Too bad English isn’t one of them. s//
@Teve:
NH loves them old folks. Lots of retirees and second home owners here. In my neighborhood about half the houses are closed up for the winter as the owners either went south or at their primary residence.
@OzarkHillbilly: recipes usually have a few important variables, so in my trial and error version of cooking I’ll usually fuck up a recipe badly at least the first several times, and I’m lucky if it’s edible. This came out darn tasty on the first shot and I didn’t really stick with any of the recipes I read. It wasn’t perfect but it was maybe a seven out of 10. So tomato sauces must just be pretty resistant to failure.
The population of the United States was 308.7 million.
In the 2020 Census initial numbers put the population at 331 million.
@Teve: I hear she blows a mean Trumpet as well
I’ve been thinking…
Suppose instead of giving the vaccine away, the government charge $5.50 for it, but with a twist: After you get your shot, you’d receive $5 for every person you recruited to be vaccinated, and they’d receive $5 for every person they recruited, who’d receive $5 for every person they recruited, etc.
Yes, I know this is a multi-level marketing system, or more properly a pyramid scheme. But there’s no inventory to buy or maintain, and the entry fee is ridiculously low. That is, no one goes broke or grows rich with it.
And it might work.
@Kathy: TBH, I’m not sure what they speak in New York is English.
@Doug Mataconis: “Vaccine Passports are inevitable.”
I’ve got my Excelsior app and I’ll be heading to the Netherlands in the early fall… and the fact that non-vaccinated yahoos will not be allowed on the plane will be a bonus.
@Jax: Well, if you gotta pee, stop at a gas station. Don’t wait until you get out of “town” which isn’t quite outside the city limits. Seriously, they are mining people.
Out of curiosity, what caverns show are you seeing?
@Teve: Sort of…but it’s not really that cut and dried. There are a lot of issues at play in the housing market in NH. The sheer lack of housing has caused everything to increase in price.
For example, Dover (a progressive community) wanted to encourage lower-cost housing. They thought they could get there by limiting square footage for single-family construction. Thought being, well, people won’t pay more than $xxx,000 for a 1400 square foot home. What has happened is that those houses are getting bid way up, and that 1400 sqft home is selling for upwards of $490K…and you are prohibited from finishing the basement, increasing its square footage but you CAN turn it into an in-law apartment (so, considered separate square footage for dwelling purposes).
New construction ground to a halt in 2008 with the market crash, and since then it’s slowly crept back, but then we had the tariffs on Canadian lumber and then the pandemic. We’ve had a whole bunch of people with second homes basically relocate, putting huge pressure on school systems, along with people from MA moving here. Meanwhile, with no income and no sales taxes, school systems are funded mostly through property taxes, which is putting pressure on seniors…frankly, it’s a mess.
@Teve: I’m a fair cook but a lousy chef, so I always follow the recipe to a ‘t’ the first time out. Then if I like it but think it can be better suited to me, I’ll start adding and subtracting, but only 1 or 2 items at a time. Otherwise, with my dingo palate I have a hard time knowing what I liked or didn’t.
The Origin Story Of GOP Outrage Over Totally Imaginary Biden Red Meat Ban
How The Stupid Gets Made.
@OzarkHillbilly: The Dead South and Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. It was supposed to happen October of last year, re-scheduled for this year. I’ll have to check my email, but I think my hotel is called the Smokehouse? Are you familiar with it?
No, the only thing in Monteagle I’m familiar with is Bubba’s Gray Bar Hotel.
@Teve:
Unless you burn it. From personal experience, blackened tomato sauce is not “Good Eats.”
Remember when these outrageous things happened? And these?
@Mu Yixiao:
I just wish I had originated the comment in the report that beavers need a fibre rich diet too…
@Teve:
Except for baking, most recipes are pretty forgiving. The biggest part of become a good cook is realizing that you don’t have to get everything exactly right and 9 times out of 10, no one will notice.
@Mimai: Seriously, the best thing that’s happened in the last 4 years was Trump losing Twitter. Other than him losing the election, of course. 😉
@Stormy Dragon: I hope that holds true tonight! I’m making savory piroshki’s with cabbage and beef, and last time I knocked it out of the park. I’ll be disappointed if they’re not as good this time.
@Stormy Dragon: Yep! Although both cooking and baking have some science involved (Maillard reaction applies to both), it’s far more involved with baking.
I’ve actually had to learn chemistry for some baking and sugar work. (Fun fact, sugar actually decays, chemically speaking.)
@wr:
About halfway in we realized we were liking the ads a little too much. The lack of clips was just strange. I get that this was supposed to be a pared down, back-to-awarding-awards kind of deal, but people want their movie to be seen. Where else are they going to get this kind of reach for what will amount to a carefully-cut ad? I do admire the technical skill that must have been involved in producing this, though.
Did you see that guy, the president or whatever, doing a shout-out to the Indians who owned the land before, you know, Americans and Mexicans stole it? ‘Hey, just wanted to say we’re having a great time on the land our ancestors took by force. . . what’s that? Give it back? Hah hah hah, very funny. . . Go do what to myself?’
And what does this show says about Soderbergh’s instincts. Covid’s getting under control, Trump’s gone, and he thought we wanted lowkey, painfully earnest solemnity? Hello, Busby Berkeley? Jesus Christ, is humor just no longer a thing? Along with fun?
I mean fuck those guys am I right?
@Teve: How much is Kasichian levels? Is it like just enough so that she’ll be disappointed and bitter when she discovers that she can’t win at the support level she has?
@Just nutha ignint cracker: The first thing the Republican base is going to do online is call her Lez Cheney. Tucker Carlson will show deepfakes that she was an active black panther in the 60s and by the end of the week she’ll be in hiding.
@Michael Reynolds: @Stormy Dragon: So I take it that it didn’t turn out as my daily Atlantic newsletter predicted a couple of days ago?
@Stormy Dragon:
Don’t forget the vile things conservatives said about Michelle Obama.
@Teve: The only thing grosser than Rick Santorum’s face are the thoughts and words that come out of his mouth.
Seriously. Fuck those guys.
@Teve: I don’t do it often (and I don’t peel the tomatoes either, but one should) but when I make sauce with fresh tomatoes in it, the don’t need any sugar in them (although I don’t put in any sugar to begin with anyway) to “cancel” the sour. If you’re in an area of Florida where you can get decent vine ripened tomatoes, there’s no reason to do canned when tomatoes are in season.
Heck, I live in the Pacific Northwest on the western side of the mountains and I can buy good enough tomatoes at the supermarket to make decent enough sauce. Also, “cancelling the sour” is overrated in pasta sauces.
@Kathy: And being a native English speaker as well. Remember that.
@Teve: I don’t understand. Why does having gun nut relatives who fall prey to scams mean that YOU can’t sip espresso and eat ciabatti in Tuscany?
@Just nutha ignint cracker: no I meant that they were not on the planes to Tuscany to begin with, the demand isn’t going to drop when they are not on the planes this summer.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Actually, I was thinking how the anti-climax ending was like something from a Christopher Guest mockumentary
@Just nutha ignint cracker: I actually live 40 miles north of the Klee Lab. (I got some seeds from them several years ago but I happened to plant them in an area where there were lots of nematodes and it was very unsuccessful. And yeah the vine-ripened tomatoes here are really good.
https://hos.ifas.ufl.edu/kleelab/
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
The available evidence would seem to argue against that claim.
Dang. WV governor is offering $100 savings bonds to young people who get vaccinated. Good move. Bill Gates can afford that shit.
@Mimai:
…please twist the knife.
Andy Gelman deserves much higher status and widespread acclaim. He is a role model for rigorous thinking and critical analysis. A taste of his latest:
@Kurtz:
No, no….I’m more of a hand grenade lobber. And I do it with full expectation (and hope) that it will be done to me when appropriate.
@Mimai:
I’m not sure your point has penetrated. So toss another one then.
@Mimai: One of the worst things about the “death statistics” from COVID is that it’s so far removed from being able to see/hear/touch the idea that every single one of those dead people meant something to someone.
In my county, our death total stands at 7 (6,000 total “residents”, many of who have second homes here, or are inhabited at our quite large nursing home/Senior apartments), with probably 10 long-haulers, 1 kid and 9 over 50 or so. The 7 who died were in nursing homes. None of the people here feel like it affects them. It’s affecting their empathy, I mean…they really have it in for Liz Cheney and our Governor, Mark Gordon. Between Cheney voting to impeach Trump and Gordon shutting the state down, they’d happily tar and feather them in the public square if they could.
Maddow says Republicans have a new plan to trash Biden—create another debt ceiling crisis.
@Jax:
I hear ya’. We’ve been so overly focused on social/physical distancing that we’ve lost sight of the long-term psychological distancing and what that is doing to our humanity. In the short run, psychological distancing is healthy and adaptive. In the long-run, not so much. And when that long-run occurs in the context of social fracture, well, we don’t have a good model for that. But it ain’t gonna be pretty.
@Teve:
Oh, dude. I made a huge mistake.
I watched the first minute or so of the Carlson clip and something caught my eye. It was something about a Pew survey from March 2020 that showed that 64% of white liberals answered yes to the question, “Has a doctor or other healthcare provider ever told you that you have a mental health condition?”
I googled it, and found all the usual suspects on the first page of google–Washington Times, Breitbart, etc. But I noticed that a bunch of the capsules in the results referenced Evie Magazine. I am sorry to say I now know this publication exists.
I looked at two pieces from Evie. The one about the Pew survey quoted Lyle Rossiter extensively. It was worded strangely.
The word “adds” was a link to a blog post excepting Rossiter’s book…from 2009. Oof. And yet…
The other piece I read argues that fact checkers are biased. The example used was a Philip Bump WaPo piece that I think was discussed here. I seem to recall it being the subject of a post, I think Taylor. But I may be wrong.
Bump took issue with Trump’s claim about the 20 most dangerous cities being run by Democrats. Her point was that Bump nitpick Trump, because Trump claimed all the cities when it was all but three.
But that wasn’t Bump’s point. He was pointing out that for a couple different reasons, metros are overwhelmingly run by Democrats, and:
“Since there’s a correlation between size and amount of crime and between size and propensity to vote Democratic, it’s problematic to draw a causal relationship between crime and Democratic leadership. ”
There is more to say, especially about the Pew study. But I can’t do it tonight. I have other things to do.
@Mimai: It ties in a lot with how conservative media has fanned the flames for hating “other”. It doesn’t matter who the “other” is….it could be race-based, it could be those who died of COVID. I see a lot of “Well, I had it, and I’m still alive, so fuck those people, they must’ve had it coming”.
@Kurtz: i’ve seen Rossiter mentioned before by creationists, they claim that Rossiter showed that conservatism is so obviously correct that in order to be a liberal you have to have a mental disorder. It sounds like a really high-quality psychology thesis.
@Teve: So if someone harasses my kids because they’re wearing masks outside, I can just shoot them, right? I mean, that’s the world Tucker Carlson apparently WANTS.
Jesus effing Christ, what a world we live in. 😐
If you’re wondering what the link is between creationism and conservatism, it goes like this:
Darwin->Atheism->Liberals (who are Communists)->Eugenics, Stalin, Hitler, Feminism, Abortion, Drug Use…
@Jax: here in Florida the stand your ground laws would have to permit it.
@Teve:
@Kurtz:
Can confirm, this is top-class scholarship. 13/10.
@Teve: The fun part is my county is also dealing with some unruly teenager’s who like to play “cops and robbers”. The “robbers” have apparently been running through private property and banging on people’s houses after dark. They’ve been confronted by pissed off 2A legal firearm owners and told to knock it the fuck off, but their Mom’s think it’s funny to post on the local yard sale page that their kids are being threatened by crazy people.
There is really no helping these people.
@Mimai:
I was astounded by how Rossiter was referenced in that piece–the third person present linking to a book excerpt from 2009. It seems like an easy catch for an editor.
Rossiter reminds me a bit of Park Dietz. At some point, expertise takes a back seat to business branding. Or perhaps a simpler explanation, previously held beliefs overwhelm professional process. Either way, it’s a serious issue for credibility.
@Teve: And Santorum’s most notable contribution to American culture is his name.
@Jim Brown 32:
Yup, this gets to the difference between disproportionality and disparity. That’s why it’s so important to control for populations.
Its true that police, overall, disproportionally interact with white folks when compared with Black folks. But when you control for the relative sizes of populations (whether at the national, state, or local level), you see that there are significant disparities that lean towards increased interactions with Blacks and other minorities. That’s before we get to outcomes of those interactions and the racial disparities increase and significantly higher rates.
Basically, while it is true that whites have a greater number of police interactions, it’s also true that if you are white, you are far less likely to ever have a police interaction in your life than if you are Black (or Latino/ex, Native American, etc.).