Morning Thread

Who Radicalized You, America

Times change.

WASHINGTON – The perception of police by white Americans has dropped by double digits in just one week, as police continue to target peaceful protestors, bystanders and even journalists amid nationwide demonstrations focusing on systemic racism facing black Americans.

The Worst Mayor

It isn't that I expected de Blasio to be good - there were already a lot of reasons to think he's bad - but wow has he been bad.

Current and former employees of the de Blasio administration distressed over the mayor’s handling of largely peaceful protests against police brutality are shifting their complaints from pen to pavement.

Hundreds are planning to rally in City Hall Park at 9:30 a.m. on Monday — the same day the city’s reopening efforts begin following weeks of coronavirus-imposed restrictions — ramping up their prodding of Mayor Bill de Blasio to implement long-promised police reform efforts, according to sources involved.

Saturday Afternoon

Busy with weekend stuff.

Afternoon Thread

Saturday, Saturday.

Asshole Justice

Doubt he'll experience more than minor inconvenience and temporary infamy, but that's something.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cyclist whose videotaped confrontation with three youngsters posting flyers protesting racial injustice on a nature trail outside Washington drew widespread attention has been arrested and charged, police said late Friday.

Too Sick To Club People

Horrible thing, this blue flu.

A high-ranking Philadelphia police official will be charged with assault after video surfaced of him beating a Temple University student with a baton during a protest Monday along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Friday.

Krasner, who days earlier had declined to prosecute the student, said Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna Jr. will face counts of felony aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of an instrument of crime — his police baton.

...

By Friday evening, talk was circulating about a “blue flu," or organized move by officers to call in sick in solidarity with Bologna, as another round of demonstrations, with crowds anticipated in the thousands, was set to take place Saturday in central Philadelphia. Command staff warned that such a move would only put other officers at risk.

Hope it doesn't spread. Joey Bologna would want you out there, beating on some innocents.

Bretbug Can Only Fail Up

I'm sure the dude has not faced a moment of personal discomfort since diaper rash, so this is the equivalent of waterboarding him even if nothing happens.

***HR update:

I have been told HR now says if anyone has felt their employment or work environment was threatened because they criticized Bret Stephens to please report it.

— Wajahat "Social Distance Yourself" Ali (@WajahatAli) June 6, 2020

He used to write 2 boring columns per week, now it's only 1 for reasons that probably didn't result in a drop in pay.

Overnight Thread

Enumerate the atrocities.

Your Moment Of Zen

Bari Weiss: Tulsi Gabbard is an Assad toady.

Joe Rogan: What does that mean? What's a toady?

Bari Weiss: Jamie can you check what toady means? pic.twitter.com/TGJSbL0Am4

— Turncoat Don (@TurncoatD) June 4, 2020

(the issue has nothing to do with your opinion of Gabbard)

America's Worst Mayors

Bill de Blasio.

And The Bedbug

NYT people are just airing all the grievances this week.

This is so common there's now a community of us writers & editors whom Bret has narced on bc he was upset they were critical of one of his many terrible takes. We usually get contacted by a high ranking editor & given a warning or told to be mindful of the social media policy 2/

— Wajahat "Social Distance Yourself" Ali (@WajahatAli) June 5, 2020

Brand Bari

Such fun.

Another person asked: "Can you explain the justification of the policy limiting newsroom and business employees' use of social media to report on internal matters to the Times, but which does not extend to opinion? I asked because I am appalled at the comments shared by Bari Weiss yesterday, which openly bad mouths her younger newsroom colleagues on a platform where they, because of strict company policy, could not defend themselves. Is it appropriate for a New York Times columnist to directly and publicly insult Times staff? Is it appropriate for the Times to profit from the engagement and followers that Bari Weiss’s insults generate? What accountability is there for an Opinion staffer like her? Will she be fired? Additionally, she was insulting to all of our foreign correspondents who have actually reported from civil wars."

Sulzberger said he hoped everyone could get along and passed the question to Bennet:

"On behalf of my colleagues and myself, I'm offended by those tweets and feel betrayed by the bad judgment in a moment when people are already feeling upset. I feel like they contributed, they did contribute as is reflected in the question, by making people feel even more upset. And that's not the kind of culture that I think we should have. We’re looking into the question of whether these particular tweets violate the guidelines and we've been in consultation with editors who maintain the standards on those questions. We don't have a resolution to that yet.”

Sorry. Im sorry. Im trying to remove it

lol

“I just want to begin by saying I’m very sorry, I’m sorry for the pain that this particular piece has caused,” he said, adding: “I do think this is a moment for me and for us to interrogate everything we do in opinion.”

During the Q&A portion of the meeting, Bennet took several confrontational questions from irate staff. When asked why he did not personally read Cotton’s column before publishing it, Bennet said it was “another part of the process that broke down.” He further added: “I should have been involved in signing off on the piece...I should have read it and signed off.”

Walls Don't Stop People, Guard Towers Do

Not that I want to give them ideas, of course, but the idea that you can build a massive wall and it will stop people is just absurd, unless it's heavily patrolled by actual people (I suppose you could have ROBOT LASERS too but the point is you need force). You can go under, over, or through just about anything if you have a bit of time.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has asked contractors for help making President Donald Trump's border wall more difficult to climb over and cut through, an acknowledgment that the design currently being installed across hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico boundary remains vulnerable.

STONKS ARE SOARING

Senate Republican aide on today's job report: "This definitively kills any chance of trillions of new spending"

— Jeffrey Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 5, 2020

They're dumb, because things are not going to be good by November, but a lot of people are going to suffer to help tank Trump's presidency.

RECESSION'S OVER

It'll start with the Trumpkins, but in a couple of months it'll be conventional wisdom that all the unemployment is actually just due to the popularity of Animal Crossing.

Stephen Moore, economic adviser to the White House, on the jobs numbers:

“It takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of any phase 4 -- we don't need it now. There's no reason to have a major spending bill. The sense of urgent crisis is very greatly dissipated by the report.”

— Jeffrey Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 5, 2020

Morning In America

Do I check the Covid death stats or the police brutality stories first?

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DROPS TO JUST 13.3% RECESSION OVER

There are some data issues I haven't bothered to get into deeply (not deception, just complications with who exactly is "unemployed" at the moment given various issues) so I don't know how meaningful this is, but I guarantee that pretty soon absurdly high levels of unemployment will be hailed as proof everything is Actually, Great.

You Expect Us To Read Our Own Opinion Page?

A whole bunch of pseudointellectual propagandists spent hours defending the op-ed by bleating about the virtues of the NYTimes thoughtfully expanding our minds and civic discourse just so NYTimes could admit "uhhh so like we didn't read it, we just clicked the publish button." 😆 https://t.co/4Eu1hnE5pW

— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) June 4, 2020

Hi James, do you have anything to say?

We published Cotton’s argument in part because we’ve committed to Times readers to provide a debate on important questions like this.

James, did you even read it?

Uh, no.

Society can only survive so many generations of elite failsons running everything. They're stupid and lazy and immoral and dishonest and they think they're smarter than you because of where they fucking went to high school (James went to St. Albans, you know).