Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• It looks like protests were massive last night across the country and, even though curfews were sometimes broken, overall it was very peaceful. It's amazing how everything goes smoothly when protesters don't turn into looters and cops don't turn into wannabee video game shooters using rubber bullets and tear gas. 
• I've seen so many news stories which have phrases like "police allowed protesters to . . . . "  Think about that. Allowed.
• But we were not without at least some disturbing images last night. 
  
• Let me shoehorn in a 'Rona update: 1 active case in Wise County. Meanwhile, Texas sets an all time record yesterday for new cases, and the chart has gone nuts: 
  
• This really started in 1997.  Police departments have been buying military surplus for years.
  
  
  
  
• “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” -- Republican Congressman Steven King to the New York Times last year. How'd that work out for him last night? 
  
• A day later, I still stunned by the gassing (yes, gassing) of peaceful Americans in Lafayette Park so Trump could awkwardly stand before a church he didn't go into and hold a Bible he never opened.  But we've learned some interesting stuff in those 24 hours:
• Ivanka pulled the Bible out of a $1,500 purse to give it to her father.
  
• I was really surprised to see Defense Secretary Mark Esper in the photo-op.  He revealed yesterday in an interview, however, that "I didn't know where I was going" when they headed towards Lafayette Park. That statement can be philosophically applied outside the context of just the walk to the church.
  
• People photoshopping the marquee behind Trump wouldn't possible happen, would it? 
• The New York Times has reconstructed what led to George Floyd's death in a really, really good video. I suspect most of us don't know everything. It's here and shouldn't be behind a paywall.
  
  
• While some corporations threw up a "black out" image on their social media sites yesterday as a show of unity against racism, Ben & Jerry's didn't mince words. 
  
  
  
  
• The normally apolitical Taylor Swift really went scorched Earth last week. She has 86 million followers on Twitter. 
  
• I changed my Modern Day Racist Detector about three years ago.  I had to finally realize they don't wear Klan hoods or have a sign around their necks. And, I think this is important, the vast majority of them are very smart and are your friends and neighbors.  They probably don't even realize how racist they are. So this is the test I use: How would someone who holds similar views of the modern day White Supremacist, who is not only very smart but also realizes that he can't say Klan-like things in public, speak so that, on its face, his words sound possibly plausible and reasonable? Simplified, ask yourself, "Is that something a very smart Klansman would say?"  I don't brand someone a racist for failing the test, but I least consider it to be a possibility. 
• Here's a very random example. Joe Biden spoke out yesterday. I'm not saying Brit Hume is a racist, but I am saying my Detector at least has a faint beep going off. 
  
• I got stung by a wasp or yellow jacket this weekend. After whining to Mrs. LL that I needed some Benadryl immediately (because I've always had a reaction where the bite area will swell up like a fat tick), she just casually said, "It was probably a Murder Hornet." 
• I really don't travel that much, but in the last two years I've spent a weekend in Minneapolis, the city of George Floyd's murder, and stood in Lafayette Square. Here's one of two pictures I took in the park. I think that's the church Trump walked over to in the background. The White House would be to my back and to the right. Andrew Johnson, who we probably wouldn't want to hear from right now, says hi. 
  
• Messenger: Above the Fold