A natural experiment in policing

Golden Valley is a wealthy suburb of Minneapolis, 85% white, and mostly liberal. They decided to do something about the racial discrimination that’s been making so much news in the Minneapolis region, and made a commitment to diversifying the police force.

The first hire was Officer Alice White, the force’s first high-ranking Black woman. The second was Virgil Green, the town’s first Black police chief.

“When I started, Black folks I’d speak to in Minneapolis seemed surprised that I’d been hired,” Chief Green said when I spoke with him recently. “They told me they and most people they knew avoided driving through Golden Valley.”

Great! A good start, you might say. Except that one demographic, the police force itself, was not happy.

Members of the overwhelmingly white police force responded to both hires by quitting — in droves.

An outside investigation later revealed that some officers had run an opposition campaign against Chief Green. One of those officers recorded herself making a series of racist comments during a call with city officials, then sent the recording to other police officers. She was fired — prompting yet another wave of resignations.

Oh. So the problem wasn’t the citizens, it was the police force itself!

Those resigning police probably expected the town to learn a hard lesson, about how they need to respect and appreciate the hard working, but rather racist, police officers. Except…

The interesting thing is that according to Chief Green, despite the reduction in staff, crime — already low — has gone down in Golden Valley. The town plans to staff the department back up, just not right away. “I’ve heard that the police union is cautioning officers from coming to work here,” Mr. Harris said. “But that’s OK. We want to take the time to hire officers who share our vision and are excited to work toward our goals.”

Maybe Golden Valley is weird and unique. Or maybe not:

When New York’s officers engaged in an announced slowdown in policing in late 2014 and early 2015, civilian complaints of major crime in the city dropped. And despite significant staffing shortages at law enforcement agencies around the country, if trends continue, 2023 will have the largest percentage drop in homicides in U.S. history. It’s true that such a drop would come after a two-year surge, but the fact that it would also occur after a significant reduction in law enforcement personnel suggests the surge may have been due more to the pandemic and its effects than depolicing.

Has anyone considered that maybe the people who want to work as police are the real undesirable element in our communities?

I feel like half my life is spent goggle-eyed in amazement at the stupidity of humanity

This is about right: the COVID vaccines have been proven effective and safe, are now readily available, and are cheap. But there are still people adamantly opposed to the best treatment.

xkcd: The vaccine stuff seems pretty simple. But if you take a closer look at the data, it's still simple, but bigger. And slightly blurry. Might need reading glasses.

Part of the problem is that quacks get away with it. You can disseminate criminally dangerous misinformation as an MD, you can kill patients with bad advice and ineffective, even deadly treatments, and get away with it.

A Wisconsin doctor in 2021 prescribed ivermectin, typically used to treat parasitic infections, to two covid-19 patients who later died of the disease. He was fined less than $4,000 — and was free to continue practicing.

A Massachusetts doctor has continued practicing without restriction despite being under investigation for more than a year over allegations of “disseminating misinformation” and prescribing unapproved covid treatments, including ivermectin, to a patient who died in 2022, according to medical board records.

And in Idaho, a pathologist who falsely promoted the effectiveness of ivermectin over coronavirus vaccines on social media has not been disciplined despite complaints from fellow physicians that his “dangerous and troubling” statements and actions “significantly threatened the public health.”

Across the country, doctors who jeopardized patients’ lives by pushing medical misinformation during the pandemic and its aftermath have faced few repercussions, according to a Washington Post analysis of disciplinary records from medical boards in all 50 states.

State medical boards charged with protecting the American public often failed to stop doctors who went against medical consensus and prescribed unapproved treatments for covid or misled patients about vaccines and masks, the Post investigation found.

Another part of the problem is gross politicization. It is currently the policy of the Republican party to encourage the early death of their electorate, and hopefully snipe off a few Democrats with terrible medical advice.

“State boards can only do limited things,” said Humayun Chaudhry, president of the Federation of State Medical Boards, a nonprofit that represents the licensing agencies. “The most common refrain I hear from state licensing boards is they would like to have more resources — meaning more individuals who can investigate complaints, more attorneys, more people who can process these complaints sooner — to do their job better.”

Instead, the opposite is happening: The boards face new efforts, largely by Republican state legislators and attorneys general, to rein in their authority in ways that are “potentially dangerous and harmful to patient care,” Chaudhry said.

Florida legislators passed a law in May that effectively prevents professional boards from punishing doctors accused of spreading covid misinformation online.

Six other states have limited the power of medical boards to discipline physicians for prescribing ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.

Yeah, Florida. It’s never good news when the words “Florida” or “Texas” are in the article.

At least now we know how humans will respond to an apocalypse: with doubt, cynicism, and lies.

Life in a small town isn’t the pastoral paradise some think it is

I’m an authority on small town living and big city living. I spent years in big cities like Seattle and Salt Lake City and Philadelphia (also in the in-between kind of place, like Eugene, Oregon), and I’ve been living in a small town with a population of 5,000 for the last 20 years. I know them all. I know without doubt that there are good people and bad people in all of them, and that small towns do not have a lock on virtue.

So I tried listening to this new country song by Jason Aldean called “Try that in a Small Town.” It is so much bullshit. It’s popular among right-wing jerks who think urban is a synonym for un-American violence — you know, the same people who think the January 6 Insurrection was just a few tourists visiting an architectural attraction. The people who like it are the kind who want to roll back progress to 1950, when white people could use a firehose on black people, and occasionally lynch one as a lesson.

Here’s a sample of the lyrics:

Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
You think it’s cool, well, act a fool if you like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, you think you’re tough
Well, try that in a small town
See how far you make it down the road
‘Round here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town

Hey! Why is your paean to the bucolic pleasures of simple country life so violent? It’s all about retribution, and about an imaginary city where carjacking and liquor store robberies are common. Liquor stores get held up in small towns, too, and when they happen in big cities the cops will probably shoot you. Don’t try it in a big city, either.

I live in a small town, and I could tell you stories about the chronic alcoholism here, about people who hate gay and trans kids, about church sermons that tell women to be subservient, about confederate flags flying on trucks, about ugly attitudes towards diversity and large cities (but then, the song tells you that), about Latin laborers treated with contempt, about Trump voters who want civil rights revoked for everyone but them. Of course, I’d also tell you that those hateful people are a vocal minority; there are also good people here. But small towns are not the model of kindness and self-reliance that that song makes them out to be.

In fact, they are dependent on the economic surpluses of the big cities. There’s a reason you can’t keep the kids down on the farm — the farms are dead boring, and are run by people who hate change and excitement and novelty. Our kids here can’t wait to grow up and move somewhere, anywhere else, and one of the reasons is the self-righteous attitude of people like Jason Aldean. We raised three kids here, and if we were to suggest they move back to Morris, Minnesota, they’d laugh at us. They’ve all moved to bigger towns. They had enough of the petty, bigoted life with the people they went to school with.

A gay black man, Brian Broome, writes about growing up in a small town in Ohio. It’s representative.

All the Black people lived on one side of town, and all the White people lived on the other. Our churches were separate. We went to school together, but it was at school that I was called or heard the n-word from White students on a weekly basis. The racism of my small town was naked and powerful; seething hatreds were baked into its soil. And when all the steel jobs disappeared, leaving many on welfare, in poverty or desperate, those hatreds deepened and the n-word flew more freely than ever.

As I got older and realized that I was gay, my small town became for me a coffin lined with razor blades. But it wasn’t just my sexuality that made it uncomfortable. I was different. I thought differently. I began to question the things I had been taught, and I found no one in my hometown who offered good answers. I was just told to be quiet: by my teachers, by my friends, by my church and even by my parents. And then the smothering feeling set in, the wondering whether there was more to life than what I was being shown. And I knew I had to escape. I wanted to meet different kinds of people, I wanted different experiences, I wanted to learn new things, and none of that was going to happen in a small town in northern Ohio. I couldn’t wait to leave.

The only thing that makes me at all comfortable living here is that this is a college town, and the university community is a small island of tolerant cosmopolitanism, it’s the only anchor holding me here. I work with gay and trans and minority students, and they know far better than I that stepping out into the small town community is hazardous…and not a one of them has any desire to sucker punch anyone, or pull a gun in a liquor store, or spit in a cop’s face. That’s what the more arrogant, intolerant residents of a small town might try to do.

Also, I listened to that Aldean song. It’s a dreadful, unmusical hash of country-western noise, lacking in charm, melody, and anything catchy at all. It relies entirely on resentment and bitterness to appeal to a certain mindset. I think I’d rather listen to Prince.

It’s all about ethics in war

I guess we aren’t supposed to worry. ‘Judeo-Christian’ roots will ensure U.S. military AI is used ethically, general says.

A three-star Air Force general said the U.S. military’s approach to artificial intelligence is more ethical than adversaries’ because it is a “Judeo-Christian society,” an assessment that drew scrutiny from experts who say people from a wide range of religious and ethical traditions can work to resolve the dilemmas AI poses.

Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore Jr. made the comment at a Hudson Institute event Thursday while answering a question about how the Pentagon views autonomous warfare. The Department of Defense has been discussing AI ethics at its highest levels, said Moore, who is the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs.

“Regardless of what your beliefs are, our society is a Judeo-Christian society, and we have a moral compass. Not everybody does,” Moore said. “And there are those that are willing to go for the ends regardless of what means have to be employed.”

Fills me with confidence, that does. After all, we have a long history of devout Christian soldiers always being ethical.

Hey, the Nazis were part of a Christian society, you know.

Gosh, I sure hope Marjorie Taylor Greene keeps working for the Biden campaign

I worried that this ad by Joe Biden that quotes Marjorie Taylor Greene saying favorable things about him was a quote mine. I’m so used to creationists pulling out short quotes that mean something completely different from what the author intended that I was afraid the Democrats might be pulling the same dishonest stunt, because we know she hates him. But MTG words do make a pretty good campaign ad.

So I looked a little deeper. She actually said those things in a speech to TPUSA; she actually thought these things are bad for the country.

“Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs,” Greene says in the ad, while images of the president smiling in various locations are shown as upbeat music plays. “That is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on and Joe Biden is attempting to complete.”

“Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid. And he is still working on it,” she continues just before a Biden/Harris campaign logo appears on screen to end the video.

WTF? “education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid” are unpopular, awful programs for a president to promote, so she seeks to saddle him with that? FDR was one of our greatest presidents, and that’s a comparison she wants to make? That’s nuts, but it’s actually what she thinks.

Clinching it, MJT posted a response to Biden’s ad, and it’s a different excerpt from her TPUSA speech, filling in the gaps in Biden’s thoroughly edited version. What she was trying to communicate, poorly, was that Biden is a big fat socialist.

Lyndon B. Johnson is very similar to Joe Biden. How are they the same?

They’re both Democrat Socialists.

Lyndon B. Johnson was the majority leader in the Senate. Does that sound familiar?

He was Vice President to Kennedy. Joe was Vice President to Obama.

He was appointed as the president after JFK was assassinated, then he was elected.

His big socialist programs were the Great Society.

The Great Society were big government programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and big labor and labor unions.

Now, LBJ had the Great Society, but Joe Biden had Build Back Better, and he still is working on it.

The largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete, socialism.

Biden is not a socialist, not even a Democrat Socialist. He is not trying to complete socialism, whatever that means. If the Great Society programs were socialism, then hooray for socialism, give us more of that, please.

Clearly, MTG was trying to put down Biden by chanting socialism, socialism, socialism at him, but by spelling out what socialism means to her, she’s basically educating everyone on what a good thing socialism can be.

Pay attention, Biden. Greene is actually telling you what works.

This. Is. CONSERVATISM!

It’s getting awfully gossipy up there in the highest governmental institutions. Boebert and Greene are fighting.

It’s no secret that the relationship between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert has never been worse. They’ve yelled at each other on and off the floor. Greene recently called Boebert a “little bitch” to her face. And Boebert supported Greene’s removal from the Freedom Caucus.

But, lawmakers told The Daily Beast, the situation between the two is still even worse than most people think.

“A fistfight could break out at any moment,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told The Daily Beast.

Can we get some hair-pulling, too? Screeching and clawing with long nails? Is this an episode of Housewives of Washington DC or what?

Another Republican lawmaker who is close to both Greene and Boebert told The Daily Beast that the situation was a tinderbox.

“You can’t have too many of these rifts for too long,” this lawmaker said.

Another GOP member suggested that one of them would destroy the other—they just didn’t know who would come out on top.

“They will be nailing that coffin shut,” this lawmaker said, “and one of them is still in there kicking and screaming!”

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) compared Greene and Boebert’s battle to that of a “two-way sword.”

“I just think that whatever is there, could be utilized both ways,” he said, adding that “people make decisions that they have to work and live by, and you kind of hate being in their shoes.”

After Greene called Boebert a “little bitch” to her face on the House floor, Greene was summarily booted from the House Freedom Caucus. And while Boebert could have probably helped save Greene from that embarrassment by defending her to the group, she instead chose to agree with fellow Freedom Caucus members, voting for Greene’s dismissal.

The “Freedom” Caucus was already a joke, with some of the worst people in congress gathering together to pressure everyone else to bow to their terrible politics, but this just makes it simultaneously worse and more laughable.

While the HFC was founded on not allowing showier, less serious conservative voices to join its ranks—like Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Steve King (R-IA)—that thinking has been a thing of the past for years. The Freedom Caucus eventually even let Gohmert join its ranks. (Both members are now gone from Congress.)

By the time Greene and Boebert arrived in Congress just days before the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Freedom Caucus was allowing almost any rambunctious conservative to join. It had, after all, primarily become a pro-Donald Trump group and less of the ideological organization formed to fight for a more open process in Congress.

And now it’s a forum for petty high school drama. I hope this makes it less effective.

Remember when Congress was all about dignity and decorum? Nah, I don’t either.

Well, that’s going to ruin the weekend

No thank you. No meaty beer for me.

Larry Kudlow, a Fox Business host and former Trump economic advisor, raged against the idea of “plant-based beer” on his Friday-night show and falsely claimed that President Joe Biden’s climate plan would require Americans to give up meat.

“Get this: America has to stop eating meat, stop eating poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and animal-based fats,” Kudlow said. “OK, you got that? No burgers on July 4. No steaks on the barbie. I’m sure middle America is just going to love that. Can you grill those Brussels sprouts?

“So get ready: You can throw back a plant-based beer with your grilled Brussels sprouts and wave your American flag. Call it July 4 green,” Kudlow said.

“Now, I’m making fun of this because I intend to make fun of it. This kind of thinking is stupid,” he added. “It comes from a bunch of ideological zealots who don’t care one whit about America’s well-being. Not one whit.”

None of his claims are true.

Yes, you can grill Brussels sprouts. They’re quite good.

The big news for him is that all beer is plant- (and fungi-) based. A meat-based beer sounds remarkably unpleasant. If Larry and Kid Rock want to try it, though, I wouldn’t stop them.

Larry Kudlow is a lying moron…a typical Republican, I guess. He said this two years ago — has anyone seen any hint of a steak ban?

History is cruel

Putin is, apparently, a student of history who has learned one lesson: “Russia will be saved not by pity but by cruelty.” I wouldn’t want to be in Yevgeny Prigozhin’s shoes right now, because Putin is probably planning to go all Peter the Great on him.

Russian leaders have always fashioned themselves as hideously cruel demi-gods, none more so than Putin’s hero Tsar Peter the Great, who went mano-a-mano with his own Prigozhin and an ersatz 17th century Wagner Group known as the Streltsy, a cadre of some 50,000 powerful soldier-tradesmen skilled in murder, embezzlement, and racketeering.

Although the Streltsy were sworn to protect the government, all the legitimized raping and pillaging made it difficult for them to decide who was in charge. Historian Robert Massie described them as “a kind of collective dumb animal, never quite sure who was its proper master, but ready to rush and bite anyone who challenged its own privileged position.”

And like Wagner Group’s 25,000-50,000 Kremlin-sponsored mercenary soldiers, the Streltsy, whose chief concern was also making money, made the doomed move to knock off their boss. Peter tortured thousands of them and their wives and children to death, with the Streltsy’s Prigozhin, Major Karpakov, strapped to a spit and twirled over a fire.

Peter sent his personal physician Dr. Carbonari to ensure Karpakov was slow-roasted. Let my notes from the historians in Russia’s state archive describe what happened next: “Karpakov was removed from the spit to rest before going back on the fire…Carbonari accidentally left his knife in the cell…Karparkov could no longer take the torture…Used the knife to slit his throat…But he was too weak and failed…Carbonari discovered him and he was returned to torture.”

But Putin allowed Prigozhin and the Wagner Group to peacefully retire to Belarus, you might say. I suspect that one reason for that is that it will give Putin an excuse to annex Belarus next. If his army can survive Ukraine, that is.

Next step: compulsory pregnancy

Elon Musk thinks voting rights out to be tied to parenthood. You will pump out offspring, or risk losing your citizenship.

datahazard: Democracy is probably unworkable long term without limiting suffrage to parents.
Helps solve the procreation problem, too.
Musk: The childless have little stake in the future

Fantastic fascist dystopia he wants to build here.

Also, what procreation problem? There’s only a problem if you have a prior belief that procreation is necessary to be a worthy human being.