Pot, let me introduce you to kettle

On more than one occasion I’ve heard it argued that Black people have caused their own problems with law enforcement. After all, if they weren’t breaking the law, maybe they wouldn’t have all those confrontations with the police.

This is an argument that ignores some highly inconvenient facts.

A number of those police brutality victims weren’t breaking the law and some of the others were committing minor infractions – like selling loose cigarettes – and the police escalated a minor situation into life-threatening territory.

I’m not sure what the punishment is for selling someone a menthol cigarette, but I gotta think it falls somewhere short of the death penalty.

Then it also occurred to me that some of the same people that say Black people ought to obey the authorities don’t mind going batshit crazy over mask mandates. They think minorities should obey the law, but also think government has gone too far when it asks them to wear face masks or pay taxes or not stock up on rocket launchers so they can protect their homes when the guys in black helicopters show up.

Turns out, following the rules is a good idea when someone else has to do it.

The fact that these people think it’s OK to cause a scene in public, maybe get in a fight with a convenience store clerk and don’t worry about getting shot by the police, would seem to indicate there’s a double standard when it comes to how police treat certain minorities and white people.

Just figured I’d point that out if it hadn’t already occurred to you.

Was the “losers” story fake?

In my last post I showed you a cartoon which depicted Donald Trump criticizing an NFL player taking a knee, with the caption: “I hate it when they disrespect those losers in the military.”

That was based on the Atlantic magazine story that had four unnamed sources claiming Trump had cancelled a trip to a French cemetery because it was raining and thought the rain would mess up his hair and in the discussion about cancelling the trip, managed to call dead American soldiers “losers.”

If this is the first you’ve heard of it, you got some reading to do – I’ll wait here.

OK, assuming you’re now up to speed: I had a reader contact me and claim the Atlantic story was fake and 26 people that were there – including people that are “not Trump fans” – said the story was false.

So I looked into that and found a story by the Washington Post and, assuming you trust those commie liberals, here’s the deal on that.

It was actually 25 people claiming the Atlantic story was fake, the list of people saying it was fake came from the White House and 11 of the people saying Trump never called soldiers “losers” weren’t on the trip. Trump called them “witnesses” which they couldn’t have been because they weren’t there. (Have I mentioned Donald Trump doesn’t mind lying?)

So what about the 14 people who were there?

Turns out all of them worked for or had some connection with the Trump administration, which is not a surprise because it seems kinda unlikely he’d bring Rachel Maddow along with him.

After the Post went through the 14 names one-by-one, here’s part of what they wrote under their “The Bottom Line” subhead:

As you can see, the claim that there are 25 “witnesses” is inflated. At best, 14 people denying the story were traveling with the president, but some were not in the room when the alleged conversations took place.

The two most credible denials — from Bolton and Fuentes — suggest that such conversations might have taken place, just not at the time described by Goldberg.

That refers to former Deputy Chief of Staff Zach Fuentes and former National Security Advisor John Bolton and their denials came with more qualifications than a Harvard graduate. Fuentes said: “I did not hear POTUS call anyone losers when I told him about the weather.”

Which the Post points out is oddly specific and doesn’t rule out Trump said it at some other point in the conversation.

And according to the Post, Bolton later told the New York Times: “I’m not saying he didn’t say [the remarks] later in the day or another time.”

I’m worn out chasing wild geese

Now that we all have access to news sources that cater to our political philosophy, we can all find stories that confirm what we already believe.

I’ve had people send links to videos and stories that “prove” there is no coronavirus pandemic, that a missile caused the explosion in Beirut and that Nancy Pelosi showed up in public drunk, which we know is unlikely because she’s way too busy getting her hair fixed while not wearing a face mask.

Also, Robert E. Lee opposed slavery (he didn’t, he owned slaves) the Democrats are running a pedophilia ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor (they aren’t, Jeffrey Epstein was handling that for them) and there are cannibals running the government.

OK, so that last one might be true.

But most of the time when you look into this stuff it turns out to be bullshit, but it’s bullshit some people want to believe and the fact is, you can’t stop them. You can pile up a mountain of evidence that what they believe is incorrect and it won’t make a bit of difference.

If they choose to believe the moon landing was fake, Buzz Aldrin couldn’t change their minds.

So if you challenge me with some story you found on social media and I don’t respond it’s not because I think you’re right, it’s just that I’m tired of chasing wild geese. If a story sounds unbelievable, it probably is.

Except for the cannibals running our government.

And until the black helicopters show up, have a nice weekend.

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/editorial-cartoons-a-z/