[edit] As often happens when I go off topic into politics I think a few people are surprised at my lack of sophistication in that area (which I don’t mind). A couple emails would set me straight on the political issue, as I actually agree that my view stated below is overly simplistic. One emailer, a former public defender and Assistant DA also contests my view that most cops are good. Our experiences are obviously different. I am a regular civilian and he has been up close and personal. That’s scary as hell. Anyway, here is my response to him on the political stuff:
As for politics, I was tired from a long weekend of writing and was blowing off steam. I never meant to imply that if we had a ‘nice’ democrat or a ‘nice’ republican things would be okay. I did not add in my own disclaimer that is similar to your view, that it just doesn’t matter which democrat or republican leads and that Trump is just a more ham handed version of what came before with respect to so much of what is wrong with this country. Although I do think the expressed hatred quotient has risen markedly under him. Well, I guess it did under Obama too, from the other side. Anyway, this once again shows why I generally stay out of politics and into markets.
A rare off topic post. Feel free to skip it.
Only (it seems) in America do we have stupid arguments about whether or not doing the right thing in the face of a pandemic that is killing people (you can argue the validity of what is counted as purely Coronavirus-related deaths but you cannot argue that there is a contagious disease on the loose that is killing people who otherwise would not be dead) is a violation of personal freedom, of personal human rights. It is other peoples’ right not to have you spraying contagious particles on them or even to have to take the slightest chance of you doing so. At least it’s their right where masking in public is the law.
Listen mouth breathers, if you don’t wear a mask you are compromising the psychological well being of others, and threatening the physical well being of others. What is so hard to understand about that? It’s not politics, it’s doing the right thing. I don’t love it, but I wear mine enthusiastically and proudly because it’s the right thing to do, both practically and psychologically. It’s not a human right to unmask your maw in public and your freedoms are not being taken from you. Grow up, will you?
Speaking of human rights, a man’s human rights were violated to the point of his senseless death by a murderer in a police uniform last week while his accomplices in blue looked on. This criminal and racist act is tipping the country beyond the deep political divisions and virus related stress already in force.
It was a truly sick situation, that cop with the blank look on his face and his knee on George Floyd’s neck while the other cops just stupidly looked on. People have a right to be outraged. Even a duty to be outraged. But when I see codified (in two separate instances) something like “all cops are bad” you know that the lunatics – and quite likely outside agitators – are taking over the asylum. All cops are not bad. Most cops are good. More than that, try living in this tinder box without the police. You want to see human rights violations?
I have seen a few bad cops in my life. Scary bad. But it’s a tiny fraction as evil tends to hide in places of authority and/or trust. A judge’s bench, the clergy, the political arena, law enforcement! But in the case of the police evil is a small fraction and yet the cops have to stand there playing the role that agitators want to see them in, that of the enemy, the ‘other’ in opposition to the righteous cause. How many cops are sick to their stomach that they have to stand out there symbolic of what went on in Minneapolis, yet maintain order in all of these protests in all of these cities?
The country is hurt badly. It’s got a divisive president of epic proportions and hatred of the other seems to dominate. Making matters worse, I think that only when we throw out said divisive president in favor of an actual functional adult will things begin to improve and dialogues return to some semblance of normal.
The problem is, look at what the democrats are serving up as an alternative. I heard John Kasich speak the other day and wondered why can’t we have a reasonable leader like him or other decent republicans and why, with younger people with more modern ideas (Yang, Buttigieg, Booker, etc.) coming up do the democrats make us eat Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden yet again at this critical time?
I had to be a market robot all weekend. But this stuff has been festering all week and so here’s a post to clear it out.
