President Obama: No Boots On the Ground In Syria!

One of the things that drives me crazy in any sort of relationship whether it be professional or personal is when someone changes their mind and/or does the exact opposite of what they said they were going to do. That's bad enough. But hey people change. Facts on the ground change. That's life. I can deal with that. We all have to deal. But, to paraphrase H.L. Mencken what can make me spit on my hands, hoist the black flag and start running berserk is when the person who has just changed their mind or reversed themselves has the sheer audacity to lie to your face and tell you that no they're not changing their mind. You just misunderstood them. Apparently you are just that stupid. It's not their problem that you apparently have a leaky brain. Actually they should get a medal for having to deal with your dumb behind. When dealing with people like this, black is white, up is down and good is evil. It literally does not matter what sort of proof you have of the person making declarative statements that they weren't going to do something. You can provide signed and notarized triplicate forms of the person telling you to do or not do something. Rest assured that none of that matters. The person will simply ignore reality until you agree that yes they were right all along. These folks are odious pious devotees of the Church of Cover Thy A$$. No matter what they are always right. If they predicted rain yesterday but it doesn't rain then as far as they were concerned they didn't predict rain. They are always right. Bottom line. It's easier to avoid these sorts of people in my personal life but unfortunately they are tremendously over represented among upper management and Presidents.

Remember that President Barack Obama made definitive statements that he would not put boots on the ground in Syria. Period. End of story. Also remember that after a rather public Hamlet like internal debate President Obama tried and failed to get Congress to authorize ground troops in Syria. Now in a functioning republic that's the end. Unfortunately we lack a functioning republic. We have one in which Presidents (Obama wasn't the first and won't be the last) have seized for themselves the right to attack, bomb and invade countries without any sort of Congressional permission. So yesterday we saw White House spokesman mouthpiece Josh Earnest announce that US Special Forces troops would be on the ground in Syria (they're probably already there). According to Mr. Earnest this didn't contradict the President's prior assertions. Also according to Mr. Earnest this didn't fall under the War Powers Act. Mr. Earnest claimed this was legal despite the fact that the government of Syria didn't invite US Special Forces. Mr. Earnest claimed that the 2001 AUMF gave the President all the authority he needed. That the President believes that a law created for one country and one organization gives him authority to interfere in another country without Congressional or for that matter United Nations approval is telling.


Anyway, here is what the President said on a prior occasion. His hardcore defenders, just as they did with the "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" statements will likely tie themselves in knots as Earnest did yesterday, trying to find some obscure loophole that apparently justifies this change. I'm tired of this. There aren't any good options in Syria. Nobody has clean hands. Some of the people we're assisting are Al-Qaeda affiliates. Others are considered terrorists by our NATO Turkish allies. It's okay if the President changed his mind. But he should admit that he changed his mind. Don't p*** on my head and tell me it's raining. And he should get Congressional approval before sending in troops. That is the law, even if no one bothers to obey it any longer. One of the really infuriating arguments which Earnest and presumably President Obama tries to put across is that if Congress doesn't do what the President wants (in this case give him an authorization for military action in Syria) then he has the right to act because Congress has "failed". Again, that is not how our system works.

Book Reviews: Detroit: An American Autopsy, Finn Family Moomintroll

Detroit: An American Autopsy
by Charlie LeDuff

Charlie LeDuff is a local "Caucasian" (more on that in a minute because it is relevant) Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, gadfly, pain in the a$$ and media showman who, after journalistic stints in New York, Los Angeles and a few other places circled back to Detroit to become a reporter for the Detroit News, one of two major local daily newspapers. LeDuff grew up close to Detroit, in the local suburb of Westland or as he puts it, the only city that he knows of that was named after its shopping mall. LeDuff is an inveterate chronicler of the absurd. And there is, was and probably always will be a lot that is absurd in Detroit and the surrounding areas. This book, is both a love letter to Detroit (and the tri-county area) and also a rambling screed about all the crazy stuff that goes on in the metropolitan area. As I've mentioned before and LeDuff points out constantly, this area has always had a tremendous amount of racial hostility and segregation. That colors (pun intended) every bit of news and information about well, everything. So you could read this book and come away convinced that black political leadership is hopelessly incompetent and completely incapable of running a major city. Or you could read this book and be just as convinced that white racism and greed are fatal flaws in the American political arena that will wind up destroying the nation. LeDuff doesn't explicitly let you know where he stands. He's a reporter. He calls it like he sees it. LeDuff is currently raising a little hell by reporting on the fact that Detroit's new white mayor Mike Duggan, has overseen an extremely suspicious rise in the cost of home demolitions by companies that may or may not be connected to the mayor's friends. So LeDuff would likely state that he doesn't care what color you are, if you're not flying right he's going to call you out. Some people might disagree with that. LeDuff has tons of phone and email messages calling him a "n*****-lover" and just as many others making unpleasant references to his whiteness. You'd have to read the book for yourself and make up your own mind. Detroit: An American Autopsy, examines some of the more infamous events that took place around here from about 2004 to about 2012. These would include such things as the Kwame Kilpatrick text message and municipal corruption scandals, Councilwoman Monica Conyers' various public eruptions of anger and foolishness, the near meltdown of the Big Three auto companies, frozen corpses found in abandoned factories owned by scofflaw billionaires, the perpetual and near hopeless battles of teachers, police officers and especially firefighters to get the equipment they need to do their job safely, and many other failures of public and private leadership and probity that kept Detroit and some other localities in the news. 

As a reporter, LeDuff was around for a lot of these events. Sometimes he not only broke the story, but helped create the story, in a manner which irritated some movers and shakers as well as media critics. But the book artfully combines those macro events with the smaller challenges and tragedies that aren't necessarily news. LeDuff mines his own family for many of these stories. His sister was a streetwalker who died in an accident caused by one of her clients. His sister's daughter, his niece, was a junkie who passed away from a heroin overdose. LeDuff writes of his guilt at ignoring her and not reaching out to her earlier. I would guess that every family has some people who don't make people happy when they call. When a relative you aren't crazy about calls you, you might try to rush them off the phone or listen in a resentful silence as you wait for them to get the courage to beg the favor or cash which you don't have to give. That appears to have been LeDuff's relationship with his niece. His brothers struggle with lowered financial expectations. One, being unable to afford a dentist, removes his bad tooth with channel locks and whiskey. Another, having lost his job pimping subprime mortgages, views a degrading and boring $8.50/hr job as something approaching penance. Their stories and a few others echo those depicted in the film Sunlight Jr. The string that ties these vignettes together is LeDuff's argument that Detroit (and he means the city in particular and the tri-country area in general) no longer works for the people who made it possible in the first place. That is you can't really argue with a straight face that if you're willing to bust your butt and put in a hard day's work that you can have a decent middle-class lifestyle while your children could aspire to more. That dream is gone. LeDuff is very angry about that. He doesn't spare himself either. He alternately views himself as a crusading hero for the little guy or just another remora out to make a buck off of the travails of the city. LeDuff details a domestic violence incident between himself and his wife.

I mentioned that LeDuff is "Caucasian". That's important in the framework of this book both because some of his city sources who were eager to leak embarrassing information about the city brass may not have shared such information with someone who wasn't white and because Leduff has relatively recent African-American ancestry. (And Chippewa ancestry too for that matter). LeDuff thinks that Detroit is America's future if wide sweeping changes aren't made. But he doesn't detail what he thinks those changes should be. He's just telling a story. As he writes "It's about waking up one morning and being told you are obsolete and not wanting to believe it but knowing it's true. Go ahead and laugh at Detroit. Because you are laughing at yourself".

This is a good book to read. It's not quite the ruin porn I thought it would be though obviously there are some people who see it as that and/or enjoy it on that level. Detroit still has a busload of issues but it's not as horrible as it used to be. It's not as nice as it used to be either. No matter if you think LeDuff is a muckraker who is needed to keep people honest or a leech who makes money from heartbreak you will find your opinion validated by this book. Fun fact , LeDuff, whose personal and familial encounters with alcohol permeate this book, recently avoided charges of assault, public drunkenness and urination.





Finn Family Moomintroll
by Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson was a Finnish writer and artist of Swedish descent. She was one of my favorite authors as a child. Like many of the best children's authors she was able to capture whimsy and fancy while not writing down to children. Also although her initial works are probably best enjoyed by children they still have things to say to adults. Her later works, while theoretically children's books, were either written for incredibly mature children or more likely adults. There was a lot going on. Finn Family Moomintroll was one of her earlier works in her Moomin series. The Moomins are a family of friendly, artistic, chaotic, bohemian trolls (many characters were modeled after the author's friends, family and love interests) who look like hippos but walk on two legs. This was one of the first books translated into English though it's not the first in the series. There are some people who do not like starting series except at the very first book but Jansson's style here allows a reader to get up to speed very quickly. Moomintroll is the child of Moominmamma and Moominpappa. Moomintroll has some of his father's restlessness and somewhat less of his mother's good sense. With his parents, he also lives with his friends Sniff and Snufkin. As Jansson writes "Moomintroll's mother and father always welcomed all their friends in the same quiet way, just adding another bed and putting another leaf in the dining-room table. And so Moominhouse was rather full--a place where everyone did what they liked and seldom worried about tomorrow. Very often unexpected and disturbing things used to happen, but nobody ever had time to be bored, and that is always a good thing." In some respects you could argue that the Moomins and their friends are idealized incarnations of Rousseau's beliefs. Snufkin in particular is a wanderer and good person who doesn't like authority one bit. He doesn't believe in it, doesn't understand it and will rarely if ever allow someone to tell him what to do. Sniff is a nervous little creature. There is also the Hemulen, who enjoys collecting and labeling things, something Snufkin doesn't care for. And there is the Muskrat, a lazy philosopher who believes everything is useless but is rarely late for meals.  In this particular story the gang finds a magical hat belonging to the Hobgoblin. This hat transforms anything placed inside of it in often unpredictable ways.

This is a fun read that is amazingly silly at some points. It sends up the legal system, the concept of private property, young love, loneliness, friendship and many other ideas and themes dear to adults and children alike. For those of you who don't care for winter there is a monster who is the literal incarnation of winter sadness and depression. But on the other hand she may be horribly misunderstood. This book has a fair amount of slapstick. Very few of the characters take themselves very seriously and those who do are often gently (or not so gently) mocked. This is a wonderful book that brought back childhood memories. And for those of you who never read this author before, this book may briefly put you back in touch with your inner child. Jansson had a very vivid and oft surreal imagination. This book is less than 200 pages.

Ben Carson and Donald Trump Watch the Democratic Debate

It is possible, albeit not likely that either Trump or Carson will be the next President of the United States. For the first time in the race, Carson is moving ahead of Trump in the Iowa polls. Generally the two men have ignored each other. That has started to change. For different reasons I think each man is unqualified to become President of the United States. Trump seems to think that he can run roughshod over the concept of separation of powers (and other countries' interests) by force of his personality and intelligence. Carson believes that the problem is that the previous Presidents have lacked morality and common sense.  From Carson's point of view being President isn't exactly brain surgery. Of course it's hard to always suss out what Carson believes due to his tendency to mumble. Either way the Republican race will continue to be more entertaining than the downright soporific Democratic race. You may have heard that candidate Lincoln Chafee dropped out of the race. His ten supporters were devastated. Everyone else spent about five seconds trying to remember who Chafee was and why he was running in the first place. Anyway, as you might expect Donald Trump did not take the news of Carson's Iowa surge well, first retweeting a snarky comment about Iowans' intelligence and then saying he didn't believe the polls, while taking a shot at Carson's super laid back demeanor.  MIAMI (AP) — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump dismissed polls that show him trailing Dr. Ben Carson in Iowa, calling the retired neurosurgeon "super low-energy" before a boisterous crowd in Miami on Friday night. The Iowa polls are a rare setback for the billionaire businessman's campaign. He's leading polls nationally and in other early primary states. Mimicking a television journalist reporting the breaking news of Trump slipping behind Carson, Trump ridiculed his GOP rival. "We informed Ben, but he was sleeping," Trump joked. The crowd roared. He also said the polls in Iowa "are wrong" and said most pollsters "don't like me at all."
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I wonder what Carson and Trump thought of the recent Democratic debate? Fortunately there is footage of their discussion concerning that.

Television Reviews: The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom

This new BBC America series is based on Bernard Cornwell's series of historical novels set in 9th century England around the time of King Alfred the Great. In some aspects it shares DNA with James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking/Last of the Mohicans tales in that the series' primary character is a man who has mixed allegiances, based on the clash between his birth and his upbringing. It's also similar to Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles, which were reviewed earlier here. And like George R.R. Martin, without whose successful Game of Thrones adaptation this television series probably wouldn't have been made, Cornwell has not yet completed the books. Although I suppose being based on history there won't be too many surprises to be found in the remaining novels. I mentioned Game of Thrones. Like that series this series, at least based on the premiere doesn't intend to stint on the violence and general gray-blue tint which has seemingly become required for hack-n-slash dramas set back in the days when men were men and before anyone had discovered electricity or anti-perspirant. But the series also has or to be fair may have enough emotional involvement to hook viewers who otherwise might be bored silly watching some bearded men (or women for that matter) swing a bloody sword and declaim at length about how at long last their time for revenge/justice/payback has arrived. I'm not sure this history is well known outside of a relatively small group of English history buffs but 9th century England was (before the rise of Alfred) a place that was under constant attack by and slowly falling under the domination of the Vikings. 

Danish, Norwegian and even a few Swedish raiders and armies all invaded England or successfully extorted huge sums from English(Anglo-Saxon) nobles and rulers in order to put off an invasion.The English were not necessarily outnumbered but had no navy and little ability to coordinate defense against swift and sudden Viking attacks. The English were also divided and just as likely to fight each other as the VIkings. In the Kingdom of Northumbria, which is where this story starts, an English nobleman (Matthew Macfayden) whose demeanor virtually screams out Ned Stark, grimly tries to mount a defense of Bebbanburg, his piece of Northumbria. He doesn't get any help from the other lords, who have either made a separate peace with the Danes or dislike him so much they refuse to help even against the pagan. But things don't go well. His older son, whom he commanded to perform reconnaissance, instead tries to give battle and is killed. Undeterred the lord renames his younger son Uthred (the traditional name of the first born son), makes him heir, and rallies his men for battle. Despite their numbers the English lack battle sense, fall for Viking tricks, and are flanked and slaughtered. Uthred, disobeying orders and sneaking out to watch the battle, sees his father die. In insane grief the boy tries to fight but is obviously no match for grown men. Fortunately the Vikings are more amused than threatened and take Uthred as a thrall (slave).

After a bit of rape and pillage the Danes depart along with Uthred and an English girl his own age named Brida. Adding insult to injury Uthred's uncle claims rulership of Bebbanburg for himself, though the claim legally belongs to Uthred. Uthred's new Viking "owner", Earl Ragnar (Peter Ganzler) proves to have something of a soft spot for Uthred, as do his wife and father. Considering that in battle Ragnar is both vicious and merciless this is considered humorous by many. Ragnar prevents Uthred from being sold back to his uncle once he learns that the uncle intends to murder the boy. Uthred (Alexander Draymon) grows to manhood and is considered a son by Ragnar and company. He carries weapons and is greatly trusted. This is even more the case because Uthred protected his adopted sister (Ragnar's daughter) from a rape by the son of one of Ragnar's retainers. Ragnar dispenses a harsh justice. However no good deed goes unpunished. After a horrible bit of Viking-on-Viking treachery Uthred and Brida (Emily Cox) once again find themselves cast out with their adopted family murdered or enslaved. Uthred will need to find out who he really is. Christian or pagan? Saxon or Norse? Which father will he follow? Can his mixed identity be the key to saving England from the Danes or helping the Danes to stamp out the last vestige of English independence. One thing that Uthred already knows though is that he wants revenge.
Because a great many of the names sound like the noise somebody makes when you punch them in the solar plexus, the story can occasionally be hard to follow. The story is adept at looking at people from different points of view. Ragnar is a harsh, even brutal man but he's not even close to being the worst of the Vikings. And he gives good reasons (well good from his perspective) as to why the Danes have to do what they do. This is worth watching every now and then I think but I don't yet think it's must see TV. Time will tell.
TRAILER

RushCard Ripoff and The Vampire State

Driving home the other day and being atypically uninterested in whatever show the Sirius old time radio station was playing I turned over to a station which was playing Karen Hunter and caught the second half of her interview with Ryan C. Mack, a financial adviser, stock broker and author among other things. The topic of the moment was the financial problems currently going on with the RushCard, a prepaid debit care that has musical entrepreneur and well known celebrity Russell Simmons as an endorser/owner.  His celebrity doesn't matter. What is important is that the RushCard technical infrastructure was having some problems which temporarily (for ten days no less) prevented users of said card from having access to their money. But as Ryan Mack pointed out, considering the not so hidden costs of the RushCard, temporarily losing access to this debit card could be a blessing in disguise to millions if this made them reconsider using the card. Let's explain. As we've pointed out before there is a lot of money to be made from poor people. There's especially a lot of money to be made from poor black people. Although usury is technically outlawed in most states while consumer banks have been under greater legal and regulatory pressure since 2008 to reduce junk fees or at least make them more obvious to the user, there are many other such businesses who skirt or even outright flout usury laws by calling their prices "fees" or "charges" as opposed to interest. These include such institutions as rent-to-own stores, check cashing stores, payday loan stores, and pre-paid debit cards such as the RushCard. Very few people who have true wealth or for that matter even a decent salary which allows them to routinely put money aside are ever caught dead in such places. Very few people with an average to good understanding of personal finances patronize such firms. 

No. These businesses make money from people who are poor, often ignorant of the law or common business practices, are scared to stand up for themselves, or who for whatever reason can't or won't obtain a normal bank or credit union checking account. Unfortunately Russell Simmons has chosen to align himself with a business that makes money this way. Now as Puzo wrote in The Godfather, each man has to measure his own greed. Russell Simmons has a lot of money and wants more. I also want more money. There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But before someone does something as massively stupid as getting a RushCard, he or she should at least understand what they're getting for their money. Hint, Russell Simmons is not doing you any favors. Much like Bernie Madoff did with his ethnic group, Simmons is using his in-group and celebrity status to peddle products which are poisonous to personal prosperity. Spending money on nonsense like this is a major reason that black median wealth lags behind white median wealth. Now it's fair to counter that Simmons, like all of us, should be more concerned about his own wealth than someone else's. That is certainly correct. No one should live for other people that he doesn't even know. But just because I don't think someone should always be altruistic doesn't mean I think someone should be given a pass for ripping people off. There is a difference between me being indifferent about your finances and sticking my hands in your pocket to rob you. Here's some examples of some of the fees associated with the RushCard (this is an older example but gives you a great idea of the business model we're dealing with)

If we compare the fees affiliated with the Rushcard compared to the typical bank offered debit card, we can clearly see the advantage of the cards offered by the banking institutions.

Rushcard vs. Typical Bank Card

Activation Fee: Rushcard = $19.95 Typical Bank Card = Free 

Convenience Fee: Rushcard = $1.00 Typical Bank Card = Free 

ATM Cash Withdrawal: Rushcard = $1.95 Typical Bank Card = Free (At Branch) 

ATM Balance Inquiry: Rushcard = $.50 Typical Bank Card = Free 

Bill Payment: Rushcard = $1.00 Typical Bank Card = Free 

Inactivity: Rushcard = $2.95 Typical Bank Card = Free 

Refund of Rushcard/Bank Card via Check: Rushcard = $5.00 Typical Bank Card = Free 

As you see, there is no financial reason for one to choose the Rushcard over a typical banking institution which offers debit cards as a part of their services. With the continuous onslaught of technology, it is becoming increasingly easier to open bank accounts.

Ryan Mack's Open Letter

At every conceivable point of contact between the RushCard and the customer (excuse me that should read sucker) money is removed from the sucker's pocket and transferred into Rush's pocket.  Without fail. And it's not as if Mack was the only person who noticed the shoddy and shady business practices that Russell Simmons was using. Financial columnists have long pointed out the buyer beware nature of the prepaid debit card market. Hopefully as Mack has stated perhaps some people will decide to move on from pre-paid debit cards. Unfortunately some of the people who rightly do so will go to a different rip-off artist, the check cashing store. 

Denise Miller, who works in social services in Philadelphia, has not been able to pay her rent. In an especially embarrassing moment, her card was declined at McDonald’s when she tried to buy breakfast.“I am so angry,” she said. Erica Phillips, a 32-year-old autoworker who lives in the Detroit area, said she first experienced a problem with her RushCard on Oct. 10, when she noticed her money had been moved from her existing account to an expired RushCard account. Her weekly paycheck is loaded on her card by direct deposit, and she said she was unable to access that money all week. “I’ve been borrowing from everyone,” she said. “People at work have given me food.” Ms. Phillips canceled her direct deposit and plans to cash her paycheck this week at a local check-cashing store.

NYT LINK

What can be done? I'm not sure there is a legal or regulatory remedy in the short term. The long term solution is of course to build a society in which poor people have more solid financial understanding and are not disproportionately black. The businesses I've listed are basically vultures and hyenas who are attracted to financially sick people. The best thing we can do in the short term is share the information about how these companies work with our brothers and sisters who might be tempted to use these services. Just say no! Ryan Mack video

Speaking of bloodsuckers, whereas Russell Simmons is a figurative one, the State of Alabama in the person of one Circuit Court Judge named Marvin Wiggins (seen on the right in this picture) is a literal bloodsucker. Yes, it seems that old Judge Wiggins, rather than questioning why the state is running what can amount to extortion rackets over petty crimes committed by poor, often black people, has decided to put his own twist on the whole process by requiring indigents to give blood if they are temporarily unable to pay fees, fines or court costs. Now I suppose if you tend to be unsympathetic to lawbreakers you might reason well I guess they shouldn't have broken the law. Leaving aside the idea that having the court take part of your body against your will for a misdemeanor or civil infraction seems at the very least to be unusual and highly unethical, wouldn't you object to this order if the company taking your blood had been found responsible for giving someone HIV from a botched blood transfusion? I mean sure, maybe they've cleaned up their act now. Maybe. But do you want to be the next oops?  MARION, Ala. — Judge Marvin Wiggins’s courtroom was packed on a September morning. The docket listed hundreds of offenders who owed fines or fees for a wide variety of crimes — hunting after dark, assault, drug possession and passing bad checks among them. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” began Judge Wiggins, a circuit judge here in rural Alabama since 1999. “For your consideration, there’s a blood drive outside,” he continued, according to a recording of the hearing. “If you don’t have any money, go out there and give blood and bring in a receipt indicating you gave blood.” 

For those who had no money or did not want to give blood, the judge concluded: “The sheriff has enough handcuffs.” Carl Crocker, who was among those who owed money to the court, recounted seeing one older man pass out after his blood was taken. Another defendant, Traci Green, said that one young man became so angry about the choice he was given that he was taken out of the courtroom. Mr. Crocker, 41, who made the recordings of Judge Wiggins, also recorded the employees of the mobile blood bank, who seemed fully aware of the sentence-reduction arrangement. Mr. Crocker said he grew even more uncomfortable later, after he recognized the blood bank, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, which had recently lost a $4 million judgment for an H.I.V.-tainted blood transfusion. “It’s just wrong for them to utilize people who are in the court system and essentially extort blood out of you because you owe traffic tickets, misdemeanors, felonies, whatever you’re there for,” Mr. Crocker said.
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I don't much care for the sense of entitlement that some judges seem to have in their courtrooms. Fortunately I haven't had reason to spend any time in courtrooms. I don't mind a judge who tries to bring some levity to the process or make individualized punishments fit the crime. And though it would irritate me greatly were I the defendant or convict I don't really mind judges who feel the need to provide a lecture to the person who's about to go away to prison. That's all inbounds I think. But coercing someone to give blood is in my opinion way out of line. That should not be allowed. No one should agree to that. Someone needs to tell Judge Wiggins just what he can do with his order to give blood. I would hazard a guess that most of the people who are appearing before Judge Wiggins are not the well off and politically connected. I thought these stories were examples of the current ways in which the wealthy and powerful continue to extort funds and literally blood from those who have less funds. Both are quiet obscenities in their own way.

What do you think of these stories?

#RIP Corey Jones

A Black man is killed by a police officer off of I-95 in Florida. Scratch that. Corey Jones, a drummer at his church, is killed by a non-white police officer who was in plain clothes in an unmarked car. We here at The Urban Politico were alerted to this story Tuesday morning. We read about it, discussed it in an email exchange, and took no action until today when you began reading this post late in the afternoon while wasting time at your day job.

So why the delay?

Honestly, I thought it would go away. I naively wished the story would go away. I stuck my fingers in my ear, sang La La La La La La La loudly and off key and willed Corey Jones's name to not enter my subconscious, to become a here today gone tomorrow news story I could forget in a week. But I know better. Corey Jones was in deep in my brain with all the others like him who had gone before him. So here we are today with another name, another blog post, another hashtag, another Black man slain at the hands of people who are supposed to serve and protect everyone, and the only thing the Black community has to show for it is the injustice of paid administrative leave.




The one difference between Corey Jones and the Mike Brown's, Eric Garner's, Sam Dubose's, Christian Taylor's and others is that he was probably armed when he was shot down by Nouman Raja. I say probably because Corey Jones's gun, that he bought three days before he was killed, was found at the scene, but there's no other evidence to suggest how he was holding it, or even if he was holding it at the time of his untimely death. The second amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees all people of this great nation the right to bear arms. But apparently that right doesn't truly apply to everyone.

Real Talk. If some strange man was nosing around your car after you broke down at 3:15 in the morning wouldn't you be wary of their presence? Real Talk. If you were armed while said stranger was nosing around your car after you broke down at 3:15 in the morning wouldn't you feel the least bit safer if you unholstered your gun and held it at your side? I don't know what happened in Corey Jones' final moments. No one does. Conveniently dash camera wasn't working, a body camera was not worn, and the only other witness to what transpired in the seconds Jones confronted Raja, or Raja confronted Jones, and Raja shot scared is dead.

I understand that we as civilians are supposed to respect the lights, the badge and the uniform, but in this situation there were no lights. Officer Raja was in an unmarked car. There was no uniform because Officer Raja was in plain clothes, undercover. With that said, I want to know how long was an unidentifiable Officer Raja in fear for his life from Corey Jones before he unholstered his own gun and shot the drummer who broke down on the side of the road, and was waiting on his family to come through for a ride? Did Officer Raja even identify himself? Did he ask Corey Jones to put the gun down after doing so? Or did he just unload because he felt like he had the right because he was a scared police officer? Did it ever cross his mind that maybe Corey Jones was scared of the unknown man nosing around his car at 3:15 in the morning? Does anyone ever ask what the Black man fears? Right now, I bet it's police officers.

#RIPCoreyJones.

Jim Webb Quits Presidential Race

Well that didn't take too long and really wasn't that surprising. Jim Webb announced today that he is dropping his race for President -- as a Democrat. He is not willing just yet to say no to the idea of running as an independent. As we discussed earlier, Jim Webb no longer fits with the soul of the national Democratic party and hasn't for quite some time. His relative lack of charisma and complete lack of funds didn't help matters either. It remains to be seen if there are a number of independent voters who are yearning to breathe freely and vote for Jim Webb for President. I would doubt it. I don't think that Webb did himself any favors in the Democratic debate by constantly complaining about his perceived lack of speaking time or attention. But some of that rancor no doubt arose from Webb's rounding error level of polling support. Watching the debate it seemed that Webb was just as frustrated by the fact that no one seemed to know who he was as by the moderator's alleged dismissals. Webb is famously proud of his supposed touchiness. And it was on display again today.
Webb isn't completely out of the 2016 mix just yet. He said he is still considering an independent bid for president."How I remain as a voice will depend on the kind of support I'm shown," said Webb. "Though I'm not going away, I'm thinking about all my options." That would be an uphill climb for the underfunded former one-term senator. Raising money to fuel a run is only half of the problem; getting on the ballot in all 50 states would be an expensive proposition. He should not be completely discounted, however — Webb's home state is Virginia. The swing state has been especially crucial in recent presidential elections, and if he peels off even a small percentage of the vote, that could be a problem for Democrats. As for whether Webb still considers himself a Democrat, Webb paused and told a reporter, "We'll think about that."

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The more interesting question to me is not whether Webb runs or not. He is irrelevant. He was never going to be President. The more interesting question is can the Democratic party continue to win nationally while continuing to lose the votes of white men or more specifically of a certain class of white men. These are the people for whom Webb tried to position himself as speaking for, albeit with decidedly mixed results. As the two major parties ready themselves for a post-Obama election it will be fascinating to see if the winning Obama coalition will hold together without him on the ballot or if the class and racial polarization in this society makes each major political party almost completely identified with and subsumed by parochial interests. So Webb's departure may be seen as utterly meaningless or as the canary in the coal mine incident. Right now I'm leaning towards utterly meaningless.