Jared’s verbs

Jared Kushner, speaking today at the White House:

“The law enforcement community heard the cries from the community, saw the injustices in the system that needed to be fixed, and they responded by coming together to fix it, and it’s been a great partnership to do that. Those reforms make our communities safer and have made our system fairer, and that’s the type of action that we’ve been able to accomplish by working together.”

It’s blather, of course, but blather of a curious kind.

“They responded by coming together to fix it, and it’s been a great partnership to do that.” Past and present perfect verbs. Mission accomplished.

“Those reforms make our communities safer and have made our system fairer, and that’s the type of action that we’ve been able to accomplish by working together.” Present and present perfect. Done and done. And “those reforms”? What reforms?

Jared’s verbs (and his demonstrative adjective) claim reality for what’s non-existent. The present king of France is bald.

[My transcription.]

“Proto-neofascist”

Vanity Fair reports that James Mattis has told people that Donald Trump* is a “proto-neofascist.”

See also Mattis’s public statement on Trump*.

“Manufacturing crime”

I read this Twitter thread by Sean Trainor earlier today. It’s an account of one night riding along with a high-school classmate who’d become a police officer. What Trainor says he witnessed: “a full shift devoted to manufacturing crime.” Please, read what he wrote.

While you read the thread, I’ll note that after I read it, I went for a walk. And had lunch. And then the power went out. But now it’s back.

Trainor’s thread made me realize how many arrests in my small corner of reality follow a pattern: a “routine stop” for “a minor traffic violation.” And then a search with a dog, and the discovery of what’s usually a piddling amount of an illegal substance, and someone goes to jail, almost inevitably followed by probation. Sometimes a vehicle is seized.

Should someone be driving around with drugs in their car? No. But does this pattern represent the best use of a community’s resources? Does it help anyone, or is it, really, an exercise in manufacturing crime?

Thanks, Rachel.

Orange 1906 art

[Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911). “Scientific name: Citrus sinensis. Common name: oranges. Variety: Thornton No. 5. Geographic origin: Orlando, Orange County, Florida, United States.” 17 x 25 cm. 1906. U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705. Click for a larger view.]

I found this lovely orange at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection.

Related reading
All OCA orange posts (Pinboard)

[Via Open Culture.]

Lost Forest as Calverton

[Mark Trail, June 8, 2020. Click for a larger view.]

What, like some incredible journey? Mark, you must be kidding.

It has to be said: this storyline, with Andy the dog hopping into the back of a truck and going on a long journey, appears to be Lassie-inspired. It’s straight from the three-episode 1962 Lassie story “The Odyssey.”

A warning: if you ever happen to be teaching Homer, and you decide to show the last couple of minutes of the third episode to your class, someone will cry. Don’t ask me how I know.

Related reading
All OCA Lassie and Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[What kind of human addresses a small group of family members as “any of you”? More natural: “Anyone ever heard,” &c.]

Mitt Romney marching

The world may not be upside down, but it’s certainly tilting a bit more. Mitt Romney is marching in Washington. His words, my punctuation:

“We need a voice against racism — we need many voices against racism and against brutality. We need to stand up and say that black lives matter.”

THANK YOU USPS

I’ve taken to writing or drawing a thank-you on almost every piece of mail I send. Why not?

The canvas here is not a paper bag. It’s an envelope from the Muji store, cheap and good.

Things to look for

In today’s comics: an apple, a fork, a mask, a microscope, a shopping cart, a steering wheel. Dustin makes it all clear.

“We gave you a lot”

The New York Times has an account from two sources of a telephone call between Donald Trump* and Roy Cooper, governor of North Carolina. Trump* was insisting on a Charlotte convention sans social distancing, sans masks:

As the call wrapped up, the president reminded Mr. Cooper of the ways in which the federal government had come to North Carolina’s assistance during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. “I think we’ve done a good job,” Mr. Trump said. “Testing, ventilators, we got you a lot, and that’s OK.”

“We’ve been good to you,” Mr. Trump added, according to one of the people familiar with the call, who spoke anonymously to discuss private negotiations. “We gave you the National Guard. We gave you a lot,” and said to Mr. Cooper, “You and I get along good. You’ve been nice to us about it.”

Everything’s a deal. I did something for you — as if medical supplies and the National Guard are gifts, personally bestowed. Now it’s your turn to do something for me. See also: “I would like you to do us a favor though.”

Torch, passed

What a great opening. Alexandra Schwartz, writing in The New Yorker about a Bill de Blasio appearance on WNYC:

The record for the most notorious radio appearance made by a New York City mayor has long been held by Rudy Giuliani, who, on his weekly WABC call-in show, berated a ferret-loving constituent for showing an “excessive concern with little weasels” and advised him to seek psychiatric help. The baton has now been passed.