Favorites June 25 2021

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

“Just shoot them” — the former President of the United States reportedly wanted the military to massacre protesters

cnn.comTop US general rejected Trump suggestions military should ‘crack skulls’ during protests last year, new book claimsA new book by reporter Michael Bender reports that President Donald <a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2021/06/24/politics/bender-book-trump-milley-protests/index.html” target=“_blank”>Trump wanted the military to “beat the f*** out” of protesters</a> in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing.

Conflicts between Trump/Republicans and the Military was really the big story today. Apparently Trump got pretty far along with the 'shoot them' plan.

The second story is around comments from General Milley regarding reading about critical race theory: he thinks “it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read” “I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist.”

Tucker Carlson, and others, were not amused:

Jeet Heer @HeerJeet

1. The American right's turn against the military (as "woke" and beholden to CRT) is a pretty significant development, not without precedent & very specifically focused on officer class, but still something new & pregnant with meaning.

Acyn @Acyn

Tucker on Milley’s comments: He’s not just a pig. He’s stupid https://t.co/XNxNCBjLHp

I did not expect to see Fox attacking military generals like this. This is a different message for republicans. And they’re poor students of history to boot. Maybe they should find more time to read?

Union Tpke @Union_Tpke

At the turn of the century, Japan began relaxing regulations to allow taller/denser buildings. Tokyo's housing supply has increased by 300% since 1963, while New York's has only increased by 19% since 1971. @mnolangray

At first I thought it was because they started at a smaller base, but the graph is in absolute terms. Wow.

John Scalzi @scalzi

YES DO IT

Victor Blackwell CNN @VictorBlackwell

BREAKING: The Justice Department plans to announce a lawsuit against Georgia over voting restrictions, @evanperez reports

This seems good, but we need legislation if we want to fix gerrymandering.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

The defund police movement was, in fact, bad. A huge tactical and strategic error that set back tons of important causes.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

The good news is that with the terms of the debate thus defined, people with good sense have regained their self-confidence and are engaging in sound politics to try to make people’s lives better. https://t.co/gzRLAwJbGi

Andrew Solender @AndrewSolender

Pelosi spox: "McCarthy’s behavior in Friday’s meeting is just the latest example of House Republicans’ growing contempt for police and law enforcement officers who keep us safe.” https://t.co/o04AtRkUWe

Spencer Critchley @scritchley

@mattyglesias 18% support for “Defund the Police.” 34% among Democrats, 28% among African-Americans. Seems pretty empirical to me. If you care about actually helping people instead of just talking about it, you need to learn how to win elections.

Highlights from a conversation about the defund movement's impacts.

Dan Bertolet @danbertolet

TIME Magazine's headline asks: "Why Is Segregation Getting Worse?" @AlanaSemuels' answer: exclusionary zoning time.com/6074243/segreg…

I mean, what else did you think could be causing it? Few things besides zoning can have such a huge impact on who can live where.

Cinematic Parallel Processor @stellahymmne

"Gift of prophecy is a curse" actually a methodological error. Oracles who can do anything about the future easily have already done so.

If you're unfamiliar with this picture, there's a great truly amazing short youtube video explaining it.

Mountain View, June 2021