From the article:

But Baltimore remains a place where police stop pedestrians, ask them for ID and sometimes take them for rides if they give the wrong answers. "First thing they say is, 'Gimme your ID,' " says Malik Ansar, 44, who's standing on the corner of Penn and North in the days after Freddie Gray's death. "They look and say, 'Oh, you live in ZIP code 21227. What you doing way over here?' "

Ansar points at a run-down town house behind him. "You can tell him you were born in this house right here. They don't care. They say, 'You live here now?' And you say, 'No, man, I moved outta here 17 years ago.' And they say, 'What the fk you doing here now?' "

The way residents like Ansar describe it, if you're not at the address listed on a photo ID, you go into the paddy wagon. But if you run, it's worse. "Then, it's an ass-whipping," says a nearby bystander. "Believe me, Freddie [Gray] knew he was gonna get an ass-whipping if he got caught. . . . Everybody knows that. It may not be a real bad one, but you gonna get one."

So most people go along, which at minimum is a huge waste of time. Ansar's friend, who goes by the name of Big T, says if you get picked up at lunchtime, you're lucky if you make it to central booking by five. You spend the whole freaking day in that hot, cramped van.

And once you get to booking? "You're spending the night," says Big T. "It's just them saying, 'We're gonna get you.' "

Many of these "cases" of loitering, or disorderly conduct, or whatever, never amount to anything, and if they do, get dropped as soon as anyone with half a brain and a law degree sees the charging papers. But the endless regimen of street interrogations and "long rides" serves its own moronic purpose, being a clumsy, bluntly illegal method of intimidating residents and searching whole neighborhoods without probable cause.

But he should have never wielded his own service record as a weapon to impugn the patriotism of others -- and on Memorial Day weekend, no less. I find that particular penchant of his to be abhorrent and despicable, and I'll call him out on it every time.

(That said, those who would fabricate a past military service or otherwise inflate their service records deserve both our scorn and our contempt.)

We've heard more than enough from our resident American Über-Patriots over the decades and my own perspective, not only has nothing good ever come from their vitriol, they've further enabled some truly monstrous and inhumane acts to be committed in our country's name. I appreciate what you did in taking him down a richly deserved few pegs.

This might be the most perfect "troll" of fools and bigots I have ever seen, since that flag stands for two fairly despicable things, treason and slavery.  No patriotic American would feel anything but pleasure watching this hated symbol burn.

From the NYT:

The court's ruling, expected in 2016, could be immensely consequential. Should the court agree with the two Texas voters who brought the case, its ruling would shift political power from cities to rural areas, a move that would benefit Republicans.

The court has never resolved whether voting districts should have the same number of people, or the same number of eligible voters. Counting all people amplifies the voting power of places with large numbers of residents who cannot vote legally, including immigrants who are here legally but are not citizens, illegal immigrants, children and prisoners. Those places tend to be urban and to vote Democratic.

A ruling that districts must be based on equal numbers of voters would move political power away from cities, with their many immigrants and children, and toward older and more homogeneous rural areas.

My feeling is that those elected to Congress are elected to represent everyone who lives in his or her district, not just those who are eligible to vote.

Charlie Pierce:

You really have to admire how they've [the Supreme Court] done it. First, they turn our elections into a plutocrat's playground (Citizens United, McCutcheon). Then they uphold in the main voter-suppression tactics designed by the candidates the newly corrupt system produces out in the states (Crawford). Then, they gut any remedy that the people against whom these new laws discriminate have in federal court (Shelby County.) And now, it appears, the day of Jubilee having been declared, the circle may be closing for good.

He's supposed to be running on a populist message.  If by some miracle he won, and stranger things have happened, we could have a old fashioned populist election.  Imagine the things that might be discussed.  

(2) Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, said "It is clear that if this referendum is an affirmation of the views of young people, then the Church needs a reality check."

LINK

"He's not a cannibal," the accused man's mother says. "He never ate anyone. Isn't that the true definition of a cannibal, is someone that eats human meat?"

That head-spinning statement -- and let's note again that it's the defendant's mother saying it -- sums up "Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop," a documentary set for Monday night on HBO that is a trip down the rabbit hole if ever there was one.

It revisits a notorious case that is still evolving, the one in which a New York City police officer named Gilberto Valle was accused of planning to kidnap women, then cook and eat them. What makes the case doubly bizarre is that at the heart of the preposterous-sounding charges are serious and sobering issues: Is it illegal to think vile thoughts and chat about them on the Internet? Where is the line between sadistic fantasizing and imminent crime?

The guy at Little Green Footballs, who's name also happens to be Charles Johnson, has been all over this.  Some funny stuff  there.

Update, 5/26/2015: On Monday, Twitter permanently suspended Chuck Johnson's Twitter account, as well as another account, @citizentrolling, he set up in response to the initial suspension. The suspension came in response to a tweet Johnson sent out asking for help "taking out" activist civil rights activist DeRay McKesson. (Johnson has said he was merely referring to his reporting and was not making a physical threat.) You can read his lawyer's letter to Twitter demanding immediate reinstatement here. Read the original piece below:

That investigation culminated today in pre-dawn raids by Swiss police on FIFA headquarters in Zurich and by the FBI on FIFA's offices in Brooklyn, and the subsequent arrest of nine prominent FIFA officials and five marketing and banking executives who had been indicted on charges of bribery and corruption, as announced by now-Attorney General Lynch this morning in Washington.

While FIFA spokesman Walter de Gregorio issued a statement following the arrests which insisted that the organization's decisions on the host countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were "final" and would not be revisited, most sports analysts aren't quite so sure now. This morning's events likely calls into question FIFA President Sepp Blatter's chances for re-election to a fifth term, which had once been considered a lock.

Allegations of systemic bribery and widespread corruption had long been staples regarding the activities of soccer's governing body. Most certainly, the world's most popular spectator sport has been shaken to its very core as a result of Ms. Lynch's investigation. This should get very interesting, regardless of whether or not you're a soccer fan.

SPECIAL REPORT U.S. MILITARY AND CIVILIANS ARE INCREASINGLY DIVIDED

When the conversations went from the Patriot Act to inconsistencies and disingenuousness in Paul's selective government over-reach admonitions (e.g., Patriot Act, too much; Abortion/gay marriage, not enough), Paul cycled back to the Patriot Act, to the dismay of Stewart.  Jon threw up his hands, giving up, apparently,  on the success of interviewing a weasel.

Paul, on the so called religious freedom movement, sympathized with the Christian bakers and other "Christian businesses,"  noting that many religious conservatives were afraid that their opinions would not longer be allowed even in their own churches.  

My friend uses them all the time to do S at his job that he doesn't want to do.  They get around minimum wage because they are not employees, but contractors.

I have been threatened a few times and so I carry pepper spray.

On Sat or Sun this weekend, I was walking back to my car from the gym which is downtown Seattle.

As I was walking, there is an intersection on 6th ave next to a major hotel often used by international travelers.  There is a freeway offramp at this street and the light does not change very quickly and more than a dozen persons at times gather on one side or the other to cross the street.

On this day, there were many persons wait to cross going south or going north, to or from the hotel or continuing beyond.

On the corner to our east there were two fellows (African American) who had gotten into some argument and had raised fists at each other, without having hit each other yet.

One of them leaves the corner and then returns in about a minute with some long cane or whip thing--plastic or part of a thin tree limb.

He then attempts to cross the street when there is some traffic and a car is in the intersection already.  The fellow with the cane gets mad and strikes the rear light thing of the car and breaks it and then starts to retreat to the west.  The fellow in the car did not have or brandish a weapon, but he did get out of the car briefly.

All these events were witnessed by between 10 and 30 persons, including hotel staff on hand.

No one stopped or attempted to stop the guy, though after the driver got back in his car, he drove to the next corner where the fellow had took off to . . .

I did not react or get involved other than taking a photo of the attacker from his rear.  However, I could have drawn the pepper spray and it seems I could have told the fellow he was under arrest.

I also get caned at times and I figured that that cane he was using would be nasty, but not deadly if not striking the face or head.

In Wash state, a citizen can do a "citizen's arrest" in the case of a felony or in the case of a misdemeanor when such misdemeanor is a breach of the peace.

In August 2014, a nearby Mall had a white security guard who pepper sprayed and manhandled a black bystander on the sidewalk, and got himself and his employer sued for wrongful conduct.

In this case, the criminal conduct of the fellow was clear--fighting behavior, brandishing a cane as a weapon and intentional destruction of property.

The pepper spray has a range sufficient to reach the fellow slightly out of the range of his cane.

However, I do not or would not use such a defensive weapon even simply on the basis of the criminal conduct described, I assume.

Lets assume the fellow is an idiot.  Anyone wish to comment on the legalities of the possibilities?

The main one I see is: I approach with pepper spray drawn, say he is under arrest and to drop the weapon and he does not drop the cane.

Bush 10
Walker 10
Rubio 10
Huckabee 10
Carson 10
Paul 7
Cruz 6
Christie 4
Kasich 2
Fiorina 2
Perry 1
Jindal 1
Graham 1
I'm Republican but thinking of voting Clinton 26