Open Threads

It’s been a long day for me working on the Balloon Juice site.  What did I miss here?

Besides the obvious loss of all our history (sob!) I can now mostly talk about what’s still missing on Balloon Juice as opposed to  listing what I have been able to get going.

I will say, though, that I found catcake, which makes me happy.  She is hanging out with her other cake friends, duckcake, pupcake, sea lion cake…  I think we may have the whole cake family back together.

The comment system looks a little different format-wise; there are boxes around the comments instead of just a horizontal line between them.  Not sure if that’s because they installed us on a later version of their theme or because we are missing the plugin they created for just for us with a bunch of specific stuff we wanted.  This isn’t the week to ask them about details, so I am just busy putting things back together in the environment we have.

We don’t have the rotating tag submission form or the site feedback form, but I’m sure those can be recreated again in time.

It is nice to have Balloon Juice looking like Balloon Juice again, and it won’t be long before we pack up camp to head back home.

Yesterday I planted the hydrangea I got in honor of my sweet Tucker, so I made sure to water that today, and I watered everything else in that bed because lots of stuff got moved around so that could get center stage.

What’s going on with you guys?

All through this nightmarish week, the timeline authorities in Texas offered for the police response to the school shooting kept falling apart. It’s normal for early accounts of what happened in a chaotic situation to evolve, but the changing story in this case seemed like ass-covering, and this catastrophic press conference basically confirms that:

On 40 minute delay in police engaging the suspect inside Robb Elementary School, officials say, "a decision was made that this was a barricaded subject…there was time to retrieve the keys."

"From the benefit of hindsight…it was the wrong decision." https://t.co/q812K5OQTv pic.twitter.com/59SMt32ElZ

— ABC News (@ABC) May 27, 2022

Earlier, video emerged of frantic parents being treated like criminals for questioning the cops’ strategy of standing around outside the school. One woman, Angeli Rose Gomez, heard about the shooting while at work and drove 40 miles to the school to see about her second- and third-grade children. Here’s more of her story from the anti-cop, commie WSJ:

Ms. Gomez, a farm supervisor, was also waiting outside for her children. She said she was one of numerous parents who began encouraging—first politely, and then with more urgency—police and other law enforcement to enter the school sooner. After a few minutes, she said, U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, telling her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation.

Ms. Gomez said she convinced local Uvalde police officers whom she knew to persuade the marshals to set her free…

Ms. Gomez described the scene as frantic. She said she saw a father tackled and thrown to the ground by police and a third pepper-sprayed. Once freed from her cuffs, Ms. Gomez made her distance from the crowd, jumped the school fence, and ran inside to grab her two children. She sprinted out of the school with them.

The U.S. Marshals deny cuffing Ms. Gomez, but who’s credible here? The people who keep changing the story? I believe her.

JFC. I know we need law enforcement, but seriously, what the fuck are we doing? Even aside from the atrocity in Texas and the occupying force mentality most cops display toward “civilians,” complete with summary beatings and executions that fall disproportionately on people of color, what are we getting for our massive police investment?

The average “clearance rates” are godawful for all categories of crimes nationwide. Is this true in other countries too? I honestly don’t know. But dumping money and military equipment on police forces here doesn’t seem to be working.

Open thread.

From one of the best presidents ever:

Do you remember this photo?

I sure do.

In 2009, Carlton Philadelphia, a National Security Council staffer, brought his wife and two sons to the Oval Office for a departure photo. Carlton’s older son, Isaac, asked me a few questions about policy, but a more surprising question came from his younger brother, five-year-old Jacob.

“Is your hair like mine?” he asked.

It wasn’t the kind of question a president gets every day.

So, I bent down and told him, “Go ahead, touch it.”

He replied, “Yeah, I think that’s pretty much what I’ve got. ”

White House photographer Pete Souza captured that moment and for years the photo hung in the halls of the West Wing. It was a reminder of one of the reasons I first ran for president: that if I were to win, young people—Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who may not have always felt like they belonged—might see more possibilities for their own future.

It’s hard to believe 13 years have passed. Today, Jacob will graduate high school and continue on to the University of Memphis to study political science. And I couldn’t be more proud of him.

Congratulations, Jacob, and best of luck to the Class of 2022.

—Barack

Just a reminder there are good things, good people, and hope in the world. Some days it’s hard to remember.

My new morning reminder:

This is an open thread