monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

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(Besides the obvious discrepancies in how police might respond to a large black man firing a rifle)

Yeah. I admit I hadn't considered that very real aspect. If you have a girlfriend who is good with makeup, perhaps you could have her give you some freckles. That's pretty certain to confuse a racist cop and maybe give you an extra 2 or 3 seconds to explain.

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Isn't that vigilanteeism? (not sure of the spelling). Doesn't the law frown on laymen taking the law into their own hands?

Normally, yes (although in some states, they'd erect a statue in your honor even if it had Charles Bronson's face). But in a case like this, with many witnesses, you'd be fine.

See, that's white privilege - you don't even have to think about race unless you want to.

I like this one —

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We have a lot of mental health problems as do other countries.

And when he mentioned a “mental health problem at the highest level” I immediately thought about the current occupant of the White House.

Fox is a propaganda organ of the GOP and for Trump (and for Murdoch himself).

Over the last four days President Trump has made a series of statements demanding his Justice Department ‘investigate’ Hillary Clinton and other Democratic enemies. These demands aren’t entirely new. But by their specificity, repetition and speed they represent a new departure in demands for extra-legal action and rule. We should note that Trump is increasingly acting like a dictator or would be strong man. The only difference is that the machinery of government, seemingly up to at least some of his high level appointees, seems to be largely ignoring him. This is much better than the alternative. But it is still a bad, dangerous development.

...My point in pulling together this flurry of statements is that these demands are accelerating. The wild demands for power are increasing with his frustration in his inability to exercise power as a democratic head of state. They are also, clearly, accelerating as he feels Robert Mueller’s investigation get closer to his family, his inner circle and himself.

This will keep accelerating and may reach a breaking point soon. His legal position and his humiliations in the job are not getting any better.

Wow!

CNN poll: Trump approval hits new low of 36 percent

...The results were published a day after an ABC News/Washington Poll showed a similar approval rating: 37 percent. When factoring in the margin of sampling error, the two surveys show a historic low for a president at this point in his tenure in the modern era of polling.

After Texas church massacre, a push for armed guards and gun-packing parishioners

Political commentators are supposed to be somewhat objective and analytical when it comes to tracking trends. In that spirit, I find the polling snapshot of President Trump at one year since his election to be interesting — if “interesting” is defined as a downward spiral of polarization, pettiness and prejudice that threatens the daily functioning and moral standing of the American republic.

Our times are not normal — and it is a disservice to the country to normalize them. In a recent Post-ABC News survey, Trump’s approval rating is worse — far worse — than any president at this stage in seven decades of polling. About half of those surveyed strongly disapprove. The public assessment of Trump’s leadership, character and competence has grown harsher in every category.

Not that America is insane or anything.

And every time I heard a shot I knew that that probably represented a life. I was scared to death. I was. I was scared for me. I was scared for everyone of them, and I was scared for my own family that just lived less than a block away.”

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. — A day after a gunman massacred parishioners in a small Texas church, the Air Force admitted on Monday that it had failed to enter the man’s domestic violence court-martial into a federal database that could have blocked him from buying the rifle he used to kill 26 people.

Under federal law, the conviction of the gunman, Devin P. Kelley, for domestic assault on his wife and toddler stepson — he had cracked the child’s skull — should have stopped Mr. Kelley from legally purchasing the military-style rifle and three other guns he acquired in the last four years.

Carter Page's testimony is filled with bombshells — and supports key portions of the Steele dossier

...Asked whether he and Baranov discussed "a potential sale of a significant percentage of Rosneft" in July, Page said, "He may have briefly mentioned it."

Some people are just nuts.