Bacon

You don't have to require a college degree. But if we make an addition to police budgets, it should involve developing curricula for prospective officers. They should be educated in history, anthropology, social work, and humanitarian and racial studies. If you're serving the people, you should learn a thing or two about them. Prospective teachers have that content embedded into their coursework so their lesson plans will be effective for kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds (my program referred to this as the universal design for learning). If you're carrying a gun and intervening in volatile situations, imagine how much more important your responsibility is.

Cops feel there should be something personally risked when they make a crucial decision on the job. Licensure, pension, employment, etc. No immunity, no covering their asses. Law enforcement takes their position for granted.

I've decided to cut some subscriptions out of my online budget to make room for monthly donations to organizations that improve black lives in LA. It's not a huge move on my part, but it's a necessary one. I stress that it needs to be monthly because we can't forget and we can't let anyone else forget. Here in SoCal, if you want to be a mentor to black and brown kids in the area, we have an organization called Peace4Kids. My wife has been going over to Compton for years to work with kids. They read, do music and crafts, ball on the playground, organize community cleanup, etc. They ask a lot of you, but if you're real about it, it's something you can do. I'm in education, and I could tell you all the horror stories I've heard and experienced over the years of being an IA and student teaching, all the kids sleeping at school, all the times we barely had enough food for the lunches we set out, the crappy playground equipment, etc. Even a small defunding of law enforcement and a redirection to education would make a huge difference for kids. Everyone needs a purpose. I would recommend anyone watch Hoop Dreams because it shows you what a goal can do for kids and young adults who have basically no opportunities afforded to them by American society. Their lives are brutally hard but they keep it together because they AREN'T thugs. They are people with lives and dreams and they deserve as much of an opportunity as people like me with two ****ing degrees and a teaching credential. It's about damn time that we give them that opportunity.

Let's break bunker ****.

Los Angeles is already trying to shift $110 million away from the LAPD to social reforms. Should pass it June 8. Long way to go, but you can see how quickly local governments are responding.

Kind of a ranty post, but I'm pissed. My feeling on the looting going on is that I'm tired of looting being the central issue. That's not me defending looters across the board; scumbags on discord organizing u-hauls to rob stores and not saying a damn thing about George Floyd is not OK. The protesters are beginning to rail against this too because they know their platform is being muddled and diluted. But if all you're doing is talking about looting, you got taken. That's just the fact. It's a Republican talking point that is further incited by the opposition. They can organize just like we can, and if you give them that satisfaction, you are a pawn. The biggest mistake that the police are making is attacking the protesters and media instead of guarding storefronts from masked white ****s stirring up trouble. They shouldn't be anywhere near the protesters. But the sad fact is that some of them like it. You can see it on their faces. They like beating up on the unarmed and getting easy victories. They see them as the enemy. The looters are stirring up discord in a way that undercuts the protests, so why prioritize them? Of course, not all cops are evil. But the system as it is churns out way too many bad ones and then proceeds to militarize them. I don't want to raise my daughter who I love more than anything in such an intimidating environment. All of this is to say, I'd just be really bummed out if the legacy of these historic protests is the damage that looters, who didn't give a **** about George Floyd, caused to storefronts. Keep pushing, keep working, keep spreading knowledge. We can make something happen this time. P.S. Antifa is a MAGA boogeyman and hearing people bring them up like they are in any way relevant to this situation is exhausting.

The way these negotiations are shaking out, we're going to be the reigning champs until 2021.

Ben & Jerry came through with another heater: https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/dismantle-white-supremacy It's marketing, sure, but it's delicious marketing.

This is real, believe it or not. They deleted and added to it because of blowback, but it's basically the same.

It dawned on me today how galvanizing it will be for Biden's campaign to have Harris or Abrams as his running mate in this racially charged environment. Even if absolutely nobody cared about Biden, his campaign could pick up enthusiasm through osmosis by simply letting her talk. At the beginning of the year, I was certain that Trump was going to run away with this, but outside of the end of Buchanan's term and the resulting Civil War, I don't think a president has ever gone out worse than this. It's unfathomable how bad this year has been under Trump. The timing is horrendous for him and he's making it worse every single day.

I think of it this way: Trump simply doesn't deserve to be re-elected. Ignore Biden. Trump can't be allowed to disgrace his title any further. The things he has said, the beliefs he has acted upon, they are so vile and un-American that it would be unconscionable to allow him to continue. He doesn't represent the majority of this nation and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Sometimes doing the right thing means doing a flawed thing, a less than perfect thing. Making a difficult choice that compromises you in some way. It's what adults do. I hope that everyone protesting this weekend shows up in November to make the difficult but right choice. Be angry, show the world why your position matters. But be unified and consistent. That means working from today until November and beyond.

This is why