Role of Government

NPR

Police Hold ‘Extraordinary’ Power In Traffic Stops, Law Professor Says : NPR

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents the Wright family, said in a separate interview earlier this week that Daunte Wright "was doing, like most marginalized minorities, trying to run away and get away from the police because Black men in particular are afraid when the police interacts with them because it normally ends up in bad results."

Butler, who is Black, says he too is constantly afraid of being confronted by police.

"Any Black person who is aware of the news, who knows history, has to be anxious around the police," Butler says. "I'm older. I'm a professional. I'm law-abiding. Whenever I see a cop car behind me, my heart starts beating faster. I don't go to places late at night where I'd have to drive and be on a lonely road where I might be pulled over. I don't want to take the risk."

He argues, "if you don't immediately stop ... in addition to whatever traffic infraction, you're committing contempt of cop. And bad officers will make you pay for that. ... It's so arbitrary and so that police officers who are racist or biased, they have so much power."

Golf

I think the biggest problem facing our country today is that we keep electing presidents who like playing the world’s stupidest sport, golf.

Most Dictators Self Destruct. Why?

Most Dictators Self Destruct. Why?

These are all very human errors of judgment. Dictators are people, too, and sometimes they'll act on imperfect information or erroneous gut feeling. But Treisman makes the point that they may be prone to such errors precisely because they are dictators. They'll be fooled by polls which people don't answer sincerely, taken in by their own propaganda (like Malawi ruler Hastings Banda, who called and lost a referendum in 1993 because he'd been impressed by the high turnout at rallies in his support even though people had been forced to attend them). And sometimes they'll rule for so long that their mental faculties will be less sharp than at the outset.

Yes, It’s Horseshit

I still think it’s horseshit πŸ’©that I have to manually upload and process my taxes, when the federal and state government automatically receives all my tax information πŸ“„ from the big banks and corporations that either pay interest, dividends, or salary. πŸ€‘

On Tax Returns, Why Enter What the I.R.S. Already Knows?

Filing your income taxes is a pain, and that is not an accident

Elizabeth Warren Is Right About Pre-Filled Tax Returns

The 10-Second Tax Return