Sunday, August 02, 2015

Most Ridiculous Moment - August 2, 2015


As Chuck Todd, said “this is certainly not your average sleepy Sunday in August.” Not only is the first Republican debate coming up, Todd said, but “we've got a potential political stunner,” in that Joe Biden might, perhaps, be thinking of running for President.
But there are other issues, too, including the recent police shootings of unarmed civilians. Todd talked to Philadelphia police chief Charles Ramsey, who conceded police recruitment and training might be an issue, and that right now police have an image problem. The solution? “In this country, that have thousands and thousands of interactions on a daily basis, you don't hear about it because they're not bad interactions. We need to do a better job of the positive things that are going on.”
Todd pointed out that police seem to tell lies to cover for other police committing crimes. Ramsey replied “Well, that's part of it. But name a profession where you don't have that sort of thing. How often did doctors turn in other doctors for malpractice? Lawyers to turn in other lawyers. Journalists that turn in other journalists who perhaps aren't really doing the proper research on a particular story.”
But of course the big story is the GOP race for President. Chuck interviewed the other popular non-politician running, doctor Ben Carson.
On the police, Carson said “One of the things that I always like to point out to people is 'how about we just remove the police for 24 hours'? Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue?” and “if you hire a plumber and he does a bad job, do you say all plumbers are bad? Let's go out and kill them? I don't think we do that.”
Todd also asked Dr. Carson an offbeat question from a Facebook poster: "Does the Bible have authority over the Constitution?" Carson couldn't answer without “a very specific question about a specific passage of the Bible and a specific portion of the Constitution.”
But the big get of the day was Donald Trump, who, too busy to come in person, was interviewed over the phone on ABC and NBC.
On ABC's This Week, he addressed immigration, saying “now everyone's apologizing to me because they see that I was right.”
He also said we will not have an African-American President for several decades. because “look at what's going on with Japan. You look at what's going on with Vietnam. You look at Saudi Arabia, makes $1 billion a day and we defend them. We get nothing!”
He said he would bring back torture because “when you see the other side chopping off heads, waterboarding doesn't sound very severe.”
On NBC, Chuck Todd asked tougher questions, like “Why do you think you're resonating so quickly in the Republican field?” and “How would you advise a candidate to debate you onstage?”
But the most absurd moments came discussing police abuses. After acknowledging “It's a massive crisis,” Trump said, “I see it on television. And some horrible mistakes are made. At the same time, we have to give power back to the police because crime is rampant,” and “we need police,” and “we need protection, and police can do the job. But their jobs are being taken away from them.”
When Todd asked directly, “Do you understand why African Americans don't trust the police right now?” He replied, “I can certainly see it,” but “at the same time, we have to give power back to the police because we have to have law and order,” and “We have to give strength and power back to the police,” and “police have to regain some control of this tremendous crime wave and killing wave that's happening in this country.”
So police sometimes cover for each other when they illegally kill people, but all professions do that, and we can't get rid all police, or kill them all. Although police now have military hardware, we have to 'give strength and power back to the police', and although violent crime is at it lowest level in over 40 years , we “have a tremendous killing wave across the country.”
And that's the most ridiculous thing that happened this Sunday.

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