That’s how it is: For Jamelle Bouie, the trial of Michael Slager, the South Carolina police officer who was caught on tape as he shot the fleeing Walter Scott in the back, was “a proposition.” The jurors who refused to convict Slager on Monday, delivering a mistrial, seem to have answered that proposition in the affirmative: Yes, indeed, the police badge does “grant almost total impunity for any action.”
Kind of glad, really: They won’t admit it, but Jim Newell detects a singular excitement in Democratic leaders at the prospect of a Republican attack on Medicare. This might be a fight they can actually win.
A few takeaways: Andrew Gelman, a statistician and political scientist, has learned some lessons from this election. Here are 19, including “Demography is not destiny” (No. 6) and “The election wasn’t decided by shark attacks” (No. 12).
The dismal window: Katy Waldman watched hours of C-Span’s live feed of the Trump Tower lobby and left deeply disturbed by what she calls “the transparency it promises and the opacity it provides.”
Strong in the snow: Some beautiful photos, by Christian Hansen, of veterans protesting at Standing Rock.
For fun: Hey, this Baywatch reboot doesn’t look half bad!
Starring future president the Rock,
Rebecca
