Lightning Round -- 061217

Lot of scary stuff in the sky yesterday:

Green is never a good color

So time for a little lightning round:

• The jury will begin deliberations in the Jeronimo Yanez case today. Yanez, the St. Anthony police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop last year, testified in his own defense on Friday. I wasn't in the courtroom, but apparently he was pretty compelling. I'm watching the case carefully, because any outcome that doesn't include a guilty verdict is going to mean things will get rough, potentially close to me. 
• Apparently Team Trump has decided that the way to stop the scandal mongering in Washington is to go on offense and start attacking the integrity of those conducting the investigations. I'm not sure that's going to work, but it's never been tried before, so we'll see. We'll be in the Washington, DC, next week for a brief visit, so it will be interesting to see how things look from there.
• I'm officially tired of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Just so you know.
• Joel Kotkin is always worth reading and his latest piece in the Orange County Register is particularly good. A taste: 

Unlike its failed predecessor, this new, greener socialism seeks not to weaken, but rather to preserve, the emerging class structure. Brown and his acolytes have slowed upward mobility by environment restrictions that have cramped home production of all kinds, particularly the building of moderate-cost single-family homes on the periphery. All of this, at a time when millennials nationwide, contrary to the assertion of Brown’s “smart growth” allies, are beginning to buy cars, homes and move to the suburbs.

In contrast, many in Sacramento appear to have disdain for expanding the “California dream” of property ownership. The state’s planners are creating policies that will ultimately lead to the effective socialization of the regulated housing market, as more people are unable to afford housing without subsidies. Increasingly, these efforts are being imposed with little or no public input by increasingly opaque regional agencies.

To these burdens, there are now growing calls for a single-payer health care system — which, in principle, is not a terrible idea, but it will include the undocumented, essentially inviting the poor to bring their sick relatives here. The state Senate passed the bill without identifying a funding source to pay the estimated $400 billion annual cost, leading even former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to describe it as “snake oil.” It may be more like hemlock for California’s middle-income earners, who, even with the cost of private health care removed, would have to fork over an estimated $50 billion to $100 billion a year in new taxes to pay for it.

• I don't know if you remember this joke from The Naked Gun:

Sometimes life imitates art:

Delta Airlines and Bank of America pulled out of their sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater on Sunday over a production of “Julius Caesar” that reimagines the main character as President Trump.

Shortly after Delta, who was a four-year sponsor, made its announcement, Bank of America yanked its support as well.

The Shakespeare in the Park play tells the story of the leader assassinated by Roman senators over the fear that he’s becoming too tyrannical, but rather than the original setting, the production stages Caesar (Gregg Henry) and his wife, Calpurnia, (Tina Benko) with Donald and Melania Trump lookalikes.

Where have you gone, Frank Drebin?