The world would go on without the NBA playoffs. . .

 . . . which is why the players are going to call off their boycott and play.

After holding a meeting Thursday morning, NBA players have reportedly agreed to resuming the 2020 playoffs, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The three playoff games on Thursday are expected to be postponed, and discussions are underway on when games will be resumed. The meeting came after the postponement of three playoff games on Wednesday, including the Bucks-Magic game in which Milwaukee players staged a walk-out before the start of Game 5. The league's Board of Governors were also expected to have a call this morning to address Wednesday night's walkouts in addition to what needs to happen next. 

Several leaders on the Lakers roster, along with some players from other teams, reportedly stayed up into the early morning hours to hash out their issues inside the bubble. As a result of those talks, all players were able to agree to resume the season, per Wojnarowski.

During a meeting Wednesday evening that consisted of players and coaches, the Lakers and Clippers were among the minority of teams that pushed to end the season, according to Sham Charania of The Athletic. LeBron James said in the meeting he wants the team owners to be more involved and take action. 

LeBron James can call off his season; he's got his pile. His teammates? Maybe not so much. More importantly, the NBA is an multi-billion dollar business that could disappear tomorrow without a lasting impact on our social fabric.

I don't care about LeBron's thoughts on social justice any more than I care about Ted Cruz's basketball prowess. If they both disappeared tomorrow, it would be a tragedy for their families, but life without them wouldn't require much adjustment. 

It's tiring, frankly. I feel like this guy:

We Want Justice/We Want Barabbas

I am a Milwaukee Bucks fan. They assert they want justice, so tonight they scuppered their scheduled game with the Orlando Magic:

The Milwaukee Bucks appear to have boycotted Game 5 of their playoff series against the Orlando Magic due to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, according to social media reports.

TMJ4's Lance Allan reported that neither team was on the floor as the pregame countdown clock hit zero.

So what does justice mean to you? Does it mean cops should stand down in a domestic dispute, with a guy who has a felony warrant out for his arrest? 

Jacob Blake had a long history of entanglement with law enforcement when he lived in Lake County.  

Blake's shooting by police in Kenosha on Sunday sparked destructive riots in the Wisconsin city not far from the state border. 

Records reveal Blake was arrested in 2013 in Round Lake Beach and criminal trespass to a vehicle and arrested in 2012 in Zion, Ill. for domestic battery, endangering the life and health of a child and driving under the influence. 

Blake is currently facing a rape charge in Kenosha.

A warrant was issued for Blake’s arrest on July 7 on felony 3rd degree sexual assault, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, all related to domestic abuse.

Well, he was unarmed, we're told. Or was he? I've seen this image multiple times:

I don't know what he's holding there. It could be a weapon. But we don't know.

We have reason to be skeptical of cops, all of us. Every profession has its bad apples, but most people's jobs do not include the use of deadly force. But do we romanticize bad guys? In this moment, I think we do. There's a reason we learn of Barabbas in all four Gospels. 

Friends and neighbors

On the streets of Minneapolis last night:

In the end, at about 4:22, the Alpha News reporter gets a face full of temporary bollard and her phone is stolen. The phone was apparently found in a fountain the next day, destroyed, but the footage was retrievable. And this video is the footage in question.

You can argue that protest movements are about justice, but this isn't justice. These are not people seeking justice. Larceny and aggravated battery are not justice. There is a fundamental emptiness in their lives, which you can hear in the desperation of their F-bomb laden screeching. And all the SJW cant and street violence cannot fill the void. These are fundamentally broken people. And in their rage, they are intent on dragging others into their void. Don't let them.

Revelations

 At this point we learn more about Trump’s detractors than we do about Trump. The story making the rounds now details how Trump’s older sister, a retired federal judge, apparently shared some uncharitable views of her brother. We know this because Trump’s niece, who is currently marketing a critical book about Trump, had made this known. Trump’s niece apparently recorded 15 hours of conversations with her aunt without disclosing to her aunt that she was recording the conversations. Does that behavior strike you as crappy? It strikes me that way. 

And some of the stories seem, well, off. One states that Trump cheated on the SAT to get into Penn. Since Trump entered Penn as a transfer student from Fordham, it’s preposterous — transfer students don’t retake the SAT to transfer; the college has a transcript to evaluate. That’s a tell.

Trump hate porn is a lucrative industry; my social media feed is replete with lefty college friends who buy all the latest dirt; they have shelves full of books. But these books never move public opinion, because everyone already knows who the Bad Orange Man is. And we should not hesitate to call the industry what it is — an unimaginative circle jerk. 

The Headlines Write Themselves

 It's right there for you:

When you use Urban Dictionary as a style guide

There's a lot more to say about Harris -- her cynicism, her willingness to say damn near anything to get elected, her lazy campaigning -- and we will amplify that as the campaign rolls on. But truth be told, the choice of Harris is puzzling. She doesn't really give Biden what he needs electorally, because California is already in the bag. She's not popular with the various minorities she supposedly represents. She had myriad advantages when she began her campaign, but she pissed all of them away. All you have to do is roll the Tulsi Gabbard critiques to eviscerate Harris's record. 

I don't suppose Biden had any better choice -- if he'd nominated Susan Rice, it would have guaranteed an indictment. He couldn't pick Stacey Abrams, or Karen Bass, or Val Demings. He ruled out anyone with Y chromosomes months ago. 

We'll see what happens, but on balance I think having Harris on the ticket does not help the Democrats in any way.

Delusions

 Seen on social media, from a college friend who runs a successful public relations agency:

We are in a very bad place right now. It feels like much of what makes Chicago so great is slipping away, at least for awhile.

There are a lot of people I respect making statements on all sides of the issue. I am having a difficult time disagreeing with any of them. There is too much to comprehend right now.

I will just add this point-of-view. While the officer-involved shooting was the impetus for the vandalism and looting downtown, the people protesting the shooting are not the people conducting the vandalism and rioting. These are two different groups of people with different motivations. Social justice and criminal behavior live in different worlds. While it's easy to combine the two, it's a trap that emboldens criminals and hinders social justice.

Also, this is not an organized Antifa movement, because Antifa doesn't exist. Buying into the Antifa myth has really dire consequences for all of us.

Antifa doesn't exist? Seriously? And, more importantly, the idea that social justice and criminal behavior live in different worlds is even a larger delusion. We have seen it repeatedly; organizations that purport to fight for social justice are, in the main, rackets. 

Of all the disheartening things I've seen or read in this year of unrelenting awfulness, these statements are the most disheartening. We're never going to get better if we celebrate lies.

Love Lies Bleeding

Since the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been to one funeral. The person who died was Mrs. D's cousin, who died of advanced Alzheimer's at the remarkably young age of 55. She did not have COVID-19.

The funeral was small and surreal; maybe 20 people at most. Everyone had to wear a mask and outward displays of affection were not in evidence -- no hugs for the survivors, muffled conversations throughout. The minister who presided noted that this was the first funeral she had done in months.

At least there was a funeral. Many people who have died in the last six months have not had a funeral at all, or much support as they approached the end of their lives.

It wasn't that way for John Lewis, the civil rights leader turned congressman who died last month. Lewis was an important figure in our recent history and no one disputes that he deserved the honors he received, but still, it rankled. Writing for the Spectator USA, Amber Athey noticed:

Funerals are important: they acknowledge the sanctity of life and allow friends and family to come together to grieve their loss. This reality doesn’t change based on how famous or revered an individual was to the general public: it doesn’t hurt any less to say goodbye to someone who was just a dad or just someone’s child or just a dear friend. Their lives aren’t any less significant. Yet politicians have decided that celebrity affords them the right to override the onerous restrictions on funerals that so many average Americans have been forced to accept.

Yes, Georgia is unique in that it allows anyone to have a funeral. However, the governor’s executive order prohibits gatherings of more than 50 people if social distancing cannot be maintained. Photos of Lewis’s funeral in Atlanta showed that many more than 50 people attended and that social distancing was not maintained in parts of the church, nor during the burial outside.

Emphasis in original. Beyond that, other rules don't seem to apply:

At the same. time, a significant number of attendees traveled from out of state to attend the funeral. 50 members of Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, attended. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a mandatory two-week quarantine for anyone who travels to Washington, DC from a coronavirus ‘hotspot’. Georgia was one of the states designated as a ‘hotspot’ on a list released by the DC government on Monday. Nevertheless, Pelosi (an essential worker) flitted around the Capitol all day Friday, almost gloating about her freedom from the rules. 

This is a dangerous game. People are noticing. Back to Athey:

How could any person who has lost a loved one during the pandemic see this blatant hypocrisy and not be incensed? You had to decide which family member could enter the hospital and be the last to see their father alive. You had to have last rites read over the phone. You could not touch the casket before it’s lowered into the ground. You could not embrace each other as the dirt was shoveled. All the while, the same politicians who lectured you about making sacrifices to stop the spread traveled with impunity, attended large funerals without proper social distancing and avoided quarantines upon their return.

We are told, incessantly, that this crisis will not end unless people mask up and get with the program. We are sitting on a powder keg. Many of us have reasons to grieve, but those reasons don't seem to matter unless you are a politician with the proper credentials, or some other A-lister or grandee. Meanwhile, the march of restrictions rolls on. You and I have to wear masks. It would seem masks are not necessary where the air is rarefied. Know your place and breathe deeply.