It’s Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018…but before we begin, as the WSJ reports…

Starbucks Says Drug Use, Sleeping Unacceptable as It Clarifies Guest Policy

Surprise, surprise!  As Laura Ingraham observed when Howie Schultz first announced his insane response to what he should have blown off as a set-up and non-issue…

Yeah, good luck with that!

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, writing at his Morning Jolt, Jim Geraghty wonders…

Who Wants a Summit with North Korea More?

This is why it’s difficult to follow an impulsive leader.

President Trump, increasingly concerned that his summit meeting in Singapore next month with North Korea’s leader could turn into a political embarrassment, has begun pressing his aides and allies about whether he should take the risk of proceeding with a historic meeting that he had leapt into accepting, according to administration and foreign officials.

Mr. Trump was both surprised and angered by a statement issued on Wednesday by the North’s chief nuclear negotiator, who declared that the country would never trade away its nuclear weapons capability in exchange for economic aid, administration officials said.

North Korea’s shift was unpleasant and out-of-the-blue, but not really out of character. No doubt they would threaten to walk away from the table the moment they thought they could wring a concession out of the United States.

And they’re already getting concessions:

A planned training exercise involving U.S. B-52 bombers and South Korean planes was scrapped earlier this week after the South Korean government expressed concerns that it could generate tensions before a planned summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to U.S. officials.

Who’s got leverage now?

We’re gonna go out on a limb and say it’s the guy who didn’t…

…already advertise the minting of this commemorative coin!

Next up, another item from Geraghty’s Morning Jolt which poses a different question:

Would You Ever Agree to Be a Teenager Again?

Actually, despite having been bullied, demeaned and brokenhearted…in a heartbeat!!!

“We’re going to do this again, huh? Another debate about gun control after a mass shooting?

We still have to debate gun control, even after the shooter built functioning bombs? After he used weapons that no federal official, including Dianne Feinstein, (or even the idiotic Eric Swalwell) wants to prohibit?

I notice that school shooters rarely have lived lives of terrible abuse and deprivation, the sort of experiences that make you think, “oh, good heavens, well, no wonder that person finally snapped.” When their tales are told, the portraits of their life reveal mundane problems — loneliness, bullying, social isolation and alienation; an attraction to a girl that isn’t reciprocated. Those are all deeply unpleasant experiences, but they’re also extremely common among teenagers. Raise your hand if you were never bullied. Raise your hand if you never felt like an outsider or a loser. Raise your hand if you’ve never been rejected or turned down by someone you liked. Yeah, I didn’t think so.

The social conditions of teenagers — and let’s face it, we’re talking about teenage boys — haven’t changed that much from when today’s adults were that age. Schoolwork is still hard, and as Will Smith sang, “parents just don’t understand.” (Think about it, as a working adult, you’re probably expected to be proficient and knowledgeable about one area of life, from nine-ish to five-ish. A high school student is supposed to be proficient and knowledgeable about math, science, history, or social studies; English or literature; a foreign language; possibly art; possibly music; good enough in gym class — changing in front of their peers in the locker room! And then they have homework. And then there’s the SATs. The more that teachers, parents, and guidance counselors tell you that this one test doesn’t determine your future…the more you start to suspect this one test determines your future.)

If the cool crowd is a minority, then the majority will feel left out of that cool crowd.

…Like I said, all of us have been there in some time of teenage (or post-teenage) depression, frustration, ennui, alienation, and loneliness. Most of us got through those tough times without feeling that the best, or only remaining course, was to lash out through violence, culminating in self-destruction. Maybe today’s teenage world, with social media, increases the venues for ostracization. Maybe we have more undiagnosed mental illness (although today’s schools are more attuned to that than ever).

Family breakdown is probably a factor; out of the 27 deadliest mass shootings in the United States, 26 of the perpetrators were not raised by their biological fathers. But this by itself doesn’t explain it, because a lot of boys lack a father in the picture and don’t turn out to be mass shooters.

What has changed, and defines the post-Columbine world, is that a mass shooting is now the quickest way to get not merely your high school, but your community and perhaps the entire country wondering about what was going through the mind of an otherwise anonymous teenager.

…It may be that we’ve created the expectation among certain teenage boys that when they feel sufficiently alienated and isolated and rejected and angry about the world, this is what an angry teenage boy is supposed to do. Yes, you either end up dead or in jail for the rest of your life, but “everyone” will remember your name for the rest of their lives…”

Unfortunately for the Eric Swalwells of the world, writing at Townhall.com, Guy Benson offers a…

Hard Reality: No Mainstream Gun Control Law Would Have Stopped the Texas High School Horror

“Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner told CNN’s State of the Union that he doesn’t think (You can say that again!) “there’s a single piece of legislation” that could have prevented last week’s horrible killing at a Texas high school, adding that a more holistic “series of actions” are needed.  His other nod to reality was acknowledging, after being prodded by host Jake Tapper, that Democrats failed to act on gun control when they controlled all three elected levers of power in Washington, DC during the Obama years. “Perhaps, in retrospect, more should have been done,” he said, amid various evasions and excuses…”

Then there’s this absolutely must-read piece from The New Yorker, in which Malcolm Gladwell details the evolution of…

Thresholds of Violence

How school shootings catch on.

“…In the day of Eric Harris, we could try to console ourselves with the thought that there was nothing we could do, that no law or intervention or restrictions on guns could make a difference in the face of someone so evil. But the riot has now engulfed the boys who were once content to play with chemistry sets in the basement. The problem is not that there is an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. It’s worse. It’s that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts.“

And as Gladwell recounts, it’s a problem no gun control measures can legislate away.

Which brings us to our next item, also from NRO, in which Clay Routledge writes about one symptom of the disease Malcolm Gladwell diagnoses above:

“Like many Americans, I’m a big fan of dogs. As my wife and I prepare to become empty-nesters, I’ve noticed that we’re spending more time obsessing over our family pooch, perhaps because he actually still wants to hang out with us. In recent years, however, our society’s relationship with pets appears to have changed in unhealthy ways.

…The real question, then, is why some turn to animals instead of other people to fulfill basic psychological needs. Though there might be many reasons, I’d like to focus on two specific possibilities, both of which implicate the individualistic nature of contemporary American culture.

First, if young adults feel more socially isolated or disconnected, they may view pets as a safer form of social connection. Research indicates that loneliness and ostracism trigger a defensive cognitive and emotional response in which people become motivated to avoid further social harm. This can reduce their inclination to take social risks, to put themselves out there in a way that makes them more socially vulnerable. Their social defensiveness may in turn make pets an especially attractive source of companionship. (Indeed, as previously noted, loneliness is associated with a tendency to view pets as having human-like characteristics and pets can help reduce feelings of loneliness.)

Second, in our individualistic society, pets may be appealing to some because they lack the agency of humans and thus require less compromise and sacrifice. Other people have their own goals, opinions, and interests. Human relationships thus require negotiation. With a quick Google search, you can find a number of “think pieces” arguing that dogs are better companions than humans. The unifying and ultimately self-centered theme of many of these pieces is that dogs will shower you with positive affirmation no matter what, while demanding little in return. They allow you to gain some of the benefits of companionship and caregiving, without most of the costs. (As our good friend Neil McShane recently observed, if you put your dog and your wife/girlfriend in the trunk for two hours, when you opened it, which would be happy to see you?)

We shouldn’t be surprised that Americans are increasingly interested in the types of social connections that allow them to feel both safe and special. In our individualistic culture, we often privilege self-esteem over characteristics such as responsibility, loyalty, duty, and sacrifice. We also coddle children and teens to protect them from the social risks and emotional pains of life. But doing so is not without its costs. By teaching our kids to focus primarily on their own happiness, we may be failing to convey that life’s most meaning-providing and socially-fulfilling goals are often stressful, can make us temporarily unhappy, and require concession.

People find the greatest personal meaning and are best able to cope with the life stresses that threaten meaning when they view the individual self as subordinate to a broader social self — a marriage, a family, a religious community. Pets are great additions to our social world, but they are poor substitutes for the messier human relationships that make life worth living.“

The biggest aspect of the problem?  Not even close.  But certainly indicative of a detachment the anonymity afforded by social media has fed like gas poured on an open fire.

On The Lighter Side…

Finally, we’ll call it a day with a cross between another sordid story straight from The Crime Blotter and “MSM Bias…WHAT Bias?!?“:

‘Your client is a one-man crime wave’: Teen charged in Baltimore County officer’s death has lengthy juvenile record

“The West Baltimore teen’s crime spree began in December, prosecutors say, and, over the subsequent months, he stole four cars, skipped court dates and escaped from a juvenile center. When a Baltimore County police officer confronted him Monday, 16-year-old Dawnta Harris ducked down and accelerated a stolen Jeep, running over Officer Amy Caprio as she opened fire, prosecutors say.

Caprio, 29, became the first Baltimore County policewoman killed in the line of duty. Condolences poured in Tuesday from across Maryland. Grieving officers crowded a courtroom in Towson for the first appearance of her alleged killer.

In a yellow jumpsuit, the slight teen appeared by video from the county jail for a bail review beside his public defender…”

Note the reporting: “the slight teen”; who was nonetheless strong enough to push down the accelerator of a stolen Jeep and snuff the life out an even “slighter” police officer.

Funny, we live some 35 minutes from the scene of this crime, and have been following it since it went down.  Up until the perps were apprehended, police never offered a physical description, i.e., the skin color, of either the suspects or the police officer.  Any question had the races been reversed, their relative pallor would have been prominently pronounced?!?

Magoo