YouTube comedy channel Above Average really nails police behavior in this hilarious (but depressing) parody of an 80s-style action figure commercial.

From the video:

“Team up your new bad cop duo with the District Attorney to make sure your cops never get indicted!”

“Your honor, he felt threatened.”

“Case dismissed!”

“Justice is served.”

The above satirical exchange echos the events of many recent police shootings, like Atlanta cop Thomas Atzert, who shot a man witnesses say was fleeing from his beating. The video also touches on police militarization, and the silence of “good cops” who take no action to stop police abuse.

Video below:

In a stern condemnation of violence against Blacks by police, Saturday Night Live this weekend featured a parody of a cop who, well, goes out of his way to beat up Black men.

The lead character of the sketch, Blazer, played by SNL cast member Taran Killam, punches every Black man he sees, including those who are not suspects, according to Arts.Mic, in a parody that underscores complaints against cops regarding police brutality in America.

It’s an important issue for Saturday Night Live to tackle, because its predominantly White demographic essentially believes that racism is over. Racism is not over, not even by a long shot, and hopefully such parodies will show Whites the covert and not-so-covert nature of racism today.

The Blazer sketch comes on the heels of last month’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong made some harsh jokes about the deaths of Black men in the United States and lapses in the Secret Service.

“Let’s give it up for the Secret Service,” she said. “I don’t want to be too hard on those guys. You know, because they’re the only law enforcement agency in the country that will get in trouble if a Black man gets shot.”

The jokes fell flat on the crowd packed with elected officials, journalists and celebrities, who represent establishments and occupations that help perpetuate racism in America—knowingly or unknowingly.

The jokes come amid ongoing protests in Baltimore over the brutal police killing of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who died last month and whose funeral sparked rage in the streets. Six police officers were charged last week in Gray’s death, sparking celebratory marches and rallies in Baltimore and across the nation.

But do you think it’s too soon for Saturday Night Live to joke about police brutality in the nation? Or is it an important message to send to its White demographic no matter how it’s done?

Watch the “SNL” sketch above and sound off in the comments.

“Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news,” said U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina at an AIPAC dinner in Boston on Monday. “Al-Qaida, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula,” said the senator, who may be running for president.

Graham, who was the keynote speaker at the AIPAC New England Leadership Dinner in Boston, also told the approximately 1,000 pro-Israel attendees, “You will see me in New Hampshire,” former Haaretz investigative journalist Uri Blau has reported on his blog.

The problem – linguistically – with Graham’s comment is that “Al” is the definite article in Arabic (i.e. equivalent to English’s “the”), and usually appears before most Arabic proper nouns, especially place and personal names.

As for relations between the U.S., Israel, and Palestine, Graham said: “If the Palestinians will sue one Israeli soldier who risked his life securing Israel, the US will cut all aid to Palestine.” Reiterating a pledge he made to AIPAC a few months ago, he also threatened to cut off U.S funding to the UN if the UN Security Council pushes through action on behalf of the Palestinians. “I’m gonna put the United Nations on notice,” Graham, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee said in March, adding that he would go after its funding if the organization “marginalized” Israel. “All the money that goes in to support the State Department comes through my committee.”

Attending the dinner were Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Governor Charlie Baker, and Israeli Consul General for New England Yehuda Yaakov, who posted pictures and comments about the event, according to the report.

by Virgil Vaduva

The anti-drug D.A.R.E. organization is known for its bright red logo that shows up in schools, logo which cops love to display on their vehicles, but they may not necessarily be known for being suckers when it comes to satirical writing on the topic of the war on drugs.

Website dare.org re-published a seemingly innocuous anti-marijuana article, which to any common-sense reader is an obvious satirical attempt at mocking the war on drug.  The article titled “Edible Marijuana Candies Kill 9 in Colorado, 12 at Coachella” goes into great detail explaining that “marijuana candies, sold on the street as ‘Uncle Tweety’s Chewy Flipper’ and ‘Gummy Satans’ are taking the country by storm” and are responsible for a large number of deaths throughout Colorado and California:

Each candy is an emulsification of sweetened Jello, vodka and minced marijuana.  Huffington Post reports that within a week, 9 college students have died from these marijuana candies.

While the writing of the article reads as a page from Reefer Madness, a simple effort double checking the validity of the piece leads to author Haywood Bynum III, whose tag line is “leading the charge of faith at Bible Fellowship Church.”

The person behind the alias writes for the website topekasnews.com, which appears to be a satirical site tagged “American Values for an Unsaved World.”  The website features articles about a three day old McDonalds meal sprouting legs to fight to the death, and police warning families about the dangers of using stick family decals on the back windows of their vehicles.

The anti-marijuana article reposted by D.A.R.E. contains a hilarious number of comedic lines:

It is sad that in a country as developed as America, such third world drugs such as marijuana are allowed to exist.

and

Marijuana.  It is one of the most dangerous drugs on Earth.  We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg here, my friends.

and this gem

For every one joint of marijuana, four teenagers become burdened with pregnancy.  And for every bag of marijuana candy sold, it seems 16 violent crimes in the 16 to 45-year-old cohort break down.

The piece shared by D.A.R.E. wraps up with the ridiculous statement that “Young men and men who eat these candies are being found to have lower testosterone levels and fits of primal aggression.”

This article has been on the D.A.R.E. website for over a month and it appears that its satirical content is not enough to motivate D.A.R.E. to label it as such or remove it from their website. Instead they continue to present it as fact in order to promote a war on drugs agenda which has come at the cost of many lives, while prompting an ever-increasing militarization of American police forces.

We took a screenshot of the article below in order to avoid any “confusion” when D.A.R.E. will take issue with our reporting.

Screenshot of satirical article shared by D.A.R.E. as factually accurate

Virgil Vaduva is a Libertarian security professional, journalist, photographer and overall liberty freak.  He spent most of his life in Communist Romania and participated in the 1989 street protests which led to the collapse of the Ceausescu regime. He can be reached at vvaduva at truthvoice.com.