In America, no man is above the law — including Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer in the world. His arrest took place two and a half weeks ago, and the world moves fast. But maybe we can revisit it, and have a general remark or two.

Scheffler was playing in the PGA Championship, which was held at the Valhalla Golf Club, in Louisville, Ky. (The championship had been held there in 1996, too. Jack Nicklaus and Muhammad Ali had a touching meeting. Each had long been a legend in his own sport. But they had never met. The resulting photos were special.)

It was the Friday morning of the tournament. There had been a fatal accident outside the club. Scheffler was trying to navigate around the scene, in his vehicle. He thought he was following the orders of the police. But he was stopped and arrested, and treated roughly. Onlookers were very surprised.

Scheffler was taken to jail but released in time for his round. (His score turned out to be an impressive 66.) He said that he had stretched in his cell, in an effort to warm up.

The golfer was hit with four charges, including second-degree assault of a police officer. These charges seemed . . . weird, especially to those who had witnessed the episode. The officer, Bryan Gillis, was reprimanded by his department for failing to turn on his bodycam during the arrest. Scheffler’s lawyer threatened to file a civil suit against the department. Soon, the charges against Scheffler were dropped.

Scheffler issued a statement of exquisite diplomacy: “I hold no ill will toward Officer Gillis. I wish to put this incident behind me and move on, and I hope he will do the same. Police officers have a difficult job and I hold them in high regard. This was a severe miscommunication in a chaotic situation.”

Understandably, Scheffler wanted to get on with his golf life, without distraction, and did not need a lawsuit (of his filing). But — everything about the arrest stank. At the top of this column, I made the observation that no one is above the law. This must include police officers. The concept of “law and order” applies to the keepers of law and order, too.

In 2014, when police were under criticism nationwide, I wrote a piece called “A Job Like No Other.” Here are a couple of sentences: “We want them to be perfect — according to our own views of perfection. In this sense, a policeman’s job is thankless.” Yes. Still . . .

• Apparently, it has become a “thing”: flying the U.S. flag upside down:

As I see it, this is childish. Pathetic. It is also emblematic of the “New Right,” which the Heritage Foundation represents. What we need, in my opinion, is an American conservatism that puts the flag right side up. A conservatism that is more Lincoln and Reagan than Trump and Orbán. But there is a great deal of work to do, and the “old” conservatives — the ones whom Heritage accuses of not “knowing what time it is” — should keep at it.

• Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, had a reaction to the Trump trial in Manhattan: “This is exactly the kind of sham trial used against political opponents of the regime in the old Soviet Union.” If you wish to know what it was like in the Soviet Union, consult Robert Conquest (The Great Terror) or Anne Applebaum (Gulag: A History).

• I received a fundraising e-mail from the Trump campaign. “I am a Political Prisoner,” it began. “JUSTICE IS DEAD IN AMERICA.” “RIGGED TRIAL.” Etc. I have known many political prisoners — one of them, Vladimir Kara-Murza, is a prisoner of Putin right now. Trump is not a political prisoner. Neither are the January 6 convicts, whom Trump calls “political prisoners,” “hostages,” and “patriots,” and whom he vows to pardon.

(For my view of this business of January 6 and patriotism, consult this post. I mainly quote Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee who’s clear as a bell.)

• To return to Senator Rubio — he wrote, “Our current President is a demented man propped up by wicked & deranged people willing to destroy our country to remain in power. It’s time to fight fire with fire.” (In place of the word “fire,” he used a fire emoji. To see the statement, go here.)

Since 2016, many Republicans have Trumpified themselves — Republicans in politics and Republicans in the media. (Often, there is little difference.) No transformation — no self-Trumpification — is more dramatic than Marco Rubio’s.

I’ll have more on this subject in due course.

• A headline from May 28: “Former Marco Rubio Intern Indicted for Storming Capitol on January 6.” (Article here.) That is a tale of today’s GOP, the new GOP.

• A different headline, from May 30: “Sen. Bob Menendez has enough signatures to run as an independent despite his bribery trial.” (Article here.) To many voters, criminality is an attraction, not a turn-off. America has long had a soft spot for the outlaw. We can see it in a thousand movies. We find it in our politics, too, of course. Think of James Michael Curley, Edwin Edwards, and on and on. (“Vote often and early for James Michael Curley.”)

• John Bolton wrote, “The Republican Party now has one last chance to change course, and not nominate a convicted felon for President.” Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia congresswoman, was having none of it: “How about go f*** yourself John Bolton and the rest of the Deep State cabal.” (In keeping with the delicacies of our fine website, I have imposed asterisks on Congresswoman Greene.) “Trump is the ONLY ONE!!!!” she continued.

That could be the motto of the Republican Party: “Trump is the ONLY ONE!!!!”

The Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan for president three times. FDR, they nominated four times. The Republicans nominated Nixon three times (though not in a row). They are about to nominate Trump three times (in a row).

I believe that Republicans are more devoted to Trump than they have ever been to any other president or standard-bearer — including Lincoln and Reagan.

• Here is a statement by Jim Banks, a Republican congressman from Indiana, who is his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate::

New York is one of the world’s greatest cities, and it is quintessentially American. It is not to everyone’s taste. But what is? And what if a New York politician said, for example, “Kokomo — what a sh**hole. Who would ever want to live there?” What would Banks and his supporters think?

Mitch Daniels is an Indiana Republican. (I’m not sure about his current registration, frankly.) Jim Banks is an Indiana Republican. There is a world of difference between them. The quality of leaders matters a lot.

• At a conference in Singapore, defense secretary Lloyd Austin said, “The United States is deeply committed to the Indo-Pacific. We’re all in. And we’re not going anywhere.” But an American can make no such commitment — because policy is set by administrations, which change. For example, Donald Trump has indicated that he will pull the United States from South Korea. American officials should not make promises they are in no position to keep.

• Let me recommend a piece by Ellen Bork, a veteran China watcher, who is now a fellow at the George W. Bush Institute: “Beijing is using Hong Kong to spread its anti-democratic agenda. The U.S. must act.”

• This made me sad: “Retired Navy Admiral Is Arrested on Bribery Charges.” I realize that our admirals are human beings, subject to the usual sins and foibles. But . . .

• Above, I used the phrase “tale of our time,” or something like it. Here is another one:

The publisher of “2000 Mules” issued a statement Friday apologizing to a Georgia man who was shown in the film and falsely accused of ballot fraud during the 2020 election. . . .

Salem Media Group said in the statement that it has “removed the film from Salem’s platforms, and there will be no future distribution of the film or the book by Salem.”

For the full article, go here. So many lies, so much damage.

• Here is something more heartening: “Why Nikola Jokic, reluctant NBA superstar, is my anti-hero hero.” That is a piece by Rick Reilly. It is delicious, every bite. I was a “Joker” fan before, but now I’m more like a superfan.

• What’s wrong with this headline? “Sacré bleu! The French Open banned alcohol in the stands after fans were called out for rowdiness.” (Article here, by the way.) That accent is wrong. The expression is “Sacre bleu.” Ay caramba.

• But I was grateful for this headline: “Dutch police say they’re homing in on robbers responsible for multimillion-dollar jewelry heist.” (Article here.) Why the gratitude? So many people say and write “honing” when they mean “homing.”

• What’s wrong with this caption? “Former French tennis player Yannick Noah . . .” (The caption is under a photo in this article.) Better to say, “French former tennis player Yannick Noah . . .”

• People misuse the word “malign” (as a verb). They think it means “criticize.” For example, a writer describes a much-criticized umpire in Major League Baseball as a “much-maligned umpire.” But it is clear that the writer doesn’t think the ump has been maligned; he thinks he has been justly criticized.

(“To malign,” says Merriam-Webster, is “to utter injuriously misleading or false reports about.”) (The dictionary gives this example: “Her supporters say that she has been unfairly maligned in the press.” I think that is a bad example. Because there is no such thing as being fairly maligned.)

• Maybe a speck of music? For a review of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Jaap van Zweden in his final weeks as music director of that orchestra, go here.

• A shot of a crepe myrtle, in Ocala, Fla.? Okay, here you go:

Merriam-Webster says you can also write “crape myrtle.” A lot of Americans pronounce “crepe,” or “crêpe,” “crape,” instead of “crep.” This is reflected in that alternative spelling of the name of the tree.

But we’ve had enough of language. Let’s have one more shot, of one more crepe/crape myrtle:

Thank you, my friends, and see you.

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