Snarky Is The New Normal

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Environmental Issues, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Try as I might, I cannot seem to keep the snarky at bay these days.  I wake in the morning to an overflow of ‘breaking news’ on my phone, and it’s downhill from there … every story either causes my jaw to drop or an expletive to issue forth before I can stop it.  It amazes me, as I sit here looking out the window, that the grass is still green, the birds are still flying about and stopping to help themselves to the bird seed on my patio, the flowers still bloom, children are out playing and laughing … everything appears to be ‘normal’, just as it was before, just as it has always been.  But it is not … nothing is ‘normal’ in these troubled times.  ‘Twould seem that snarky is my new ‘normal’, so …

Assault on the 1st Amendment …

During the protests that have resulted since the brutal murder of George Floyd in May, law enforcement officials have assaulted and arrested journalists who were reporting on the protests.  When Trump sent unwanted and unneeded federal forces into Portland, the violence only escalated, as did the attacks on members of the press.  This, as I see it, is a direct assault on the 1st Amendment right to a free press.  U.S. District Judge Michael Simon agreed with me in his ruling this week that …

“When wrongdoing is underway, officials have great incentive to blindfold the watchful eyes of the fourth estate. The free press is the guardian of the public’s interests and the independent judiciary is the guardian of the free press.”

And with that, he issued a temporary restraining order not to arrest or assault journalists and legal observers for doing their jobs.  Trump & Co have said they will appeal the order.  This should concern us all, for if the press are stifled from reporting on such things as the brute force being used in Portland, Oregon, how do we know what is happening?  Or, as Attorney Matthew Borden, representing the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said …

“These are not accidents. These are not inadvertent shots. These are trained marksmen and these are the actions of a tyrant. They do not have a place in Portland, Oregon and they do not have a place under the First Amendment. If you do not have the press reporting on events first-hand, then you only have the version put forth by the government. And that’s what you have under a totalitarian state.”

If assaulting and arresting the press when they are doing their job, performing their duty to We the People, is allowed to become the ‘norm’, then we will no longer be a “free” nation, but as Mr. Borden said, a totalitarian state.  What will follow will not be pretty, my friends.

Like a bad penny …

You’ve heard the expression about a bad penny that keeps turning back up?  Sheriff Joe Arpaio is one such bad penny and yes, he’s back in the news and back on the campaign trail, this time running for Sheriff of Maricopa County once again.  The ‘man’ is 88 years old, for Pete’s Sake … shouldn’t he just crawl off into the sunset and die or something?

Arpaio-2In case you’ve forgotten, Sheriff Joe ran the most corrupt law enforcement department in the nation from 1993 until 2017 when he lost his re-election bid to a democrat, Paul Penzone.  Thing is, Sheriff Joe was convicted of criminal contempt of court in 2017, but soon thereafter was pardoned by his partner in crime, Donald Trump.  After losing his position as Sheriff, in 2018 he made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate.  He never got out of the starting gate on that one, came in with the lowest percentile in the primaries, and I thought surely that was the last we would hear from Sheriff Joe.  But no …

And Joe Arpaio has not learned a damn thing despite having been the target of numerous lawsuits charging abuse of prisoners, entrapment, racism and much more.  In his campaign announcement, he vowed to bring back things that the courts have either deemed illegal or his successor has done away with — immigration crackdowns, a complex of jail tents and other now-discarded trademarks.

“I’m telling you right now: I am going to do 90% of what I did during my 24 years. That’s the way it’s going to be.”

I don’t expect Arpaio to win … but let’s face it, we are living in strange times and if a television comedian can become president … need I say more?

Sinclair to do WHAT???

Most every city in the U.S. has a Sinclair Broadcasting channel, including my own.  Here in Cincinnati it is WKRC, channel 12 … a station that was once among the most reputable but has apparently slunk to sleaze.  This weekend, local television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group are set to air a conspiracy theory that suggests Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, was responsible for the creation of the coronavirus.

This sort of broadcasting is beneath even Fox ‘News’, let alone what was once a reputable media company!  This is something I would expect from Alex Jones or Breitbart.  The baseless conspiracy theory is set to air on stations across the country in a segment during the program “America This Week” hosted by Eric Bolling.

Bolling, by the way, is a former Fox ‘News’ host … no surprise there, eh?  I sincerely hope that Dr. Fauci files a libel suit against Sinclair, and perhaps Bolling personally.

Republicans wearing blinders?

It’s probably a good thing the Republican Party wasn’t in existence in the mid-1300s when the Bubonic Plague was around, else the entire human species might have died out then.  On second thought, perhaps that might not have been such a bad thing.  A recent PEW Research study shows that while 85% of democrats say the coronavirus pandemic is a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, only 46% of republicans see it as a major threat.  WTF???

good griefThere are, as of this writing, 4.3 million cases reported and very nearly 150,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, and the majority of republicans don’t think it’s a major threat???  We have more deaths than any other nation on the planet, and more than double the number of every other nation with the exception of Brazil, who have just over half as many deaths as the U.S.

Were the republicans brainwashed in the spring when Trump told them it wasn’t a big deal – 15 cases and they would soon be gone?  Or do they not see death as a threat to human survival?  What if we had a government run by non-republicans who take such things as a pandemic seriously?  Perhaps we would have had only 30,000 deaths and fewer than a million cases?  We will never know, will we?

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19 thoughts on “Snarky Is The New Normal”

    • Thank you, Suzanne!!! That is exactly what he’s doing, but at the same time, he is getting by with acting as a dictator and it MUST STOP! We cannot allow him to keep invading our cities!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Jill you are the yin to Trump’s yang, perfect complement to one another. The man gave you the best writing years of your life, kept us enthralled and entertained on a daily, single-handedly carried the news cycle to new heights… what more do you want in a showman from the Greatest Show on Earth! PT Barnum would be so proud of this orange clown, and unequivocally pronounce you the Queen of Snark. 😉

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Pingback: Snarky Is The New Normal — Filosofa’s Word – Sarah's Attic Of Treasures

  4. Jill, snark away. One of the reasons I left the Republican Party twelve years ago was their tendency to make things up, aided and abetted by pseudo news outlets like Fox. Both parties stretch the truth, but I found the GOP practiced the art much more. Now, with folks like Sinclair, Alex Jones, Fox opinion folks, etc. they have gotten worse in their efforts to rationalize the deceitful president. Giving Plandemic any credibility is malfeasance. We have a friend with COPD and she has bought into this hoax BS. My wife told her that we will continue to be careful and socially distance, but it probably did not sink in. The truth matters. Keith

    Liked by 4 people

  5. Arpaio doesn’t stand a chance.`.
    I hope the big mouth is ready with his apologies to China for accusing hem of creating coronavirus and calling it China-virus. This could kiill Dr Fauci after all he”s given to America. I hope this keeps losing him votes/
    cwtch

    Liked by 3 people

    • No, I don’t think Arpaio stands a chance, either, but he is getting quite a bit of money in donations, so who knows?
      Trump has never, as best I can find, ever apologized to anyone for anything. If he accidentally stepped on your foot and broke the bones in it, he would find a way to blame you, rather than say, “I’m sorry”. I imagine Fauci will just laugh it off … he’s used to it all by now. Interestingly, though, Sinclair “postponed” their broadcast of that show after tremendous outcry from the public! See … our voices do sometimes matter!
      Cwtch

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Your highly developed talent of snarcasm never misses a beat! Sweet Queen of Snark, fear not being deposed from your throne as long as this “New Normal” persists! It boggles the mind or more accurately in my case, what is left of it, how the orange idiot and these other like idiots manage to cause outrage and sorrow on any given day. Snark on!! Thank-you!

    Liked by 3 people

    • Thank you, ma’am! And I don’t even have to work at it … it just flows naturally! It is mind-boggling and I wonder if I’ll be bored and revert to doing book reviews … actually having time to READ books … after he is gone?

      Like

  7. the protesters in portland are not peaceful, I’ll say it again, they are not peaceful. They are burning buildings, antifa tried to actually kill a black trump supporter and even the mayor was tear gassed. Report the facts. crack open some sources other than washington post, the new york times or the major television networks, and yes, fox is a major network.

    I’m taking a break from the constant snark and anger.

    https://thepostmillennial.com/antifa-militant-arrested-for-stabbing-black-trump-supporter-in-portland?fbclid=IwAR0a22ScwGYIaNwhOzLrCy8-AVfvgREBZ1GozY1tto5CJ45IdIbxullzFFI

    .

    Liked by 2 people

    • Portland had a real problem with vandalism and unrest. But instead of creating order, the feds are inflaming the unrest, and most of the assaults and injuries are committed by them. It is true that some of the protesters have been violent or have vandalized government property, playing into Trump’s narrative, but the great majority have been peaceful.

      Liked by 3 people

      • Jill, I graduated from college in Portland. I remember the city as quirky, off-beat, sometimes weird, but not violent. I’m sure, as you said, the majority have been peaceful.

        Liked by 1 person

        • The majority have been peaceful … I have a suspicion that the violence did not actually come from the legitimate protesters, but was planted to give Trump an excuse to send in the goons.

          Like

    • Who tear-gassed the Mayor, Scott? Surely NOT the tear-gas throwing Antifa Anarchists? Because the Antifa Anarchists have great supplies of tear gas. They give it to Trump’s Troopers every night at dusk, so the Troopers can fire it at the agitators and make Trump look bad. That’s it! They want Trump to look bad, even if he IS bad. On today’s world wide web you can find proof there is no such thing as life. Life is scientifically impossible. Or else it started 6000 years ago. Whichever. Yup, that’s a safe bet too.

      There is NO SUCH THING AS ANTIFA. It is a delusion of Trump’s overly-paranoid mental state. The world is out to get him, especially tha ANTIFA DEMOCRATS! But if Democrats are anti-fascists, who does that make the fascists? Without a doubt, and totally logically, the Republicans are the fascists, and Trump is the embodiment of Benito Mussolini. In 1930s Italy, Mussolini was allied with Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and basically Hitler’sn puppet. Gee, I wonder who Trump’s Fascist puppetmaster is? I think you already know that answer.

      Liked by 2 people

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