Category Archives: Rants

A Bit Of This And A Tad Of That

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

Thirty-six hours left until we once again have a president, a vice-president, and sanity in the White House.  Just 36 hours until we kick the imposter who has been illegitimately occupying our White House, using our money to buy food, to travel all ’round the globe, and to line his own pockets, while destroying this nation with his ignorance and cruelty.  Still … 36 hours … he could still do a lot of damage.  It is said he plans to issue some 100+ pardons today, and I still don’t trust him any farther than I can throw a feather.  But soon, my friends, we will be shed of him … hopefully forever.  My angst level is at an all-time high tonight, even knowing that 36 hours, only 2,160 minutes, and the source of much of my angst will head to Florida where hopefully he will be eaten by a shark!  The angst I feel I know is shared by  many of you, so feel free to add your own bit of snark here!

Domestic terrorists – some you wouldn’t expect

An Olympic gold medalist in swimming, Klete Keller, was one of those arrested for the January 6th terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol.  His friends and former teammates noticed his picture in the footage of the attack and reported him to the FBI.  After being arrested, Keller spoke with his former coach and according to the coach …

“He kept repeating, ‘You’ve done so much for me, and I let you down.’ He kept saying over and over, ‘I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.’”

Then WHY THE SAM HELL did he go there in the first place?  Every single person who was involved in that mob in any way, shape, or form, was there in an attempt to destroy the government, the Capitol, and some even intended to kill our elected legislators.  No, he isn’t to be pitied, for he is a terrorist, a fool, he is the enemy and I hope they lock his ass up for at least a decade.

Among other terrorists who perpetrated the attack on our government on January 6th were a number of law enforcement officials – people whose salary is paid by We the People, people who are hired for the sole purpose of protecting the people of this nation!  I demand they return the last decade’s worth of their salary, for we damn sure lost out there!  Among them are a New Hampshire police chief, a Philadelphia detective, and two Seattle Police Department officers.  These people wanted to kill those members of Congress who we elected.  They hoped to overthrow the government, overthrow the November elections, and install Donald Trump as a dictator.  And to think … we pay them to stab us in the back!

Also represented on January 6th were that group that call themselves the “Proud Boys”, though from their pictures and behaviour, I would say they’ve got nothing to be ‘proud’ of … they look like what they are … a bunch of bigoted, redneck, jobless, slobs with beer bellies, scruffy faces, and guns.  Lots of big guns.  Turns out they have gotten some portion of their funding for such events as the storming of the Capitol from a so-called ‘Christian’ fund-raising site.  In fact, when Proud Boys leader, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested in Washington on January 4th, he was given more than $113,000 from 2,359 donors on this ‘Christian’ website to help with his bail and legal fees.

I hope that ultimately, every single person who entered the Capitol is arrested and imprisoned for a very long time, for these are not simply protestors, they are domestic terrorists … every one of them … and need to be treated accordingly.  No bail, no plea deals … just orange jumpsuits and prison bars (no, not the kind that serve Canadian Mist).

In other news …

Donald Trump is throwing himself a going away party at Andrews Air Force Base on Wednesday morning.  Attendance is by invitation only and the event starts at 8:00 a.m.  He is planning an ostentatious military parade and an official armed forces farewell as the commander-in-chief, as well as a large crowd of supporters, selected backers and current and former officials in his administration and their guests at a huge red-carpet affair. On our tax dollar. However, senior Pentagon officials say that it ain’t gonna happen like he wants.  Awwww … pobre Donnie.

My immediate concern is … this ‘event’ is to be held just a few miles from the Capitol Building where four hours later Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office to become the president and vice president.  Remember January 6th, where Trump used a speech to rile the masses, to incite violence, to urge them to ‘fight’?  Is a repeat performance part of the plan for his ridiculous ‘ceremony’?  It is said that attendance is by invitation only … who is he inviting?  White supremacist groups like the Proud Boys and others?

Any other president who had just been impeached for the second time, would be tucking his tail between his legs and slinking out of town with as little fanfare as possible, but not Trump.  Nope, he has to leave with a big bang … I’m just concerned that the big bang might happen four hours later and a few miles distant.  Federal security officials should shut his event down … throw him on the plane bodily if necessary (it will take a few of them to lift his 330 pound girth) and send him on his way!  Good riddance to bad rubbish!

And speaking of spreading conspiracy …

Remember how Parler, the website frequented by Trump-fanatic, right-wing domestic terrorists, was virtually dead in the water after being dropped by Amazon, Apple, and Google?  Well … they’re baaaaaaack.  And guess who helped them make a comeback, just in time for the inauguration?  DDos-Guard (no, I didn’t stutter), a Russian-owned technology company.  Put that one in your skillet and let it simmer for a while.

Since this post is mainly a rant, I’ll leave you with a bit of humour … dark humour, as it were, but humour nonetheless …

pol-toon-1pol-toon-2pol-toon-3

Two Men Sans Conscience

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants

I fully intended to do a Saturday Surprise post for this morning, knowing that we could all use a break from the news of the moment, but try as I might, I was not able to do one.  Sure, there were some funny cat pics, a few humorous stories, but … sorry, my friends, maybe next Saturday.  For today, I am just not able to switch gears.  I hope you’ll forgive me.

Guess what?  Yet another lie … a BIG one

Alex AzarSecretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, has handed in his resignation, claiming that, “The attacks on the Capitol were an assault on our democracy and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power.”  However, lest you think Alex has suddenly found a conscience, he hasn’t … it’s a symbolic move only, for his resignation is effective at noon on January 20th, the moment of Joe Biden’s inauguration, at which time he would be out of a job anyway.  But there’s more here than just Alex Azar’s resignation, for he dropped a bombshell yesterday when, in an interview with NBC News, he said that the ‘stockpile’ of the coronavirus vaccine that Trump has promised exists, actually does not exist at all.

Funny that just three days prior, on Tuesday, Azar himself said that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses that had been held in reserve for second shots.  There was no reserve.  Alex Azar knew there was no such reserve when he said that barefaced lie.  Is there any single member of the Trump administration who isn’t a consummate liar?  Was that one of the job requirements, that candidates must be able to tell whopper lies while keeping a straight face?  Or was there a ‘Trump School of Lying’ where they learned to emulate the Oaf in the Oval?

So, what does this revelation mean?  It means that states, believing the lie of the reserve, expanded the groups eligible to receive the first dose of the vaccine, and now … there is no second dose.  If it weren’t so damn tragic, you’d almost have to laugh at the name of the group responsible for distribution of the vaccine to the states:  Operation Warp Speed.  Warp speed, I thought, meant fast, but like everything else Trump and his cronies have touched, this has been a disaster from day #1, and far fewer people have received the vaccine than should have.  And now, we find they bungled the procurement and there are no second doses to be had.

Way to go, Trump, Kushner, Pence, Azar, and all the rest.  Obviously, our lives are naught more than pieces on a chessboard to you.

And speaking of idiots and the coronavirus …

Tommy Tuberville is a newly elected Senator from the state of Alabama.  Tommy is 66 years of age … most people would be using Tom or Thomas by now, but Tommy is a good ol’ boy and he likes to be called Tommy.

tommy-tuberville-2Now, ol’ Tommy took his seat in the United States Senate on January 3rd, and within days, he joined a group of Republican senators attempting to overturn Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election based on Trump’s outright lies of voter fraud.  Wouldn’t you think he’d try to learn his job before trying to overthrow the government???  And while most of the Republicans who planned to contest the election results in various states on January 6th backed off after the horrific attacks on the Capitol that evening by Trump supporting terrorists, not ol’ Tommy!  He stuck to his guns and contested the election results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania.  He showed us what he is made of – sawdust.

And yesterday, Tommy got himself in the news again.  I should think it would be a requirement that every single member of Congress should have read the U.S. Constitution at least once, for Pete’s sake!  On Friday, Tommy had been touring hospitals in Alabama … supposedly to get updates about the coronavirus, which he could have done from his office, but whatever.  After one of the tours, he gave an interview to an Alabama television station where he said that he thought the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should be postponed until “a little later on after we got this virus behind us a little bit.”

Say WHAT???  First of all, MR. TUBERVILLE … the United States Constitution, a document that you obviously have NOT read, directs the exact time and date of the inauguration:  noon on the 20th day of January.  Second, MR. TUBERVILLE … Donald Trump has bungled the federal response to the virus so badly that half of our population may be dead by the time the virus is “behind us”!  For the past year, Trump and his cohorts have not done a single damn thing to stem the surge of this virus, and as a result the U.S. has the highest number of cases and the highest death rate on the planet, despite the fact that we have only about 4% of the world’s population!  Donald Trump has no plan, has never had a plan to either control the virus or to distribute the vaccine.  Furthermore … he has begged people to risk their lives by not wearing masks … he has called the pandemic a hoax, has lied so much that nobody even listens to him anymore!  Joe Biden has a plan to help stem the surge and to distribute the vaccine.  He HAS A PLAN, which is far more than Donald Trump has ever had!  Why in hell would you want to delay inaugurating Joe Biden … are you really so stupid?

I honestly believe we need to amend the U.S. Constitution to say that every person elected to or appointed to a federal office MUST pass a test on the U.S. Constitution.  The entire document, including amendments, is just over 8,000 words.  I have read it more times than I can count, and I still have to consult it on occasion to answer a question.  Consider this … an immigrant applying for citizenship to this country knows more about the document that is the foundation of our government than half of our elected representatives, and that includes the ‘man’ who has been calling himself ‘president’ for the last four years!

Since I wasn’t able to give you a nice humorous Saturday Surprise post, I do have a few ‘toons for you that I nabbed from our friend Scottie’s post yesterday …

Scottie-1Scottie-3Scottie-4

Scottie-2

Filosofa Is Grrrrrrrrowling

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, religion, Social commentary

Some days, you look at the news and you just want to punch something.  The ‘grrrrrrrrrr’ started this morning when I read that we the taxpayers are paying $3,000 per month for the Secret Service people protecting Ivanka and Jared to rent a bathroom in the house next door, because Jared & Ivanka don’t want them dirtying their house!  My first thought was that then they don’t deserve the protection of the Secret Service … and they don’t, for they are a couple of entitled snobs.  And then, the ‘grrrrrrrrrrr’ got louder as the day progressed.

Has he learned nothing?

rittenhouse-3You remember Kyle Rittenhouse, right?  He’s the young white supremacist punk who killed two and wounded a third with a gun at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  As I wrote a while back, some influential people with more money than sense posted Rittenhouse’s $2 million bail last November.  Rittenhouse was arraigned January 5th on two felony charges of homicide in the deaths of two men and a felony attempted homicide charge in the wounding of another man.  Pretty serious stuff, yes?  You’d think a 17-year-old kid would be on his best behaviour, quaking in his boots at the thought of what could happen to him.  But not Kyle!

rittenhouse-2

Just 90 minutes after leaving the arraignment, Kyle and his mother were seen in a bar where he was drinking beer (the legal age limit in his home state of Illinois is 21) and flashing white supremacist hand signals to other people in the bar. What kind of mother takes her underage kid who has murdered two people to a damn bar???  Prosecutors have asked the Kenosha County Circuit Court to modify Rittenhouse’s bond conditions. 

rittenhouse-1The office is requesting that Rittenhouse be prohibited from possessing or consuming alcohol or being in any establishment that serves it; be prohibited from making any public display of any “white power” or “white supremacy” signs, symbols, or hand gestures; and not have any contact with any known militia members or members of any violent white power/white supremacist groups including the group identified as the “Proud Boys.”

This kid needs to be locked up for life, and his mother along with him!  And yet, to some he is considered a ‘hero’ … oh yeah, folks, don’t tell me racism isn’t alive and well in the United States … you need look no further than this little punk and those who applaud him.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Franklin Graham once again proves his lunacy

More than a few times, I have criticized (that’s putting it mildly) various evangelical leaders, and Franklin Graham is the one who seems to cross my radar most often.  Now, let me state in advance that I am not a Christian, not religious at all, however I respect other people’s right to their beliefs as long as they don’t try to inflict them on others.  Franklin Graham is an idiot extraordinaire, and once again he seems intent on proving my point.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Graham wrote, in part …

graham“Shame, shame on the ten Republicans who joined with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in impeaching President Trump yesterday. After all that he has done for our country, you would turn your back and betray him so quickly? We have never had a president like him in my lifetime. He gave us lower taxes, a strong economy, and low unemployment. He made NATO take notice and pay their own way. He had the guts to take on North Korea and meet with their leader personally. He didn’t let China walk all over us. Just his Mideast peace initiatives in the last couple of months deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. He has defended religious liberty like no president before him, and that matters to all people of faith. He has worked to bring prison reform and secured our southern border. He defeated the ISIS caliphate in Syria, and he strengthened our military. He was also the most pro-life president we have ever had. But the House Democrats impeached him because they hate him and want to do as much damage as they can. And these ten, from his own party, joined in the feeding frenzy. It makes you wonder what the thirty pieces of silver were that Speaker Pelosi promised for this betrayal.”

Well, I wonder if Mr. Franklin has been living in some alternative universe?  The hell of it is, though, that with over 9.5 million followers on Facebook, some will undoubtedly buy into his trash talk and some will no doubt join the planned insurrection next week, fully believing that they are doing ‘god’s work’.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And speaking of religious freaks …

brandon-burdonBrandon Burdon, pastor of Kingdom Life church in Frisco, Texas is less well-known that Franklin Graham, but no less a lunatic.

During a long rambling sermon just days after the Capitol coup, he told his (maskless) congregation to stock up on weapons, celebrated a God-ordained siege of Washington, spoke in tongues to give his statements added oomph, claimed Apple would create a national blackout, railed against FOX News and Mitch McConnell for not being conservative enough, urged everyone to stock up on generators and food, and said with absolutely certainty that Donald Trump would be president for eight straight years.

“We are locked and loaded at the Burden house.  We have an executive order — not from Congress or D.C., but from the desk of the CEO of heaven, the boss of the planet. He said from his desk in heaven, this is my will; Trump will be in for eight years.”

Is it any wonder that I often say religion is the cause of most wars and most hatred in the world?  I wonder how many people from Frisco, Texas will be among the gun-toting nuts planning to converge on D.C. next week?

An Open Letter to the Republican Party

Posted on by under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants, Re-blogs, Social commentary

In my head, I was composing an “Open Letter to Republicans in Congress” that would have eventually become a post here on Filosofa’s Word.  But this morning, our friend TokyoSand beat me to the punch, and since her thoughts echo my own, I decided not to re-invent the wheel, but rather to share hers with you.  Thank you, TS!

An Open Letter to the Republican Party

By TokyoSand on

writing-letter

Dear Republican Party members,

No, we will not be moving on.

We reject your attempts to change the subject and calls for “unity” because we see them for what they are: You’re desperately trying to escape accountability for the role you played in Trump’s Insurrection this past Wednesday.

As Thomas Paine said, “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” And until you take responsibility, we do not trust you to do the job you were elected to do.

Lest anyone think I am only talking to Republicans in Congress, I am not. I am also pointing my fingers at Republicans in state legislatures as well.

For 4+ years, you either actively pushed lies spewed by Trump and his allies, or stayed silent in the face of those lies, which perhaps you now realize allowed them to take root and spread.

Taking only the most recent lie as an example — Trump pushing the lie that he won the November election in a landslide — you all helped him push that lie, and that took root in tens of millions of Americans, and radicalized many of them as you personally bore witness to on Wednesday.

Read entire letter …

It’s Not Over Yet …

Posted on by under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

Three days ago, Trump supporters stormed the Capital building in Washington, destroyed public property, and caused the deaths of five people.  They were a mob, they fit every definition of domestic terrorists.  A few were arrested, and dozens more have since been identified and arrested, including the jerk who so proudly posed for a photo with his feet on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk.  Many have lost their jobs, as their employers saw their pictures or were informed of their unconscionable acts.  However, Wednesday was not the end, the movement has not been stopped or even slowed by the public condemnation or the relatively few arrests.

Yesterday’s headline …

terrorism

According to the article …

Parler, Telegram chat rooms and the platform TheDonald.win were all used to plan and coordinate the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a riot. Posters explicitly stated their intentions to “occupy” the Capitol. QAnon conspiracy theorists and people associated with militia groups had a visible presence in Wednesday’s crowd.

“Round 2 on January 20th. This time no mercy. I don’t even care about keeping Trump in power. I care about war,” an anonymous person posted on the platform TheDonald.win, which is filled with comments posted by people who lauded those who rioted Wednesday as “heroes.”

Law enforcement is scrambling to identify those who broke into the Capitol building, and are worried about the inauguration as another target.

“There is growing concern that violent extremists are emboldened by the breach of the Capitol, which means the clock is ticking on taking down the most influential incites of violence before they act again,” said Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director and NBC News national security analyst.

The Secret Service, which is supervising security for the inauguration, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, referred NBC News to the Secret Service.

According the National Park Service, which handles permits for rallies in D.C., there are seven First Amendment permit applications in process that overlap with the inauguration date, one of which is clearly for Trump supporters.

Over the years, I have often argued that the time has come to put some limitations on the First Amendment right to free speech.  Every ‘right’ comes with an associated responsibility, in this case the responsibility to act peacefully.  Those who would come to Washington to do harm, to kill and destroy, are taking their ‘right’ to free speech several steps too far and must be stopped within the next 11 days, else the eagerly anticipated inauguration day will become a bloodbath and the start of an internal war in this nation.

My first question is, if the organizers of Wednesdays riots were communicating their plans on the aforementioned websites, then the FBI and Department of Homeland Security surely knew of their plans, so why wasn’t there a heavy law enforcement presence surrounding the Capitol, rather than only a handful of Capitol Police, some of whom were actually seen helping the terrorist enter the building?  This is a question that MUST be answered … immediately!  Did Donald Trump somehow interfere or stop law enforcement from interrupting the plans of the terrorists?  Is the leadership in our security forces as corrupt as that at the head of our government?  We need to know, and somehow the plans for Joe Biden’s inauguration must be changed, must be made as secure and as private as possible.

If our own security forces have been compromised, as I believe may be the case, then who can we turn to for help?  I’ve lived on this earth for 69, almost 70 years now, and I’ve learned that fear is immobilizing, better to be angry than afraid.  And I am angry, but today I am also afraid.  I am afraid that in less than two weeks, this nation may be shattered like the windows of the Capitol were on Wednesday.  I’m afraid that our government is no longer functional, can no longer maintain a nation of law and order.  In fact, it would seem that many within our government are a part of the movement that seeks to overthrow it.

There are many who must share the blame for what happened Wednesday and what may yet happen in the coming two weeks, but the time for blame and punishment will come later.  Right now, it is time to work to ensure the safety of the incoming administration, of our lawmakers, and of the people of this nation.

For some time now, I have hoped that this nation could be reconciled, that the Great Divide between right and left could somehow begin to heal, but today I see no common ground to work with.  In my book, those who would destroy this nation with their racist, bigoted views are not of the same species as the rest of us and I think this nation may well be beyond repair.

Who’s Surprised?

Posted on by under Election 2020, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Jeff is as angry as I am tonight … he and I, along with many others have predicted this for some time. It was right in front of our eyes, but apparently the media, Congress, and others couldn’t see it. Remember, my friends, the lunatic who created today’s madness also has access to the nuclear codes …

On The Fence Voters

None of what’s happening at the U.S Capitol today should surprise any of us. At least not those who’ve actually been warning what might happen were the Mad King to lose the election. Now we’re seeing in real time the disintegration of democracy playing out on our television screens for all of the world to see.

The crazies are making their last stand, at the behest of their dear leader. He’s been egging them on for months now; told them to “stand down and standby.” They all knew what he meant. They’ve been plotting this insurrection ever since. The real question right now is, how in the hell was this allowed to happen? How could there not have been National Guard stationed and surrounding the Capitol, days before in anticipation of today’s certification proceedings?

People will have to be held to account and I don’t just mean those in law…

View original post 372 more words

CHAOS!!! TERRORISM!!! INSURRECTION!!!

Posted on by under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

By now, you all know of the chaos that has reigned all afternoon in the Capitol, halting the electoral certification process and causing turmoil throughout the nation.  Our friend Keith often reminds me that name-calling gets us nowhere, wins no arguments.  While I both respect and agree with him, today my fury, my rage, have taken over and I shamelessly call Donald Trump and every single person who voted for him in November stupid jackasses.

chaos-6The hordes, incited by none other than the Idiot-in-Chief, have vandalized the Capitol building, broken windows, shot at least one person, injured multiple police officers, and say they are planning to “occupy the Capitol through the night”.  Were it my decision, I’d instruct police to arrest every last one of them, and then go find Trump and arrest him, too.  Yes, my friends, I am angry … I am furious.

Meanwhile, Trump remains, as of this writing, largely silent, for this was his plan all along.  One of his aides, noting the frustration of his staff at his negligence, said …

“If we could throw him [Trump] to the angry mob, we’d throw him to the angry mob now.”

Trump has been urged by many to publicly order the mob to disperse … instead, he told them “We love you”.  WHAT THE SAM HELL????

chaos-2Every one of the people protesting in Washington today should be in jail.  Don’t ever again ask me not to say that people who voted for Trump are stupid, because they ARE.  They are stupid, they are evil, they are terrorists every bit as much as was Osama bin Laden!

I have a few questions about today, starting with WHERE THE HELL were the police?  The masses that descended on DC today were no surprise … we’ve heard Trump ‘inviting’ them, egging them on, for weeks now!  Even I was smart enough to know these terrorist bozos would show up with their guns, so where were the cops???  Second question is … what would have happened if this had been a Black Lives Matter protest rather than a pro-Trump protest?  Think long and hard about that one, my friends, and then try to convince me that this isn’t a racist, bigoted nation.

chaos-4President-elect Joe Biden, who WILL be inaugurated as President in two weeks, was more controlled than I am in his statement a bit ago …

“At this hour, our democracy’s under unprecedented assault. Unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times. An assault on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol itself. An assault on the people’s representatives and the Capitol Hill police, sworn to protect them. And the public servants who work at the heart of our Republic… Let me be very clear. The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America. Do not represent who we are. What we’re seeing are a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness. This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition. And it must end now.

Threatening the safety of elected officials, it’s no protest. It’s insurrection. The world’s watching. Like so many other Americans, I am shocked and saddened that our nation, so long the beacon of light and hope for democracy, has come to such a dark moment.”

This is how a president speaks, my friends.  This is the president I am looking forward to having in just under two weeks.  But meanwhile … the FBI, Homeland Security and every law enforcement agency must work day and night to ensure that the chaos, the tragedy of today is not repeated on January 20th as Joe Biden takes office!  If needs be, if possible, we need to invite NATO security forces to protect not only Biden, but every member of Congress and the Supreme Court, for Trump and his band of idiots have proven there is no low to which they won’t sink.

Another One Walks Free …

Posted on by under Law and justice, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

SheskeyTake a long hard look at this picture.  What do you see?  Looks like a nice clean-cut kid, barely out of high school, right?  You’d be wrong … dead wrong.  This is the face of evil, this is a ‘man’ who does not deserve to walk among us!  His name is Rusten Sheskey and he is the police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who attempted to murder Jacob Blake, a Black man, last August.

On August 23, 2020, Jacob S. Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was shot by police officer Rusten Sheskey in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  Sheskey shot Blake … in the back … not once, not twice, not even three, but seven times!  This young punk who calls himself an officer of the law was so intimidated by Mr. Blake only because he was a Black man, that he literally unloaded his entire magazine into poor Mr. Blake’s body in order to protect himself … from what???

Video shows Blake walking to the driver-side door of an SUV as officers follow him with guns drawn, shouting. As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, Sheskey grabs his shirt from behind and opens fire.  While the Kenosha police union and Sheskey’s attorney, Brendan Matthews, claim that Mr. Blake had a knife, state investigators determined only that officers saw a knife on the floor of Mr. Blake’s SUV.  Three of Blake’s sons were in the backseat at the time.  Can you imagine the trauma that will haunt those children for the rest of their lives?

At age 29, Mr. Blake, the father of three, is left paralyzed from the waist down, and if Mr. Sheskey’s marksmanship had been more accurate, those three children would now be fatherless.  All because a white man thought himself better than a Black man.

jacob-blakeSheskey, 31, has been the subject of five internal investigations since he joined the Kenosha department in 2013, including three reprimands for crashing his squad car three times over three years.

But wait … last evening as I was writing an email, the headlines began popping across my ‘breaking news’ screen …

  • Jacob Blake Shooting: No Charges Against Officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin
  • Officer who shot Jacob Blake will not face charges, district attorney says
  • No charges against Wisconsin officer who shot Jacob Blake

No.  Charges.  For attempted murder. Because Jacob Blake has Black skin and the killer has white … it’s that damn simple, my friends.  If Sheskey had shot an unarmed white man seven times in the back, he would be in a prison cell today!

And so, yesterday,  Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said that he …

“… would have to disprove the clear expression of these officers that they had to fire a weapon to defend themselves.  I do not believe the state … would be able to prove that the privilege of self-defense is not available.”

SELF-DEFENSE???  He shot the man in the f*cking back … seven damn times!!!  No way in hell is that self-defense.  Gravely is also white … I wonder if a Black District Attorney might have seen it differently?

Y’know … I really want to believe in the integrity of our police, really want to be able to trust the very people whose salary I pay to protect the people living in this nation, but … sadly, I don’t.  With every one of these incidents, murders and attempted murders of Black people by police, I have less and less confidence in the law enforcement people in this country.  Defund the police?  No, that isn’t the answer and we all know it.  There are bad people out there who would murder others over not much more than a cigarette, so we need laws and people to enforce the laws.  But dammit … we do not need racist, cowardly pigs populating our police departments!  We need officers of compassion, decency, and integrity.  Rusten Sheskey is NOT one of those.

I remember that as a child, my parents always cautioned that if I were ever anywhere and needed help, I should seek the nearest police officer, that the police officer was my friend.  Today, I would not tell a child that.  Granted, I know that there are good cops, but until we start holding the bad ones accountable, all police will be painted with a broad brush.  WHY do prosecutors find it so hard to charge a police officer?  Because of uber-powerful police unions who will lie, cheat, and steal to ensure that officers who break the law are protected.

Police are rarely charged in on-duty shootings. Since 2015, more than half of the murder or manslaughter cases brought against officers nationwide have ended in acquittals or deadlocked juries. Police officers invoke self-defense in shooting cases and they typically have been deemed justified in using deadly force if they reasonably believe that a suspect has the ability to cause death or great bodily harm, or if the suspect could put the officer or someone else in imminent danger.  That term … reasonable … is highly subjective.  Even if it later turns out there was no real threat, a self-defense claim could still be viable if a person actually believed … or claimed to have believed … he or she was in danger and any “reasonable” person in the same situation would have believed the same thing.

Not surprisingly, Kenosha’s city leaders are scared, and have imposed a curfew for the next eight days, as well as calling in the National Guard.  Yes, assholes, you let a cop get by with ruining a man’s life and damn near killing him … you better believe We the People are going to be mad!

In many Western nations, your average police officer is not armed with a gun.  Here in the U.S., fools have taken the 2nd Amendment to the nth degree and thus there are more guns floating around in the populace than there are citizens in this nation, so naturally the police must be armed.  Call them to account for their actions … don’t just give them a pass because they wear a badge!  DAMMIT … I’ve had enough of renegade cops killing people … Black people … with impunity!  Is it any wonder that I so distrust police that I will leave a store if an armed cop is in that store?

‘Good People Doing Good Things’ will return next Wednesday … I didn’t lack for good people, I only have so much anger over a variety of injustices that I could not switch mental gears this morning.  Thank you for your patience.

A Jolly Monday Hiatus And A Felony

Posted on by under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants

jollyJolly Monday is on temporary hiatus due to a severe lack of … jolly.  Hopefully, Jolly Monday will return soon.  Jolly, Joyful and I offer our humblest apologies, but some days you just can’t be jolly, no matter how hard you try. 

Most of the day, my mind has been preoccupied pondering Donald Trump’s felonious telephone call to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Secretary of State.  This call was more damning than any of the Watergate tapes, was a blatant attempt to overthrow the results of a fair and honest election.  By all accounts … let me repeat that … BY ALL ACCOUNTS, there was no voter fraud in the November 3rd election.  Audits have been done, legal challenges … 61 of them at last count … have been reviewed and discredited, even by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Signature audits have been done; recounts have been done.  Every election official has certified that there was no widespread voter fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election.  Donald F. Trump LOST.  Joseph R. Biden WON. Plain and simple.  In every contest, every election, there can only be one winner.  Joe Biden is the winner of the 2020 presidential election.  PERIOD.

The telephone call, in and of itself constitutes an impeachable offense, and were it not just 16 days before the end of his term, I am fairly certain that impeachment proceedings would have already begun. The call is also felonious.  It is against the law to bribe or blackmail a public official, which is precisely what Trump attempted to do.  Tonight, as I write this, he sleeps in luxury in the Executive Residence of the White House, but he should be sleeping on a cot in a jail cell. 

I call on every Republican legislator to condemn Mr. Trump’s actions.  Instead, they are intent upon making a statement by refusing to certify the electoral votes on Wednesday.  They, too, have sold their consciences upriver.  For the record … the electoral vote will be certified and at noon on January 20th, Joe Biden will become the President of the United States.  That is not even in doubt, but what will happen to this nation over the next 16 days is a matter of grave concern. 

I read a few hours ago that Trump either has or is planning to file suit against Brad Raffensperger for releasing the audio transcript of the phone conversation.  Raffensperger was not only well within his rights to release that audio, but in one sense, it was his duty to do so.  WE THE PEOPLE … the people who entrust our lives to the head of government, and the people who pay his more-than-generous salary … have a right to know what our hired help is doing!  We have every right in the world to know that our elected official is a conman, a crook, a lowlife scum of the earth! 

As if all of this weren’t bad enough, Trump is encouraging violence on Wednesday, the day the electoral votes will be certified by Congress.  He has invited the ‘Proud Boys’ and other white supremacist groups to attend a rally that he himself plans to attend.  He tweets …

“The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C. will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th… StopTheSteal!” Trump tweeted Friday of the rally he’s promised “will be wild.”

Though Trump hasn’t yet provided details on the specific location, the National Park Service has so far received three permit applications to protest the election results on Wednesday, with more than 15,000 attendees expected, USA Today reported.  On Thursday, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department said there will be multiple street closures across the city on Tuesday and Wednesday for “public safety,” with potential intermittent closures in the downtown area.  A former top aide to Vice President Mike Pence said she was “very concerned” that there would be violence in Washington, DC, on January 6 “because the president himself is encouraging it.”  If lives are lost, as I suspect may be the case, those lives fall squarely on the shoulders of Donald Trump and there should be lawsuits demanding his imprisonment on the charges of wanton endangerment. 

My friends, in our lifetime the worst we had was Richard Nixon, but compared to Donald Trump, Nixon was only a minor miscreant.  Donald Trump has lied repeatedly to the people of this nation, and in the case of the pandemic, at great cost to We the People in terms of the lives of our loved ones.  Donald Trump has broken the law more than once, but with the protection afforded by Attorney General William Barr, has escaped consequences.  And now, he is lying, cheating, and stealing to stay in power.  I want you to ask yourselves one simple question:  WHY?

For four years, he has not done the job with which he was tasked or has done it so poorly as to cause severe damage to the U.S. and it’s reputation.  He’s spent more time on the golf course or shoving food into his obese body than he has spent working.  So why does he care so much about keeping a job he hasn’t even done?  Power?  Sure.  Avoidance of criminal charges?  Avoidance of massive debt?  Absolutely.  But I think there is more.  I think he harbours illusions of turning the office of the president into a king’s parlour where he rules autocratically and to hell with We the People. 

I end where I began, with an urgent plea … nay, not a plea but a directive … to every Republican lawmaker to hold this madman accountable, to put your own interests aside for a few days and remember that your oath is to the Constitution of the United States, and therefore to We the People.  The oath you took was not to Donald Trump, and if you did swear an oath of fealty to him, then you belong in a jail cell next to his, Ted Cruz!

An astounding 81 million of us voted against Donald Trump.  Yes, my friends, we voted against Donald Trump, for Joe Biden, while a good man and one who I believe will be a good president, would not likely have beaten a more credible Republican candidate, say a George W. Bush or a Ronald Reagan.  We the People made our voices heard on November 3rd.  We said that we do not want a racist, egotistical conman in the Oval Office.  Republicans in Congress must respect our wishes, or lose their seats.  That is the bottom line. 

My apologies for comments that have gone unanswered.  I appreciate each and every comment, have read them all, but have simply been unable to respond today.  Please forgive me.

Time For The Silent Majority To Speak — LOUDLY

Posted on by under Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants, Social commentary

This morning it was announced that Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri will contest the votes of the Electoral College when the U.S. Congress meets on January 6th to certify those votes.  I am outraged.  How can a ‘man’ who took an oath to protect and uphold the U.S. Constitution attempt to deny the people of this nation the right to choose their president?  The following is the email I sent to Mr. Hawley early this afternoon …

You, Mr. Hawley, are in breach of your oath to protect and uphold the U.S. Constitution.  WE THE PEOPLE have spoken.  We voted, fairly and honestly, for our next president to be President-elect Joe Biden.  We are sick and damn tired of the buffoon who has occupied the Oval Office for the past four years and we need a government that functions, a president who cares about the nation and its people, not about his own personal whims.  For you to contest our votes, to take away our right to choose our leader, is simply unconscionable.  You better think long and hard about what you’re doing, for you will face the consequences of your actions.  At noon on January 20th, Joe Biden WILL become the next president of the United States, else there will no longer BE a United States.

Hawley’s reasoning, or so he claims, is that “some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws.”  What he refers to are the accommodations, such as postal voting, that were made by the states in order to enable more people to vote in light of the pandemic, a scourge made far worse than it needed to be by the very lying, bungling person Hawley and others are attempting to keep in the highest office of the land.  There was no criminal activity, no voter fraud, just people voting from the safety of their home rather than being exposed to a deadly virus while standing in line at the polls for hours.

What Mr. Hawley is doing, as well as what Representatives Mo Brooks and Louie Gohmert are doing in their efforts to silence the will of the people, is not only unconscionable, but is against the Constitution, is against the law of the land.  I believe with 99% certainty that their efforts will fail, but the efforts themselves are criminal, are acts of sedition.  Not only that, but they are keeping us all on pins and needles, keeping us from being able to enjoy this holiday season, costing us sleep and our health, just so they can play these foolish games with our lives!

Our friend Keith wrote an excellent letter to several newspapers regarding ‘Representatives’ Brooks and Gohmert’s efforts to change the outcome, to rob us of our voices. Keith has kindly given us permission to alter as needed and use his letter … I strongly suggest we all take him up on that offer, for if enough of us make ourselves heard, make it clear that we will not stand for this circus the GOP is putting on, perhaps others will follow suit.  These people do not deserve their seats in Congress, for they do not represent the people of this nation, they only pander to the whims of the madman who has destroyed much of what was once good about this country.

The United States was founded on the notion of “government of the people, by the people, for the people”, as President Abraham Lincoln so famously noted in his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.  Hawley, Gohmert, Brooks and others are attempting to take “the people” out of that equation. It is time for We the People to rise up, to make our voices heard so loudly and clearly that we override those of the fools in Washington who are lining their own pockets while draining ours.