Category Archives: Rants

Yes, We DO Care!!! We MUST Care!!!

Posted on by under Global Issues, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

At a circus in Michigan last Saturday, the head clown was the former guy, aka Donald Trump, and one of the minion clowns was Marge Greene, well known for her conspiracy theories and hate speech.  Now, I don’t generally pay attention to things that come out of Greene’s mouth, for to the best of my knowledge, she has never uttered a true or sensible statement yet.  However, something she said really galled me …

“We have so many problems here at home, I cannot even think about sending our money over to fund a proxy war with Russia. Zelensky doesn’t run the United States government. He is not our president, but for some reason Joe Biden bends over every single time. … The American people don’t care about that war over there.”

The American people don’t care about that war over there???  Oh yes … oh yes, we DO CARE!!!  What angers me most about this is the utter arrogance, the idea that somehow people in the U.S. must be above what happens in the rest of the world.  This is complete and total bullshit!  Somebody needs to inform Ms. Greene that she does NOT speak for “the American people”!  People, innocent people – grandparents, children, mothers and fathers — are being murdered in Ukraine by a madman who dreams of leading an empire and will step on anyone and everyone to realize his dreams.  How could we not care???

Somebody should remind Ms. Greene that we all share the same planet … that what affects one, affects all.  If Putin conquers Ukraine as he hopes, he will not stop there, but will move on to his next conquest, possibly Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania – all members of NATO. Putin has made no secret of the fact that he hopes to rebuild a Soviet-style empire. It is this sort of attempted world domination that led to WWII and could easily lead to WWIII.  The people in Ukraine are no different than the people in Marge’s own district in Georgia … just people trying to take care of their families and live in peace.  I wonder how Marge would feel if Mexico invaded Georgia and bombed homes, public buildings and hospitals, killing thousands?

I believe that all people, regardless of skin colour, where they live, ancestry, religious beliefs, gender, gender identity or any other distinctions are valuable.  The people in Ukraine who go to bed at night not knowing if they will wake in the morning, who send their children to school not knowing if the school will still be standing by afternoon, are just as human, just as valuable as any citizen of the United States or Russia or the United Kingdom or any other country.  It is one thing to take pride in your homeland … most everyone, regardless of where their homeland is, does.  But that does not mean that any one group of people are somehow superior to others.  This notion of “us vs them” is exactly why we cannot manage world peace.  It is arrogant and ignorant, and when people in positions of power promote the idea of nationalism over humanity, it is dangerous.

The time for isolationism, for extreme nationalism, passed when the age of technology shrunk the world, but apparently Ms. Greene (and others like her) have not been informed that we’re all in this together.  Her attitude would make us a pariah in the global community, would cost us any respect our allies may still have for us, and would make our position in the world far more dangerous for us all.  Somebody please vote the selfish, arrogant Ms. Greene OUT of Congress … send her back to her gym!

Filosofa Rants Yet Again!

Posted on by under Social commentary, Political commentary, Rants, Racism & Bigotry, education, Law and justice, History, voting rights, Election 2022

I was seriously trying to work on a post about banned books for Banned Books Week when I took a brief break and while perusing a bit of news and some other blogs briefly, I came across something that made my blood boil.  All hope of me finishing my banned books post tonight is gone … perhaps tomorrow, but for tonight I have a brief rant, and then I’m going to bed to read for a while and try to calm my shattered psyche.

Who or what has sent me into a tailspin?  A man by the name of John Gibbs from Michigan who is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in November’s election.  According to Wikipedia …

John Gibbs is an American far-right political commentator and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Gibbs was a software engineer and missionary before entering politics. During the Donald Trump administration, he held roles in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and was acting Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Community Planning and Development.

In July 2020, Trump nominated Gibbs to be director of the United States Office of Personnel Management, but he was never confirmed by the Senate. Gibbs promoted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. He is a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 elections, having defeated incumbent Peter Meijer in the Republican Party primary election for Michigan’s 3rd congressional district.

Okay, pretty much your typical maga-Republican, nothing new or out of the ordinary there, right?  Well, just wait.  As a student at Stanford University in the early 2000s, Gibbs founded a self-described “think tank” called the Society for the Critique of Feminism.  Here is some of what he had to say there …

“The Bible clearly articulates the idea that women should not teach or maintain positions of power. Although the reason is not expressly mentioned, it must be due to the nature of women (i.e. their differing mental characteristics), since every other command for living in the Bible is based on the condition of man. In other words, because women do not possess the characteristics necessary to govern, and since women have a more important task to do, which is to prepare the next generation, they are commanded not to rule.

And since Christianity is the historical foundation of American society, with all of the rights and freedoms expressed in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, which we enjoy to this very day, being expressly and unmistakenly God-given, it is incumbent upon us to consider the relationship that our Christian/cultural heritage, which is so important to so many Americans, shares with feminism, which threatens to unravel the social fabric which has produced one of the marvels of mankind.

Some argue that in a democratic society, it is hypocritical or unjust for women, who are 50% of the population, not to have the vote. This is obviously not true, since the founding fathers, who understood liberty and democracy better than anyone, did not believe so. In addition, all people under age 18 cannot vote, although they too comprise a significant portion of the population. So we cannot say that women should be able to vote simply because they are a large part of the population.

We conclude that increasing the size and scope of government is unequivocally bad. And since women’s suffrage has caused this to occur on a larger scale than any other cause in history, we conclude that the United States has suffered as a result of women’s suffrage.”

And now you understand why I have steam coming out of my ears.

Somebody might want to remind him that those same ‘founding fathers’ also didn’t believe that people with his skin colour ought to be allowed to vote!!!  Oh what a hypocrite this man is!

Anne Marie Schieber, a spokesperson for Gibbs’ campaign, attempted to mitigate and control the damage when his views on women were made public, saying that he was only trying “to provoke the left on campus and to draw attention to the hypocrisy of some modern-day feminists. It was nothing more than a college kid being over the top.”  Oh no, sweet cheeks … this was downright blatant misogyny, putting down women in the worst possible way!  This was no little college prank.  And given Gibbs’ current conspiracy theorist tendencies, there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that he still feels that women are so far inferior to men that we should not be allowed to put on shoes and leave the kitchen, let alone vote or god forbid run for office!  Bastard!

Back in 2020, Trump nominated Gibbs to head the Office of Personnel Management.  During the Senate confirmation hearings, it came out that Gibbs had he had spread the false conspiracy theory that claimed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman took part in a satanic ritual … that conspiracy theory, known as Pizzagate, led to Edgar Maddison Welch entering a pizza restaurant on 4 December 2016 armed with an AR-15, and randomly fired shots.

The only reason Mr. Gibbs’ name will be on the ballot this November is because the incumbent for that seat, Representative Peter Meijer, was ostracized by the GOP for voting to impeach Trump in 2020.  Therefore, Gibbs received that all-important ‘seal of approval’ from the former guy and won his primary.  He faces … oh the irony … Hillary Scholten, the Democrat running for the seat, and as of today, Gibbs is polling 9 points behind Ms. Scholten!  I would love to be a fly on the wall when he loses to … of all people … one of those women for whom he has zero respect!

Two Bastards Sitting in Governor’s Mansions

Posted on by under Election 2022, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

Governors Abbot (Texas) and DeSantis (Florida) are playing a game of Russian roulette with the lives of people – families with children.  And why?  Because there are 52 days left until the mid-term elections and they are both up for re-election.  Because both are Republican incumbents who don’t have a whole heck of a lot going for them right now and who are up against strong Democratic opponents.  So, they respond by playing a deadly game with the lives of people who trusted in the goodness of this nation enough to come here in hopes of a better life for their children.  Dan Rather and I are in complete agreement on this …

A Shameful Stunt

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner

16 September 2022

A bus carrying migrants who crossed the border from Mexico into Texas arrives in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

It is easy to demonize the “other” — the one who looks different, speaks differently, or comes from somewhere else. Especially during periods of deep social, political, and economic anxiety, pounding one’s chest about “us” and “them” and using fear as a rallying cry can whip populations into a fervor.

It is clear that Republicans, facing tremendous blowback in the face of the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling, falling gas prices, the specter of Donald Trump, and the backlash he provokes for many voters, have settled on immigration as a motivator to turn out their base in the upcoming midterm elections.

The stunts by Republican politicians — specifically Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — of busing and flying migrants and asylum seekers to places like Washington, D.C. (including outside of the vice president’s residence), New York City, and now Martha’s Vineyard have all the toxic energy of a fraternity prank. This is deadly serious.

And it may be effective politically. It has been the case many times before, both in this country and abroad. History is replete with political power built on vilifying foreigners and immigration. As much as they might not like to admit it, Democrats may worry about their vulnerability on this issue, especially in close elections. Fear can be a motivator to get people to the polls.

The public rationale for what Republicans are doing can’t be only to “own the libs,” although that desire is clearly behind the glee with which the governors and their supporters justify their actions. They say they are pointing out rampant hypocrisy, that blue states should have to carry the burden of immigration. The truth is, of course, that blue states, and cities in particular, are full of immigrants, documented and undocumented. And many of these immigrants are thriving members of local communities. Furthermore, blue state tax revenue is a major source of federal government funds, which are then distributed across the nation, including to red states and in support of immigration infrastructure.

You could imagine a reason it would make sense for migrants and asylum seekers to travel from the border to other parts of the country. But a good faith effort would include planning and resources. It would include giving people full and accurate information about where they would be going and some choice in their fate. These current stunts are nothing of this sort. They are driven by cruelty and lies. They are certainly not for the benefit of the immigrant or even the immigration system. They are about scoring political points on the backs of others. Can you imagine being put on a bus or a plane with your children — or even being a child yourself — and arriving at some street corner, maybe late at night, with no idea where you were or what would come next?

Immigration is a complicated issue. It always has been. It stirs emotions deep and powerful.

The movement of people across oceans, over lines on maps, and within nations is a fraught endeavor. It is often driven by desperation, coercion, bondage, and hope. Those in transit tend to be vulnerable for exploitation.

One of the hallmarks of the human species is that we are incredibly mobile. From our origins (probably in Africa, say scientists) we spread out to almost every imaginable corner of the Earth — from the arctic tundra to equatorial rainforests, from the tops of mountains to remote islands. We invented all manner of conveyances to carry us over open seas, across continents, and even through the air. Horizons beckon us to go beyond them.

Humans, however, are also territorial. We have claimed time and time again, around the world, and throughout history, that this land is “ours.” We have divided the globe into discrete states. We have created borders, sometimes hundreds or thousands of miles long, that delineate divisions over who has the right to live on either side. Sometimes these boundaries follow geographic reasoning — rivers or mountains. Sometimes they are literally just random lines on the map.

For all this human movement, however, we are also a species with a strong sense of home. We group ourselves in regions where we share language, culture, family, and friends. Some of us may be inveterate wanderers, but many would rather stay close to where we are most familiar and comfortable.

But that changes when violence threatens us, when living conditions prove inhospitable, when our prospects for earning a livelihood and providing for our family are hopeless, when our freedoms are trampled. Then a primal survival mode kicks in. We would do anything to protect ourselves and our families. We would put our own health and security at risk in search of a better life. It was this very instinct that over the course of many centuries brought waves of immigrants to the United States.

America, it is often said, is a land of immigrants. Most of us here had ancestors who attempted a similar journey to that of those now being used as pawns in political showmanship. Back in our family tree, someone made the decision that they needed to leave somewhere else and come here. For some of us, that decision was decades or centuries in the past. For some it was recent. Many in this country now are immigrants themselves.

There are also those among us whose ancestors didn’t choose to leave. They were ripped from their homes by force — chained, beaten, and raped — and taken to a new land where they were separated from their families and forced to live in bondage. Others still are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Americas, whose lands were taken by new immigrants. Many of these Native peoples perished from the diseases brought by white settlers. Those who didn’t were forced from their homes and pushed into far less hospitable lands.

Of course, you won’t hear any of this context from those sneering now with xenophobic fear-mongering. There is no nuance in the MAGA slogan. Heck, they want to ban the teaching of this very history in schools. The truth isn’t comfortable, and it challenges their divisive narratives.

For as long as America remains a beacon for those seeking a better life, we will have to find ways of creating a fair, equitable, safe, and humane system for immigration. What can be done? Recognize the incredible advantages immigrants have brought to this nation. Be driven by empathy. And keep our nation protected. We should not expect these balances to be easy. And that is all the more reason to debate the issue with seriousness instead of scapegoating, with a commitment to our noblest values rather than an appeal to our basest instincts.

We would do well to remember those stirring lines from the Emma Lazarus poem “The New Colossus” that adorn the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

We are talking about people here. Our fellow human beings. And there but for the grace of God go I.

A Horrendous Ruling …

Posted on by under Election 2022, Election 2024, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants

Are we getting tired yet?  Are we sickened by all we see coming out of the extreme right, the former guy & his minions, and the exaggerated evangelicals?  Would we like to just go somewhere ‘far away from the madding crowd’ and live out our days in peace?  Yeah … me too.  But guess what?  That’s what they’re counting on … the right-wingers who would replace our Constitution with their bible, and replace our democracy with their theocracy are hoping we’ll get so exhausted by it that we’ll tuck our tails between our legs and slink off, leaving them to do as they will.  But NO!!! We’re gonna all take a few nice deep breaths and remind ourselves what’s at stake here, then get back in the saddle and do whatever we can to stamp “PAID” on the lunacy that resides in the U.S. today.

I was enraged and incensed by the news that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled to appoint a special master to review the Mar-a-Lago search, possibly delaying the Justice Department’s work that is certain to result in charges against Trump.  The first thing I said was to call her a not-very-nice word meaning prostitute, for in my book she has prostituted herself … she indebted herself to Trump in exchange for a prestigious judicial appointment.  And this week, he called in the debt.  And she paid it, even though her decision goes against the people of this nation, goes against the rule of law, goes against everything she learned in her tenure at University of Michigan Law School.

I share here Robert Hubbell’s views of the horrendous decision …

Judge Cannon did everyone a favor.

Robert Hubbell

7 September 2022

In one respect, Judge Aileen Cannon did everyone a favor in her decision to appoint a special master to review the Mar-a-Lago search. She wrote an opinion so awful and bereft of legal reasoning that commentators on all sides of the political spectrum are panning the opinion as an abomination. Indeed, they are falling over themselves to find adjectives, comparisons, and metaphors that adequately describe the havoc of her decision. Here is a fair sampling:

          And then there is Bill Barr, a man who destroyed his legacy to support Trump. Here is what Bill Barr told Trump’s supporters during an appearance on Fox News:

  • The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it. It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways.
  • [T]he government has very strong evidence of what it really needs to determine whether charges are appropriate . . . there’s some evidence to suggest that they were deceived.
  • [N]one of [the government’s case] really relates to the content of documents. It relates to the fact that there were documents [at Mar-a-Lago] and the fact that they were classified and the fact that they were subpoenaed and never delivered.

My point is not to trash Judge Cannon’s integrity, intelligence, or fairness. She has already done so beyond my meager ability to add to the opprobrium already heaped upon her. Rather, the point is that Judge Cannon now understands she is universally regarded as the most incompetent, biased, and clueless federal district judge in the nation—and that is saying something!

          How Judge Cannon responds to that stomach-churning realization is what matters. Will Judge Cannon attempt to undo her grotesque error by revising her order? Will she reject efforts by Trump’s team to exploit the legal gruel disguised as analysis in her opinion? Or will she redouble her efforts to serve as Trump’s surrogate defense counsel from her position on the bench in the Southern District of Florida?

          The next few days will provide much more information about Judge Cannon’s intentions. I infer (read: speculate) that she is in legal waters way above her head and tried to kludge a remedy unsupported by the law. The result is a Frankenstein’s monster that will haunt her for the remainder of her career. Her decision is already being cited as “The Loose Cannon Rule,” under which criminal defendants can seek a stay of federal criminal proceedings whenever evidence is seized under a search warrant.

          The DOJ has many paths forward, most of which are legally complicated and equally unsatisfactory. But as Bill Barr also noted in his comments to Fox News, the decision is more like a “rain delay.” One of the most likely steps is for Merrick Garland to proceed with the special master process and appeal the order staying the investigation—which is a constitutional insult of the highest order.

          In her order, Judge Cannon has told the Article II branch of the government that it may not perform the duties granted to it by the Constitution. As Neal Katyal noted yesterday on MSNBC, none of his first-year law students at Georgetown would suggest such an outlandish and unsupported violation of separation of powers. Although the University of Michigan Law School is not the guarantor of the future performance of its graduates, the faculty at the U.Mich.Law should be revising their syllabi to add a few extra sessions on separation of powers—not to mention a deep dive into US v. Nixon. And judicial ethics. And legal research. And common sense.

          In the end, Judge Cannon’s decision is so bad it cannot stand. The DOJ will find a way to circumvent the worst parts of her ruling. Trump stole classified documents, concealed them, lied about it, and refused to return them after being served with a grand jury subpoena. He is in deep trouble. If past is prologue, Trump will make his predicament worse by uttering new lies and issuing new admissions.

STOP 🛑 The Violence!!!

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

A child comes home from school, says he’s going to beat up the kid who called him a name.  The mother sits down with the child, offers him a piece of cheese and a juice box and explains to him that there are other, better ways to resolve his differences with the other child.  She talks about finding the reason why the other kid called him a name, talks about him sitting down with the other kid and maybe a mediator, to talk about their differences.  And she explains to him that violence is never the answer, that violence will only lead to more violence and that eventually someone will get hurt, perhaps badly.

Okay, sure … that’s the fairy tale scenario, but believe it or not, similar scenarios are happening as we speak around the nation today and every day.  But … among the so-called adults in the room?  HAH!!!

Violence.  It has become a part of life in our society, has become the accepted way of resolving disputes and differences, especially when it comes to politics.  A few examples:

  • The Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin, Tim Michels, angry about a story published by a local newspaper calling out his contributions to anti-abortion groups, is calling for people to take up “pitchforks and torches”. “I believe people should just, just be ready to get out on the streets with pitchforks and torches with how low the liberal media has become.”
  • Says Florida governor Ron DeSantis about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading virologist in this nation … “And I’m just sick of seeing him. I know he said he’s going to retire. Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”
  • In Idaho last November, Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland threatened a carful of teens with a gun. The then-sheriff pointed a gun at a vehicle containing seven girls and their church group leader and said, “I will f—ing shoot you.” Their crime?  They placed a “thankful turkey” on his front door as a part of a neighborhood goodwill effort.  Rowland has since been relieved of his duties and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

These are just a few examples of people in public office, elected officials, blatantly inciting violence.  Consider Lindsey Graham who … threatened? … promised? … that if Trump were indicted on the many potential charges facing him, “there’ll be riots in the streets.”

DAMMIT, people!!!  WE THE PEOPLE work our asses off every day to pay these people’s salaries, to pay for them to fly across the ocean on a whim, to pay for them to wine and dine diplomats and others … and this is how they repay us?  By inciting violence, by calling for people to come after us with pitchforks and guns and whatever the hell else they have in their arsenals?

I don’t know about you guys, but I find it completely unacceptable and a heinous crime against the people of this nation for an elected public official, whether a sheriff, governor, or a member of Congress, to call for violence!  This nation is currently in a state of turmoil, thanks largely to right-wing radicals, and the politicians who call for violence are throwing fuel on the fire.

Worse yet … we are seeing the results across the nation.  It takes little or nothing to spur such groups as the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, Three Percenters and others into action, but today even the average Joe is angry, and it doesn’t take much for him to pick up that AR-15 or his trusty Glock and head out the door with a lust for violence.

We are a nation of angry people on both sides of the political spectrum.  There are more guns in this nation than there are people.  That’s a bad enough recipe for disaster, but add in the people we elected to public office telling us to get out there and take our revenge and … is it any wonder that gun violence has increased?  Where are we headed?  Back to firebombing homes and schools as was the case in 1960s Mississippi?  More children dead in school shootings?  A world where it’s not safe to walk down the street or shop in a grocery store?

I don’t care where your ideology falls on the political spectrum, I think most sensible people agree that violence is NOT going to solve our problems but will only exacerbate them.  When our elected leaders are the ones calling for and supporting calls for violence, then this country has bigger problems than we thought.  Are our leaders really so stupid that the only way they can think of to respond to ideas with which they disagree is to call for violence?  I believe that any public official who calls for or in any way promotes violence should be immediately removed from his office.  Period.  We need peacemakers, not warmongers.

What Planet Have I Landed ON???

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, education, Election 2024, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

Ooooooohhhh … my head is ‘sploding!  🤯    The snark-o-meter is well into the danger zone  .  It must be time for me to share the misery, the angst, the utter depravity!  Fasten your seatbelts, my friends, for it won’t be a smooth ride!

I first read The Diary of Anne Frank at around the age of 7.  I already knew of the Holocaust through first-hand stories told by family members, and Anne Frank’s account of the terror in Germany during those years stayed in my mind long after the first time I read it.  Since then, I have read it at least twice more.  But some children today are not being allowed access to the book.  WHY??? Because at the Keller Independent School District in Keller, Texas, the district has ordered The Diary of Anne Frank to be pulled from all school library shelves immediately!

“By the end of today, I need all books pulled from the library and classrooms,” wrote Jennifer Price, Keller ISD’s executive director of curriculum and instruction.

WHY???

Okay, so it appears that not only do some in this nation wish to whitewash the history of the U.S. – slavery, Indigenous People, internment camps, St. Louis, Jim Crow etc. – but now they also want to pretend that anti-Semitism isn’t even a thing, that Hitler never called for the execution of some six million Jewish people and others, that … what?  That World War II never happened and that the Jews self-exterminated because they didn’t like Hitler’s broomin’ mustache?

Apparently there is a concerted effort in some districts to see just how ignorant we can make the next generation!

Sean Hannity is a talking head for Fox “News” who just happens to have a net worth of some $250 million, was an unofficial ‘advisor’ to the last so-called president, and apparently is even more stupid than he looks.  Here is the nonsensical babble he uttered last Friday …

“What do you think the next thing that happens here is, do you think that they would try and indict the former president in the hopes of convicting him and having him in jail at the time of the next election to prevent him from running . . . Because a conviction by the way, constitutionally, would not prevent him from running for office.”

Marc Elias, a lawyer specializing in election law, rebutted Hannity’s claim by quoting U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2071, which states that anyone “having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”

Hannity continued his claim that Trump could run and be elected even if convicted and even from a jail cell.  Well, Mr. Hannity is not as smart as he thinks, but he sure is, just like his idol, a royal pain in the patootie.  Oh, and by the way, if Trump should happen to be convicted for his role in the events of January 6th, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that Hannity claims to understand, prohibits anyone who has previously taken an oath of office (Senators, Representatives, and other public officials) from holding public office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.  Unlike Mr. Hannity, I have actually read and studied the Constitution!

Boston Children’s Hospital is ranked the #1 children’s hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and is a pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.  They do good things … they save children’s lives.  But in the past two weeks or so, the hospital and some of its staff have been harassed and are receiving threats.  Why?  Because some of the children they treat are transgender children and the radical right do not like it.

Apparently, it all started with a right-wing Twitter account, “Libs of TikTok” with misinformation, and then it snowballed, as such things are wont to do.  Now, doctors are being threatened with ‘execution’, staff are being harassed with threatening emails and phone calls, all because of some blatant lies told on a social media platform.  I have long seen two sides, a positive and a negative, to social media in general, but these days I’m seeing more negative than positive and am wondering if it’s really worth it.

The January 6th attempted coup was so well attended because participants were able to openly communicate on Facebook and Twitter to coordinate such things as travel arrangements, weapons, etc.  What’s next … a riot with bombs at a hospital filled with sick children?  Law enforcement is said to be working with the hospital … they damn well better search until they find every single person who has issued a threat and put them in jail where they belong!  A growing portion of this nation is sick and disgusting!

And on that note, I bid you a good-night or a good morning, depending on which side of the pond you’re on!

Foot-Stomping MAD!

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

It’s been over a year-and-a-half since thousands joined forces to attack the U.S. Capitol in a failed, but nonetheless bloody coup attempt.  The violence on that day, the calls to ‘hang Mike Pence’, still makes me sick to my stomach.  The fact that the attempted coup was approved of by the ‘man’ who called himself ‘president’ still gives me nightmares.  Violence seems to follow Donald Trump wherever he goes, and he seems to incite a great deal of it.  Since that fateful January 6th, violence and calls for violence have increased … even more so in response to a search warrant that was executed to retrieve national security documents Trump illegally stole from us and possibly shared.

Threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life such that some days I feel we’re living in Somalia instead of the United States.  And the violence isn’t all political … there have been 27 school shootings so far in the first 7 ½ months of 2022!  School children!!!  Yes, 27!  No, you haven’t heard about all of them, for the media only makes a big deal if a relatively large number of children are killed such as was the case in Uvalde, Texas in May, but in total, 83 people, mostly children, have been shot in those 27 school shootings this year.  Can’t blame these directly on politics, but you can sure as hell can blame the politicians who have consistently blocked any form of gun legislation such as banning assault weapons or far more stringent background checks.  So, their answer is to arm all teachers … put even more guns into the hands of people unqualified to have them!

The political violence, however, is out of control and the feeding frenzy isn’t helped by social media, certain mainstream media outlets, and the politicians who keep telling people that the ‘other’ party is the one responsible for all of our woes.

A man named Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to Donald Trump, posted the names and personal information of the FBI Agents who assisted in the execution of the search warrant to retrieve classified documents from the home of Donald Trump.  He even included the social media account of one of the agent’s children!  Within minutes, the families of these agents began receiving death threats.  DEATH THREATS … against the families of law enforcement agents who were merely doing their jobs!

After the brutal murder of George Floyd in 2020, there were numerous Black Lives Matter protest that were, for the most part, peaceful.  What little violence there was, was property damage, not lives threatened.  But people were up in arms because the protests existed.  Yet some of the same people who hated on Black Lives Matter protestors are the very ones cheering those who are threatening civil war, threatening to execute Merrick Garland!  So … apparently they aren’t against violence at all, but are just against Black people, against LGBTQ people, and against anyone who attempts to hold the ‘man’ they have put on a pedestal accountable for his actions.  And speaking of the LGBTQ community …

In late June, a former Marine stepped down as the grand marshal of a July 4th parade in Houston after a deluge of threats that focused on her support of transgender rights. A few weeks later, the gay mayor of an Oklahoma city quit his job after what he described as a series of “threats and attacks bordering on violence.”  A five-year-old girl was evicted from her kindergarten because her parents are gay.  As I reported a week or so ago, a town in Michigan will shut down its library because the library refuses to ban books by LGBTQ authors or about LGBTQ people or issues!

The judge who signed the warrant to search Trump’s home for the missing classified documents is now receiving death threats, as is his family after some on social media called for a “rope around his neck”.  Then Fox “News” exacerbated the situation by posting a photoshopped fake picture of the judge sprawled out with Ghislaine Maxwell giving him a foot massage.  These are the kinds of things that stir the masses and get people KILLED!!!

Political violence, racial violence, school shootings … what the Sam Hell has this nation turned into???  What are we humans turning into???  Have we sold our humanity downriver, traded it for bigotry, hatred and violence???

I don’t have any answers, my friends.  We can … we must … each do our part by controlling our own tempers, by shutting down any conversations where someone is speaking of or calling for a violent act, but that isn’t going to be enough to solve the problem.  We can report those we see on social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, but that still won’t solve the problem.  I think the answer lies in a direction none of us particularly want to go, but that perhaps we must go, and that is to put some limitations on the 1st Amendment right to free speech.  I don’t like it anymore than you do, but as I’ve long said, every right comes with an accompanying responsibility, and the people of this nation have abused the right without accepting the responsibility.  It is highly irresponsible, criminal even, to call for violence, to call for someone’s ‘execution’ just because you don’t like what he says or does.  We absolutely MUST start holding social media outlets and mainstream news accountable to a higher standard than they currently observe.

And … I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me say this, but we must have some gun control laws that do something more than pay lip service!!!  Ban assault weapons altogether!  Deny a gun to anybody who has even a single incidence of violent behaviour.  Raise the gun ownership age to 25!  Yes, 25!  And make gun ownership a “one strike, you’re out” thing.  We have to do this!!!  And we must make the punishment for any violent act so harsh that it actually serves as a deterrent!  Every person who was in the Capitol on January 6th without authorization should automatically be serving a 5-year prison sentence.  Those who had weapons or harmed anyone should be in prison for 20 years, no exceptions.  If the price of violence is high enough, people will think before they mouth off or worse yet, grab their guns and go on a shooting spree!

I’ve said it enough times, but I’ll keep on saying it … VIOLENCE IS NEVER THE ANSWER!!!  We are truly, and this is not hyperbole, turning into a third-world nation where random shootings are becoming the norm, where even children are targets, and where nobody is quite safe anywhere anymore.  Write to your Senators and Representatives and tell them that THEY have the power to make changes and they damn well better do it NOW!!!  I really don’t know what more we can do, but we better start doing something.

In The Words Of Forrest Gump …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Election 2022, Free Press Issues, guns, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

“Stupid is as stupid does”

(My apologies to Keith in advance, but sometimes you just gotta get it out of your system)

Now, I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so before I start criticizing others, I’ll tell you about my latest moment of dumb.  Our electricity went out yesterday afternoon.  I was sitting here writing when the lamp beside me went out, and I thought the bulb had just blown, but at the same time, my granddaughter screeched that her computer had shut down.  Then the neighbor came over to ask if our electricity was out, as was his.  So, I grabbed my laptop to send Duke Energy a text, but … duh … the internet was out!  So, I managed to send them a text via my phone, and they immediately responded, saying that they were aware of the outage, crews were on their way, and they estimated that service would be restored by 6:00 p.m., although they reserved the right to alter their estimate.  Since it was only 2:00 at that time, and since the temperature outside was in the 90s, I told Miss Goose that we better go get the fans out of the storage shed.  Oops … my second ‘duh’ moment, for the fans are powered by … electricity!  Fortunately, the power was back on within about a half-hour, so all was well.

So, now that I’ve fessed up to my own idiocy, I won’t feel so bad about critiquing others’ lack of brain power.  Let’s start with …

Stupid is as stupid does #1 – Ken Paxton

Let me start by saying that I have never known of an Attorney General who was as much a bastard as Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton.  Paxton was the one who sued the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over the 2020 election results because he claimed they “flooded their people with unlawful ballot applications and ballots while ignoring statutory requirements as to how they were received, evaluated and counted.”  Mind you, Paxton is the TEXAS AG and thus has no skin in the game in those other states, as was made clear to him by the United States Supreme Court.  Paxton, in fact, was then slapped with a misconduct lawsuit by his own state!

But do you think ol’ Kenny learned his lesson?  No, sadly he is just as obnoxious and nauseating as ever.  What’s the latest, you ask?  Well, he has commandeered the attorneys general of some 20 other states and they are collectively filing a lawsuit against … the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)!  Why, you ask?  The simple answer is because they are all idiots, but the more exhaustive explanation is that they are suing because the USDA does not discriminate against LGBTQ people!  Yes, you heard right!

It all started when Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack issued a press release in May stating that …

“USDA is committed to administering all its programs with equity and fairness, and serving those in need with the highest dignity. A key step in advancing these principles is rooting out discrimination in any form — including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

So, I suppose that AG Paxton and his cronies would like to see LGBTQ people starve to death if they find themselves unable to afford food for whatever reason?  Perhaps his philosophy is akin to …

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  This, my friends, is the direction the new GOP is heading … you must be white, straight, Christian, and preferably male in order that the likes of Paxton will consider you human.  Now, I’m not worried that they’ll win their lawsuit, even with the lopsided Supreme Court of the day, but the fact that someone in such a position of trust and power … make that 20+ someones in positions of trust … can be so blatantly and unapologetically bigoted is … mind-blowing!

Stupid is as stupid does #2 – Charlotte Bergmann

Charlotte Bergman is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee’s 9th district.  Either she is related to Alex Jones or took lessons from him somewhere along the line, for she claims that nearly all mass shootings, including the one where 19 children were shot and killed in Uvalde, Texas, in May, are “false flag” operations, are ‘planned events’ designed to ‘take away people’s guns’.

On the day after the July 4th mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, in which seven people were killed, Bergmann said …

“You cannot tell me that this was not planned. The shooting is not just random. There is an agenda behind the shooting. There is an agenda. And that agenda is to make sure that our guns are taken away.”

It must be tough living in the Twilight Zone!  Ms. Bergmann, just for a bit of background, has run five times before — in every election since 2010, with the exception of 2016 — and has not yet won an election.  She is a documented QAnon supporter and even claimed that the 2018 mail pipe bomb attempts were false flags.  And yet, she is still running for the U.S. House of Representatives … THIS, my friends, is the face of the new GOP, which, by the way, no longer stands for “Grand Old Party”, for there is nothing ‘grand’ about them anymore.

Stupid is as stupid does #3 – Donald Trump

Trump put out a statement through his “Save America” PAC saying he’s “notified CNN” of his “intent to file a lawsuit over their repeated defamatory statements against me.” He also said he does, in fact, plan to go after other media outlets …

“I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election. I will never stop fighting for the truth and for the future of our Country!”

And all I can do is laugh!  🤣  First, he would have to prove that whatever “defamatory statements” the outlet made were false!  It isn’t illegal to call a spade a spade … unless it’s a diamond, and Donald Trump sure as hell ain’t no diamond!

In a 282-page letter that Trump’s lawyers sent to CNN executives on July 21st, they claim that Trump’s …

“… comments are not lies because he subjectively believes that the results of the 2020 presidential election turned on fraudulent voting activity in several key states.”

Bullshit.

Where’s The Justice???

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

What is a life worth?  Well, it depends.  If you are a Capitol Police officer trying to defend the nation against a bloody coup attempt, apparently your life isn’t worth all that much.  U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick (say his name, dammit!) died on January 7th, 2021 as a result of injuries he sustained the prior day as thousands stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn our voices, our votes, our democracy.  Two of the men responsible for Officer Sicknick’s death are George Tanios and Julian Khater.  They brought pepper spray and bear spray, which they sprayed into officers’ faces, and it was this that led to Officer Sicknick’s two strokes that ultimately killed him.

Mr. Tanios was initially charged with ten counts, including felony charges of rioting, assaulting law enforcement officers and obstructing of Congress’s certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory.  Yesterday, however, Tanios was offered a plea bargain which he gladly accepted, and the charges were reduced to two misdemeanors:  trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds.  The maximum time he will serve for Mr. Sicknick’s murder is a maximum of one year in prison.  He has served five months already, his sentencing hearing is scheduled for December, by which time he will have served another five months, so who wants to bet he will be home for Christmas?  The bastard viciously and without conscience attacked and murdered a Capitol Police officer, and he will walk practically free.

Yo!  Kevin McCarthy … you talk about respect for the police and how you support the police … where’s your outrage today?  Officer Sicknick was there to protect YOU, but I haven’t heard a peep out of you about this unconscionable plea deal!  Republicans?  Do you have nothing to say?  Sigh … okay, I get it … just more of the right-wing hypocrisy we’ve become used to.  Meanwhile, Officer Sicknick’s family will cry real tears for him at Christmas, while George Tanios will be laughing and celebrating with his family.  Where’s the justice?

We Be Snarky Today!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Election 2022, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, religion, Social commentary

Some days da snark just keeps on comin’ …

Oh da bigotry!!!

Doug Mastriano is hoping to become the next governor of Pennsylvania.  He is a QAnon supporter and was also identified as a key figure by the House Jan. 6 committee in their investigation into the Capitol insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.  He spent over $3,000 to bus more than 100 Trump supporters to Washington on January 6th to be part of the attempted coup, and he himself was photographed crossing police barricades at the Capitol that day.  This alone shows Mastriano is not a very nice dude.  But read on …

Earlier this year, he apparently hired a consultant, a man named Andrew Torba, who is the founder and CEO of “Gab”, a right-wing social media outlet.  Here is what Torba had to say earlier this month to some criticisms of Mastriano by two conservative journalists, Ben Shapiro who is Jewish and Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report …

“We don’t want people who are atheists. We don’t want people who are Jewish. We don’t want people who are, you know, nonbelievers, agnostic, whatever. This is an explicitly Christian movement because this is an explicitly Christian country. Ben Shapiro is not welcome in the movement unless he repents and accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior.”

I’m gonna say this once again, for obviously some people like Mr. Torba need to hear it.  The United States of America is NOT an “explicitly Christian” country!!!  Never has been, and hopefully never will be!  This is a secular nation where people of ALL religions and people of NO religion are equally welcome!  What the Sam Hell is so difficult to understand about that???  If the good people of Pennsylvania somehow elect this jackass Mastriano to be their next governor, all I can say is they will get what they deserve!

Mastriano is running against Democrat Josh Shapiro.  Currently, Shapiro is ahead in the polls, but only by about a 1% margin … far too close for comfort.

For once, a bit of good sense in the GOP?

Censuring seems to be quite popular these days in the Republican Party.  What does it take to be censured by the GOP?  The clear-cut one seems to be speaking against Donald Trump.  Earlier this year, both Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were censured by the GOP for their honesty, their willingness to put the country above their political party.  What this means is that both were stripped of any committee assignments they may have held, but that’s okay … it gives them more time to spend working with the January 6th committee toward ultimate justice.

Both have paid a high price in their careers for their place on the committee, their choice to do the right thing.  Adam Kinzinger decided early on that he would not run for re-election in November.  Ms. Cheney remains in the race, but with zero support from her party, she faces an uphill battle.  Also, a year ago Ms. Cheney was censured by the Wisconsin GOP for her vote to impeach Trump in his 2nd impeachment.

However, there might be a bit of common sense or ethical thought processes in the Illinois GOP.  A group of Republican state legislators and trumpists have called on the Illinois GOP to censure Congressman Adam Kinzinger for “incendiary language, wild exaggeration and personal opinions” during the House select committee’s hearings.  But … GOP governor candidate Darren Bailey, who’s backed by Trump, and Illinois Republican Party President Don Tracy are ignoring the request!  Bailey and Tracy issued statements …

“The Illinois GOP is focused on uniting the party to defeat Gov. Pritzker in November and make Illinois a safe and affordable place for people to live. That’s what Republicans are rallying around. That is our priority.”

Did they say, ‘uniting the party’???  Well, whatever their reasons, it’s a sign of hope that perhaps the grip Trump has had on the GOP is being loosened, perhaps they’ve seen that his “my way or the highway” manner is not the way to win friends and influence people?  We can only hope.

Well, folks, I’ve got more snark, but I’m running out of time, so I’ll wrap it up here and save da snark for another day!  Meanwhile … just a few ‘toons …