Things I Was Pleased To See

Posted on December 15, 2022 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, History, Holidays, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Today for a change of pace, I thought I’d share with you a few things I was pleased to see in the news recently. No, don’t worry … I’m not going soft, but sometimes it is nice to partly balance the negative with the positive. I’ll be back with more snark later today, no doubt.

🏳️‍🌈Yesterday, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law with more than 2,000 people on hand to cheer! While some claim the law does not go far enough, and I would agree, it is nonetheless a huge step in the right direction. The law protects both same-sex marriages and inter-racial marriages, requiring the federal government and states to recognize legally performed marriages in other states. It also repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 bill that recognized marriage as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”

It is likely this bill would still be languishing somewhere in the Senate, but a sense of urgency prevailed when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, of all people, indicated that the Court should revisit the 2015 Obergefell v Hodges ruling that guarantees a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Of late, the Court has not shown itself to be on the side of human rights. The Respect for Marriage Act even had a bit of support from Republicans in both the House and the Senate, which I find very encouraging. It’s time we all learn to just accept each other for who we are without trying to run the lives of others for them.

In Oregon, the outgoing Governor Kate Brown took a step that I fully applaud. She announced that she will commute the sentences of all 17 individuals on Oregon’s death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As an opponent of the death penalty, I am beyond pleased to hear this. Says Governor Brown …

“I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people — even if a terrible crime placed them in prison. This is a value that many Oregonians share.”

She also directed the Department of Corrections to dismantle the state’s death chamber.

According to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), civil rights giant and former U.S. Representative John Lewis, who spent decades fighting for racial justice, will be honored with a postage-stamp next year! I cannot think of a single person more worthy of this honour. The USPS said the stamp “celebrates the life and legacy” of the leader from Georgia, who risked his life protesting against segregation and other injustices in the violent Jim Crow-era South.

“Lewis spent more than 30 years in Congress steadfastly defending and building on key civil rights gains that he had helped achieve in the 1960s. Even in the face of hatred and violence, as well as some 45 arrests, Lewis remained resolute in his commitment to what he liked to call ‘good trouble.'”

And lastly, a bit of humour out of Florida.

In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Colonel Lou Caputo, left, costumed as the Grinch, and Deputy Andrew Leird, right, wave at a school bus rolling on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, in Marathon, Fla. When drivers are pulled over for slightly speeding through a school zone, Caputo offers them the choice between an onion or a traffic citation. It’s a holiday tradition in the Keys that Caputo began 20 years ago to educate drivers that Keys schools remain in session through Dec. 16.

January 6th Committee And More …

Posted on October 14, 2022 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Election 2024, guns, Law and justice, Social commentary

Yesterday I watched what I presume will be the final televised hearing of the January 6^th Committee. At a few points I felt tears welling up, at other points rage took over. I must commend the committee for they have done an excellent and thorough job, despite the obstacles they have had to overcome. As Ms. Cheney said in her opening remarks, their job is not to bring charges, but to investigate and make referrals. It now falls to the Department of Justice to bring those charges and make them stick, to ensure that the name “Donald Trump” is not ever on a ballot in this nation again.

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution clearly states that no person who took an oath in a public office and then participated in any way in an insurrection against the nation can ever be allowed to hold public office again. Bennie Thompson and his January 6^th committee have clearly presented evidence of Trump’s involvement in the insurrection/attempted coup of January 6, 2021. Now, it is up to Merrick Garland to stop pussyfooting around and bring those charges!

A couple of other thoughts from Filosofa’s bouncy mind …

A sentence for life may be worse

For the record, I do not believe in the death penalty. Oh, I used to. I once thought it was not right for taxpayers to have to provide food, shelter and clothing for decades for a convicted murderer who would never be an asset to society. But, while I was doing post-graduate work many years ago, I took a course by The Innocence Project and my views changed. I learned about the times that people have been proven innocent, sometimes decades after being found guilty by a jury, and … well, what if we had executed them? It’s bad enough to think of an innocent man spending 20-30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, but if we executed him … there can be no remedy or reparations.

That said, I was momentarily taken aback last night when I read the jury’s decision in the case of Nikolas Cruz, the young man who murdered 17 people at Majorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. The jury was fully expected to hand down a death sentence, but instead went with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Understandably, families of the victims were horrified and angry. My first thought was that this might be the one time I would make an exception to being against the death penalty, for Cruz pleaded guilty on all 17 counts and there was no possibility that he would later be found innocent. But then I thought a little bit about it and …

I think Cruz will come to the point of wishing he had received a death sentence. Life in prison. He is only 24 years of age, so he could quite reasonably spend 50 years or more behind bars. And given his crime, the brutal murder of children, he will not be treated kindly by either fellow inmates or prison staff. Imagine never taking a walk in the woods, cooking your own food, going to bed and getting up at your own will again. Never. For decades. Oh yes, I think life in prison will end up being a much worse punishment than a quick execution would have been. In many ways, he will already be dead, yet still feel the pain with none of the joy of being alive. It is good enough for him.

And speaking of school shootings …

Another trial for Alex Jones, the man without a conscience, whose blatant lies and cooked up conspiracy theories led families of the murdered children in Sandy Hook Elementary School through a living hell. Yesterday, a jury ordered Jones to pay just short of $1 billion to the families of the victims. One lawyer called it “probably one of the largest defamation verdicts in U.S. history.” Deservedly so.

But do you think that for one minute Mr. Jones displayed grief or remorse for his actions? Think again. Jones pumped his fist in the air and said, “This is hilarious. Do these people actually think they’re getting any money?” What a slap in the face to the twenty children and six teachers who were killed in the 2012 shooting. What a knife to the heart of their surviving families. But wait … there’s more!

In the hours after Wednesday’s verdict, Jones’ supporters collectively donated no less than $185,000 to Mr. Jones, claiming that “left wing radicals are attempting to destroy Alex via the court system.” The people who donated even so much as one dollar to Jones need serious psychiatric counseling! Mr. Jones is the definition of cruelty and not worthy of the air he sucks up on this planet. There are far more worthy causes that I could find to donate money to than a man who attempted to make a mockery of the deaths of children!

The National Registry of Exonerations Releases Grim, Eye-Opening Report — Wrongful Convictions Blog

Posted on June 15, 2021 by jilldennison under History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

I have long been against the death penalty and executions for a number of reasons, the foremost being that we have a dark history of wrongful convictions, sending innocent people to prison for crimes they did not commit. The National Registry of Exonerations recently released a report with some eye-opening statistics about wrongful convictions in the U.S. and blogging friend Xena has the scoop. It should be noted that while Blacks have always been a minority in the overall population, they have been the majority when it comes to wrongful convictions. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Thank you, Xena, for bringing this report to our attention. We, as a nation, really must try to do better!

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

This month our nation exceeded 25,000 years lost to wrongful convictions. The human suffering associated with the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of 2,795 innocent people is incalculable. Without the research and reporting of the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE), we likely would not know of or comprehend the truth or implications of this horrific milestone.

The report, “25,000 Years Lost to Wrongful Convictions” released today quantifies the reality of a justice system making its most egregious error: convicting an innocent person. The NRE defines an exoneree as a “person who was convicted of a crime and later officially declared innocent of that crime, or relieved of all legal consequences of the conviction because evidence of innocence that was not presented at trial required reconsideration of the case.”

The NRE has focused on exonerations since 1989. Here are a few highlights from the report:

• On average, each exoneree spent…

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One Out Of Three …

Posted on June 30, 2020 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

The Supreme Court was busy yesterday morning. They made one good decision and two horrible ones. Let’s start with the good …

On the upside, the Court struck down Louisiana’s restrictive anti-abortion law. Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the Court’s liberal justices … not because he was against the law or pro women’s rights, but simply because four years ago, the Court struck down a similar law in Texas, thereby setting the precedent. I will never understand why men think they know anything about this topic, or why they think they have a right to tell us what we can or must do with our own bodies. Watch them scream and yell if you suggest that women should decide whether men can have a vasectomy, or those little blue pills they’re so fond of.

Anti-abortion groups went ballistic, saying it will give them more motivation than ever to turn out at the polls in November. Once again, folks, we have people in this country who are so narrow-minded that they will return a madman to the Oval Office for another four years, simply to deny women the same rights that men have to make our own decisions regarding our own bodies. And here I thought we were living in the 21^st century.

At any rate, thumbs up to the five on the Court who voted right on this one.

In another ruling, the Court gave the federal government the right to carry out executions. Funny, isn’t it, that people like Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Alito and Thomas are so horrified at the thought of a woman having the right to control her own body, but they are ready, willing and perfectly happy to say it’s okay to murder federal prisoners … people who are actually already people.

Now, the biggest problem I have with the death penalty is that more than a few times, a prisoner on death row has been found to be innocent of the crime for which he is serving time. The state releases him, pays him a bit of restitution, and while his life has been shattered, he still has a chance to put it back together. If he had been executed … what??? Does the government say, “Oops … sorry ‘bout that!”? Executing a person is pretty darn final.

The second problem I have with the death penalty is that it is inhumane. Think of how many executions were botched a few years ago and people died after sometimes hours of intense pain. Hell, the guillotine was kinder! Proponents of the death penalty say execution by lethal injection is painless and humane, but we’ve seen that it isn’t. And by the way … the people who seem most gung-ho for executing criminals are Christians … what happened to that tenet that says it’s not up to humans to decide life and death?

And I’ve saved the best (worst) for last. The justices ruled that the president has unfettered discretion to fire the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). This should raise your hackles, if you remember the reason the CFPB was created back in 2010. It was in response to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 caused by reckless speculation, loose credit, and too much debt in asset markets, namely, the housing market. The purpose of the CFPB was to provide a single point of accountability for enforcing federal consumer financial laws and protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. It was to promote fairness and transparency for mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer financial products and services and ensure that the financial crisis of 2007-2008 would not be repeated.

Until today’s Supreme Court ruling, the CFPB was an independent agency, not answerable to the president. In order to ensure the CFPB’s independence, the law creating the agency called for it to be headed by a single director, confirmed by the Senate, who would serve a five-year term and who could only be fired for malfeasance, inefficiency or neglect of duty. Today, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the conservative wing of the Court, saying that “the structure of the CFPB violates the separation of powers.”

Bullshit.

The structure was so determined in order to ensure the independence and integrity of the agency. Think about all the people Donald Trump has fired since the Senate refused to convict him of the crimes he had committed back in February. He has fired most everyone who was tasked with overseeing his office, with ensuring that he acted properly and in the interest of the nation and its people. Now, he’s been given another he can fire … the Director of a very important regulatory agency. It is only a matter of time before Kathy Kraninger, the current Director, is given her walking papers, and someone totally unqualified for the agency position will be put in place to undermine the good work that has been done for the past ten years.

Way to go, John Roberts. Is there anything else you’d like to give Trump? Perhaps the authority to rewrite Article II of the U.S. Constitution to say that he can do anything he likes, as he told a group of young people he could do? Or, perhaps you’d like to simply declare that there will be no more elections in the U.S.?

Independence and integrity in our Supreme Court? I think not. The only good decision, in my book, was the abortion decision and it wasn’t done for the right reason, not because John Roberts believes that women have rights, but simply to maintain a precedent. Apart from that decision, the Court handed Trump presents wrapped in gift paper with pretty bows. Bah Humbug.

State-Sanctioned Murder!

Posted on July 25, 2019 by jilldennison under Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants, Social commentary

Does anybody remember Clayton D. Lockett? No, of course not. Allow me to refresh your memory. Mr. Lockett was brutally murdered by our own federal government on April 29,2014 in a botched execution. Lockett was administered an untested mixture of drugs that had not previously been used for executions in the United States. Although the execution was stopped, Lockett died 43 minutes after being sedated. He writhed, groaned, convulsed, and spoke during the process and attempted to rise from the execution table fourteen minutes into the procedure, despite having been declared unconscious.

Does anybody remember Clemente Javier Aguirre? Probably not. In 2006, he was sentenced to death for the stabbing deaths of two neighbors, despite the fact that he maintained his innocence throughout. Last year, after spending 14 years on Florida’s death row, he was exonerated by DNA evidence that had been withheld at his trial, and a confession by the real killer. What if Mr. Aguirre had been executed as initially planned?

It is not possible to undo death!

Today, the United States took a step backward toward the Dark Ages. Today, Attorney General William Barr announced that the federal government, such as it is, will re-instate the death penalty and that five executions have already been scheduled to take place, with more to be announced soon.

Let me just give you a few facts:

Since 1972, 165 people have been exonerated that were on death row.
African American defendants are three times more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants.
88% of criminologists believe the death penalty is not a deterrent.

Troy Anthony Davis was convicted of the shooting-death of off-duty police officer Mark McPhail. He was executed in 2011. His conviction was based on the testimony of nine witnesses, seven of whom later recanted their testimony or admitted it was false.

Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in 1989 for the stabbing death of Wanda Lopez. DeLuna maintained his innocence throughout his imprisonment and insisted another individual by the name of Carlos Hernandez was really the killer.

Gary Graham was sentenced to death at the age of 18 in 1981 in Texas for the robbery and murder of Bobby Lambert. He was executed in 2000. His conviction was based largely on the testimony of one witness who said she saw him through a windshield from over 30 feet away.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 for the death of his three young daughters in a house fire. Willingham’s conviction was based on faulty forensic science which erroneously concluded that the fire was arson.

I am, in case you couldn’t tell, incensed by this decision at this time. I would likely be incensed by such a decision at any time, but under the present administration, and with the current divisive political climate in this nation, this is no time to be re-instituting state-sanctioned murder! Does anybody trust our government not to start executing immigrants? I don’t. With Trump having appointed some 131 federal judges thus far, with Trump spouting racism on a daily basis, with the spate of killings of unarmed blacks in the past decade … does anybody believe there is equal justice for all in this nation? I don’t.

The contingent, primarily white, evangelicals, who seek to take away a women’s right to make her own health decisions, who are so strongly opposed to abortion that they are willing to sentence a woman to death rather than allow her to have an abortion, call themselves “pro-life”. Well, guess what, people? If you claim to be pro-life, then you damn well better be enraged by this decision to re-start government-sponsored murder, for these people on death row are humans, are people, they have lives that you should care about. I’m waiting …

This nation has taken many steps backward since 20 January 2017. This is just one more in a long series of inhumane decisions by Donald Trump and his minions. This is no longer a nation I recognize nor that I take any pride in. We are on a path that most of us did not choose. Ask yourself, if you have the courage: What next?

Cruel and Unusual …

Posted on April 2, 2019 by jilldennison under Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

The 8^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Simple, right? Not so much, actually. The vague language has led to confusing and conflicting court rulings over the years, especially with shifts in society’s standards and the makeup of the Supreme Court. What is ‘excessive’ bail or fines, and what constitutes ‘cruel and unusual’ punishments? Better yet, who gets to decide those questions?

I will say right up front that I am against the death penalty. I wasn’t always … I used to believe that certain people were irreparable and didn’t deserve to live. And then I took a post-graduate class offered by The Innocence Project and learned how many death row inmates had been exonerated, how many times we had come too close to executing an innocent man or woman, and that changed my view.

Yesterday, the case of Missouri inmate, Russell Bucklew was decided by the Supreme Court. In a nutshell, Mr. Bucklew was convicted of murdering a man who had been seeing his former girlfriend, and of kidnapping and raping her. His sentence … the death penalty. Now, the preferred method of execution in Missouri is lethal injection, however Mr. Bucklew has a medical condition known as cavernous hemangioma which causes vascular tumors—clumps of blood vessels—to grow in his head, neck, and throat. In the event of lethal injection, the tumours would rupture, causing him to sputter, choke and suffocate on his own blood for up to several minutes before he dies. Mr. Bucklew had requested a different form of execution, preferably nitrogen gas.

The Court handed down its decision yesterday, and in a 5-4 ruling said that Mr. Bucklew’s execution would proceed as planned, using lethal injection. The justices who voted for this decision were Neil Gorsuch, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Brett M. Kavanaugh. Justice Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, claiming that Bucklew had waited too long to object to the way the state planned to execute him.

He further wrote …

Neil Gorsuch

“Courts should police carefully against attempts to use such challenges as tools to interpose unjustified delay. The Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death — something that, of course, isn’t guaranteed to many people, including most victims of capital crimes. We see little likelihood that an inmate facing a serious risk of pain will be unable to identify an available alternative — assuming, of course, that the inmate is more interested in avoiding unnecessary pain than in delaying his execution. A prisoner must show a feasible and readily implemented alternative method of execution that would significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe pain and that the state has refused to adopt without a legitimate penological reason.”

Gorsuch falsely claimed that Bucklew’s chosen alternative, Nitrogen gas, is not authorized by Missouri law and had never been used to carry out an execution in the United States. In truth, it has been used by three states.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote …

“There are higher values than ensuring that executions run on time. If a death sentence or the manner in which it is carried out violates the Constitution, that stain can never come out. Our jurisprudence must remain one of vigilance and care, not one of dismissiveness.”

I side with Justice Sotomayer on this … when a human life is involved, I prefer to err on the side of caution rather than expediency.

More importantly than just this one case, though, is the precedent this sets. This may well be the most significant Eighth Amendment decision of the last several decades and the cruelest in at least as much time. Beyond the macabre facts of the Bucklew case, Gorsuch’s opinion also undercuts decades of Eighth Amendment law, potentially permitting states to revive punishments that fell out of favor 200 years ago.

Recall that the Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishments. The word “unusual” implies that, as a particular punishment becomes less and less common, it stands on weaker constitutional footing. Thus, as Chief Justice Earl Warren explained in a 1958 opinion, the Eight Amendment prohibits punishments that defy “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.”

The number of death sentences in the United States collapsed over the last two decades, strongly suggesting that executions themselves defy evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society. In total, only 25 people were executed in the United States in 2018, and only eight states performed any executions at all. One state, Texas, accounted for more than half (13) of these executions.

It is the opinion of this writer that the Supreme Court has just opened the door for us to regress to a time where the death penalty was carried out in ways that we, as a society, now view as ‘cruel and unusual’. Of course, it is also the opinion of this writer that we should not be in the business of deciding to kill another human being.

Meet The Man Who Stood Up To Donald Trump …

Posted on February 28, 2018 by jilldennison under Political commentary

Today, I discovered Governor Jay Inslee of the State of Washington. Here is the video that caused me to applaud this man …

And in case you missed his last line …

“We need a little less tweeting and little more listening, and I just suggest we take [Trump’s proposal] off the table and move forward.”

WHOO HOO!!! Go Jay!!!

And so, once I quit jumping up and down, clapping and whistling through my fingers, I sat back down and determined to learn more about Governor Inslee. The very next tidbit of information I found also impressed the heck out of me (in this era of Trump, it doesn’t take a lot to impress me … it’s a very low bar).

In 1994, nearing the end of his first term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. Inslee lost his bid for re-election to the same candidate he had beaten in 1992, Doc Hastings. Why, you ask, did he lose his bid for re-election? Because, even though he knew it was highly unpopular in the rural district he represented, he voted in support of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. He voted his conscience, had the courage to stand by his convictions, despite knowing it might well cost him his seat in the U.S. Congress. This, my friends, is the kind of person I want sitting in the Capitol, and in the White House.

Inslee is a supporter of clean energy initiatives, and co-authored Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy, in which he argues that through improved Federal policies the United States can wean itself off of its dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuel, create millions of Green-collar worker jobs, and stop global warming. Inslee strongly believes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should remain authorized to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Inslee voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the federal health care law.

On 11 February 2014, Inslee announced that he was issuing a moratorium on executions in Washington:

“Equal justice under the law is the state’s primary responsibility. And in death penalty cases, I’m not convinced equal justice is being served. The use of the death penalty in this state is unequally applied, sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred.”

Inslee began his second term in January 2017, proposing full funding of state education and addressing mental health needs, while also raising worker pay.

Inslee was awarded a “Friend of the National Parks” award by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) in 2001 for his support of legislation protecting the integrity and quality of the National Park System.

When, just one week after taking the oath of office, Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban entry from Muslim countries, Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced their intention to sue Trump, alleging his order was unconstitutional. The civil action, Washington v. Trump, was filed on January 30 and on February 3 successfully earned a temporary restraining order to forbid federal enforcement of certain provisions of the order.

In 1998, Inslee once again ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and won against republican candidate Rick White. He remained in the House until March 2012, when he left to concentrate on his bid for Governor of Washington, where he is currently serving his second term.

In a recent interview, speaking of the upcoming mid-term congressional and gubernatorial elections, he expressed confidence in the democratic party candidates …

“No Democrat running for governor anywhere has to say, ‘Did you notice that Donald Trump has caused nothing but division, hatred and chaos?’ You don’t have to say that because he’s showing it himself. Our people are going to lead with an economic message … and we’re not going to be distracted by his divisiveness. … It’s not ideological. It’s just a rejection of chaos.”

A ‘rejection of chaos’ … spot on! Perhaps that should be every democrat’s slogan this year!

There has been some speculation that Inslee might consider a run for president in 2020, to which he replies …

“I’ve got two great jobs right now. I do believe this is a generational opportunity for the Democrats to advance progressive policies by winning governor’s races. I think it’s a 50-year opportunity, or a lifetime opportunity, given the combination of circumstances here. I know you’ve heard this before, but it’s honest: I’m focused on the job that I’ve got.”

Aw shucks … that’s what they all say, about a year before they toss their proverbial hat into the ring. This is one to watch, folks. I like his ideas, love that he stood up to Trump today, and followed his conscience in 1994. If I have any concern about Inslee, it is this … A total of 43 percent of Inslee’s donations came from Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. The largest interests funding Inslee’s campaign were pharmaceutical and health related companies, lawyers and law firms, and high tech companies. That, of course, is not in and of itself troubling, but definitely something I would wish to know more about. At least, as far as I can determine, he has not taken donations from the NRA!

Trudi Inslee

Heck, I even like his wife, Trudi, who over the years has volunteered for organizations like NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, Planned Parenthood, and Mothers Against Violence in America. She also maintains a large garden outside of the Washington Governor’s Residence. In 2013, Trudi grew 500 pounds of food which was then sent to the Thurston County Food Bank, the Rainier Valley Food Bank, and the Salvation Army.

As I said, this is one to keep an eye on …

Do all lives really matter?

Posted on August 28, 2017 by jilldennison under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs

Once again I wish to share a post written by Brosephus. Today he asks the question, “how can we say all lives matter when discrimination is still rampant, particularly in law enforcement and the Justice Department? Please take a moment to read … he has done his homework and draws some spot-on conclusions. Thank you, Brosephus!

The Mind of Brosephus

When I initially began writing this post, my mind was focused on the justice system. This week there were two death penalty cases in the news that set my brain cells ablaze in that special way that forces me to burn Google searches like they’re hot dogs on a grill. These two cases were interesting in their own rights, but they also led me to reading up on disparities in how the death penalty is applied in America.

Just hours before he was supposed to be put to death, Marcellus Williams received a stay of execution from the governor of Missouri. His stay was granted because there was new evidence involving DNA that could potentially exonerate Williams for the killing of Felicia Gayle in 2001. The testing was unavailable then, but testing on material on the murder weapon excluded Williams as a possible contributor to the DNA. It is not…

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The Link Between The NRA And Kenneth Williams

Posted on April 29, 2017 by jilldennison under Global Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

Yesterday I opined, rather too emotionally, that the execution of Kenneth Williams in Arkansas was a barbaric act, an abomination. I stand firmly by that opinion, albeit with less vitriol in my heart. In several of my comment responses to that post, I claimed that we cannot, if we are determined to maintain our devotion to state-sanctioned killing, call ourselves a ‘civilized society’. ‘Barbaric’ and ‘civilized’ are 180° apart.

Just as state-sanctioned executions must be outlawed in a civilized society, so must be the unlimited and uncontrolled proliferation of guns in the hands of civilians. Yes, I realized I have gone down this path before, and I realize that it tends to garner controversy, but I feel the need, at this point, to state my humble opinion yet again. One of the main goals of this blog is to root out social injustice wherever I see it, and I see it here. Two things inspired this post.

On Friday, Donald Trump spoke to the National Rifle Association (NRA), a group that played a powerful role in Trump’s election, providing critical support in battleground states. It spent more on behalf of Trump than any outside group and began its advertising and other efforts earlier than in any other presidential cycle. Mostly, Trump tooted his own horn, as Trump is wont to do, since nobody else will. But a few statements stood out as being blatantly egregious. Here are some excerpts from his speech, along with Filosofa’s Snarky Comments:

“But we have news that you’ve been waiting for for a long time: The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end. (Applause.) You have a true friend and champion in the White House. No longer will federal agencies be coming after law-abiding gun owners. No longer will the government be trying to undermine your rights and your freedoms as Americans.” What eight-year assault? During President Obama’s entire eight years, there was not a single serious gun regulation law passed. Not one. Nobody came and took people’s guns from their hands.

“That is why I have selected as your Attorney General, number one, a really fine person, a really good man, a man who has spent his career fighting crime, supporting the police, and defending the Second Amendment. For the first time in a long time, you now have a pro-Second-Amendment, tough-on-crime Attorney General, and his name is Jeff Sessions.” Good man? Is he speaking of racist, bigoted Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions, who believes in every WHITE man, woman and child owning a gun.

“As your President, I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Never ever. Freedom is not a gift from government. Freedom is a gift from God.” So, God wants us all to own guns and go around killing one another? That was not what I had been led to believe in the past.

“These are horrible times for certain obvious reasons. But we’re going to make them great times again. Every day, we are up against those who would take away our freedoms, restrict our liberties, and even those who want to abolish the Second Amendment. We must be vigilant.” What obvious reasons? People with common sense? People who expect humanitarian leadership? People who are not bigots and racists? Or people who are not worshippers of the 2^nd Amendment? To my ears, these words have a dictatorial tone.

“And to the NRA, I can proudly say I will never, ever let you down.” Maybe not, but he damn sure has no problem letting down the people who are paying his salary and who expect better of their so-called leader. For Trump’s information, the NRA is NOT synonymous with We The People.

Those, friends, are the words of the man we elected to represent We The People, but apparently he only represents those of us who support completely unregulated gun ownership and proliferation, or his ‘friends’ in the NRA. Therefore, he does not represent me. Here is a link to the full transcript of his speech.

On to the second thing that triggered this post. On Thursday night, Kenneth Williams was executed in the state of Arkansas. Williams was convicted of causing the deaths of four people, three with a firearm.

Firearms are much more tightly controlled in the rest of the western/industrialized world:

In the United Kingdom, access by the general public to firearms is tightly controlled by law. The country has one of the lowest rates of gun homicides in the world.

Individuals in Canada who wish to acquire firearms are required to obtain a firearms acquisition certificate (FAC) from their local police agency. All firearms owners are required to possess a firearms license and all firearms are required to be registered.

In France, the weapons law begins by stating “No one shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords”, and very few exceptions are allowed. However, citizens are permitted to possess firearms for hunting and sport shooting, but only after submitting to a lengthy licensing procedure.

Germany has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe. Germans do not have fundamental rights to bear arms, unlike Americans do under the Second Amendment, and the country’s violent past including the Nazi era has certainly helped to shape the current strict regulations.

Dutch gun laws are actually quite strict. Gun ownership is seen not as a right, but a privilege, with hunting and target shooting the only two legitimate reasons for owning a gun. Self defence is not regarded as a valid argument for owning a gun, and only the police are allowed to carry a weapon.

Every other western nation has a gun homicide rate of under 0.5 per 100,000. The U.S. homicide rate per 100,000 is 3.8. Tell you something?

“Overall, our results show that the U.S., which has the most firearms per capita in the world, suffers disproportionately from firearms compared with other high-income countries,” said study author Erin Grinshteyn, an assistant professor at the School of Community Health Science at the University of Nevada-Reno. “These results are consistent with the hypothesis that our firearms are killing us rather than protecting us,” she said in a journal news release.

I am thoroughly against capital punishment, and I am equally against the right of every citizen to own a gun, as anybody who has read this blog over time is aware. But today I pose these two questions: Would there be far fewer people on death row if we did not provide easy, nearly unlimited access to guns by any citizen? Does anybody still want to make the case for unregulated gun proliferation?

Shame, Tears, and a Broken Heart

Posted on April 28, 2017 by jilldennison under Social commentary

Tonight I was having a bit of fun, working on a post about flying cars, when a news flash came across my screen and I found myself suddenly overwhelmed … with sadness, with tears, with grief for a man I never knew. Then with rage, and a sense that there is no place left for soft, squishy hearts like mine in this world any more.

Despite the best efforts of humanitarians, lawyers, and courts around the nation, the lowly, trashy state of Arkansas performed its 4^th execution in as many days, mainly in order to use up a supply of killing drugs whose expiry date was near. I’m sorry, but you will have to wait until this afternoon to read about flying cars, for I am still sobbing, broken-hearted, and wishing, not for the first time in the past two years, that I was almost any other nationality. Right at this particular moment, I absolutely despise my country and what it has allowed to happen. Tonight my heart is so broken …

“Arkansas executed a death-row inmate late Thursday night in the state’s fourth lethal injection in eight days, concluding a frantic execution schedule officials said was necessary in order to carry out death sentences before one of their drugs expired.”

I make no apologies for what I am about to say. I hope … I sincerely hope … that every single person involved in the decision to execute four men, to take four lives, because they did not wish their drugs to reach expiry date …

I want to hit someone … I want to kick … I want to lash out … but there is only Miss Goose and the Significant Seven, none of whom would choose to murder a fellow human being.

Within the industrialized world, the U.S. is one of only four nations that stubbornly clings to the death penalty. We are in great company, the other three being Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. The European Union holds a strong position against the death penalty; its abolition is a key objective for the Union’s human rights policy. Abolition is also a pre-condition for entry into the Union. But the U.S. … oh, the U.S. is so sure it holds the key to righteousness.

The execution of Kenneth Williams tonight came after his attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that he was intellectually disabled and not fit to be executed. But the almighty right-white in Arkansas knew better … they are, after all, the almighty right-white. Relatives of one of Williams’s victims pled for his life, calling on the governor to call off the execution. But the almighty right-white persisted. U.S. Supreme Court justices, shortly after 10 p.m., denied the requests without explanation.

The United States has now shown itself to be the most barbaric nation among the developed western nations, and I am no longer proud of this country. I have, for the past year-and-a-half railed against the intrusion of a highly unqualified senior administration, starting with Donald Trump and working its way down through advisors and cabinet members. But you know what? Tonight, I think perhaps this barbaric, inhumane nation got exactly what it deserves.

R.I.P., Mr. Williams. I apologize, on behalf of all my barbaric countrymen. 😥 There is obviously more to this story, and Filosofa will be back with … the rest of the story … one day. But for now, I cannot … just … cannot.

Filosofa's Word

Cogito Ergo Sum

Tag Archives: death penalty

Meet The Man Who Stood Up To Donald Trump …

Do all lives really matter?