DISRUPTION, DENIALS & DISINFORMATION

Liars and lunatics are poisoning America!

Back when Dennis Miller was still funny and relevant, he had a Friday night TV show with an ending segment that was a total rip-off of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update. As the set up to a targeted segment, Dennis would exclaim, “Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but…” Then he would dive into a diatribe on whatever or whomever he wanted to rip into a thousand pieces.

Miller’s show took place in the time before we had social media to promote the feelings, thoughts and aberrations of millions of knuckleheads from Toledo to Timbuktu. These days, any jackass with a mouse and internet connection can tell me what they think about an entire list of subjects they are totally unqualified to discuss. TikTok has given any Tom, Dick or Harry the ability to gather a following, but there are more dicks than tiks these days, and I hate that.

Well, I can play too, so let me add to the fetid, gaseous air of the internet and get a few things off my hairy chest. First, I do not give a fuck about Hunter Biden, his stupid laptop or the fact he’s related to the President of the United States. He’s just another “silver spooned” elitist lacking a moral compass. If he broke the law, he should do the time. I find it humorous that Republicans, those gun-loving, NRA sycophants, want to lock up Hunter on a gun charge. But hey, drug addicts shouldn’t own guns so they need to shut up and pass a law to prevent it – really prevent it.

Next, why are media outlets giving Robert F. Kennedy Jr. any exposure? Why are conservatives and self-serving grifters fighting to keep him and his poison on social media? Unless they are ready to strike down what is known as Section 230, they need to shut the fuck up. RFK Jr. is not a Democrat, he’s a demigod who is just as corrupt as his grandfather and the Irish mafia of rich, first-generation millionaires who believed they knew what was best for America. If it were up to Joe Kennedy, we’d all be speaking German. Stop RFK Jr. and his dangerous, deranged opinions! Covid-19 was not a weapon, it was a fucking virus. Kennedy’s arguments are as weak and distorted as the output of his vocal cords.

On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California and pronounced dead the following day. The fact that RFK Jr. doesn’t believe Sirhan Sirhan shot his father is lunacy. We all can see it on film. Sure, the assassin was a Palestinian Jordanian man and he had his demented causes, but there is no doubt he was the killer. But let’s not be too hard on RFK Jr. It’s well known the family of Martin Luther King, Jr. believes the government, especially the FBI, was involved in the murder of the civil rights leader. Never proven, hardly documented, and really, will this bullshit ever stop?

The idea that we are in separate tribes is utterly primitive and unproductive, and neo-dolts like Ron DeSantis are making matters worse. When confronted with the new policies of his state-run Department of Education, Ronnie said he wasn’t involved. What a coward and dimwit. He was the motivation behind that plan and he signed the bills.

He and others running against Donald Trump refuse to say why the ex-president he would be bad for our country. They are the same folks who believe God has sent them to cure America of all its ills, perversions and ideological missteps. FACT: They are not affiliated with God or any of his workers.

According to the myth, God first created the supreme archangel followed by other archangels. One of them decided to take on God, and then we had the devil. And the book that brought us the devil was also used to justify white people stealing black people from Africa and demand they work for free.

SLAVERY was a way for the right people, you know the white people, to become more successful, but they had to deal with the “lower intellects” by telling them what to believe and whom to follow. How can someone, like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. complain about people calling him a racist or antisemite when he has no clue about the definitions of those words?

I was inspired when Sinéad O’Connor performed on Saturday Night Live in 1992 and told us the real enemy was the Pope for covering up sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Ripping up his picture on live television was a powerful and courageous statement. She told the truth about the abuses of the church and its priests and how they were covered up by men in power. By the way, those are the same men who keep woman in their places. Women can still not be priests, even today.

The white men in Congress and state governments who rail against Critical Race Theory and what we teach about slavery claim they are protecting kids from assuming any blame for what happened in this country for more than two-hundred and forty years. Americans commonly believe slavery took place from 1776 to 1865, but it actually began in North America in 1619. Here’s a question we should be asking people like Senator Tom Cotton, Governor DeSantis and other store-bought racists, “How are you protecting kids who aren’t white, or straight, or Christian?” They will not have an answer. They are protecting only their children.

Disruption is a disturbance or problem which interrupts an event, activity, or process, typically not a good thing. Some view the January 6^th attack on Congress not as an insurrection but just a trifling disruption. People like Josh Hawley and Matt Gaetz think of themselves as disruptors and reformers, but they and their kind are nothing but evil, scum bacteria, infecting people with attempts to normalize unamerican activities. It’s time we stop denying the holocaust, slavery, 9-11, January 6^th and the value of vaccines. We must focus on making America better.

I’ll close with a little tip to all the election deniers. If Donald Trump won the 2020 election, why the fuck did he leave Washington? If he really believed he was re-elected, why didn’t he order the military to surround the White House and protect what was “rightfully” his? He’s a chicken-shit loser and no one in the army would have come. Here’s the real reason he left; HE KNEW HE LOST. What a fucked-up person!

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Tattoo Detective: Our Last Hope for the Future

Imagine being able to time travel into the unknown. TATTOO DETECTIVE: Our Last Hope for the Future is a science fiction novel examining the world after all the guardrails of normal society have been dissolved.

The story follows two American tattoo detectives who are sent on a mission that changes them and their world. This dystopic look at the United States and the flaw in humankind is not a Pollyanna prognostication, it’s fundamentally close to our current reality and could be predictive of where we are headed. The opening chapter says it best, “…we could have done something, but we fell madly in love with technology, weapons and wealth.” For purchase or dowload, go here. Check out our author page on Amazon.

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THE PROBLEM WITH RON DESANTIS

Another bottom feeder polictician – grifter

I am sure Ron and Casey DeSantis are nice people away from the bright lights of politics, but I have many political questions for our governor. I wonder whether he respects the rights of children, if he understands the need for equality among “all the people” and whether he supports the sanctity of immigrants in America.

It would be too easy to spray the criticism that everything DeSantis has done as governor was only to further his national political ambitions. It appears that once he got the Governor job, he was living every moment to get another one… in Washington.

As the grandson of Italian immigrants, one would hope DeSantis had more empathy for the immigrant’s plight, but alas, it’s a case of, “We’re in, close the door behind us.” Florida is made up of immigrants and workers from everywhere. Why the constant condemnation of that class? DeSantis’ stunts and statements would have us believe he doesn’t care about what America stands for. Immigrants are people, not political punching bags.

Harassing large corporations that provide thousands of jobs is bad business, while giving another big donor exclusive rights to Covid shots reveals a payoff in the plan. Why did I have to drive four hundred miles to get my shot? Please stop bragging about how great you did. It was just okay.

We hear so much about respecting the rights of parents, but what about the rights of children? From banning Critical Race Theory, certain books and gender realization, DeSantis is kowtowing to the base, not protecting all the kids. One must ask, who decided that a child’s rights could be ignored, besmirched and ridiculed by the state? Will the governor and his wife attend funerals to comfort the parents mourning their trans or gay teen’s suicide due to constant bullying? Sadly, he will not be involved in the problem he exacerbated.

I’m puzzled by the DeSantis political family who rails against liberal elitism but sends their kids to private schools. I assume they think they are fixing education, but so far, they have created far more conflict, drama and fear than advances.

When the governor in his high-heeled cowboy boots rode his white horse into government, he was just a cheap imitator of Donald Trump. His actions, words and deeds since then have shown a man who truly doesn’t care about anyone else’s viewpoint. Florida doesn’t need a baby Trump; we’ve got the real one.

The facts are clear. Mr. DeSantis had no discussions with the families of LGBTQ kids before he handed Tallahassee his abominable bucket of hate: the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. He also had no consultations with the communities of color that he cut up like chum on the beach to gerrymander his way to power. He just did it without the regard for the voters’ rights in those places. If only Ron was honest about it all.

The lack of respect for equality and the Voting Rights Act are just as bad as his ploughing through the policies in education that were meant as safeguards for equality. Getting rid of much of what the New College of Florida was all about, only to suggest that adding sports teams will bring people back to the institution, feels a lot like “Biff” from Back to the Future being put in charge of education. It’s sad that a graduate of Harvard and Yale would see public education as an evil force. Maybe he doesn’t care about kids.

The idea of a “woke ideology” coming to take your freedoms away is much like Chicken Little screaming, “The sky is falling!” I still have no idea what “woke” means, but it’s clearly Ron’s N-word.

The fundamental problems of Ron DeSantis are his obvious desire to rewrite history, control the future and force all citizens to adopt his way of life. If “freedom” is really your north star, Mr. Governor, then why do you keep telling us what to do, how our doctors will treat us and even who to love. The demeaning discrimination on display so far proves he’s a bad governor and would be a horrible president.

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HOW TO BEAT TRUMP

An Open Letter to the Challengers

Are you in it to win it? Do you think you have an actual chance? You have studied Donald Trump’s every speech, every putdown, every ridiculous conspiracy theory and off-the-cuff remark, yet you come off like an eleventh-grade debate class student, fearful and defensive. He will grab you, crush you, chew you up and split you out.

I hear your bland and stupid statement that the country deserves you and you will make things better, but those who are loyal to the golden calf will only yawn and then change the channel.

Go ahead and meet behind closed doors with your consultants, con-artists and co-conspirators to debate the words you will use when asked certain questions about the fat, orange guy. Tiptoe around him, because if you do otherwise, he will kick your ass.

Your advisors will tell you not to say what you really think, because that will turn off people who don’t believe in the truth. And whatever you do, don’t piss off “the base.” You may think they are the only folks who count because they have gigantic, aggressive online mouths and fingers to tear you a new one, but they’re more like a conglomeration of 14-year-old high school dropouts who have formed a bond based on hate, misinformation and an intense feeling of disenfranchisement. That subset of America has already cast their vote. Ignore them! You can’t win them over and you don’t need them, so stop being so damn timid about them.

So, how can a reasonable person beat Trump to the punch and garner some points in this presidential slugfest? When Marco Rubio ran against Trump in 2016, he based all his comments on a few carefully prepared paragraphs that he recited verbatim. “Little Marco” was up against it, so he decided to pull a “baby Trump” bit by commenting on the size of Donald’s hands. He went low, and Trump just bullied him into submission. If you genuinely want to beat Trump, you must not be afraid to upstage the villain. Yes, the clown carries a spray bottle full of battery acid and it’s your job to face and conquer the beast.

There’s an abundance of history-making Trump insanity — impeached twice and indicted twice, with surely more to come from the overzealous prosecutors in the land. Although this martyr routine appears to be working for the makeup-wearing tough guy, it’s time you find a way to forcefully cut through that.

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, believes he must go to the right of Trump and promises to be a new kind of Trump who can win and get things done. Being twenty-five points behind, however, proves he’s just another baby Trump. As long as voters can get the real deal, why would DeSantis think he can win by selling his bag of lukewarm fascism to America?

The one thing I remember from my early sports playing days was a rough and tumble coach standing before us and not only challenging our strength but asking us that all-important question, “Boys, do you really want to win?” Today I stand before most of you asking that same question.

The only current challenger who is acting as if he really wants to defeat Donald Trump is Chris Christie. He’s telling the truth and he’s not trying to please Trump voters at all. I’m sure there are experts, statisticians and soothsayers telling him this is the wrong approach but, seriously, what other path to beating Trump exists?

If the rest of you want to beat Trump, you will have to talk louder and more directly in ways that might be uncomfortable. I’m looking at you, Mike Pence. You cannot bring yourself to say that Trump was not a good president even though he cajoled his fans to see you in a bad light and threaten your safety. I get the “turn the other cheek” Biblical stance, but really Mike, if you cannot stand up to Trump how are you going to deal with a real dictator like Vladimir Putin? Your pussyfooting will get you nowhere.

The question of whether a challenger, if elected president, would pardon Trump is revealing. If one says they will pardon him, that is the wrong answer. It means they feel what he did wasn’t wrong or it was wrong, but they want to “heal” the country. There’s only one answer to that pardon question that makes any sense, “NO.” Trump is not above the law, and he should be held accountable. Your ticket to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue does not have PARDON HIM printed on it.

There is probably more dirt to dig up on the Donald, but don’t think you are going to convince his loyal fans he’s bad for them. However, you must criticize him openly, directly and by name. You must point out our critical need for someone we can trust in the White House. Trump’s biggest flaw as a potential president is he’s a liar. He doesn’t know right from wrong or truth from a lie. Get right up to the microphone and say, “This man is clinically ill and cannot be trusted to run the greatest country in the world” Lay it out directly or get the hell out of the way of someone who will. The fundamental goal is branding Trump as a LIAR!

Stop wasting our time with your lack of clarity and deflections. Trump is a bad human being and should not be reelected. If you cannot say that, then you are not really running for president. You don’t want to win. You are just masturbating in public and wasting jet fuel flying around the country playing the fool.

Why are you not going after Trump? Are you going to admit to the coach you really don’t want to win the game? Stop being so damn weak!

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AMERICAN GROUND ZERO

Trump Keeps Wasting My Time

According to legend, Moses ascended and descended Mount Sinai seven times attempting to mediate, communicate and understand God’s will. During one of his mount sojourns, his temporarily leaderless followers fomented fear and melted all their gold jewelry and trinkets into a golden calf. Afraid that God had forsaken them, they wanted something they could see and touch to worship. They sent their prayers to this graven image rather than the real God.

When Moses finally returned, he was carrying two large stones with the Ten Commandments etched into them, the believers’ fundamental “truth.” The first two commandments clearly state, “You shall have no other gods before Me“ and “You shall not make idols.” Now, you might be wondering what this has to do with Donald John Trump.

Before we wander around for forty years, we need to understand who Trump is, and why his continued power over people is dangerous, damaging and demonic. Donald is the golden calf, a fake god, a craven image, a false idol whom millions of people, beyond all logic and reason, worship as their savior. His “success” flows from the fearful people who were made angry and afraid by feckless politicians seeking only power and money without regard for the common men and women.

I have two thoughts for you. First, the United States of America is never as bad as those seeking office would like us to believe. I have faith in our country, in fact, I love America and believe that as flawed as the Constitution might seem in the eyes of critics, crapshooters and con artists, it’s the best in the world. Next, Donald Trump is not the end all and be all. Remember, even the UK Queen passed away and they just slid another person into the chair.

Joe Biden is a lifelong politician and understands how the system works better than just about anyone else. Is he the best president? We’ll have to wait for the historians to write that up, but for now Biden’s keeping us from going back to Egypt to be enslaved. Remember that in 2024.

Like many of my fellow citizens, I am totally sick and tired of this Trump guy. After the smoke clears and the Department of Justice has laid all the evidence at his multiple doorsteps, it will be evident that Donald Trump is a corrupt liar with no redeemable intellect or ability to make things better.

What happened to the golden calf? Well, it wasn’t good. Moses burnt the idol in a fire, ground it to powder and then scattered the remnants over water which he forced the Israelites to drink. Surely, drinking water laced with gold was not healthy, but that was his just punishment for ignoring the truth.

In today’s world, we have Republican politicians in Congress playing the role of High Priests in the Temple telling us what to believe and who to follow. It’s as if they’re taking money for themselves and demanding we bring them animals to sacrifice. The true Judas of Democracy is Jim Jordan. His Judiciary Committee is being encouraged and manipulated by rich donors, the moneychangers outside the temple, with tentacles reaching even into the chamber of the Supreme Court.

It’s true that this is all political; everything is political. By their words and actions, fifty people in Washington, after swearing to protect and defend the Constitution, have revealed they are loyal to only one man, the obese, orange calf who will be brought before the judges.

I’d like to ask members of the 700 Club and the other evangelicals who defend Trump from their so-called holy pulpits, “What would Jesus do?” Would he keep the gold so his offspring would have some bounty after he is gone? No, that is not what God’s son would do. The reality is we have preachers, priests and pontificators defending lawlessness to create a Christian Nationalist State rather than a free and honest Republic. Be careful, folks. Their church will probably not look like the one you love.

I don’t feel sorry for Donald J. Trump. He claims to be a genius but constantly does stupid things. He can’t keep saying he is an innocent man, while lying, cheating, paying hush money to porn stars and completing all sorts of other illicit acts to keep his power and position intact.

America’s new, self-inflicted ground zero is filled with “Orange Trash.” If you want to follow the man down a black hole of mendacity and hate, go for it, but remember that will not help you on judgement day. TRUTH will judge you, not the lies of a fat and false prophet.

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Has CNN become Fox News?

Just when you thought it was over it starts again, and many feel that CNN just pooped the bed. But let’s be more civil and analytical, if such is possible in today’s world.

I understand television programming and its various justifications for reasons of ratings and revenue, but CNN broke some rules last night when they put the orange devil on the air for nearly ninety minutes in prime time. According to the American Press Institute, journalism’s first obligation is telling the truth. Good decision making depends on people having reliable, accurate facts placed in meaningful contexts.

The second rule in TV news is never let the interviewee play you. Mike Wallace and Walter Cronkite turned in their graves last night. Why did CNN allow the former President to lie about the 2020 election? Why didn’t they confront him live, in real time, and tell him to his face that he’s still lying and ask him why he needs to constantly do so? Why not make it personal? Trump certainly does.

Any interviewer would have their hands full with Donald Trump, but a noble journalist must elicit truth. Kaitlan Collins asked Donald Trump some great questions, but she didn’t get him to admit anything. She was a facilitator for his lies. No matter how many panels CNN puts on for the rest of the week whining about Trump, some people will continue to believe his mendacities. It’s impossible for a journalist to create a clear vision when their primary source is a pathological liar, so why did CNN put him on?

This “town hall“ did not provide any insight into a lying candidate. It was just another network elevating Trump, giving him more oxygen and free airtime for his continuous deceit. How is this good for America?

Trump is an idiot on foreign relations and the current cultural realities of an ever-growing browner and more diverse America. He stopped absorbing and thinking in 1956.

The Donald couldn’t call Putin a war criminal, but in the very next sentence he described the atrocities of the war in Ukraine, unable to connect the dots that it’s his buddy Vlad who is doing the killing. I would have asked him, right at that moment, “What makes you so afraid of Putin?” Instead, we got more of the same bullshit, deception and tap dancing so fundamental to Donald Trump.

Chris Wallace is on the CNN payroll, but I’m sure Trump would never have agreed to a sit down with him. Instead, the network brought out their morning show tryout who asked penetrating questions but didn’t adequately rebut the responses. The entire affair became lost in the dust of Trump’s repetitive, nonsensical crap. Had he been properly grilled, I’m sure Trump would have walked off the stage, which would have been far more illuminating.

And what was up with that audience? It’s clear they were not properly vetted or managed, which obliterated the newsworthiness of the whole event. Instead of having a hall full of dimwits laughing and clapping at a fat, orange monkey, why not have an audience of journalists with each getting to pose one short, pointed question?

If TV news is to survive, it must have a certain gravity and gravitas based on truth. The CNN debacle showcased our drunken uncle babbling away about matters well beyond his comprehension. He couldn’t even pull off looking prepared, statesmanlike or normal. He just blathered put-downs and platitudes with the overarching theme of how screwed up America is. Why would we give this blowhard four more years to do what he couldn’t do in the four years he was president?

I’m going to briefly step aside here to inject a Tweet of someone who says it better, the former President’s niece, Mary L. Trump, “I’m furious…. CNN is anti-American. In less than an hour, they allowed an authoritarian wannabe to lie constantly while an audience full of his followers applauded. This was not a town hall; it was a rally. Donald bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade. He claimed—unchallenged—that Democrats allow babies to be murdered after they’re born. He bragged about his intention to pardon convicted insurrectionists. He advocated for the United States to default on its debt which would destroy the world economy. And he showed, once again, why a jury of his peers found him liable for sexual assault and defamation. But Donald Trump cannot destroy our country by himself. That requires allies. He already has the Republican party in his pocket. And now, he has CNN on his side. Tonight’s CNN fiasco was a tragedy for American democracy.”

Mary Trump clearly is just as appalled as I and many others are. CNN will have to work awfully hard to restore its credibility with me but, then again, like many my age I am starting to think that it’s all just bullshit. We can’t trust Congress. We can’t trust the Supreme Court and we certainly cannot trust CNN, or Fox, or MSNBC, or any news outlet that hides behind the bright lights of showbiz while leaving honest reporting and penetrating journalism splat on the sidewalk.

Think about all the major news stories that have broken in the last ten years and realize they resulted from the arduous work of journalists at the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Pro-Publica and other outlets. The talking heads on TV just read the words. They spend more time on their hair and makeup than pounding out the truth on a keyboard.

It’s embarrassing. Recently I heard one of the talking heads actually say, “Well, I haven’t read the whole document yet, but this could be either real good, or real bad for Donald Trump.” WTF!

Sorry, but if you attempt to be “fair and balanced” with Donald John Trump, you will merely make him President again and that would be the end of journalism and, oh yeah, DEMOCRACY!

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WORKING THEIR WAY TO THE TOP

Oath Keepers leader arrested: seditious conspiracy

We now have abundant evidence the Department of Justice has decided that the January 6^th attack on the capital was more than “just a protest.” Someone could get twenty years in prison for planning, ordering and being involved in a grand conspiracy to overthrow the US government.

According to CNN, “The Justice Department has charged eleven defendants with seditious conspiracy related to the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, including the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes. The new indictment, handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday (1-12-22) and made public Thursday, alleges that Rhodes and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to ‘oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force, by preventing, hindering, or delaying by force execution of laws governing the transfer of power.’”

So, let the games begin. In plain terms, sedition occurs when one conducts or incites people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch. The definition is more detailed in US law, “If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”

If we were living in a different era and time, the punishment could have been death by firing squad. However, the arrest of Mr. Rhodes and the other ten indictments should serve as a warning shot across the bow of the USS Big Lie. While former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Minority Leader Keven McCarthy are playing footsy with the House Committee investigating the January 6^th Insurrection, they might want to rethink their witness tampering and non-cooperation. If there was communication between them and any of these conspirators, they, too, could be charged with a major crime: seditious conspiracy. If they are waiting for the slow courts to help them avoid telling the truth to Congress, things will start moving much faster if they are arrested for sedition.

Rhodes was not in Washington on the day of the Capitol attack, he was in his command post in Virginia, but his communications, now in the hands of prosecutors, will speak to his involvement, influence and criminal acts. Most likely, Rhodes, much like his hero Donald Trump, has a great desire to attain martyr status and will not cop a plea. He’s proud that he was able to do what he did on January 6^th and there will be no mea culpa. Trump might want to check and see if he, or any of his underlings made contact with Rhodes from December 11, 2020 to January 7^th, 2021. This investigation is far from over and all of them could be scooped up.

I hope everyone involved in this travesty gets arrested and given the well-earned punishment they deserve. No one on the side of democracy will be satisfied until we learn how the confluence of Trump’s rhetoric, actions, inactions, and lack of responsible leadership let to this mess.

I would like to see the trial of Stewart Rhodes take place now. And if you were wondering what they did, here’s a quick recap:

Manner and Means

The conspirators carried out the conspiracy through the following manner and means, among others:

Preparing for and coordinating travel to Washington, D.C., to use force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power;

Organizing into teams that were prepared and willing to use force and to transport firearms and ammunition into Washington, D.C.;

Recruiting members and affiliates to participate in the conspiracy;

Organizing trainings to teach and learn paramilitary combat tactics;

Bringing and contributing firearms, ammunition, and related equipment to the QRF* staging areas outside Washington, D.C.;

Bringing and contributing paramilitary gear, weapons, and supplies-including knives, batons, camouflaged combat uniforms, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection, and radio equipment-to the Capitol grounds;

Breaching and attempting to take control of the Capitol grounds and building on January 6, 2021, in an effort to prevent, hinder, and delay the Certification of the Electoral College vote;

Using force against law enforcement officers while inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021;

Continuing to plot, after January 6, 2021, to oppose by force the lawful transfer of presidential power; and

Using websites, social media, text messaging, and encrypted messaging applications to communicate with co-conspirators and others.

*Quick Response Force

I didn’t make this up and judging by all the gear they had brought to the insurrection, and planned to use during the after math, this was surely a pre-meditated, planned and perpatrated crime.

Should you be up for some pleasure reading, here is a copy of the entire 48-page indictment:

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Anyone who reads the document and still defends these disillusioned, low-life traitors should be spanked so hard they cry out for their mommies.

Among many other things, January 6^th is a total embarrassment. Should it be found that our former President was responsible for inciting events that tragic day, he must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

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Another book you have to read:

We knew that the great divide in America would have a major effect on the presidential election in the year 2020, but something else was lurking that we didn’t anticipate. The world suffered a global pandemic of Covid-19, and everything changed. The lockdown motivated one author to write MASHED POTATOES: Covid, Cancer & Comfort Food. The cover ironically claims the book is a “humorous” recollection of 2020, but one might ask, “Where was the humor?” This is a work of survival to motivate those who desire to get beyond Covid-19, beat cancer and defend our precious Democracy. Get it here.

PANDEMIC BY-PRODUCT

Capitalism Goes Back to School

You have probably heard a theory about why employment figures haven’t roared back to pre- pandemic levels in America. The grand presumption from Republicans is people are not returning to their previous jobs because they are making so much money from the government’s pandemic relief checks.

As you might suspect, I have thoughts on this. First, let’s examine unemployment history. In October of 2009, right after the financial collapse, unemployment was at 10%. After a great recovery under two presidents, Obama and Trump, that number fell to 3.5%, one of the lowest unemployment numbers of this century. Then, Covid-19 came to the world and unemployment jumped to 14.8%. The federal government handed out assistance checks to people and some companies enrolled in the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) to obtain government loans to pay employees and keep their businesses afloat.

In March 2021, US unemployment dropped to 6%, but instead of cheering on this great improvement the GOP complained that recovery was taking too long. They insisted that all pandemic relief payments needed to end so that poverty and need would drive people back to work. Okay, that description is tilted and subjective but let’s stop and think about this. The Republicans may be wrong.

I found this interesting viewpoint in The Hill, “Is questioning whether unemployed Americans respond to the availability of unemployment compensation just another way of insulting their intelligence? If one can make more money being paid to stay at home, a rational person should do that, mindful of any effect on future employability, of course. Do we really need proof of the obvious? To be sure, it is a bit cynical to frame this as ‘being paid to stay home,’ but that’s what it is — or more neutrally, compensation for being unemployed, which one will lose by taking a job.”

The restaurant industry is facing a huge workforce challenge. I tried to go into a Starbucks and another breakfast establishment recently only to see signs that they were closed because not enough workers showed up to work that day.

Here’s a headline from the Restaurant Manifesto blogsite: The Restaurant Labor Shortage Was Inevitable – Stimulus payments aren’t the only thing keeping workers on the sidelines. They say, “Some hospitality professionals have abandoned the industry altogether. Months of waiting to return to their old jobs has left many workers worried about being left alone at the altar. Others chose to relocate to places where jobs are plentiful—cities like Miami where disruption to restaurant businesses has been ameliorated by more permissive public health policies.” I would add that some workers didn’t want to return to a job placing them in direct contact with mask-less customers.

The article continued, “Some individuals who’ve lost their jobs also lost their health insurance coverage during the worst public health crisis in a generation. When the industry shut down, many owners immediately laid off their entire staff, no questions asked, even their most loyal workers.”

One of my suppositions is that laborers who were isolated and quarantined had time to question what is important to them. They started to see the difference between a low-paying job with ill-tempered supervisors as compared to fulfilling work that paid them properly under managers who treated them respectfully and fairly. It’s not hard to find someone who has worked in the food business with many stories of rotten experiences, including tales of sexual harassment, tips being stolen by co-workers and long shifts with meager compensation. Maybe that’s why they aren’t going back to their former jobs.

The good news is capitalism never sleeps, it continuously finds ways to survive and grow. What has the pandemic mentality forced companies to do? Well, motivation is at the top of the list. Companies are offering bonuses just to get people in the door to fill out an application. From free food to fifty bucks, the corporate lords have found religion – MONEY.

While trying to get more workers, they are also reviewing their hourly wages and benefits such as healthcare. They are now forced to compete with not only direct competitors but also other industries. Our media outlets love to point out how “bad” it is to work for Amazon, but their warehouse jobs are plentiful and they pay well. You can work in a restaurant and hope your daily tips are substantial or you can punch-in every morning to feed the monster Jeff Bezos created and making good moola.

It’s appalling to me that the Republicans assume everyone getting financial assistance is scamming the federal government. Instead of investigating and understanding real people problems, they just cut off the money, stop the abortions and make it harder to vote. Thanks for nothing. Maybe it’s time you do some research and listen to objective logic.

Congress has become a hydra, with each of its two heads canceling the other. The Democrats want to help but fail to unite around one solid plan. The Republicans lay in wait until an idea floats to the front, then they attack it regardless of its substance. I cannot believe that grown men in Congress are still afraid of Donald Trump. It’s clear that Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are nothing but Trump puppets, lacking backbone and vision.

If we take 6% as a starting place for recovery, we could be much more optimistic and perhaps see that slower reduction of unemployment might be driven by businesses reluctant to overextend themselves until the coast is clear. I suggest Republicans open the book about the disaster of a global pandemic to learn the number of permanently closed businesses. If Lindsey Graham knew the real number of those places that closed forever, and counted all the workers they used to employ, he might be a bit less vindictive toward people who are getting checks. If you are curious, South Carolina currently has an unemployment rate of 5.1%, and in government employees they are at negative-3.5%. Time to give out some government jobs, Lindsey.

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THE WOKE JOKE

American Trends & Fads

Americans either stay on top of things, or they don’t, and when they don’t, they may feel a bit out of place with the conversations around them. For the longest time, I wondered how many folks understood the term “woke” to describe people.

One of my favorite resources for understanding the street interpretations of the words and phrases in Americana patois is the UrbanDictionary.com. They define “woke” as the act of a person being pretentious about their care of a social issue. The attempts of some to impress by dishing out their feelings of importance about issues does overwhelm at times, but I think the crowd-sourced Urban Dictionary misses the mark by weaving pretention into its definition. It was similar to the way Fox News spent so much time disparaging the concept. It’s like a mother beginning to use Facebook and then her kids deride the platform because it has gone mainstream and is no longer hip.

Hip is a baby boomer word. Back in the day we used it when we liked some thing or person. When a band was hip, it didn’t mean “hipster,” like today, it meant the group was trendy, cool and up on all the latest things. Some say it was a perversion of the word “hep,” as in “hep cat” from the Jazz era, but who knows? The only hip baby boomers care about today is the joint that connects their legs to their upper torsos.

American trendsetters often guided us toward the next big things, but they weren’t always right. If you bought a Betamax video recorder, you may have been hip but you were also wrong. During the fashion era, woke fashion leaders told us guys to wear skinny ties, then wide ties, then no ties at all. Women know this game much more profoundly than men because their styles are annually dictated by the wild ideas of Paris and New York. It takes a long time for JCPenney to catch the fever of a new style, but by the time they do it’s no longer woke.

It’s funny to me how politicians get their underwear in a wad, whether they are wearing briefs, tidy whities or if they have gone commando. Thanks to the Urban Dictionary, we know that means not wearing underwear. The origins for this are either “out in the open” or “ready for action,” but one must know the difference between a fad and a trend.

In 1982, I read the book Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. This was written in our pre-internet days, so the author used newspaper coverage as a gauge for analyzing data. He simply counted the number of column-inches each subject got in all the newspapers and used that to determine how those topics were trending. He also explained the difference between a short-term fad, like Davy Crockett hats, and the true megatrends that propelled our nation. By reading that book I learned that northern industrial cities would lose populations and southern cities would grow, and that’s exactly what happened.

In June 2020, the magazine Psychology Today published an article titled, The Promise and Problems of Being Woke. Here’s an excerpt, “Many people, especially the youth, have a heightened awareness of our troubled past and, understandably, seek to correct our collective wrongs. This is where the term “woke” comes into play. It is defined as, ‘aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).’” Note the difference between the Urban Dictionary definition. In this case, being woke is all about alertness with no posing implied.

The article continues, “Perhaps the long-overdue correction of ‘wokism’ is, sometimes, leading to an over-correction of sorts.” We saw that recently with the uproar about the Academy Awards that led to the Twitter campaign of #AcademySoWhite. The Academy acted and moved the needle rapidly because they had a huge backlog of African American scripts, projects and casting. Aside from the host-less, humor-less awards show this year, there were so many honors for projects by people of color that someone commented, “Why is everything about Black people?” That wasn’t racist; it was merely an observation. It reminded me of being the only white person at a 1970s Motown review concert. I loved the music but wondered why I was the only white guy there.

Our society often uses political correctness and shunning to block people with different opinions. There was a strange reaction when the term #BlackLivesMatter surfaced. First, it wasn’t very “woke” to say “all lives matter.” The goal of that phrase wasn’t promoting equality but rather diluting the indictment. When Trump stated that the “BLM movement is racist,” all chances of respect were lost. Most people don’t understand that slogans like “blue lives matter” create one colossal petri dish of cancel culture.

Here is a question. If the idea of being woke is “seeking to correct our collective wrongs,” then aggressors who push back at the woke patrol are attempting to stop that effort. The rebellion by some Republican lawmakers against the New York Times 1619 Project is an attempt to block truth from the next generation so they will never do the “woke” thing. I used to use the term “mulatto” when referring to people of mixed race, then stopped using the word when I discovered it’s appalling “nod and wink” origin as the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). A person of mixed race is not an animal, they are a person. Once I had the correct information, I was able to eliminate a wrong. I’m not woke for knowing, I’m just trying to do the right thing.

I would suggest that the term and concept of “woke,” is not a trend but a fad. People may hang their hat on the word, but the expression and label don’t automatically fix the world. “Woke” is just another class one joins. The belief beyond the word has the potential of profoundly changing the world. And of course, conservatives hate the word because they know, deep down inside, they will never be allowed in the club. Poor babies.

The foundation of the woke movement is people with strong social convictions wanting to make a better world, but it’s a world they are defining, not really a democrat truth. I might get canceled for suggesting here, but all they want us all to do is wake up and smell the coffee, or for a woke person, smell the cappuccino.

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Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs: If you only read one chapter of this book, try “Take a Knee for America” and think about our never-ending conflicts between minorities and the police. I’m not asking you to take a stand but having a deep and honest conversation about why some people think the way they do would be productive. This is a book for the moment which seeks to start a conversation about peace. And if you are worried about social media, you really should check out the chapter called “Social Media Menace.”

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CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN SCHOOLS

Three Kinds of Americans

I don’t expect everyone to get the nuisances and subtleties of American life. It’s difficult explaining to those across the pond why we do certain things here. They often laugh at us, then say with a slight smirk, “That’s not how we think.” No shit, Sherlock, as in Holmes, a Brit.

Let’s start with a brief look at US history. A bunch of white religious zealots came to a new land in search of religious freedom and food. They bought into a false biblical allowance of slavery, bought Africans from British traders, and started a new country with free labor. You may try to defend that atrocity by pointing out all the great things slavery did for our new, democratic form of government, but you cannot and should not ignore the original sin. Unlike the Irish, Italians, and others who came here, Black people were slaves.

Critical race theory, known as CRT, is an academic movement of United States civil rights scholars and activists who seek to diagnostically examine the law where it intersects with issues of race and to challenge mainstream liberal approaches to racial justice. CRT examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism. Just so we get our timetables aligned, CRT started in the 1970s and became full-blown by the 1980s. Now, these scholars are encouraging us to teach their position to young students in America.

Attempts against CRT are simple. Some ask why we are making young people hate America, while many on the right feel some CRT findings are untrue. As John Oliver pointed out on his HBO show, store owners cannot justify why Black hair products are locked up while the same products at about the same price for white people are openly stocked on shelves. One might say that hair products for African American women are stolen more often, but even if that’s true the store owners’ actions are fundamentally “racist.” Oh my, I used the R word.

According to Stamped from the Beginning, a book by Ibram X. Kendi, there are three kinds of people in America. There are anti-racists, racists and assimilationists. That last group takes significant heat because their goal is to assimilate all “others” into their Caucasian-European social, cultural and legal viewpoints. They are more or less saying that if everyone is more like them then everything will be fine. If you don’t know the essential qualities of racists and anti-racists, you might want to take a course in critical race theory. Without historical knowledge a person cannot offer a reasoned viewpoint on racism.

Louisiana is one of many states where legislators have proposed bills to bar educators from teaching “divisive” concepts like white privilege and racial equity. Former President Trump, who says he’s anti-racist, went out of his way to denounce school teachings with critical views of the white men who founded our country. Boy, wait until the history books are written on him; now that will be embarrassing. His biggest punch to the movement came when he was convinced by Congressional racist Tom Cotton that the 1619 Project was an evil work. Too bad it wasn’t a book; they could have simply burned it.

Trump condemned the 1619 Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 New York Times report led by reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones. It contends that America was not founded in 1776, but rather in 1619 when the first enslaved people were brought to the colonies. Educators embraced the message and began a search for resources to teach a more accurate and holistic history of the country.

According to NBC News, “Trump rebuked the project as a ‘warped, distorted’ portrayal of American history.” It is uncertain if Donald John Trump ever read any of the 1619 Project, but his and Cotton’s comments sparked a special commission that presented a white paper titled The 1776 Report, which combatted the contents of the 1619 Project. The 1776 Report is not a serious historical work. I characterize it as a “pro-America” document that warps, distorts and justifies some dark aspects of our history.

No matter how hard people like Trump and their cotton-pickin’ masked racists try to defend slavery, it’s still slavery. Many Republicans have pushed into the bright lights to claim that America is not a racist country, yet not one of them has said there is no racism in America. Former Attorney General William Barr claimed there is no systemic racism in America’s police departments, but quickly added that there are racists in America and certainly some of them are police officers. Is that progress?

Ask just about any white American if they are racist, and I suspect they would quickly unflinchingly answer “No.” So, there you go, that’s that. Are we done here? We have not only a failure of communication but many different interpretations of what “racism” actually is. As Larry David pointed out on his TV show, the mere action of checking the locks on your car doors when you see a black person could be racism. If you honestly believe that your high school football team got better because African American families moved into your district, you just might be a racist. If you are shown a photo of two white guys and one Black guy and are asked, “Which of these men do you think raped the girl at the beach,” you are probably a racist if you select the Black guy.

The debate about critical race theories gets under the skin of many white Americans because they are called “critical” and are merely “theories.” Maybe it’s a nomenclature problem. “Global warming” was the wrong name for a condition that would not only create heat waves but also 25-inch snowfalls. If a person’s response to the saying “Black Lives Matter” is “All Lives Matter,” then it’s clear they don’t understand racism. Then there’s this. Why do some white people want dreadlocks? Is it an attempt to assimilate the Black race or an appropriation of white privilege? Oh, I’ll take that.

Maybe we need to change the name of Black History month to HISTORY MONTH. African Americans don’t own American History or critical race history — we all do. It’s time to own up to the fact that some of what has happened and what is happening here in the good old U.S. of A. is damn embarrassing. I am mortified when Tom Cotton and Donald Trump speak about racism because I honestly believe both of those guys are racists, but we allow them to speak because we have a First Amendment, and we are the home of the free. By the way, Tom, and Don, Black people weren’t free in 1619, and couldn’t speak their minds for more than 240 years in this country and judging by your whitewash of history you still don’t want them speaking here in 2021. Shame on both of you!

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ANGLO-SAXON VALUES & UNITY

From Mild Racism to Tea Party to Insanity

If you had told me this story a few years ago I would have thought you were quoting the Onion comedy site. Sadly, this is not a dated comedy routine or a satirical gem from Andy Borowitz. It’s the latest black hole some radical Republicans are trying to push their comrades into for certain political death.

Here’s the story. Far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona’s Paul Gosar, were seeking to set up an “America First Caucus” that would push a nativist agenda to respect “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” This was first reported by Punchbowl News, and the Republican group warned that “mass immigration” threatened “the long-term existential future of America as a unique country with a unique culture and a unique identity.” Okay, but was this ever a real thing? They did admit they were going to charge dues!

Was the caucus a real plan? Does anyone whose family came from Europe, Asia or even Russia believe this? Those questions were soon asked, and the media did a great job taking down a conspiracy before it even hatched. This is what we learned before the weekend was over.

According to a Washington Post article, “On Saturday, Greene (R-Ga.) described the document as ‘a staff level draft proposal from an outside group’ and claimed she had not read it. She blasted the media for ‘taking something out of context,’ but did not specify to which policies in the document she objected. However, Greene did not deny plans to start an ‘America First Caucus’ and ended a lengthy Twitter thread by saying she supported former president Donald Trump’s America First agenda.” Wait, if they are so sure of their own beliefs and prejudges why did they need an outside firm to tell them what they believe? Better yet, why would Marjorie Taylor Greene not take the time to read a proposal she supported?

I’ve never believed that Ms. Greene has the gravitas or depth to process complex information. She seems unable to grasp facts or debunk a conspiracy theory, but she does have a platform. 229,827 people voted for her and put her in office, but that number might be quite different today. The voters of District 14 in Georgia will have to ask themselves at the next election what has she done for them? I don’t think being on TV helps her constituents. I contend that the more she’s on TV the worse it is for her.

So, what are Anglo-Saxon values? Anglo-Saxons, a “cultural group,” inhabited England in the fifth century. They were immigrants from northern Germany and southern Scandinavia long before those places were countries. According to Bede, a monk from Northumbria back then, they were from some of the most powerful and warlike tribes in Germany. Bede names three of these tribes: the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. If you believe in all that DNA stuff you might wonder if these were the same people who gave us World Wars I and II. Not really. It’s not the Arian race crap that Adolf was slinging, but pretty much the same hook American white supremacists have hung their dogma on for years.

Someone got the document and leaked it, fearful there was a chance that other members would support Greene and Gosar and adopt the platform. SLATE reported, “There won’t be an America First Caucus after all. At least for now. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accused the media of making a big deal about something that wasn’t even a reality yet and aides said she wasn’t starting any new group…. She also accused the media of focusing on race and using it to divide the American people with hate through identity politics.” Nick Dyer, Greene’s spokesperson said earlier in the weekend that the caucus would be launched soon. Okay, real, or not?

There are no lasting values we can attribute to the Anglo-Saxon peoples, after all they assimilated into a vast group of humans who came to the British Isles early on. The Anglo-Saxon people, culture and language developed over time, but the authors of this crazy revisionist view ignore what happened in Britain after the Norman invasion.

The conquest by the Norman elite captured much of the Anglo-Saxons’ land and revised their values. The Normans restructured the Church (made it Catholic), brought new architecture (castles and Romanesque cathedrals) and feudalism became much more widespread. The most long-lasting change was the English language absorbing thousands of words from French, Latin and even German. The melting pot of Britain was a precursor to what happened in America, and the assimilation made the people stronger, not weaker.

I doubt that white supremacists, neo-Nazis and those high verbal folks in the America First Movement have any idea what the term “Anglo-Saxon values” truly means. They throw out the idea that being a European is far superior to being a person of color, but have they been to Europe lately? It’s not so white and not so Anglo these days. Dorothy! Kansas City might be whiter than Miami, but that doesn’t make it more American. The far right equates Anglo with Caucasian but were they to travel back in time they wouldn’t even be able to communicate with an Anglo or a Saxon. They would be the alien.

The phrase “Anglo-Saxon values” is a trumped-up tag line that fell out of the bag of tricks that the losers and conspiracy nuts carry around. It’s also a quick sucker punch to the Dems. If Greene and other assholes of her ilk took the time to do the research (google it, jerkoffs), they would find the Anglo-Saxon earthly virtues were bravery, loyalty, generosity, and friendship. Being made to look stupid isn’t brave, it’s just fucking futile. Yes, they are loyal to their cause, but then so were the young members of the brown shirt brigade in 1939 Germany. Generosity is not an attribute of the far right. I don’t see them out raising money to help get the homeless vaccinated. As for “friendship,” the other day I got yelled at for having a Biden sticker on my car. Funny, she never mentioned “friendship” as she flipped me the bird.

Using the term “Christian values” would have been riskier, but more people might have swallowed it. Ask an Italian about Anglo-Saxon values, or perhaps any of the millions of Hispanics or Latinas who are legacy Americans what they think of that expression. Better yet, ask a Native American about Anglo-Saxon values. All they wanted to do was live in peace, but the Anglo-Saxons brought them bullets and diseases. Those religious Anglo zealots poured salt into the wounds by taking away the native peoples’ gods and spirits. You see, these aren’t values at all but rather legalized genocide and self-serving brainwashing. Have a nice day, Marjorie. Anglo-Saxon my ass! I demand your 23&Me DNA spit test.

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