Thirty-Four Times Guilty; Lock Him Up!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The jury came in yesterday afternoon on the first of four criminal cases being pursued against Donald John Trump  That case, the only one that has gone to trial so far, was brought by the state of New York which alleged that Trump had paid a porn star to keep quiet about an affair that they had, and that Trump had then hidden that "hush money" payment through shady bookkeeping in an effort to keep the matter from surfacing in the 2016 election.  He paid off the porn star, hid the payment, and then lied about it in order to influence the election - so said the jury, unanimously, on each of the thirty-four counts in the criminal indictment.

Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, and guilty!  (That took a whole lot of voting!   No wonder the jury took two days to completely reach a verdict!)

Donald Trump is a convicted felon, thirty-four times over!

Trump, for his part - the eternal victim - said the trial was rigged, the judge was corrupt, and the voters would have the final say in the matter in November.  He also sent out an appeal to the rubes for more donations.  (Never pass up an opportunity to pass the hat!)

Trump is, of course appalling appealing the decision, as he always does, and he has a press conference planned for later this morning in Trump Tower, a building of which he is a partial owner, to piss and moan some more about the unfairness of it all.

Republican leaders are already trampling each other as they race to stand by their man and malign the justice system.  History will not treat them kindly.

In the near term Donald Trump will have to undergo an interview with a probation and parole officer prior to his sentencing which will be in Judge Merchan's court on July 11th.  Sentencing on 7/11:  should we try and read something into that?  Lucky for Trump, or perhaps lucky for America?  Four days after  the sentencing, the Republican National Committee will select Donald Trump, a convicted felon, as their candidate for President because they have little choice and no class.

A couple of thoughts on the sentencing of convicted felon, Donald John Trump:

Trump could apparently be sentenced for up to four years in prison for the crimes on which he has been convicted, but speculation on the internet suggests that since Trump was such a model defendant, and these are his first (34) convictions, and the crimes are "white collar," that he will instead be sentenced to some more appropriate and lesser punishment like house arrest or community service.  

(Donald Trump slinging hash in a soup kitchen for the homeless?  Yeah, that'll happen!)

(For those who are not legal beagles, "white Collar" crime is shorthand for "white people" crime.  Felons of color are far less likely to be given VIP treatment on their first offense for any crime.  For confirmation, just ask Crystal Mason, the black woman from Ft. Worth, Texas, who was sentenced to prison for five years for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election when she was ineligible to vote due to being a convicted felon on probation.  Mrs. Mason claimed that she did not know she was ineligible to vote.  Her felonious action in that election, whether intentional or not, had far less impact than Donald Trump's felonious actions in the same election, but she was sentenced to five years in prison, and he may be confined for a couple of months at Mar-a-Lago!

(Mrs. Mason's conviction was overturned on appeal in 2022.)

There was also some buzz on the internet that sending Trump to prison would place him in danger.  If prisons are not safe places to warehouse people, why do we send anyone there?    And why should we be more concerned about the safety of Donald Trump in prison that we are about the safety of some young black man or woman whose incarceration is rooted in economic and racial injustice?  The safety of Donald Trump should not be the issue until the safety of all prisoners is the issue.

And if the safety of Donald Trump in prison is the issue, and sending him in with a legion of Secret Service agents is as impractical as it sounds, here is a one-word solution:  "supermax!"  He would be safe there, you betcha!

Lock him up!

Libertarians Nominate Chase Oliver for President

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Libertarian Party nominated 38-year-old Chase Oliver from Atlanta as their national standard bearer in this year's presidential election.  The party made their selection at their national convention in Washington, DC, this past week.  Chase Oliver received the Libertarian nomination on the seventh round of voting.  His running mate will be Mike ter Maat, a retired police officer from Portland, Oregon, who led in the early rounds of voting.

There were some other interesting characters in the race as well.  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is pursuing the presidency as an independent candidate sought the Libertarian nomination in an effort to help him gain ballot access in several states.  He filed the necessary paperwork to run for the nomination of the Libertarian Party and spoke to the convention this week.  But Kennedy was eliminated in the first round of voting when he received less that half of the 5% of the total votes necessary  to advance into the second round.  Kennedy received a total of nineteen votes - or 2.07 percent of the total delegate votes.

Donald Trump also spoke to the convention and asked the delegates to make him their nominee, or to at least vote for him.  Trump was heckled and booed throughout his speech and became angry and combative toward the delegates telling them that unless they aligned with him they would have to be satisfied with never getting more three percent of the national vote.  The Libertarian Party chair ruled Trump ineligible for the party's nomination because he did not file necessary paperwork with the party, and he received a total of six write-in votes on the first round of voting.

Stormy Daniels, the porn star who once spanked Trump with a rolled-up magazine, received one write-in vote.

Chase Oliver, the official Libertarian nominee for President in 2024, describes himself as being "armed and gay."  He has run for public office as a Libertarian twice before, first as a candidate for Congress in a special election for Georgia's fifth district in 2020, and second as a candidate for the US Senate in Georgia in 2022.  Oliver received over 80,000 votes in the 2022 senate election and is credited with causing the runoff between incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate.

The Libertarian nominee, Mr. Oliver, is employed full time outside of politics and holds two jobs in the world of business.  He is a sales account executive and an HR representative.  Within the Libertarian Party he is a member of the Classical Liberal Caucus.

Chase Oliver supports "ranked choice" voting,  He identifies as "pro-choice" on abortion but is opposed to taxpayer-funded abortions, and he believes that abortion should be legal nationwide.   He is opposed to US military aid to Israel and Ukraine and regards what is happening in Gaza as a genocide.  He favors the closure of US military bases abroad.  Oliver advocates for the end of the war on drugs and supports the legalization of marijuana.  He thinks the free market will eventually handle climate change if businesses are left alone, and he favors "more choice in the education marketplace on a state-by-state basis."  Chase Oliver is opposed to regulatory barriers that prevent organizations from feeding homeless people, and regarding immigration he says "If you're coming here to work and be peaceful, it's not my business."  Being a Libertarian, Chase Oliver is also a strong supporter of gun "rights," and practices "concealed carry."  He is gay and says, "Armed gays are harder to oppress, and they're harder to bash."

At 38 years of age, Oliver is 32 years younger than independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, 39 years younger than presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, and 43 years younger than President Joe Biden.

Welcome to the race, Chase Oliver.  While this tired old typist does not agree with you on all of the issues, it is still refreshing to have some youthful exuberance blowing through the dark and dreary cellars of entrenched political power.  Run hard and make some noise!

Washington Post Pockets Alito Flag Story

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Washington Post, one of this nation's preeminent news publications, experienced it's glory days back in the early 1970's when it was owned and operated by a tigress named Katharine Graham, managed by a fearless editor, Ben Bradlee, and staffed with aggressive ace reporters like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Those were the glory days of American journalism.  Today the landscape of newspaper  journalism is far different than it was fifty years ago when the team from The Washington Post conducted its unrelenting pursuit of the Watergate story and eventually drove Richard Nixon and his corrupt administration out of the White House.

Now the Post is owned by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, and as the newspaper struggles to maintain profitability in a world of shrinking readership, subscriptions, and advertisers, a more judicious approach to the determination of what is and is not newsworthy seems to be prevailing.

Less than two weeks ago The New York Times, another of our venerable news publications, broke a story about an upside-down American flag flying in front of the home of US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito at the time of the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol in January of 2021.  The newspaper noted that same symbol had been been flown by rioters in the same manner (upside-down) during their attempted overthrow of the government.

Justice Alito quickly blamed the incident on his wife.  (A few days ago it was revealed that the Alito's have also been flying a Christian nationalist flag over their New Jersey beach home, but the elderly justice has yet to try and blame that one on the missus.)

The Alito flag stories are very shocking and add to the growing list of ethics concerns currently plaguing the Supreme Court.  Perhaps if they had been uncovered and reported earlier, changes in how the members of the Court behave and interact with the public could already be in effect, and the Court would at least have an appearance of being a neutral arbiter of justice.

But wait, the upside-down flag incident was known earlier - three years earlier - and it was known by The Washington Post who chose not to run it!   The Associated Press reported this morning that The Washington Post knew about the insurrectionist symbol flying in front of the home of a Justice of the US Supreme Court during a time of national crisis, and that newspaper chose not to bother the public with that information.

That's outrageous!  If America needs censored news, we might as well all be watching Foxi!

Hiding information is tantamount to lying!

Bezos, you suck!

World's Most Moral Army Commits the Stuff of Nightmares

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have occasionally been referred to by Israeli politicians and military leaders in the press as "the world's most moral army," and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used those very words to describe his country's armed forces less than two weeks ago.  It is a description that rings less true with each passing day.

As Israel's war in Gaza rolls on with no end in sight, the atrocities being committed against the Palestinian civilian population continue.  Last Friday the International Court of Justice issued an emergency order against Israel under the auspices of the 1948 Genocide Convention which demanded that Israel immediately cease its military offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza.  The Court, which voted 13-2  in favor of the order for Israel to cease its military offensive, cited reports of 800,000 Palestinians already having been displaced from Rafah as a justification for the Court's action.

Two days later, after the ICJ issued the order - which was unenforceable and largely ignored - Israel conducted what they termed was a "precision" air strike on a part of Rafah in which a refugee camp was hit and devastated.  There were at least 45 civilian deaths as well as many horrific injuries that included burns and dismemberments.   Even though the airstrike had been labeled as a "precision" effort, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared it had been a tragic mistake - and that his country would be investigating.

Most of the Palestinian refugees in the camp were living in makeshift tents and under tarps.  The shrapnel from the bombs tore through the fabric of their shelters and through many of the humans who were seeking refuge beneath the tents and tarps.   Much of the encampment was set ablaze by the bombs.  News reports yesterday evening and this morning on National Public Radio (NPR) told of one child with his intestines hanging out, and of another who had been decapitated in the bombing.  One commentator referred to the scene as "the stuff of nightmares."

But not to worry - Netanyahu has ordered an investigation.  It's the least he could do.

Memorial Day Quote That Will Live in Infamy

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor America's war dead by visiting cemeteries and decorating their graves.  

The Biden's are visiting Arlington National Cemetery today where thousands of America's war dead are buried.  A trip to Arlington is standard fare for US Presidents or their Veeps on Memorial Day, whether they served in the military or not.   (Biden did not wear his country's uniform, but his oldest son, Beau, did.)   Joe Biden is extremely patriotic and takes his duties as Commander in Chief very seriously.

Biden's trip to Arlington today brings to mind a previous presidential visit to that same cemetery in 2017.   Donald Trump, the country's political leader at that time, was clearly uncomfortable at military-related events.  At one point in his presidency he declined to have his photo taken with military amputees because "it doesn't look good for me."    In November of 2018 Trump declined at the last minute to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at an Allied cemetery in France because of the impact that the rainy weather would have on his highly shellacked, dyed wisp of hair.  He has also been reported to have referred to America's veterans and war heroes as "suckers" and "losers."

But it was on Memorial Day in 2017 at Arlington Cemetery when Trump really showed his disdain for America's fighting men and women.  He attended that ceremony with retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, a man who served Trump initially as Secretary of Homeland Security and later as his longest serving White House Chief of Staff.  As the two men came to the gravesite of General Kelly's 29-year-old son, Robert, who had been killed seven years earlier while fighting in Afghanistan, Trump turned to the bereaved father and said, regarding the dead service members:  "I don't get it.  What was in it for them?"

A person does not have to have worn their country's uniform and fought in combat to enjoy the privileges of living in a free and open society - and none of the Trump's family ever have served in the military - but still one should have the decency not to disparage those who did sacrifice and give their all for the folks who were at home cheering them on.

Donald Trump does not understand freedom or democracy.  His values are based in vanity, greed, and avarice.   He is enamored of dangerous autocrats and dictators who rule by brute force and tolerate no dissent.  Trump understands them.  He does not understand decent, hard-working, honest people who struggle just to stay even, and he certainly does not understand young people who would pick up a rifle and march off to war, and lay down their lives for nebulous concepts like freedom and liberty.  They are suckers and losers.

Donald Trump is not a loser.  Losers don't have their names on tall buildings.  Donald Trump has built his whole life around grabbing things for himself.  He understands greed.  He gets that.

Some day he will be gone, and if there is a god perhaps She will see to it that his remains are interred next to his those of first ex-wife, Ivana, in the weed patch at Bedminster.   Then, if his kids quit partying long enough to order a tombstone, perhaps it will bear an inscription reading:  "So long all you suckers and losers!"

And he will be rid of us.

And we will be rid of him.

Tornadoes Roar Through Northwest Arkansas

 

by Pa Rock

The midwest has been pummeled by tornadoes for the past several weeks, so many, in fact, that some are attributing the alarming rise in severe storm and tornado activity to the effects of climate change.  South central Missouri, the area where I live, was under a "tornado watch" much of last night, and we did have a really loud, banging storm around daylight, but thankfully there were no "twisters."

Northwest Arkansas, however, was not nearly as fortunate as we were in this part of Missouri.   Several tornadoes apparently touched down during the pre-dawn hours in the sprawling urban setting that is home to Walmart, Tyson Foods, and Jones Truck Lines.   Early reports indicate that at least one person has been killed - a 26-year-old woman who was found outside of her destroyed home - and several injured.  Search and rescue efforts appear to be continuing throughout the morning.

I spoke with my sister, Abigail, by phone this morning.  She lives in Rogers in an area that received extensive damage.  My sister lives in an apartment complex for seniors and said that she spent the night sitting in a chair in her bathroom along with a pillow, transistor radio, and a flashlight.  (Her apartment complex does not allow candles - probably a good policy!)  She said that she "felt" the tornado as it passed. 

Abigail said that today they have no power (and news reports indicate power is out for most of the area), roads are blocked with debris and tree limbs, and most people, including her, are staying indoors because of all of the power lines that are down.  She also said that there are natural gas leaks in her son's neighborhood a few blocks away.   She told me that there was some damage to parts of her apartment complex, but that her unit appears to be fine.  The residents park outdoors in a common lot, and she said all of their cars also appear to not have suffered any damage.

(I saw one news article on the internet which said that a state road in Bella Vista had been closed due to a landslide, an uncommon occurrence in the midwest.)

Abigail's son, Reed, who lives close to his mother, is a teacher and coach in the local school system, and his wife, Jamie, is also a teacher in Rogers.  They have a nice home in a well established neighborhood, and my sister said their neighborhood was "devastated" with homes destroyed, trees down, and the smell of natural gas in the air.  She said that Reed and Jamie's house appears to have not suffered any major damage, but that Jamie did lose her car windshield.

Reed telephoned me yesterday evening before the terrible weather hit.  We talked about the trip that he and Jamie made to Scotland last year where he lifted the famous Dinnie Stones - and his new goal to lift more than Arnold Schwarzenegger's personal best, the ups and downs of teaching school (something we have in common), and the fact that school was getting ready to close for the summer.  

Schools in northwest Arkansas may have let out for the summer last Friday, and they just didn't know it!

Rogers, Bentonville, Decatur, Bella Vista, and all of the places that were impacted by the storms, we are thinking of you today.  Be careful and stay safe!

Cotton Begs to Be Picked

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald John Trump has to do more than just "feel" the love, he has to be able to turn around and see it standing tall behind him in blue suits and red ties, ready to bend and grovel at his every command.  Trump admires himself to a level that is ludicrous, and he expects others to be as much in awe of him as he is of himself.  During the closing weeks of his criminal trial in New York, the nation watched in amusement, or bewilderment, or disgust as dozens of otherwise prominent Republican politicians rushed to be photographed attending his trial and then giving Trump soundbites to the press, often saying things that the trial judge, through his gag order, had forbidden Trump to speak about in public.  

Personal integrity be damned.  They were there to kiss Trump's ass ring and show their unwavering support for the elderly man who is facing more criminal counts than he has experienced years of life on earth.  They were there, in court, elected US Representatives and Senators standing behind Trump, tall and proud, staring down the judge, prosecutors, witnesses, press, and any others who would dare to hold God's man accountable.  P.T. Barnum would have made a killing with a freak show like that!

Prominent among the GOP pilgrims to Manhattan were all of the vice-presidential hopefuls that Trump is reportedly considering.  Tom Cotton, the junior senator from Arkansas was there, too, and while Tommy Boy wasn't known to be a contender when he took time off from work to go to the Big Apple, he has since been acknowledged by Trump as someone he is considering to be his second-in-command.

Trump has brought Cotton's name up over the past few days as someone who is "experienced" and who has the "ability to run a disciplined campaign," both qualities that could only benefit Trump, a politician who is constantly mired in chaos.  But Tom Cotton has other baggage that would detract from the "all-American boy" image that he tries to project - particularly on the subject of race.  

Tom Cotton has blocked judicial appointments of black and brown individuals on several occasions, and he was a leading Senate opponent to the confirmation of black Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court.   He has spoken out against race education in America's classrooms, and is especially critical of the findings of The New York Times' 1619 Project on the history of slavery.  Cotton views slavery as a "necessary evil" that helped to build America, and he sees critical analysis of the subject as generally being "left-wing propaganda."  During protests following the police killing of George Floyd, Cotton published an opinion piece in The New York Times entitled "Send in the Troops" in which he encouraged Trump to do just that.  

Yesterday Cotton may have gained a couple of steps on his rivals to become Trump's vice-presidential pick when he announced that he has placed an "Appeal to Heaven" flag on the wall outside of his senate office.  The flag, which was used by some insurrectionists during the Trump riots of January 6, 2021, has been in the news of late after it was discovered that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had flown it over his vacation home.  In announcing his display of the flag used by some insurrectionists, Cotton compared himself to George Washington and Mrs. Alito.

Tom Cotton is a skilled politician who is working hard to gain Donald Trump's attention and approval, and he probably has the empty chapstick tubes to prove it.    Trump would certainly be comfortable running with someone who is trying so very hard to be a mini-Trump, but would that be the best campaign strategy?  And what if they were elected and Cotton decided that he wanted to actually help run things?  Could Trump handle someone else vying for some of the attention?

Will Trump stoop to pick Cotton?

Be careful what you wish for Tom.  Maybe you and Mike Pence should get together over soft drinks and discuss it the awesomeness and awfulness of being Donald Trump's number two.

Just sayin' . . . 

One Ringy Dingy

 

by Pa Rock

Eternal Victim

Yesterday, on one of my few forays into town, I decided to stop by the cellular store and make sure that I will have phone coverage if I drive into Canada next month.  The nice young man who assisted me said that most of the plans cover Canada and Mexico, but if I would give him my name and number, he would check just to be sure.

It was a good thing I stopped to inquire because my over-priced, full-coverage plan did not include that coverage.  However, the young man said not to worry because he would fix me right up.  The new plan, which covers travels through Mexico and Canada, came with an adjustment in price - it was $12.00 a month cheaper!

Thanks, Verizon.  Now I am wondering why you could not have told me about this plan sooner!

Graceland Is Saved! Glory Be!

 

by Pa Rock

Fan of Auctions

Riley Keough was not amused when she recently learned that her old family home place, which she now owned in its entirety, was being sold at public auction due to a loan that her late mother had supposedly taken out against the property and never repaid.  The loan had been secured from a private lender in August of 2015 (some sources say 2018)  in the amount of $450,000, and with accumulated interest and assorted fees over the years, the total due was now $3.8 million.  The note holder announced in the local press that he intended to sell the property at a public auction to repay the obligation.

Ms. Keough is the 34-year-old daughter and only surviving child of Lisa Marie Presley - and the granddaughter of Elvis Presley.   The home place at the center of this controversy is Graceland, the Memphis mansion and 13.8 acre estate where Elvis spent the last twenty years of his life before passing away there in August of 1977.  Elvis is buried on the grounds of Graceland and so are his parents, daughter, and grandson.  

Riley Keough was not about to stand idly by while her birthright and heritage were auctioned off.   She attacked the move to auction off her property first in the press where she claimed that the documents used in the claim were fraudulent, and then in the courts where she sought a temporary restraining order to stop the sale.  A judge in Memphis granted the order and stopped the sale of the property.

Today it looks as though the aggrieved lender is backing off of his claim.  A woman listed as a notary on loan documents says that she never met the presumed borrower, Lisa Marie Presley, and the lender and his organization now seem to be in hasty retreat.  Court documents provided by the lender show addresses for his private lending business in Jacksonville, Florida, and Hollister and Kimberling City, Missouri, with all three addresses being post office boxes.

Graceland was constructed for its original owners, Thomas and Ruth Moore, in 1939, and Elvis bought it from Ruth Brown Moore on March 19th, 1957, for $102,500.   (That would be about $1.1 million today, but the estate is now valued nearer to $400 million, obviously thanks to Elvis's fame.). Today the mansion is a museum and pay tours fun throughout the day on most days

I visited Graceland once in the very early 1980's while sponsoring a high school senior trip.    In a posting in this blog on September 11, 2013, entitled "Along the Tourist Trap Trail," I had this to say about that visit:

"The Graceland mansion was not open to the public at that time because one of Elvis's elderly aunts was still living there.  Our visit was carefully restrained to the front wall of the property - which was covered with messages from die-hard fans, and the grounds around the graves.  Our bus driver, also a school employee and trip sponsor, slipped off and walked around the big house where he managed to meet the person responsible for caring for the King's cars.

"Today Graceland itself - the house - is open to tourists for forty dollars a pop, and an extra forty will buy and extended special tour that allows tourists to see the Presley cars and his personal jet."

Keep up the good work, Riley.  Money lenders alway bear close scrutiny!

Palestine Rising

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat formally proclaimed an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital on November 15th, 1988.  Arafat made that declaration in Algiers, and just a few minutes later the government of Algeria became the first to officially recognize the existence of  the new Palestinian state.   Today 142 of 193 member countries of the United Nations recognize Palestinian statehood, and by next Tuesday three more UN members - Ireland, Spain, and Norway - will officially join the majority of the world's countries in recognizing the state of Palestine.

Palestine, which has been an "observer" state at the United Nations since 2012, tried for a second time to gain full admission as a member state last month, but that move was vetoed by the United States, a close ally of Israel's that does not officially recognize Palestinian statehood.

Malta and Slovenia both say that they will recognize the state of Palestine when the time is right, and Australia and France are also talking about eventual recognition.

The Jews and the Palestinians have both suffered removal from their homelands and attempts of annihilation as a people, yet both survive.  Many see the only path to a lasting peace as being a two-state solution, a world in which there is a free and independent Israel along with a free and independent Palestine, but that cannot happen as long as both parties refuse to share in that vision and instead pursue a strategy of trying to eliminate the other.    War extends the suffering, but it will not end anything.

The world community is having its say, one country at a time.  At some point we need to start listening.

Crossing American Borders - and "Nice" Immigrants

 

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

I am planning an extended road trip next month that may include a sight-seeing jaunt up into the Prairie Provinces of Canada and will ultimately take me to see my daughter and her family in Salem, Oregon.  I have driven to Oregon three times in the past, twice from Missouri and once from Arizona, and have seen most of the standard tourist traps along the way,  This time I wanted to branch out a little and take in some new sights.  I'll literally be going where the road - or the mood - takes me.

Right now I anticipate leaving the Kansas City area early on the morning of either June 17th or 18th.  I will blog about the trip daily in this space.

In preparation for the trip I have been creating and filling a supply list and poring over atlases as I plan some of the basics of the itinerary.  This morning I had a visit with my primary medical physician so that he could check under the hood and deem me fit to travel - which, after an overdue tetanus shot, he did.  I will also have the Kia Soul checked out and serviced a few days before I cast off.  I am trying to cover all of my bases.

Studying the atlases has started me thinking about the United States' literal place in the world.  There is lots of talk in tbis country, especially from the right-wing noise machine, about "border" issues, and one almost begins to feel that we are a single-border country, which is not true.   From an aerial perspective the continental US (which excludes Alaska, Hawaii, and our island territories) is a boxed-in nation.   We have the Pacific Ocean running down the entire west side of the country, and the Atlantic on the east, Canada and the Great Lakes covering our northern border, and the Caribbean Sea and Mexico to the south.

Our two land borders, those with Canada and Mexico, are vastly different in length and in how they are operated.

According to my close, personal friend, ChatGPT, the land border between the United States and Mexico is 1,954 miles in length and has 48 official land crossing points.  The US-Canadian border 5,525 miles long (more than 2.8 times longer than our border with Mexico, and 119 official land crossing points - more than twice as many as we have with Mexico.

I have only crossed the land border with Mexico one time - on Saturday, November 23, 2007 and, as described in my blog posting of that date, crossing into and out of Mexico was phenomenally easy.  I left my car at a McDonalds in Nogales, Arizona (for a $4.00 fee), and walked across the border into Mexico.   Entering that foreign nation was a breeze.   All I had to do was just step through a turnstile, no ID requested.  Upon returning to the USA, I presented my passport to a bored US border agent who didn't even look at it.  Mexican nationals, however, had to present specific ID which was read by a scanner.   There was also a border patrol checkpoint on the highway twenty miles north of Nogales through which the traffic was slowly funneled.  The old white man with the white hair in the Chevy Cavalier convertible was waved right on through.

In the early 1990's my family and I had a much more difficult time getting into Ontario, Canada, at the land (bridge) crossing in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.  Canadian agents had us completely empty our large Chevy van, which was carrying five people and a ton of luggage and camping gear, and then they went trough everything, piece-by-stinking-piece.  Fortunately, when we crossed back into the US along the Maine border (from beautiful Quebec) a few days later, it was hassle-free.

There is no lesson in all of that border history, except this:  Be prepared.  But hey, I learned that in Boy Scouts.

I have never had a problem entering the US from any direction, even by air, because, I suspect, many officials working the border have a Donald Trump view of things.  There are immigrants from what Trump terms "shithole" countries, such as Haiti (his example, not mine) and they get scrutinized much harder that immigrants from "nice" countries like Norway (again, his example).  Trump is so fond of immigrants from "nice" countries that he has married two of them.

Perhaps some Canadian border agents see the United States as a "shithole" country.  I will know more about that after my trip!

(I once listened to an older, aggravated Canadian tourist - in Mexico of all places - berate the United States over its abhorrently lax gun laws.  When she had finished venting her spleen, I told her that I could not agree more, and then picked up her check and paid for the drink that she had been enjoying.  I considered that to be a nice gesture, but I think Trump's definition of "nice" has more to do with skin tone than it does with being courteous to strangers!)

Incivility Roils and Rules American Politics

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A couple of days ago I used this space to recount some rather creative name-calling that had occurred between a few members of Congress at a nighttime committee hearing, a meeting in which there were reports that some members had been consuming alcohol.  The meeting began going off the rails when Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, asked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia,about the relevance of a question that Greene had just asked.   Greene responded by saying that perhaps Ms. Crockett was unable to read committee documents because of her "fake eyelashes" - and from that point on the session quickly spiraled out of control.  

Incivility is running rampant in our nation's capital and at the highest levels of government, and it is a relatively new phenomenon.    Yes, there were some wags who referred to Richard Nixon as "Tricky Dick" sixty years ago, and thirty years ago we heard the occasional "Slick Willie" used to describe Bill Clinton.    Remarks like those are elementary school taunts compared to what we are having to put up with now - and I propose that this new and very egregious wave of incivility invaded our nation in the 2016 presidential election with the emergence of Donald John Trump.

Trump grew up in a protected environment that gave him the opportunity to learn to manipulate and bully others.  He has spent his entire life being the loudest, most obnoxious person in the room, and it has served him well.   One of his signature moments during the 2016 campaign was when he referred to Hillary Clinton, a former US Secretary of State, US Senator from New York, and First Lady of the United States, as "such a nasty woman" to her face,  live on the national debate stage.  Instead of the debate moderators, or Mrs. Clinton, stopping the debate at that point, as they should have done, the event proceeded and the concept of decency in politics washed away in its wake.

Today American politics is a dangerously backed-up sewer whose fetid waters wend their way through all three branches of government.  Members of the House and Senate are far more skilled at hurling personal insults at one another than they are at working together to pass legislation.  They revel in partisan rancor, and worry more about polishing soundbites and writing tweets that will go viral than they do about improving the lives of anyone other than themselves.

The courts have not been immune from the growing stench of politics.  The Roberts' Supreme Court has faced a growing tide of ethics complaints over the past several years.  This week Justice Clarence Thomas described Washington, DC, as a "hideous place" and said that he and his wife (an open supporter of the January 6th insurrection) have faced "lies" and "nastiness" from critics.  A few days ago there were stories in the national press that claimed Martha-Ann Alito, the wife of Justice Samuel Alito, had been in a political disagreement with a neighbor that included the neighbor calling her "the 'c' word," and Mrs. Alito retaliating by placing an upside-down US flag - a symbol of the insurrection - in her and Samuel's yard.

But the major thrust of incivility in our national government remains at the executive level and it still, as it did in 2016, revolves around and focuses on Donald Trump.  The former President wallows in name-calling;  he relishes it.    News stories about Trump seem to constantly bring up the topic of "gag orders,"  legal measures that judges find necessary because of Trump's propensity to spew lies and insults, often about people who are involved in the numerous legal proceedings against him.  He attacks judges, lawyers, and witnesses (and sometimes even their relatives) with a total disregard of fairness, safety, or even truth.

Trump's verbal attacks on his likely opponent in the 2024 general election, President Joe Biden, are seldom anything more that just plain, old-fashioned name-calling, like when he referred to Hillary as "such a nasty woman."  Trump fixates on "Sleepy Joe," or "Crooked Joe," or roars that Joe was "high as a kite," in much the same manner as an adolescent would shout at a rival while trying to a fight.

America has come a long way since 2016, however, and now some people who were perhaps raised better, are nevertheless rolling up their sleeves and beginning to fight back.  Marge Greene may zing a "fake eyelashes" remark with her peashooter wit, but it will not go unanswered.  Jasmine Crockett who operates a mental howitzer, was able to fire back her own assessment of Greene ("bleach blond, bad-built, butch body") well before the Georgia congresswoman could even begin to think about reloading.

Stormy Daniels did not hesitate on the witness stand when Trump's lawyer tried to embarrass her with a Daniels' tweet in which she had referred to Trump as an "Orange Turd."  Ms. Daniels told the lawyer from the witness stand that she "absolutely" was referring to Mr. Trump with that description.  The porn star and the lawyer bandied the term "orange turd" about several times, in fact, with Trump listening from just a few feet away.

(Some have noted that the "orange turd" description is not that far afield considering that the person to whom it was attached is basically oval in shape, somewhat lumpy, and generally orange in color - except. of course, for his tiny white hands.)

Others openly disparage Trump as well.  He was referred to as "Don Snoreleone" in social media because of his tendency to fall asleep during this New York City "hush money" trial, and just yesterday there was an opinion piece on the internet which referred to the former President as "Adderall J. Trump," a none-too-subtle response to his baseless assertion that Joe Biden must have been high on drugs to have delivered such a forceful State of the Union address.

Yup, name-calling 101, but as we used to say in grade school:  "He started it!"

Incivility roils and rules American politics!

I can remember when we were much better than that.

Bastard - and Dark Lord Elon!

by Pa Rock

Curmudgeon

Generally speaking, yesterday was a very nice day, at least the daylight portion of the day.

My sister and her oldest son drove out from northwest Arkansas for a visit.  It was the first time Abigail and I had seen each other since our trip to Oregon last July, and it has probably been three or four years since Justin and I last saw each other.  Their family lived in Mountain Home, Arkansas, which is fifty miles from here, when Justin and his siblings were in school, but they have been away from there for over thirty years.  Justin said that yesterday was his first trip ever to West Plains.

We did a tour of the town while they were here which concluded at a local restaurant for lunch.   While we were waiting for lunch to be served, which was delayed because the fryer "broke down," one of the waitresses came through pushing some sort of electric broom which appeared to be pulling dirt into a tray at the end of a long handle, a gizmo that I found to be intriguing.  Justin told me that his family has one of the robotic vacuums, the disc that scoots around on the floor sucking up dirt, and that they have named the vacuum "Walter."

My sister, Justin's mother, names her vehicles.  I know that she has had a "Fred" and an "Ethel," and at one point she had a green car whom she cheerfully referred to as "Kermit."  So I did not find the fact that her son has a vacuum cleaner named "Walter" to be too surprising.  He comes by it naturally!

As a general rule of thumb, I do not name inanimate objects or household appliances.  I've been involved in the naming of three children and a legion of pets and farm animals over the years - and given names to fictional characters whom I have invented, but until late last night I have never given a mechanical device a human name.

I wear a sensor under my arm that tracks my blood glucose level, and I carry around a monitor which reads that device and gives off an annoying series of three beeps when my blood sugar is too high, and four beeps when it is too low. and it keeps giving off those beeps for several minutes or until I respond by doing an actual read to see what my blood sugar level is.  This morning, just within the last hour, I have gone from a series of four beeps to a series of three beeps - as a result of eating breakfast while I sat at the computer typing.

The monitoring system is a very helpful annoyance, and it can be particularly infuriating when it goes off in the middle of the night.  When it goes off, the monitor not only starts beeping, but the screen lights up as well.  Sudden sound and light in the middle of the night can play hell with an old person's sleep patterns.

(I keep a bag of cookies next to the bed in the event of a low blood sugar reading, and when those four beeps wake me, I eat a couple of cookies and then try to get back to sleep.  But when the high sugar alarm goes off, a three-beeper, there is not a lot a person can do - drink some water and lay there waiting to expire or go back to sleep.)

I have learned to be very careful about what I eat before going to bed and am generally able to keep the alarm from going off during thee night - which proves its value as an operant conditioner.  (Did I get that right?  It's been awhile since B.F. Skinner and I had a serious discourse.)   But the reader, which I place on the bedside table at night, will also go off when I am turned in such a way as to interfere with its reception of the signal from the sensor that is attached to the underside of my arm.  (To complicate that, the sensor lasts two weeks, and I switch arms each time I change sensors - so if I learn to lay in bed one way to keep the sensor from going off, two weeks later all of that conditioning goes out the window and I have to quickly adjust to sleeping another way.  I thought retirement was supposed to be easy!)

Last night at 1:31 a.m., according to the clock on the bedside table, my glucose monitor started beeping, just a series of short beeps indicating that it had lost the signal.  "Bastard!"  I said, sitting up in bed and reaching for the offensive device.   I quickly checked my blood sugar and found that it, too, was one-thirty-one, a very good reading in the middle of the acceptable range.  (But were the matching numbers a weird coincidence, or something more nefarious engineered by Dark Lord Elon?)  Then I did what all elderly men do when they are rudely awakened in the middle of the night.  I got out of bed and stumbled off to the bathroom.  Joe Biden does it, Donald Trump does it, and I do it.

I got back in bed a few minutes later, and while staring at the ceiling for most of the rest of the night I had plenty of time to think about things, and one of the things that slowly trudged across my very tired mental landscape was the naming of inanimate objects. Sometime around 4:00 a.m. I decided that "Bastard" was a fairly appropriate moniker for my blood-glucose reader.

So, "Bastard" it is!

(Follow-up note:  This morning my blood pressure was 124 over 84, the exact same reading as it was yesterday morning. I think my number universe may be shrinking, so it may be a good time to dust off my old lotto numbers and begin playing them again.  That's how my mind works when I don't get enough sleep!)

I'm thinking of you, Bastard - and of you, Dark Lord Elon!

Fetterman Apologizes to The Jerry Springer Show

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Just last week I had the pleasure of listening to an extended interview with Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas on the political podcast, "Pod Save America."  She is well-versed on a wide array of issues affecting not only her own district, but also the entire country, and she is razor sharp.   Duller minds who rise to challenge her do so at their own peril.

Chaos broke out last night at a meeting of the House Oversight Committee which was being held in the US Capitol.

That committee was trying to pass a motion to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over tapes of a Justice Department interview with President Biden.  The Justice Department had provided a full transcript of the interview in question, but Republicans were seeking the actual voice recordings, presumably to chop them up and use them in election campaign ads.

As yesterday's meeting was occurring, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, asked if any of the Democratic members of the committee had employed the daughter of Judge Merchan, the jurist who is conducting the Trump hush-money trial in New York City.  At that point Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, said "Please tell me what that has to do with Merrick Garland."

Rep. Greene was apparently not in the mood to be lectured, however mildly, by the lady from Texas, and she responded, "I don't think you know what you are here for.  I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you are reading."  There was some thought expressed after the incident that Greene might have made that particular remark in an attempt to associate Crockett, who is black, with the ghetto.

At about that point, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, entered the fray and referred to Greene's remarks as "disgusting" and "unacceptable," before adding "How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person." More commentary was exchanged between Ocasio-Cortez and Greene, with Greene finally agreeing to withdraw her remark about the fake eyelashes from the record - but refusing to apologize to Rep. Crockett.  At one point in the melee, Rep. Greene tried to goad Rep. Ocasio-Cortez into debating her, but the New York congresswoman declined, leading Ms. Greene to declare that Ms. Ocasio-Corte did not have "enough intelligence" to debate her.

When Chairman Comer finally regained some semblance of control over his committee, he said that Rep. Greene's insult (the fake eyelash statement) did not violate House rules, to which Rep. Crockett responded:  

"If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody's bleach blond, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?"

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, took offense at what appeared to be a not-so-subtle disparagement of Ms. Greene, and demanded that Ms. Crockett's comment about the "bleach blond, bad-built, butch body" be stricken from the record - to which Ms. Crockett responded: 

"I'm trying to get clarification.  Don't tell me to calm down, because ya'll talk noise and then you can't take it, because if I come and talk shit about her, ya'll gonna have a problem."

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican of Colorado, and a controversial political character in her own right, said that she had been embarrassed by Ms. Greene's behavior.  House Speaker Mike Johnson described the evening's events at the Oversight Committee hearing as "not a good look for Congress."

One member said that there was drinking occurring by some members before and during the late-night committee hearing.

The Oversight Committee eventually passed a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress,  It passed on a party-line vote of 23-19.

"In the past I've described the US House as The Jerry Springer Show.  Today, I'm apologizing to The Jerry Springer Show." 

             US Senator John Fetterman, yesterday on X (Twitter)

Pomp and Circumstance, and Politics

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One of my favorite memories of being a high school principal, and even a middle school principal, was helping to organize and run the graduation ceremonies.  The processionals, the speeches, the awarding of diplomas, the music, the crying, the happy students and families, the relieved teachers, the caps flying through the air, the recessionals, and the utter sense of relief once they were all out the door and everything was quiet again.

I actually miss all of that.

Donald Trump may be going to a high school graduation this afternoon, that of his son, Barron, who is graduating from high school at the private Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida.  Trump was supposed to be back in court in New York today, but he whined (as Trump is prone to do) that being in court would cause him to miss the high school graduation of his much loved youngest child, what's his name.  Judge Merchan, not wanting to be perceived as a dick, quietly acceded to Trump's "request," and cancelled today's court proceedings.

Donald Trump, a man who would not fit most people's idea of a stellar parent, apparently did not attend the high school graduations of his three oldest children.   Perhaps it is hard for him to sit patiently in gatherings in which he is not the absolute focus of everyone's attention.

Of course, whether Daddy ends up going to Barron's graduation or not, the youngest son will not be the old man's sole focus of the day.  Trump, after court had been cancelled, also accepted an invitation to be the main speaker of the Minnesota Republican Party's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner which is being held this evening in St. Paul.

The flight distance between Miami, Florida, and St. Paul, Minnesota, is 1,506 miles.

The campaign says Trump will be at both events.   That's a very busy day for an elderly person like Donald, but maybe he can catch a nap on the plane.

Attack of the Killer Whales

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Something odd is happening in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Portugal and on into the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strip of water that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea - and also Europe from Africa.   Yachts are being sunk in that area, and not by pirates or terrorists, but rather by Orcas, an extremely large type of dolphin, black and white in color, who resemble whales and are often referred to as "killer whales."  Orcas and whales are both beautiful sea mammals which can pose serious threats to humans, but orcas, which have teeth, are generally regarded as more likely to be aggressive toward humans than whales.

This past Sunday morning a couple were peacefully sailing their yacht through the Strait of Gibraltar when they felt a sudden thumping to their vessel.  They soon discovered that their luxury vessel was under attack from a pod of orcas who were relentlessly pounding the ship's hull with their bodies.  A leak developed at the rudder which could not be fixed, and the couple radioed for help.  They were eventually picked up by a passing oil tanker, and their yacht sank.

Score one for the killer whales.

Actually the killer whales have a long list of victories in that particular area of the world.  The attacks began four years ago this month when just a few orcas started attacking smaller vessels, and gradually the number of participating orcas increased, as did the size of the vessels that they were attacking.  People who study the behavior of animals have come up with multiple theories to explain the aggressive behavior,  from the attacks that were originally generated were revenge for some misdeed done to the orcas by humans, to  the attacks were originally play behavior that has since been copied and built upon.

Researchers are reporting as many as 700 incidents between orcas and sailing vessels in that area since May of 2020, most with little or no harm or damage, but five vessels have been sunk as a result of attacks by the sea mammals.    Fortunately there were no deaths reported with those sinkings.   People manning smaller vessels, like sailboats or yachts, are being encouraged to shut down their engines if they encounter a pod of orcas in that region, and to quit manning their rudders.  Taking those actions apparently cause the highly intelligent creatures to lose interest in the boats.

But for those intent on puttering their million dollar status symbols through the Strait of Gibraltar, just know that a pod of killer whales will not be as in awe of your wealth as you are.  To them your big boat will be nothing more than an afternoon's entertainment.

And I'm okay with that.

Too Much of a Bob Thing

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Apparently twenty-eight individuals are still listed as candidates for governor of Washington state in the upcoming August primary elections.  I say "still" because two others dropped out of the race this past Monday, the last day on which candidates could withdraw.  Both of those two had only been in the race over the weekend, since late on the preceding Friday, the last day in which they could have filed and gotten their names on the ballot.  In addition to filing at the last minute for the same office, and dropping out at the last minute, the pair had one other thing in common:  they were both named "Bob Ferguson."

There is also another "Bob Ferguson" who is still in that race, the state's current attorney general who had filed early in the final week of filing.  When two more candidates with the exact same name as him filed a few days later, the attorney general of Washington and gubernatorial candidate smelled a pair of rats.  He reasoned, quite reasonably, that the other two Bob's might just be on the ballot to interfere with the election by causing confusion among the voters.

All three Bobs were running as Democrats.

The state of Washington has a statute covering that particular issue.  It states that a person can be guilty of a class B felony for filing for public office using "a surname similar to one who has already filed for the same office, and whose political reputation is widely known, with intent to confuse and mislead the electors by capitalizing on the public reputation of the candidate who had previously filed."

The campaign of Attorney General Bob Ferguson threatened legal action if the other two did not withdraw by the deadline of 5:00 p.m. this past Monday.  Both of the other Bobs withdrew, and both were vocally unhappy with what they regarded as being forced off the ballot.

The Bobs who withdrew had been represented by the same campaign manager, a local conservative activist.  Coincidence?  Probably not.

(I can't help but wish that southeast Missouri had a few more Jason Smiths who were interested in politics!)

What's in YOUR Spam Folder?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I received an email from a Missouri politician this morning, a man that I actually support, and he was worked into a lather over the fact that Google shuffles some of his fundraising emails off into people's spam folders.  

(Today's email began with the politician promising that he would not be using this particular correspondence to ask for money, but there was, of course, a "Donate" button at the end of the missive.)

I know that Google's email service, Gmail, is one of the most popular in the US because all of my friends and most of my family members use Gmail accounts.  The politician's email today began by saying that over half the email in the United States is now generated through Gmail.  That's a very significant, and concerning, share of the market.  As my correspondent pointed out, it is concerning because Google controls what makes its way into my inbox as well as what gets shuffled off into my spam folder.

The politician further explained that two years ago Google instituted a "verified sender program," a blue check service that ensured political campaigns which complied and got verified, would have all of their emails delivered to the inboxes (and not the spam folders) of the individuals to whom they were addressed.  The politician who wrote to me about this issue, a gentleman of the populist persuasion, said that guarantee helped to considerably increase small dollar donations to political campaigns.

(If campaigns could reach you, they could get their hands in your pocket, but if Google shuffled them off to spam land, donations suffered.)

This year Google has apparently dropped its "verified sender program," and small dollar political donations have also dropped.  My correspondent lamented:

"When emails are blocked, and small-dollar donations dip as a result, politicians begin to rely more heavily on those shady mega-donors and massive corporations who’ve made it their business to muck up our political process. And we already know how dangerous that is for our democracy."

I routinely empty my spam folder and trash folder every couple of weeks because someone told he that will help keep the speed up on my very slow internet connection, so when I went to my spam folder this morning to check, there were only fifty-some communications, all unread.  One was from the politician who had warmed me that Google was filtering away things that I might want to know.  There were, of course, several obvious scams of which I was glad that I had not had to waste time, and an assortment of other ads that were of no interest to me.  Basically, it looked as though Google had done a fairly good job of sifting through the garbage.

But I still understand the politician's point and his concern, and it concerns me that one of the largest corporations in America has the power to pick and choose what reaches me on my desktop.  The politician asked that I help make others aware of this corporate ability to censor what we see in our email, and I have just done that.  

And from this point forward I will check my spam folder before deleting.  I should have been doing that anyway.

Forewarned is forearmed.  If the dictatorship arrives, we are going to need every communication tool that we can muster, and they should be fully operational.

Check those spam folders.  Make it a habit!

Being Armed While Black Can be a Deadly Offense

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There has been another awful story in the press about a police shooting of a young black man. It happened a week ago last Friday afternoon in the Florida panhandle.

Roger Fortson was a twenty-three-year-old senior airman with the United States Air Force, and he was at home in his apartment in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, participating in a video chat with his girlfriend when someone knocked at his door. 

"Who is it?"  he asked.  

When there was no response, he walked to the door and stared through the peephole, but could see no one outside, so he went back to where he had been sitting and resumed the call.  Then there was a louder, more forceful knock.  At that point Airman Fortson picked up his legally-owned pistol and was walking back to the door when an officer with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Department burst in.  The officer, seeing the young black man holding a pistol that was pointed downward toward the floor, immediately opened fire without issuing any warning and pumped four rounds into the airman's chest.  When the victim was on the floor and bleeding, the deputy said "Drop the gun."

Airman Fortson replied, "It's over there.  I don't have it."  The officer called for emergency medical services and the young shooting victim was taken to a local hospital where he died.

The police had been called to the apartment complex by another tenant who reported a couple fighting in one of the apartments.  When the responding officer arrived, she led him to the area where she had heard the commotion and gave the officer Fortson's apartment number.  There was no one else in the apartment at the time of the shooting, leading the Fortson family attorney, Ben Crump, to speculate that the woman mistakenly directed the officer to the wrong apartment.  

The officer involved in the shooting of Roger Fortson had his body camera on during the entire incident, and Airman Fortson's girlfriend also maintained her open video chat the shooting and the follow-up police search of the apartment.  The shooting is being investigated by the state of Florida, and there should be plenty of first-hand evidence from which to make a determination as to the cause of the young man's death.

Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child, was shot and killed by a 26-year-old white Cleveland policeman in 2014 as he was carrying a displaying a toy gun.  The officer was later fired for failing to report that he had been released by a previous police employer for being "an emotionally unstable recruit and unfit for duty,"  and his current employer had failed to adequately check the young policeman's background.

Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black man was out for a drive with his girlfriend in St. Paul, Minnesota in July of 2016 when he was pulled over by the police during a routine check.  He told the police that he had a license to carry a gun and had one in his possession.  He was shot and killed by police as he was reaching for that license.  His girlfriend live-streamed in shooting on Facebook.

In March of 2020 police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, used a "no-knock"warrant as justification to break down the door of the apartment of Breonna Taylor, a black, 26-year-old emergency room technician.  The police were looking for evidence related to drug sales at another residence in which an ex-boyfriend of Ms. Taylor's and been involved.  She and her current boyfriend were in bed when the police used a battering ram to open the door, and the current boyfriend managed to reach his gun and fire one shot which hit a policeman in the thigh.  The police returned fire, and the young medical professional was killed.  It was later determined that police had lied as part of the justification for the warrant.

A 2020 study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that black people were more than three times as likely to be killed by police during an encounter than white people.

Senior Airman Roger Fortson never pointed his gun at the intruder and he would have probably been safer without it.  The NRA tells us that guns make us safer, but by "us," they only mean "some of us."

Being armed while black can be a deadly offense.

Chicago Rising

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Years ago when people wanted to know the news they went primarily to radio or television and tuned into stations that offered fairly consistent coverage from network-to-network or station-to-station.  People like Huntley and Brinkley and Cronkite told us what was going on, and we could rely on them for honest coverage.  Every school library, doctor's office, and many private homes also had copies of dependable news magazines like 'Time" and "Newsweek," and all average-sized cities and even many small towns also and their own daily or weekly newspapers.

That all went to hell in a hand basket a couple of decades ago with the advent of the agenda-driven Fox News Network and the arrival of the internet with its ever-increasing multitude of news sources.  Today news is fragmented and sources vary greatly with most having a particular slant or interest designed to appeal to a particular segment of the public.  When people want to see or read the news, they have many choices and can select ones whose views on the world make them feel most comfortable.  And wallowing in one's comfort zone, which I tend to do, leaves the news consumer with news that has been primarily selected or designed to fit his or her already-existing world view.

My "news" comes from a variety of left-of-center choices through internet news sites as well as a couple of political podcasts.  From those sources I have heard, repeatedly, that the presidential election this year will be very close, but the Joe Biden will manage to pull out a victory.  We should all be aware and concerned, and we should definitely all vote, but don't panic and put the house on the market before the election because sanity will win out in the end and Biden will prevail.

Stay calm.

Yes, my news sources admit that immigration issues and border security are a big deal and a solidifying factor for some Trump supporters, especially the ones who haven't worked in years and feel the Mexicans are coming here to steal their jobs.  The Democratic Senate and Joe Biden had a bill that would have eased the border situation, but Donald Trump told the House to turn it down because he needed chaos at the border as a campaign issue, so the House killed it.   The border is now officially Trump's problem, and Jim Bob down the road from where I live is going to understand the subtlety of that and change his vote to Biden.

Right.

All of my news sources feel confident that the issue of abortion will rule the day, and that it will be particularly devastating for Republicans in states which manage to have any abortion-related issue on the ballot in November.  Abortion, they argue, is such a political hot potato that even Trump is trying to distance himself from it.  There is plenty of anecdotal evidence - from the results of abortion-related ballot measures since the Dobbs' decision - that lefty news sources may likely be right on the major impact of abortion on the presidential election of 2024 - but will it be the tail that ultimately wags the dog?

The survival of democracy should be a pivotal issue in 2024, but it's not.  Trump's betrayal of the Constitution  through his trying to stay in power in January of 2021 by instigating an uprising should have resulted in his never being allowed to run for public office again, but the Senate failed in its duty to hold him accountable for the acts of insurrection.  Now he is talking in terms of becoming a "dictator on day one" of his next administration, and people just disregard him - like they do his continuing flow of bull excrement.  Trump may be lazy and inattentive to the needs of the country, but he surrounds himself with people who are very, very dangerous.

Another issue is the age thing.  Biden will almost be eighty-two on Election Day, and Trump will be seventy-eight.  The average life expectancy for a white male in the US is 76.3 years, so both Biden and Trump are well passed their use-by dates.  Biden's press, even on left-of-center sites, is that he is old.   Trump's press, at least lately, is that he was banging a porn star.  Age is not the predominant issue right now, but if it does come to be the dominant issue, Biden will lose.

The Israeli war on Hamas and the indiscriminate attacks on the Palestinian civilians in Gaza will be another important issue in the upcoming campaign.  Joe Biden hopped on Israel's war bandwagon on October 7th with a full-throated endorsement of the counter-offensive, and he is now seen by many as a part-owner of the horror and carnage that ensued.  Now Biden is stuck between his political left-flank who are shocked and angry about the plight of the Palestinians, and the Republicans who are egging him on to do more to support Israel.  And Bibi Netanyahu, the leader of Israel who has actively interfered in every US Presidential election since 2008 - is doing everything he can to use the US political situation to hold Biden in check.

Many young people could choose to stay home on Election Day.  They are principled and obstinate - just like Joe Biden.  If young people stay home, Biden loses.

Of course many of America's college youth have already had their day in the sun with regard to Israel's brutal treatment of the Palestinians.  Demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of Gaza occurred on university campuses across the US this spring, and Republicans tried to make political hay from the demonstrations by characterizing them as proof of Biden's weakness and affinity for radicals.

But the war in Gaza drags on, and American demonstrations against the war are likely to drag on as well.  This past week there was a lead article on the internet news site, "Politico," by Jonathan Martin entitled "The DNC Is Preparing for the Worst in Chicago - Without the Help of the City's Mayor."  Chicago will be the site of this year's Democratic National Convention, and it brings back memories of an earlier Democratic convention that was held there fifty-six years ago.

Young people protesting the US involvement in the Vietnam War filled the streets of downtown Chicago during the Democratic Convention of 1968, and the city's megalomaniac mayor, Richard J. Daley, loosed the city's police on them with deadly force, and the resultant visuals played on the television newscasts across America and helped to send Republican Richard Nixon to the White House in that year's election.

Martin's piece in "Politico" said that Democratic officials this year fear an attempt by youthful protesters to again turn the convention into mayhem much like the protesters did in 1968, but this year, instead of having an authoritarian mayor to rely on to help beat the protesters into submission, the current mayor, Brandon Johnson, is more apt to be politically aligned with the protest movement.  

Democratic officials will run the convention, and the mayor runs the city.  The people inside of the convention have begun work to limit opportunities for protesters to be active.  They are working to make it as "virtual" as possible with limited public involvement, and to have the floor of the convention managed by politicians who are adept at crowd control.  And instead of relying on the mayor for support, they have turned to the state's Democratic governor, J.B. Pritzker, to stand in the wings and be ready to respond if needed.  Pritzker has indicated that he could send in the National Guard if the Chicago police request assistance - a move that seems to be aimed at circumventing the mayor.

Some might argue that Democrats have not learned any of the lessons from their overreaction to the protests in 1968, and that they are setting the stage for a repeat of that political fiasco - in fact, I might argue that!

It should be a very close race his November between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but if the Democratic Party gives the young people of Chicago and America no choice but to rise in revolt, you can stick a fork in Joe Biden because he will be done.

Florida Teen Turns Down Free Week in Milwaukee

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I mentioned in this space yesterday that eighteen-year-old Barron Trump, the 6'7" son of Donald and Melania Trump, would be one of four Trump children serving as delegates from Florida to the Republican National Convention which will be held in mid-July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  It now turns out that when the Florida GOP made that announcement, they had failed to clear it with Barron, or at least with his mother.  Melania's office put out a statement yesterday saying that her son "regretfully" declines the invitation to be a Republican delegate to the convention because of "prior commitments."

Palm Beach or Milwaukee?  It's such a tough choice!

It is unclear at this point whether "prior commitments" is Slovenian for "up yours" or not.

Surely a bright, energetic eighteen-year-old who is preparing to go to college in the fall will have more important and fun things to do this summer than trying to steer clear of the drunken, pervy Republicans who will be stumbling around the streets of Milwaukee.

Smart move, young man.  Have a great summer!

Pests

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The cicadas are already climbing out of the ground in the Midwest and making themselves known by their horrendous noise as they seek partners for purposes of procreation.  This year there are more cicadas and more noise than usual as two major broods, those that emerge every thirteen years and those that emerge every seventeen years, are all appearing at the same time - the first time that has happened since 1803.  As soon as all of the jar flies are sexually sated, the females will burrow back into the ground and lay eggs - and, in my area - a new generation will dig their way out of the ground thirteen years later in 2037.

Our big dog, Gypsy, has developed a taste for cicadas, which she considers a crunchy treat.  She spends most evenings frolicking outdoors capturing the noisy insects in her scoop-shovel mouth, and then munching contentedly until long after dark.  It's a dog's life!

But the cicadas aren't the only pests that will be invading the Midwest this year.  The national Republican Party will be convening in Milwaukee in mid-July and the Democrats will unpack their show in Chicago in August.

In addition to the Republicans coronating King Donald the Flatulent for the third convention in a row, the party will also be shining the bright lights of adoration on many Trump family members.  Donald will be there, of course, bloviating about migrant "animals," Crooked Joe, corrupt judges, and anyone else who fails to heap near constant adoration upon him.  Melania, Donald's wife and the former First Lady, should also be in town, and, depending on the local shopping scene, may appear at the convention as well.  

Laua Trump, Donald's daughter-in-law and the person whom Donald ordered to be named as the co-chair of the Republican Party, will be at the convention in Milwaukee, ostensibly to help run things, and certainly to do whatever is necessary to keep the focus on the glory of her father-in-law.

Yesterday the Florida Republican Party announced that Barron Trump, Donald and Melania's kid who is eighteen-years-old and about to graduate from high school in West Palm Beach, will be an at-large delegate from Florida to the Republican National Convention.  Other members of the Florida delegation will include Eric Trump (Lara's husband and Donald's son by Ivana), Donald Trump, Jr. (also the spawn of Donald and Ivana), Kimberly Guilfoyle (Don Jr's fiancee), Tiffany Trump Boulos (Donald's daughter by Marla Maples), and Michael Boulos (Tiffany's husband).

The cicadas will probably wind up being less annoying and easier to deal with than the Republican delegation from Florida!