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COVID Diaries Pt. 8

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Suppressing the Vote

This current shitstorm we are in with COVID-19 could have been lessened if we had actual leadership in the White House.  But instead, there are a lot of things all coupled together that have been designed to keep us from voting this election.

Let’s start with the pandemic itself.   Because early surges were all in blue states, Eric Kushner pushed the administration to let states handle the pandemic on their own with little help or guidance from the federal government.  This was political.  If blue states had all of the problems, those voters would be more likely to vote red.

In addition, they slow rolled or even completely ignored states needs for increased testing.  Because more tests would show more positives which would make them look bad.  Even now, there are reports of long waits on testing, sometimes even taking 10-14 days which really hinders tracing of who those people came in contact with.

The next piece is the president’s attack on voting by mail.  This administration knows that if more people can easily vote, the Republicans are going to lose.  All the polls show this.  So, the president has been saying over and over again that voting by mail will make this election fraudulent.  He’s already setting the stage to say everything was “rigged” come the results.

But it doesn’t stop there. They have also placed a crony in charge of the United States Postal Service.  Current Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has made a lot of changes recently that are causing a backlog in mail deliveries.  Almost every state has a rule that something mailed before the election that arrives AFTER the election is automatically disqualified and doesn’t count.

Slowing down mail delivery is a way for fewer votes to actually count, which helps their cause.

We can get social security, credit cards, legal documents and much more by mail.  But safely voting by mail during a pandemic is getting attacked.  It’s on purpose, to help them win.

Next, the orange Twitter monster also suggested DELAYING the election due to the pandemic.  Many people have pushed back on this, and it’s not even legal to do so, but the fact that he suggested it is appalling.   I mean, he wants to risk the lives of our children in schools and get everyone back to work even though 155 thousand people are dead, but he doesn’t want to allow YOU to safely vote by mail.  By the way, himself and pretty much everyone on his staff has voted by mail, multiple times.

Oh, and Hong Kong delayed their election by a year and the White House has condemned that action, ONE DAY AFTER the president suggested it here.  It’s all about what is good for his re-election chances.  He doesn’t care about anyone or anything other than himself.

Finally, one of the most insidious things I hadn’t thought about popped up on Twitter.

Yesterday was the last day for the previous stimulus bill.   When it ended, people on unemployment lost their $600 a week additional benefit, and more importantly, the federal ban on evictions expired.  That means landlords can now evict anyone that hasn’t been able to pay during this pandemic.

Now the Senate could and SHOULD have been working around the clock for the next round of stimulus to help the American people who are struggling.   But they didn’t and now millions of people could become homeless.  This will affect lower income families and people of color particularly hard.

But there is another angle here.   What happens to people who have to move or become homeless when it comes time to vote?  You vote based on your address, and what if your address changes 95 days before the election?   Will you be allowed to vote, or will that suppress your ability to vote in the election?  This is a big deal, and quite frankly I think the Republicans in the Senate have dragged their feet on purpose to cause this outcome.  It’s absolutely repugnant.

Google the 14 signs of Fascism.  The president has hit every single one now including fraudulent elections.  He just openly said we should push the election back, he’s trying to suppress users voting by mail, evictions could help his cause.  Hell, you could even say the last election was fraudulent because of Russian interference.  But you cannot deny fascist ideology this administration promotes.

He wants to be a dictator.  Do not let him.

COVID Diaries Pt. 7

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Old fashioned fascism will take it away

I’m kind of in disbelief today.  I guess I shouldn’t be, as this follows patterns from the Orange in Chief.  Anyway, our president sent Department of Homeland Security officers to Portland, Oregon.  These officers were driving unmarked rental vans, wearing camo with no identifying gear (names etc.) and these officers were snatching people from the street without charging them and throwing them into vans and taking them to unknown locations to interrogate.   

They let everyone go, especially when they asked for their lawyers.

This should piss everyone off.  Random federal officers snatching people from the streets is something that happens in dictatorships.  This is something we condemn whenever it happens in other countries.  But it’s happening in America.

After the military basically called the president out for using them against their own people at Lafayette Square, he knew he couldn’t do that any longer, so he called in his own goon squad from DHS.  It’s been reported that he plans to do this in cities with Democratic leadership, including Chicago, soon.

This is just the crybaby trying to appear tough before the election.  To rile up his base and stick it to the sanctuary cities around the country. This has nothing to do with law and order, this is strictly being used to intimidate.

I’d like to point out to the second amendment activists that THIS is what you always argue for.  You need your guns to prevent government tyranny.   Where are you now?  You should all be joining these protests, especially in places like Portland.   But there has been nothing but silence from the 2A crowd.  Why, you ask?  Well it’s simple.  Gun rights activists don’t REALLY care about that government tyranny thing unless it’s happening to them.   Have lockdowns to prevent people dying in a pandemic?  Well by golly gee, let’s get my military cosplay and my guns and go to the capitol fully armed because I can’t get a fucking haircut.   But a secret police force snatching citizens?  Well it’s not citizens I like, so I guess it’s okay.

It’s just hypocrisy and bullshit on so many levels.

Next, the tangerine traitor is pushing hard for all kids to go back to school.  I mean we’ve had record cases recently and some states have regressed into shutting a bunch of things down again, so we’re good right?

It just amazes me that we are even having this debate.  Doing this WILL get people sick and WILL end up killing people.  There is no easy way to do this safely, and you still have a sizeable portion of the populace who refuse to wear masks.  One of my best friends runs IT for a school district in rural Illinois, and many of the parents there said their kids would never be forced to wear a mask.

Holy shit people are stupid.  Just mind-numbingly, astonishingly, selfishly stupid.

Now read this quote from the Governor of Missouri, Mike Parson:

“These kids have got to get back to school. They are at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will—and they will when they go to school—they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctor’s offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”

He’s telling you right now that kids WILL get COVID in schools.  Just flat out admitting it.   Let’s say he’s right about kids getting it and nothing happening to them.  What then about their families, the teachers, the assistants, the bus driver, the school nurse, the lunch staff?  I guess we don’t care that kids would be carriers and could give it to them.

But he’s WRONG about kids just “getting over it.”   There are tons of deaths in younger people as well, and we still don’t know about negative effects that could last their entire life.  And if they do get gravely sick, we overload our hospitals once again. 

Just throwing our kids in as sacrificial lambs is NOT okay.  What kind of fucking animals are we?

Well it’s a re-election animal.  The president wants so desperately for everything to be back to normal so he has a better chance of re-election.  That is what is fueling jackboots in our cities, the push to open things up and the willingness to just let our children die.

Don’t fall for it.

COVID Diaries Pt. 6

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Vigilance

Well since my last post, we’ve seen positive tests spike to record levels around the country.  Places like Florida, Arizona and Texas are being the worst hit, and coincidentally they were also the ones that removed lockdowns early.

I get it, we are fatigued, and tired and depressed about not being able to do all the things we love in this world.  Hugging friends, eating at a nice restaurant, watching sports, having a party, seeing loved ones in person.  It is hard mentally for everyone.  It’s causing people to simply say fuck it and let their guard down.  It’s the absolute worst time for that.

I have many groups of friends.  My best friends in the world with whom I talk with every day in chat, local people I used to smoke cigars and golf with, my friends through years at my job, my online group of friends from the Lotus days, our homeschooling friends, and my online gaming group of friends, who I play Xbox with most days. 

In the gaming group, we have people who refuse to wear a mask.  They claim it’s for freedom.  We are free to choose how we want to live, and they don’t want to waste 1% of their life cooped up.  I get the sentiment but disagree vehemently. The simple act of wearing a mask helps protect everyone, not just yourself.   If everyone just agreed to wear a mask, positive cases would go down and we could open more things, and DO more things.   But alas, they don’t see THAT side of freedom.  How this became an issue, I’ll never comprehend.

I had an argument with that group where I didn’t pull any punches. We each think the other sound insane. I’m an anti-freedom bully and they are idiots for not taking things seriously. It was an argument that could have basically nuked that friendship.  I was devasted to be honest, and figured I wouldn’t talk to them again.  They are genuinely good people, and they have helped me stay somewhat sane through this whole thing.  I figured it was over, and it crushed me.

Yet, the next day, they invited me to play online like we do most days and I accepted.  I figured I would get an earful, but we just played video games and enjoyed each other’s company.  We didn’t talk about our argument at all, and it hasn’t been mentioned since.  I’m going to keep it that way, because I need as many ties to sanity and good people as I can find right now.  I just won’t be visiting them in person.

I still disagree with their stance, and today smacked me in the face with another reason why.

As I work in the large convention industry, those shows have all been shut down.  No one is gathering in large crowds.  Even so, the Texas State Fair was one we thought might happen.  We have clients that go to that, it’s outdoors, it might work.   Well today it was canceled.  This basically canceled a piece of revenue that could help keep us afloat as this thing keeps going. It also hammers home the message that we will not be doing a big convention any time soon. It also does not bode well for me, my team, or our company in general.

Make no mistake, this event was cancelled due to Texas opening up too early and people not taking precautions that they should. Whether it be social distancing or masks, you could see people crowding bars and pools and beaches like nothing ever happened.  They wanted to feel normal again, which trust me, I feel intensely too, but because of that the virus infected people at a much higher rate.

Because of so many people not caring about others, many more people got sick, and many things have gone back into lockdown.  That “freedom” basically forced everyone back inside, and took a huge shit on all the industries out there that were hoping for some semblance of normal this year.  Those people basically shot themselves and the country in the foot.

Something as simple as wearing a mask, not gathering in large crowds and social distancing would make it so way more things could open, but instead, things have regressed to record levels.  Freedom indeed.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t document a few other things for posterity.  Trump’s Tulsa rally was a bust, despite his boasts of millions of ticket requests.  Protests still persist, but for some reason it doesn’t make the news anymore. I guess we solved racism.  [sigh]

It has also come out that the president was briefed that Russia had paid Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan bounties to kill American soldiers and the president did nothing. I mean he lied and said he was never told, then said it wasn’t credible etc. etc. It’s his typical deflection bullshit. Even after he was briefed months ago, he was lobbying for Russia to join the G7 again.  I still don’t know how anyone can support that evil idiot.  But hey those are the folks that think COVID is a hoax, so this is all going to go on for way longer than it should have.

So just remain vigilant, please.  Protect yourself and the ones you love. Don’t take unnecessary risks. Whether you believe it or not, we are ALL in this together. And we can only get out if people take it seriously. 

I’m just afraid not enough people do.

COVID Diaries Pt. 5

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Resurgence

As I’m writing this, virus cases are spiking all over the US.  Some folks want to blame it fully on protests, but it’s too soon for that.  The spikes we are seeing now are because of states opening up and ending lockdowns and restrictions too soon. Don’t you worry though, we’ll see another surge soon due to the protests as well.

Illinois is one of the best in the entire nation so far for keeping infection rates down. The reason? Our governor actually locked shit down, based on science, and isn’t deviating from his re-opening plan. We see the results.  Still, people all over Illinois hate Pritzker because “southern IL (or the suburbs) isn’t Chicago” which is such bullshit.  It’s not just a big city problem. Issues can be far worse in rural places with fewer hospital beds or other necessities.  People just seem to think that they magically can’t get it out in the country and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Illinois, Iowa and Indiana have all cancelled their state fairs.  That’s huge, and I’m glad they did so.  If we remain vigilant and don’t let our guard down, we can keep lowering infections.  I’m not confident of that due to the pictures of packed bars, and pool parties and many other things I’ve seen.  Now, to some people, if you wear your mask you are somehow a pussy or using it to further your liberal agenda.  No fuckstick, I just don’t want to get sick, and despite you being an idiot, I don’t want you to get sick either.

Once again, I’m in a high-risk group. I don’t want to get this for the obvious health implications. But that’s not all, there have been a couple of stories of people who got their hospital bills after beating COVID. Two major ones that stand out were bills for $840 thousand dollars and $1.1 million dollars. For one person, surviving COVID.

Think of that. You survive something that made you sick enough to be hospitalized only to get bills you’ll never be able to pay.  I’m not willing to roll the dice on that just to return to normalcy. Fuck normalcy.

And I would be negligent if I didn’t mention that protests are still going on, and the government and police are still doing awful shit.

The president had Lafayette Square in DC cleared with pepper spray and tear gas, including removing religious leaders from the property all so that asshole could walk over there for a photo op of him holding the bible in front of the church.   Every religious leader at the church condemned him for this, and his followers tried to deflect everything as per usual.  It wasn’t a photo op, they didn’t use teargas.  Fuck you, I watched the videos and you are an idiot.  45 was hiding in a bunker the night before, and when that news broke, it made him look weak, so he had to do something to look strong to his base.  Walking to the church would do it.  It’s horrible on so many levels.

Don’t worry, that’s not ALL the shit that’s gone down.  The protests have persisted, more black people have been killed during the actual protests, and just yesterday a black man was shot in the back while running away from being awoken in his car near a drive thru.  Cops still haven’t been charged in the no knock warrant death of a completely innocent Breonna Taylor.  California officials ruled a black man found hanging from a tree a suicide even though everyone there wants an investigation into whether he was lynched. Generals have come out against 45 trying to use the military against his own people. The Marines, Navy and NASCAR have all banned the confederate flag, yes even NASCAR. 

Oh, and the president scheduled a rally to happen in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The site of a massacre of black people by rioting white people.  Oh, he just happened to have scheduled it on June 19th (Juneteenth) which is remembered for slavery finally ending after feds made people in Texas give up their slaves TWO AND A HALF YEARS after slavery ended in the US.   To schedule on THAT day, in THAT city is absolutely deliberate. It’s a nod to his racist supporters that he’s with them.

He also rescinded health protections for trans people on the four-year anniversary of the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.  Don’t believe for a single second that these are coincidences.  He is absolutely showing his base of racist, anti-gay bigots that he is with them.

Resurgence.  The resurgence of bigotry, racism and hate in this country in recent years, and the resurgence of a deadly virus. Both need to be dealt with.

COVID Diaries Pt. 4

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Some Good News!

With everything going on, there hasn’t been a lot of good news.  The protests have been a shit show marred by police violence, looting, property destruction and injury.  It’s gotten worse since my last post, but there is good news there, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, this past weekend SpaceX launched Americans into space from American soil for the first time since the shuttle launches.  It’s a huge thing for science and for the future of space travel.  It was awesome to watch, and like people have said, those astronauts had the right idea getting off the planet for a while.

Next, today is my 25th wedding anniversary.  I left the house for a second time since March to go to breakfast at a local eatery.  Seeing as how I’ve stayed home this whole time, this was a big deal, and brought a little bit of normalcy to very abnormal times.  My wife is amazing, and I can’t imagine life without her, much less during these times.  She has held us all together, even though she herself had moments of falling apart.  She’s an amazing partner, mother, and friend and I so look forward to the next 25.

The next thing, I’m especially proud of.  My 16-year-old daughter came out as bi-sexual to the world this week to coincide with the start of pride month.  We’ve known and have been supportive for quite some time, but for her to take that step of letting everyone know publicly was a big deal.  Both of my daughters have stood up for equality of all types, but Claire has gotten pushback from people for her support of gay rights.   She finally decided that she was through hiding that part of herself and I couldn’t be more happy, or more proud of her.

Lastly, today the murder charges against the officer who killed George Floyd were upgraded to second degree, and the other three officers have also been charged with aiding and abetting him.  Finally, some movement on this that everyone wanted to see.

One of the rallying cries have been NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.   I hope that now there WILL be justice, and I hope it brings people some peace.

COVID Diaries Pt. 3

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I Can't Breathe

Here we are again.  Police abusing power to murder multiple people. Racists killing a black jogger, A Karen calling the cops on a fucking birdwatcher. 

All of these things in short succession during the pandemic finally ignited the powder keg again, and there have been protests all over the country, there have been riots, and Minneapolis has burned. 

Some privileged white fucks still don’t get it.  Let me point you to my post about the Black Lives Matter movement from nearly four years ago.  Things haven’t gotten better, they have gotten progressively worse.

Part of this stems from the White House.  Stephen Miller is one of the president’s top aides and is, by all accounts, a white supremacist.  He’s been feeding the president his talking points and lies for some time.  Charlottesville was 100% a white supremacist rally a couple years ago, and he called them “good people.”   The orange fuck’s own racism has emboldened his followers to crawl out from under their rocks and be openly racist.

We have seen nothing at all change in these four years other than racism has gotten worse.

And don’t feed me your bullshit about people losing credibility because of riots. Riots seem to be the only mechanism for people to actually get their point across.  They have tried peacefully protesting, they tried taking a knee during the national anthem.   Now a cop took a knee on the neck of an unarmed black man for over 8 minutes, two of those being after he was unresponsive.  He told them he couldn’t breathe, he called for his mother, yet this disgrace of a human being murdered this man, and his police colleagues did nothing to stop him.

Once again, all police are not like this, the vast majority are not. But those four should burn for what they allowed to happen.  Accountability.  That is what is needed.  Police need to stop just getting away with this wanton murder of black and other minority communities.

Then in the wake of protests (before they turned into riots) police used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters.  Where were those when the white people, armed to the teeth, were at the Michigan capital?  Imagine if the entire BLM protest group showed up armed.  There would be slaughter of those protesters because of their skin color.

A CNN crew was arrested live on air for reporting.  The person they arrested, a black cameraman.

Another crew from an NBC affiliate were shot with pepper bullets for simply capturing the news, which is their fucking job.  It’s not like the cop with the pepper gun didn’t know, he shot a fucking cameraman with a huge rig on his shoulder.  That cop should never work again either.

And if you don’t believe in white privilege, fuck you.   Seriously, go fuck right off.  My 16 year old has been going jogging through neighborhoods during the pandemic to get out of the house.  She doesn’t have to worry about two rednecks murdering her for that.  Me and my wife and my daughters don’t have to worry about being pulled over by the cops and then being murdered.  We can wear hoodies without being perceived as menacing.   And we don’t have to worry about a cop kneeling on our necks and killing us.  If you are a person of color, particularly black, you do.  You worry about that every day of your fucking life.  No one should.

Let’s give you another fine example.  These past couple of weeks a white University of Connecticut student murdered two people and went on the run.  There was a huge manhunt and when they caught him, he wasn’t harmed in any way.  This was a FUCKING MURDERER.  He was captured, no injuries, because he was white.  If he were black, that would not have happened.  This echoes my post from 4 years ago where a terrorist white male who shot up an abortion clinic and MURDERED a police officer was also captured without incident.   Holy Shit, if the guy murders one of your own colleagues and you still bring him in unharmed, you can’t say it would be the same if the suspect was black.

The suspect in Minneapolis? He was accused of passing off a fake $20 bill.

So, for fuck’s sake, POLICE NEED TO STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE.  And when they do, they need to be held accountable.   At least the cop in Minneapolis is arrested and charged with murder.  Not sure why the other three still walk free as they were definitely accessories to that crime, but it’s a start.  When you start holding cops and racists accountable, every time, maybe this shit will stop.  The guys that murdered the jogger walked free for months until the video surfaced.  We shouldn’t need video evidence for this.   And it’s been seen that even when there IS that evidence, cops get off.  That cannot happen any longer.

I’m very proud that my daughter and wife are currently at a protest in the suburbs of Chicago.  I should be there too, but sadly my paranoia over the virus is keeping me at home, so to everyone risking their very lives out there to decry this systemic injustice, I thank you, and I am with you.

Believe Women

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Bruce McKinnon Political Cartoon
Bruce McKinnon Political Cartoon

Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court today. He had very credible accusers of him sexually assaulting women. Women (more than just Dr. Ford) that would risk a felony to testify to what he had done. Several of them weren’t even allowed to testify or included in the FBI investigation. Then to top it off he was a complete asshole in his defiant, crying testimony for the job. Testimony that in ANY job interview would get you shown the door.

Yet he was just confirmed.

Forget about the complete bullshit bi-partisanship of people simply pushing their nominee through, and it is bullshit. I’m going to focus on what the country and those senators did to assault victims. Making them relive their own pain, just to vote to push him through.

They basically said, we might believe you, we just don’t care.

I saw people state that all boys act that way in high school. I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I did drink, and to excess, but I never forced myself on anyone.

Stating that all boys do that is normalizing rape culture and it’s horrible, and wrong, and so against what good self-proclaimed Christians should be for. It’s just another checkbox in a long line of things that make me despise religion.

I also saw folks state that what you did in high school shouldn’t follow you around forever. Well guess what, if you sexually assault someone, maybe it fucking should. People who abuse children, murderers, and rapists should all face scrutiny and consequences, no matter when it took place.

Now I’m just one guy, but here are some of the women who I dated who have confided in me.

  • A high school girl I dated broke down in tears when we were in the middle of sexual activity, and confided in me that her grandfather and father had both sexually abused her.
  • Another woman was sexually abused by an adult neighbor as a child.
  • Another woman was gang raped by two members of the college football team.
  • Another was raped by a student who had been known to rape more than one woman.
  • Another was abused by her father to the point that family members rescued her and took the girl to safety in another state, not telling the parents where she was and that they had done so.
  • Another was abused physically and mentally by her coked up ex-husband.
  • A colleague was sexually and mentally abused by a boss, and her speaking up helped take him down.
  • A colleague was raped in the military, reported it, and there were no consequences.

These were all women whom I dated, loved or worked with. And these are just the ones that confided in me. This doesn’t even cover all the friends online who came forward with their own stories, and those were legion.

Now some assholes will state “then why didn’t they say anything when it happened?” Well just look at Dr. Ford. She came forward now and was doubted, derided and had actual death threats. Women have been afraid to come forward because they always get demonized in these situations. They dressed too sexy or got too drunk, or why did they put themselves in that position? All things that shouldn’t fucking matter in the least. They were attacked, and saddled with something that breaks a piece of them for the rest of their lives.

None of these women confided in me nonchalantly, it was always with deep pain and uncontrollable sadness. It changed them forever. It didn’t change the abuser. They simply got away with it. Like Brett Kavanaugh.

I have two daughters, and I hope they never have to experience anything so horrific. We teach them safety, and what to do in those situations, but for fuck’s sake we shouldn’t have to.

I wish I had sons so I could teach THEM that it’s not acceptable, and that women aren’t their property or their right to conquer. If you have sons, please, talk with them now. Tell them what is right and what is not. Instill in them the respect for others that everyone deserves. That’s where things have to change.

I have never been more angry or upset with our government as I am right now. Physically sick at how this all came down.

Some assholes say this was just a Democratic tactic to bring down the Supreme Court pick. But if that’s the case, why didn’t anything like this surface when Gorsich was nominated? Could it be because he didn’t fucking assault anyone?

And why would someone like Dr. Ford come forward? This doesn’t gain her ANYTHING, it just gave her more to lose. Every time she teaches a class (if she can even continue) everyone there knows she was sexually assaulted, and she’ll feel shame about that. She SHOULDN’T, because it wasn’t her fault at all, but she will. Some people will judge her, probably verbally abuse her, and like I said, the family has already received death threats.

None of this is right, and if you support Kavanaugh, fuck you. Unfriend me and never speak with me again. I’ve tried to remain friends with people in this cesspool of political crap, but this is a bridge too far.

Have compassion, have empathy, believe women, vote.

Everyone Should Matter

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I’ve seen quite a few of my friends and family post with the hashtag ‪#‎alllivesmatter‬. And for the vast majority of those people, it’s with good intentions. They are saying that black people, and police officers, and gay people etc. all matter. And they do, absolutely, I agree. But there’s a problem with simply saying #alllivesmatter, it tends to dismiss the real issues that black people face in our society.

‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ rose in response to the killing of black people by the hands of police officers where the suspect was unarmed, or not being confrontational, or already subdued by police. This has happened at at alarming rate. I really think the BLM movement should have labeled it ‪#‎blacklivesmattertoo‬ because that would cause less controversy.

The problem isn’t just that it has happened, it’s that in a lot of cases, the officers in question never get punished. Take the Eric Garner case, they had an officer ON VIDEO taking down Eric with a chokehold that is prohibited by the NYPD. There’s no disputing any of it. That banned chokehold killed that man, but the police officer was never charged. It was fully documented on video, and you couldn’t even press charges then.

That’s why Black Lives Matter exists, to try to help right these wrongs when and where they occur and to bring awareness to the fact that there is still a real problem when it comes to race.

I have friends and acquaintances who are (and who were) police officers, and I know that they are decent, awesome people who would never commit these kinds of acts. In fact the majority of police in general never would. But when it happens, all I want to see is that the bad cops who perpetrate such acts are brought to justice. And that doesn’t happen enough.

And if you don’t think this is about race, google for pictures of white people with guns around police. You can find lots of pictures with white gun advocates armed to the teeth where police aren’t flinching and killing them. In fact take the guy who shot up an abortion clinic not too long ago. White guy, who killed a police officer, wounded several more, and killed two civilians was taken alive. If there’s ever someone who should have died in an incident, it should have been him. You shoot at police officers, all bets are off, you SHOULD be gunned down. But he wasn’t.

So there IS still a problem, and that’s what BLM is about. I still really wish they were called #blacklivesmattertoo as I think that’s really the point they are making. They aren’t saying that ONLY they matter, they are saying they should matter as much as a privileged white person, of which I am one.

So please, don’t use #alllivesmatter even though your intentions are good, because it sweeps the real problems black people face to the side and it’s still a very real issue.

So in case any of this is unclear, my stance is the following:

  • I support law enforcement
  • I support the rights of people to protest injustice
  • I want to see bad cops face consequences for their actions
  • I want to see actual criminals face consequences for their actions
  • I want unnecessary killings to stop
  • All lives do matter, but there is still a racial problem in our society

The Black Lives Matter march in Dallas was peaceful, no incidents, in fact the Dallas PD twitter account was posting pictures including ones of protesters and police officers shaking hands and posing together. The attack was a disgusting, horrible thing perpetrated by a sick mind. It’s not anything anyone in BLM wanted.

Right now I’m scared for our country. I’m scared that violence will escalate and we’ll see more of these incidences. I fear for the safety of my police officer friends, and I fear for the safety of my black friends. It’s not a good time, but maybe, just maybe this incident will help people come together. People will support police, and also weed out injustice when it happens. We can only hope, and hope is a commodity that I have precious little of nowadays.

Dispensing Justice for Ten Dollars a Day

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Last week, I was called upon to fulfill my job as a citizen and report for Jury Duty.  Basically, you get called to a courthouse and do a lot of sitting around.  Then, a group of 45 or so of you get corralled like cattle into a courtroom.  You get to answer answer awesome questions like:

Do you have any religious objections to alcohol? or

Does anyone here NOT believe in the US system of Government?

Once you’ve answered the questions, then the attorneys get to dismiss people they think might not be good to their case.  Those of us who seem fine to both the prosecution and defense get picked to be on a Jury.

I’ve actually been called quite a few times, but never actually picked.  Well last week was my lucky week.  I was part of the twelve (and two alternates) who were chosen to choose the fate of a man who was up for felony aggravated battery.

The defendant had struck a man with a large plastic BB gun at 2AM in the parking lot of a taco joint.  When it broke, he then grabbed a baseball bat.  Luckily for the person who was struck (and the defendant) there was an officer that saw him strike a victim the first time, and got there in time to keep him from striking with the bat.

The officer saw the defendant strike the victim.  Everyone on both sides agreed that happened.  They also agree it was in public.  The thing they didn’t agree on was whether or not it was self-defense.  Did the defendant feel threatened enough to have to defend himself? If we had even a shadow of a doubt whether it was self-defense or not, we had to proclaim him innocent.

Now the defendant was too drunk to drive (his fiance drove) and was known for starting fights when drunk (his fiance’s words.)  The victim did NOT want to testify and had to be subpoenaed.  The victim never struck the defendant, and also did not speak English.  What the victim did do is stop the car, get out, and confront the drunk guy.  For many of our jurors, that act of stopping the car (and possibly blocking the defendant in) and then coming around the car meant the defendant could have gotten scared enough to grab the first thing he could get his hands on and defend himself.  He was found by us, a jury of his peers, to be not guilty.

I had to be convinced. I think this guy instigated the whole thing and was acting tough and as soon as someone got back in his face he hit him.  But, I had to feel that beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn’t feel threatened to act in self-defense.  Eventually, as one of the only dissenters, I caved, because there was the wee bit of doubt.

There were lots of screwed up things in everyone’s testimony and no one was really believable.  The original officer who witnessed the crime that night was actually off duty, so rather than pay him overtime they brought in another officer to process the scene.  That officer basically skated through the investigation and only wrote a one page report.  The report didn’t have key info in it that could have been bad for the defendant and good for the prosecution.

Also, through testimony the defendant said he only had five or six beers and stopped drinking at 10PM.  So some folks thought he might be fairly sober at 2AM and just had the fiance drive to be safe.  Also they say he was really remorseful in the police car and very apologetic.

During your Jury Duty, you cannot research the case outside the courtroom, and you can only listen to the testimony. You are also not allowed to talk about it with anyone including other jurors.   I followed the rules.  But after the case was over and this man was set free, I did some research and found some news articles.  The article from the night in question had his mug shot.  He looked completely plastered and he was laughing and defiant.  He didn’t seem remorseful and didn’t look the least bit sober.  If we had been shown the mug shot, it’s possible folks might have had another opinion.

Despite my misgivings, I really like that it takes a unanimous vote of 12 people to convict someone in this country.  I also like that people in the jury are really supposed to have not heard anything about the case and not have any knowledge of the situation.  I think it’s a decent system, and it was nice to see it from the inside.  Our case was fairly laughable, and there were so many mistakes that we had to proclaim the defendant not guilty.  That said, I’m really glad that I didn’t end up on a trial that was more serious or deadly.  I can sleep at night with this decision, I think a more serious case would be much harder to put behind me.

But I leave you with words of advice.  If it’s 2AM, and you really want tacos, go to bed, you’re drunk.

 

100 Days of 'Fair and Balanced'

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Wow. Fox News Channel cannot rag on Obama enough! If you trust what they are saying, US citizens cannot hate Obama and his socialist agenda enough, yet Obama’s popularity remains fairly high. Hmmmm, funny how those things seem to contradict.

I don’t think MSNBC is any better on the other side, but that is the problem for me. We have two networks that are zealots for political parties. It’s laughable that Fox says they are fair and balanced, neither they or MSNBC are at all. All this does is divide the American people more, and quite frankly it’s bullshit for NEWS organizations to act this way. News should report news, not spin it through their vast conservative or liberal filters…

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