Category: Civil Rights

R.E.M. Was Ahead of Their Time

1987. Oh, I know that year. I began to serve the first of 3 presidents, my Commanders-in-Chief. I wasn’t all that political about it. I could not afford to be. There was no room.

My wife became pregnant with our son.

And I had just done the impossible: gone through basic training and combat medical school with a disabling, pre-existing condition. I couldn’t believe it. But the real problem remained and trouble was coming. Could I know the half of it? Of course not. It was always one day at a time for me. Besides, I was not much for the news back then.

Had I been able, I’d have seen what these guys did.

The song goes fast for post-punk, but in the 80s, a decade full of okay music with some great masterpieces mixed in, it is a true standout. It stuns you, it goes so fast. But now, I can make myself believe that these lyricists knew something. A lot of somethings, to be honest. Watch the lyrics on the screen as you listen. Back then, this was dreadfully cynical and pessimistic.

Today, the general idea or theme is not so obscure as it once seemed.

I’ve been writing about mental illness as affected by multiple levels of harm done that were beyond my control. I’ve noted that healthcare is harder than drug ads or even ads for doctors or insurance providers make it seem.

Before this, I’ve written about industrial pollution, global warming, elitism, the looming failure of the United States government because of the Trumpian Party, racism, bigotry, corruption and greed, and the unscrupulous politics of organized religion.

There’s one line in the song about reporters being “trumped” and it has accidentally taken on new meaning.

The general idea of the song is that we’re all going to sit here and let the downfall of society happen, and how it happens won’t make a difference.

I wish I could have a better feeling about the future, because we had the means to escape the climate crisis we face, and we had the choice not to elect a lunatic for a president, and we’ve had power as a species to change to a different path.

But we have failed. We have abandoned the righteous cause of women’s rights, we have resorted to giving voice to violent criminals who should have been outnumbered by law enforcement and righteous citizens on January 6th, 2020. We care nothing for the sick, the elderly and the poor, we don’t protect children, we have elected leaders who give their souls for money and power and have made dishonor seem normal, and we’re not stopping.

People don’t care. Sex crimes are ignored and victims scoffed, shamed and left to themselves. Guns are far more valuable than an owner’s own child. Public safety is a joke with whatever disgusting tagline you care to attach to it, and here we all sit. Not caring, not doing, not helping.

I know that the impeachment of Joe Biden sounds like a joke. That’s McCarthy and MTG sitting around and fingering each other. But while people with mental illness are dismissed as fakers or lost causes, those two are proof that there are dangerous nuts in our own government. Politicians are now vetted by zealots and fanatics who belong in fenced-in hospitals while treatment remains out of reach of people who need and beg for help yet go unheard and forgotten. I’m not one to sit by and watch injustice and the end of the world as we know it. I’ll keep looking for help for those in need. Because I don’t feel fine, damn it.

Jordan Neely Should Not Be Dead

I recently featured a guest blogger who drew personal abuse from BLM protesters after Jordan Neely was killed. She raised accurate, hellish concerns over the mental health care system in New York City, but there is one thing I believe we are all missing here if we concentrate on points about homelessness and mental issues, no matter where you specify a problem area.

It is that, first and foremost, Jordan Neely should not be dead.

As a Christian, as a veteran, as one who knows and has known many people with serious mental illnesses, as a proud liberal, as a man who sees great trouble coming, I cannot in good conscience do anything except condemn the murder of Jordan Neely.

Ruled a homicide by the medical examiner who posted the body, this is a matter of the law and of justice. In the end, no matter what else we consider pertinent, Neely was murdered.

I get that he had a rap sheet a mile long, including some violent crimes. But the marine in question, who has not been named, couldn’t know that and even if he did, killing the man cannot be sufficiently defended.

Did the man intend to kill? I don’t know. I was not there and at any rate cannot read minds. But a look at his face in the photo tells me one thing: he did not need to engage in the restraint, and once the engagement was initiated, he was met with forceful resistance.

Whether death was accidental or not, that’s for a jury to decide. But I have to tell you, killing someone is serious when you believe that you are protecting others. You walk a line. It’d never have anything to do with being a good Samaritan. The line is between helping someone or being a vigilante. In this and every case of vigilantism, there’s a key word: murder.

Until a jury hears his testimony and that of any witnesses, I cannot pretend to know. If I gave an opinion, it would be premature and irresponsible.

I could do it. But this kind of analysis is way over my pay grade. It is not up to us to decide this case, or try it on social media or blogs.

I just know one thing:

Jordan Neely should not be dead.

Unboxing Videos

What the ASS is up with all these “unboxing” videos on YouTube?

Why the ASS would I want to watch someone unboxing some stupid shit I don’t want or can’t afford? They don’t DO anything with the MERCH but describe it? Come on, what the ASS is that?

It’ll escape and kill us all!

One question though. What would happen if I ordered a Marjorie Taylor Green doll and unboxed it on camera?

A: it would come to life and eat my liberal-progressive face off and escape and take Chucky’s place

B: I’d start getting hate mail from liberals and progressives and invitations to speak at every church in red states

C: I would be banned for life by Google for posting excessively grotesque videos on YouTube, whose censorship is dramatically increased, which is saying something,

D: I would start a national panic because people would flood hospitals because they dehydrated from excessively vomiting

E: I could run for office on the republican ticket and become governor of Florida

Answer: None of the above because I wouldn’t BUY a Marjorie Taylor Green doll! IT WAS A TRICK QUESTION so wake the ASS up and see this stupid country die unless you wield your powers and turn off stupidity on video feeds and stand for what’s RIGHT.

The MTG doll can be seen at this link but use caution as this is for adults only (snicker).

He looks so contented But later she’ll come to life and shoot him with an AR-15 (included with doll accessories in the Bandoleer-Stilletto Boots Pack)

Nazi Germany Did This Kind Of Shit…

Go to this article on Istagram if you’re not believing that Nazism in America has teeth. Because it does, they’re razor sharp, and are owned by a rabid dog.

Here is the full article on The Guardian website, and I’m telling you now, it is a hard read. But it is a must read as well. The history of the United States includes a little thing we call World War Two. In that conflict, we fought with allies against Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. We were conflicted at first, not wanting to help stop Hitler. It cost the lives of an enormous but unknowable number of people, most of them civilians.

In Germany, the citizens had been whipped up by hate-filled rhetoric and the films prove it. One I can’t forget has what looks like thousands shouting “Sig heil”. Fucking scary, that; because that’s the early days of the Third Reich. What followed was the most earth-shaking war in all of history.

A bit more subtle, and to this day ignored, was that before the Blitz, Goose-stepping in the Rhine covered the sounds of people from all over the country being taken into custody. You know about the Jews. Not many realize that gays and lesbians, blacks, mental patients, priests, Christians and more were rounded up, shot or sent to prison camps as well.

Abortion doctors were not among them. Abortion was legal, but only for certain situations. For example, a woman made pregnant by any male who wasn’t German was encouraged to abort that pregnancy. Mostly abortion was illegal, punished. And any and all punishments in the Reich were horrific.

Another stipulation added to the abortion law was introduced by the Reich that while doctors could perform an abortion, they were forbidden from advertising that type of procedure. Today, doctors are being forced to adhere to that very restriction. In modern Germany but also here. In America. The land of the free.

And don’t forget that South Carolina was working on a bill to mandate capital punishment for all women who got abortions. That, my friends, is a hate crime anywhere else in the world, a violation of human rights that could spread and cause severe consequences overseas. I predicted years ago that the day would come when the United Nations left US soil and relocated in Western Europe, kicking the US out as a member. If you think it’s impossible, well, it isn’t.

So, wait: doesn’t this mean that the US is heading to a point worse than Nazism?

It would seem so. Because of the open hate speech, ridiculous political and religious bullshit, because stupid people with closed minds can be used well beyond their ability to register consciously what they’re doing, and because racism never stopped but is worse than ever, and God himself has been weaponized by the far right, this country will not survive as it has been. There may be some sort of border agreement between certain city-states, or there could be a civil war, which the right would win simply by being more hateful and armed to the teeth.

Or a new fascist regime could take over in the wink of an eye. We have no way to tell.

You cannot stop hate and malicious, religious furor, political extremists or people bent on seeing the US torn apart, with liberals executed. They dream about it.

Doctors who perform abortions being the targets of hate and violence is not new. The ink on the Roe versus Wade decision was barely dry before they began. Any doctor could be a target.

One thing more disturbs me about this poor woman, a professional sworn to help people, and our sociopolitical climate.

The truth is being stepped on very effectively. On both sides, because cable news and most online news is heavily controlled by their owners, all of which are corporate or corporation-affiliated. But at least the left tries to get it right. And if we’re wrong we can admit it. The right believes its own lies. After Fox hosts were busted talking smack about Trump, they continue to lie about, and cover for, a man who is stupid, evil, dishonest and overwhelmingly dishonorable. Before all of this started — before O’Reilly, nobody did this crap. Nor could they have foreseen it.

America is dying. I don’t know how this ends, but it will not be good. We will be the first superpower to end up as little more than a third world country known for civil and human rights violations. A country sanctioned by civilized countries. Because the way I see it, we are not civilized.

America, the Land of the Fre…Wait,What is it Again?

World Travel and Commerce Advisory!

Do not come to the United States of America. Especially if you are a woman.

Recent attacks on our Constitution have caused severe damage to human rights, and those had already been damaged during the Trump administration. End of Advisory.

Did you know that some states are or already have gone full-goose-stepping nazi? My excellent friend P.J. Abbott posted recently that schools ain’t just banning books. Oh, those photographs of empty book shelves?
All too real.

Now Republicans are banning tampons. In schools. No dispensing, no talk in classes, like we used to have long ago in separate boys/girls single session instructions. You know what I thought of when I read that? “Carrie” (the remake; I never did see the original or read the book). No girl should ever be denied basic human dignity and hygiene essentials. That scene in the film and what her classmates did to Carrie had serious consequences courtesy of Stephen King.

That’s only one of many infringements against the core human and civil rights republicanism has recently been guilty of. Mainstream media doesn’t really spend much, if any at all, time on reporting the terrorist conservative attacks against girls and women in this country. That is one reason that it’s happening. All news outlets except niche sites are implicit. And now you know why the United Nations has placed America on a list of countries hostile to, and dangerous for, women.

Abortion and birth control rights are not merely out of federal jurisdiction, with legislation and enforcement left to each state: remember that South Carolina has introduced a bill to cause women who get abortions to be executed. Yeah. Murdered under state sanction.

I wonder if they’ll make the executions (murders) public? Perhaps they could even be pay-per-view blockbuster events with advance tickets or coupons for free popcorn in your neighborhood grocery stores?

That last bit is not sarcasm, nor is speculation: an uninformed public can be twisted to first conformity and then unreasoning vileness. It’s happening now.

As we come to the end of Women’s History Month, I ask you one thing.

Just one.

(Is this the country so many women suffered in to make things better, and is this the country so many served, in ways modern politicians can’t stand, or even understand, to sometimes just get by, but also to better the future for women, children and even men?)

The question is, was their heroism, honor, courage and outrage wasted?

Be careful how you answer.

Think first. And remember that if you think, the enemy fears you. If you think, you still have a soul, and you are not oblivious, and therefore you have power.

Be aware, though; if we are to bring back the rights taken from women, children and families, some of the historic battles fought by women will have to be repeated. That is a tragedy, but it is true.

Greg Abbott is a Fucking Nut

Adult language. Obviously.

He’s the Republican governor of Texas, and he’s a man with a plan when it comes to solving the problem of pregnancies brought about by rape and incestuous rape. Texas may be deceiving when you view it on a map.

If you live in a more civilized country, like Albania or Venezuela, Syria or North Korea, then you see Texas as a bastion of lunacy and power mongering sex offenders. On a map it may look big, but not much of it has anything but sand and oil drills. Or mountains with nothing to offer even a novice climber; no stunning green vistas but plenty of half-assed snakes and the odd scorpion, both of which are so lazy they can’t be put upon to bite or sting.

I’m referring to Gov. Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz, of course. I leave it to you to decide which is the snake and which is the scorpion. Doesn’t matter to me, but my money says they’re interchangeable.

The solution to unwanted pregnancy is, according to Abbott, to round up and incarcerate every rapist in the state of Texas.

I guess that means he intends to lock them up before they rape a woman; otherwise it’s not going to prevent pregnancy.

It means arresting someone before a crime is committed. Which, under the law, is defined as false arrest, and in psychology is defined as fucking idiocy; the clinical term being evasive to me because he’s really more nutty than squirrel shit.

It also has no effect on mothers who have legitimate reasons other than rape or incest who genuinely want an abortion. And under Texas law, a woman beyond six weeks of pregnancy may not get an abortion. Which is pretty stupid, considering the fact that in six weeks, a woman may have no clue that she’s pregnant and therefore have no reason to get a test kit. You skip one period, it’s not uncommon, and does not mean you’re automatically pregnant. In fact, you can have a period and still be pregnant. Six weeks? Fucking nuts. The law is a hate crime against women. It’s as simple as that.

The law effectively bans all abortions. And again, rape and incest are not considered legitimate exceptions. You are not going to abort the pregnancy in Texas.

The state, of course, is infamous as a Good Ole Boy state. That means men in pickup trucks wearing Dingo boots with spurs and blasting contemporary country music are by default sitting in front of a window rack with two shotguns, or one shotgun and one AR-15. And they can’t wait to get to the nearest bar, suck on a Pabst (brewed in Texas) and pick up girls who “always look prettier at closing time”. And if one of these hockey pucks gets lucky, he ain’t a gonna wear no condom. Know why?

You know. Yes, you do.

The mother has no power in a paternity suit. Courts don’t and never have sided with women, except for the odd case or two. That’s just not done in a Good Ole Boy state. Expecting justice for women in Texas is like expecting coal to be beautiful and clean: you ain’t gonna get it, and it doesn’t come out of the mines beautiful or clean. You might belive that coal can be cleaned, but whatever that means, it’s expensive and doesn’t make burning it any less harmful to the environment.

And hey, I get it: human beings really love sex. When I had a working weenie, it was all I thought about. Sometimes the fantasy included actual women. Sex is a strong human drive, and very difficult to suppress. And yes, fantasies mean that the brain might actually be the biggest organ involved in sex, unless of course you’re Johnny Holmes. Oh, wait; he’s dead.

Getting on with it, this mess, as I’ve said before, is not so much about morality as it is the money flowing into Washington from Christian crusaders as well as the absolute hatred men in this country have for women.

Understand, it was always there. It came from the earliest invaders of America and it only grew worse. It doesn’t matter though; it is a hatred (can we please call it that? Misogyny is just another political weasel word that sounds better than what it means) of women on a societal level and proves that they have never been, and never shall be, considered equals of men. Which is evil, a lie, and inspires a host of hate crimes.

Do men in Texas fall in love? Sure they do, but it don’t mean they don’t hate their women. They might not even know they hate them with their condescending words and everyday behavior. It’s like they say, “Good evening, ma’am, how are you? Think I could fuck you tonight? I’d like to creampie you and prove my superiority by forcing you to bear my child, which I ain’t gonna be around to see and by the way don’t even think of getting child support.”

In a more civilized country like Sudan, Yemen or North Korea, you never had to deal with a piece of shit like Greg Abbott. My advice is to stay where you are and never come here. Disneyland ain’t worth it.

The Supreme Court has made me ashamed to be an American. Those walking, talking commodes are hateful and as un American as anyone I’ve ever heard of in over half a century. They make me want to puke.

And Greg Abbott should be in a padded room with nothing but coloring books and crayons. The small box. The big one is way too complicated for him to use responsibly.

Fuck it. Go get em, Lil Greg.

Only The Beginning

Clarence Thomas, a radical right-wing Justice and senior member of the Supreme Court said after Roe v. Wade was overturned on Friday, that the court should next turn to reversing protections for consensual same-sex relationships as well as same-sex marriage. He also added the bizarre idea of making any and all contraception–pills, patches, IUDs and condoms–illegal to use.

My opinion of Thomas has never changed. Beneath it all, I believed that Anita Hill told the truth about the bastard. Not that there was anything I could do about it.

Remember her testimony that he had asked her if she was familiar with “Long Dong Silver”, a fringe porno star who was freakish to say the least? Yeah. That happened.

At the root (no pun intended) of Friday’s ruling is a base hatefulness toward women. And yes, yes, it is politically motivated, under the veneer of religious and moral beliefs.

Under the separation of church and state, no religious body should ever have influence over any government branch, function or government employee or other political individual. The reason being, the two have been proven not to mix well…or at all.

But the church has never stopped being a subversive player in the pursuit of “freedom”. Now you see the endgame taking form.

Being religious is a fine thing. But radical sects have always been an impediment to the progress of this country. I’ve seen it. Whereas I’m a Christian, it makes no difference when I remember how I was raised. Christian parents abused my siblings and myself to horrifying levels. The grand jury that indicated them said our police statements read like “a horror story.”

Bit by bit they broke us. Some less broken, others, like me, fucked up for life; and throughout that time, from infancy to adulthood, we were taught to be Christians. Made to attend Sunday school and church, no one at Lake Shore Baptist Church knew that mere hours before I arrived on Sunday, I was being raped. Nobody knew how many times during the week I or another sibling had been savagely beaten. Or how I had always been put down, insulted, belittled by both parents. They conditioned me to believe that I was stupid, “retarded” and a loser who would “wind up in the gutter scraping for wine bottles”, a quote I can never, ever forget.

They were republicans and Nixon fanatics and before that, Eisenhower fanatics. They used to quote one of the ten commandments, “honor thy father and mother, that thy days be long”, which was used from a young age to tell me that if I resisted either one of them or tried to defy them, I’d just drop dead. God would kill me.

And yet, my story-our story-is far from unique. It’s happened since before written history.

It’s sick.

I hope you can understand then that I am extremely sensitive to the issue of conservatives and religion and why they should stay the fuck out of our personal lives. Bad things happen. Really bad things. And to those who are sick in the head, biblical verses and stories are a guide to evil, a green light to give in to carnal and brutal thoughts, desires and a completely fucked-up belief system. And you can’t lock them up fast enough for me. But they are never caught unless the abused and brutalized talk, and domestic abuse victims have been so conditioned that it still does not happen nearly as often as it should.

Abuse has nothing to do with what the SCOTUS has done. Except, yes, it does. Because abuse comes in all shapes and sizes. They abused their power to cater to the religious. To please them. The judges who voted 6-3 to abolish Wade were already against abortion. The court was stacked for this during the Trump administration.

But this is not the end. Same day, protests broke out in various places and there’s more to come. This, the People will not take silently. Add the promise of anti LGBTQI rulings and we’re going to have massive, street-blocking, record-setting demonstrations on hand.

I think they will even try putting mandatory prayer in schools. Madalyn Murray O’ Hair was very vocal about that and played a part in removing prayer from public schools, reminding people of the importance of the separation of church and state, but being atheist was only part of who she was. She stepped on her credibility by being a racist and a Holocaust denier, claiming that forced labor of Jews was necessary for the German economy, and that far less than 6 million Jews were murdered by the Third Reich. One million, to her “research”, which she further claimed didn’t hurt their “clan”.

O’ Hair was a turd in the punchbowl, ultimately harming the cause of freedom from religious oppression, because she was one of the most hated people in America. And because she said incredible things, the story couldn’t end with her murder.

The United States has a history of giving, or appearing to give, freedom, then saying, “No, you can’t have that.”

Treaties with native people were always bullshit. It didn’t even end in the Trail of Tears. They’re still getting screwed. Once vocal prayer was removed from schools, there was always going to be a reckoning. The Ten Commandments were removed from state government buildings. Religious statues taken away. Scriptural quotes stricken over or covered.

By definition, almost every Christian denomination is conservative; Southern Baptists were once pro-choice but are no longer. The perceived sins of the past must be atoned for; anything less is to embrace evil. To do the work of Satan.

Giving someone the freedom to choose wasn’t supposed to be an issue. Not like this, and if someone wants to silently pray, that’s their choice. Thinking that the Lord’s Prayer could be mandatory one day soon makes me sick.

And I have never known anyone who was pro-abortion; that’s an argument that got us here today. They’re pro-choice. That’s it. Nothing more. And I don’t believe I’m wrong in saying that the ones who voted Wade down were motivated by religious influence from the church. As the republican party moves ever more to the extreme right, this and things like it, repressive and oppressive, will become more common.

Money must be involved; with churches bilking billions out of their members, they have the financial power to throw into the toe-tagging war that’s sure to come.

Politicians, lawyers, prosecutors and judges have always been open to bribery and cash offerings. No money needs to be laundered here; they simply do not claim cash on their tax returns. Spending it may require restraint, but with it, that rainy day you and I fear never bothers them. Just another example of those that have, shit on people who have not.

To avoid lumping and bigotry, I point out that not all churches or politicians or those in the judiciary are sold on this decision and fear that the future holds terrors for the LGBTQI community, atheists, Muslims, and those on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and more.

They are right to fear such things.

Months ago I was assured by someone that Roe v. Wade was the law, and the Supreme Court couldn’t touch it.

They touched it.

It is reasonable, then, to never dare underestimate them again. No matter what you believe cannot be reversed, it will be endangered by these moral, religious idiots misusing their power. The biggest fish is already landed. Everything that comes next will be easy. They won’t debate. The stroke of a pen can’t be heard, but it’s effects are often extreme and hurt people and destroy lives and families.

In closing, I’ll tell a true story. It’s tragic.

There was a woman (I doubt that she is still living) who took every type of prescription and street drug in the book, and drank on top of it all. There are people like that: it takes them a long time to die, and while alive are a source of chilling astonishment to others.

She became pregnant. Again an again and again. She did not believe abortion was right, so she had the children. Social Services kept taking them away. The last one I remember was addicted at birth to God knows what and would have cried night and day if it could.

But it could not cry. It couldn’t do anything. Not even take the nipple. If it lived, the babe would be fed through a tube every day.

You may ask why a hardcore addict and alcoholic had such views on abortion, as do I. But I believe that it comes from repressive parents so fixed in their beliefs that they doom their children to a life trying and failing to live up to impossible standards which are all too easy to preach.

Wrecked lives. Suicidal mothers. Unnecessary hospitalizations involving critical care that an abortion could have averted. Babies in garbage bags left to die.

These things happen now.

Imagine something that fucked-up getting worse.

Starbucks Never Gets Another Penny Outta Me!

“Joe Hill”

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I “But Joe, you’re ten years dead”
“I never died” said he,
“I never died” said he.

“The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
They shot you Joe” says I.
“Takes more than guns to kill a man”
Says Joe “I didn’t die”
Says Joe “I didn’t die”

“In Salt Lake City, Joe,” says I,
Him standing by my bed,
“They framed you on a murder charge,”
Says Joe, “But I ain’t dead,”
Says Joe, “But I ain’t dead.”

And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe “What they can never kill
Went on to organize,
Went on to organize”

From San Diego up to Maine,
In every mine and mill,
Where working men defend their rights,
It’s there you find Joe Hill,
It’s there you find Joe Hill!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I “But Joe, you’re ten years dead”
“I never died” said he,
“I never died” said he. — song, Joan Baez version 1969

He was an activist and labor union IWW advocate. Evidence presented posthumously suggests that Hill was indeed framed for murder. Rich men did not like the idea of unions, and today, corporations like it less.

This article proves how slimy Starbucks really is. The behavior outlined is a classic display of gross denial of worker’s rights. And offering benefits to employees not involved in organizing is evil. It’s worse than bribery or whatever you want to call it: it’s a typical, Republican goddamn trick.

My call to you is to make Starbucks hurt. Boycott the chain, use McDonald’s or Dunkin’ or pour your house coffee into a travel mug before setting off to your job. Because what those bastards are doing is hurting their employees and it ain’t by-god right. Actively boycott. Let’s make em see the light.

Joan Baez, like Joe Hill was, is a national treasure. I still love her, and I always will.

Say Goodbye To Civil Rights In The USA

A leak from the Supreme Court and picked up by Politico shocked everyone Monday when it revealed a decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling tht made abortion legal.

No one knows who leaked the draft, which when finished would condemn women to unwanted and dangerous childbirths including those who are victims of rape and incest.

And since men in general resist contraception, it’s always been the burden of women to take pills or go through surgery. That’s never been right, but always the truth.

Some states may retain the right to keep abortion legal, but over half of the states would ban it.

It’s a travesty, doing this to women’s rights.

It is a tragedy in the making for this country. It holds a dubious place in the world. The world laughed at us when Trump was president; they never have stopped.

The world is in a food supply crisis. Prices on many items have doubled in two weeks.

Global warming did exactly what I and the experts warned; crops have stopped producing in some areas which now are facilitating fungal and other growths as well as a longer active season for predator insects and animals. Having more families go hungry because of unwanted and unaffordable children will be an excuse for Republicans to claim government assistance programs are bankrupting the country and that Social Security and Medicare must go.

Increased homelessness, disease and starvation could easily, quickly, decimate whole families, neighborhoods and more.

The draft has not made it to the finalized decision yet. But if I know American voters, they’ll vent on social media or podcasts and let it fucking happen.

Women On Trial

Today the Supreme Court of the United States will hear a case which will determine whether the landmark Roe v Wade decision will stand or fall as federal law. The argument will be brought by a redneck sexist from a poor, historically beaten-down state where women are far more likely to die from childbirth than an abortion. The decision would place the power to legislate abortion restrictions or bans with the states. That would reverse the Roe decision and in so doing, set the precedent of the Supreme Court being effectively disempowered, all past decisions forever called into question, its future a mockery of its own past. It would also mean that more would follow. Right-wing states which have most often elected fake Christians to their legislature because they claim “Christian Values” are bound, once they have no more federal oversight, to clamp down even more on the reproductive rights of women.

If the Roe v Wade decision is overturned, it is not unlikely that even contraception would be restricted if not outlawed. Imagine drug stores not selling condoms or prescription drugs ever again. “The Pill” would be illegal. Because the center of this whole thing is the obsession of men to dominate women. No, I’m not using hyperbole. That’s always been the core issue.

Does anyone remember the film Billy Jack?

A school which houses and helps wayward or disposable children takes in a runaway, a sheriff’s daughter. The reservation is protected by elders and a former Green Beret named Billy Jack, played by Tom Laughlin. As the father confronts his runaway daughter she tells him she was pregnant and had an abortion so she doesn’t know what race the child was. Of course, he beats the hell out of her. In the film The Godfather Part Two Kay tells Michael that she had an abortion because she didn’t want to bring any more of his children into the world.

In pop culture, abortion was subject to treatment in Indie films and blockbuster motion pictures. It was the subject of documentaries and bullshit propaganda “Christian” essays and books.

What seems so hard for people to believe is that the legalization of abortion has saved lives. We can know this, but not quantify it. We can point to case histories, should a woman agree to share her information, where the mother would surely have died had she carried a baby. Sometimes we can know that couples agreed to abort a pregnancy because they were smart enough to know that things like hereditary conditions, financial and job statuses and other factors all made having children a risk or a responsibility they could not live up to.

Oh boy. Did those church leaders ever howl. Roe empowered women who always should have had the final decisions in the matter of their pregnancies. As a matter of history, men have had the last word. Women occasionally rose to prominent places in societies but were almost always surrounded by manipulating men.

Right now, a conservative majority in the Supreme Court is once again threatening the rights of women to their own health and well-being choices.

It’s wrong. And remember this: there are not many people who claim to be “pro-abortion”. The issue is pro choice. The freedom to choose, to make personal decisions. It’s about constitutional rights. It’s about women’s rights and the men who want to snuff those out.

The case is not very Christian, though these men claim that motive and that power. Humans are gifted with certain abilities, and among those are the ability to make choices. The Catholic Church condemns abortion. It has therefore condemned women to die while pregnant or giving birth. It has condemned women to feel undue guilt for having an abortion, leading to life-changing and often fatal outcomes. Placing religious-based guilt on anyone is a sin. As Jesus asked his Father to forgive those who had just crucified him, who were laughing at him, he would also ask for our forgiveness no matter what. To use his name to brutally, mentally punish another human being is to commit an utterly evil act.

I’m angry right now. Yup. Racist and sexist white men poison this country while hiding in the guises of men of God.

It’s more than enough to make me puke. This…is sickening.

World Travel Advisory: Avoid The United States At All Costs

While my attention was on what Hurricane Ida was doing to the south and then the northeast, and my God it was epic–dozens dead, property damage I can’t get my head around–some terrible things have been going on here.

In Texas, two laws which either defied or abused our Constitution have passed. First, because this is only the beginning of women losing every bit of their equal rights so bitterly fought for, is the Texas abortion law. I’ll tell you right off, if you are against abortion, you probably would be much happier skipping this post.

Because, fuck that. Rich white men in bed with the Catholic Church and other interests had passed a law in May which the U.S. Supreme Court has given its blessing to. And god damn them for it, too.

Known as the “heartbeat” bill, it specifies what on the surface looks strange.

It says that as soon as any doctor can detect a fetus’s heartbeat, the mother may not legally abort it. It also restricts the state from enforcing the law and puts responsibility for that onto private citizens through civil cases. Oh, and that goes for the mother, the doctor and includes anyone who aids the mother. With that kind of ambiguity, even a municipal bus driver can be sued, although I doubt that will happen.

At least not right away.

This now forces women to leave the state for the procedure, but you can bet all states surrounding Texas will do something to prevent it; probably with their own abortion restriction laws.

Pregnant women will be forced to carry and deliver babies with severe birth defects and handicaps that will make child and parents alike suffer. The states are fighting to take away all aid to poor parents. That means that the heartless Republicans would gleefully have a child born with special needs that the state is not responsible for giving any help to. Not for procedures, not for formula, pediatrician visits–nothing will be provided. And if the poor baby dies, I would not be surprised to see a law providing for parents to be criminally prosecuted.

A bunch of bald, fat white men are taking away the right of a woman to decide what to do with her body.

A Grenade With The Pin Gone

As of 1 September, people in Texas can carry handguns without a permit.

Or training.

This makes it the most dangerous state to travel through or to. Stay out. Because any traveler from another country is in grave danger. The Texans who will carry guns also are the most likely to be racist. Or in a gang. Both are equally dangerous.

There are many infamous cities around the globe that are rated the most dangerous. Although not in the top ten, Baltimore Maryland consistently ranks around the same general spot on the charts. It’s an easy city to get shot in and we don’t have any such gun laws. That doesn’t matter; gang violence and other gun violence kill over 300 people per year, and children, even babies are among the murdered.

I live about 45 minutes away. I don’t go there and constantly tell others not to. Because visiting the amazing National Aquarium, the magnificent USS Constellation, dining in Little Italy or watching a Ravens or Orioles game is not worth your life. True, most crime happens away from those areas, but not all, and the Baltimore Police Department has a long record of corruption. It’s not safe anywhere.

COVID-19 Alert

The rising rate of infection from coronavirus makes any travel in the United States dangerous. Particularly in Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi and Texas. The governor of Mississippi told his constituents that they would not be provided with the vaccine. He actually told them to sit back and let God take care of them. He forgot the part of the Bible that says “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

Despite what’s reported by American media as an increase in vaccinated individuals, the rates of transmission are rising and there are still cases ending in mortality. If people here aren’t taking covid seriously by now, then stay away.

Why risk your life for anything in this country? I’ve had enough of this bullshit. I’d rather see businesses lose money than to see visitors to our country die because of stupid bastards without regard for others.

Take care of yourselves. Stay away from the United States.

Stay safe. Be well.

As always, I’m humbled and grateful that you’ve let me be a part of your life.

Last Week

If you’re like me, you couldn’t keep up with it all. Or even process everything. What a week that was. I’ve never seen anything like it and nothing in my memory can compare to it. And yet, George Floyd was not unique in that horrible way he died. So people asked, “What’s so different now?”

I looked at the TV. I looked at videos and read articles. With a thrill of nausea and lots of dread, I saw the tear gas used on protesters, saw crowds running, saw the church burn on Sunday night, then, Monday, a debacle the likes of which I’ve never even imagined as Lafayette Square was gassed and crowds charged by cops with shields and riot sticks.

Which was followed by a bizarre speech by Trump with an open threat and a singularly bizarre walk by Trump and an unbelievably scary entourage to the burnt church. The fucker used a church and an upside-down bible as props for a photo op. No shit, and it’s still hard to believe.

Then, in a blinding speed, images and sounds like nothing that could be real, but was.

A 75-year-old man shoved. Lost his balance because he was shoved. Immediately bleeding from an ear and the posterior skull. Listed as serious but stable condition. But how serious? That’s a severe concussion and probable skull fracture you’re seeing. He could have died.

Surrealism: a reporter and his crew fired at as they try to retreat. Cannisters and rubber bullets. Two Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawks buzzing protesters, a maneuver someone called “dusting”, which is basically terrorism. The twin engines and the monster blades of the Blackhawks are weapons at low altitude. If you’re beneath them, you’re getting hit by particles of dust, small debris and anything they feel like dropping. You better tuck into a ball and cover your face. No shit. Whoever justifies this shit is stupid.

But there was no shortage of that. It didn’t begin or end with Trump’s bible modeling. He was asked if it was his bible, and he really answered, “It’s a bible.” Translation: “I don’t own a bible.”

While Reverend Al Sharpton gave a powerful and simply perfect eulogy for the family of George Floyd, others were beginning to fall away from supporting Trump. A number of former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs were vocal in their disapproval of his threat to use regular military personnel to police the streets of any state he chose, and Joe Biden failed to tell officers not to shoot at suspects. Instead he suggested that they aim for legs instead of center of mass. Joe wants to win, but waffling is not a good strategy. There’s no middle ground in a firefight and nobody aims for legs, but then again, that’s if someone else has a gun and can, or is shooting back. You aim center of mass unless you’re the highest tier in an elite sniper class. Then you can try for headshots, but even that’s mostly Hollywood and videogame bullshit. If you’re forced to shoot, you’re forced to kill. Fuck around, and you’ll be the casualty.

Besides, you know how easy it is to hit a major artery in the leg? If a shot goes astray and you score a leg shot, your high velocity round will be very likely to cut or sever the femoral artery. That’s still a kill.

Why all the stupidity? Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Diblasio are not handling things. The tear gas. The pepper balls. Vehicles running into a crowd.

The result: officers shot by anarchists or just plain dickheads using brute force against civilians as an excuse, which makes everything worse.

The police have been less than honorable in every city where protests took place save one, Newark. What are they doing different?

Hitting kids over the head with riot sticks has nothing to do with law and order. It has everything to do with wanting to crack his fucking skull open.

In my life, I’ve seen and been the victim of things nobody should ever see or endure. But though I’ve been bitter about it, there wasn’t enough evil in me to act on it. Oh, when I thought about shooting my parents, I was well and truly capable. I would have been convicted of first degree murder, too. But I’d have saved my nephew from things I knew he was already having done to him. Cops kneeling on a man because he had a rap sheet until the guy dies isn’t done to save anyone.

It’s done out of racist hatred and a disregard for civil rights and the sanctity of life that chills my blood. Watching George Floyd die is to watch a part of your own soul break off and die. Seeing that cop with a hand in his pocket, squeezing the life out of Floyd and smirking is to watch a cold-blooded, first degree homicide. That’s exactly what it was, straight murder. Other officers watched. And it doesn’t matter that one said something. It doesn’t matter because they all stood around and watched a bully cop with a bad record commit murder. Now they’ve been photographed in orange, and they should get used to that color. Other cops are pissed. They’re striking out at people because a “brother officer” is “guilty of doing his job”.

Meanwhile, honorable police officers are lumped together as assholes and murderers. That’s not cool, but what’s less so is when someone says, “If you get a bad hamburger it doesn’t mean McDonald’s is bad.” Speaking about police officers to a crowd. That’s not the way to handle this. It’s degrading, simplistic and grossly condescending.

Trump, on the other hand, notorious for not wearing a mask, toured a plant where swabs for covid-19 tests were made. In there, he alone wasn’t wearing a mask. The entire batch made that day are confirmed as contaminated and we already did not have enough.

Then he claimed based on flawed numbers that the economy was doing great, and that George Floyd was looking down on him and smiling. African American jobs were up, he said. Which confirmed, if anyone had any doubts remaining, that Donald Trump is a racist idiot who is so self-serving and egotistical that he would actually talk like that while the nation was caught up in protesting the man’s murder, his family was grieving, and he was standing there mocking them and perfectly happy to risk more unemployment when the coronavirus spreads.

Covid-19 is not over, is not slowing, and will continue to spread. There won’t be any second surge in the fall; we’re already into June and there’s no reason to believe next month will automatically be free of COVID-19. That’s unreasonable, unrealistic and too close to Trump’s lies and delusion than anyone should be.

Fortunately I have just the man to properly explain all of this. If a comedian can’t be funny right now, it’s not because he’s not willing to try. It’s because laughing at this shit is unthinkable. He gets in a couple of jibes, but this is the most serious episode he’s ever done.

Colin Powell and others are now openly calling Trump a liar. Why the fuck did it take three and a half years?

Reverend Al Sharpton Delivered This Eulogy: Don’t Let His Words Be Spoken In Vain, For We Are At A True Crossroad Of History

We are at a true moment in history when we have a choice to make. Keep fighting for what’s right, or go home and get some sleep.

What will we the majority, we who have this choice to wield our combined power, do with this moment?

It’s a hard decision. Soon, things will happen that will make activists and protesters tired, and some will quit the fight. Those who remain must not waver in their resolve. If they do, we all lose everything.

The economy looks to be recovering. It’s an illusion, a vestige of automatic reactions to the fears of another great depression. But we’re dangerously close to one, much more so than at any time in my 60 years. It will make memories of 1974 and 1979 and 2008 vanish. It’s even being done in a different way this time; it’s not an accident, not a vagary of different causalities the people won’t understand. This was part of Trump and Putin’s plan all along. For proof, I offer the first three years of the Trump administration. Look at a timeline of major events and eventually you see the pattern: Trump and Republicans do or fail to do something, and Russia gets quietly stronger. While you weren’t even looking, they’ve made a pact with China to share military advancements. If we went to war, we would lose. It would eventually go nuclear if Trump wanted it to. I rather doubt it. His job is to let Russia dominate the world.

His failure to act on warnings by the CDC wasn’t an accident. Trump knew exactly what he was doing. Or what he was failing to do. Now you hear out of his mouth or read in his tweets outlandish bullshit. He’s even blamed President Obama for the coronavirus!

And of course, nobody knows what “Obamagate” is and my auto-correct says the same, even when put in quotation marks. But he keeps telling reporters, “you know what I’m talking about, but you’re fake news so you won’t print it.”

He hasn’t had any kind words for the family of George Floyd. He’s instead marshalling police from prisons, police with no markings on their uniforms, and some really scary shit is about to happen. Tear gas wasn’t enough. The threat to use regular military personnel wasn’t enough. Now choppers buzz protesters: terrorism from the White House. Soon rubber bullets will be gone, and metal jacket rounds will be locked and loaded. How far do you think he will go? He’s put lives at risk from COVID-19 and takes no responsibility; as we passed 100,000 dead, he made clear that he regarded it as fake news. In contradicting himself as he so often does, because he is a common bullshitter, he’d previously claimed that COVID-19 would be gone in a minute. Did nothing about it. Andrew Cuomo’s daily press conferences were scary and they were the fucking truth. Trump had to respond; he claimed he had “reacted faster than anyone” (among world leaders). His changeup bullshittery should be seen for what it is: all lies, every bit of it. You know what Jesus called Satan? The father of all lies. He did. And that’s the true power Trump worships: Satan and himself.

With unemployment so high because of the coronavirus, recovery is a lie. What you’re seeing on the news, about housing rebounding, is either false, or real but volatile and unsustainable. We’re going into a depression, and it’s not an accident, not a result of any one cause. Just the carelessness of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Along the way they have sunk the very corporations they have served. All but the biggest holders of cash reserves, meaning the components of ALEC, will vanish. Oil and coal made them money. Made them rich and powerful. And that kind of cash and power means political clout. Ol’ Joe Lunchmeat on the street? He’s fucked. Especially if he’s black.

Expectations of a huge surge in the COVID-19 pandemic are already beginning to prove true. Cases have overcome testing; it’s no longer a case of more diagnoses because of more testing. And the protesters know this. They’re willing to give their lives for equal rights and respect for all people. They are heroes in the midst of a pitched battle that will only get worse.

The police do terrible things. Body-slamming a black school girl to the ground. Shooting kids with no provocation. Too many names to say out loud at once. Even Reverend Al missed Freddy Gray; there’s too many names. There always has been.

For the police officers who strive to do an unenviable job with honor, you have to help. Taking a knee is a nice gesture but nothing more. Stop this murder and assault on unarmed men and women whose civil rights are being violated right in front of you. This moment in history tells you that’s non-negotiable; you get your fellow officer to get his knee off the man on the ground or you’ll be counted as guilty as he is.

Whatever’s going on within the grounds of our White House, it isn’t right. I don’t believe for a second that their assault weapons are loaded with rubber bullets. They more resemble mercenaries than police. Trump wants blood; but more, he still wants to be dictator for life and to destroy democracy with such finality that we can never get it back.

This is the moment. Refuse to follow orders from Trump, and you’ll save lives and your soul.

We need to remember the lives lost to tyranny and murderous hatred. George Floyd’s children need to know that their daddy awaits them in heaven, but they also need to have faith in all of us that we won’t let his murder be in vain. That he’s one of many waiting in heaven for justice, and that justice is going to come.

It’s time. I was raised by bigoted parents who told me so many terrible things about black people that I was probably more phobic and hateful than they were. But that wasn’t what I wanted to be. Change was hard. It took years. But I had to do it. It can be done. Love can overpower hate. All you need do is want it to. We need the law enforcement and justice system to understand that we don’t hate each other. That we stand together on streets all over the country, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and others. We can’t stop. Not now. If we do, they’re going to sweep the streets with the bodies of the Innocents. That’s too terrible to allow. Don’t give in. Stand together as brothers and sisters and don’t you give up. Because this time, we can do it. This time, we can change the country. Maybe the world. We have no limits. One people. Equal. All loved by our creator. Here we stand at a true crossroads in history. What will we do?

Be safe out there on the crossroads.♥️☮️