Month: February 2022

Putin said this before beginning his military campaign against Ukraine

……..we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation…..  our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. We are not going to impose anything on anyone by force…..

But this is what he brought to the people of Ukraine and the rest of the world

Sight unseen this is what Trump said about Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine

So Putin is now saying it’s independent — a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace, all right.

Those are the sights of Donald Trump’s version of peace enforced by armaments of war.

In light of the aggression going on in Ukraine which was initiated solely by Vladmir Putin’s encroachment on Ukrainian sovereignty I am reminded of Donald Trump and the admiration he had for the Russian leader who he always chose over American presidents.

If [Putin] says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him…Certainly in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been.

Trump would’ve liked to have the power to bring such scenes to the American landscape. Some would say he was nearly successful. Whatever the case the fact there is an American President who speaks highly of someone who has brought about the devastation now going on in Ukraine and who’s doing so breaking international law and based on lies is all one needs to know about Donald Trump and how important it is he never assume any type of power again.

On the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine comes two current news articles that remind me this is America and this is who we are. Any one who thinks todays Republican party has anything positive to offer American citizens should be ashamed to think that way. There are still too many GOP politicians who say the 2020 elections were stolen and that there was no evidence of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump in the 2016 elections despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The fact the Party would actively involve itself in a way that would damage the interests, public health and safety of its constituents and even the national interests of America is some thing many would consider unfathomable.

If you live in the state of Texas that would be an incorrect assumption if not a life threatening one and here’s why

The former head of the Texas power grid on Wednesday testified that he was ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott to keep power prices at the maximum price cap during last winter’s winter storm……Power prices were kept at the maximum of $9,000 per megawatt hour, more than 150 times normal prices, during last winter’s storm.

Such outrageous pricing forced the bankruptcy of the utility  electric co-op Brazos Electric….an unintended consequence but there is little doubt the people of Texas faced a major inconvenience during the winter of 2021. On the heels of that tragedy however comes news of people who wanted to benefit from it and put America in the throes of a race war by attacking power grids throughout the United States. One of the conspirators in this scheme was from Texas and the aim of the three of them charged was to sow chaos by attacking regional electrical substations, expecting “the damage would lead to economic distress and civil unrest.”

Economic distress for the customers on Texas’ electricity grid was real in the winter of 2021 but luckily for America not yet the civil unrest. That wasn’t for lack of the Abbott administration trying. It later emerged that the utility commission paid little attention to taking measures necessary to prevent disruption of service to Texans and even a year later people in north Texas faced disruption of power as winter storm after winter storm moved through the area. Government must insure people have access to affordable utilities for their residences. Not doing so promotes discontent, dissatisfaction and disaffection with government. People in government and especially Republican government and her big business allies deflect such public outcry by pitting one group of people against another and so the conspirators of the above plot probably realized the potential their plan had in todays America.

Frankly there are too many criminally insane people who are willing to exploit the tinder box of America’s racial problems. We are lucky the three above weren’t successful but it only takes one person and one event to set America’s racial hotbed off. Timothy McVeigh tried back in the 90s with catastrophic results. Dylann Roof tried in 2015 when he killed nine people in their church because he believed white people are superior and that he had to kill black people in order to agitate race relations. In other words his aim was to start a race war. Six years separate him from his three co-defendants in crime meanwhile America and her politicians continue to provide every opportunity for them to diminish the power and vibrancy of the country with lies and the lack of courage to confront problems with real solutions. When will this stop?

#IStandUnitedWithUkraine

America is going through another one of its periods where its fascist tendencies surpass, overpower its better ambitions of being a democracy. This is the 21st century version, 5.01. What I find laughable are all the pundits who want to imply America is approaching this troubling era by saying how the Nation has embraced a particular fascist trait like book banning but hasn’t quite reached it yet so we’d better stop sliding toward that trend……

I hate to break it to us, America, but book banning like racism is as American as apple pie and titles we so often quote today to underscore where America is were on someone’s list for us not to read in our not too distant past. Americans don’t like dealing with uncomfortable aspects of our past and present and would much rather push them off as far away as possible from society’s radar

since last year, 37 states have introduced or passed legislation that puts constraints on what can be taught about racism, sexism and inequality

When it comes to people of color, American Fascism 5.01 goes hog wild in its attempts at limiting what people say about their experience and their histories in this country. People as innocent as track star Wilma Rudolph who spoke of the racism she faced while growing up had her voice challenged by a school district in of all places Texas because of course we don’t like to be uncomfortable about our past.

So as long as America refuses to deal with its  long standing authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy let’s be clear it is in the updated version, 5.01 of American fascism.

If you want to understand why black people in America are mad and fed up with policing read on. Most likely it’s because of the random, unnecessary nature of police’s interaction with the African-American community. Every day you can find examples of how police without any reason whatsoever interject themselves into the life of America’s black citizens. Even when police are dispatched to look for and apprehend normal, known criminals police will avoid doing that when they come across black citizens and begin a level of interaction that makes it clear to all involved they consider a black skinned individual a criminal who must explain to the satisfaction of the officer standing in front of them why he is occupying a particular space at a particular time. Why they are standing in front of a place or in a store; why they are sitting behind the wheel of a car; why they are walking or running on a particular sidewalk and on and on. Those civilians who are lucky can come away from such encounters unscathed, without being fined, their lives intact so to speak and free to live another day. There are some unlucky ones who when innocently minding their own business when confronted by police die or are killed. In such instances, asking for police reform is the least a society should do in order to ensure police’s contact with citizens doesn’t result in unnecessary death or injury to all parties involved.

Perhaps the first thing that needs to be addressed is the issue of profiling and why police automatically assume black skinned Americans are criminally inclined. This presumption of guilt or that something must be wrong is inbred in policing where there is an us against them mentality taught at the beginning of one’s police experience. That gets elevated when the variable of skin pigmentation is added in the mix between the two parties. No recent example underscores this dynamic of police naturally assuming pigmentation corresponds to guilt or innocence than this example out of Ohio where 60-year-old Eric Lindsay was confronted by police on suspicion of shoplifting.

If you watched the video you might be able to understand his outrage at being approached by the officer. Being black and experienced in how to get around in black skin you probably heard Lindsay refer to seeing the police enter the store BEFORE he did and if they were looking for someone based on a description given to the police BEFORE they entered then it couldn’t possibly be him. You probably saw him look warily at the approaching officer and how he responded to ‘take your hands out of your pockets’. The very command is akin to a threat. No doubt you heard the certainty in his voice when he said he would sue because he knew he did nothing wrong. That was not an empty threat. If you watched the video you probably heard that the description of the shoplifter was that he was young and white. The police had no business approaching Lindsay at all, so why did they?

Who is the greater threat in this encounter? Lindsay has gone on to sue the police department and he should win. Are the citizens of that town helped by the fact that a police department will have to pay a large sum of money to a plaintiff because their officers mistook a black 60 year old man for a white, male 30 something shoplifter? Will they understand the reason for increased taxes because of arcane and illegal policing practices performed by their officers who are sworn to serve and protect?

America is a mature democracy. It’s been around for a long time and with age should come wisdom and responsible practices in how people in society should deal with one another. If one can’t leave their personal prejudices aside during the performance of their duties as a law enforcement officer or find the stress of the job clouds their better judgement, they shouldn’t be police officers. If one is driven by an American age old prejudice to naturally assume people of color need to be reigned in, controlled, monitored, profiled, dispensed with judiciously because of their skin color, then they shouldn’t be police officers. America must do better than this or else more citizens will be brutalized by police and the trust of the community at large towards police will continue to erode into a toxic cauldron of violence and mayhem. That’s really not a choice, so do better America. Reform policing.

Peoople have become tired of Covid-19. I am too. I drive to an establishment, get out of my car and halfway to the door forget to put on my mask and have to run back to get it. Parents are tired of insisting their children wear masks at school, or so they say and are asking school boards to rescind mask mandates. The things Americans put employees who work at places that ask patrons to wear masks through is unconscionable. Our sons and daughters should not have to bear the brunt of uncontrollable and sometimes feigned rage of people who don’t want to wear a mask.

I am writing this on a Thursday in the second week of February when the seven day average for new covid cases is over 225,000 and the day before, yesterday saw 3,570 Americans die from the virus. If those numbers are acceptable to you America, then open up. I am fed up with your reluctance to do what’s right in the face of a raging pandemic.

Covid has become a stick which politicians and others hostile to the interest of the country have used to destroy our social fabric. Take that power from them; remove the government mandates so that folks with ill intent are no longer able to hold the country hostage. However, the federal government must maintain a role in dealing with this pandemic…because it’s still very much a pandemic which is defined by the CDC as a disease that affects the global population and are usually caused by new infectious agents (bacteria or viruses) that spread quickly.

Incentivize government resources to those places like schools, hospitals and businesses that follow CDC guidelines and recommendations. Make testing and vaccinations available for free in those areas that follow them. School systems that institute social distancing regulations in their facilities should be provided with the resources, funding, etc they need to do that. Those school systems that follow said guidelines are controlled by local school boards that initiate those policies not the federal government, thereby giving local control to policy makers which is what parents yell and scream at school board meetings they want.

Barely three weeks ago, hospitals were faced with this

Nationwide, daily COVID-19 hospitalizations are up about 33% this week from the week before and more than 155,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, well above the record set last winter.

Health care systems that set up a triage system that deals as much as humanely possible with the effects the pandemic has on their resources should receive the lion’s share of federal government assistance. That may mean un-vaccinated people, the ones who are clogging up emergency rooms, infecting health care providers which further jams up the system get pushed to the back of the line in terms of treatment but so be it. Perhaps the government can suggest procedures and reward systems that use them and for those who don’t and are inundated in ways that the article above mentions, well….ok…figure it out.

More people in 21st century America have died from covid than died in what I call pre-historic 20th century America during the 1918 pandemic. All the technology and advancement in medicine could not protect us from our stubbornness and the inclination of unscrupulous politicians to fight their opponents through the politicization of a medical pandemic. I’ve come to the conclusion, natural selection is the course to pursue at this stage in the pandemic. Let nature take its course and I say so with a bit of irony. We as a country are too immature to live prudently during times of national emergencies so let’s throw caution to the wind and OPEN UP AMERICA.

It’s hard to admit that a former president of the United States poses an existential threat to American democracy but such is the case with Donald Trump. America has gone well past the days of making excuses for Trump’s behavior such as locker room talk, boys will be boys as the reason for the Access Hollywood comments. America chose to ignore his apparent conflicts of interest, his claims that he wasn’t violating emoluments clauses despite his excessive use paid for by taxpayers of Trump owned facilities . The idea that insulating him with professional bureaucrats who could smooth out his delivery while advancing his policy objectives didn’t work out for America either. Even though some of what Trump and his party wanted was implemented, judges, economic policies, international relations, it was still done with such heavy handedness that Trump was impeached twice, the only American president with that distinction.

The longer he goes untouched by all the institutions available to discipline an errant, abusive, criminal politician….and let’s be clear Trump is all those things, the worse he will become. Don’t believe it? His last rally in Texas is proof. At Texas rally, Trump all but promised a racially charged civil war if he’s indicted …………….is a headline of the Philadelphia Inquirer characterizing his remarks one Saturday night in Texas. In fact what Trump said was so inflammatory that a Georgia prosecutor sought advice, protection from the FBI. Let that sink in a minute. It’s not that she is just a prosecutor, an officer of the Court, sworn to protect and defend the Constitution, the same oath that Trump once took. It’s that she’s a leftist, racist prosecutor, Trump’s words, of the court who’s abusing her power and coming after Trump and his supporters. The unspoken part is she is also black and that part implied before a crowd in a red Southern state was the punch in the gut he wanted to deliver. Trump and the GOP have decided that highly radicalized language designed to pit one distinct group of Americans against another is acceptable. Even more frightening is the expectation that one of those groups will fight the other in support of Trump. Let’s be clear, Trump et co aren’t talking figuratively about engaging in a fight about ideas and policy civilly through the ballot process, they are talking about fighting in the streets in much the same way they did on 01/06/2021. This is the threat he poses; he foments civil unrest at every chance he gets and promises those who heed the call that when restored to power he will abrogate their prosecution. This is why American institutions of government and the judiciary must prosecute Trump to the fullest extent of the law and they must do so expeditiously otherwise America as it has come to be known will cease to exist.