From Portland to Kenosha, a hot summer of protest

The day before Labor Day temperatures in Southern California looked like this: Eastern San Diego: 105°f, Azusa: 115°f and Woodland Hills: 121°f. Death Valley recorded 130°f. That is a heat wave. And of course we have wild fires burning millions of acres across the state. As I sit this morning after Labor Day the sky has turned orange from the smoke and ash of the Valley Fire to the east. This is going to be a very bad fire season, most likely the worst in history.

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I don’t get it. After Kenosha police shot an unarmed black man seven times in the back and riots broke out people from all sides of the political spectrum said, “Biden has to denounce the looting and violence! Otherwise Trump and the Republicans will use it against him!”

But, I have yet to hear any of these same so-called experts breathlessly demand, “Trump has to denounce these cops that are killing unarmed black people!”

No one with half a brain thought Joe Biden and the Democratic Party leadership supported violent protestors and looters, but since the GOP and Trump are so desperate right now (read the polls) one of the options they think they have is to tie the Democrats to the rioters and looters. Because, you know Black Lives Matter and antifa.

By the way: If the first thing that upsets you about the social unrest taking place across America is the rioting and destruction of property and not the epidemic of police brutality towards people of color, you need to examine your priorities. Also: With all the social unrest and protests going on across America, why are police still targeting unarmed Black men for abuse? That takes an incredible amount of arrogance

A few days ago, while on Facebook — a dangerous way to exchange ideas — I asked an extreme right wing guy what it is that makes Black Lives Matter a dangerous radical group? He didn’t answer, but as I was responding to another of his idiotic posts he unfriended and blocked me because he felt I was being disrespectful. Well … yeah, I was! Not only does this person (like so many others) conflate BLM and antifa with one another and call both radical and violent organizations, he even claims the Theory of Evolution is racist … need to let that sink in for a bit.

And why are there still undecided voters? Either you’re a racist or someone who is okay with a racist in the White House — or you are not. Either you are okay with the most divisive president in history, or you are not. The people that think this is a choice of “the lesser of two evils” are at least as stupid and dangerous as the … people …in the Trump cult.

I’m angry now, totally disgusted by Trump and his cult and the lazy people who are still “undecided.” Either you are a misogynist and racist or someone who is okay with a sexual predator and racist in the White House — or you are not.

We can vote for decency plus clear headed and science-driven public health policy, or we can vote to stay with the deadly chaos we have now.

Make a choice.

Yes, I’m angry, very angry. Ever since the outdated Electoral College gave the presidency to Donald J. Fucking Trump I’ve been angry. The Electoral College was created to assuage the racist southern slave states who could see their side of the debate on slavery dwindling with the growing population in the north.

Once Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation another bill should have been introduced to repeal the E.C and get the amendment process started.

One significant note about the E.C.: It is why the Constitution recognized African slaves, black people, as three-fifths human. Since slaves couldn’t vote the founders didn’t know how to account for their populations in the various slave states. So they came up with this compromise, allowing southern states to count their slaves, which were large parts of the state populations. In Virginia, for instance, slaves made up 60% of the population.

This is the legacy of the Electoral College: promoting and maintaining racism. Sorry black people, you don’t quite measure up. We did away with that three-fifths thing in the Constitution (not really), but as far as policing and the justice system is concerned, Black people just ain’t as good as us White folks.

The Party of Lincoln became the party of racism in 1968 when all the disaffected Southern Democrats left the party and became the Dixicrats. Southern Dems didn’t like the passing of all that Civil Rights legislation in 1964-65 and were looking for a party to represent their radical and racist views. In steps the GOP and the Nixon For President campaign. They called it the Southern Strategy. It worked and the southern states have largely been in the Republican camp since.

There had been the few Democrat senators, like Al Gore of Tennessee and Robert Byrd of West Virginia who had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. He served from 1951 to 2010, when he died. Bob had a civil rights conversion along the way, eventually denouncing his membership in the Klan.

After the Dixicrats the GOP went after the religious right with their anti-abortion nonsense just for that block of voters. Then there was the entirely discredited Reagan philosophy of a “trickle down” economy that decimated collective bargaining and the middle class, and eventually Iraq and now we have Trump and the politics of Racism.

It’s never been “both parties are at fault.” There’s a segment of the media that likes to make that claim and a gullible part of society that believes it, but I do fault the Democrats for not standing up against the pull to the right.

In 1976 I actually voted for Ford because I didn’t trust a born again Christian in the White House. Now I think Carter is the best former president in history. Today there isn’t a Republican I would vote for, not one.

By now everyone has heard about the report by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic in which four sources claim Trump thinks the men and women who have given their lives in service to our nation are “suckers” and “losers.” Really, you’re undecided about whether it’s true or not? Please! Trump’s disparaging remarks about the late Senator John McCain and Army Captain Humayun Khan and his family are recorded on digital and analog video! For all time! Please! Watch and listen, the man has no respect for the people in uniform. Look what he’s said about retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, the most revered Marine since Chesty Puller. According to Trump General James Mattis, who rose to become the commander of Central Command and then Secretary of Defense, was “over-rated.” The irony of President Bone Spurs calling James Mattis over-rated.

The retired general and I differ on some political issues, but James Mattis is one of the honest and honorable people to have served. The fact that his former troops hold him in such high regard, that he is considered one of the iconic Marines, alongside Chesty Puller and John Basilone, is a testament to his integrity as a leader and his affection and concern for the men and women that served in his commands over the years.

The article in The Atlantic has been verified by many major news organizations, including by a Fox News reporter … let that sink in. Of course Trump is demanding she be fired.

Trump’s cult refuses to acknowledge reality and the so-called “undecided people in the middle” are also blind to reality All the videos are there, including the Access Hollywood video and people are still undecided? I don’t get it, unless those people are so devoid of morals that anything goes if the candidate is promising them the right pie in the sky.

In April 2016 Former Nixon aide and co-conspirator John Ehrlichman wrote an article for Harper’s Magazine in which he stated, “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

The GOP has been at war with progressives (liberals) and people of color ever since. The “Law and Order”” campaign and philosophy has been a staple of the Republican Party, a throwback to the racist beginnings of policing in America.

Like millions of other Americans, I couldn’t watch that clown show labeled as the Republican National Convention. There were a few speeches I tried to watch, starting with that horror of TV personality, Kimberly Guilfoyle. What the hell was that screaming bit of madness? The screaming madness didn’t end with her. Guilfoyle’s paramour Donald Trump, Jr. echoed the madness and it became obvious that would be the trend, the message, of the GOP convention.

Even Trump’s youngest daughter got in on the show, claiming she knows what it’s like to be a recent college grad — as if she has tens of thousands of dollars in college debt to deal with and middle class or low income parents who are struggling to get through this pandemic.

Here’s the Republican message for the 2020 Trump re-election bid: “Look at this shit show that started on our watch! Vote for four more years of it!”

Every one of the speakers, including the gun-wielding couple from St. Louis who are in trouble for waving guns at protestors, couldn’t help but spread the message, “Vote for four more years of this!”

Probably the biggest aspect of the RNC was the blatant violation of the Hatch Act. Maybe Trump and Pence are exempt from the law, but all the people that use their official duties and government offices to work on the Trump and Pence campaign are guilty. Allegedly, supposedly. Like the acting secretary of the Homeland Security Department Chad Wolf who held a naturalization ceremony at the White House that was then used in the GOP convention. Then there was the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who gave a convention speech from Israel while on an official state department trip.

The most vulgar display was Trump’s speech in front of the White House — the Peoples’ House — to hold a COVID-19 super spreader event. Never in our history has a president stooped to using government buildings and workers (including U.S. Marines) as political props.

Never before has a sitting secretary of state been involved in an election campaign, nor a DHS secretary. Then there was Sleepy Ben Carson’s speech in which he, like several other African American speakers, claimed America isn’t a racist country and Donald Trump isn’t a racist. Former South Carolina Governor and Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley made the same claim, but then described how she and her family were discriminated against as she grew up in her state. It’s one or the other, Nikki Haley.

The other hallmark of the Republican National Convention was the outright lying by the Party of Trump. Patricia McCloskey, the wife in that St. Louis gun waving couple, claimed Biden and the Democrats wanted to “abolish the suburbs.” As the Business Insider noted: “Democrats do not want to abolish the suburbs nor end single-family home zoning. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has offered no policies of the sort. McCloskey appears to take aim at a 2015 Obama-era housing initiative — which also does not “abolish the suburbs” — that is meant to address patterns of racial segregation and work to correct them, which the Trump administration has sought to overturn.”

Another of the most egregious lies told by many speakers for the RNC, was that Biden and the Democrats want to “Defund the Police!” According to Business Insider Biden has refuted those claims many times and it is not included in the Democratic platform.

Another egregious lie by Trump: “We also passed VA Accountability and VA Choice; our great veterans, we’re taking care of our veterans — 91 percent approval rating this month, the VA. Given by our veterans. First time anything like that has happened.”

The reality is President Obama signed that legislation in 2014.

Business Insider has a partial list of what they consider the RNC’s most egregious lies.

Full disclosure: I didn’t watch every night of the DNC either. I was watching the NBA and NHL playoffs. Sorry (not sorry). But, for a good representation of the DNC, here’s Barack Obama’s speech, from Philadelphia. In it the former president goes where he never has before in a speech.

• C’mon man! The Milwaukee Bucks eliminated in the second round? Maybe there is a Deep State — in sports.

Biden is leading in all polls, which should be a warning to Democrats. Hillary Clinton led in the polls too. But the GOP is worried. Trump’s disapproval could drag down every other Republican candidate running for office, possibly flipping the U.S. Senate. How desperate are Trump’s acolytes? Well there is this bullshit from Greg Gutfeld of Fox News: “We now know there is a plan to burn our homes: they’re telling us that. SO, what do we do? If we fight back — we are called vigilantes. And that’s illegal. it’s a perfect recipe for war. No mayors. no leaders. no protection. what do we do?”

The typos aside, what is he talking about? Who has a plan to burn homes and who is telling us that? No protection? Perfect recipe for war? They are going all out insane in Trump World.

Trump visited Kenosha to walk among the remains of the riots. One shop owner refused to grant Trump a photo op so the organizers found a previous owner will to stand with Trump.

Biden and Harris went to Kenosha and met with the shooting victim’s family and the man shot seven times in the back by the police, Jacob Blake. Biden later spoke with Blake himself and then at a community event held at a local church. Biden also met with local officials, including law enforcement.

On Labor Day morning, we saw Trump at the White House lying about everything, from the pandemic and a possible vaccine, to the economy. Despite recent job gains, there are still over 20 million people out of work due to Trump’s lack of action to contain the coronavirus seven months ago. He lied about Biden’s economic and energy plans — he lied about what is causing California’s rolling black outs. It isn’t because of renewable energy sources, it’s due to the capitalist greed of the energy companies that control most of the state’s energy grid. The solar panels actually generate excess energy.

Trump insulted the generals — wait, you’re having trouble believing Trump said fallen soldiers and Marines are “losers” and “suckers”? So, that lying son-of-a-bitch Trump claimed, on Labor Day, the top brass in the Pentagon hate him because he wants to end all the wars, wars that the generals supposedly want so they can keep the military-industrial complex happy. But when it suits him Trump likes to brag about how he has built up the military. In January he bragged about spending $2.5 trillion on the military, which Politifact promptly pointed out was an exaggeration. But there he was puffing out his chest about keeping the military-industrial complex happy.

Trump has no clue what he’s saying.

Trump lies about everything, like our standing in the global economy, lies about his “great deal with China” — the only stupid person the Chinese took advantage of was Trump — he even claimed to be a better warrior than the actual people that fight our wars.

I’m tired of Donald J. Trump. Thanks to his narcissism and fears, the coronavirus has now infected over 6.32 million people in the U.S. and claimed the lives of 189,261 people. The University of Washington Institute of Health Metrics there will be close to a half million deaths from the coronavirus. They actually have projections that are far worse and they say there are over 193k deaths due to COVID-19. We can expect to hit 200k by September 20 and I would guess 400k by November 3, election day. That will be the Trump legacy: over half million people dead due to a pandemic he could have slowed down had he been more concerned about the country than his own insecure image.

People aren’t out of work because the economy is closed — obviously it isn’t totally shut down — businesses are closed or partially opened because most people do not want to venture out of their homes too much because the chances of catching COVID-19 are still very high, thanks to Trump’s failure to mount an aggressive testing and quarantining plan back in February and March.

Teachers don’t want to go into schools that are not set up for social distancing and lack a robust testing plan. Universities across the country are shutting down after just a few days of the new semester due to outbreaks at their schools.

People don’t want to work in a place that is not set of for operation in the COVID-19 world and does not have a robust testing regimen. People do not want to go someplace where they don’t feel safe, where other people are walking around like there is no COVID-19.

Normal people don’t want to be around Trump supporters that follow Trump’s lead and don’t wear masks, don’t keep their distance and feel it is their god-given right to infringe on your rights and invade your personal space because the president told them the coronavirus is a hoax.

Here’s a candidate for the dumbest thing posted on social media: ‘Rule by Experts’ is Tyranny Shrouded in Science. I’m sorry … WTF? Their argument being that the changing — evolving — findings by the scientists as they study COVID-19 are proof the scientists are tyrants, part of the Deep State system trying to enslave us with their science … Basically the author says we shouldn’t trust the scientists because, well, they want to be dictators. Tabitha Alloway, the writer of this nonsense, went after Neil DeFGrasse Tyson specifically for his essay Rationalia and then cites all the times science was used by dictators. Ergo, science is bad.

It is pseudo-science for morons.

We need to defeat the GOP and their Dear Leader Trump and send the Trump cult quickly crawling back under their rocks. I’m done with Trump and his supporters and I hope you are too.

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UPDATE: You know what’s insane? Donald J. Trump being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Some nut bar right winger in Norway nominated the Orange Douchebag. Maybe I should have been nominated for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year and won it, instead of Montreal Harrell of the Los Angeles Clippers. Congratulations Trez, you deserve the award and honor. The other guy, the one nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize — fuck’em.

 

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UPDATE: Excerpts of Bob Woodward’s latest book, Rage, have been released, with recordings, featuring the president, Donald J. Trump, admitting he knew just how dangerous COVID-19 is, and that he purposely downplayed it to avoid a panic. In effect, he is admitting he lied to use, from the very beginning about the coronavirus.

About 190,000 deaths, over 6.3 million infected — and those numbers are still rising — and Trump knew this was coming, knew this was going to happen. He knew millions of people would lose their jobs.

Trump told Woodward he knew COVID-19 is five times deadlier than the seasonal flu. And apparently people who served in the Trump Administration, like former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and former Director of National Security Dan Coates discussed doing something because Trump is “dangerous” and “unfit” for the job.

Trump has to go, along with all his enablers in the Senate and House of Representatives. They are killing us.

You can listen to the clip through this article on CNN.com and hear Trump’s deceit, in his own words.

 

Top photo is a YouTube screenshot of police over-reaction during a peaceful protest