The Rule of Law and Democracy Are Up For Grabs

Those of us who don’t recognize the name Sébastien Foucan would be forgiven. According to his Wikipedia page he is French born and the founder of freerunning and an early developer of parkour.

Foucan has been hired for many projects and events, but his most prominent role was that of Mollaka in the James Bond classic, Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig as Bond and Dame Judy Dench as “M,” a role she had played as if she were born to be the head of Great Britain’s MI6.

The chase scene between Foucan and Bond is one of the best — most incredible — scenes I have seen in films. As good as the car chases in Bullit and The French Connection. My only complaint with Bullit is the destruction of two classic American muscle cars: a 1968 Ford Mustang GT and a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T. In defense of the movie’s producers, they weren’t classic cars when the film was made and released.

There are some people who believe the role of James Bond ended when Sean Connery left the serial franchise in 1971 after his final appearance as Bond — second to last appearance as Bond — in his 6^th Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever. Connery reprised the role with a Thunderball-type film in the 1980s, Never Say Never Again. Roger Moore who made the Bond films a bit more fun and campier, was 007 from 1973 to 1985.

Daniel Craig makes as good a James Bond as Sean Connery. That’s blasphemy in some circles, although the people who say that only point to one, or maybe two Bond films with Connery: Goldfinger and possibly the first Bond film, Dr. No. So I consider those opinions to be grossly uninformed.

So here we are, on this James Bond tangent that was started with an exposition of parkour master Sébastien Foucan who has a very successful career displaying his freerunning and parkour skills on TV and in film.

That is what I was thinking about after a day of listening to talking heads on the two cable news networks flap their jibs with endless speculation about what happens now, which Trump investigation will be the next to drop indictments on the ex-president. One thing I should point out: Fox News is no longer a news network, if it ever was a news outlet.

After nearly 11 hours of watching TV analysts talk the Trump case to death, I switched over to watch — once again — Casino Royale. It’s always entertaining.

Then it was back to the news.

Here’s another aside. Rachel Maddow on MSNBC started laughing uncontrollably just for trying to say the name of the National Inquirer’s publisher, David Pecker. Apparently, I guess, Pecker’s name is still silly in some circles.

As over bearing as the Donald Trump coverage had been Tuesday, and I’m guilty of watching it for many — MANY — hours, there was one story that was even more important than Donald J. Trump getting his comeuppance. It was that the liberal candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Janet Protasiewicz  defeated the election denying, conspiracy theory nut bar Daniel Kelly. I’m from MKE and I don’t know how to pronounce her last name.

He is the guy who drafted the plan to steal the election in Wisconsin from Joe Biden with alternate delegates, for the Wisconsin GOP. The Republicans in the Dairy State are as corrupted and caught up as every other QAnon nut in a fantasy world created by some clever guys operating out of the Philippines and … Some other Asian country. I’ll stop right there before I follow that tangent deeper into another rabbit hole, Daniel Kelly is as corrupted and delusional as any seditionist caught up by the January 6^th 2021 investigations. Maybe Kelly should be investigated and possibly indicted for his role in the falsification of election records (alternate slate of delegates) leading up to January 6, 2021.

At any rate Kelly was defeated so Wisconsinites can breathe a sigh of relief  knowing their rights to abortions are safe and their votes will be secure from the sham claims of election fraud. The real election fraud has been performed by Trump and his minions around the nation.

One of the troubling aspects of Wisconsin is that the GOP has a super majority in their state assembly and senate which makes them veto proof. In a suburb of Milwaukee in Waukesha County Dan Knodl won the election for the Wisconsin State Senate.

That means the GOP can still gerrymander the hell out of the Dairy State and make it stick if, I mean when, Governor Tony Evers vetoes it. Then it will be up to the State supreme Court to weigh in if progressives seek to overturn the horrible gerrymandering with a law suit. It was pointed out by the talking heads on Wednesday, that Wisconsin has the worst gerrymandering of all the states. Really? Even more so than Texas? A group called Urban Milwaukee provides a good map of the gerrymandering.

I knew my home state was sliding downhill when Tommy Thompson won the governor race there in 1986, an office he held until 2001 when then President George W. Bush  made him the secretary of Health and Human Services.

This has little, if anything, to do with the topics, but I have to wonder: who gives the male Secret Service agents their haircuts? I was watching Trump diddy-bop into his rally at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday evening and when three of the agents turned their backs to the cameras, it was clearly visible the person or persons cutting their hair were doing the agents a grave disservice.

Two days after the historic arraignment of a former U.S. president, it is still the major topic of conversation on the two news channels. I guess it should be, considering the historic nature of it, but what is so discouraging about it all is the thought of that case and any others that may drop in future months will drag on for years.

Please don’t say Trump is being treated like any other defendant. He isn’t. Not by a long shot. No mug shot, no bracelets (handcuffs), no perp walk — his arraignment wasn’t the same as any other defendants, especially men and women of color who go through the legal system.

The funniest aspect of it was the less than overwhelming crowds of Trump Cult members at Trump Tower and the Manhattan court house to support their Dear Leader. A few days earlier Trump went on his social media platform and told his followers to bring death and destruction to Manhattan. “What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?” Trump wrote. “Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely [sic] hates the USA!”

We gotta ask: being as he is so delusional, is Trump suffering from dementia?

Despite the low turnout in NYC on April 4, it just takes one or two nut bars with assault weapons and crudely made bombs to bring about some “death & destruction.” Trump may be delusional, but some of his followers are even more so and therefore willing to be killed or spend the rest of their lives in prison to support the ex-president. That’s the scary part.

The ex-president was told by the judge to stop encouraging his followers to commit acts of violence with rhetoric targeting the judge the prosecutor and their families. So what does Trump do? Blasts all the prosecutors and investigators looking into the alleged crimes, from NYC to Georgia and the feds. How soon will Trump be arrested and detained in Manhattan for contempt of court? Will there be a gag order?

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In another matter: The Tennessee General State Assembly has been voting to expel three members from the assembly. So far one legislator, Justin Jones of Nashville and is Black was expelled. The same body failed to expel legislator Gloria Johnson, who is white and represents Knoxville. The third state lawmaker who might be expelled is Justin Pearson, who is Black and represents the Memphis area.

The three state lawmakers were targeted for expulsion because they joined demonstrations demanding meaningful gun safety laws, demonstrations that were made up largely of young people who are afraid of being killed in gun violence, including the type that occurred a week earlier in Nashville when a killer with AR-15 weapons entered an elementary school and murdered six people, including three 9-year-old children.

During a recess the three lawmakers entered into the well of the chamber to speak after they were denied the opportunity to speak during floor debates and discussion. Members of the Tennessee GOP called the peaceful protestors insurrectionists. Pearson was just expelled and the people controlling the Tennessee Assembly actually confused the names of Jones and Pearson when the tally of the vote against Pearson was posted on their electronic board. Do all young Black men look alike to the Tennessee GOP? In the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan?

Democracy and racism in America … yeah, those are up for a vote in many states, like Tennessee and Wisconsin. How do you want your representatives to vote?