Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

The Debate Hangover

Like countless people not only in the states, but around the world, my husband and I sat down to watch the debate between Vice President Joe Biden and IMPOTUS Donald Trump, with drink in hand.  Sad when you know that something will be required to blunt the effects of the spectacle that you know with bone deep certainty is coming and will be infuriating.  High blood pressure, headache, stomach churning, teeth grinding - all of it was anticipated, all of it happened.  Like everyone else, we did not set out to be right, we just knew we would be.

In fact, we were wrong on only one level.  We didn't have enough wine.

In the light of day, the effects of the alcohol pale in comparison to the hangover of having endured the debate.  As I sit here, flashes of the orange orifice refusing to be silenced, replays of lie after easily disprovable lie, and echos of his call to arms to white nationalists loop in my mind.

What we witnessed last night was the utter and complete degradation of the office of the presidency.  It's not like we did not know what a buffoon, blowhard, and bloviator is Sniffles McBigpupils, but what took place on that debate stage was repulsive.

I give Job Biden so much credit for repeatedly attempting to talk TO the people as a spray tanned simian snarled, slobbered, and flung his shit from six feet away.  And moderator Chris Wallace showed how little zookeeping experience he has as he completely lost control from the first glob that was hurled.

The question that started it off had to do with the Supreme Court opening and why each man felt they had the right to fill it.  Trump, of course, bleated that "We won the election and we have the right to do this." 

I will give him that.  Under normal circumstances, circumstances in decades upon decades prior to the name Merrick Garland, sure, yes, the sitting president could, would, and arguably should be the one making the nomination.  BUT.  Within hours of Justice Antonin Scalia passing away in February of 2016, Senate succubus Mitch McConnell made the public statement that, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

That was February, a full ten months before the national election.

One month later, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a highly respected and credentialed jurist.  The words of McConnell had been repeated over and over in that prior month, and President Obama said, “I simply ask Republicans in the Senate to give him a fair hearing, and then an up-or-down vote.  If you don’t, then it will not only be an abdication of the Senate’s constitutional duty, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair.”

We all know what happened.  Merrick Garland not only never got a hearing, but Senate Republicans refused to even meet with him as is customary for a nominee.  In doing so, they drew a line in the sand about nominations to the SC in an election year.  Remember, Scalia died ten months before the election. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was only just buried at Arlington Cemetery yesterday.  Trump put forth his nominee this past Saturday.  And, of course, every Senate Republican, whose lifeblood on a good day is hypocrisy, see no problem with moving towards a confirmation hearing with an election already underway.

So there's where Longtie Von Heftybag loses any standing.  His argument that "We’re not elected for three years. I’m not elected for three years"?  Neither was President Obama.  Actually one could argue as he had been elected for EIGHT years, he had much firmer ground to stand on. 

But again, we are already voting on our next president.  Never mind, there is no talking sense, decency, or fair play with the Trump party.

From the moment Biden began to speak, Orange Julius Caesar would not STFU.  Again, I loved that Biden directed his eyes to Wallace or to the people via the camera instead of giving the baboon the attention he kept trying to draw, but JFC - Wallace had no control, no way to mute a mic, and his only strategy was to try to placate Trump into silence with words like, "You're going to like this next question."

It did not matter to what question Biden was responding, that it was within his two minutes to respond, Trump blathered and bleated constantly.  Joe tried "Donald would you just be quiet for a minute?"

That was like asking a teething baby to stop crying. Pointless.

Wallace finally had to inject with "Mr. President, I’m the moderator of this debate and I would like you to let me ask my question and then you can answer" because he WOULD. NOT. SHUT. UP.

His reply about his administration's current attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act?  He babbled about insulin.  "I’m getting it for so cheap it’s like water, you want to know the truth. So cheap."  Like water.  That's news to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who choose between paying rent or paying for insulin; who ration what insulin they have on hand; who cannot afford the hundreds and hundreds of dollars a small lifesaving vial costs.

The downward spiral then went into hyperdrive.  I sat forward on the couch, shouted at the TV, and needed more wine as he called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas yet again.  The insufferable prick.  Down and down it all went as Trump pulled out the only plan he has - insult after insult, talking over Biden constantly until Joe said what every decent person watching was shouting at their flatscreens:

"Will you shut up, man?"

He then said, "This is so un-Presidential."  Joe, like all of us, had no idea the un-Presidentialness had only just begun.

On the subject of COVID, his only aim was to pat himself on his wide ass and try to deflect by bringing up Swine Flu.  Fuck the 211,129 people who have died in this country so far, let's focus on the H1N1 flu from over a decade ago.  He whined about the media, the fake news, the bad press he receives.  Nowhere in his self congratulatory smarm was there sympathy for the dead, the grieving families.   There was no plan to thwart the spread, in fact, he would go on to mock Joe Biden following mask protocols and brag about his rallies.  As if his attendance numbers matter more than his fatality numbers.

When asked if he was at all concerned about the safety of so many maskless people showing up, he responded, "Well, so far we have had no problem whatsoever."

Someone want to get Herman Cain on the phone?  Oh, wait...

It was at this point I was telling my husband that we needed to turn on something more soothing.  Like Breaking Bad.  Honestly, watching people cook meth and shoot each other in the face sounded better than this shitshow in a dumpster fire in a landfill.

When the economy came up, drugs and alcohol and depression came up.  Fair enough.  Seriously, look at all of us.  How many people had to pop some aspirin to get out of bed this morning?  How many are taking meds for anxiety and depression and panic that were not prior to this pandemic and the economic fallout?

His deflection from the now surging COVID infection rates in states who reopened in haste, sent kids back to school in unsafe conditions?  "By the way, I brought back Big Ten football."

What in the deep fried fuck?  Over 211,000 people are dead.  We are on track to lose another 200,000 by Christmas, but yes, by all means, let's throw this specious twat a parade because FOOTBALL!

His taxes were brought up and he simply parroted over and over that he paid "millions of dollars."  No proof, other than his bullshit tic "believe me."  When pressed, he said "I don't want to pay taxes."  None of us do, Donny, none of us do.  But we have no choice, plus without taxes, we have no government, no roads, bridges, public services, security nets.  Asshole.

Biden clocked him with "You’re the worst president America has ever had."  Cheers went up across the nation.  IN YOUR FACE.

Of course, as the spiral continued downward, the tangerine taint had to bring up the repeatedly discredited attack on Joe's son Hunter.  Over and over and over, each time being told that his ramblings had been proven false, they had been thoroughly discredited, that all evidence proved that Hunter had done nothing wrong - his reply?  "I think he did."

Oh, well then, if Miss Cleo de Psychicgut thinks he did something wrong...

Someone make this stop.

But it was still going to get worse.  Wine.  More wine.

He defended canceling racial sensitivity training in the government.  He ignored the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.  He clung to his bullshit about "Democratic run cities."  All the while Biden continued to push the point that we have systemic racism in this country, and that we must move to law, order, and accountability in our policing and justice system.  He then called Trump on his continued bogeyman threats about the suburbs and how Biden wants to ruin them with Black people.

"This is not 1950.  All these dog whistles and racism don’t work anymore. Suburbs are by and large integrated."

News to Orange McWhiteman.

He was then asked point blank if he was willing to disavow and condemn white supremacists and militia groups like the Proud Boys who have been stirring the pot in city after city.  It was an easy set up, a softball of a question.  Simply say YES.

He couldn't.  He wouldn't.  Instead what he did was to destroy the last vestiges of legitimacy of the office of the President of the United States.

He told the Proud Boys: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by."

Jaws and stomachs dropped in unison.

It was not just an affirmation of their behavior.  This was not a veiled dog whistle.  It was a call to arms.  It was an open invitation to them to "do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem this is a left wing."

Think not?  Proud Boys lit up the internet crowing about how the President had just recognized them and given them their orders.  Within an hour they had modified their logo to include his words and were selling it on tshirts and patches.

Bad enough?  Vile enough?  Disrespectful enough?  Strap in.

When Biden began answering Wallace's question about why he is qualified, he was immediately interrupted by Trump again bringing up Hunter.  As Biden then moved on to Trump having called the military losers and suckers, he spoke of his lost son Beau, "My son was in Iraq. He spent a year there. He got the Brown Star. He got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser. He was a Patriot and the people left behind there were heroes."

Beau lost his battle with cancer in May of 2015.  That is common knowledge and frankly, knowledge this oaf of an occupier should know.  His rancid reply?  "I don’t know Beau. I know Hunter. Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out dishonorably discharged."

Again, vile.

Point of order, Hunter was not dishonorably discharged, as Biden repeatedly tried to point out.  After having tested positive for cocaine, he eventually received an administrative discharge.  He has battled drugs, as have so many.  One need only look at the recent evidence of crushed Adderall flying out of Trump's nose at a press conference, or his own son constantly looking like he's auditioning for a Scarface remake to see how no stones should be being thrown here.

Even Adderall wants nothing to do with Trump. pic.twitter.com/Va1AUCp2Q4

— Ken Jeong (@kenjeong) September 7, 2020

But throw he did, to which Biden's heartfelt reply touched many across this nation who have struggled themselves, or have endeavored to help a loved one.  "My son like a lot of people at home had a drug problem. He’s overtaking it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him, I’m proud of my son."

Deaf fucking ears.  Trump could not even be gracious about that.  But then Biden was there to debate, Trump was in an alternate universe where he was on a Real Housewives of Jerry Springer reunion show.  "But why was he given tens of millions of dollars?"

What followed was incoherent rambling and lies and continued, constant droning on and on and fucking on because Trump cannot shut his venal gob.  Lies about climate change.  Lies about emission standards.  Lies about the auto industry.  Constant interruptions when Biden tried to answer Wallace with facts, actual policy plans.  Constant interruptions as Wallace tried to ask him about his constant lies in regards to the election and mail in ballots.

It was exhausting to watch.  I can only imagine what it was like to be Biden.  Kudos to him for his restraint.

Joe Walsh tweeted this summation and it best describes what the night was:  It was like debating an airhorn.

There are to be two more debates.  Quite frankly, if there are no provisions to be able to mute a mic at the two minute mark, or when a candidate begins to talk over into the other's time, then what is the point?  Trump knows no other way other than to attack and throw his feces around the room.  How that is appealing to anyone is beyond me.  But it is.  To millions who still support this horror of a human being.

You are as vile as is he.  You stand shoulder to shoulder with Nazis, bigots, racists, hatemongers, fear merchants.  I told you back in 2016 that you are the sewer you marinate in.  You stink and are stained forever by your choice.  Decent society has no use for you.  Decent society is evolved, forward thinking, forward looking.  Decent society is about building a country that dispenses justice equally, opportunities equally, protections equally.  Decent society and YOU have nothing in common.

I have a hangover.  Not so much from the wine, but from the heinous spectacle of the night, the hours of sleep handed over to ire and insomnia, and the deep, deep ache over just how far this country has fallen at the tiny hands of one artificially dyed conman whose only goal is self preservation.

And now, as if everything else was not bad enough - another debate looms and wine country in California is on fire.  2020 cannot catch a fucking break. 

The Tax Man Bummeth

"In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except for death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin

We're all familiar with the quote.  Franklin wrote it after the new Constitution had been established and he was expressing his hope that it would be durable and lasting.  In his wry wit, despite his optimism, he knew that the only two 'for sures' in this land were, and remain, our demise and our fiscal obligations. 

In the case of Adderal Von Pieplatepupils, however, it seems this quote may be more apt: “Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.”  - Herman Wouk

Yesterday afternoon the news dropped.  A bombshell bit of reporting by New York Times reporters who had obtained (yes, legally, you poor, spinning MAGAts) decades worth of Donald Trump's personal and business tax returns.  A Sunday late day news drop is every bit as much of a strategic piece of timing as is the infamous Friday evening news drop.  Friday nights are meant to be snuck in and forgotten as people go about their weekend business.  Sunday nights?  Meant to be the horse ridden into the daylight of a brand new week.

He has spent years and years throwing every manner of spaghetti against the wall in an attempt to keep his finances hidden.  And now we know why.  Well, let's put it this why - now we have affirmed had what we long suspected.

He is no billionaire.  He does not appear to be a millionaire.  Thousandaire?  Perhaps, in terms of liquidity.  What he is, is a sham, a shyster, a liar, a tax fraud and cheat, and a man with some serious debt - roughly $479 million of which comes due in the next few years and is guaranteed by him personally.  Nearly half a billion dollars.

That's a lot to be in debt when you are the leader of the free world with six bankruptcies on your record.  Debt is something that actually keeps people from being able to get security clearances, hell, forget high level government jobs, out here in the real world, if a business believes you have too much debt, they translate that as a risk to them and will not offer you the job.  But when it comes to governance, the risk is that it opens the person completely up to blackmail at the highest levels. 

And half a billion dollars is a lot of blackmail potential.

And yes, all you decomposing Gourd defenders, I do understand that in the world of high dollar real estate, loans like he has on the books are not out of the ordinary, not even the interest only kind that many investors simply refinance when they come due.  It's a game they play, a gamble.  But here's the rub - he's not an ordinary high dollar investor.  He is the president* and has no means to either pay these loans back, or get them refinanced.  Basically, he has loan spurs. (credit to Ed Solomon)

From today's MotherJones article:  Nancy Wallace, a real estate finance professor at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, says the scrutiny that Deutsche Bank has faced may scare off other banks. “I think any bank I can think of in the United States would have exactly the same response: He is toxic. Exposing yourself to that kind of oversight under the current regulatory reality, for lenders who are large enough to provide capital to him, is just a nonstarter.”

Toxic.  Yes, Britney, that is putting it lightly.

So, we have verification that we have a compromised, continual financial loser at the helm of our country.  And those loan numbers should give anyone, on either side of the aisle, pause, but what comes next is more personal.  Whereas you and I sweat tax time each year, hoping we have had enough taken out in our paychecks, saving some each month for the inevitable shortfall, and dreading our 1040s even more than usual since this administration did away with the deductions that had helped so many Americans - like mortgage interest deductions - it seems Trump slept like a baby the past decade+.

For the tax years 2016 and 2017, this "billionaire", this scion of business, this exemplar of financial prowess paid only $750 each year. 

I'll pause while you scream.

Wait - hold that breath - also, in eleven of the 16 preceding years, he paid ZERO.

OK, let 'er rip.

Deep breath, grab some water.  Or gin, you filthy animal.  Ready to continue?

When this news dropped yesterday, I swear you could hear a collective WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? rise up across the land.  $750.  That is in his first year as Oval occupier.  How much did you pay?  I'll share.  2017 - $41,292.  And that's only because we had moving deductions.  2016 - $54,438 was withheld in federal taxes and we STILL had to cut a check to Uncle Sam for $2,689 more.

And that orange oaf only paid $750? 

We are not rich, no matter what those numbers may make you think.  Comfortable?  Yes, but we have three kids, with two still in varying levels of college, and those numbers should tell you they/we qualify for nothing in federal aid for their schooling. 

Now to know that in 11 other years prior, when we were paying a mortgage, car payments, the kids were one by one beginning college, etc - that he was paying $0?  I do not want to hear about gaming the system, this is a cretin who said back in 2011, so pious, so full of shit, "Half of America doesn't even pay a single penny in federal income taxes. That may shock you, but it's true. That's one of the reasons soaring federal spending is so dangerous: half the country shrugs its shoulders and says, 'Who cares? It's not my money they're spending."

I'll give him that - we obviously were not spending any of his money.

He rambled on in that repetitive, Trump-tic way, "The amazing thing is that half of the country is paying nothing. Zero. And even if you don't make a lot, you should have to pay something. Just something to be a part of the game. Half of the country's paying nothing."

"Even if you don't make a lot, you should have to pay something."

That fucking fraud.  People with minimum wage jobs pay more than $750.  Teachers, nurses, firemen, foremen, police officers.  And you know who else pays more than Donald Jackass Trump?  Undocumented workers in this country. 

Yes, that's right - millions of undocumented workers file tax returns each year. While Trump paid $750, they paid $27.2 billion in 2017 in state and federal taxes, contributing to highway repairs, state courts, police, and firefighters. They also pay about $1.1 billion in state income taxes and $3.6 billion in property taxes yearly — money that funds public schools, garbage collection, and other city services.  They are also responsible for helping keep Social Security and Medicare afloat, while qualifying for neither.

It is galling.  And it is why people poured forth on Twitter last night sharing what they spend $750  - REAL MONEY - A LOT OF MONEY - on.  Insulin, other prescription meds, diapers, car repairs, food, an unexpected trip to the Urgent Care, classroom supplies, and on and on.  Real people, not pretend billionaires.  Real people trying to juggle what money they have to merely survive.  That trip to an Urgent Care or ER?  God help you if you don't have insurance.  We have good insurance and it still costs us $200 to walk in the door and whatever the additional 20% turns out to be.  Now imagine you have none.

We are still mired in a pandemic with millions on unemployment, millions who were surviving because of the additional $600 per week that the Senate let expire.  He paid $750 in taxes.  No wonder he thinks a stimulus check for $1,200 was a big deal.

Now, how about tax refunds?  Those are fun, aren't they?  Unexpected windfalls that light up your face as you realize you will have some modicum of breathing room when you receive it.  Maybe it's a hundred dollars, one year we got over $5,000 back.  <insert happy dance>  Trump?  How about $72.9 million?

Take a sip, stop choking.

OK?

Yes, $72.9 million dollars refunded.  Michael Cohen had testified to seeing that check years back and Trump declaring, “that he could not believe how stupid the government was for giving someone like him that much money back.”  It has been under audit for nearly a decade.

Look, no one likes paying taxes.  And when it comes time to file, we try to find every possible deduction.  Car tag?  Did we donate to Goodwill?  Red Cross?  Have a big medical expense?  We try our best to minimize having to pay additional, but at least we understand what our taxes are about.  Roads, police, libraries, food assistance programs, welfare assistance, Medicare, Social Security - the maintenance of the fabric of society is where our taxes go.  Oliver Wendall Holmes had it right: “I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me.”

Donald's deductions?  How about $70,000 for work on that piss colored mop he calls hair?  $95,000 deducted for Ivanka's hair and makeup.  Point of order - in 2011, the US tax court ruled that expenses like these are not legitimate business expenses and cannot be deducted.  Even for "celebrities."  $70,000 for rancid cotton candy held together with clips and Crazy Glue and someone trained in the art of Hairigami.  I swear to dog...

But to see someone like Trump defraud the system every single year, to not pay anything, or less than a thousand dollars, to not contribute anything to this country?  (And stop with the he donates his salary bullshit. It holds less than zero water.) On the tax returns, he claims millions in income, but he lives and breaths by the losses he claims his properties suffer.  Yet, when he applies for yet another loan, he inflates the value of everything.

That is tax avoidance/evasion.  That is bank fraud.

This investigating also turned up Ivanka receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars as a consultant of some sort.  I'm quite certain her expertise as a shoe design plagiarist gave her particular insight into the acquisition of yet another building.  Let's call it Tax Ivasion.

It is sickening that the person currently in charge of the country, the person who runs down less advantaged folks at every turn, refers to the military as losers and suckers, all the while they pay their taxes on time, contributes nothing to the welfare and running of this nation.  NOTHING.  He contributes, demonstrably, nothing, to the Community Chest that keeps this nation moving.  In fact, he has cost taxpayers millions each year he has been languishing in office as he jaunts from property to property playing golf for over a year of his term.

What have you been doing?  Seems to me that if any of us played hookie for a full year out of four, we would not have that job any more.  Seems to me that if we decided to not pay any taxes, we would get hauled in by the IRS.  Seems to me that yet again, we have been shown how a failed reality TV host and chronic bankrupt maybe wasn't the best choice to lead a nation.

Trump is literally the Monopoly man.  Playing with pretend money, stealing from the till while no one is looking, and eventually getting dragged off by the police.  Just how many more rolls of the dice will it take?  NYTimes has them in hand, is jiggling them, and are readying to throw them as they promise more stories are coming...

Shameful Milestones

Sometime this afternoon, the world will bypass the ONE MILLION dead mark for COVID-19.  The United States accounts for 209,230 of them - we account for a full 21%.  Yet we only have 4% of the world's population.

Sadly, we have what appears to be 90% of the world's stupidest people in charge of, and living in, our country.

Nearly seven months into this pandemic, I would love to be sitting here typing about wonderful, positive milestones - lower infection rates, deaths significantly down, predictions for deaths at an all time low.  I cannot.

Where we stand is shameful, frightening, an abomination. 

We still average over 1,000 dead per day.

Friday, we charted over 55,000 new cases.

After having trended downward in August and early September, daily cases are rising in over half of US states.  Several states have been setting and breaking records this past week.

The latest findings from scientists in Houston last week produced a study of more than 5,000 genetic sequences of the coronavirus that reveals the virus’s continual accumulation of mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious.

The latest data published in the medical journal, The Lancet, shows that the majority of Americans have not yet been exposed.  In fact, the estimate is that only 9% have, so any thoughts of "herd immunity" are still 40+% away and hundreds of thousands of dead.

It's not just old people that become infected and/or die.  Seriously, stop with this bullshit.  The latest report - you know, using actual DATA, shows:

During June–August 2020, COVID-19 incidence was highest in persons aged 20–29 years, who accounted for >20% of all confirmed cases. Younger adults likely contribute to community transmission of COVID-19. Across the southern United States in June 2020, increases in percentage of positive SARS-CoV-2 test results among adults aged 20–39 years preceded increases among those aged ≥60 years by 4–15 days.

Oh, well it only kills people with underlying conditions.  Again, is this the fairy tale you read to yourself at night to sleep better?  You know how many people have "underlying conditions"?  Do you know if YOU have one?  The vast majority of people do not know they have something underlying until it presents itself because of something else, LIKE COVID.  Yes, if you are overweight, sure, you can see that.  But how about conditions that just sit all curled up and cozy inside you ticking away like a bomb?  How about conditions like being Black?  Hispanic? Indigent?  Human?

Yes, being a human is an underlying condition - a pre-existing condition - because we are a collection of pieces and parts that rely on one another to do their jobs in harmony.  And all it takes is one piece of the organic human puzzle to short circuit and BOOM.

We have a cheese colored conman flying across the country encouraging thousands of his cult followers to come masturbate his ego.  In close quarters.  Maskless.  And for what?  Last night, less than 40 days from the 2020 election in which he is running against Joe Biden, he was still droning on about Hillary Clinton and encouraging the crowd to chant "Lock her up!"   

Many Republican governors have taken a "Ehhhh, fuck it" stance and are throwing everything open again.  I am stymied at Florida - on the same day their death toll breached 14,000 people (14,081) - DeSantis used his pen to allow bars and restaurants to operate at full capacity. 

I get it - JOBS.  But when this goes badly, and it will, what happens to those jobs?  What happens to the waiter who contracts COVID and cannot work for two weeks (allowing he weathers the storm ok)?  How about the line cook banging out the food?  Five days in he tests positive.  Then one by one the entire kitchen staff tests positive.  How about the customers?  Joe PubliQ eats his wings and drinks his beer.  Oops, two days later he starts coughing, bad headache.  He gets tested.  It comes back positive.  But he has already infected 25 other people.

Every expert is warning that we are headed for a horrific fall and winter because of our behavior.  There is nothing else to blame it on.  BEHAVIOR.

Bad behavior in the White House.  An administration that got wood at the thought it was only going to decimate blue states so they sat back and laughed.  A presidential cosplayer who professes to know more than generals, doctors, epidemiologists, scientists of all kinds.  In reality, he knows nothing, Jon Snow, and this country is being decimated because of President Dunning Kruger.

Bad behavior in the governors' mansions.  More interested in currying favor with the boufanted baboon than in protecting their constituents, they have added to the mixed messages, carefree attitudes, and conspiracy theories.

Bad behavior in Congress and the Senate.  Legislators who religiously refused to wear masks around their colleagues, then popping up positive.  Stacks of bills sitting on the desk of Bitch McConnell, including the ones that would provide aid to the badly hurting public.  Another 870,000 people filed for unemployment last week.  Rents are due again in five days.  Food pantries are drying up.  They refuse to move quickly to help Americans, but RBG is not even in the ground yet and they are sprinting to get a new SC Justice in place.

Bad behavior on the TV and online - FOX, OANN, Breitbart, The Federalist, Blaze, Facebook, 8kun - help me out here.  If it's a hoax, a liberal plot, a George Soros-Bill Gates conspiracy to control you - why do we need a vaccine?  Why did you hawk hydroxychloroquine for a hoax?  Your hero says it's going away on its own "like a miracle."  Masks are stupid.  It's a hoax.  Yet he then turns around and starts bragging about circumventing the FDA to get a vaccine to you as quickly as possible.  For what? 

Bad behavior by the public.  We see it daily, video after video of people losing their minds over mask requirements.  We pass by maskless people, people who wear it on their chin like a fabric beard.  People congregating together in large groups for parties, holidays, weddings.  And then like clockwork, up goes the case rates.  Up goes the death count.

I remember when Jim Jones led 918 of his devoted followers to their deaths in Guyana.  918 American citizens brainwashed, believing only him, trusting him implicitly, buying his bullshit wholesale.  When the pictures from above of the massive death site made their way to TV and print in the states, we were all horrified.  918 people.  The bodies covering a huge area, and recovery workers discovering the area could have been wider, but many of the dead were laying on top of many more of the dead. 918.  We could now fill two football stadiums with our dead and nothing is being done.  People go about their days like nothing is happening, that it's all fine.  This country is literally the dog in the fire meme.  Where is the outrage, the horror, the demand for something to be done?

We could have sacrificed.  We could have come together as a strong, committed nation, a nation that could have led the world by example, a nation that could have flattened the curve, bought us time to find a vaccine, a nation that could have dipped into the coffers and financially supported its citizens as we rode out the worst. 

We could have.

But because we are a nation of spoiled brats, being led by the most petulant, narcissistic, spoiled, selfish brat around - here we are.  Infections rising, death toll unfathomable, struggling to stay afloat financially, healthcare being threatened by the very administration who should be protecting it, and no end in sight.  I would say we could do better, but in order for that to happen, we would all have to be better.  And we're just not willing.

REFRESH. 1,000,341 dead worldwide.

It did not even take an hour.

There is no cure for COVID, but there is one for stupidity.  Sadly, you can bring a MAGAt to data, but you cannot make him think.

Welcome To The Dimwit MASKuerade

It's not enough that we have a pandemic running unfettered through our country.  208,021 dead so far because as a nation we simply cannot be bothered to get our shit in a single mask, er, basket, as it were.  Over 7,211,000 cases of coronavirus - a number keeping us solidly in the global pole position.

That should be enough to keep us concerned and busy.

But the other viral strain wreaking havoc is that of toxic, rampant stupidity.  Flat out, wetbrained, fact averse, conspiracy loving, Trump ass licking, bogeyman-around-every-corner STUPIDITY.

We have Floriduh's governor/Trump proctologist, Ron DeSantis, in charge of a state that reported the highest number of cases and deaths in the country in the past 24 hours - throwing the state open wide today.  PHASE THREE!  COME ONE, COME ALL!  Bars, restaurants all at 100% capacity!

Oh, and as for any mask mandates in various cities?  Meh.  He will not support any fines or penalties - so breathe deep and unfettered Floriduh man and woman.  Hell, cough in each other's mouths.  Aerosol your little hearts out.  It's a small der after all...

The idiocy of these moves would be astounding if it weren't coming from a man whose face shows up in a pictorial dictionary by both words mouthbreather and Trump-ass-polyp.  As it is, it's just expected and sad.  Many more people will become infected.  Many more people will die.

You cannot stupid this virus into submission.

Then we have the Velveeta Villain - combining stupidity and disrespect in one giant crapsack.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not even in the ground yet and he is announcing his nominee tomorrow.  His leaked choice to help rule over the United States of Gilead as OfDonald?  Amy Coney Barrett, a woman who is a long time subservient in the obscure Catholic offshoot, People of Praise.  Uber conservative, even by Catholic standards, she subscribes to the belief that the man is the head of EVERYTHING.  (Donald must have gotten half hard over that part.)

From the NYT article about her when she was being considered for an appellate position back in 2017:

Members of the group swear a lifelong oath of loyalty, called a covenant, to one another, and are assigned and are accountable to a personal adviser, called a “head” for men and a “handmaid” for women. The group teaches that husbands are the heads of their wives and should take authority over the family.

Current and former members say that the heads and handmaids give direction on important decisions, including whom to date or marry, where to live, whether to take a job or buy a home, and how to raise children.

And before anyone gets going about me banging on religion - stop.  I was raised Catholic, I know what the regular manure smells like.  I do not care if she is Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Baha'i,  or Zoroastrian - or any of the other 6,000 currently practiced flavors on this planet.  I would not care if she is atheist.  (Frankly, given a choice, I honestly would prefer that - atheists being some of the most HUMANITY driven people around.) What I do care about is that her particular strain of bullshit comes with some pretty indoctrinated (more than usual) beliefs that do not leave any room for secular jurisprudence or governance.

As it stands, she will be nominated, there will be a slog that plays out over her confirmation - all for naught - as the Senate Republicans have the majority, the votes, and the laser vision that all that matters is Roe v Wade.  (And insuring LGBTQIA people are second class citizens. At best.)

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Speaking of which - Trump is grandstanding his executive order protecting those of us with pre-existing conditions.  Oh, how the MAGAty base loves that!  And it would be great IF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT DID NOT ALREADY PROTECT US.  But just like the Veteran's Choice act he tries to steals credit for, protections for pre-existing conditions were already taken care of by his nemesis Barack Obama.  And for the stupid red hats in the back - your nectarine knob of a hero is currently in court trying to get rid of the ACA that covers so many of your ignorant asses.

But today, when it comes to the gold medal for stupidity, I must award it to a woman who makes Forrest Gump look Einsteinian; who makes Sarah Palin look like a genius - the stable kind; who makes batshit anthropomorphize, sit up, and say, "We may be cray, but we ain't CRAYcray."

Meet DeAnna Lorraine, a California Republican who missed her true calling as a Real Housewife of the OC, and instead landed on "Youtube host and political commentator" (think Newsmax, The Blaze, The Daily Caller.)  In the primary that took place earlier this year, she intended to give Nancy Pelosi sleepless nights, but sadly only got 1.8% of the votes cast vs Nancy's 74%.  Nancy laughed really hard and slept really well.

DeAnna is a God*Country*Family conservative which means critical thinking is not her strongsuit, but boy howdy, can she go down a rabbit hole.

Her latest offering today on Twitter?  In riveting, hard hitting, investigative fashion, she takes on ... Qanon?  HA!  Trump tax returns?  Puh-leez.  Thems small taters.  What about Wayfair cabinets stocked with children?  Pfft, old news.

No, she has discovered where the indoctrination of the masses, the hobbling of our free will, the hamstringing of our liberties in terms of MASK WEARING originated!

Please, sit down.  This is a lot to take in, and I don't want anyone hurting themselves by falling over.

THE MASKED SINGER.

OK, ok, deep breaths, head between your knees, grab a paper bag, BREEEEEEEEEEATHE. BREEEEEEEEATHE.

Ready to continue?  OK.  Gird your loins.  Seriously, whatever the eff 'gird' means, do it.

Shercrock Holmes tweeted this today:

THE MASKED SINGER.  That seemingly innocent, fun, Furry fetishist dream come true, has been MASKuerading all along.  It is a diabolical, Soros funded, 5G emitting, convert-us-all-to-sheep sham. 

It's baaaaaaaad. 

Wait.  Did you hear that?  Mother of GOD!  My free will has been sheared!

From January 2019 when it premiered, little did we know how the "demonic" media was playing us, conditioning us to think, "Hey, masks are cool.  Great fun.  I WANT TO WALK AROUND LOOKING LIKE A MY LITTLE PONY COME TO LIFE!"

Jesus flapjack flipping Christ - SARAH PALIN was in on it.  SHE helped indoctrinate us, make it all seem so normal.  I mean there she was, cavorting around in a watercolor bear costume and mask - WAIT.

HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE!

That BEAR was a TRANSGENDER BEAR!  Look at her.  I MEAN LOOK. AT. HER.  All that glorious PINK and BLUE!!!!!

Sure, she said she went on the show as a "walking middle finger to the haters" but COME ON.  And she sang Baby Got Back.  Obviously a metaphor for all the masks we would be stuffing in our back pockets in 2020 to insure we always have one.  I like big butts and I cannot lie... I feel so much better about that round thing for my face that is constantly back there waiting to be sprung.

I feel like my reality just got pierced by a moose antler.  Sarah Palin?  Brainwashing us to accept masks?  Subliminally signally her support to the trans community, too?!?!?  HOW MUCH DID GEORGE SOROS PAY HER?

I mean I only get $1,000 a week to stir the shitpot.  She must have made BANK.

Now, as the mockery flooded forth on her Twitter feed, she doubled then tripled down, twice invoking the mysterious, endlessly monied $oro$.

Seriously, the Soros obsession is real with these people.  It can't be that the majority of people in this country just think you and your Qanon, MAGAty, empty headed brigade are full of shit, could it?  Obviously we must be being paid to protest for justice, demand police accountability, wear masks to help prevent the spread of a deadly virus, and defend the Constitution.  I mean who would do that shit for free?  Oh wait, US.  The real patriots who understand this nation, her obligations, her place on the world stage; who understand science and listen to the experts; who don't worship a mango colored, make up wearing, philandering, rapey, molesting, Adderal addicted reality TV shill.

I do that shit all day, every day, FOR FREE, DeAnna.  I realize that is a shock to you people for whom everything is transactional, everything is a what's-in-it-for-me? proposition. 

OK, fine - back to reality where the most of us live.  DeAnna, I swear people like you should not walk free without a caregiver and a helmet.  Or a big, fluffy, trans supporting bear mask.

I hate to break it to you, but The Masked Singer originated in 2015 in South Korea as King of Masked Singer.  It is a franchise reality show that actively airs in 35 countries from Vietnam to Azerbaijan, from France to Hungary, from Myanmar to Mexico (Does Jorge' Soros pay them there, DeAnna?).

Let's just get down to brass tacks - you're an idiot.  Period.  End of story.  That you manage to breath on your own must be a daily revelation.  I would explain involuntary respiration to you, but thems big werds and you'd just get flustered, so we'll leave it at God-breathes-for-you-while-you-sleep, or Tweet dumb shit, duh.

Masks are not about indoctrination, you insipid fool.  They are about being our cheapest, easiest tool in the fight against the spread of COVID-19, that has now killed 208,347.  Masks are not about being sheep.  Masks are not a big conspiracy to take away your liberty.  They're JUST MASKS.  And you're just really, really stupid.

Oh shit, no one tell her about kids at Halloween... (got to indoctrinate them young... George pays extra for that.)

 

 

 

 

 

Hail To The Thief

He has stolen our standing on the world stage.  The leaders of the free world are Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.  Trump is, himself, a laughingstock and has made this nation a punchline, a pitiable shithole country.

He has stolen our ability to travel and explore.  With only 9 countries accepting our passports without restrictions, we are outcasts, and rightfully so.  We represent a pandemic run wild, zero leadership to contain and combat it, and an incubus of literal viral plague.

He is continuing his attempt to steal our healthcare.  If he wins, the Affordable Care Act will be gone and millions will face medical bankruptcy or death as they will no longer be able to afford coverage or treatments or prescriptions.

He has stolen the trust we should have in the Supreme Court by installing religious zealots and lackeys who will do his bidding and protect his ass.  He is on the verge of stealing another seat (despite the machinations of the GOP in 2016 over Merrick Garland and timing) which will fundamentally alter this country for decades.

He is trying to steal our Social Security.  For all of you MAGAts who have zero idea how any of this works - a big chunk is taken out of your paycheck every two weeks.  It is YOUR money you have worked for.  It goes into the bank, as it were, and when you retire, you receive a monthly check from the government based on what you have put in through the years.  It has been the safety net for elderly people for decades, insuring at least some income to live on.  He wants it gone.  Think he is going to return all that money you have put in since you started working at Dairy Queen when you were 16?  Idiots.

He has stolen family and friends.  As they have given up all reason, humanity, sanity and joined Cult 45, or additionally slid down the rabbit hole into Qanon, families have been torn asunder.  Friendships have been dashed beyond repair.  But as I have said repeatedly - this is not a simple difference in politics.  This is a difference in humanity.  And I, for one, have zero compunction about having amputated many people from my life for good, including siblings.

He has stolen weddings, honeymoons, birthday celebrations, anniversary dinners, graduations, funerals.  For the majority of this year we have been confined, restricted, fearful.  With no mask mandate, no true policy to follow in terms of guidelines, we have been left to ourselves to survive as best we can, and that means completely altering all that had been treasured dates and milestones on our calendars.

He has stolen a full year of time from leading and spent it on the golf course or languishing at one of his properties.  A FULL YEAR.

He has grifted $141,000,000 in taxpayer dollars by golfing and visiting his properties.

He has stolen 207,262 lives. So far.  That is the count as of this afternoon, 1,348 more dead since this time yesterday.  He is on track to steal another 18,000 by October 17 according to new CDC estimates.

He has stolen peace of mind.  Anxiety, depression, panic attacks - all roiling this nation like never before.  We are living through a collective trauma with COVID, compounded with real emotional abuse at the hands of the Oval occupier.

He has been a literal thief in the night - stealing the sleep of millions.  How often do you roll over in the night to check Twitter and see what he has done now?  Or do you reach for the phone first thing in the morning, exhausted from another night's worry, steeling yourself for what news is breaking?

He has stolen millions of jobs by his ineptitude and callous disregard for this nation's citizens.  Yet he has padded his own coffers by over a billion dollars since taking office.  Emoluments be damned. 

He stole the 2016 election and is on track to do everything possible to steal the 2020.  From trashing the mail system to encouraging the engagement of Russia yet again to sowing distrust of the mail in voter system that works perfectly well - this theft is happening in broad daylight.

He has stolen our political norms and practices.  The latest being a refusal to agree there will be a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election.  This is unprecedented language from a shitting sitting president.

He has stolen honor by repeatedly claiming that on September 11 he had helped look for survivors in the rubble of the Twin Towers.  Patently false.

He has stolen money from children with cancer, shifting donated money from them to his business.  He got caught.  His charity was shut down, fines were levied, his adult fail children had to take classes on how to properly run a charity.

He has stolen achievements from President Obama, repeatedly taking credit for the Veteran's Choice healthcare program - it was signed into law in 2014 by Barack Obama.

He has stolen the dignity of the office of POTUS by mocking the disabled, lying over 20,000 times, demeaning revered POW and Senator John McCain, running down Gold Star families, targeting Hispanics, targeting Muslims, targeting transgender people, targeting blue states, targeting Black people, calling our military losers and suckers, and on and on.  He is a blight, a stain on our nation's highest office.

And today, he stole the peace and somber reverence being paid to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she lay in repose at the Supreme Court.  Slithering out of his hidey hole, he and First Birther, Melania, showed up for a photo (fl)op.  What he got was all that he deserved.  Not insulated by the idiot cult members who flock to his COVID rallies, the crowd began chanting - it grew louder and louder...

VOTE HIM OUT - VOTE HIM OUT - VOTE HIM OUT - VOTE HIM OUT - VOTE HIM OUT - VOTE HIM OUT.

Clearly audible, there was no mistaking the words that rose up the steps and washed over him as he stood, grimacing and wavering back and forth in his Adderal haze.  Like the infamous baseball game in which he was booed to what looked like the point of tears, you could literally see his malignant narcissism spasming, curdling inside him.

This might be my favorite 37 seconds of the past four years. https://t.co/luMr1RapeI

— Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) September 24, 2020

Public ridicule is one of the worst injuries to a narcissist.  From Psychology Today, For an absolute narcissist to stay on message, there can’t be a message other than a relentless “See? I win!”

He heard today that, NO, ASSHOLE, YOU DO NOT.

Don’t try to persuade an absolute narcissist. Instead, humiliate them, cut them. Make them bleed in any exchange with others listening in, whether face to face or in a Twitter exchange. Talk past them to the audience. He’s just a specimen of mindless mechanical pretend invincibility.

Trump stays firmly in his bubble of constant affirmation.  Hence the rallies, the controlled "press conferences," the selective hearing over the helicopter blades when he is asked an uncomfortable question on the lawn, the only giving "interviews" on FOX.  It is not a stretch to say he literally has no concept of how he is actually viewed in this country.  He protects himself from that, so today was a slap in the Maybellined face.

With absolute narcissists, it’s not that the emperor has no clothes. It’s that the emperor is nothing but clothes, a suit of armor with nobody home. You can embarrass that empty suit in front of an audience. That’s how you shame a narcissist.

Today there was an audience, and it was not a MAGAt infested rally.  And that audience responded in kind for the years of literal thievery, stolen peace, grifted honor. 

He will retaliate.  It is what injured narcissists do.  Someone will have to pay for the pain. So brace yourselves.  Because today he did not hear a refrain of Hail to the Chief.

It was this nation's newest favorite song - Hail To The Thief.  Alexa, put that clip on repeat, girl.

#BLM - Breonna's Life Mattered

We knew it was coming.  Not because the decision was leaked yesterday.  Not because of the settlement reached with her family.  Not because of the atmosphere of zero accountability that protects policing in this country.  No, we knew for one simple reason:  It was taking too damned long.

It has been 204 days since the police murdered this beautiful soul whose only crime was being in bed asleep when they fucked up in spectacular fashion.

204 DAYS.

Do not talk to me about gathering information.  Do not sing a song of six pence, pocket full of crying, victimy officers.  I do not want to hear about "the process."

On every level possible, "the process" failed Breonna Taylor.

But then "the process" seems to fail far too often when a Black person is involved. 

I think about her death so much.  Past midnight.  Asleep.  In her bed.  In her home.  Just like you, just like me. 

I imagine hearing a loud banging.  I imagine how Rudy and I would startle awake, the fear that would fill us both.  I imagine reaching for a gun to protect us against whoever/whatever was trying to break into our home.  (Yes, we own a gun.  Holster your shock that a liberal has a firearm.  And knows how to use it.)

I think about the door breaking down and people rushing in in the darkness.  And I think about which one of us would be holding the gun and shooting.

Because that is exactly what we would do.  It is exactly how any of us with a weapon would respond under those circumstances.  Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had the weapon in his hand, and as he has told officers, he feared it was a dangerous ex-boyfriend of Breonna's.  He fired a single warning shot.  It hit an officer, Jonathan Mattingly, in the leg.  Mattingly then shot into the dark SIX TIMES. 

Another officer, Myles Cosgrove, entered the apartment and blindly fired SIXTEEN shots down the hallway. Brett Hankison, outside the apartment, then fired blindly into the dark, into the window and patio door, TEN TIMES.  Some of the rounds he fired went into a neighbor’s apartment and endangered the people living there.  Remember that part.

In all, officers fired 32 shots that night.

I think about what would be Rudy's horror to turn and see me bleeding out on the floor.  But with an officer shot, all attentions went to him.  The other officers quickly called for an ambulance, as they had, for some reason, dismissed the one that had been there as part of raid protocol.

Breonna lay there coughing, sputtering, fighting for her life - a life they cared zero about.  Her boyfriend called 911 - THAT is how anyone paid attention to what had been done to her.  “I don’t know what’s happening,” Mr. Walker said on a recorded call to 911. “Someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”

Breonna received no medical attention for twenty minutes.  And by then it was far too late for anything but the coroner and a sheet.

I think about the shock, the rage, the horror felt by Kenneth as within minutes of being frightened awake, he faced the dead body of Breonna.  20 minutes after waking, she was dead, he was under arrest.  All they had been doing was sleeping.

For that crime, he was charged with the attempted murder of an officer.  "The only reason I even had the gun out (was) because we didn't know who it was," he told police. "If we knew who it was, that would have never happened."  That charge was later dismissed, but seriously, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?

That question is for every one of you cop apologists, everyone of you bootlicking police fetishists who think cops can do no wrong, and worse, should face no accountability for any of their actions.

You stockpile your guns, your ammo.  You drone on endlessly about "protecting yer homes, yer families."  You tell me honestly, under identical circumstances, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?  You people are all grab-your-balls-Ramboed-up for a simple stroll through Walmart, and you want me to believe you would not react the exact same way Kenneth did if the safety of your home was breached in the dead of night?

Hear that?  It's your precious 2nd amendment whispering at you, "Hyyyyyppppooooccccrriiiiiiiiiiiitttttte."

Kenneth had a gun license.  Not a thing illegal there.  And he used it for protection.  That same protection you whine endlessly about when even the whiff of stronger gun laws are brought up.  I hope you never have to use your precious metal phallus to protect yourself or your family, but if someone begins breaking down your door in the dead of night?  I defend your right to pull out your favorite gun, let's call it Suzy-Q (God knows you people love to name your weapons) and let Suzy-Q do the damage necessary to keep you, your spouse, your children, your dog Skeeter, safe and alive.

Oh, before I forget - Kentucky has a stand your ground law.  That not apply to Black people standing theirs?  Is that a White people only kind of law?  I guess we'll see.  Kenneth is suing the police department for immunity against any further charges and "for the trauma, humiliation, indignity, physical pain, mental suffering, or mental anguish" he has suffered.

I am sickened as, through the past 204 days, every excuse in the books has been thrown up by people trying to defend what took place that night.  And there have been plenty, because Breonna and Kenneth are Black.  If they were white, this whole thing would be taking place in reverse.  Accountability would have been fast and furious, that 12 million dollars would be more and would have happened so fast the Police Union's accountant's head would still be spinning.  Every white gun owner would be defending Kenneth and taping pictures of Breonna's face to their windows and trucks.  News stories would laud them as good Christians.  Interviews would detail Breonna's godly work in the ER.  Kenneth would be defended just as Kyle Rittenhouse is being defended. (And before you get your ass in a knot at that picture, STOP.  My white life is granted immediate privilege, benefit of the doubt, and handled with kid gloves when encountering the police.  My last encounter, we joked, we laughed, we played rock trivia, and he took 10 mph and $100 off my speeding ticket.)

But they are both Black.  So every past transgression is frantically looked for, her ex being associated with drugs is beaten like a drum.  Here's the thing - NOTHING IN THEIR PAST MATTERS HERE.  Just as Trayvon having smoked pot had fuck all to do with him being murdered, and certainly did not mean he had it coming. I have a history of smoking pot, enjoying edibles - does that mean that I am deserving of whatever murderous fuckery comes my way?  Tamir Rice was 12 years old and playing in a park.  Shot dead.  Oh, he looked bigger than 12.  As if that is truly a defense for an officer exiting a vehicle and shooting in the same swift movement.  Tamir was playing with a pellet gun, not aiming it at the cop.

But because Black lives are devalued across the board, deemed inferior, less deserving of consideration, thoughtful and cautious policing, and justice - here we are.   Breonna is simply one in a long, deplorable line of Black deaths at the hands of inept, untrained, bigoted police in this country.  Fuck the few bad apples principal - what we see is that there are far too few good apples in policing.  And those good apples are threatened into silence by the bad apples, so they are no better than the worm laden ones in the end.

Yes, the police had a search warrant for Taylor's home.  Based on her past association with that ex-boyfriend, and their belief packages had been delivered to her home in the past for him and another man they were also searching for. 

Kenneth was not mentioned in any search warrant. No drugs of any kind were found in Breonna's apartment.

The warrant was initially signed off to be a "no knock warrant", but was changed before the raid to require knocking.  Neighbor witnesses - 11 of them - have all stated they heard no officer identifying themselves as they rammed against the door.  One neighbor believes they heard the word 'police' one time.  Kenneth has also said he and Breonna asked who it was three times before the door came crashing in and he fired the gun. 

In the long months that have passed since her slaying, police and defenders have tried to hide behind the word "botched" to describe the raid.  Sorry, but botched is a TV show about plastic surgery gone bad that can be fixed.  Botched does not describe the murder of a beautiful, young, innocent woman whose life was about helping other people.  That shit cannot be undone.

Today the AG took to a podium and read the despicable decisions.  Of the three officers, the only one to be indicted was Hankison.  He had been previously fired for “an extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he fired blindly into the window and door.  I told you above to remember that part.  Here's why.  He was indicted today not for his culpability in Breonna's murder, but for “wanton endangerment” - in that his bullets endangered the lives of three sleeping neighbors.

Not because Breonna was killed. 

Oh, and since you apologists love to play But What About Their Past? - lovely Brett here has a history of excessive force complaints and sexual misconduct allegations.  But hey, he's white, so boys will be boys, huh?

The other two officers?  Well, the words "scott free" apply here.  No charges.  Why?  Because Kenneth, in standing his ground, shot first.

Just like you would.  Just like I would.

The officer who had been shot in the leg?  In the wee hours of yesterday morning, John-John sent a vile email to over 1,000 Louisville police officers.  This pasty sack of bile whined on and on.  He apologized not for his part in Breonna's murder, but for the scrutiny brought upon them.  Nothing was his fault.  "I'm sorry the Mayor, Amy Hess and Chief Conrad failed all of us in epic proportions for their own gain and to cover their own asses."

Douchebag, party of 1, your table is ready...

"It goes against EVERYTHING we were taught in the academy. The position that if you make a mistake in one of the most stressful times in your career the department and FBI (who aren't cops and would piss their pants if they had to hold the line) go after you for civil rights violations.  Your civil rights mean nothing, but the criminal has total autonomy."

Mistake.  Yeah, I would say murdering an innocent woman is a pretty goddamned big mistake.  And where in your victimy screed do you allow for Breonna's civil rights?  Her autonomy?

"Regardless of the outcome today or Wednesday, I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night."

Help me out here, boo, was firing into the dark 32 times or letting her die, ignoring she was bleeding out, the legal, moral, or ethical part?

"It's sad how the good guys are demonized, and the criminals are canonized."

I totally agree -  it is beyond sad how Breonna and Kenneth have been demonized and how so many bootlicking apologists have canonized you and your careless, murderous comrades.

"Remember you are just a pawn in the Mayor's political game.  I'm proof they do not care about you or your family, and you are replaceable."

Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker - get this man some cheese to go with his whine.

How sad is it for you, little John, that there might be ANY accountability sought for the blind murder of someone?  For how you shot six times into the dark?  I guess it is a great thing for you that Kenneth tried to stand his ground first, thus making your every bullet defensible, huh?  And yes, you pathetic weasel of a human; you inadequate, callow, sniveling little coward - YOU ARE REPLACEABLE.  EVERY SINGLE FUCKING ONE OF YOU IS REPLACEABLE. To the left, to the left...

Your job is to protect and serve and if you cannot do it to the absolute best of your ability, GTFO.  If your little fingers are so itchy to pull your trigger instead of de-escalating situations, you have no business with a gun - behind a badge or otherwise.  If you are one of the hidden MANY white supremacists who have slithered into our police departments, you need exposed to sunlight and ripped out by the goddamned roots.  If you are so fucking cavalier about the fact that you are completely responsible for taking the life of an innocent young woman, you do not deserve the taxpayer dollars that support you, you do not deserve the trust the public should be able to place in you.

You took a life.  All three of you are complicit in what happened that night.  Do you have zero thoughts for the life you took, for the shattered lives you left behind?  Do you feel nothing about your unfixable "mistake"?  Breonna worked as an EMT in two hospitals.  It is very likely she could have had a hand in saving YOUR pathetic life, or that of your colleagues, at some point in the future.  She was not a criminal.  She was 26 years old and living her life.

It was stolen from her.  Period.  And there are not enough millions to ever replace the hole left in the lives of her family. 

I think about her mother so much.  The gaping wound left on that woman's soul.  Her shattered heart. Money will not heal that.  Money will not bring Breonna back.  Money will not hug her, share Christmas with her, sing songs with her, bring grandchildren into her life.  Money will not lessen the pain.  Time will push her forward; time will soften the edges of that wound; time will reduce the howling, inescapable pain to a dull, steady roar. 

But it will never make it right. It will never bring her daughter back.

I fear for what happens next.  How many lives will be lost as protests take hold, as people cry out for justice, against injustice.  This photo from earlier today tore my heart out.  As it should every decent person who sees it.  I am not Black.  But I am human.  And I can only imagine the pain this man is feeling as yet again, this country demonstrates how little worth is given the currency of a Black life.  BLACK LIVES MATTER.  They do, to so many right thinking people in this land. 

And today, more than ever, those three letters - BLM - raise up in memory, draw strength from the life of, and honor in full, the young woman whose life was only just beginning.  For her, we must continue the march, hold hands stronger in solidarity, and feel even deeper the resolve needed for this fight.

BREONNA'S LIFE MATTERED.

Disorder In The Court

It has been roughly 80 hours since we received a phone call from one of our daughters telling us about the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  We were away for a few days, happy to be masked up and holding hands, sauntering down the quiet, peaceful streets of old Sante Fe.  Suddenly nothing felt peaceful anymore.  We both stopped on the sidewalk and, heads down, were online in a heartbeat.

Glancing up as we walked, we were not the only ones glued to the information ether looking for details.  So many heads down...

In the hours that have passed since finding out, I have gone through many of the grief stages already. 

Denial - it was immediate.  No, no, nononononononononono.  Like everyone else, I knew how old she was, I knew the health battles of late, but the woman has always been a phenomenal life force.  5 foot 1 inch, yet larger than life.  Thinking of her in simple, human terms is difficult.  Thinking of how she battled for this nation - I cannot believe she is gone.

Anger - That came swiftly as the despicable, predictable GOP began making their glee known.  Anger at the hypocrisy.  Anger at the fact the news was still breaking yet they were dancing on a grave.  Anger because of everything her death telegraphs for our future, for the future of minorities, women, LGBTQIA, DACA, DREAMers, the disabled, the ACA, Roe v Wade, and on and on.

Bargaining - I don't know what I believe in in terms of what comes next.  Nothing can be proved, no one can prove a negative, but I found myself fervently wishing that there is something, some next stage to which that incredible woman has passed.  Energy like that cannot just cease.

Depression - As if the collective anxiety and depression and unease we have all been physically laboring beneath were not enough, this was an emotional body blow.  On so many levels.  RBG was a heroine for me, and for so many.  She was a leader, a pantheon of strength and character.  Diminutive in stature, almost precious in her white lace collar, but woe betide anyone who took those traits to mean pushover.  She was the absolute best of what a woman is, can be, can achieve.  She embodied grace, wit, intellect, compassion, and a deep, DEEP love of country and our laws.  Yes, I feel heavy, depressed, so very sad.

Acceptance - That last stage of grieving is not going to come easy.  I am Irish, I am belligerent, I am hard headed, and I hate when something awful happens and cannot ever unhappen.  I have grown enough to finally know that screaming at the wall will never move the wall, but in my private moments, there are still walls that pay the price for things I cannot change in my life.

What I do accept is that our fight does not stop with her death, with her lying in repose in the Supreme Court this week, with her burial.  What I do accept is that we are living through unprecedented times, with unprecedented behavior by the opposing party.  What I do accept is that the words 'Merrick Garland' are meaningless to the corrupt, power hungry criminals in the majority.  What I do accept is that hypocrisy is the air they breathe.

What I do accept is that in a 3-6 country, we are about to have a 6-3 Supreme Court and everything that portends.  That does not mean I give up.  It means I accept the reality of the cretins we are up against and the actual power they currently, legally have to act.

I also accept that the Notorious RBG led the way, showed the strength, defined will and honor and hope. 

Her mother, whom Ruth called "the most intelligent person I had ever known" instilled in RBG a deep, abiding love of learning, of equality, of the need to find and use your voice.  That her gender did not make her less than a man.  Her mother, so smart, went to work at age 15 so that her family could put her brother through college.  Being a girl, Celia was viewed as being lesser, having no need to advance her education.

When RBG was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993, she ended her press remarks this way, “I have a last thank-you. It’s to my mother. My mother was the bravest, strongest person I have ever known, who was taken from me much too soon. I pray that I may be all that she would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons.”

I daresay she made her mother proud.  She blazed a trail through her schooling and when she was at Harvard Law - only 1 of 9 women, mind you, never forgot the dinner party at which the dean made the woman go around the table and each had to speak to justify why they were there taking the place of a man.  Ahh, 1956.  There were 552 men enrolled with her, but I guess that wasn't enough?  Because of her intellect, acumen, and unapologetic attendance in their ranks, she was nicknamed a "bitch" by the male classmates.  Her wry reply to finding that out?

"Better bitch than mouse."

DAMN.  QUEEN.

She persevered through the years juggling family, studies, and a university where women were not even allowed in the law library.  She was also one of the first women to serve on the Harvard Law Review journal.  She did not complete her years at Harvard, however, as she transferred to Columbia when her husband took a position in New York.  She would go on to be first in her class.

Which meant little as she struggled to find employment - again, we wimmin folk were still persona non grata in so many places.

She finally got her foot in the door with a low level clerk position and slowly began her climb.  Through the years she was a pioneer in gender equality issues - arguing before the Supreme Court six times, winning five. in 2011, Harvard awarded her an honorary degree, and in 2015 she received their Radcliffe Medal signifying she was someone who had transformed society.

I have long looked at her life, how she lived it, navigated demands, juggled family, career.  If we are each born an empty vessel, RBG filled hers to overflowing by the time she passed.  She learned, she taught, she parented two children, she was a dedicated spouse in a marriage where there was always equality.  She supported him, he supported her.  Shortly before his death, Marty, an accomplished lawyer in his own right, said, “I think the most important thing I have done is enable Ruth to do what she has done.”

That is a husband.

Just as forced sterilizations at an ICE facility have been making headlines, it is notable to remember how long this type of thing has been being perpetrated, and fought.  I wrote last week about how there were laws allowing it for decades - to thin the herd, strengthen the gene pool, and diminish a population based on race.  RBG, when she was the Director of the ACLU Women's Rights project, fought in front of the Supreme Court on behalf of a Black woman who had been operated on as a teenager through the eugenics program in North Carolina.  It allowed for forced sterilizations for "mentally defective" persons.  There is zero documentation to support the assertion that Nial Ruth Cox was mentally disabled in any way.  She had been found to be pregnant and as such her mother was told by the county her daughter was immoral, and unless she agreed to have her sterilized they would cut off benefits for the younger children.  They were told repeatedly the procedure was reversible and that Nial would be able to have children in the future.

She found out later in her life that was completely untrue.  Unable to have children, her fiance' left her, and as she was a single Black woman, she was denied adoption rights.  The ACLU took her case - that was in the 70s, that is how long this has been going on, that is how long RBG has been a fighter for women.

Once on the SC, she enjoyed working with Sandra Day O'Connor - very like minded women.  She has said that the period between O'Connor's retirement and the seating of Sonia Sotomayor were disconcerting. “The image to the public entering the courtroom was eight men, of a certain size, and then this little woman, sitting off to the side. That was not a good image for the public to see.”

I especially loved her oft repeated reply when asked at what point there would be "enough women" on the Court. She always replied “when there are nine … [There’d] been nine men, and no one’s ever raised a question about that.” 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg knew what we could be.  She saw the potential not only in women, but in all of us, in this country.  She understood the towering role of jurisprudence in this nation and how it must be equally applied.  She never stopped working towards that.

Perhaps it is best to say, she never stopped working. 

The public has been privvy to her ins and outs from hospitals in the past year.  Each time Twitter erupted with those of us volunteering as tribute - "Take my lung!"  "You can have my pancreas!"  I don't need my life, you can have it, Ruth!"  We held our breath, said our prayers if we pray, sent good thoughts to the universe, and only exhaled when word came that she was home, resting comfortably, yet still firmly holding her spot on the Court.

In terms of this election and the gargantuan import it has, she has been likened to the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike.  She has been standing, all 5'1" of her, between us and the complete downfall of this nation at the hands of the Trump cabal.  On the Court hers was a voice of strength and probity and measure, and equality for all.

Her last wish, transcripted for her by her grand daughter was, "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

Of course, it took only 24 hours for Adderall von Unindictedco-Conspirator to call it a lie.  That a Democrat wrote it.  Maybe Adam Schiff.  That is the power RBG had, still has.  Trump is a weak man, always has been.  He is shaken by any woman who is uncowed in his presence, unimpressed with his contour skills, and unimpeachable in her own dignity, self esteem, self worth.

He knows how much money Dems have raised in the hours since her passing - over $100 million in 48 hours.  He knows exactly how beloved she was/is.  He knows he is not man enough, human being enough, to wash her robe.

So he will do what he does to all who intimidate him, who refuse to bow to him, who are smarter than him - he will defile their memory, he will refuse them honor, decency, acknowledgment.  And in the case of RBG, he will move with all haste to nominate someone diametrically opposed to all she stood for, lived for, died for.  A powerful woman to be replaced by a subservient one.  A guardian of democracy by a doormat.

And the Republican majority in the Senate are in lockstep.  Pointing out their hypocrisy - Merrick Garland, anyone? - is meaningless.  They don't care how they appear, how their words from 2016 completely contradict their words now.  They are corrupt, power desperate despots who only care about installing another uber conservative judge who will tilt the court towards Handmaids Tale territory.

Political performance artists like Mitt Romney have acted their parts.  He marched with Black Lives Matter and now publicly promised his vote to Trump, a vote that will endanger the rights of all of us to gather, to protest.  In the final wash, all that matters to them is Roe v Wade.  Their obsession with the absolute intrusion into a woman's right to choose is what drives them.  They will then come for the Affordable Care Act in toto, decimating the lives of millions upon millions who will find themselves stripped of insurance, millions upon millions more who will be suddenly uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions.  Like COVID.

You do know that will be a pre-existing condition now, right?  If you have had it and come through fine, it is still going to haunt you forever.  Heart attack?  Lung cancer?  Brain tumor? Ass polyps?  All deniable because they can point at COVID.

These are lifetime appointments.  You die or you retire.  We are being set up for a lifetime of disorder in the court.  Equality will be shown the door.  LGBTQIA targeted in earnest and attacks backed by a court of religious zealots.  Immigrants will be denied everything.  A criminal president and all his equally criminal cronies will be guarded from harm or accountability.  All the protections promised by the words of this country's founding documents, by the amendments added since - gone.  All for the chance to crawl up the uteri of the nation while clinging to a Bible and a gun.

That's all that matters.  Not accountability.  Not criminality.  Not protecting and defending the weak.  Just another religious hack in a robe who thinks "God" is the answer to every question, and could not define "secular" if their life depended on it.

The sad thing is that our lives do depend on it.

We are still reeling from a pandemic, losing 1,000+ per day.  We are deep in the 4th largest mass casualty event this country has ever experienced, usurped only by the Civil War, WWII, and the 1918 flu.  We have a reality TV grifter flying all over the country holding rallies and talking about herd mentality - he is such buffet platter of ignorance, lard and venality. 

Herd IMMUNITY requires that over SIX MILLION of us die. You cool with that?  That number good?  Remind you of anything, like, say THE HOLOCAUST?  Or do they not teach you that in your Youtube Stupid as FuQ school?

We have no vaccine.  We have no clear information as the CDC has now validated it is completely corrupted by this administration.  205,000 people have died.  They have done nothing for this country beyond a one time stimulus of $1200 that many did not qualify for, and hand out billions in forgivable loans to their friends.  People are dying, being evicted, millions are still out of work, millions thrown off their insurance by losing their jobs to this pandemic, yet nothing.

But they can move like their asses are exploding trees on fire to nominate and install a new SC justice.  Want to explain that?

It is going to happen.  It does not matter how much we scream and shout, how much House and Senate Dems try to stall, obfuscate, point out the hypocrisy of their colleagues, the predictable unsuitability of whoever gets pulled from Under His Eye and nominated.  Republicans in the Senate have the votes they need to ignore every single one of us. In a 3-6 country, we are facing a 6-3 court - completely out of balance with the will of the people, the direction of the country.

They are out in force declaring they have a mandate from the people.  WTAF?  Their Sunkist succubus lost by three million votes.  Senate Dems got 18 million more votes than Senate Republicans in 2018. House Democrats won by the largest midterm margin of victory in history.  And Senate GOPers represent 15 million fewer constituents than Senate Dems.

Where's the mandate, other than in their heads, their wallets, and in the vapid, slackjawed craniums of the maskless dullards who flock to Trump's super spreader events?  There is no mandate.  There is only a powergrab.  And it is one that will fundamentally change this nation forever.

The CIA tells us that Russia is again hard at work inside our election system.  No one is blinking.  Our mail system was completely hijacked from within, and no matter what the courts are saying, all of the changes and destruction cannot be undone.  We are faced with unprecedented corruption from the Oval to the AG to the Senate Leader and every little minion in between.  It is sickening. It is unthinkable.  It is heartbreaking.

And all we have is our vote.

That is where my stage of Acceptance lies.  I accept that our ability to vote in dramatic numbers is what stands between us and the dike finally crumbling and washing us away.

RBG knew that.  She fought her entire life to give voice to the voiceless, strength to the powerless, hope to the hopeless.  She stood strong for us as long as she could.  But cancer had other plans.  No one is coming to save us.  We must save ourselves.

I know we are exhausted.  We are bereft.  We feel overwhelmed, which is how they want us to feel.  But we can do this.  We can channel a woman who fought colon cancer in 1999, surgery and all, and never missed a day on the bench.  We can be inspired by an 87 year old woman  who, for the last 20 years of her life, worked out with a trainer twice a week.  We can find strength in the thought of a woman who was denied access to her college's law library yet went on to kick the asses of all 582 men she schooled with.  We can draw courage from a woman who fought cancer three times (1999, 2009, 2019), defeated heart issues and an operation in 2014, and worked through 3 fractured ribs in 2018.

I often whisper the words my mother drummed into me as a child, when faced with something daunting, something that seems too big - "There's nothing to it, but to do it."  Ruth said something very similar.

“I spent no time fretting, and found a way to do what I thought important to get done.”

Let us not spend time fretting or fearing the work in front of us.  It is important, it is vital to our survival to get it done.  It is our turn to give voice to the voiceless, strength to the powerless, hope to the hopeless.  There's nothing to it, but to do it.

So do it in her honor, for Her Honor, the Notorious RBG.

Taking The Weekend To Regroup

I am currently traveling - just a peaceful weekend away in Sante Fe with my husband.  I promise I will be writing about the phenomenal force that RBG was in this world when I return. But for this weekend, I am wrapping myself in the love of the most amazing man, being mindful of self care. 

And then the fight resumes.

OUR Honor...

Is This Really Who We Are Now?

Yes, I have seen and read the reports about the unwanted, unwarranted hysterectomies and abuse.  In response to the many people who have written asking why I had not yet written about it, the answer is this - I have been reading, researching, studying.  In the first 24 hours of the story, much was uncertain, even more was singularly sourced.  I wanted more information.

As I sit down to write, I am heartsick at the details, and repulsed by how fast it is disappearing from the headlines, replaced by one outrage after another wrought by this administration.

As Julie Andrews sang, "Let's start at the very beginning..."

The first thing to know about this story, about these women, is that they were in our custody.  ICE detainees whose sins amount to coming here illegally, attempting asylum, or being held on the way out the deportation door.

These women are not murderers, rapists, felons - although murderers, rapists, and felons should never be subject to this treatment either.

They are simply women who needed attention while in custody for various gynecological issues.  Like you, like me - heavy bleeding, irregular bleeding, a cyst, etc.  These are things that under good, decent care are taken care of with minimal intrusion in the body.

In the case of the women who are detailed in the whistleblower complaint, and now in investigations and discussions with three attorneys involved, at least 17 women received complete hysterectomies, had ovaries removed, fallopian tubes cut.

Not necessary, not consented to.  And done by a doctor referred to as "the uterus collector."

Make no mistake, this is genocide.  This echos back to a time period in this world's history so heinous, so vile, that even cursory readings about what took place in Nazi Germany turns the stomach.

Is this really who we are now?

The United Hates of America, headed up by Donald J Mengele? 

We are talking about the ability to conceive here - something I thought conservatives held more precious than gold.  The whole Right To Life stance falls flat when you hypocrites have zero feelings about women being stripped of their ability to bear children.  

The gynecologist is Mahendra Amin, associated with Coffee Regional Medical Center and Irwin County Hospital in Georgia.  The whistleblower who came forward is a nurse, Dawn Wooten, who works at the Irwin County Detention Center.  In her allegations, there have been a minimum of 17 / 18 women subjected to unnecessary gynecological procedures - often “with the clear intention of sterilization.” 

And no consent.

Let that sink in.  Imagine this is you in a foreign country.  Held, at the whims of a system you do not understand, over which you have zero control.  You seek aid for irregular menstrual bleeding.  Suddenly you are at a doctor's office, expecting a minimal procedure of dilation and curettage (scraping the uterus).  You awake to find out that one of your fallopian tubes was removed, insuring you will now have difficulty conceiving in the future.

That was Paula Binam, 30.  She has been in this country since she was 2 years old.  She has been in custody for two years now, facing deportation because of several charges stemming from shoplifting when she was 17.  Not understanding how paying a fine would affect her ability to apply for the DACA program - essentially paying meant pleading guilty - she would go on to have a child here in the states and now have been incarcerated for two years awaiting deportation.

She was part of the complaint filed by Wooten.  And even though her deportation appeal is still pending,  suddenly, after languishing in that ICE facility for so long, she found herself being spirited away to an airplane to get her out of the country.  It was only at the last minute that an attorney had her removed from that plane.

“We were just shocked to find out that — just as we were learning about all these things that were coming out from Nurse Wooten — they wanted to put her on a flight and try to deport her as soon as possible,” her attorney Van Huynh said.

Nothing like getting rid of the evidence, huh?

Another woman's story is detailed in the complaint- "She was supposed to get her left ovary removed because it had a cyst on the left ovary — he took out the right one," Wooten said. "She was upset. She had to go back to take out the left and she wound up with a total hysterectomy. She still wanted children — so she has to go back home now and tell her husband that she can't bear kids … she said she was not all the way out under anesthesia and heard him [doctor] tell the nurse that he took the wrong ovary."

From reporting - One detained immigrant said she spoke with five women who were at the facility from October to December of last year, all of whom had a hysterectomy done.

That's insane.  That's deliberate.  And that is a human rights violation.

Yet here we are.  Children stolen from their parents was not enough.  Kids thrown in cages.  Report after report of sexual assault on children in detention.  Older kids caring for babies and toddlers in detention centers.  Filth. Malnutrition.  Abuse.

All of that wasn't enough, I guess.  Let's add some Nazi level experimentation and cruelty to the mix.

The devaluation of the lives of the people we throw into detention for the crime of wanting to come to this country is a stain this land will never remove.  The Trump cabal has insured it is tattooed on all of us for eternity.  And now, adding forced sterilizations?

We have been here before.  And not just as spectators watching it across the ocean.

During what is known as The Progressive Era in this country, eugenics were at the forefront.  A program of forced sterilizations under the guise of strengthening the genetics in this land, Indiana was the first to sign a law in 1907 allowing compulsory, forced, involuntary sterilizations carried out on people deemed unfit to reproduce.

31 states quickly followed Indiana's lead and soon 60,000 people were victims of this arrogant cruelty.  It began with permission to target those called "feeble minded" or "mentally defective."  Soon, swaths of women and people of color were lumped in.  For example, in California, Mexicans were disproportionately targeted, in North Carolina, Black people were.

Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer shared her story of forced sterilization for years before her death in 1977.  In 1961, she received an unconsented hysterectomy by a white doctor while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor.  This practice - done to reduce the Black population by removing the ability to procreate - was so widespread it was referred to as a "Mississippi appendectomy." 

It was, and is, inhumane.

That the eugenics laws existed into the 70's as most states slowly began to repeal them is unconscionable.

Again, the arrogance is astounding here.  And the "feeble minded" descriptor?  I see a whole lot of those wearing red caps on their heads these days.  I mean, "feeble" is a generous descriptor when referring to thousands of people willing to crowd together, unmasked, during a deadly pandemic.  How about we just start rounding up anyone with a low IQ and begin mass hysterectomies and castrations to insure the MAGAt infestation comes to an end?

What's that?  Your body, your choice?  FUCK YOU.  How about the 60,000 who had no choice in the matter?  How about these women we now know about - and God help us, that is only one detention center, one whistleblower - don't they deserve the same consideration?

No one gives up their rights to dignity, respect, bodily autonomy when ICE scoops them up.  And these women did not consent to giving up their ability to procreate.  I don't care what you think about brown people - THEY ARE PEOPLE.  And the deep, organic feelings that drive you are the same ones that drive them - love, security, the desire to have children, watch them grow.

We have stolen that from these women.  Forever.  You do understand that, don't you?  There are no do-overs with a hysterectomy.  Reproductive ability - GONE.  Forget it - I am preaching to a bunch of men and worse, women, who have zero idea how the female body works to begin with. (The following is real, by the way.)

This country of ours has never been perfect.  Has never been equal.  Has never once lived up to "liberty and justice for all."  But on this day, when we celebrate 233 years since the signing of our Constitution, to see just how much further from those ideals we have slid, it is heartbreaking.  We are on the edge of an abyss.

We have watched as this administration has consistently dehumanized ICE detainees for years.  It is not a glitch in their system, it is how they want the system to work.  There must be a reckoning.  There MUST.  The very soul of this nation is at stake.  I still believe the good people outnumber the bad people, I do.  But all of us, no matter how disgusted we may be, are accomplices if we do not force it.

Is this really who we are now?

A Despicable World Record

Sometime in the next few hours the United States will, according to the official record being tabulated globally, pass 200,000 deaths from COVID-19.  In comparison to other countries, we literally have a deathgrip on the #1 spot, the second place being Brazil with 133,119, India takes the Bronze medal with 82,091.

Our shame should be very real.  Yet here we sit, governed by incompetence and disregard, and surrounded by people more interested in access to football than to a longer life.  We are an international laughingstock, a pariah, something to be mocked, something to be pitied.

We cannot travel as the majority of countries have closed their borders to our plague ridden populace.  Entire industries stand shuttered or near bankruptcy because we were lied to by our leader from the very beginning, and now, far too many buy into the whole hoax-liberation-masks-are-slavery bullshit to make a change of course any more effective than the one attempted by the Titanic.  We are too late.  We are sinking.

200,000 is a stunning number.  It was only Memorial Day weekend - less than four months ago - when we were fast approaching 100,000 and that seemed unthinkable.  That we have added nearly 30,000 per month since then?  My heart breaks for the holes left where loved ones should still be.

Like so many, I have watched in absolute disgust as the cretin with the piss colored bouffant has held rally after rally the past week.  Each one filled with maskless cultists violating each state's gathering mandates.  He held another just yesterday here in Phoenix - this one inside a hotel.  Those attending could not care less about the recordings of Trump telling Bob Woodward how bad this virus is. They don't care that he knew from the beginning.  They cannot be bothered with the latest recording from April in which he said:

Trump: "This thing is a killer if it gets you.  If you're the wrong person, you don't have a chance."
Woodward: "Yes, yes, exactly."
Trump: "So this rips you apart."
Woodward: "This is a scourge.  And - "
Trump: "It is the plague. It's so easily transmissible, you wouldn't even believe it.  In the Oval Office a guy sneezed.  The entire room bailed out, including me."

Again, I ask you MAGAts, what part of that, in his voice, fails to touch any semblance of reason left inside your head?  IT. IS. THE. PLAGUE.  Your divine dipshit said this on the record.  That was April 13th.  On April 17th he was on Twitter encouraging you imbeciles to liberate Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia.  And away you went, no masks, guns strapped on like the cheap Rambo cosplayers you are.

This past Friday night, there you were in Michigan, shoulder to shoulder, screaming "Lock her up!" (seriously, get a new song).

Saturday he moved on to Nevada and it was like a scene from Pamplona, except it was the running of the bullshit to be first at the ropes.  Did you notice that he stays well away from you?

This MAGA stampede sprinting for a front row seat to see their cowardice leader - with the Village People blaring in the background is peak 2020... pic.twitter.com/x5A0SPmDQU

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 13, 2020

Seriously, see that white line?  That is how he knows how far to stay away from your infected, cheap, disgusting selves.  Compare that to his prior rallies when he pressed your sweaty flesh, held your babies, let you paw at him.  What's changed?

What's changed is that he knows, has known, exactly how transmissible and deadly is this virus, and he only cares about his safety.  Not yours.  You are optics for him.  You are prostitutes whose only use is to masturbate his ego and then disappear.  He has no use for you beyond self gratification and hanging onto power so he cannot be arrested.

How much more has to come out, in his own voice, for you to even raise an eyebrow?  COVID is not a hoax.  Ask yourselves, if this is a hoax, why do I have to sign a waiver to attend his rallies?  A liability waiver that absolves him from any responsibility, and prevents you or your loved ones from attempting any litigation in the event you get sick or die from CORONAVIRUS.

What about the news, daily, about the spread?  The LSU football coach is on the record today saying almost the entire team has tested positive.  At Texas Tech, 75 players have tested positive since June.  The wedding that took place a few weeks ago in Maine?  SEVEN people now dead as a result.  Over 175 positive cases.  There were only 65 people at the wedding.  Do the fucking math, people.  And those 7 dead?  NONE OF THEM ATTENDED THE WEDDING.  They were victims of the dumbfuqs who did attend then went around spreading COVID to other people.

Ignoring this pandemic will not make it go away.  Shitting your pants like infants over having to wear a mask to grocery shop won't impress anyone.  And if you contract COVID, you can and will spread it to other people.  And those other people do not deserve to have lifelong health issues or die because of your willful, intentional ignorance.

The number of people who are now "long haulers" is growing daily.  No, that does not mean they are truckers.  It means they had COVID at some point, and still deal with the fallout, symptoms, and physical uncertainty months later.  Hair loss, shortness of breath, body aches, fevers, blood clots, extreme fatigue but unable to sleep.  Eli Lipman, a 9 year old who contracted COVID months ago, spoke to CNN yesterday about what he still faces as a long hauler, and what he wants you to know.

"Kids, I'm sorry to say this, but it is a big deal.  It will hurt.  You just got to face the truth."  He is 9 years old.  And like those healthy, strong college athletes above, potentially compromised for the rest of his life.  Heart problems, lung issues, deadly blood clots.  None of which you have to have been in a hospital on a ventilator to get.

You should not have to contract COVID and end up scared to death to finally open your eyes and ears and take this seriously.  You should not have to lose someone you love to realize what a complete conspiracy loving fuckwit you have been.  But that is where we are at. 

You people believe this is all a lie, a hoax, all made up to make your hero look bad.  Riiiiiight.  The entire world got onboard with that plan, shut down, threatened their own economies, lost nearly a million people so far, just to make the stupidest man on earth look more stupid.

I just hit refresh.  200,098 people in this country have died.  I predicted that would take hours to hit.  It did not even take the time it took to write this piece.  604 out of every million people - dead.  Thanks to you we will add another 5,000 by Sunday.

It is a despicable world record to hold.  And another 200,000 will not make it to Christmas.  If only we could isolate it to just you COVIDiots.  The rest of us do not deserve to die because of you, your cult leader, and your deathgrip on stupidity.