Cops and Robbers

We watch a lot of British mystery shows. In them, almost without exception, cops turn out to be the good guys. Yes, there are references now and again to a “bad cop”, but that is the exception.  Plus my personal experiences throughout my relatively long life tells me that most cops are good guys, even the ones who ticketed me for, in my view, questionable reasons—even there, not many.

But, I live my life as: “Waiting for God, while White”.

Now, to be fair, I have lived my long life largely in pursuit of honest causes. I have tried always not to break the law, although the 60’s and 70’s may have tested that notion in small ways. I ask you, does this dude look like someone who breaks laws?

Now, also, I have lived my life largely without reference to guns of any sort. For a brief time, when we lived in India during the 1960s, I actually bought a shotgun, so that I could join in the hunting game. Periodically, we would go off on a shikar to hunt something. Often our hunt was confined to birds, ducks or geese, although once or twice we engaged in larger game.  But as soon as we returned to the US to resume life here, I gave away the shotgun, having zero interest in continuing hunting anything that moves.

So, for many years, I have been observing the zeal with which so many Americans pursue the gun thing. I understand the desire to hunt, having done it myself. But that really does not define the American obsession with guns. No. Largely, one does not take an automatic machine gun on a deer hunt, or any hunt for that matter.  And, to be fair, most hunters do not hunt with handguns, automatic or otherwise. No, they largely rely on rifles or shotguns.

So, where does this obsession with weaponry  that exceeds all reasonable definitions of hunting originate?  It seems to me that it begins with folks, mostly but not exclusively Male, who are afraid, or who feel in some way inferior, folks who fear losing out, or who actually feel threatened by people who are in some way different than they are.  In America, that translates into anyone who is non-Anglo-Saxon—folks who physically  look different, and, often who speak a different language.  So, guns help such fearful folks to again feel robust and equal to all those people who live around them, but who are in some way, different.

Now, in the US, this preoccupation with guns also translates into the arming of police.  Throughout the US, police forces are armed routinely, regardless of the mission. So patrolling for traffic violations, or patrolling for gang activity are the same. Police are armed in both cases. And the result? Well, in one study, 957 deaths were caused by police in 2016 alone. In Britain, by contrast, 23 people were killed by police between 2006 and 2016.  So, one effect of arming our police is that more civilians are killed by police.  Now it is equally the case that more police are killed in the US than in Britain, partly a result of the citizenry being more heavily armed here.

So, basically, more guns equals more deaths by firearms.  The more guns, the more deaths. But the deaths by police shootings are unequal by race.  In one study:

In an analysis of 4,653 fatal shootings for which information about both race and age were available, the researchers found a small but statistically significant decline in white deaths (about 1%) but no significant change in deaths for people of color. There were 5,367 fatal police shootings during the five-year period (2015-2020), according to the Washington Post’s database. In the case of armed victims, Native Americans were killed by police at a rate three times that of white people (77 total killed). Black people were killed at 2.6 times the rate of white people (1,265 total killed); and Hispanics were killed at nearly 1.3 times the rate of white people (889 total killed). Among unarmed victims, Black people were killed at three times the rate (218 total killed), and Hispanics at 1.45 times the rate of white people (146 total killed).

So, then we come to the George Floyd killing, where guns were not an issue. Here, instead, we have a policeman, Derek Chauvin who murdered Floyd by handcuffing him, throwing him to the ground and then kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes.  But he was filmed in the act of committing murder, and then he was tried in a court of law and convicted.  And most folks breathed a sigh of relief, because of the prior belief that, somehow he was going to be acquitted. A small cheer went out throughout the land. Yes, a conviction.  Why the cheer? Simple. White police officers are almost never tried and convicted for killing Black folks. But stop and think about that.  We are excited that someone caught on video killing a black man was actually tried and convicted.  Is that not pathetic? I wonder whether we would be so thrilled had a white man been caught on tape killing his wife out in the middle of Fifth Avenue? Or better yet, how about if an ex-president been caught on tape walking out on Fifth Avenue and then just shooting someone at random?

This all leads me to two parallel tracks of study—maybe studies by a National Panel of some kind.

Track One: There have been many groups out and about shouting that we “defund the police”. And by “defunding”, I assume folks intend that we get rid of all our official police agencies around the country.  Were we to forge ahead and rid ourselves of all those pesky police forces, I’m sure certain folks would be delighted—the Mafia, all organized crime gangs, the Mexican Drug Cartels, and every small-time crook in our Land. It would be like a giant shot in the arm for every crook in our country.

But maybe, instead of acting terminally stupid, we could consider alternatives. Maybe “Disarm” the police units not involved in pursuing violent crime events--British police offer a case study here. . Maybe our traffic cops on duty downtown and on our highways don’t actually need to be armed. Or how about the cops stationed in our public schools?   At any rate, what I suggest is that a National panel study police-public interactions by type of units and try to reach some logical conclusions about which units need to be armed and which do not.

Track Two: A National Commission on gun control. Yeah, maybe our citizenry is now, by almost any standard, overarmed. The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791, along with nine other articles of the Bill of Rights. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court affirmed for the first time that the right belongs to individuals, for self-defense in the home, while also including, as dicta, that the right is not unlimited and does not preclude the existence of certain long-standing prohibitions such as those forbidding "the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill" or restrictions on "the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons". In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing upon this right.

And this “right” has been argued to death over many decades.  I understand that the NRA, acting as the surrogate for our Nation’s gun manufacturers, would oppose ANY form of gun control, and will continue to do so.  Apparently gun manufacturers have no limits to their Chutzpah. Neither do they seem to possess even the slightest degree of ethical or moral principles. Money tops everything. It is almost as though auto manufacturers were to oppose driving tests and licensing. Oh, they don’t? Huh!

Clearly under a Trump Administration, chances of such studies approach the chances of snowballs in Hell.  But Trump was voted out of office on November 3, 2020. Remember that big vote??? Yeah, that one.  So, now we have a Biden-Harris Administration.  Maybe there is a marginally greater chance of moving forward on such study tracks.  To be fair, we now have Mitch, and Teddy, and the Proud Boys, and the KKK, and Trump’s KKKNeoNazicultische clan that will certainly oppose any study involving guns.  But maybe the Nation’s electorate needs to understand what motivates the republican party—that would be MONEY and Opposition to anything Democrats propose—ANYTHING.

So, go for it, Joe and Kamala. The soul of our Nation is at stake here.

Oh, and then, after we finish those studies, maybe a third National Panel needs to examine Racism in America.  It’s real, folks. It really is, and it lies at the heart of Republican politics (remember that Donald Dude? He was/is a RACIST. Yeah, I said it).

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Once More With Feeling

I think maybe my age really is beginning to show. This morning, I received a text message. It said something like, “Hi Richard, this is your FEDEX driver. I’ve been trying to deliver your package, but you have not been at home. Please go to this address (and they place a URL in the text) and let me know when would be a good time to deliver. Thanks.” So, I’m supposed to be stupid enough to click on the URL, thereby being transferred to someplace that will destroy my phone and compromise all my data, in hopes of milking some money from me.  And that was the fourth time they sent this identical text to me.

And heavens, that represents but one example of dozens where con men are trying to destroy me and others like me.  Remember how everyone said that Ronnie Reagan made it ok again to be a racist, with his chattering on about welfare queens driving around in Cadillacs?  Well, apparently Trump has topped that one. Apparently, when one of our glorious leaders does something, then that sends a signal to his troops that the specific thing he did is now ok for the rest of the people.  So, Trump demonstrated over and over that it was ok to:

·         Lie

·         Act racist

·         Act like a Nazi

·         Con people

·         Say/do stupid things

And what has happened as a result?

QAnon is formed precisely in order to sell lies to the American people, and not just lies, but monumentally stupid lies.

The KKK experiences a new lease on life and is now once again proud to demonstrate, accompanied of course by the Proud Boy Nazi’s and others of that ilk. What, after all was the attack on the Capitol on January 6^th, but a Trump inspired Hate Rally by those same Proud Boys and others of their ilk?

And then, of course, we have the Evangels joining hands with the racists and the Nazis’ to create and then pass laws to keep people from doing things—Vote, live like humans, experience equality. Evangels seem especially nasty regarding gender equality and gender identification. They really hate women, gays, transfolks, and seem not to mind that their BFFs (Proud Boys) act racist.

And then all the Nation’s Con Men have come out of their respective closets. The Con is the game of the day. Now to be fair, Trump seemed to specialize in big cons, e.g., Trump University. But he also practiced little cons –“come and do some work for me at one of my buildings”. And then he refuses to pay them.  So, the Con Game is up and running in America.

I am now concluding two big things about this end stage of my life.

1.      The End of America is near at hand. If Trump did all that shit, and a few thousand people showed up to vote for him, I’d say, “well, America has some idiots, but we’re still basically a good place to live.” But, no, millions showed up to vote for him. Millions. Think of that.  74 million people actually turned out to vote for this Con Man, Trump. And you can say, correctly, “Well, 81 million turned out to vote for Biden”. And that would be correct. Still, think about that. 74 million people actually voted for Donald Trump.  So, now all those people and the people who are their BFFs, feel it’s ok to riot and throw Hate at the Capitol.  That it’s really ok to be a racist, or throw Trans folks under the bus, or in fact con the public in any way possible.  That it’s ok to lie, even to tell preposterous porkies (think Jewish Space Lasers starting the forest fires in California). And that all that WW II thing, where thousands of our troops died to save the world from Nazi’s, well that was just misplaced trust. Obviously Hitler was a guy wronged by the World. Right???

2.     The End of the God Thing. I now understand that there really is no God.  The best explanation for the Trump racists, Nazi’s, Con Men, Evangel Monsters, is random evolutionary expansion. As our population grows, so do the number of weird, awful, pigs who inhabit our planet.  No self-respecting God would ever create such awful creatures. Surely, like viruses keep on varying themselves, so do humans, and much of the human variation produces awful outcomes, seemingly getting worse almost daily.  If there is an actual God, then I imagine her sitting somewhere laughing heartily every day at the stupid, awful things being done by humans, on all parts of the planet. Yeah, and Joe Biden stands no chance at correcting even just the awful things being done by that 74 million on a daily basis.  So, laugh God, laugh. If you created this mess, then have a good laugh on us.

      And then I observe our great zeal to extricate ourselves from places like Afghanistan, after 20 years.  Good, huh? Yeah, but I imagine it will take about 30 minutes after that last plane leaves Kabul, before the Taliban will have retaken the country. And then the games begin again.  So, go ahead Joe, get us out of that damnable place. Nothing we do will ever change the facts of Afghanistan specifically, or that Middle East bunch generally. They love killing too much.  Hey God, was that really your intent? Or were you momentarily distracted while creating all your awful Evangels who love to impose their stupid will on innocents? Yeah, pay attention God. Oh, but there is no God, is there?

Fools

 On behalf of April Fools’ Day, we welcome all Fools to the table.

I have been wondering lately, given that I have been vaccinated, why each day I still experience this sense of darkness, almost impending doom. First, I began blaming it on the weather.  When it darkens and then rains seemingly every other day, I get depressed. Partly, it’s because our basement has a habit of flooding when we get too much of the wet stuff. Partly, it’s just gloomy to look outside.

And then I thought, well No, you are feeling the effects of this never ending Pandemic. See, I have been vaccinated, so I should be feeling better, right? Yeah, except there are all those people not vaccinated, some by choice and some simply because they cannot maneuver their way through the thicket that is the official Vaccination Lottery.  Yeah, even people who desperately want to get vaccinated are often unable to get through the systems set up to confuse folks about how to get an appointment.  First, the Feds under Trump, punted that ball to the States, so that if there were screw-ups, Trump could point to the states. And then the States seem to have punted to the counties and maybe even localities. And now it’s just not very clear. There are all kinds of web URLs that purport to lead people to vaccination appointments, but many folks have been unable to get into those sites.

Now maybe it will eventually begin working and everyone who wants one will get a vaccination.  But until then, we live under this cloud, with people dying unnecessarily, over 550,000 by one count.  And often they are folks who were entering that last stage of their lives anyway, but still hopeful of living a few more years in peace and happiness. But no, Mister COVID had other plans.

So, the Pandemic maintains its presence as the Dark Cloud over all our lives. Ever threatening. Now if that isn’t depressing enough, then how about them Republicans??

Yeah, it would seem that Donald Trump didn’t just lose an election. No, he worked hard, perhaps harder than ever in his dim life, to totally destroy the American system of Government.  Never in my now fairly long life have I ever observed a more destructive political period.  It is as though Donald Trump is still playing a real life game of Apprentice with America as the ultimate contestant, and he keeps firing her.

See I have lived under and even worked for some of the many presidents this nation has seen fit to elect. I begin with FDR who took office after a disastrous stock market crash and an even worse republican administration under Mr. Hoover. The country was fairly reeling on the edge of collapse when FDR took over. He immediately began working hard to put America back to work. And then of course that World War II thingie occurred and we really had no other choice but to begin working our asses off to defeat that Fascist regime over across the big pond. So FDR helped us to climb out of our Great Depression and begin acting like that Great Nation once again. And the parade continued. Harry took over from FDR and he wasn’t bad. He at least avoided another war.  And then that war hero Eisenhower took over. He defeated the intellectual Adlai Stevenson. And yeah Ike was a republican, but he was a war hero folks. And guess what, he began investing our national treasure into Infrastructure. He built us a national highway system. Imagine that, a republican investing taxpayer dollars into infrastructure instead of tax breaks for the wealthy.

And the parade continued. First that lovely JFK. Remember him? “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country”. Oh and then some asshat shot and killed him.  Apparently America was not ready for a truly good man. And so LBJ had to take over the job.  And while LBJ is sort of officially recognized as the big boogie man who began that nasty Vietnam War, that really began during Truman and Eisenhower’s administrations, by overseeing the division of Vietnam and then supplying arms and equipment to the South. By the time LBJ took over, war seemed a near certainty.

And the Vietnam conflict was perhaps the first time I had noticed a serious division amongst the American people. Part of it was that many folks simply did not wish to get drafted to fight in a war with which they fundamentally disagreed. See, there had been no disagreement during WW II. I suppose all of our latent Nazi’s and KKKers decided to just shut up, unlike today.  And even Korea sparked little dissent. But then came Vietnam. I guess the real disagreement was over that Cold War thing, you know, the rhetoric about the potentially cascading effects of allowing one country to turn Commie, followed by the next and the next and so on.

There were protests and more protests. Nixon finally won his presidency on the idea of ending that war. Instead of course, he vastly expanded it before acknowledging that we had in fact lost, allowing him to withdraw our troops. And again, the parade continued . . . Nixon, Ford, Carter, and then Reagan. And something seemed to change within the country under Reagan.  He seemed to me to be the first president who had run as a sort of racist. Remember all that talk about “Welfare Queens driving to the store in their Cadillacs”? Ronnie seemed to exude racism, and, as a result, he let our racists out of their respective closets.  Ronnie also seemed to embody a kind of “dodginess”.  Remember that business of selling arms to a terrorist regime (Iran) and then using that money to finance terrorists in Central America?  Again, that seemed a change from the past, and perhaps created greater schisms within the American populace.

And then we bounced around a lot, until George W. Bush took over the reins. He began setting new standards of behavior, and perhaps that was when serious Truthiness began appearing within our government. Lies upon lies is sort of the definition of Bush’s Iraq war policy. While we survived that mess, it may well be that the country was not quite the same thereafter.

Now the election of Barack Obama began a far more serious internal conflict. Obama, our first Black president. He was bright, informed, and humane. But he was also Black. Remember all those lies about his birthplace?  They were generated by the right wing republicans in hopes of stopping his presidency. Those efforts failed and he won two terms. But, among other things, he left behind some seriously deranged racist elements within our country.

Just in time for our first overtly racist president, Donald J. Trump.

And I think that is when the Darkness descended on America, and that Darkness has never left us. Remember all those racists let out of their closets by Reagan? Well, now, under Trump, they began yelling even louder and, they became his Administration.  And then, because so many American racists began yelling their approval of Trump’s racist demagoguery, it apparently became clear to the other republicans in our government—you know the Mitch McConnell's of that world, that racism was the new norm for America. But Donald didn’t just bring racism to the table.  No, he brought misogyny, he brought ignorance of almost everything. And then his corruption kicked in. He had been arguably one of the most corrupt humans on our planet.  And now he brought corruption to our National Table.

He lied almost every time he spoke. It became clear to all . . . “How does one know Donald Trump is lying? Well, whenever he opens his mouth and words come tumbling out, he is lying”. By some official counts, Trump told 30,573 lies during his four years, or over 20 lies per day. Quite astonishing really. I imagine none of our other presidents was even in the same league.

And so, now we have a new president who doesn’t speak in that same Truthiness tongue. He actually uses facts and stuff, and his press spokespeople actually seem to be truthful.  What an amazing thing after that parade of fools Trump brought before us.

And so the Dark curtain is beginning to lift?? Well, no, it isn’t. And why you might ask? Well, because while Trump was in office, he actually destroyed the entire republican party. And that party represents about half of our government (well half of our elected government). And ignoring days of Olde, when Truman and Ike, and JBJ, and Nixon and Reagan led our government, we apparently no longer just agree to disagree and then get on with the business of government. No, instead our current republican leadership has decided that they will oppose everything and anything proposed by President Biden, or in fact by any Democrat. Yeah, now it’s a world of ZERO cooperation from Republicans.  But more, they will try to destroy any and all Democratic legislature. So, slowly, over time, our government is being destroyed day by day by the likes of Mitch McConnell & Co.

And that I have never really seen before. So, Joe Biden seems to be living in a world of Trump-Zombies intent on killing him figuratively if not literally.  And that describes my current view of the Pandemicataclysm in which our country now resides. And that, frankly depresses me. And if it doesn’t depress you, then clearly you are not paying attention. Maybe 2022 voting will move the curtain one way or another—either we complete the destruction of our nation by electing more republicans, or we begin to lift the cloud by removing any and all power from the republicans and they begin to see the errors of their ways.  And maybe then all our racists will go back into their closets.

We’ll see. And hopefully, I will still be alive to see which way we decide to move.